#I'm not going to say whether you can or can't have cool things you believe in but like...

[taegularities]

some men are textbook villains fr

[embarressment-erradicated]

moooooooooooooom, their inventing spiritualism again, yes they are using improperly, uhuh, yep 3d, yeah you gotta escape it, yes they invented lucid dreaming again but different. lol

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

why i love aziraphale and why i find his character so heartbreaking

So I made a post on why I relate to Crowley and I adore him, obviously. I think a few you misunderstood what I meant there, though (which is understandable, I was a bit incoherent but that is inevitable on this blog). I wasn't saying Aziraphale didn't care about Crowley or was horrible to him, rather the opposite.

What I was saying was maybe Crowley felt unloved against his better judgement, because he knows he is loved by Aziraphale, but maybe everything he has been through has started to chip away at that knowledge. It's happened to me, I'm sure it's happened to a few of you. You are assured that you are loved, you can see them doing things for you, but you feel unloved. Maybe because of the other people who don't love you. Maybe because... you don't love yourself.

But I definitely wasn't putting down Aziraphale, who is a beautiful character. I adore him. I love how every single second, all his emotions are on his face. That's actually how I realised they'd switched bodies--in heaven, 'Aziraphale' had a cool, dismissive look on his face. That could only be Crowley, I knew, because Crowley is a bit better (not a lot, not around Azi of course) at masking his emotions.

That's what's so beautiful about Azi, we can just see how much he feels, how much he adores Crowley, how much hope he had, how much faith in Heaven, how much determination to do the right thing. How determined he is to keep Crowley safe, to make Crowley smile and laugh, and how much it kills him every time he has to push Crowley away for both of their sakes, or he thinks he has to. You both want to protect that optimism and faith, and also shake him and tell him the truth. But how do we know better than him, a 6000 year old angel? There's so much that we don't know, that may have happened behind the scenes, that's orchestrating his decisions.

Some of you are certain that there is more, that he doesn't still believe that what Heaven offers is genuine, because how could he? I'm also sure that there is more, but can I also offer an alternate idea? Even if there wasn't more, maybe he isn't to blame if he did continue to believe in Heaven's goodness.

We've been in toxic relationships. With friends, partners, family. I know how hard it is to accept that something you love is not worthy of that love. Something you admired is something flawed. Something you would do anything to keep is something you need to push away.

The worst of all, of course, is that time, somewhere in our childhood or teens or adulthood, when a lot of us realise our parent or parents are not heroes. That we don't agree with them. That they were wrong about a lot of things. Because they taught us everything, they were our guides, how could they be wrong? And if we can't believe in them, then what are we supposed to believe in?

Maybe Aziraphale is going through that journey, over all those millennia. Some of us are forced to realise it before we even turn ten, some of us haven't realised it yet, some of us may not ever or may not need to.

Maybe Aziraphale is just a child of God, realising that Heaven, his technical family, is not the Good that not only they but the entire world believes them to be. Everyone says Heaven is good, including a lot of Hell, including a lot of humankind, it's just given. What is Heavenly is good. And Aziraphale wants to be good.

But he's going through that painful journey of realising that good may not be what he was taught, that good comes in many shades and tints and hues. And we can see him do it, we can see him defy Heaven and God, for Crowley or for humans or for himself. He's doing it, and we need to see how it isn't easy for him. Having your entire system of belief deconstructed is painful and awful. And if you were wrong once, how do you know you won't be the next time?

It's hard enough for Crowley, torn between whether he was unworthy or whether Heaven was wrong. Imagine the tumult that Aziraphale goes through, because if Heaven accepts him and Heaven isn't always good, does that mean Aziraphale has been doing it all wrong all his life?

He's going through something that we all go through, and is every bit as relatable as Crowley is. I love them both so much. I'm so glad that there's a third season, to see how that arc closes, to see if maybe they find the answers we're all looking for.

@adverbian and @howmanyholesinswisscheese, I hope this helps? Again, I haven't watched season 2 yet and have a horrible memory since I've been watching season 1 heavily medicated, so this is just from what I know and can tell and headcanon, perhaps.

[fromchaostocosmos]

If you will forgive my somewhat clunky metaphor, being a Jew on the Left often feels like I'm in abusive relationship.

I'm most certainly not going to go to the Right not only because of my morals, ethics, and values, but because whether it be overt or covert their end goal is the death and destruction of me, my people, our culture, and everything we hold believe in. It is like the Right is someone who just all red flags and your gut tells you if enter into a relationship with them the only way it ends is with them killing you. But the Left, well the Left seems cool and you get along and have similar view points so you think okay this could work. But it turns out the have some strange friends who have some real not okay thoughts and the Left will say "I'm not really with them you know", but they will still do stuff with and invite to stuff and won't end the friendship when those friends say some real disgusting things. Then as things progress you are not allowed to have things from a different perspective made from the nuances of your history and experiences. Then Left is telling you can't have certain thoughts, feelings, or be hurt by things. The Left is telling you what think is not what you think, what you heard you didn't, what you saw you didn't see, you just don't get it, you don't understand. Suddenly the rules that you both agreed to are being changed on you, and you are being told that you liar and are in fact the one with power and abusive. Not just that antisemitism is not antisemitism and according to Left you call everything antisemitism to delegitimize and downplay and shutdown. Suddenly the Left knows your history better then you and is explaining your beliefs, history, just everything to you as if you don't know it all already and know it better and more in depth. You are alone with no one and the Left is saying you are cheating with the Right when you would never and you just want to make it work. And it all is mess.

That is basically how I feel right now about the Left and how it feels to be a leftist and Jewish.

I mean it has always been somewhat difficult. There has always been a pretty large amount of antisemitism there. But right now it is on a whole kind of level.

I mean there is the old joke about hating Jews being the one thing that can bring the left and right together.

I think a fair amount of what I'm describing other marginalized people's have felt to a degree as well on the left. I do not want to discount those experiences.

I think overall the left needs to do better, I think it needs to stop being so White TM like white focused in its leftism, I think also that using the USA understanding of Race and Racial politics is dangerous and plain unhelpful when applied to global scale.

I think the Left needs to stop viewing the amount of color in a persons skin to what they must be because it ignores so much history and nuance. This doesn't mean we ignore White Privilege because we can not. This means we need to start having nuance and dialectical thinking going on. Such as understanding Conditional Whiteness and White Privilege are not the same.

The Left also needs to take Colorism more seriously as a whole and do more to combat and end it.

The Left needs to learn and understand just how much of the world we live in now is built on so many systemic abuses. And that the very foundation of it, no material that the foundation is made of is Systemic Ableism, Systemic Anti-Blackness, Systemic Antisemitism, and Systemic Misogyny with everything really branching off and out from there.

[thatonecrookedsmile]

You will acept your fate... Before the end..

------

Without much creativity to come up with a good line/phrase. I had to improvise.

It's been exactly 1 year since Bendy and the Dark Revival released...jeez. Already? I'm telling you, time doesn't make sense anymore, everything is going slower and faster at the same time. It's crazy!

I was in the middle of drawing something more specific for the anniversary but…I didn't finish it lol. Like always! But I have this prompt that I finished a few days ago and that I was hoping to post along with 2 more drawings. But I think today is a more ideal day to post this.

So as a anniversary present I give you guys…Angst™. With the boys. Very ideal.

I remember having another idea for this prompt but the current idea popped into my head so I decided to abandon the previous one. I found it more interesting. A "What-if" idea I had at the time the game launched partially inspired by something specific I thought about these two. Based so much on what I've seen and read about these ink creatures, and on the general idea of "2 minds in one".

I confess that in the end I started to question whether this is the way I see the relationship between these 2 and all this business of "two in one package" that they have. And I still don't know if this is really my vision. I just had a drawing idea that I thought was cool and I just stuck with it until the end. I didn't have many second thoughts until I got to the finish line.

Changing the subject: The anniversary.

I can't believe it's been 1 year since this game came out. The time flies! Good to know this finally released after 3 years.

I don't think I've ever talked abouy my thought on the game before,or at least,not the game as a whole. I wanted to leave this for the specific anniversary drawing, but hey. Why not here?

