#I'm just making up all sorts of ship names today huh

[tozettastone]

i wish you'd write a fic inspired by the lyric "part time soulmate, full time problem." actually listening to or referencing the song unnecessary

For the "I wish you would write a fic where" ask meme

Obviously, this has to be a soulmate AU because (as you know) I love them and it's right there

I think this could go several ways. It's tempting to say it would be a RAD remix of the Ino × Hidan soulmate AU I wrote once where she feels everything he does and he chooses to die all the time. But I feel like this is low hanging fruit. Obvious. On brand. A bit boring.

Okay here's something off the wall: Karin's soul mate is Shisui. Unfortunately, she doesn't know that until he's already dead. But now he's determinedly haunting her and giving her extremely bad life advice. He also gives her pro-konoha propaganda, but it's always couched like, "well except for the plan to murder and violate my entire family, Konoha's much nicer than this." Extremely specific. Undoubtedly accurate. Send her help, please.

[mingis-orangejuice]

Asking the L&Ds boys "What are we?" Part 4: Sylus

Summary: MC and her boy have been in a sort of situation-ship but MC wants to know why they haven't officially called her their girlfriend

a/n: This ended up being much longer than I thought so I'm making it into 4 parts (one for each boy) Here's Sylus' part its the longest part, but also my favourite. hope you like it. also, I probably mixed up Luke and Kieran multiple times so just ignore it lol.

Genres/Warnings: lots of Luke and Kieran shenanigans, a bit of angst, fluff, kinda slow burn

Word count: 1936

Previous Parts 1 2 3

You were spending the day with Luke and Kieran, it was supposed to be with sylus but something came up. He didn’t want you to waste your day off so he arranged for them to escort you around Linkon and basically do whatever you want for the whole day. While you were happy to have a chill day with your bodyguards/friends Luke and Keiran you were really looking forward to spending a whole day with Sylus. But recently lots of things have come up and he kept rescheduling all your dates. Was he trying to tell you something, is this his way of saying he’s not actually interested in you romantically but he’s too chicken to tell you? No, he wouldn’t do that, Sylus is one of the most direct people you know, if he didn’t like you, he’d just say so. So then why does it feel like he’s just stringing you along, when is he going to make you two official?

“MC?...MC?...” Luke’s voice snapped you out of your train of thought. 

“What? sorry I was a little spaced out.” you turn to the twins standing above you while you sit at one of the tables of the Linkon Mall foodcourt.

“I said where do you want to go for lunch? There's so many choices” Luke gestured to the row of different restaurants among the foodcourt.

“We could always have the boss’s favourite, ever since you let him try your instant ramen that's all he asks the chefs to make for him when you’re away,” Kieran suggested as both boys took a seat next to you on the other side of the table. “There's a ramen place right over there”

“Umm… I’m not sure… I’m not really hungry right now” You looked vacantly across the mall foodcourt starting to space out again

“The boss said there's no limit to how much we can spend today so we don’t have to eat here. Or if you can’t decide on what to eat we can buy a bit of everything and you can taste them all” Kieran suggests while taking out Sylus’ black credit card from his pocket.

“You have to eat something, the boss doesn’t want you to skip meals he told us to make sure you eat something or else” Luke warned in a fake threatening voice.

“Well, I guess if I have to in order to save you two from Sylus’ wrath, then I want something homemade, not this cheap generic stuff, so let’s go back to the base and see what we can cook up, what do you say?” 

“Anything for the Boss’s girlfriend,” Kieran said with a smile, he stood up and put out his arm for him to escort you to the car.

“Huh… what did you say?” You stopped reaching for Kieran’s arm at the word girlfriend.

“Anything for the boss’s …girlfriend…. I’m confused, are you not his girlfriend” Kieran looked embarrassed like he might have misread the situation.

“Well yeah…but .. he’s never said it before…so I didn’t think he thought of me as his girlfriend.” you stood awkwardly looking at the floor and playing with your hands.

“Of course he thinks of you that way he gets all smiley when he or anyone else mentions you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the boss smile so much before you came along” Luke grabbed your bags as you guys started to head to the car. “The boss just has a hard time expressing his emotions. ”  he mentioned brightly

“Yeah for the first year of us working for him he pretended not to remember our names cuz he didn’t want to seem soft, even tho he could already tell us apart after the first day even with our masks on.” Kieran said as he looked up to the sky like he was reminiscing on the Good-old-days 

“But he always calls you his girlfriend around us” 

“Right, he even calls you his girlfriend in the task memos he sends us” Luke shows you his phone with all the tasks set out by sylus. He clicks play and a voice recording of Sylus starts. 

“1. As I’ll be away for the day take my girlfriend to the mall and get her anything she wants, to keep her happy

2. Make sure she eats something for lunch, she tends to skip meals and gets really tired halfway through the day because of it. If she doesn’t eat anything, a punishment will be waiting for you upon your return.

3. Carry everything for her no matter how much she buys, rent a truck if you have to, I don’t want her straining herself before tonight’s special event…”

“Wait” you click pause on Luke’s phone. “what event, he never told me about that.” 

“Uhh…oops” Luke quickly puts away his phone “You weren’t supposed to hear that. Just pretend it didn’t happen”

Kieran slaps Luke’s arm “You idiot, that was supposed to be a surprise, the boss is gonna kill us”

“Just what is he planning?” you interrogate the twins. Both of them looked at each other as they opened the car door and helped you in.

“our lips are sealed.” they both said in unison while placing their fingers in an X over their lips

You guys were now in the car on the way back to the base. You’ve fallen silent thinking about this special event. just what kind of event was this? It couldn't be something bad, right? Was he breaking up with you? Is that why he let you use his card with no limit, to give you one final good day then he’d cut you off??? You couldn’t take the suspense anymore, you had to know. You took your phone out of your purse and called Sylus. Your phone was connected to the car’s speakers and Kieran saw that you were calling him and got a little nervous. Sylus picked up almost immediately. 

“Yes, Sweetie? What's wrong, are Luke and Kieran not treating You well, do you need me to get rid of them for you? I’ve been looking for some new Henchmen anyway” He said with a chuckle

“Hey, we’re right here you know?” Kieran said in a hurt voice

“I know, that's why I said it” “Sylus joked

“And you wouldn’t get rid of us, right boss?” Luke asked, “We’re your favourite henchmen, right?”

Sylus completely ignores Luke's question “...So why did you call sweetie? Remember when I said I was very busy today and that we’d see each other later tonight?”

You didn’t want to beat around the bush so you got straight to the point.“Yeah, that’s what I wanted to ask about, what exactly is happening tonight? What's the Special event and why didn’t you tell me earlier?” 

There was silence on the other end and then an annoyed groan. “Did you two tell her?” Sylus sounded like he was about to jump through the phone and punch both of them in the face.

“No boss we promise all she knows is that there’s an event tonight she doesn’t know anything else,” Kieran said frantically “Please don’t get rid of us”

Ignoring them again he sighed. “Where are you right now babe?”

“We were on our way to the base for lunch.” You informed him

“at least those two can do something right” he sighs. “Ok then I’ll be waiting for you at the base and I’ll explain everything.” *Click* he hangs up

Now you were even more curious, what was sylus planning?

“Do you think the boss is really gonna get rid of us?” Luke asked you in a scared voice.

“I doubt it, you guys mess up all the time and he hasn’t gotten rid of you yet, what's one more mess up” you say in a joking tone “Plus if he’s as nice as you say he is, then you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Later back at the base you all walk into the living room to see Sylus sitting on the couch reading a book. “Oh, you’re back.” Sylus puts down his book and pats the space next to him for you to join him on the couch. “Come, sit. Let’s talk.” as you sit he wraps an arm around your waist to pull you closer. He then looked up to where the twins were standing. “You two, I’ll deal with you later. Leave us be for now.”

“Yes boss.” they both say and hurriedly walk out of the room.

On the way to the base after the phone call you just couldn’t stop thinking about what this event could be and mixed with your thoughts from earlier you were only coming up with every bad result it could be. All those thoughts and emotions were boiling inside and before Sylus could say anything they overflowed “What are we?” 

“Huh?” Sylus looked confused “Sweetie, what do you mean?”

“Why do you keep avoiding me and why won't you call me your girlfriend? Apparently, you’ll say it in front of everyone else but me.” You moved back so you were out of his grip 

“Those two, I’ll fire them for sure this time,” He says under his breath.

“And what is this event? Why didn’t you tell me about it, is it about me? Did I do something wrong?” Your voice slightly cracked on the last word and your eyes started to get misty.

“Woah, slow down, if I knew it would make you feel like this I would have explained sooner.” He pulls you close again, holds your face in his palms and wipes your tears with his thumbs  “First, We are Sylus and MC the strongest and most feared couple in the N109 Zone.” He chuckled. “Second, I’m sorry that I made you feel this way. I knew you were curious but I didn’t know the curiosity would get to you this much. I wasn’t avoiding you, I’ve been setting up the special event that I’ll tell you more about in due time. But, as for your third question…” Sylus pulls your head in closer and places a soft kiss on your lips that nearly takes your breath away. He pulls away and looks at you with a smirk “You’ve also never called me your boyfriend so I guess we’re even” 

“Yeah well…I didn’t want to assume… I” You start to stutter both from the kiss and his accusation.

He stops you and places another kiss on your lips “I guess we both felt that way” 

“So then what about the event?” you’re now sitting closer to him his hands on your waist to keep you close.

“Oh yeah, the event… I was gonna let you watch while I fire Luke and Kieran. I set up events every time I want to fire one of my men, why do you think I had you keep them out of the house the whole day?” He joked.

You softly slapped his chest and rolled your eyes “ I know you’re joking those two might be idiots but you’d never fire them. Come on seriously what is it really?”

“Ok, I'll tell you, if you can tell me something first, what day is it today? He asks, hoping you’ll know the answer.

“Uh, Sunday?” you say confused as to why this day of the week had any significance.

“You can’t even remember yet you want me to call you my girlfriend,” Sylus said pretending to be offended “It’s the anniversary of when a little kitten first wandered into the N109 Zone and…” he pulls you into a hug “ into my life”

[the-ninjago-historian]

I'm feeling sad today, so FLUFFY COLE X VANIA HEADCANONS TIME!

FEAST YOUR EYES UPON MY HALFBAKED SHIPPING IDEAS!!!🤣🤣🤣 Lol. I need something to cheer me up. These or Pixane usually does the trick. Also, I wrote most of these well past my bedtime. So you KNOW it's gonna be fun! Lol! And I have a little post-series stuff thrown in too. So these headcanons aren't canon to Dragons Rising. Just wanted to make that clear. Anyhoo, let's go!

1: Vania fell first. Cole fell harder.

2: They like to go hiking and spelunking ALL the time. They're the cutest little adventure duo ever! They've discovered all sorts of secret places in Shintaro's mountains. And even some ancient artifacts and cave paintings from Shintaro's past!

3: Whenever Cole visits Shintaro, Vania just lights up. She's happiest when she has her bestie with her.❤️

4: Vania once tried to teach Cole how to use the Shintarians Flight Packs. He was absolutely terrified at first. (Falling off of stuff trauma.😭) But Vania told him to focus on something nice so he wouldn't look down too much. He ended up looking at her. Cue mutual blushing and shy downward glances.🤣

5: Cole taught her some new dance moves. (She had been brought up on more refined forms of dance. Like waltz and such.) She wanted to try something different.

6: At first, they are both quite shy around each other. Not quite sure how close to get. But eventually once they got comfortable around each other, they became very snuggly and affectionate. Especially Cole.😊🧡🧡🧡

7: Everyone in the Ninja fam were super happy when Cole finally admitted to liking Vania. He'd always been so supportive of their own relationships. So they were happy he'd finally have a partner of his own to love.

