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lostfirefly · 3 months

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Life Must Have It's Mysteries (Ch.2)

Nobody asked me, but the thought of sending my beloved couple on a new journey didn't let me go. Welcome to a new adventure! No idea how many chapters there will be :) Pain continues leading me to art :)

English is not my native language, errors may occur. As always, feel free to share your thoughts :) Masterlist is here.

Description: Our heroes are on a quest to find the blue diamond! Hooray!

Warnings: Fun (Sanji's small appeareance is just for fun), fluff, NSFW part is included (sorry not sorry), MDNI

Words: 4000 (sorry-y-y-y again)

Buggy x OC from my “You’ve Got the Same Dream as Me” series.

Taglist: @gingernut1314 (thanks for the red-blue striped pants idea!), @operationroots, @hey-august, @rorywritesjunk

The title is taken from "Life Must Have It's Mysteries" by Hans Zimmer (OST Inferno).

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Chapter 1

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Smack. Smack. Smack.

"Geez, if I'd known you'd react like that, we'd have gone somewhere a long time ago." Buggy couldn't contain his laughter as he looked at Catherine, who was squeaking all over the living room, clenching her fists happily.

"I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!!" She collapsed onto the couch, throwing her legs over it and wrapped her arms around Buggy's neck. Smack. Smack. Smack. "I’m so happy! Love!” Smack. "Love!" Smack. "Love love love you!" Smack. Smack. Smack. "Where do we start?"

"We'll start when you calm down, Cathie-pie. Repeat after me, please" He took three deep breaths.

"Okay! Okay! I'm calm!" She made a concentrated face and took one breath. Then a second. Then blurred into a smile and started squealing again.

"Oh my goodness!" Buggy grabbed his head and fell on the back of the couch.

"Sorry!! I promise! I’m calm! So.. you told you know the guy.. Who.. Who…" She froze and began to smile again.

Buggy looked at her intently and sighed heavily. "Okay, squeal!"

Catherine attacked him with hugs and squeals again.

"Are you finished?"

"Yes!" Smack.

"You sure?"

"Yes!" Smack. Smack.

"Ok! Our first step. I'm gonna go to a restaurant in the morning. I’ll talk to a man about this thing from your sheets. In theory, he can give us directions or if there's a map or something. We need to figure out where to start."

"Can I come with you? Ple-e-ease!" Smack.

"Are you squealing done for the day?"

"Yes!" Smack. Smack.

"You sure?"

"Yes!" Smack. Smack. Smack.

"If you behave well, woman, I’ll take you with me."

"You're the best!!" Smack. Smack. Smack.

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In the morning, Catherine made the biggest and most delicious breakfast. Poured him the biggest cup of coffee. Gave him the longest morning kiss. She miscalculated a little with that last point, as Buggy immediately wanted to forget about breakfast after that, but she fought back. Catherine sat back in her chair, watched him eat and tried to appear calm. He sighed and told her to get ready.

They reached a small restaurant, the sign resembled a wave, the fronts were blue-green in color.

"Water 7. Another weird name of another weird place." Catherine whispered under her breath and squeezed Buggy's hand. "Is there someone scary inside?"

"Nah, there's a trio running this restaurant. They and one of their little buddies really piss me off sometimes. But I gotta hand it to them, this place has good scotch."

They went into a fairly bright room. Everything inside looked like water. Drawings and paintings on the walls, chairs in the shape of waves.

"Oh my god! Why is he in just his underwear?!" Catherine didn't expect to say it so loudly. She threw a glance at Buggy, who rolled his eyes.

A large man in an unbuttoned shirt that resembled a Hawaiian shirt, wearing underpants and barefoot walked up to them. Instead of the usual human nose, he had a metal nose.

"Buggy the Sneak!" Said the man in shorts.

"Franky!"

"What happened in your life that you came to get scotch at 8:00 in the morning?"

"Scotch later. I'm here to see you on business. Catherine, give me the papers." Catherine kept her gaze on the man in his underpants. She considered the color of his hair, his nose.

Franky in turn considered her. "Who's that?" He pointed a finger at Catherine.

"She's with me" Buggy took Catherine lightly behind him.