In short: I really liked it! I've been waiting for this game for a good while so when we finally got that final trailer last year, you could say I was pretty excited for the next 2 weeks until release. I don't know if I knew exactly what to expect from this game, and there's always that fear that I won't end up liking what I play when it released. But I really liked it! Loved it, I would say. I had a lot of fun and I believe I can say that, in general, I had a pretty positive experience with it.

Of course, I have my own grievances and complaints about some things in the game (some probably talked about here on Tumblr and others not) that I would like to see improved for next game,The Cage. But even with these complaints in mind, I wouldn't say that it took away my enjoyment of this game. Especially considering that the positive points (or at least what I consider positive in my opinion) for me, prevail over the negative ones.

At the end? Yeah, I really liked Bendy and the Dark Revival. Happy to see it finally released and be able to play it. I personally believe that we are in a good direction when it comes to the games, and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Happy 1 year anniversary BATDR! And happy birthday to both Little Guy and Big Guy (Little Bendy and the new Ink Demon,respectively).

Love you both.

[jfleamont]

Hey for your jily muse, out of order <3

Okay this is unforgivable, I know. You sent this prompt over two months ago. TWO. This ask has been sitting in my inbox since the 18th of January, so you probably won't even remember sending this but I promise you I've been thinking about it constantly and waiting to have free time to work on it and I have this tendency to leave things unfinished so this is me working through that as well lol

Without further ado, here it is ❤️

Out of Order - 744 words

Evans is in the boys' bathroom. She's in the boys' bathroom and she's crying.

One of her hands is gripping the sink, while the other fruitlessly wipes the tears that keep escaping.

She hasn't noticed his arrival, and Sirius doesn't bother clearing his throat. “I'm sure there's a perfectly logical reason for this.”

She makes a startled noise and turns to face him, her expression a mixture of anger and sadness. It's comical, really, so Sirius laughs.

“There is,” she mutters as she wipes her nose with the sleeve of her jumper. Her voice lacks the edge she usually aims at him— and at James, too, though Sirius can't help but notice a slight difference there.

He walks towards her and hands her his monogrammed tissue - he's never used it for this purpose specifically, but it has proved to be useful during the occasional prank or after a rough full moon - which she grabs immediately. She doesn't thank him, but he doesn't expect her to.

“Ah well, that's all I needed to know. It's not like you're invading my personal space or something.”

She lifts an eyebrow and eyes him curiously, looking more like her usual self. “I'm sorry, is there a plaque or an inscription that I haven't noticed? Does House Black monogram bathrooms as well as tissues?”

“Not that I'm aware of, no. Don't give my mother ideas, though, she might actually try to do that.”

She makes an attempt at a smile, but it quickly turns into a quiet sob.

“Apparently there can only be one crying girl per bathroom, and Myrtle has claimed the one across the corridor as hers so it's out of order,” she explains as she tries to regain control of her emotions, “and I thought this one was empty since everyone is heading down to watch the match.”

“You were right... for the most part. Why aren't you going then?”

“No reason,” she replies, her voice even, but she's not looking at him.

Sirius thinks he knows why. He suspects it has to do with the good luck kiss that Cornelia Kettleburn gave James at breakfast and how quickly Lily disappeared after that.

“Cool. I'm not going either. Fancy going to the Astronomy tower for a smoke?”

She looks taken aback. “I— wait, why aren't you going?”

In truth Sirius wants to go, and James is going to kill him for this, but lately he's been claiming that he no longer has feelings for Lily, and Sirius hates being lied to, so technically this is just payback.

“James got on my nerves so I'm skipping the match in protest,” he adds with a shrug and it's the truth, because it wouldn't be fair to lie. “So, are we smoking or not? Got a fag I can borrow?”

She's not an idiot: she knows this is an olive branch of sorts. Sirius can tell she's deciding whether to believe him or not; after a moment she sighs, and Sirius knows he's won.

“Haven't you got your own? Merlin, you're cheap,” she says while producing a pack of cigarettes from her satchel and handing it to him, a smirk on her face. He's glad to see that she seems to have calmed down significantly.

“I'm trying to quit so I stopped carrying them around,” he replies and grabs one, putting it in the breast pocket of his vest.

“Looks like it's working,” she notes as she fixes her appearance in front of the mirror and readies herself to leave the room.

“Absolutely.”

“Why are you mad at Potter anyway? Thought you two were inseparable,” she asks as she walks towards the door, a step ahead of him so that he can't see her face.

“Can't tell you, it's a secret.”

She huffs. “You lot are starting to sound ridiculous with all these secrets,” she whips her head towards him, her disapproval clear on her face, though he's almost certain this is just another way of disguising her curiosity. “Is this little group of yours a cult or something?”

“It's a counterculture,” he explains as he exits the bathroom, “how else are we going to beat those bigoted dickheads? The only way to fight a cult is with another cult.”

He's just joking, but the idea doesn't sound half bad to his ears.

Apparently Lily disagrees, because she snorts. Loudly. “Not sure about that logic but you do you, I guess.”

“Thanks for the support.”

“Anytime, Black.”

[mizu-nights]

HIIII

Your finally open again 🫶🫶🫶

Can i request a tsukasa, rui and nene x reader (separate) and the plot is something like the song “something stupid” more specifically the verse “ the time is right your perfume fills my head the stars are read and oh the nights so blue, and then i go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like i love you “

Thank you xxxx I’ve missed youuu

♬ now playing: "i love you..."

-> saying you love them so suddenly, so unexpectedly... are you trying to give them a heart attack?

★ — chars ; tsukasa , rui , nene

★ — notes ; HELLO H :333 finally writing this. VERY SORRY FOR THE WAIT!!!! lowkey got rlly excited to write this then BAAM. SCHOOL WORK EVERYWHERE.!!!! also listen to the song on loop as i was writing (michael buble's cover ft reese witherspoon bc i LOVE michael buble's voice) and it got me in the mood!!! I HOPE U LIKE READING THIS AS MUCH AS I LOVED WRITING IT!!!

★ — warnings ; open endings for all of them (nothing rlly insane lol) , otherwise none!

★ — taglist ; @asherenjoysart , @nogenderbee , @akitosheart , @nenes-numberonefan , @mintchocaur

affiliated with @virtualbookstore ★

★ track one: tenma tsukasa

the day before, tsukasa had invited you to go with this festival with him. there'd be lights, games, prizes... just about any other regular festival.

and yet, here you are with him. people around you are chattering, 'you won!' sound effects can be heard blaring around the entire area.

... surely, if you dropped the 'L' word, he wouldn't hear it.

"...i love you, tsukasa."

a soft yet sad smile can be seen on your expression. you really just said that for no reason, didn't you? how silly.

well, that was what you thought until tsukasa turned back at you, with this bright red blush on his face. yep, definitely heard you.

"...you do?"

this might be the most quiet you've heard from the boy. you were surprised he could even say something like that in such a meek voice.

it's all up to you now. do you want to admit it, change your friendship with him, or would you rather deny it and go back to square one?

★ track two: kamishiro rui

like every other day, you go hang out with rui as he's working on robots for a future show. as always, he appreciates your company. you're a good friend to him, and you also don't touch his works in progress without letting him know.

... also, you tend to ask him questions as he works. not too many to distract him, of course. he finds that rather cute, whether you believe it or not.

he also finds you keeping him company endearing, making sure he doesn't feel lonely... and it seems like you have similar feelings.

"i love you."

is what you thought you thought to yourself, but when rui looked back at you with a startled look on your face, you suddenly realize that you, in fact, said it out loud.

"i meant- i meant your inventions! your work... it's really impressive, rui."

great save there. he totally believed that. especially with how much you stammered.

"oh, that's disappointing. i was about to say the same back to you."

rui had that signature smirk of his, though this one... you could easily tell he lacks the regular cool, level-headedness it usually has.

whatever his intention was, it ended up making you blush in the process. this guy is really going to be the death of you, isn't he?

★ track three: kusanagi nene

you really can't shut your mouth, can you? the original plan was to simply help nene memorize her lines, making sure everything sounded smooth.

yet now you found yourself gazing at her adoringly. one thing led to another, and you just had to tell her that-

"i love you."

it was as if time stopped. you cover your mouth with your hand, gasping with surprise. nene wasn't any different—she was in total disbelief. and if that wide-eyed look on her face told you anything...