8: Vise versa, the Geckle and Munce were very excited that the Skyfolk Queen was interested in the Son of Gilly/Milly.

9: Vania loves to chatter about her interests and Cole is always happy to listen. (Chatty Extrovert x Good Listener!😁) Vania sometimes secretly worries she's talking his ear off. She doesn't know that Cole loves just hearing her voice.🥹❤️

10: Vania is very protective of Cole. She loves him dearly. Even before they started their relationship. She wasn't kidding when she said she would bring her entire army to his aid. (As seen in Crystalized.) That being said, I think she would do anything in her power to help keep him safe.

Okay, post series ones now!

11: Cole had this perfect plan for proposing to her. Except he wasn't expecting one thing. When it finally came time to propose, Vania proposed at the same time. 🤣 They laughed about it more a good ten minutes before exchanging rings.

12: Cole ends up becoming King Consort of Shintaro. At first, the Shintarian people are a bit apprehensive to the idea of having some who isn't a Shintarian on the throne. But this changes quickly after seeing what a good ruler he is. And he quickly becomes popular with the people.

13: They have three kids. Their names are Valkyrie, Zephyr, and Collette. AKA Cole Jr.✨ More on that later.

14: Val and Zephie here are twins. But, they're aren't identical twins. Val looks more human and is the spitting image of Lilly. Except with streaks of gold in her black hair. Meanwhile, Zephyr looks more like a Shintarian. And he has the opposite. Gold hair with black streaks.

15: Cole was unbelievably excited about finally becoming a father. He'd always wanted kids of his own. When Val and Zephyr were born, he actually cried when he got to hold them. He couldn't believe him and Vania could make something so beautiful.

16: Collette is the baby of the family. She's adorable and definitely a daddy's girl. Also, this happened;👉

Jay: Hey Cole! I guess you missed out on naming one of your kids Cole Jr again, huh?

Cole: *smirks* Oh? Meet your niece, Collette.

Jay: A- *Jay EXE. has stopped*

Cole: *Dabs in victory*

Kai: Son of a gun. He did it.

And FINALLY, this funky quick doodle I did of them. It's kinda "Meh" but I tried.😅 (Vania is a nightmare for me to draw. Lol.)

On a side note, I'll probably do something like this for each of my favorite Ninjago ships. That should be fun!

(Tagging @only-lonely-stars because I know she like these two. Hope you don't mind!)

[dudeshusband]

Title: I'm Tired of Being Lonely and Walking with the Blues

Ship: Mike/Pete Nelson

Words: 630

Description: Pete comforts Mike after a long work day.

Summer was ending, and the circus grew quieter as the kids started going off the school and the adults went back to their work routines. The work grew easier as the crowds thinned. Still, there was something vaguely melancholy about it.

Mike sighed after another long day of tending to the various needs of the circus and circus goers. They retired to Pete’s trailer, an acquisition of his after he became co-runner of the circus with his midway gambling idea. 

Pete looked up at them from where he was sitting on his bed. He smiled his ever charming smile. “Hi, honey.” 

Mike returned a much weaker smile. “Hi, Pete.” 

“Just Pete today, huh?” he asked in a slightly teasing sort of way. 

The corner of Mike’s mouth lifted into a mischievous smirk. “Okay, Peter. Peter Nelson. Want me to make it longer?” 

“Can’t make it much longer,” he said. “I only have so much name.” 

“Could throw the M in there,” Mike said. 

Pete glanced sideways at them. 

“What?” 

“You look tired,” he said. He patted his thigh. “C’mere.” 

Mike laughed. “There’s a rule against lap sitting here at the circus.” 

Pete shook his head, smiling in fond disbelief. “Not in my bed. Come here.” 

Without taking off their jumpsuit, or their shoes, Mike climbed into Pete’s lap and nestled against the fabric of his polo. 

Pete spoke to Mike in that gentle voice he had, “Now, are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?” 

“Who said anything was wrong?” 

“Oh, nobody. Just the way you walked in all mopey. Or that tired smile. Or all that kidding around and actin’ like everything’s fine.” 

“It was that obvious?” Mike mumbled. 

“Maybe not to everybody. But I’m your boyfriend, remember?” 

“Mm, hmm, because I sit in all the boys’ laps,” Mike said. “I make a game of it. I try to sit in as many laps as I can.” 

Pete shook his head again, and had that same look. “Could you quit being smart and tell me what’s wrong? Hm?” 

“Sorry, Petey, smart is all I can be,” Mike said. “As for what’s wrong…I don’t know. I feel so…lonely.”

Pete ran one of his big hands along Mike’s head. “I’m here.” 

Mike waved their hand. “I know that.” 

“You have Jerry too,” he said. “And Jill. And everybody here.” 

“I just can’t shake the feeling that no one cares about me.” 

Pete frowned and his eyes got that shiny look in them. “I care about you. I’m not nobody.” 

“No,” Mike replied. “No, you’re somebody. Somebody very important to me. I don’t like to burden you.” 

“Look at me,” Pete said gently. 

Mike turned so that they had a better look at him. Their heartbeat quickened when they met his eyes. 

“I care about you,” he said slowly. “That means you’re no burden. Even if you were, I’d carry you.” 

“I’m heavy,” Mike said lightheartedly. 

Pete grinned. “You’re lucky I’m nice and strong then. And I’d get stronger if I had to.” 

Mike laughed and shook their head. “You’re not all that, you know!” 

He leaned in closer. “Oh, you don’t think so?” 

“All you’ve got is that dumb smile.” 

“Uh huh.”

“And those boring brown eyes.” 

Pete nodded.

“And that pretty- overgreased! Head of hair.” 

Pete just smiled at them. He knew he didn’t have to say anything. 

“Oh, you know I’m in love with you!” 

“I sure do,” he said. “Good thing, too.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“I don’t have to be in love by myself,” he said. “It’s nicer being in love with you.” 

“Thank you,” Mike said. 

He caressed their hair.  “For what?” 

“Caring about me.” 

“I can’t help it,” he said, then added, “I don’t want to help it.” 

Mike turned back around and got comfortable in his lap. 

“Don’t be mad if I sleep here.” 

He kissed the top of their head. 

“I won’t.”

[silverseadragon]

I don't know how to title this, but this is my first fanfition, so pls be nice

yeah this is my first fan fiction, and it is very smutty so if you don't like that sort of stuff don't read it. the ship is Matt sturniolo/female reader. for context you and Matt are enemies because one of his past girlfriends was a bitch to you and got him to hate you. you annoy him constantly, but you really like him and don't know how to show it. the story starts when your family invited him and his family to a cookout-type thing in your backyard./also I'm pretty busy with school so I don't know if I'll ever post again :( ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey” you say

Matt glances at you, then looks away “hey”

“Why did you have to come here? Your brothers are okay, I guess, but whole personality is just annoying”

He turns to you, rolling his eyes. “Oh, so I'm annoying? And why’s that?”

“Because you’re you. Do I really need more of an explanation?”

He crosses his arms, his attitude changing from calm to a little snappy. “No. Guess not. You think you’re so amazing, huh? Miss perfect.”

“Of course I’m perfect. I’m a girl” you say jokingly, but he isn't up for jokes right now.

“Right. Perfect? Hardly.” he says scoffingly, while rolling his eyes.

“And little miss perfect shouldn’t be talking with you” You say, acting like a queen.

“Little miss perfect?” he asks, slightly amused. “That’s a new nickname.”

“Whatever. I’m going inside.”you say, slightly sick of him acting all ‘oh, I’m the victim, whatever will I do now??’

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way in” he says while smirking.

“Maybe you think I’ll do that ‘cause it’s happened to you” you say, as a joke, but he isn’t taking any of that today.

The smirk melts off his face, turning into a glare. “Shut up.” he says.

“I think that just about proves my point” you say, taking note that he didn’t deny it.

He scoffs, rolling his eyes again, might I add, and says “no, it doesn’t”

“Yes it does. Now, if you’re so desperate to continue talking to me, just come inside with me.” he hesitates, thinking about declining, but apparently decides against it, and follows you inside. “Wow, you’re really clingy, aren’t you?” you say.

He scoffs, “I’m not clingy, I’m just bored.”

“And what do you think I can seriously do about that?”

He shrugs. “Dunno. Maybe you’ll entertain me. I’m hoping you’ll try to annoy me so I can annoy you back.”

“Oh wonderful” you say, sounding very unenthusiastic.

 He says “you seem very thrilled about that” He grins, and you think his smile is so adorable… No. don’t think about those things. 

“I truly am. After all, you are my favorite person in the world” you say, sounding sarcastic. At Least you hope you sound sarcastic.

“Y’know, i’ve always loved your sarcastic attitude” matching your sarcastic tone, and you internally sigh out of relief that he didn’t notice anything.

“Then maybe we’re meant for each other” wait. What. you didn’t mean to actually say that out loud.

He makes a face “Please. In what universe would that be true?”

“In your tiny little close-minded dreams”, you say, trying to seem normal about it.

“Oh shut up.” he scoffs, but he doesn’t deny it.

“I happen to notice you didn’t deny it. What’s wrong? You a little hard over me, if ya know what i mean?” you say, smirking at him.

He looks away, his face reddening in embarrassment “N-shut up! I’m not!”

“Are you sure about that, dear?” you respond

“Yes I am! I don’t like you even a little!” he says quickly, still refusing to look at you.

“Oh come on, I know you like the pet names.”

“No I don't. They’re cheesy. and stupid…” he muttered, looking back at you, his face a soft shade of pink.

“Ha. you’re blushing” you say

He groans. “No I'm not!” he protests, but you can clearly tell he is.

“Really.”

He lets out another frustrated noise “Oh my god. Will you please just shut up?”

“No. It's my job to annoy you.”

“More like it’s your life’s purpose to annoy me. But you’re doing a pretty terrible job at it right now.”

“Am I?”

his face starts to turn red again at your words, but he scoffs “I didn’t need to know that. And you’re seriously a terrible flirter, you’re as subtle as a brick to the face.”

“Maybe you’re just impossible to flirt with.” you reply

“Maybe you’re just bad at flirting with me…” he mumbles, his face a bit pinker from your compliments disguised as insults

“I’m better at flirting than you can imagine” you say coldly

“Really? Prove it then.” he challenged, raising a brow, a hint of playful curiosity in his voice

“Okay, darling. but maybe you should try first. after all, I have great skill that maybe I shouldn't weaponize yet”

he sighs, running his fingers through his hair as he tries to think of something to say “Alright. I’ll try first. Uh….” he stares at you for a moment “You look… really nice today. Yeah. That was my attempt.” he says, knowing that it was a terrible attempt

“Is that really the best you can do? no wonder you pulled that horrid girl”

he facepalmed, embarrassed at his terrible attempt “Alright alright. Maybe I’m not the best at this. But there’s no way you could be any better. It’s impossible for you to top me.”

“Okay, okay. I'm gonna be honest, yes, I'm not great at this, but I'm better than you.”

“We’ll see. I’m honestly doubting you.” he leans back on the wall, waiting for you to speak

“okay.”you brush a strand of his hair out of his face, then say in a soft voice “you're gorgeous. Your dark eyes really compliment your hair. Are your eyes brown or black?”

he didn’t expect your sudden compliment, his face now reddening at your words. When you brush the strand of hair away from his face, he tenses but he tries to hide it. He’s even more flustered when he hears you ask your question about his eye color “It’s… b-brown. Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering. they are really pretty, and sometimes I think I notice some amber in there, but it's usually so dark I can't tell.”

he swallows, his heart rate starting to speed up as you continue to compliment his appearance. He tries to ignore the feeling, trying to not get too flustered by your words, and he clears his throat. Although, it’s getting harder and harder to hide it “You, uh.. You really like my eyes, huh?”