"With you? You mean.. Dear Lord! I can't believe someone messed with you, also sleeping willingly, Honey, if you're being held hostage, tell me."

"Hey!" Catherine shouted.

"Let's get back to our business. Have you heard anything about this?” Buggy pointed to the sheets.

"The blue diamond? Yeah, but I think it's just rumors or maybe not. No one knows exactly. What? Why are you asking?"

"Just curious." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Stop lying to me. You're one of the biggest losers in treasure hunting. And I don't believe that you are asking me about that diamond because you're "just curious."

"Hey, you! The man in the underwear! It's not your business at all. If you need money for the information, I’ll pay you." Catherine took three steps forward.

"Catherine, calm down!" Buggy put his hand on her shoulder and tried to pull her in behind him.

"No, we're here to get information. Instead, a grown man who can't spare the money to buy his own pants sits there and insults you." Catherine glanced at Franky. "How much do you want for coordinates, information, or whatever it is you have?"

"Let's go to my cabinet." Franky patted Buggy on the shoulder and gestured him into his office.

A chill ran down Catherine's back. She felt a little uneasy that because of her inability to keep quiet, Buggy might get hurt. She put her hand on his back and looked at him anxiously.

"It's all right. I'll be right back."

Franky and Buggy walked out. Catherine sat back in her chair and put her elbows on the table. "You should be silent sometimes, Catherine.." She muttered to herself.

"Oooooh! God, what a beautiful girl I have behind my counter!!!" Suddenly there was a loud squeak or squeal.

Catherine turned around and noticed a tall blond man in a suit running towards her. "Geez, who are you?"

"Pretty-swaaaan!!!! Where did you come from?"

The stranger grabbed Catherine's arm.

"Go to hell, who are you?!" She yanked her arm back.

"Sanji-san!!! And who are you, oh beautiful girl?"

"C-Catherine!"

"God, what a beautiful name, Cathie-swaaaaaan!!!"

"Don't call me Cathie! There's only one person in the world who can call me that!"

"I’m sorry, Cathie-swaaaan!!"

"Fuck!!!" She rolled her eyes.

The strange blond man continued to circle around Catherine and tried to take her hand until he was stopped by a loud "Hey, step away from her!" She turned around and saw Franky and Buggy.

Catherine jumped up from her seat and quickly walked over to Buggy. "Save me, this blond guy is crazy!"

"So, sorry, clown. That's all I know about the blue diamond." Franky uttered with a slight smile.

Catherine lookd upset.

"The blue diamond? I know something about it!" The blond man stopped spinning and sat down on the chair.

"Yeah! So, honey.. Tell me!" Catherine said and put her chin on her hand.

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"Forgive me, I have a habit of writing everything down. So, first.. we’re going to this city. And there we will find her?" She pointed to the notes in her notebook. "Do you feel similar vibes, my Buggy Bear?" She asked loudly from the bedroom, started rummaging through the closet. "I've almost got all the things I need!"

"Finally! The car is ready. You're late again, my cotton candy."

"I’m not late! I needed to pack some women's things. Stop grumbling! I’m comi…" Catherine suddenly stopped talking and scanned him with her eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He imitated her gaze.

"I just…" She tried to find the words. “Sneakers, Jeans. T-shirt. The black denim jacket, and your hair is in a ponytail. You look too sexy, Buggy the Clown." She took several steps towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Are you going to hook another girl?"

"God, no, of course not. I got enough of this little shit in my life." He pointed at her nose with one hand.

"My blue-haired asshole…"

"I’m listening."

"Stop grabbing my ass!"

They drove for a couple hours in the car. Catherine practically kept her eyes on Buggy, constantly repeating that he looked sexy and hot as hell in his outfit, with his tail and driving. He was embarrassed and turning as red as his nose.

They reached a town called Little Garden, got a motel room and at Catherine's insistence went looking for the bakery Franky had mentioned.

"Onward to Arabasta." Catherine read the name of the bakery. "Do you guys get normal names around here?"

As soon as they entered the room, they immediately saw the young woman of medium height with long wavy light blue hair.

"Wow, her hair color is similar to yours. Are you two related by any chance?" Catherine whispered into Buggy's ear.