"...it's the next character's lines. i'm just... trying to help, yeah?"

the awkward smile on your face didn't make your words any more believable. not to mention, nene has already scanned over the script, she already knows what the actual line is!

"...i love you too."

... that wasn't nene's line. mostly because that wasn't even the other line to begin with, but when nene said that...? oddly suspicious, in the best way possible.

when you finally have the courage to gaze at her once more, you can even catch a glimpse of her subtle yet gentle smile.

"that's my line, after yours."

in a way, she wasn't wrong.

[theerurishipper]

This is in response to some arguments in defense of the finale I've seen recently, and if you do believe these, then more power to you! But I disagree, and I'm gonna talk about why.

Rant under the cut. Fair warning, this gets pretty salty.

So I've seen a lot of arguments about how it just wouldn't be possible to have Adrien in the final battle, whether it be because it would be too traumatic for him and we can't explore that in the middle of a fight, or because it would take away focus from Marinette and she would be irrelevant ultimately. And I actually agree!

But what could possibly be done to resolve this? Oh, I know! Fucking write better.

If you were going to put Adrien in the position of being central to the story and write him out with the excuse that he can't live up to that role for various reasons, then why did you write him in that role? It's obvious to anyone that if Gabriel is Adrien's father, then the emotional weight of the conflict would be centered on him and not Marinette. Then why did you still write that into the show? If you wanted to focus on Marinette over Adrien anyway, then why did you make Gabriel be Hawkmoth? Let some other rando be Hawkmoth! And now there's no value to Gabriel being the villain beyond giving Marinette some material for her grand speech (which didn't do shit cause she still lost).

And if you were going to say that Adrien was too traumatized to be in the battle or that he wouldn't be able to deal with it well or that we couldn't see that... write around it? Have him deal with it before, or something, I don't know! Maybe give him that sweet sweet character development? Maybe let the friends who are supposed to support him actually do that? Idk man, this is all coming across as a bunch of excuses to me.

The thing is, this is a kids show. It's not real. The writers control everything that happens. It's not about "realism," it's about narrative payoff. It's about the most satisfying outcome. It's about character arcs. If Adrien was never supposed to face his father in a fight, then why make him a superhero? Could have just let him be Adrien the teen model love interest while Marinette is the superhero. Why give him powers which thematically represent him breaking free from his oppressive life and an enmity with his own father if it never mattered? If "it's us against the world, my lady," and "we'll get all the Miraculous back together," never mattered, then why include it? If two partners chosen to fight evil together and the yin-yang symbolism never mattered, why set it up?

If you set something up, you have a responsibility to deliver on it, and Miraculous failed. And yeah. I get that it's hard. I'm not saying writing is easy. But anything is better than this! Writing is your job, and I don't expect literal perfection, but I expect it to fulfill the basic expectations of writing. I expect it to at least be good. This is not good. They literally ignored their own story and themes and character arcs and narrative payoff because they wanted Marinette to get a swanky new outfit and a cool fight scene. It wasn't even for her character. It's just so that they can put give her a cool power-up and sell Bug Noire dolls. It's disrespectful to Adrien's character, and it's disrespectful to Marinette's character too.

The writers failed to make Marinette interesting in terms of the conflict with Gabriel. They gave all the set-up to Adrien and didn't want to write the payoff. There are no emotional stakes in the final battle. They literally only talk about Adrien, and he's not there for that. It's bad writing. And if they didn't let Adrien be a part of the arc with his father as the villain, what hope does he have in the arcs with Lila as the antagonist, since she is a Marinette-centric villain? TA has already said that Marinette is Barbie and Adrien is just Ken. The writers have said that Gabriel is considered a hero by the end of Season 5. The show bible says that Adrien will never find out that his father is Hawkmoth.

Let's face it, they aren't coming back to this. Gabriel's era is over. Miraculous is well known for setting up conflicts and dropping them like a hot potato. If we ever deal with this, it's gonna be half an episode of Adrien forgiving Marinette because "she did it out of love." None of this will matter come Season 6. The supposed conflict being set up now will matter to Season 6 as much as the Ladynoir set up in Strikeback with the "we'll take back all the Miraculous together, you and me," mattered to Season 5, which is to say not at all.

[mmpookie]

ARCANA TWILIGHT FLOOR 13 REACTION SPOILERS ‼️

I. AM. NOT OKAY.😭😭 BRO I AM ON MY. KNEES. PLEASEEE GIVE US A SEASON TWO STORY TACO OML 😭🙏🙏

OKAY NOW FOR DISCUSSION:

FIRST SHOUT OUT TO CONFRONTATIONAL ARKY GOTTA BE ONE OF MY FAVORITE GENDERS 😩🙏

OK

THE THE. THE FRICKEN POLLUX IS CASTOR PLOTTWIST⁉️

I SAT OVER HERE DRAWING THE POLLUX BDAY ART .JUST. COMPLETELY ABSENTED MINDED OF THE FACT THAT POLLUX AND CASTOR LITERALLY PULLED A TWIN SWAP CLICHE ON US THAT IS SO FUNNY TO ME.

HE'S SO TRAGIC ☹️

BTW I ALMOST FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR READING THIS I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS WAS THE CASE THE ENTIRE TIME OH MY GOD

I MEAN THINKING ABOUT IT I SHOULD'VE EXPECTED IT BUT STILL (EVEN SIRIUS WAS STUNNED)

Also teehee the dots are connecting with mythology again UGH it's so smart with what they pulled off I loved this closing arc for pollux

or I mean castor???

I'm not stretching right???

Also did they ever clarify what castor's fate of misfortune was? Unless I missed it, it's gotta be referring to his death right? Deffo gonna reread the story for when my arcana twilight withdrawals kick in to reanalyze EVERYTHING bc that will be fun

MORE MYTHOLOGY‼️

I've would also love to shout out how much of Arky's role of guiding us out of the Boundry can be paralleled to the greek god Hermes and what he symbolizes BUT BRO

CAN YOU HEAR MY UTTER ANGUISH?????? MY UTTER DESPAIR?????? I AM UNCONSOLABLE

I DUNNO IF I'LL EVER RECOVER FROM THIS LINE 😭 SORRY IT'S JUST ME PARALLELING SUMMONER AND VEGA TO ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE AGAIN. AND. AND. HOW RELEVENT IT IS TO THEIR BACKSTORY AND VEGAS TRAUMA OF BEING ABANDONED BUT

THIS IS SUCH A PERFECT LINE. THE BOW ON TOP OF HIS CHARACTER ARC. I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER

THIS MAY OR MAY NOT BE BECAUSE OF HOW MUCH A HADESTOWN FAN I AM SO IGNORE ME

Ok so at the end I was like NERVOUS bc there was the chance they could have MAYBE pulled off two different endings depending on whether summoner personally wanted to stay or go back to Mid Earthium- which would have been a cool opportunity that Storytaco could have pulled,, but I guesss instead they did the thing where the choices triggered the same response, but this time in the sense that the rest is left to your imagination:

*you turn around = you stay back at the Boundry with the boys (this is because if you turn around the portal magic thingy won't work)

*or you listen to arcturus = keep walking until you arrive back home (earth)

Personally I chose to turn around bc ,one, the story never really gave me TOO much reason to want to go back home- however it was back there- and two I WAS YELLING THROUGH THE SCREEN NOO I DONT TO LEAVEEE 😭😭 THE WHOLE TIME

Also the voice we hear at the end says

"Can you hear? I have a story I desperately want to tell."

And I?? Can't exactly tell what it means?..OTHER THAN A TEASER FOR MORE CONTENT?? MAYBE PONTENTIALLY?? But if it's actually obviously something else I missed please tell me 😭

Anyways end of lecture:

Pollux and vega ending arc top tier.

Arcturus hmm I wish they didn't gloss over the void arc so quickly 🤔

If they could have fitted it in there I would have loved if they had just a BIT more of a satisfying conclusion for spica and alpheratz yknow? :( just me??