“Of course. your hair... It's very thick and luscious. your cheeks turn a lovely rose color when you blush, too. your lips are perfect, so small and precious.”

He's practically dying inside by now, but he tries to keep his cool, although he’s finding it harder and harder to do so. He’s never had anyone, especially someone like you, shower him with so many compliments at once “I…” he stops himself from speaking, not sure what to say. He’s never been so flustered in his life and it’s painfully obvious now. He lets out a shaky sigh, looking away from you, the pink on his face growing more intense

“you're really easy to fluster, aren't you?”

he groans, frustrated that he can’t keep it together. His cheeks now burning intensely as you continue to point out how flustered he is “St-Shut up! I’m not…” he mumbled, refusing to look in your direction

“Look at me, darling”

he hesitates, his heart practically hammering in his chest. After a few seconds, he reluctantly looks in your direction, his face now bright red

you cup his jaw in one of your hands, and run your thumb over his lips

he tenses for a moment, but he doesn’t pull away. He swallows, feeling himself start to get a bit dizzy from your touch as you run your thumb gently over his lips. He glances up at you, a bit nervous, and he feels his face getting hotter

you slowly lean in, and lightly kiss him before pulling away

he lets out a small gasp when he feels your lips brush against his. His head starts to spin as he feels your breath on his skin, and after you pull away, he struggles to say anything, his brain not even being able to form words. At this point, he’s a flustered mess, his mind racing and heart pounding

“Hm. can you even think right now, sugar?” you say.

he shakes his head, his heart racing at a mile a minute. His brain was completely out of whack, his mind fuzzy, the only thing he could focus on was the fact that you had just kissed him “N-no…” he muttered quietly, his face completely red

“That’s cute.”

he huffs, even though he knows you’re right. He glances away from you, his face redder than a tomato “Don’t call me cute, darling…”

“But you know you are.”

he sighs. He doesn’t deny it, knowing that you’re completely right. His heart rate slowly returns to a steady pace, but he still looks pretty flustered “Whatever. You’re the cute one, not me.”

“I thought you hated me?”

he huffs again, still refusing to look in your direction “Just because I hate you doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re cute, darling.”

“Do you hate me though, or are you just afraid to admit you like me?”

He thinks about it for a few seconds. He hates to admit it, but you’re right. He sighs, hesitating before speaking “I… I don’t hate you, I’ll admit that. But I’m still not over the fact that you annoyed the hell outta me for months.”

“That is my job”

“It’s a damn annoying job, I’ll give you that.” he says bitterly, still refusing to look at you

“But did you know…” you say slowly, hesitantly

he finally looks at you, crossing his arms over his chest “Did I know what?”

“Did you know I did that so I could have an excuse to talk to you?”

hearing your question makes his heart skip a beat, but he tries to play it cool, raising a brow “Wait… so you annoyed me… on purpose… just to speak to me?”

“Of course. I specialize in annoying people, but I just wanted to annoy you so you would notice me, talk to me, look at me.”

he hesitates, a bit taken back by your confession “You’re telling me this whole time you’ve been annoying me… you were just trying to get my attention?”

“Heh. guess I’m the clingy one”

he laughs, finding it funny that the tables had suddenly turned “Looks like it. Who’d have guessed that you would be the one chasing after me?”

“Every girl chases after you. I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner”

he rolls his eyes “Don’t flatter me. It’s not every girl. And I don’t go looking for who’s interested in me.”

“I don’t think that’s entirely true, honey…”

he sighs, rolling his eyes “Ugh, quit calling me pet names.”

“Oh you like it and I can tell”

he tries to hide his blush again, feeling his face starting to get warm “Sh-shut up. I do not like it.”

“You so like it. You..”

he groans, looking away and mumbling something under his breath. He’s refusing to admit that you’re right, but you can tell by the redness of face that he does like it

“You like me” you say

he stays silent for a few seconds before sighing, giving in “Damn it. Fine, I do like you. Alright? I like your annoying ass and I’ve been in denial this whole time.”

“You just need to notice things around you, open your eyes to truly see the world.”

he huffs, looking at you as he crosses his arms over his chest again “Oh really? And what else am I not noticing that I’ve been overlooking?”

“I love you, your brothers have been through 2 more girlfriends than you knew about, your old girlfriend fucked up your life, your girlfriend before that one was cheating on you with Chris, he knew, but he didn't care, and didn't tell you because he thought she was hot and he wanted to be with her.”

his eyes widened at everything you say, completely caught off guard “Excuse me WHAT?!” he was shocked, processing all the new information you just dumped on him

“many people also think you're gay, and they think you're dating your friend Colby”

he sighs, facepalming at your words “Why do people keep thinking I’m gay? It’s annoying.” he groans “And I’m not dating Colby. We’re just friends.”

“People apparently think you guys are… more than friends”

he groans again, completely frustrated “Ugh, we’re not-“ he suddenly cuts himself off, an idea popping into his head

“Yes?”

he smirks, a hint of mischief in his expression “Darling, do you mind me asking you a favor?”

“Depends on what it is…” you say smiling

he steps a little closer, a sly grin playing on his lips as he looks at you “If people think I’m dating Colby, I have an idea that’ll prove I’m not.”

“And it is…?”

he takes another step closer, his smirk still on his face as he moves his face closer to yours, now whispering to make sure no one else can hear what he’s saying “Can I prove it to them by dating you instead?”

“I was wondering how long it would take you to ask.” you wrap your arms around his waist, and pull him into a kiss. you stay like that until you have to pull back to breathe.

he melts into the kiss, his heart racing as his arms instinctively wrap around your shoulders to pull you closer. He’s completely lost in the sensation, and when you finally pull away to catch your breath, he’s dazed. He looks at you, a light blush on his face and his heart pounding in his chest

“Do you... want to go upstairs to my room? for a bit more... privacy” you ask

he nods “Yeah, yeah… let’s go to your room.” he looks away for a moment, swallowing before speaking “Just… be gentle, please?”

we walk up the stairs, and when we get inside my room, you lock the door and turn to him, a slight smile playing on your face, waiting for him to say something

he looks at you as you lock the door, still slightly nervous. He slowly walks over and sits on your bed, swallowing as the realization of what’s about to happen sets in. His heart is racing yet again, and after a few seconds, he finally speaks “Promise me you’ll be gentle, no matter what..”

“Of course.” I go over to him, and kiss him, deepening it quickly. you straddle his hips now, and hovering your hand over his belt, you ask “can I... take this off?”

he nods, his head spinning as he feels your hand hover over his belt. When you ask your question, his face gets a bit redder “Y-yeah.. go ahead, you can take it off..”

I take off his belt, and unzip his pants “you sure you're okay with this? if you aren't, we can stop”

he nods as he watches you take off his belt. His heart is beating anxiously, and seeing you unzip his pants causes his breathing to get a bit shaky. He tries to control himself as he replies “I’m fine, I’m okay.. you can keep going. Just go slow, alright?”

“alright.“you pull down his pants, and you can see the bulge in his underpants, pressing clearly against the fabric

he swallows again, visibly flustered from your touch. His face reddens even more as he notices your eyes trailing down to the bulge in his boxers and he looks away, embarrassed “D-don’t stare at it so much..”

you pull down his boxers, and gasp as his large cock springs out, flush against his shirt

He also lets out a small gasp, getting even more flustered. He feels himself start to get turned on from your reaction, and he looks away again, feeling very exposed “Damn it… don’t stare at it so much…” he says again, his face reddening even more

“but... it's so large...and beautiful” you say, your voice quiet and raspy

his cheeks burn hotter, surprised by your words. He swallows, looking away as his face reddens even more. He lets out a sigh “God, you’re embarrassing me…”

you lean down, and press a kiss to his flushed tip

he lets out a surprised gasp, a jolt of pleasure shooting through his body. He grips the sheets, his face scarlet as he struggles to say anything “Jesus Christ… you’re doing it again… being too forward…”

“you like it, don't lie” you lick up the side of his cock, and then slowly slip just the tip into your mouth

a small moan slips out of his mouth, and he bites his lip, holding back any other sounds that want to come out. He watches you, his heart racing as he struggles to speak “God, you’re-“ he cuts himself off, letting out a soft gasp

you swirl your tongue around the tip, then slowly bring as much as you can of him into your mouth without going into your throat yet

Another, slightly louder moan slips out, and he leans his head back again. The pleasure is getting to him, and he reaches down with one hand and gently intertwines it with your hair “God, you’re amazing, darling… no one’s ever… done this to me before..”

“remember, we can't be too loud... everyone's outside, and they won't hear, but... still”

he nods in agreement, his breathing getting a bit shaky as the thought of getting caught crosses his mind “I-I know, I know… I just… I can’t help it. You make me feel so good-“

you slowly bring him down into your throat before bobbing your head up and down along his dick

he lets out another moan, the pleasure almost too much to bear. He suddenly releases, his legs shaking, as the thick, warm liquid drips down your throat. you’re quick to swallow it

the way you swallow and move your throat makes him moan again, his eyes closing as a wave of pleasure washes over him. His breathing is getting shaky, and he lets out a quiet gasp “God… you’re so… perfect… you’re amazing at this… I don’t… I never want this to end…”

You pull out, your pupils large, with a bridge of saliva connecting your mouth to his dick

he lets out a small whine when you pull out, but the sight of your lips connected to his member by a thin thread of saliva was too much. He’s still trying to catch his breath, his chest rising and falling with every shaky inhale and exhale “You’re… too good at that… and you’re going to be the death of me, you know”

“Take off your shirt?” you ask

he hesitates for a moment before nodding, agreeing to your request. He grabs his shirt with both hands and pulls it off of him, throwing it to the side, now completely naked. He’s blushing and more flustered than ever, but he’s doing his best to not make a fool of himself “There, now what?”

you also pull off your shirt and jeans, now just left in your bra and panties. he glances down, his eyes trailing across your body. He swallows, taking in the view and watching you remove your clothes. He can’t help but stare, and his face gets hotter when he finally speaks “You look… gorgeous…”

You say nothing, just smile at him, unclipping your bra and letting it fall to the floor before you start to remove your panties

he swallows again, watching intently as your bra and panties hit the ground. His eyes widen in surprise, and he’s at a loss for words, completely speechless. Seeing you completely naked in front of him makes his heart race even faster, his cock at full attention to the beautiful naked lady in front of him. He feels his face start to burn again “Jesus… you’re stunning, absolutely stunning…”

“​​I'm nothing compared to you, dear” you walk over, and get onto the bed next to him. You motion for him to lay on his back.

he swallows, still in awe of your beauty. He hesitates for a moment before nodding, knowing exactly what you want. He lies back on the bed, his heart beating louder than a drum in his ears, as his back is pressed into the mattress by you.

You hover yourself above his dick before slowly sinking onto it, a quiet moan escaping your mouth as you take the entirety of him inside you

you slowly bounce up and down on his dick, and he starts to cum inside you, whimpering slightly while he does so. You feel the slimy ropes of cum hit the inside of your womb, and you feel just so joyful right now.

He pulls out of you, and you lay there on the bed, his cum leaking out of your hole.he lets you rest for a bit before he goes over to top you. He presses his tip against your entrance, slowly pushing in. He rests inside you for a minute, then starts to move. You can feel his sack slap against your ass every time he pushes in, and as he hits that one spot, you yelp. 

He smiles when he realizes he found the sweet spot, and continues to slam himself into you, hitting you in that spot every time. You know you aren't going to be able to walk tomorrow, but you just let him keep going because it feels so goddamn good. For the second time that day he cums inside, but he doesn’t pull out. He keeps going, hard.