"Do you seriously think all people with blue hair are my relatives?"

Catherine shrugged.

"How can I help you?" Asked the girl behind the cash register.

"Two coffees, five raspberry jam donuts, three blueberry muffins and we're also looking for Vivi." Catherine shifted her gaze from the display case to the girl.

"Then you're in luck. It's me." Replied a rather pleasant voice and began putting the order into a bag.

"Oh, great. We're looking for information on the blue diamond. All we have so far is information about a scepter divided into three parts, hidden somewhere in the pyramids. Can you give us any clues?"

"First of all, good morning!"

"God, here we go again!!!" Catherine rolled her eyes and dropped her forehead onto the counter near the cash register.

"Cathie-pie, you're starting conversations the wrong way again." Buggy stroked Catherine's back, took her hand and led her to a table. He went back behind the cash register counter and had a very long conversation with Vivi about something. Catherine watched them with her arms crossed and an unfamiliar feeling visited her. She thought for a second that she was jealous.

Buggy and Vivi walked over to her and sat down at the table. Catherine instinctively pulled her chair toward him.

"Anyway, he and I have had a talk. I have a condition. I'm telling you what I know..."

"Great!!!" Catherine clenched her fists joyfully.

"But!" Vivi interrupted her. "You're going to play a game of liar’s dice with me. And every time I lose, I'll tell you part of what I know."

"Fuck!!!" Catherine grabbed her head and practically flopped off her chair under the table. "Ok! I’m in!"

Vivi silently got up from the table and walked out into the back room.

"Are you sure?" Buggy whispered.

"Do we have a choice? God, why doesn't anyone ever just want to tell everything they know. First, that damsel tricked me into some caves and I almost died there. Now that girl wants to play around so she can tell me something. Maybe she's just bored and doesn't have anyone to play with? Dear God, make friends and play with them!"

"Well thanks to that girl from our previous adventure you have me now." He laughed, put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the temple.

"Yep. And now you piss me off every day, fucking clown. I hate you!" She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Cathie-pie, that's the eighth time today. You're going for the world record!"

Vivi returned with aspiring cups and five dice. She sat down at the table and silently slid everything toward Buggy and Catherine. They looked at each other, took one of their dice and rolled it.

"Five." Vivi said.

"Three." Buggy said.

"Four.. Fuck!" Catherine's head fell back on the table. Buggy lifted her back up.

"I'll start." Vivi spoke.

They put dice in their cup and shook them up. They flipped the cup face-down on the table to keep the dice hidden and secretly roll their dice at the same time.

"Three 3s." Vivi replied.

Catherine peek at her own dice. "Four 3s."

"Two 4s." Buggy said calmly.

They raised their cups.

"Three 3s.." Catherine whispered. "Fuck! Next round!".

Of the six rounds, Catherine and Buggy won only 2 of them

They shook dice under the cups again.

"Four 6s!" Catherine said loudly.

"Five 2s." Buggy said calmly again.

"Three 2s." Vivi replied.

They raised their cups.

"Four 6s!!! Yes!!! Tell! Tell us something more!!"

Vivi smiled. "Ok. The scepter will lead you to the diamond, but they are hidden in different pyramids."

"We know that!" Catherine furrowed her brow.

"Do you want information or do you want to argue?" Vivi questioned, shaking the dice in the cup.

"You will need a cryptex to open the place where the diamond is stored."

"Where to find it?"

"Next round!" Vivi rolled the dice in the cup and set it on the table.

"For fuck's sake!" Catherine dropped her head back on the table. Buggy picked her up again. "Okay. Eight fives! Buggy, you got what?"

"Five threes." Buggy said calmly. He could already hear the irritation in Catherine's voice.

"Six twos." Vivi swirled the cup around the table.

"Liar!" Catherine shouted and lifted everyone's glasses. "Oh my god! We won!!! Now tell me more!"

Catherine listened intently to Vivi's story and took notes on everything.

"Well, not as much information as I would have liked, but thanks anyway! And by the way... Where's our coffee?"

Catherine jumped out of the bakery, squealing. "Yaaaay! Well! We have some new data, copies from the books. We'll have to see if there's anything in them about the cryptex. We also have donuts and muffins!" She ran in a circle around Buggy and couldn't hide her happiness.