And finally. I can be slow,,, so if there's anyone out there that can explain Sirius's whole spiel with polaris and everything with the time travel.,,,,,,, I really would appreciate it bc I'm still trying to understand 😭

(Story taco if you're reading this please make more story I love these characters too much ☹️)

[f4iry-bell]

Grayson x reader argument angst/comfort

dates and bags

this was supposed to be in my current series but I've decided to stop it and so it's here!! idk if it'll come under comfort tho because it's just vvv little confort but YEAH!!!!!

It has been exactly a month since things started becoming a bit serious with Grayson and her. A month of pure contentment. But it didn't last long, it was like someone was praying for them to seperated because Grayson started being distant. Everyday phone calls became text messages, text messages became one word reply or being left on read. Weekly dates or just them going out together became rare. He barely answered her calls, he'd text her ‘im bust’ after ignoring her calls. At first she believed that he was actually busy with work, after all he had his own life. But how long can one stay busy? Probably Grayson Hawthorne but this time Grayson Hawthorne has a girlfriend or whatever they are right now. A serious commitment.

It took her three phone calls and use of imperative sentences to convince him to meet her at a cafe they used to meet. Neither of them spoke much once Grayson arrived at the cafe late. 

“So, how are you doing?” She asked him with a bland tone. 

“Fine” He replied with an aloof tone.

“Are you sure?” She asked with her eyebrows raised. 

“Yes.” 

“Then why have you been acting like an asshole to me all week?” She snapped.

Grayson was taken aback by her snapping. But he kept his cool. “No need of vulgar language to resolve whatever silly reason you're mad at me for” 

“Silly reason?” She scoffed.

“I don't think I have done anything for you to be this mad” He said.

“You've been distancing yourself from me and ghosting me for a week!” She tried hard not to yell.

“I told you, I have been busy. Plus, I do answer your texts.” 

“No, you don't. You say ‘ok’, ‘i'll text you later’, ‘i’m busy’. You don't answer me.” She cleared it for him.

“I thought you'd understand that I'm a busy man, I don't have time for you all day”

“But you did when we met! If not all day, you had time for me for at least an hour. Now you can't even spare me a minute” She breaks down, the anger now turning into hurt.

Instead of giving her a reason, a real reason. Grayson tried to leave. “Look, I don't have time for this. I'll talk to you later,”he said.

“Screw this. Don't bother. If you even bother enough to think about me.” She stood up, grabbing her bag and taking out a bill to pay. “I'm out of this. I'm done” 

“What do you mean?” He asked as he watched her move out of their table.

“You know what I mean.” With that the one romantic relationship that worked out well for Grayson ended.

_

She tried not to think about Grayson and how he used to treat her, she tried not to care at all so she wouldn't be hurt. But she failed every time. It has been exactly four days since she called it off and blocked his number, not that she was expecting him to call or text. At 1 in the morning someone knocked on her apartment door. She walked out of bed and started to think whether or not to answer the door, it's 1 am, who could it be? 

Sighing she opened the door just 3 inches to see who it was while holding a broomstick behind her. She was surprised and angry to see who it was. 

“Grayson?”

He smiled. “Hello, love” She can smell the alcohol in his breath.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, and she noticed he was still holding a flask. How much did he drink?

“I missed you” He looked at her how he used to.

“Well keep missing me, cause I'm not talking to you. Go back to your place” She said and was about to slam the door but stopped when he gagged like was going to puke. 

“Sorry about that. Anyways, you look so beautiful,” he commented with a cheeky smile. Her anger only grew.

“Did you drive here?” She asked and he nodded. “Are you stupid? Driving while you're this drunk?” She asked, followed by an annoyed scoff.

 She shook her head and asked him to book a cab and go back to his place again, when he tried to get closer to her he almost lost his balance.

“You're so frustrating.” She said and grabbed his arm to help him inside her apartment, she helped him to sit on the couch and went to grab a glass of water for him. When she came back he was drinking from the flask again, she snatched it from his hand and handed him the glass. “Drink this”

“Thank you” He drank it. “Shouldn't you be mad at me?” He asked. 

“I am.”

“Then why are you offering me water?”

“So you can sober up and leave”

“Wrong. Because you're nice,” he said. “Too nice. Too pretty, too adoring, too passing, too considerate” He kept going.

“All that and yet—” Grayson cut her off mid sentence by talking.

“I told my brothers about you” He said. “And what happened”

“What did they say?” She tried not to think that Grayson told his brothers because he thought he messed up.

“They called me an idiot” He smiled.

“You are”

“I know. They also said you deserve an explanation. I guess that's why I'm here” 

“Go on, explain”

“Like I said, you're just too good. Too good for me, I don't deserve you but I decided to be selfish when I asked you out. But I started to panic because I was getting attached to you, I thought this would just be a fling but it was becoming so much bigger. It wasn't supposed to be like that for me, I can't stay selfish for a very long time. If you know my family history you'd hate me.” He explained.

“You think you don't deserve me? Grayson, I'm not special. And that is no excuse to distance yourself from me. Do you know how much you've hurt me? And I don't care about your family history, I liked you for you. You as an individual.”

“You liked me? You don't like me now? I understand. It was a false hope for thinking you'd still like me, I did act like an asshole to you” He let out a fake chuckle.

She thought for a moment before speaking. “I still like you, you know. You can't dislike someone just like that, especially someone like you.” She said.

Grayson blinked “You do?”

She nods.

“Does that mean you'd be willing to forgive me? My brothers said I should at least try and ask you for another chance” He asked.

She rolled her eyes. “First of all you didn't apologise yet.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For pushing you away because I hate myself and can't allow myself to have nice things” 

She sighs. “It's gonna take a lot more than a drunken apology.”

“So you'd be willing to try?” He asked with a hopeful smile.

She shrugged. “Now come on, let's get you to bed.” She said and took his hand, and laid him on her bed. “And don't you dare puke on my sheets” She warns.

He moved to the corner giving her some space, she climbed next to him and he wrapped his arms around her. “Is this okay?” He asked.

“It's fine.” She said, totally not bothered by his touch.

After five minutes of silence she spoke. “You know, you deserve to be loved. I don't why you think you don't, but you're a nice person, Grayson. And if you let me, I might fall in love with you”

“Thank you for saying that. Also, take back what you said earlier.” He said.

“What?”

“When you said you're not special. Because you are, to me.”

 She turned to his side. “Don't sweet talk me. You owe me multiple dates before I officially forgive you”

“Just dates?”

“And a bag, maybe.”

“Dates and bag it is then”

She smiled. “You're really good at pushing people. But this better be the last time. Okay?”

“Yes, ma’am” 

[snek-eyes]

Hi Vee! 🤗 I hope you had a wonderful few days! I'm back with more meta questions 🤭 I hope that's okay, if not, just ignore me pls 😅 I've seen some people say Aziraphale isn't empathetic, some say Crowley isn't empathetic, but I think both of them have a LOT of empathy. They just show it very differently, and I think the perfect example is the Edinburgh minisode. Azi is caught in his Heavenly indoctrination a lot of times, like when he thinks body snatching is bad before actually thinking about it in a more complex matter instead of just black and white and as soon as ge does, he's suddenly all in favour of it and what made him change his mind is his empathy. With Crowley, he seems very cool and suave on the surface but he always acts and helps and protects, like with Elspeth; he didn't just save her from suic*de but he actively changed her situation as much as he could (he couldn't bring Wee Morag back for her because it wasn't in his power so he chose the next best thing he could change which was her poverty) to give her a reason to live, too. Or when he talks to Job and Sitis - you wrote an amazing meta about that already but I think the gist of it was that he sees the big picture which is that he needs to find the kids in order to save them and knows he will save them and that they'll all be fine. I think they both possess a great deal of empathy but express it in different ways which I think actually mirror their love languages: Crowley acts on his empathy, he does what he can to help people but isn't vocal about it, and Azi is vocal about it but he sometimes needs a nudge from Crowley to see the big, complex picture for that. Whats's your view on the matter? I'd love to hear your thoughts! 😁🤍

- 💫

Aziraphale (and Crowley) vs Empathy

Hey there! This was really interesting to think about!

So from my understanding (and if you're someone that has a better one, please feel free to chime in!), empathy is the ability to understand someone else's emotions, whether intellectually or by sympathetically feeling them yourself. But lacking empathy doesn't necessarily mean that you can't care about people, it just means that you don't exactly understand their emotions.