He keeps going until you think you’re going to pass out from exhaustion. He has now came inside you six times, and you feel like you’re going to burst. The imprint on your stomach from being so full is very obvious, and it shifts slightly every time he moves.

He finally pulls out, and rivers of cum pour out of you, and he collects some on his fingers and licks them clean. You rest there, breathing hard, as he cleans himself up, dresses himself, and gets to work with you. He wipes away all traces of cum on you, and dresses you up. As you are still too exhausted to do anything, he strips the bed of the dirty sheets, and piles them in the corner, to take down to the laundry room later.

Finally, you open your eyes, and rasp something unintelligible, and he says “welcome back, darling”, walks over to you, and kisses you. You melt into his grasp.

[the-firebird69]

We have several boat companies but we don't want to use the plastic with them because they're used to the fiberglass and we did figure out people are saying that. We're proceeding and was selling tons of them. We're going to the outdoor store and we're going to the bass store and other sporting goods stores. We have several stores of Our own that we have control and share we have a number of controlling share. One of those companies is like Marshalls we do have a lot of shares and shears Sears and we have controlling chair and we are selling some of our stuff. Susan why can't you make Coleman ocean going engines and she thought it was great and big pushers you can use on the big ones even gas and it's true, we haven't taken over the company fully but we have majority shares. And when our father and mother says you build a boat you place them in stores that accept them and the other guys take the blame for making the boats we'll get that too. No more I don't want to help anybody even themselves. So we're thinking of that Coleman would sell all the small ones. And the morlock don't like the name for some reason. And her son says perfectly is the price point then it's happened before with Coleman and other gear companies they make it it's really inexpensive and it works like home and campers Coleman campers like half price and they're very good quality and people just don't know about them the sun could have bought a brand new one for a price that used one. So we're going to think about it and the boats will become famous I am Coleman had a ship building division so we're going to look into it and schedule a meeting today

Thor Freya

The pump it up they're going to be called Coleman and it'll sell in China with a label

Hera

I want to meet in order to have a meeting about the size of these things and why they're a little bigger people want their little teeny ones this is going to make a little teeny ones that's not the same concept in other words if you make one I don't know I'll be that thing is four and a half foot by 3 ft that's just a real cheap boat and probably be 100 bucks I don't understand this a little bit smaller so I can make that one and I know how I'm going to test it out and for Christ's sake this is going to be fun and he's saying that we should make that one for Walmart for children I'm going to meet with Hera and yes it's your real and goddess wife Uriel and goddess wife and the Chance are on the doorstep and the Chens I mean, we're going to joint venture and we know why.

Uriel and goddess wife

I'm going to prove this but I'm going to the meeting and we're going to see what it is and I'll take a look it sounds like a great idea and we're going to see how it works and the performance of it and more

Thor Freya

Feels better huh his people are nuts but you're right the Bayliner needed would sell like crazy and they're going to sit with the guys you might set up some sort of fight about it and it'll be both ours and theirs too and I do understand that and Coleman might sell the small ones too and not every boat company has to have teeny tiny ones it says actually you're right probably up to the rowboat size and Paso robot would be the the big one I'll follow that too so Coleman can start producing these for campers make a lot of happy campers he says there's a way there's a rack that goes in the roof that can hold a rowboat and you put it on the side and it swings up and I invented it and you know we invented it and that's great and Thor and Fred are happy and I put it the way it really works you numb skull

Hera Zues

Damn it stupid it's stupid don't call me stupid

We're rolling on this and she's going to head with it and we finally got something this is going to work it's a different company and so we're great intro to the product and they can sell it at Walmart on the Coleman and Coleman is pretty much defunct no it's a big company but we own controlling share we're going ahead with this product. You might make the boat green with some other color if you can see them even reflective it's a good idea

Thor Freya

This is a pretty smart idea to put some reflective stuff we're going ahead with this she's going to come up with a designs and we're going to start banging them out I'm going to make a ton of these little boats

They're really useful out here have all these little ponds and people want to fish out fertilizer and just going to send them out there and fish out all the damn s*** you want and they're going to be putting it in there little gardens there's a couple sizes they like the 7 ft and stuff like that you can tell them they can put a barge behind them they like that stuff you make makeshift barges all the time the string of three or four what's going on right now

Uriel and goddess wife

We're watching over you and we see what you're saying people in the states want to do that too so we need kind of a barge you can say you can make one it's like that tri-hole configuration and it's just a plastic stamp boat and with a flat bottom so they're going to go ahead and try and do that

Mac

I do understand something it'll be like a small fishing boat and you can use it as a barge and you could ship all your stuff on it too I'm going to go ahead and design it now

Hera

This is great but let's all have a meeting and get going on this we need to decide what to do and Coleman can handle the small plastic boat stuff and the bigger ones have to be like a boat company and we have to decide how to do this

Olympus but he's got his unintroduction now and it's going to work he says very well and we love it

[kanjukucompany]

【A3! Translation】 Ikaruga Misumi SR: Sweet Temptation (2/2)

PART 1 / PART 2

the summer troupe ship contest begins! kind of!

(translation under the cut)

GO! GO! Triangle Speedboat

GO! GO! Triangle Speedboat

Tenma: They look more like ships when they're in a plastic pool like this.

Misumi: Amazing~, it's a fleet of triangles~!

Kazunari: Me first! This is the "S.S Rainbow Neo Party People", I painted it rainbow!

Kumon: This is mine, the red "S.S. Dragonic Flame"! The dragon part is the flame-like sail!

Muku: I wanted to make a ship with a happy feel, so I chose the name "S.S. MANKAI Flower", which is covered in flowers!

Tenma: Mine has a summer-like feel with images of the sun and white clouds, it's name is "Midsummer"!

Misumi: What a cool name for your ship, Tenma~!

Yuki: So he's the only one who didn't use "S.S.", huh.*

Tenma: What sort of name did you give yours?

Yuki: I didn't give it a name.

Misumi: Eh~, really!?

Muku: Let's name it together!

Kumon: Like, "S.S. Galaxy Neptune"!

Yuki: That makes zero sense.

Kazunari: Then, what about something like, "S.S. Pinky Bare-Prime"?

Yuki: Absolutely not.

Tenma: How about--.

Yuki: Rejected.

Tenma: I haven't even said anything!

Izumi: W-Well, I guess it's fine to exclude names in the judging.

Izumi: Um, then the last one is--.

Misumi: It's me~! This is my "Triangle Speedboat"!

Kumon: It actually looks... pretty normal?

Muku: The design is simple, isn't it. I was expecting a ship covered in triangles...

Misumi: Fufufu.... My ship is amazing! Here, look look!

Misumi: Press this button and.... GO~!

Kumon: I-It's moving!? Awesome, it looks just like a real ship!

Tenma: Those kits we used, they were originally just to decorate them. There wasn't a power source, right?

Yuki: How did you make this.

Misumi: Hehe, Chikage taught me how~!

Izumi: (So, when they were first building the ships, did Misumi-kun learn how to set up a motor from Chikage-san?)

Izumi: Ah! So when you came out of Chikage-san's room just now...

Misumi: Chikage lent me the parts and tools~.

CHOICE 1: You're pretty skilled, huh

Izumi: It's really fast and well-made.

Misumi: Ehehe, it's amazing!

Misumi: I thought it would be cool if it could move, so I made sure not to make it too heavy~.

Izumi: I see, so that's why the design looks pretty simple.

Misumi: But, I still put a lot of triangles in it~!

Misumi: See, here, here, over here... And this one too, it's hidden!

Izumi: You're right, wow...! As expected of Misumi-kun!

CHOICE 2: Was it hard ?

Izumi: Was getting it to work hard?

Misumi: Nope. Chikage is a good teacher, so it was easy!

Izumi: Fufu, really now.

Kumon: Awesome~! I want mine to be motorized too!

Misumi: Okay~ I'll teach Kumon too~.

Kazunari: Me too, me too!

Muku: I also want to learn...!

Tenma: Then, to be fair, should we start over once everyone adds a motor?

Yuki: Fine with me. But, if we plan on having them move instead of just float, isn't this plastic pool too small?

Misumi: Then let's use the bath!

Kazunari: Great, let's do it!

Izumi: (Everyone got so excited, they forgot about the judging. I guess it's break time then.)

Kumon: ...Then something like that~.

Omi: Heh, that's amazing. So did they work?

Muku: Yep! All six ran correctly!

Tenma: I'll devise a new plan and make a ship that moves even faster...

Yuki: Ah, you did get totally defeated in last place, huh.

Tenma: That was completely by chance!

Tsumugi: Anyways, I'm glad the dorm bath was big enough.

Sakuya: The huge communal bath is one of the dorms best features, after all.

Sakoda: Good work everyone! Sorry for the intrusion!

Omi: Come to think of it, Sakyo-san did mention Sakoda was joining us for dinner today.

Kazunari: But, why isn't Frooch-san with you?

Sakoda: Oh yeah, about Boss--.

Sakoda: He was out all day and sweat a lot, so he said he wanted to bathe and wash all that off before it drove him crazy.

Summer Troupe: Eh.....

Izumi: E-Everyone, don't you think...

Yuki: This is bad.

Misumi: Sakyo~ Wait~!

Sakyo: ......

Kumon: Sakyo-san is standing so intimidatingly....

Yuki: We're too late...

Sakyo: What the hell is this.

Tenma: What are you talking about....

Muku: Isn't this just the same bath as usual?

Sakyo: Don't play dumb. I'm asking what the hell are these model ships floating in the bath.

Muku: U-Um... These are...

Misumi: Summer Troupe's handmade Triangle Fleet! They're motorized, see?

Sakyo: Huh? Triangle Fleet?

Misumi: Yeah!

Kazunari: No, Sumi, this is...

Yuki: This opponent is too tough.

Tenma: Let's get out of here before the lecture starts---.

Muku: Let's escape...!

Kumon: R-Retreat!

Sakyo: OI, WAIT, YOU BRATS!

*everyone else uses the suffix ~号 (gou) which is used for naval/war ships. tenma uses ~丸 (maru) which is a more endearing term commonly used for merchant ships

*misumi also uses ~号 (gou) but i felt this translated better than like.... "S.S. Speed Triangle"

[pink-bird-30]

Titan's Season 3 Finale

SPOILERS AHEAD

READ AT OWN RISK!!!!!!

For some reason I thought there was still one more episode after today, and I'm disappointed.

Like, really disappointed.

(I will be all over the place with this, so bear with me)

First off,

WHERE IN X'HALS NAME WAS DICK AND DONNA'S REUNION?!?!

Seriously, I was waiting for that big moment when they saw each other again. Dick literally held her in his arms and cried in front of everyone last season. And you're telling me Dick didn't fucking run and jump into this woman's arms after seeing her alive? for fucks sake writers.

Secondly, We were give not a crumb, not a spect of dust, but a fucking empty box of emotions between Dick and Kori. After last weeks "bombshell" (as these so called "writers" told us about) you'd think Dick would've seen Kori in person and been like, huh, that's going to be the mother of my children, maybe I should acknowledge her existence? nah. nah. All we were given was Dick being all "leader-esq" asking for a "miracle" and then the smallest of interaction at the RV, which I thought was cute banter between them, very season 1, but that's it.

Third, Dick and Kori straight up kidnapped Tim, I think this is hilarious. I bet there was some sort of conversation between his parents and Dick, because you know, Titans just shows us just everything on screen. But I'm really happy for Tim, he really deserves to be Robin and I'm glad he had his moment in the Batcave with Dick and Jason.

"That's for Gotham, Bitch." I loved this. And Tim is right, Crane is a bitch.