"I'm tired and excited! Tired and excited!" She threw herself around his neck. "Let's go out to eat! And have a drink! And get wine for our room at the motel!"

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They got back to the room quite late.

"God, I'm tired and I wanna sleep!" Buggy practically collapsed on the bed.

"Thanks…" Catherine said quietly.

"What?"

"Thank you for supporting me in this endeavor."

"Come on, cotton candy! Two fools in pursuit of something that may not even exist!" He laughed and sat down on the bed.

"But fools are lucky…" She whispered under her breath. "Okay, I'm going to take a quick shower and get back to you. Drink your beer or whiskey or whatever you want." She tiptoed over to him and kissed his cheek. "I love you!"

Catherine came out of the shower wearing only Buggy's t-shirt and her underwear.

"My pajamas need more time to dry completely." She walked over to the table near the TV and poured herself a glass of wine. She looked at Buggy, who was lying calmly on the bed in red and white striped underpants, leaning his back on the headboard and clicking the remote control through the channels.

"What are you doing?" She asked quietly. Catherine took a sip of wine and took two small steps towards the bed.

"Nothing, just looking for something interesting, but so far I've only found shitty shows. How’s the shower?"

"Okay. I missed you there." She tilted her head and watched carefully as the dim light from the lamp on the night table fell on his face.

He extended his hand and called her to him with his fingers. She took another sip of wine and put the glass on the table.

Catherine took three steps forward, climbed onto the bed, sat on his lap so that his legs were between hers and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Hi!"

"Hi, my pretty girl."

She didn’t take her eyes off him for a long time, running her hands over his hair, shoulders and arms.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Should I be afraid?" He narrowed his eyes and asked in surprise.

"Sh-h, clown!" She looked into his eyes for a moment, took the red-and-white rubber band out of his hair, then tilted her head and kissed him on the lips. Buggy instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist. Her kiss became deeper and more passionate, her breathing quickened.

She ran one hand over his chest and lowered it down to his boxers. She felt something hard between her legs. "Well, good evening, Captain Buggy!" She smiled slightly, took off her t-shirt and ran her lips along his neck.

"Fuck, cotton candy!" He placed one hand on her thigh, then moved it on her stomach and gently lowered his hand into her panties. She felt his fingers digging into the soft skin near her crotch.

"Do it." She whispered in his ear.

"My little Cathie-pie always swears at me when I do that, and now you’re asking me to do that?" He replied sarcastically and kissed her neck.

"Shit, clown. Are you gonna chat or are you gonna do your job?" She replied and moaned slightly when she felt his fingers found his way to her clit, rubbing it vigorously.

"Fuck…" She arched her back and head backwards, her breasts in his face. He flicked a nipple with his tongue and she sighed in pleasure. She felt him slowly move inside her, her walls sending waves of pleasure against him. She whimpered in response, her body once again arching, not knowing what to do with the arousal. He was holding her back with his free arm, amused at how quick she was to react.

"You ok, my little pie?"

"Stop asking stupid questions, fucking clown. Just d-d-don't.. fuck.. stop, ok?"

"That’s my girl." He smiled widely. He adored the expressions she made. And he made sure to push his digits in and out in a rhythm that resembled that of her moanings. Catherine's moans intensified when he gradually moved his fingers to get faster, more forceful. Catherine lost her breath when she felt his fingers on her special spot. "Oh god. Fuck! That's it.."

"You like that?"

"You will be the death of me, Buggy-sama!" She whispered in his lips.

"Ugh! Don't call me that, baby."

"Fuck you. I will.. fuck..ca-all you.. yeah.. as I wa-ant..fuck." She kissed him eagerly and couldn't stop moaning through the kiss. She clutched her fingers into his back, realizing that she was almost reaching orgasm. "Fuck, shit!" She buried her head in the crock of his neck and kept silent for a moment. He felt her heavy breath on his skin.

Buggy pulled out his hand and wiped it on the towel. "Is my pie happy now?" He stroked her hair.

"Your pie is really happy. But wait, my Captain. I have news for you. We're not done yet." She kissed him on his lips, stood up and took off her and his underwear.