I'm saying this because after thinking about it, I actually don't think Aziraphale is very empathetic. Despite the fact that he does care a whole lot! Aziraphale is a protector, from Adam & Eve to Job's kids to that one nameless child Dalrymple couldn't save to Wee Morag, etc etc, we see him acting against what he Should be doing because he cares so damn much. But it seems to be because he has a strong moral code and believes that the alternative to acting is an injustice, more than he is putting himself in anyone's shoes and thinking about how they might be feeling. It's the difference between "I care that this sad thing is happening to you" and "I care because I can tell you are sad."

Like in the Edinburgh flashback, when he realizes what happened to the child, he's devastated because it's a tragedy that a child died, horrifically, and that all that's left of them on this earth can be contained in a bottle. His previous moral rule that digging up bodies is a sin because it's just wrong is overwritten because he's been shown an actual tangible consequence.

It would explain a lot about the number of times, especially in s2, when he either does not recognize how upset Crowley is, or if he does, he doesn't get why or take it seriously.

Saying things like "Still a demon?" or "I haven't seen you since, the flood?" without realizing why Crowley might find those upsetting and not friendly banter material.

While he doesn't seem to pick up on Crowley's bad mood in Uz, by Rome it seems like he has learned to at least see it, if not understand it. Regardless, he's still making a go at cheering Crowley up.

Aziraphale doesn't get why changing the Bentley is personally upsetting to Crowley, until Crowley connects it to something equally relevant for Aziraphale: Selling his books.

This also made something click for me wrt his scene with Maggie when she suddenly starts crying about striking out with Nina. He is completely at a loss as to why all these details are upsetting her, right up until she mentions being in love. He understands love, aww! But, crucially, his initial reaction is more "Oh, being in love is wonderful!" than "Oh, I see that must be hard for you." And he responds by wanting to solve her problem, he doesn't get that she's probably just looking for advice from an older queer to help her feel better about it, more than an actual solution.

The scene that kicks off the modern day where Maggie is upset about not being able to pay her rent. Aziraphale doesn't really engage with the fact that she's breaking down in front of him, he's doing whatever he can to placate her so he can just leave with his records.

Alright, let's get to the final fifteen because this would explain something that's always caught me. During Crowley's confession, Aziraphale looks SO confused as to why Crowley is getting upset. Aziraphale is coming at this from what he sees as a logical perspective, and Crowley is making an emotional plea. Aziraphale straight up does not understand how the two halves of this argument are connected.

When Crowley says he understands better than Aziraphale, it's like he's saying he has the intellectual high ground, and that's why Aziraphale decides they've reached an impasse.

Again, this isn't a knock on Aziraphale at all, it's just how he sees the world.

Meanwhile Crowley... I'm honestly not sure how to read Crowley on this.

He'll either project his own trauma onto other people or possibly recognize shades of it in their circumstances at the drop of a hat (the goats, the plants, lonely Muriel in heaven, the scene in S1 when he's hanging off his throne and goes from lamenting about how his fall was unfair right into to calling out God because testing the humans to destruction is unfair)

He is pretty good at knowing how people are going to react when he does his demonic mischief, although that might just be a logical extrapolation from experience.

On the other hand, he seems very confused when people go against his expectations (Jane Austen, Maggie and Nina not wanting help).

He seems to have a good handle on how Aziraphale feels in most situations, although Aziraphale's need to protect people is a huge blind spot he does not understand. So maybe that's just years and years of studying him and trying to understand. "Just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing," after all.

While he understands Elspeth's circumstances, he's not exactly, comforting? to her? When Morag is like "tell me that's not what I think it is" he immediately throws her under the bus in favor of chaos ("8D oh it most certainly is"). And when Aziraphale melts the body, he doesn't even look at Elspeth who's freaking out, his eyes are entirely on Aziraphale.

What do other people think?

[caseylicious]

Badass.

Summary: The brothers are injured, unable to use their weapons. How do they react to the reader using the weapons against the opponent?

Characters: Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie

Reader: FEMALE

Relationship: I don't really know whether or not you wanted platonic or romantic, so let's do romantic! (Established Relationship.)

Warnings: Mentions of Blood.

Words: 2673

A/N: This is a really cool request! That I am honored of writing for. I can just imagine all the battling that has happened. Anyways! Please Enjoy 💐

Tags: @el-chiste Thank you for the lovely request!

[ If you have any constructive criticism or corrections for any of my English do let me know! :) ]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 💐

You heard your boyfriend scream in pain as they dropped their weapon. This villain was different from the others, it was more powerful. It thought differently than the others.

Running to his side, you checked over his wounds. They were bad and you could see how it hurt them. You knew the others couldn't make it in time even if you both ran.

So you did the only thing, you knew you could do.

Fight.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 💐

💙 Leo

It was going to be a simple mission, stop whoever kept stealing the condiments. You had no reason why Leo had to make such a fuss over condiments being taken away.

But thinking about it now, no ketchup on fries would've been a nightmare to humans. You only imagined everybody having wars over the very condiments. It would start an anarchy in New York! Especially with the cheap hot dogs on the street.

Leo argued that it would be easier if he went on this, solo... well with you. "C'mon guys! It's just a ketchup thief. It can't be so bad, right babe?"

You nodded your head, there was no way something this silly could be dangerous, right?

Raph crossed his arms, feeling his overprotective brother instincts almost act. Mikey smiled to you both, "I believe in Y/N! C'mon Raphh!" He sighed to Mikey's encouragement, he knew that Donnie would say a comment of "Yeah, yeah. Leo's probably right."

"Fine! But don't go too far in the city. We won't be able to reach you in time if something bad were to happen." His shoulders relaxed, having confidence that Leo can handle it all by himself.

"Yeahhh, Let's do this Y/N!" Wrapping his hand around your waist, he opens a portal. Waving to his brothers. "I'll see you when I complete this on my own! Buh - Bye~"

This would be an easy mission, right?

- - - - - - - - - -

SLAM!

He rolled to the floor, in pain. Running towards him, you fell to your knees. "Leo! A- are you okay?! Open your eyes!" You held his hand tightly. Hoping to feel his warmth, he opened his eyes. You sighed with relief. He coughed out some blood, glancing to the enemy searching for you both. "That.. really hurt- what even is this thing?" You looked with him. trying to analyze what the creature was. "It looks like a scorpion... You were thrown really badly."

He smirked, attempting to move his arms. His smirk wiped off his face immediately unable to feel his bones. "Y- Y/N, you need to run. Get the others, I'll be right behind you." You shook your head immediately, "I can't leave you. The others won't make it in time!" He sighed, scared for his own life and yours.

When you both went through the portal, You and Leo teleported right in front of the scorpion in the act. Resulting in the battle immediately starting. It was a terrible idea of Leo even bringing you, but he wanted to show off his ninja skills.

Typical Leo, seeking out your approval and praise...

He had no clue that the first thing it'd do was throw it towards the wall, hard.

"There's no other choice Y/N..." He frowned looking away. You thought for a moment, before your own mental you gave you an idea. "There's one..."

He raised a brow, watching you pick up his two blades. He had a look of confusion, before he realized. "Y/N! Do not tell me you're going to try and attempt to fight that thing!" He couldn't lose you, he just couldn't. "I'm not attempting Leo! I am going to fight it. Be right back." Before he could say anything else he watched as you ran towards the enemy. Your hair blowing in the wind. You had no fear. He feared for the worst, suddenly watching you swing the blade in front of yourself, jumping through the portal.

Then suddenly appearing out of another one, slashing the beast. How did you even know how to use his weapon? Were you watching him each time you came along on a mission? He didn't know how to take in this information, until he watched the villain suddenly fall over. Making it unable to fight you and your boyfriend. You panted, exhausted of what you just did. Turning your head; you ran back to your boyfriend dropping his blades next to him. "Okay- we can call Donnie now for help. Let me get my pho-" He interrupted your rambling, "How did you do all that, doll?" You blinked, confused. "Do.. what?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 💐

He chuckled to your obliviousness. "How did you use my weapon like that? That was totally badass!" You began to blush to the compliment, "Really? You're hurt and you're calling me a badass?" He nodded with his cheeky smile.

Rolling your eyes, you dialed Donnie's number.