Fourth, Bruce finally showing the fuck up. He comes back to a Gotham where people are helping one another, and that is something he could never do as Batman. Dick managed this when he finally worked with the Titans as a team, and not solo. I don't know why it was important for Dick to go back to Gotham this season, but he already went through the whole: 'Team work makes the dream work', bs last season. Why did we need this plot line again? Why couldn't this have been a stunt in Gotham while Bruce was away and then head back to SF. But instead it becomes this whole hoopla of Dick reverting back to his old self with a dash of Batman and a villain that could not deliver.

Fifth, Vee being an ARGUS agent took me by complete surprise. On rare occasion Titans has the ability to surprise me, and this was one of those moment. It is also the second time we hear Roy Harper's name in the series. Will we finally meet my favorite redheaded archer? or are they going to keep dangling him in front of us? I want to know more about ARGUS in this world, I only know ARGUS in the Arrowverse and wonder if Amanda Waller is someone they consider bringing into the show, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Sixth, Someone finally called Rachel Raven!!!!! This makes me beyond happy because I can stop writing Rachel and just write Raven from now on.

Seventh, I finally knew Dick was back to normal when he started to drive his doche-mobile again. The blue Porsche was what I expected season 1 Dick to drive and then end up in a dad car. And in this case the RV. This made me extremely happy and just the look of pure joy on this man's face when he showed up at the airstrip with a fucking RV and hopped out like he just discovered a rare gem. This is top tier Dick Grayson and I hope he is here to stay.

Eighth, We need to talk about Bruce's code being Selina Kyle. I will die on the BatCat ship hill. They are probably one of my favorite OTPs in DC comics. It does make me sad that he chose his life as Batman over his love with Selina. We will probably never know what really happened to them in this universe, but I really feel for Bruce. He really has lost a lot and pushed so many people away. By the end of this episode, we see that Bruce is truly alone.

-We see Bruce have probably his last interaction with Jason ever (I'm assuming here) and the way he says "Bye, son." I really wanted to cry for him. Bruce chose to use fear as a training method instead of teaching them to use their skills to be the best robins. And by using fear his sons never had a chance to be better than him. Jason may be forgiven by everyone else, but he will never forgive himself for his actions. The same as Bruce, who will never forgive himself for killing The Joker, but never regretting avenging his son's death.

-I love that Tim knew the code word; being a fanboy literally saved the day.

Ninth, Raven and Beast Boy working together to get to Donna and Tim. They're a force to be reckoned with and I hope we get to see more of them next season. We already have a lack of content when it comes to Gar, which I blame the writers for. He's such an amazing character and has a lot to offer, but gets pushed aside for new characters.

Tenth, the Lazarus pit scene. I'm confused as to when Kori received her full powers, her own powers. Was it after the explosion of the ship? Was it in that moment when she ended to move the pit into the sky? Why was this moment taken away from us, how are we supposed to know where they came from. She was told that she did not have the gift and now she has powers? Kom was given back her powers from Kori, again off screen cuz why the fuck not, and then they're both helping to cure the people of Gotham.

Eleventh, the best moment in this entire episode was Kori calling out all the bullshit. "I'm so done with this bullshit." Girl same. I am tired of it too.

Twelfth, Dick and Babs "break up". I felt a little sad watching their goodbye scene. Something felt very final about it and I teared up a bit. I'm far from being a dickbabs fan in regards to them dating, but as friends, I did have a fondness for their friendship. I hope we can see Babs again in a different way, but I'm glad she and Dick can move on from one another.

Thirteenth, The episode as a whole just really fell flat. Everything felt rushed, the acting was kinda shitty, but mostly due to bad writing and pacing of the scenes. I'm upset that this is the finale we were given, we deserve better as fans, especially since there are no relationships being built on this show. There's no emotional connections between anyone, it just literally feels so bland without those interactions, even a little bit of drama. Not to compare it to other shows, but Arrow was always good with building relationship and showing each characters development. We learned everything about each and every person, we knew their problems and flaws, but on Titans we get a brief insight to these people because the writers act as if we should know these people already. I know Dick from Teen Titans tv show, New Teen Titans Comics, Nightwing comics etc. I know those versions of Dick, but I don't know DC Titans Dick Grayson.

I. Need. More.

Overall, I'm giving this season a 5.5/10. They had sooooo much space and time to create a great season and fell flat. Hopefully season 4 will be better.

Until next time guys.

See you in 2022.

[potscenarios]

Hello! I'm so happy to see you/this blog active again! <3 Can I request headcanons on Tezuka, Atobe and Sanada having a date with their s/o on a romantic place? :D Thanks a lot!

Hi there! Um, I'd like to clarify something since I noticed people have been 'welcoming back' me / the blog: this blog is completely new! I used to have scenarios blogs last time but I've never written for POT fandom before! So if you used to visit a blog with this same name, I just want to inform you that I'm not the same person with whoever used to run the scenarios blog under this name until it was deleted. Sorry for any confusion!

Anyway, here you go, I hope this is ok ♡ 

Tezuka

Hiking and camping (especially on the mountains) are his favorite dates and he thinks it's plenty romantic because 1) a lot of opportunities to just sit down and have long, deep conversations, and 2) when night comes, the air typically becomes colder so you always end up asking to snuggle with him (and he secretly loves it) and lastly 3) he loves to just stargaze under the bright stars, with you laying beside him and pointing at the constellations while telling each other stories from your childhoods.

If you have interest in fishing, he'll gladly invite you to a fishing trip! It won't necessarily be a romantic date, but just indulge him, ok? If you're new in the whole fishing as a hobby, he'll patiently teach you all you need to know about it, starting from the beginning. With time, as you get better, he would secretly get a little competitive about who can catch the bigger fish.

Stay-in dates with Tezuka usually consists of silently reading books together, watching some movies, cooking for dinner and having dinner together, doing light stretching exercises together - just some simple spending time together. He might do something special for you from time to time, or whenever there's a special occasion for celebration. In those cases, he wouldn't mind splurging a bit by taking you out to a fancy restaurant or booking a skiing trip for the two of you.

"I don't say this enough, but... Being able to spend time with you like this, it feels like a dream. Thank you for being here. I'm grateful to have you on my side."

Atobe

Oh boy. Romantic dates are his specialty. He knows how to set the mood and he knows the right words to say to make you swoon. The moment you exit your front door, he's the perfect escort to wherever you're going. He compliments your attire (even if you're just wearing a simple hoodie), places a kiss on your hand, and throughout the date he'll make you feel like you're a descendant of some sort of royalty.

He prefers to be out and about, surrounded by people who can cater to your needs and makes sure your date is flawless. Candle-lit dinners. Amusement parks. Boating. Going to watch musicals or operas. Overseas or domestic travelling. It'll be up to you to suggest simpler dates like staying in to watch movies (instead of him renting out a whole theatre) or having a picnic for just the two of you and a homemade meal (instead of having butlers and maids waiting on you while you're eating finger food made by Michelin starred chefs).

Stay-in dates with Atobe aren't exactly normal, in the sense that he prefers to spend it at his mansion, which is full of butlers and maids catering to your every needs anyway. Still, he wouldn't say no if you invite him to your abode. He won't complain too much, since it's a new experience for him and he's discovering some new things in exchange - like how unexpectedly pleasant it feels when you're drying his hair with your mid priced hairdryer (it makes the drying time longer than he's used to, but your shampoo smells so good and your fingers feels heavenly while they’re combing through his hair).

"What kind of date should we do next? How about renting a cruise ship on our summer break? Ah, but that's too far ahead, huh? That reminds me, there's a private charity gala coming up and I think you'll be interested in the cause - should we attend it?"

Sanada

When it comes him, it's quite rare for you two to have a typical 'romantic' date, because Sanada himself isn't a consciously romantic person in general. His style of romancing you is by being traditionally chivalrous: opening doors, making sure you're not walking on the side of the road, making sure you're comfortable before anything, etc. But this is his original self; he doesn't try to be chivalrous, it's just his upbringing and personality.

For him, romantic dates = dates where you're spending quality time with each other, preferably in private. He isn't much of a talker so it could be hard to start conversations, but I feel like Sanada could be talkative when he's already way more comfortable with you and when it comes to things he truly cares about. You'll find yourself falling into deep conversations with him, especially regarding things like your personal beliefs, your values, and what you stand (or doesn't) stand for. He can go from "So... What's... Your favorite color?" to "At a glance, some traditions look meaningless to us who are living in this century, however I personally think there is an interesting lore behind every tradition that could become a learning experience for us, much like history - but what do you think?"

Stay-in dates with Sanada wouldn't happen unless you're some way later in your relationship, but it's going to be an interesting adventure for you if you've never lived in traditional Japanese houses! He especially loves it when it's after dinner on a cool summer night, and you both sit out on the engawa facing the inner garden, just enjoying each other's company while listening to the sound of the cicadas. There’s also just something about seeing you in the morning, dressed in a yukata and smiling sleepily at him at the breakfast table, that makes him feel all warm and content.

"Did you enjoy today's date? I didn't think going to an amusement parks would be such an enjoyable experience, but seeing you having so much fun was pleasant to witness."

[hazel-writes]

Summary: You begin your first official day of work and meet your new coworkers, who turn out to be full of surprises.

Word Count: 2,300

Notes: This chapter is a bit slow, but I'm excited to introduce you to some new characters! If you want to see Picrew face-claims for these characters, look here. Otherwise, imagine them to look however you want!

Warnings: brief mentions of violence

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

I'm trying hard to hide

Keep the sun out of my eyes

Close them tight

And now I'm waiting for the moon to rise

Belle and Sebastian ~ Waiting for the Moon

You walked through the door, nervously wringing your hands, despite your best efforts not to. Your eyes scanned the room, eventually landing on a large, grey reception desk. Sitting behind the desk was none other than Ms. Stoney, the uptight woman who had “welcomed” you onto the ship the day before.

You took a deep breath before walking over to her, waiting patiently for her to look up and address you — but she didn’t. You tried subtly clearing your throat, shifting your feet from side to side, and moving into her line of sight, but nothing seemed to grab her attention. Eventually you forced out a meek, “Hi, there!” to which she responded with an annoyed glance in your direction.

“Oh, it’s you again,” she grumbled with a mix of tiredness and disappointment.

“Uh, yeah, it is,” you smiled back, which you could tell bothered her. “I’m looking for the artist workspace? I know it’s somewhere within this department, but I wasn’t sure where exactly…”

“Artist?” she questioned, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah! Ya know, an individual who… does art?” Your attempt at an explanation was met by silence. “Umm… they’re usually covered in some sort of paint or clay, might dress a little funny, are often a little angsty, possibly tormented by some aspect of their past?” More silence. You give a strained smile; you really shouldn’t keep trying to talk over awkward silences. “Not ringing a bell, huh?”

Through clenched teeth she replied,“I believe the people you are looking for are through those doors on the left.”

She said the word people like it left a bad taste in her mouth. She obviously didn’t think too kindly of them.

“Great, thanks,” you replied, heading to the door she indicated.

You opened it, and to your surprise you saw no canvases, paint splatters, tin cans, or haphazard brushes littering the room. The walls and floors were a spotless white. A large, circular table was positioned in the center of the room, surrounded by sleek modern chairs and data pads on tripods. This didn’t look like your dad’s studio back home; a place where the remnants of unfinished projects were put on display for everyone to see and learn from. Here, you could already tell: making mistakes wasn’t an option. There was no room for error.

You returned your attention to what was in front of you, only to have three pairs of eyes meet yours.