She knelt on the bed and gently ran her hand over his cock. "Tell me… Buggy the Genius Jester, do you have any orders? Wishes?" She whispered, continuing running her fingers along the entire length.

"You're playing with fire, cotton candy.” He tried to take her hand.

"Na-ah!" She threw his hand back on the bed. "You can watch but touch.. No!" She barely pressed her lips to the head of his cock.

"Cathie-pie…?" He looked at her with a surprised look.

"I’m listening, my silly clown. Don't you like it? Don't you want it?"

"I…I just didn't…expect…" He mumbled.

"Okay, if you don't like it.." She shrugged her shoulders and reached out for her t-shirt.

"No, no, no!! Wait! Wait! I liked it! I loved it!!"

Catherine leaned over him. "Are you gonna be a good boy?"

He silently nodded.

"You will be silent, won't you?"

He nodded.

"Wanna see what else I can do?" She whispered.

He nodded again.

She kissed him on his lips, winked at him and slowly moved down, flicking her tongue over his nipples, down his belly. She wrapped his length with her fingers and touched it with her lips. She could practically feel him arch up as she slowly closed her mouth over the head of his cock, curious, wondering if he'd beg..

He tried. He really tried. He tried so hard to remain silent for the next few minutes, but he didn't do it well. She felt his hands gripping the sheets. She could hear his weak voice, accompanied by "oh, holy shit", "fuck, baby, yes", "more, please, be-e-ging you", "that's it", "i love you, my co-t- fuck c-c-a-n.. fuck".

After she finished, Catherine raised her head and looked at him.

"Are you still alive, my silly clown?" She stood up and sat on top of him. Buggy's gaze was clouded.

"Wow, I’m impressed by your reaction." She laughed and kissed his neck.

"What was that? What just happened?" He asked in a slightly high voice and shook his head to regain his senses.

She grinned and whispered in his ear, her voice a low purr.

"My little revenge on you, blue-haired brat."

"Fuck! You're a bad bad girl, Catherine Mitchell!!"

She couldn't help but laugh. "It's all your fault, Buggy-sama." She put her hands on his shoulders and started tracing her finger over his bicep.

"I told you not to call me that. It's ve-e-ry dangerous!" He croaked in a whisper and put his hands on her shoulder blades.

"I don't give a shit, you know that perfectly." She tilted her head and ran her lips over his lips. “I have one piece of news for you. Right now I want you inside me.”

"Damn! I can't hold you back from this but don't you dare make any claims against me again." He put his hands on her waist.

"Fuck you. You bet I will."

"Stop talking and c’mere, my little shit!"

She kissed him again, rose a little and slowly sat on his cock, letting out a moan.

"Fuck, you're so good!" He whispered and smashed his lips into her.

"Yes, I’m.." She smiled during the kiss and started slowly moving her hips from back and forth. Every movement made his pulse pick up, pleasure shooting through his body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He started growling and kissing any part of her he could reach. She felt him squeeze her ass and grind herself against his hips.

With every kiss from him, Catherine quickened her pace. "I want to feel you deeper." She whispered, digging her nails into his back.

She let her knees slide apart a little further, taking him just a little further and felt how his cock filled her completely. Inside, it felt enormous, thick and tight. She started rocking her hips again, slow at first, then alternating with up and down strokes. He kissed her hungrily, sliding his tongue against hers, moaning into her mouth when her movements picked up speed.

"You feel so right, my Cathie-pie. I just can't get enough of you." He said between kisses.

"It’s my superpower." She said quietly, pulling at his lower lip with her teeth.

Catherine was grinding her body against his, her hips snapping back and forth. She took his hand and squeezed it. "I’m so– close, fuck. I want us to come together."

She picked up her pace even more, breaking the kiss just to moan his name loudly, squeezing his hand more and more tightly. The ecstasy was peaking unbearably, building every time he or she moved.

"Fuck, baby, I’m close. I’m gonna c…"

He kissed her shoulder, her hips moving in short frantic thrusts against his cock. Right before he lost his mind completely Buggy looked at Catherine to see her beautiful face intent on him, and that was the last thing he could think of as he came.