❤️ Raph

"The.. CD Bandit? What on earth is that?" Donnie chuckled looking at the topic on his phone. "It's on the news D! And they've taken ALL of my favorite bands' music albums!" Leo lifted his head from his comic book. "What's so important about that band?" You gasped dramatically.

"What's so important about that band?" You chuckled, your fist turning into a ball.

"What's so important about that band? Raph could see you getting upset over the whole situation. "That band is literally GOD themselves!! They're my idols! They're EVERYTHIN-"

You felt your head being pat by the bigger turtle. "Don't worry Y/N! I'll stop that bandit for you." Your frown turned to a giant smile, a smile that Raph is so, so in love with. "Really?! Oooo!!" You hugged your taller boyfriend as he blushed. His brothers gave "ooo's" and goofy stares. "Thank you, Thank you!!"

So, off you both went to face this bandit. And to bring cheer and joy to all the stans in New York...

Raph would know how much you loved that band, since he was your boyfriend. You wouldn't stop ranting about it around him!

"Y- you're welcome sweetheart, now let's get going. We wouldn't want your bands' songs to be taken of, again." You nodded your head getting on top of his shoulders, blinded from your obsession with a band. That Raph said he, himself would stop this bandit.

- - - - - - - - - -

And here you were, on the ground with a cut on your leg. With your boyfriend being stuck to the wall with a half-cut metal CD pinning him to the wall. His Twin sais' on the floor, you quickly got up to look at him. "Raph are you stuck?! I can try to-"

"Y/N, I'm stuck. I can't reach my weapons and-" His legs were suddenly pinned to the wall with half-cut CDs as well. You were scared that his head and legs would be cut off if he tried resisting. "D- don't move. Let me think of a plan!" He stared at you confused, "What do you mean, PLAN? The plan is to use the panic button!!"

What happened before, was that while you both were running on the roofs of New York, Raph was caught off-guard by a giant CD almost slicing your head off your body. Traumatic as that was, Raph got distracted and fell off the roof. Quickly transforming into his bigger size, catching you in his hands. He let you down on your feet before more CDs were thrown towards him.

They were just thrown too quickly for him to catch all at once. Resulting to the situation at hand...

Back to the present, you held his weapons in your own hands. They were so big in comparison. "Y/N- Now is not the time to joke around. Press the call button on my wrist!" You shook your head with a mischievous smirk. This CD bandit pissed you off the moment the news spoke about it. "You.. do NOT get to take all of those CDs and then break them, to ONLY attack my boyfriend!" You screamed in anger, running towards the bandit. He was going to call your name to get back, before he saw your arm size get bigger with the red mystic energy in his weapon.

"No sweetheart, just.. amazed. Had no clue you could use my weapon like that!" His toothy smile bringing butterflies to your stomach. "Well, watching a good older brother. I guessed I learned a thing..." You glanced over to the crime scene. "Or two."

This may be a stretch, but you punched the shit out of that thing. Forcing it to confess to the police. Now exhausted, you finally pulled the CDs off your boyfriend. When he was free, he immediately hugged you.

"R- raph? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" You felt his arm around your body.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 💐

🧡 Mikey

Your scream could be heard through the whole lair. Your boyfriend sprinting to your side immediately. "Y/N! What's wrong?! Is there a bad guy? WHERE!!" He was about to take out his kusari-fundo until he saw Leo with you. Both of you sobbing to the tablet.

"Mikey.. they they..." Leo sniffles, hugging himself. "They...? What? What did they do? Who even is they??" You cried, "THEY DESTROYED THE THRIFT STORE!!"

Mikey blinked, staring at you. "I- what?" He placed away his weapon to stare at you at Leo even more. You.. were crying because of a thrift store being destroyed? Until he thought a bit more. That thrift store was you and Leo's favorite store. That's where you bought his matching sweater with you. He gasped, finally understanding the importance of this crime.

He instantly hugged you, "Y/N! This is a job for Doctor Delicate Touch. Nobody destroys a thrift store on my watch!" Your eyes sparkled with determination to Mikey's statement. "Yeah! Nobody should have to suffer their favorite Thrift Store from being destroyed..."

You couldn't help. but imagine the families who aren't able to afford most things. Watch as stores which allowed them to buy products near their price range are destroyed. It broke your heart.

Leo nodded, "Yeah! Nobody should so... I'll be waiting here until you both fix the situation" You raised your brow towards Leo. "Weren't you just crying with me?? I thought you'd be more concerned on this with me!" He shrugged, "Yeah. I'll be concerned, but! I'm letting Mikey do a solo mission.. just don't tell Raph."

Mikey's eyes lit up hearing the news. "Leo!! This is why I love you my man!"

- - - - - - - - - -

Why didn't Leo tell Raph he was going on a solo mission? He was on the ground unable to move due to hanging racks clicking him to the ground. "Urghh! Y/N! Get help!" He knew this solo mission wasn't going to end well, and you were the only one with him. He couldn't risk you getting hurt, yet he was so scared of getting hurt himself.

"Mikey- I can get you out of these.. hangers?- Ugh! Just work with me here." You could hear the monster of clothes roar towards your direction. "RUNNN!"

Before this whole problem existed, you and Mikey simply chose to go into a thrift store, hoping that if it were the next target location of destruction. You both could then quickly destroy the creature. Forcing it out of its ways to the authorities!

However you both underestimated the strength of this enemy. It took you both by surprise. Using that to its advantage, separating the both of you. What makes things even worse was that everything was dark. Mikey couldn't see his surroundings, so he didn't know where to aim. Resulting in him losing his weapon while getting stuck.

You tried pulling the restraints off of him, but there was no sign of it working. Panicking, you didn't want to leave your boyfriend, bestfriend behind. Until you saw in the corner of your eye... his kusari-fundo. "Wait right here!"

You ran towards the battle field with Mikey panicking, "Y/N WHAT ARE YOU DOING- COME BACK!!" You smirked watching Mikeys' jaw drop. "Saving your life!" You grabbed hold of his weapon and began to easily use it. As if it were your destiny to wield it...

When you finished beating the enemy's bum; Mikey was freed. You immediately gave back his weapon and apologized for using it.

"What? Y/N, no! You were amazing! You may know even more than me!" He high-fived you as you both walked back to the lair.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 💐

💜 Donnie

It was a lazy sunday, and you just barged into your boyfriend's room. "D! D!- there's this new online hacker dude on the internet!" You waved your phone around, as his metal arm grabbed it. Inspecting the phone, a smirk appears on his face. "The.. Hacker, okay babe. I don't know what jokes you're making up this time... but this is totally, 100% clickbait." You gasped, "It is not!" You pouted, crossing your arms. Looking away from your boyfriend's sweet face.

He chuckled, placing away his engineering instrument. To focus his attention onto you. "Well? How did this "Hacker" become oh, so popular?" You sighed as you felt his hand with yours. "Well... News said it hacked that game you played? Purple Ga-"

"I'm sorry, did you say Purple Game? As in the game, I am always Number One in?" Before you could respond, Donnie was all geared up with his battle shell and his one and only,  bō staff. (Tech.) "Onward Y/N! We mustn't let this foul troublemaker ruin any more games!"

You smiled, running with him to go stop this thief. You thought it was going to be your typical "skinny" and "needs to touch grass" sort of guy or gal. But no... you were very wrong.

- - - - - - - - - -

"D-donnie! Stop!" You were panting, holding onto the bloody scratch on your stomach. He groaned in pain, blocking off the bold and strong attacks. "What is it Y/N?! I don't think there's anytime for tal-" You quickly threw a rock at one blast. "Your battle shell- it's not on you!" His eyes widened as he looked to his back. Seeing his sensitive shell exposed.

Before the fight even happened, Donnie used his geolocation algorithm to find the location of the "Hacker." Surprised to find out it was in the Hidden City. You both ventured off into the unknown streets, until finding a black and green hue of light. Without knowing it, you and Donnie fell into its trap. In its game, Donnie used his staff to protect you.

He saw this as a video game, that he could be wreckless. Maybe he was distracted by Purple Game itself to realize his physical body could be affected. He didn't notice that his Battle Shell was broken off of him by a blast.