The first pair belonged to a girl of medium height. She had long, slightly frazzled, blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that contrasted her pale skin. She jumped when you walked in, her face immediately lighting up when she saw you. The second pair belonged to a taller girl. She had warm, chestnut eyes that complemented her dark, sepia skin. Her hair framed her face in a fan of tight curls. She seemed to examine you carefully, squinting slightly, before turning back to her work. The final pair belonged to a boy of medium height. He had shaggy light brown hair and a tanned, terracotta complexion. He looked at you with curious hazel eyes, smirking ever so slightly.

The three of them looked to be about your age, somewhere in their 20's.

The blonde-haired girl ran over to you, pulling you away from your observations. “You must be the new girl!” she exclaimed. “I’m Rilea, your new best friend.”

You were taken aback by her enthusiastic and cheerful attitude; it wasn’t something you encountered very often on the Finalizer. You laughed nervously. “Oh, uhh… cool?”

The boy with the disheveled hair spoke up from the back of the room. “Don’t mind her, she has a new best friend each week.” He smirked at Rilea and she threw a box of tissues at him playfully.

“While that may be true,” she continued, turning to face you, “I can tell that you are going to be my favorite best friend.”

“That’s literally what you say to every single new person you meet,” the boy piped up again.

“For star's sake, Takoda, why do you have to be such a mudcrutch?!” Rilea shouted at him, frustrated.

You continued to observe in silence, still adjusting to the rapid shift of atmosphere in this room compared to the rest of the Finalizer.

You moved to go sit, finding an open seat next to the quiet, curly-haired girl. You gave her a small smile when you sat down, and she returned the favor, scooting her chair over to give you more room. Rilea, and the boy whose name apparently was Takoda, continued to argue like a couple of four year olds.

“Are they always like this?” you asked the girl seated next to you.

“Yup, pretty much,” she replied. “That is, of course, in between the times when they aren’t getting any work done… and the times when they still aren’t getting any work done.”

You laughed. “Well, at least one person here seems to have a level-head.”

“Make that two,” she said, giving you a smile. “My name is Akilah. What’s yours?”

You told her your full name before giving her your nickname, Wren, as well.

“Wren…” she pondered. “Not as in Kylo Ren, right?”

“No, no, no, stars, no,” you emphasized. “It’s the name of a- ” You paused, reconsidering. “I actually don’t know where it comes from, my friends just started calling me by it one day...”

Akilah stared at you intently for a few moments before Takoda shouted over at the two of you.

“Hey, you two aren’t gossiping about us now, are ya?”

You sighed, “Nope, just getting to know Akilah here.”

Rilea poked her head out from behind Takoda, “She's my best friend too!”

You mentally face-palmed and turned to fully face the group.

“So, this is the artist workspace?” you questioned, skeptically.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I wouldn’t go that far as to say we are artists,” said Takoda.

You were confused. “But I thought-”

“You thought wrong. Here, you just follow the rules and instructions laid out for you. We are given colors, words, and images, and it’s simply our job to assemble it all into a neat poster or flyer for distribution.”

“Oh…” you replied, disappointed.

“I’m not even an artist,” he continued. “They just stuck me here after I was medically discharged from the trooper program. For the most part, everyone in this sector just got placed here because there was nothing else they could do”

“So why did they bother hiring me then?” you questioned. “If I’m gonna be honest, I’m used to a little more creative freedom back home. They could’ve chosen anyone for this job.”

“I don’t know,” Takoda replied. “Maybe they want their propaganda to look good for a change.” He smirked.

“Where did you say you were from again, bestie?” Rilea asked.

“Oh, I didn’t,” you replied. “I’m from Lothal.”

Immediately, each member of the team looked at each other, worried.

“Lothal…” Rilea repeated. “That’s one of the Order's targeted planets right now. I have a feeling that pretty soon we'll be distributing posters there. Maybe Hux thinks you can help reason with the people there?”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Akilah added. “First Order propaganda would be a lot easier to accept coming from a fellow citizen.”

You pondered their words. What they were saying was probably true: you were simply a tool to be used by the First Order. They didn’t care about your talent or passion; they just needed your image.

“Well, I don't know how helpful I'd be on that front,” you sighed, pausing. “So what is the project you are working on now?”

“We’ll know soon enough,” said Takoda. “Our fourth member should be returning soon with our new assignment.”

“Fourth member?” you questioned.

At that moment, the door swung open with a dramatic bang, revealing a tall, lanky boy with jet black hair and evergreen eyes. He was pale with light freckles speckling his face and arms. His eyes narrowed when they met yours, scrutinizing your presence.

“Look, here he is, ‘fun-sized Kylo’ himself,” Takoda quipped.

Rilea leaned towards you. “He claims that he adopted the whole ‘tormented soul, dramatic hair’ look before Ren even thought of it,” she snickered.

You were confused, but luckily Akilah came to your rescue.

“This is Soren,” she explained. “Our fourth member… Well, fifth, now.”

“Oh!” you replied, stretching out your hand for him to shake. “It’s nice to meet you I’m -”

“Irrelevant,” he interrupted bluntly, briskly brushing past you to sit at the back of the room.

You stood there, hand still outstretched, looking to the others for guidance.

Takoda spoke first, turning to face Soren. “Hey, laser brain, why don’t ya try being a little nicer to our newest member.”

“This is our newest member?” he responded, disapprovingly. “She doesn’t look like the First Order’s finest.”

“That’s because I’m not,” you interjected, defensive. “I’m from Lothal originally. Today is technically my first day with the Order.”

At the mention of your home planet, Soren visibly tensed, his fingers curling into tight fists. The other three looked nervously at each other; they knew something you didn’t.

Akilah, again, interrupted the tense silence. “We should probably get to work… What’s the new assignment Sor?”

Hearing her voice, he seemed to relax a little, pulling out a few papers with various sketches and color swatches.

“They want us to design posters directed at the people of Dantooine. The First Order is currently working to establish a blockade on the planet. It is our job to convince the natives to submit, while also showing them that they have the ability to contribute their own assets to our cause.”

You frowned, unsure of a few posters' ability to do such a thing. You were familiar with Dantooine; its history was deeply rooted in rebel allegiance. You doubted that a few pieces of paper could somehow shift the ingrained attitudes of thousands of people. But then again, you were an artist. And as an artist, it was your job to put blind faith into your work, simply hoping that others could see what you saw in it.

“How successful has this First Order propaganda been in the past?” you asked, genuinely curious.

Takoda laughed. “Not very. Usually, it just makes the citizens more angry. But that kind of works in favor of the Order: as soon as the rebels and their sympathizers become violent, whatever happens to them at the hands of the Order is then justified, so to speak.”

“What would happen if we tried to mix things up a bit? Like attempting a different style, color scheme, or whatever it may be, to make the posters more effective?” you suggested.

Suddenly serious, Takoda spoke. “No. We don’t do anything without the Order’s permission. Never. That’s our number one rule. We can mess around and make jokes all we want in here, but whatever finished product leaves this room has to be exactly what was requested of us.”

Something in Takoda’s voice made it seem like there was history behind this rule — history that didn't conclude with a happy ending. Looking around the room, you knew you were right. Everyone, except for Soren, was avoiding your gaze, choosing to stare at their shoes or the floor. Soren continued to bore into you with a death-glare, but your instincts told you he was like this with everyone and not to take it too personally.

“Yeah, I get it,” you responded. Soren looked at you sceptically. “Trust me, you have nothing to worry about. I’m on my last warning with General Hux — another mistake will pretty much guarantee my head a new home in the trash compactor.”

“Speaking of Hux, we are to report to him tomorrow with drafts,” Soren finally spoke up.

“Tomorrow?!” Rilea exclaimed.

“Yup,” Soren replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Of course he would pull something like this, giving us less than 24 hours notice...” Rilea muttered, irritated.

“Stars, I swear that man is 90% petulant child, 7% attempted scariness, and 3% toupee,” you responded.

This earned a chuckle from the group. Even Soren managed a smirk.

“Yeah, well, sadly, that petulant child has a big red button sitting under his bony finger that can destroy entire planets in the blink of an eye,” said Akilah, quietly. “So, we should probably get to work.”

“She’s right,” you say, desperate to end any talk of Hux. “Let’s start.”

And with that, the five of you began work on what was your first official project on the Finalizer. Akilah showed you how to accurately read the diagrams that the Order had provided. Rilea and Takoda attempted to work for a few minutes before devolving into yet another tissue paper fight. Soren sat quietly in the corner, working on the new project, glancing up every now and then at you and Akilah.

Despite the hectic menagerie of personalities that surrounded you, you were glad that you weren't stuck working with cold, robotic First Order employees like Ms. Stoney. You desperately wanted to ask your new friends about their backstories and how they came to be “artists” on the Finalizer, but Takoda and Rilea were busy stuffing tissues in each other’s ears, and Akilah and Soren seemed like the ‘work in silence’ types. You decided to settle with your own thoughts for now; it wasn’t as if you were lacking them.

It occurred to you that tomorrow you would have to face Hux again, the memory of what he sneered at you in the hallway this morning still fresh in your mind: Strike two.

You didn’t know what strike three would involve, but you definitely didn’t want to find out.

Unfortunately, you didn't get that lucky.

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

Previous || Masterlist || Next

[evening-rose-309]

Heeeeeyyy! So. Imma write somethin' dark again. I'm sick, I have tests, but apparently that's no excuse for my idiot hindbrain to not throw ideas at me at 4 am in the morning.

Anywho, enjoy today's mad excerpt (yes I know I should be writing Nachtkrapp and the works but oh well, I miss this ship):

The bell to the shop rang sweetly as they walked in. Queenie’s was a quaint little shop in the meagre baking and sweets district, far enough from the eyes of the high rolling cafes and thus away from most of MACUSA’s board, whilst still being a convenient enough route stop for Percival to drop in now and again for a pastry when he was in the mood. The coffee was pretty good too and the golden haired witch would normally already have his order waiting on the counter long before he’d open the door.

“G’morning Mista Graves,” said golden haired beauty beamed as he walked up to the counter. Queenie Goldstein was what you would mistake for an angel if you saw her walking down the street. The average Joe in his thirties looking for a lucky break would assume just that, only the thing with angels was, as comically accurate to the no-maj bible, they know exactly what you mean to do before you even do it. However with Queenie Goldstein it had less to do with unseen divine power and more to do with-

“Treat’n someone today?” Percival smiled. She most likely guessed from the way his Companion was standing shoulder to shoulder with him with its paws on the counter. It shook her hand the first time they met and seemed to do this ritual of standing off the counter every time they’d come in.

“Hi you,” Queenie reached over to pet it, to which the creature offered its bound muzzle for her to scratch. “Mista Graves treat’n you nice huh? Came all this way to get you a sweat.”

The thing bore its yellowed fangs to her in a mock smile. He wondered, briefly, if it had done this as a human and would have done this if it still were. The thought was squashed accordingly as Queenie pulled out a tray of freshly baked goods from under the counter.

“Nothing too sweet Queenie,” he said, scooting over to let the dog sniff the tray. Good, make it look like it has a choice.

“Mmhmm,” the gold witch nodded. “Of course Mista Graves. Jacob knows I’m, uh, servin’ dogs now-”, she giggled, “-just yesterday we were talkin’ over new recipes to make for your little friend here an’ he teased me about makin’ a whole new branch with him special for dogs. He called it Puppy Pastries. That man. Knows just how to make a girl smile. Ain’t it funny, Mista Graves? Donuts for doggies?”

Percival hummed, before dropping his voice into a lower tone bordering on warning.

“Careful Queenie,” and the smiling witch’s giggles ceased abruptly. “Wouldn’t want the President to catch wind of your little arrangement here.”

Queenie tensed, her fingers no doubt curling where Percival couldn’t see.