Distracted by the fact his battle shell was broken off, he was blasted with a laser. Knocking him back, he hissed in pain as his shell scratched the hard cold holographic code floor. He tried thinking of a way to get you out of here. He could hack into the mainframe of the game? No- What could he even-

He was about to tell you to run, before watching you run at the game boss with his staff. "Let's see how you work this thing- WOAH-!!" You pressed a button and one side had a rocket booster. Making up a quick plan; you began bonking the game boss multiple times. Defeating it, the both of you being released from the game safe-and-sound.

He smiled like an idiot to your kiss, before realizing what you said. "Hey!- Rude!"

While you were relieved that you both were safe, Donnie was.. very much confused. He stared at you for a good while, before you broke the silence. "What's wrong Donnie? We can grab your battle shell at ba-" You were quickly interrupted. "How did you learn to use my tech?" You blinked, smiling to yourself. Placing a hand on your hip, you flipped your hair with confidence. "I watched ya tinker with it multiple times! Of course I'd learn a thing or two." His expression still the same, you began to worry if he was mad you touched his tech, his precious works of art.

However his face showed a smile, looking into your eyes. "Well, you learned damn good. I'm a good teacher! I should rant about my tech more around you!" You not wanting a whole hour that could be used to cuddle with him, just for him to rant, kissed his cheek. "For how much I love you babe, please don't do that..."

[splickedylit]

Just reread domestic diplomacy, so hype for the 3rd part. Was curious whether you planned on ever including other pale couples? I would love to see the meowrails or vrisrezi in this au where pale romance is actually. Romance. Lol. Anyway keep being cool (and share another snippet of the wip if you want pls 👀)

Aw, hooray! :D Tbh I don't really,,, plan these fics lol. This series especially I very much make up as I go, so I can't discount the possible future in which meowrails make an appearance, but I also have learned to make no promises about what's going to happen in uhhh any fic ever lol. But I can certainly share a snippet, since I'm getting writing done today!

--

Trolls don’t drink wine, it turns out—trolls don’t drink alcohol at all.  When Gamzee sniffs at your cup thoughtfully, he’s already recoiling before Karkat makes an urgent, warning noise and yanks at his arm.

“&lt;NO,>” Karkat says, and Gamzee rolls his lips back from a really startling amount of fangs and makes a low, throaty rising and falling noise that sounds disgusted even to your human ears.  “<Have a cup of (noun, gesturing at whatever’s in the wine bottles with troll labels on them) or something!>”

“<Shit smells like (some kind of descriptor with ‘window’ in it, for some reason),>” Gamzee says, and reaches over to snatch up one of the bottles Karkat pointed him toward, popping the top off with a careless twist of his wrist and taking a much more appreciative sniff.  “<Fuck yeah, that thing right there, makes good for motherfucker to have a good (fatal) time.>”

“<You’ll do good (warning shot) at worst,>”  Karkat says sternly.  “<And not with human home-cleaning liquid drinks. You would die.  Die fast—and boring, not funny, not fun, got it?  Humans drink home-cleaning liquid to get (troll-descriptor).>”

Gamzee chortles.  “<I bet the fuck they do get!>” he says, apparently delighted.  “<And then get (the fatal form of “funny” but flipped around to be a descriptor? A new construction, excellent)  funny-dead real quick for because of they’re nasty.>”

“What are you guys drinking, then?” you say, and reach over cautiously to the bottle Gamzee’s holding; he growls a little, possessively, apparently just as a warning that it’s his now, and then gives it up and watches you hold it up and take your own big sniff.  It doesn’t…smell toxic.  Sweet, mostly, in a weird, thick, smothery kind of way that makes your nose burn a little.

“It is human safe,” says Kanaya, before you can ask.  “I believe you don’t feel…tss.  Intoxated, by it.  But it is still very strong for you, differently.”

That’s all you need to hear.  You pick up one of the glasses and pour some out for yourself—it’s just a little thicker than water, a pure, light gold color, and when you take a sip it’s like getting punched in the sinuses by a sugar cube the size of a building.

“Oh, fuck,” you say, and swallow with an effort.  Your eyes are watering; your mouth feels aggressively candy-coated.  “Whoof.  Wow!”

Rose is laughing at you, just a little—not out loud, but you can tell by the way her eyes are creased and her lips are quirked up at the corners.  “Yes,” she says.  “Nectar requires some getting used to.  Trolls cannot metabolize alcohol but they are…quite sensitive to sucral compounds.”

“Give it,” Gamzee says, and gestures insistently to have his bottle back, then reaches past the nice wine glasses to pick up a distinctly human red solo cup and dumps a hearty half-cupful of nectar into it, then pulls a bottle of something that looks exactly like faygo with alien writing on the label and dumps a hearty measure of that in on top of it.

“<You can have one of those,>” Karkat says, looking appalled.  “<You (something)-less piece of shit.  One, got it?  What the fuck is wrong with you.  And you’re not kissing me until you clean your teeth.  I’ll get (troll descriptor) off your fucking breath.>”

Gamzee grins hugely and runs his tongue over all his fangs in Karkat’s direction, then tosses back a big mouthful of his mixed drink and gives a happy shivering rumble, fins fluttering and claws kneading delicately at his cup.

“You want?” he says in English, and holds it out at you, grinning exactly like he did earlier when he snuck a horn under your butt—like this is the kind of joke that has a winner and a loser, and he’s pretty sure he’s already won.

“Jade,” says Dave.  “He’s bein’ a dick.  You know you don’t have to take shit from this guy, right?”

“I know!” you say, and reach out to take the cup from Gamzee’s hand, holding eye contact in a way you’re pretty sure is kind of socially unacceptable.  Karkat starts “Jade—” and then you take a deep breath and throw the cup back.

[illuminatedferret]

Poll idea for you if you want? Or you can just take it as a normal thoughts ask. I've been pondering it myself and seeing what others think might be nice.

Does Jun Wu know Hua Cheng is Wu Ming?

1. Yes, the whole time.

2. No, he doesn't.

3. He figures it out over the course of the present day plot.

I wonder because he told XL that WM was gone and used how 'alone' and 'abandoned' XL is alot in his arguments. But also isn't the kiln and mount tonglu like his space. He never saw any of the statues and wondered? Also what did he think HC wanted from XL? Friendship? Relationship? Revenge? Control? What did he even think of Crimson Rain during the 800 years? I can see him having Black Water figured out and just enjoying that whole mess, but I'm not sure I can imagine what he thought of HC. For a character that really seems to know a lot, I can't help seeing HC as a bit of a blind spot for him? Maybe wilfully dismissed as unimportant?? Jun Wu be hard to understand 😅

Lot your fics and posts ❤

Hey! Thanks for the ask! I made a poll out of it(as u know) and now as promised I'm also gonna share my thoughts!

Short answer: no! I do not believe so. And I don't for one very specific reason- Jun Wu mentions Wuming during the fight on the Heavens-Crossing Bridge. Specifically, he mentions whether or not Hua Cheng knows about Wuming, and all the things Xie Lian did back in his first banishment. He says it to undermine Xie Lian's confidence, both in the fight and in Hua Cheng's feelings for him. If he knew that Wuming was right there, ready to go "actually that's me, I already know all about that stuff, and I'm totally cool with it." he never would have brought him up.

Longer answer: we don't actually know how much attention Jun Wu paid to Mount Tonglu. I mean, it's never confirmed one way or another that he knows/doesn't know everything that goes on down there. I think it's sort of a mixed bag. On one hand, he didn't know about the statue of Xie Lian in the Kiln. On the other, he was in the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, and the way I see it, he could have either found it beforehand, or he could have followed Xie Lian into it(because he was following Xie Lian by that point- right before he wakes up in the cave he has a nightmare about White No-Face, actually). I think the latter, just because he doesn't act during canon like he knows Hua Cheng is, like, mega-into Xie Lian. Because I do think that it's not hard to put together who made the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods if you saw it uncovered and thought about it a little.