“Of course Mista Graves,” her voice answered curtly. “We was just jokin’. Jacob...he knows the risks. He ain’t told nobody cus’ of it. Not even his Nana-”

She bit her lip, eyes wide and glazed in a way that would put most men on their knees. Before Percival could get a word out, the wolf was already lurching over the counter and nosing her neck, a paw over her shoulder.

Queenie sniffled, chuckling sadly. “Aww- sniff -are you sad for me? You sad for poor little ol' Queenie big boy?”

The hound keened and Queenie put her hand on the creature’s neck, a harsh grip in its course fur that it didn’t seem to mind.

“Mmm, what a good boy you are,” she smiled. She didn’t notice his grimace, the little tick in Percival’s eye. She didn’t know, he reasoned. She didn’t know what horrible atrocities the beast wiping away her tears with a damp tongue had committed. What sort of grimmy scummy thing it had been before it became the bear like beast that came to her shop every now and then. Percival himself didn’t know, hadn’t bothered to open its file. The Germans hadn’t mandatorized it, and thus he hadn’t bothered, what with the mountains of other things piling over his desk.

He watched as the beast pulled its head away, Queenie cupping its furry face in her hands.

“Good dog,” she rubbed at its cheeks. “Now don’t you be sad for Queenie, okay? Me and Jake’ll make it, you’ll see. We’ve got Mista Graves on our side and he’s been a big help so far! ”

Yes, Percival thought, Mista Graves. Good ol’ Mista Graves with his shining knight smile and war worn wisdom, keeping a too pretty girl and her modest no-maj boyfriend out of the eyes of the unjust law. Because he was the law, he was, Percival Graves. The law and myriad of other things. He wasn’t doing this for her, he knew. He was doing this because she was a distraction, because angels like Queenie had no business in MACUSA where they’d be relegated to becoming glorified pin up dolls serving crude old men too good coffee and tempting their eyes off the work that needed to be done for the good of the country. He was doing this, had kept her little secret, had eviscerated her records and contracts with MACUSA, convincing Sera and Tina to let her go, because he knew they’d be better off without her.

But she didn’t know that. No, all Queenie Goldstein knew was that her former boss was helping her out in exchange for free coffee and sinfully delicious pastries. How someone like Jacob Kowalski, a no-maj with dull hands and a duller disposition, could craft such utterly indulgent things was a mystery to him and most likely every wizarding baker within a five mile radius of the conjoined shops.

“Take two,” she said to him as she handed him his cup. “For- you know, and this smart little boy here.”

He nodded, smiling appreciatively as he picked out a pair of pukwudgie shaped donut things. The dog had walked off, more interested in the dark red door closed off to the back of the shop.

“Does he have a name?”

Percival froze. “Hmm?” a name? Of course it did, but-

Queenie chuckled. “The dog, Mista Graves. I’m gettin’ tired o’ callin’ it 'You' all the time. It’s gotta have a name right?”

A name, yes, a name. A name on a manilla folder bolded in red. A name the ICW thought fit to chain up and parade around MACUSA as a testament to it's rudimentary rehab system. A name the Germans uttered in reverence and secrecy, as if the mere mention of it would doom the speaker as any fatal curse would. A name Percival had never uttered or used himself, not for the same reasons as them, but simply because he thought the creature didn't have a right to it anymore.

"You know what," he said to Queenie, smiling still, at a volume well within earshot of the beast.

"Call it whatever you like," and then he left, coffee and bag of pastries in hand, dragging along his loathsome ward whilst Queenie stood pondering what he meant.

He couldn't give a rat's ass about whether the beast heard or not.

[beowulfs-booty-call]

Any interest in new games for the PS2? And is it the kind that can play PS1 too? Also I find it funny we both are named Chris, though I'm not sure why I'm named that. We have similar goals of sorts too. As for questions... 1. Kind of speculative, what do you think Lilith would define as love? Asking because that one thing you mentioned bugs me a smidgen. 2. Favrorite crystal? 3. What do you think of the latest SU episodes? 4. How's today been?

Hm… I’m hoping to do a little digging, I get some of my games from amazon since it’s easier to work with now…! It’s why I got Raidou Kuzunoha and Persona 4! But… Trying to buy Crash Twinsanity is hell lmao, but Sonic heroes makes it worth it.

I do have the one that plays Ps1, and I play crash bash multiple times because it’s amazing for a party game!!! Unfortunately, my dorm tv is too new though, so it doesn’t pick up on the game when I play ps1 games…

Ah…! Really!? I had no idea, actually…! Well, nice to meet you then, Chris! To be honest, I’ve been thinking of changing my name to Beowulf for a while, but, huh… I guess I’m gonna have to stick with Chris for now, since now that I look back on it? There’s more to a name than just uniqueness or meaning in a book. Stories don’t tell much on a person if they can’t hold a candle to them, I suppose!

—

Lilith, huh… Hm… Forgive me, but I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean in the context of things, RP universally, or, the actual Lilith? 

In terms of actual Lilith, love is really love in the way she sees it. It’s just, of course, she was the first wife of Adam, and was casted out of Eden for refusing his sexual advances, later being demonized as the demon of the night who gave birth to Incubi and Succubi as well as other demons of the fold with Samael (it’s sometimes Satan depending on the culture.)

Though, in her teachings, Love is not just lust or yearning for someone, it’s being equals in the sense of both people in a relationship sharing power between one another. In that way, love is a relationship that must be earned, you must have trust, you must not be seeking someone for simply sex alone (although, if that’s what your aiming for, Lilith really has nothing… Against that? She knows how the flesh and the heart works, so, she’s very understanding.) and you are, basically, sharing someone with yourself, you are sharing yourself with someone you feel deserves to see the side of you no one else has before. In a way, Lilith is seen as a dark mother because of this, because she’s seen as the Badass Aunt™ that kicks ass and isn’t afraid of her sexuality. 

She’s not afraid of her body, or her heart, but she treats both with the utmost respect, and doesn’t tolerate anyone who tries to go beyond consent or choice. That said, she is also, in my experience, very frightening when angered, and a cunning lady who knows how to get what she wants. You don’t mess with her at all, and it shows in the way that she never relents in the ideal that no woman or man should ever conform to someone else’s standards when it comes to love. For me, she lives in this very thick swamp like jungle, wearing nothing but jewelry on her neck and nearly naked save for a huge python around her neck and wraps around her body. She has long nails, and eyes that pierce into you when she speaks, and her voice is as tough as nails. Really, she’s a very big person on the aspect of true love, but because of the actions taken before, most of it is reflected in others who feel some way about her. It’s just… Lilith herself, from what I’ve experienced, is very very… Held together, and extremely confident in her abilities, and she wishes to share that with others should they accept her.

RP Lilith is seen a bit more like how others portray her. The Districts are all surrounded by fallen gods and other deities who are seen as their counterparts, and Lilith is no exception. A concept plot is that, as she gave birth to succubi and incubi, she wants to take Demi back as her foster child and use him to her own gain. Instead, she clashes with Parvati because her other form, Kali, was also seen as a counterpart to Lilith. The two are at odds together, but also maintain a professional relationship for Demi’s sake, either way. She’s one of the patron deities of Eros, though, she is the first person to teach Demi what love is “like” in terms of how it’s meant to be.

(”Love is… This exotic thing, it holds you to it’s chest, never letting you breathe for a minute until… You and someone you care about, are face to face, quiet and still, but enjoying the time you have…”)

—

Boulder Opal, actually! It’s quickly become my favorite gem with it’s colors and look…! Especially considering how affordable they are…! It’s almost… Amazing, just really looking at them, feeling their glassy sheen…! I even wear a blue / violet one as my choker!

—

((SU SPOILER ALERT))

Hm… Truth be told, I love Mr. Maheshwaren’s voice as a Dad™ as well as how we’re seeing some sort of development as a whole; However, I do dislike how Peridot and Lapis are always somewhere not even where they can help out, and considering how close Lapis and Steven are, I’m upset she had no part in trying to get him away from Aquamarine and Topaz. It felt a bit off, the way Steven was simply ready to accept himself as “Rose Quartz” to protect everyone when nearly everyone was trying to tell him he wasn’t his mom. 

Lapis and Peridot feel like they have no plot semblance to them anymore, and, it kinda hurts in the sense that Peridot went from cold merciless possibly killer gem for YD, and now she’s comic relief in that sense. Lapis is… The real upset sis of the gems and it sort of… Teeters me off balance along with Room For Ruby where she was hellbent on proving Navy wasn’t adjusted to earth. It was cool, but, when shiitake mushrooms go down, the two are nowhere to be seen, but are some of Steven’s closest friends! Summertime beach buddies! The nerve!

That said, I am disappointed in Lars overall in the episodes, I mean, I get it that the point was for him to be himself and let the gang let him be, but as Steven and Sadie point out despite that, Lars isn’t giving anyone a chance to give him a chance. It’s slightly annoying how far Steven goes to help him, and he simply won’t give anything back besides be angry at Steven a crud ton of times. But what sort of brings it to a kicker is when Lars gets all cowardly from Topaz and hides from them while Sadie is trapped in their grip. Normally, I’d get the idea that Lars is too scared to react, but, considering that Steven and Connie were trying to get everyone to the door, I would imagine Lars would have ran there rather than the steps leading to God knows where. That said, it seems to be supposedly be a plot element because he’ll show up later since he’s still in the ship. Most likely development! But, of course, meh to Lars, as, personally, I really dislike his character as a whole, but, hey, I respect him even then. You can’t have a dynamic like Lars and Sadie without someone laying you down one last time, right?

—

Oh, gosh, today’s been a day…

I found out I gained about a few pounds in muscle, which, is pretty great for my workout regime, but also, I ended up having some real bad burns from my regular old deodorant and had to keep putting on fresh aloe vera to ease them. It was just… Ick… But most of it has cleared up now!

I got my last week of classes coming up before finals, so, I’m excited! But also tired… But also grateful for finishing up some really great work today!

I also ended up really missing the smell of incense which I burned all weekend at home when I was visiting, but at the dorm… It’s banned. But, no worries, I chatted a little with Parvati, did some reading and breathing exercises, and really took some time to appreciate myself further. It’s been a helluva week, but, I know I can handle what ever’s coming my way, person or test!

[symbianosgames]

Arkane Studios' Raphael Colantonio is probably best known among developers today for his work on Dishonored with fellow co-creative director Harvey Smith. 

But by the time Dishonored shipped in 2012 Colantonio had already been working at Arkane for over a decade, leading development of games like Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. 

These games, made back before the French studio was acquired by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax and expanded with a sister studio in Austin, failed to achieve high-profile commercial success -- to this day, Colantonio is quick to acknowledge Arx was "full of bugs."

What they did achieve, though, was attracting communities of players passionate about the games' mechanics and systems-driven design.

As Colantonio now prepares to ship Arkane's latest project, Prey, Gamasutra sat down with him to briefly chat about the projects he's shaped over the years, and how they've in turn shaped his approach to making games. 

So you gave a presentation at the 2006 Montreal Game Summit -- this was ages ago -- and you talked about your experience building a small indie studio in a world of big-budget game companies.

Colantonio: Yeah, with Gamasutra, actually.

So it's been over a decade since then. Arkane is pretty big now, and split across continents. How does it feel?

  "We seem disorganized and like we don't know what we're doing, but I think it's part of a process and I really think that it's something that we now embrace and accept."

Feels like a different life. Well, it feels yet so far, and at the same time so recent. It's funny how time works in people's head; in many ways we still feel like this little unknown company that just started a few years ago. Even now, like people say, "So what are you working on?"

"Oh, Dishonored."

"Oh, yeah, I played that game!"

"Yeah, sure." That's how I feel. You're just saying that to be polite, you know?

But yeah, it took a while, but it's great. It shows that with determination and believing in what you do, eventually it works out.

How has the working environment changed? I think fellow devs would be curious to know what it was like, going from one studio to two, each with their own separate projects.

I think it works out for us because it was such a slow incremental process. It took us seventeen years to go from one game - one studio, to two games - two studios.

So it's been a very very meticulous adding one piece at a time. You look at how many people we add a year, it's really not much. So at the end now it's very different even though it felt natural, because Dishonored was made between Lyon and Austin; that was probably the weirdest move for us.

I can't remember exactly how many people we had in Austin and how many we had in Lyon, but it was like two teams -- slightly bigger in Lyon. That was a real weird move and then after that, once we were done just adding people on both ends started to almost feel like you were managing two different studios at that point.

But we're still sharing the same DNA for game design; it's like the cousin that went to a different country and evolved their own way. Because you can still recognize the styles in both games, right? In Dishonored 2 and Prey, even though they're not the same team behind it.

Do you miss having that small studio focus?

Sure, yeah. It's different; when you're ten in the same room and just yell across the room because you need some file or whatever, it's not the same thing as when you have to input it in some software that goes into a list of tasks that maybe one day will be read by someone on the other side of the building.

So I do miss it, but I think we still manage to maintain the same culture and passion because we -- I think we have a very strong culture and we know why we're doing what we do, so we hire people that embrace the same values and they hire people with the same passions. So if you ask anyone at Arcane, most of them know why they're doing what they're doing, even though it's a pretty big team now.

Do you have any specific techniques or processes that you put in place to maintain that sort of culture? 

Yeah, I can think of two things -- well three things. One, recruiting is very, very important. We are very, very picky.

I think the second thing is, we have a few values that are important to us. One of them is player choice, for example. So for each game that we do, Dishonored was the same and it's the same now with Prey, we have some little posters that we place everywhere in the office with the name of those values and an example and why it's important to us. Like mantras, almost. Then people wherever they go for a break or lunch or something they see this thing on the wall that would say "multi-solutions" or--

Motivational posters.

Yeah, motivational posters. That's two, and three I would say the leads, who you choose to represent what you want for the team and the game, making sure that they are really in alignment with you and they will perpetrate that culture.

Sure. I know some team leaders who do things like regular team lunches or dinners to help build studio cultures they can rely upon. But that's usually with teams of like ten or twelve people. If you have thirty or forty in your studio...

Yeah, you can't. And funnily enough we've never been so much into those things at Arkane. Like you know there are those big corporate companies that take everybody to Disney World or something. We're just, everybody does what they want to do. Some actually gather together because they want to play some RPG -- you know, Role-Playing --

Tabletop games, yeah.

But this is nothing we enforce. It's strange, we don't do the lunches and all this stuff.

Ahh, everybody's different. Do you yourself ever play tabletop role-playing games?

Not anymore. I used to play Cthulhu, actually, more than Dungeons and Dragons.

You played Call of Cthulhu?

Uh-huh, yeah.

I'm impressed. That's a rough game to play; everybody loses at the end.

Yeah, exactly. Maybe that's why I like it. The tensions between wanting to progress and not wanting to progress because you know that you are a cooler character now, but you're sooner to die.

Playing those games, did that inform your approach to videogame development at all? The way you run teams or the way you design levels or anything like that?

Probably, yeah. Yes, because, in fact, even to this day, if I design a piece of level because I want to highlight a situation that is important to me, I will actually use -- how do you say?

Graph paper.

Yeah, I will still use that with the same kind of iconography that you do on the Dungeon and Dragons.

I think that stuff's fascinating, but before we fall down that rabbit hole I should ask: now that you're wrapping up work on Prey, what have you learned from it that you'll take forward to other projects?

In the specific case of Prey? There's many lessons...on the positive side, I do think that it's really confirmed our approach to multilayered system development where we just develop a system out of context, just with the tools, and we drop it in the simulation and let it live and see what happens. Usually it spawns new ideas.

So you have an AI, for example, that you did not have before and you just give it a few rules and as it's in the game and starts to interact with the rest of the simulation and something weird happens. It pushes objects, for example -- you never thought of that. And because of that it creates some new gameplay, some new opportunities.

So we rely a lot on that and it's actually a really cool way to make games because it falls back to player expectations, I think, in the way that when these things happen, "Oh, you know what? Since this thing happens maybe we should support it and actually do this, this this." As opposed to having some sort of plan from the get-go and then just follow the plan.

So I think that's a technique that...we seem disorganized and like we don't know what we're doing, but I think it's part of a process and I really think that it's something that we now embrace and accept as mythology for us.

Yeah, like the Mimic enemies early on in Prey -- Is that an example of a thing you tested, a creature that can crawl and hide and transform into objects? Where did that even come from?

Initially, it was just we thought it would be cool to have a creature that actually turned into things to hide because we have full ecology for our aliens and how they work and each of them have a role. So the role of the Mimic was to be a scout: it scouts around to gather energy, hides, turns into things. Turning into things came as a later idea. Like, "It hides." 

"Okay, how does it hide?"

"Well, you know it goes into corners and it waits for you to show up and jumps you."

Okay, that's a cool idea. Then someone had an idea, I don't remember who. "What if it turned into objects? If it actually picked an object in that room and turned into the object?"

"Oh wow, that's awesome." So we did that. Then that led to another thing because as we were developing this game we also started to think, "How are we going to acquire the powers?"

"Well, what would be really awesome would be if you could steal the powers from the enemies." So we started down that route of, "You can steal this or that." And sometime in a meeting we said, "Hey, hold on. If we can steal the powers, really we should be able to turn into objects as well."

As we said that, half of the room was terrified by the idea because it means, "Oh god, this is going to be -- maybe ridiculous, maybe silly, maybe super-hard to implement," because now you are a small thing in the world and...how are the physics going to handle that? The other half was super-excited about that and people started to laugh about it. So that's what I mean by the game designed itself.

It's like a painting where you know where you're going more or less, but not exactly, and as you're painting and you realize that the blue of the sky over there should actually reflect on that corner over there. And so at the end the painting becomes really defined as you go.

So how do you balance the needs of that creative process with the demands of operating a business?

I think if you look at the leader, you will know what is the culture of the company. In our case it started with game design, game designers, so our very first game [Arx Fatalis] is very game design-oriented. Not very technological. It crashes all the time, is not very production-ready and full of bugs.

I remember thinking it was very neat, though, with stuff like the gesture commands for casting spells.

Right, right. It's neat, but it was not very marketable. It was not ready for the market, and I think as we grew we started to accept other disciplines a little better. So now I think we've reached a balance where we have strong production, strong art, strong tech, while at the same time still maintaining the strong design.

I still think design will always win at the end of the day if there's a conflict between, "Should this game be polished or should it be designed?" I'll still push for the fun thing, rather than the polish. And maybe it's a mistake. It did bite me in the ass a few times, but at some point as you grow you have to...well, now we are also part of Bethesda. So there's a lot of money involved in these games. We cannot just make games in a vacuum and not care about it. So I had to give more and more power to production and et cetera. But unfortunately for everyone I am also the president of the company, so.....

It's tricky. It means that I will always have a personal push for creativity over any of the other disciplines. But I also try to be mindful about it and not run the company against the wall.

I think a lot of devs face the same problem. I should ask also, I notice it's not the same engine as Dishonored 2. You went with CryEngine, right?

Yeah.

Why choose to go with someone else's engine rather than something you build yourself?

Because in fact, when you look back to when we started Dishonored 2, which was a little before we started Prey, actually, we were faced with a few challenges. In the case of Dishonored, our biggest challenge was to make the technology work. Because we knew what game we were going to do, but we did not have an engine for it. Back then the CryTek engine was not ready.

So we said, okay, this is our try is going to be to make our own engine. Because we know what the game is and and we have to make a new team. So that was enough challenge already.

And then you look at Prey, we were not wanting to add some more burden on the Dishonored 2 team because Dishonored 2, we had to to make our own engine there. Now with the same engine if you have to make two games, that would be multiplying the challenges. So [for Prey], the challenge was more like, let's take an engine that we know exists and is solid that we have and tackle a new challenge which is inventing a game.

It's essentially a new type of game, even though it's Prey, it's still a new IP in a way. So it's just risk management, and choosing the right thing. So, you know I was saying your company culture informs how you work, like in my case it's all creative, but at the same time, in this case it was a lot of production calls. We have to be logical.

Yeah, but I do think it's surprising you'd want to avoid having everyone working on the same tech. Whereas I feel an organization like EA, which is obviously much bigger, they're making an effort to bring all of their stuff into one engine.

Yeah, I'm not sure why because it's only a million dollars for those -- It's nothing secret here. The cost of an engine is about a million dollars. Any engine that you can buy and I honestly can't remember how much we payed on the case of CryTek, but it doesn't justify -- It's not a big win to say, "Well, we're going to unify all our games onto one engine." It seems more risky and more of a constraint for teams.

In fact, the entire Bethesda organization, everytime we try starting a game, they never care. They always ask us, "What engine do you want to use?" It doesn't matter if we want to use our engine, some new engine. It's a cost. If you make your own engine it's going to cost you something. If you buy one it's going to cost you something. There is a cost -- I can understand why some people want to unify everything because this way they can have their teams that know how to use their tools. Once you know the production pipeline of an engine you can reuse that for every time. So there is some sort of a save.

But at the end of the day there are so many constraints as well to use -- I know a publisher that now went under who were obsessed with using the unified engine across all their teams all their studios all over the world. It drove them to their death, because it's more constraint on the developers than there is any benefit.

I honestly think it's an ideology and it's a political idea that sounds beautiful. "Well, we'll put our efforts combined into one thing. Then we can share technology between studios." It sounds beautiful, but it never works.

So let's talk about beauty, for a sec. What is one thing you hope fellow game developers see in this game? Is there a certain level, or a mechanic, or a little production trick you did somewhere?

Well, your question has multiple facets to it. One could be, "What is it that they will praise us for?" The other one would be, "What there is that hopefully will inspire them?" So the inspiring thing -- As a player, I want to play more games that are real-life simulations and let me play the way I want and give me an experience that I feel I own, as opposed to something very directed. There are some games that do that, but there's also a lot of games that go somewhere else.

So I want to see more and more games that allow me -- Because that's the difference between a movie and a game, I think. So the more games that are simulations, the more fun it is to me. So I hope some future generations are going to go deeper in that genre.

As far as the thing I hope people recognize, I think it's the complexity of making a new world. Everything is designed in this world. The chairs, the tables, everything is designed -- The fashion. So I'm sure the artists and storytellers will have a chance to appreciate the amount of work that was put into the researching the background of the world and how it works.

Yeah, you had the idea for this long before you decided to use the Prey name, right? Do you remember any of the names you were originally going to use?

There were many and I think one of them was after the name of the alien race themselves, which is the "Typhon." So then we started to think, "Hold on, people aren't going to know if it's with an i, a y, is it ph, is it f?" So at the end of the day Prey was actually a pretty solid name.

Yeah, it's easy to spell, short. So if you had to give one piece of advice to fellow game developers, given your time in the industry, what would you say now?

You know, I think we're at a fascinating phase because there's way many more propositions than there ever was before. Now you can play mobile, different types of formats of games, like the indie games for $20 or the AAA for more. I think it's a great time to succeed. Better than when there was only one channel.

Now, there's more noise as well so it's hard to get through this noise. And also the other thing that I notice is that people give less importance to how amazing is your graphics. That I think is a great, great opportunity for developers to focus on their message, whether it's artistic message or gameplay message, rather than the form so much. Because we've been so blinded by trying to get the latest technology, the latest shader, the latest detail that costs a fortune. It's a big distraction from what really matters in the game. So I hope people focus on the art intentions and the gameplay intentions more than the technology, and how amazing the graphics are.