In regards to what he thought Hua Cheng wanted out of Xie Lian... I think it's safe to say that at least initially he didn't think Hua Cheng loved him or anything. He tries to break apart Xie Lian and Hua Cheng very early, by sending Xie Lian to Ghost City on a mission that runs directly against Hua Cheng. Nevermind Xie Lian seeing the Gamblers' Den(which many people would find distasteful and think less of Hua Cheng for), if Hua Cheng wasn't so gung-ho about helping Xie Lian, recovering Ming Yi(and Lang Qianqiu) would've been really ugly. If Jun Wu actually knew Hua Cheng loved Xie Lian(or desired him sexually), I can't see him NOT trying to use that, either to harm Xie Lian or poison his opinion of Hua Cheng(like FXMQ).

I think it's also important to recognize that Mount Tonglu opened while Xie Lian was with Hua Cheng. Jun Wu did that. By this point in time, he's(I believe) already consumed Lang Ying, so he knew that Hua Cheng had invited Xie Lian to Ghost City for the day. If Hua Cheng's reaction hadn't been #KissingTime but violence instead, Xie Lian would have been greatly hurt, and that would have had its own repercussions on their relationship. (if it had been sexual violence...? i think he would have been mad about that, actually) The more I think about it, the more it seems like Jun Wu just didn't want Xie Lian around Hua Cheng at all, like "a supreme's already called dibs on him, back off" kind of deal.

What Jun Wu thinks of Hua Cheng... Overall I think he just hated him. Didn't like him at best. Hua Cheng really did turn out to be a blind spot of Jun Wu's, because there was so much about him that he didn't know. He didn't know he was Wuming or that he loved Xie Lian, and so he didn't think to incorporate those facts into his plans. But beyond that? Not sure. He definitely didn't like him- I would say there was value in Hua Cheng being feared and thus inspiring worship of Jun Wu and the heavens, but he has plenty of worshipers himself. Maybe some stuff about encouraging Heavenly Official solidarity. But I think the existence of Ghost City had a significant(positive) impact on the Mortal Realm, removing 'evil' stuff from the streets of mortal cities and giving ghosts a safe place to live, rather than remain in the open world where they can cause problems. So I don't think he liked that either. I also think he hated having such a powerful figure that he didn't have something over, be it authority or blackmail. Even if he was confident he could beat Hua Cheng, he's very much about control, and he has nothing on Hua Cheng.

[omegalomania]

hey gang what time is it its time for another joe trohman podcast. this actually came out like a month ago but i missed it until isa linked it to me and because i like doing these heres a highlights reel

the host says he appreciates that joe opened the book with the question of whether or not satan fucked his wife to which joe replies "well you know, when you have kids, sometimes you wonder that. you truly wonder what are these demons. i love my children btw they're phenomenal."

sometimes it does get tiring playing the same songs over and over. joe says that "thnks fr th mmrs" has a really good energy and tempo that keeps it exciting to play live

he talks about playing a really short iheartradio christmas show pre-pandemic and nobody in the crowd knew "sugar we're goin down" since they were only familiar with the more recent hits like "centuries" and "uma thurman" and joe said that it made him fall in love with sugar all over again in a weird way ldjfldkfd

he laments recently getting the chance to see wu-tang, nas, and busta rhymes at the hollywood bowl but he didn't go

his love language is giving gifts! he got his brother a custom drum set (which his mom attempted to throw out)

he reiterates that when writing the book he didn't want to be mean to any of his bandmates cause he likes them and thats not what the book is about! the host makes a joke: "like how you guys had that threesome with simple plan...i understand, you don't wanna get into that!" joe is offended that he clearly doesn't know how many guys are in simple plan. "there's more than three guys in there! the orgy was far larger than you give it credit!"

he doesnt remember any other names that the band could have been called but he does think fall out boy is a pretty terrible name for a band. "i can't believe i'm in a band called fall out boy."

discussions of the band origin and how joe funded it with his bar mitzvah money ("fall out boy, funded by judaism!") but when asked about financial gains from the band he says they all split everything evenly and it's one of the things that's helped them last this long

talking about scott ian and the damned things and he talks about how managing a supergroup is like herding cats because everyone is so busy with their respective groups. he says he'd LOVE to do a third damned things record though!

he talks about how weird it was to have this boy band aspect to them when they were at their peak pre-hiatus, because they were all hardcore kids and punk kids.

he recalls that around this time patrick asked their manager, with visible concern, "are we...the nsync to panic at the disco's backstreet boys?"

he's glad that they've outgrown that and kept pushing forward and looking forward, and by now they're no longer a boy band. "we're a man band!"

he thinks it's kind of neat to see the emo movement of the aughts become nostalgic and cool now ("it was not fucking cool when we were doing it [...] we stuck around for long enough to Not Be Lame"), but it's a big thing for fall out boy that they do not want to be a nostalgia act and they want to keep making new albums.

the host semi-jokingly says "so you and panic at the disco are not gonna go out on tour, is what you're saying." joe says "no" very flatly and i lose my shit.

he denies that fall out boy is working on any specific new music. he says they're just piecing things together organically and that no real album has coalesced. (note: this episode aired 11/12, ~2 weeks before the fob8 tribune ad)

he talks a bit about working with brian posehn on the axe and how much he loved doing it! he calls the whole story a metaphor for dealing with pain and trauma and the different ways there are to confront that stuff. he said the axe is coming out as a trade "soon" so people who don't have a subscription to heavy metal can read it

his first concert was tom petty and the heartbreakers when he was 10 or 11

he says the two things that matter most for a band's live show are the drummer and the singer. he then proceeds to be extremely sweet about patrick and andy.

"patrick, he's incredible, he's so gifted, and he's worked so hard with his voice lessons and figuring out how to sing from the diaphragm properly, and he really knows how to work through when he's sick and having real issues, so he's quite a trooper."

"and andy is just a great drummer. when he thinks he's had a bad day i'm like...yeah. sure. i don't think you know what that is."

he did not get laid in high school. first time was in a shared tour bus, listening to testament (a thrash metal band), when he was 19. (they never saw each other again)

since testament was the soundtrack the host asks if he ever gets a reaction whenever joe hears chuck billy (testament's lead vocalist). joe says without missing a beat, "when i see him i do, that's for sure."

he is an avid bowler. he has a wristguard and a spare ball and he used to take lessons. he calls it great stress relief!

[smytherines]

Rewatching SAF and thinking about the mega bastards lore and oh god, the rizz was alcohol. The rizz was alcohol. Agent Mega you poor beautiful gay baby, I'm so sorry.

Think about it-

A1P1 Agent Mega has the rizz (as the kids call it), he's drinking, he's confident, he's swaggering, he fucks everything up but in a cool way

Arms deal? No alcohol, as far as we know. Massive botch.

Casino scenes? No alcohol, drinks a glass of cream, complete fucking absence of game to an embarassing degree, can't even tell that Tatiana is very very obviously flirting

I haven't gotten back around to Doing This, but I don't remember any alcohol in that scene? He's trying so hard to be the person Tatiana (and his mom) expect him to be, but he's still heartbroken and probably going through alcohol withdrawal (which is so much worse than most people realize), so he screws that up so badly that Tatiana realizes he is not into women the moment he kisses her.

He was drinking even before the fall, to manage all of this. This works so strongly with ADHD Agent Mega headcanon too, like of course this guy has intense rejection sensitive dysphoria- he's gay and a disaster.

The defensiveness, the insecurity, the jealousy, he's constantly trying to be the thing people want him to be, but because he's uncomfortable and impulsive and drinking to manage that constant pressure, he fucks up a lot, which just makes everyone criticize him more.

And being gay, he believes (with good reason) that everyone in his life would reject him if they knew who he really was. He wouldn't be allowed to do the one thing he feels like he is good at, and pre-banana at least, the one thing that grants him access to Owen.

So he drinks. He drinks to turn off that constant stream of anxiety over how others perceive him, whether they think he's cool or competent or straight. He drinks and seduces women because that's his job. His job is the thing he is good at. He wants to be good at something. He wants to feel like a real important guy.

Not to write a fanfic on tumblr dot com but you can kind of imagine him thinking about Owen wistfully, having a 4th or 5th drink, and then going up to a random lady's hotel room to do his job. That's heartbreaking.

Oh god. And One More Shot. He falls pretty spectacularly off the wagon, drinking until he's totally drunk, and he says shit like "I feel so good inside," and "I feel the feeling coming back to me now." Like yes. That feeling is alcohol. You're feeling the effects of alcohol, buddy.

The rizz was alcohol.