Catherine pressed her whole body against him, feeling every rapid beat of his heart. She didn't let go of his hand and ran her free hand through his wet hair.

"You ok? You're breathing so hard." She asked quietly and pressed her forehead to his.

"I’m totally fine. You?"

"S'okay." She kissed him on his lips. "You’re my other half and I love you so so much my Buggy Bear. Remember that, okay?"

He gazed intently into her eyes. "You’re not just my other half, cotton candy. You're my better half."

"Wow!! My beloved blue-haired asshole said that to me! I need to be on top of you more often so that I can hear such phrases more often." She laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"Little shit!" He stroked her forearms, then wrapped his arms around her waist and put his head under her chin. "I love you. And I promise, I’ll never hurt you."

"I know."

18 notes · View notes

tunamayuuu · 2 years

Note

poe thoughts/hcs?👀

GOD I REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS MY FAVORITES :(( i don't think much about him now please, BUT. BUT. i have a couple thoughts and hcs!

OKAY FIRST OF ALL

i love him sm??? i just might reread all the chapters he's featured in because again, when i first got into bsd, him and ranpo were instantly my first favorites (hence my ranpoe blog theme for a long time) because he's just so??? he's so funny to me. "he's like me for real" kind of moment everytime i think of him because i too dislike large group settings and push myself to working hard at my passion!! but that's neither here nor there

maybe it's changed now, but like, i guess my problem with him is how he's kind of viewed as an extension of ranpo by both the fandom and the story? i won't say that ranpo uses him like a tool because we do know that ranpo does respect poe and his skills quite a lot, it just happens that his gift is incredibly useful for his plans for the agency. and honestly good for them! poe gets to have his gift be acknowledged by ranpo, and ranpo is able to include himself in the fight despite his lack of an ability.

i don't know... i just want him to be his own person!! he's really entertaining and interesting on his own with his dramatic dialogue and his mood swings (same) and i want him to be appreciated for him!!!

yes i'm aware that there is a chapter with him welcoming mushitaro into his home, and like?? this part?? always gets me PLEASE, he's the sweetest ever

OH YEAH ANOTHER PROBLEM I HAVE IS HOW, just like the rest of the guild, HIS DESIGN WAS DONE SO DIRTY. WHERE'S THE CHAIN ON HIS COAT, THE INTRICATE WEB LIKE PATTERN ON HIS COAT, THE PIN STRIPES IN HIS PANTS? he's arguably one of the best designs among the guild members and he got done ridiculously dirty.

anyway i love him! onto some hcs i guess?

there's no way this man isn't some level of fan for musicals. literally no way. i'm not sure what kind of musicals he'd like because i'm not a musical fan myself, so let me know what you think he likes!

i think he's a sour/savory type of guy. like. i feel like he'd love pasta and bread a lot? he's definitely a food critic internally

i feel like he's the type to keep a decently sized stationary collection! he's more into dark academia style stationery, but that doesn't stop him from eyeing the halloween/orange and purple stationery in his online shopping!

i think he's 50 50 at homemade and takeout. he does have the money to always buy takeout, but cooking is his little passion when he's not writing! i'm really pushing my poe cook/food critic agenda here, aren't i

he's not exactly high-maintenance, but he will do absolutely everything for his hair. absolutely high maintenance just for his hair, it's gotta look messy but kind of cute, you know?

also super personal design hc i might incorporate when i draw him again: his hair is definitely a gradient from purple to a darker purple.

#tuna answers #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd poe #bsd edgar allan poe #bsd the guild #anonymous

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atths--twice · 1 year

Text

Chapter Three

The next morning, he arrived at the diner earlier than usual, just in case she changed her mind and needed his help. He had also stopped at the local pharmacy store and picked up some art supplies on his way: construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, a coloring book, a pink notebook, and a pack of unicorn stickers. He did not know what Ivy liked, but as an uncle, he knew kids usually enjoyed drawing and coloring.

He felt nervous as he looked around, setting his things down in a larger booth, on the off chance that he would need more space.

He had spent time with Dana outside of the bubble of the diner, met her daughter, been to her home… it made him see her differently, to worry about her and Ivy. He did not want to come across that way and so he was glad of having a moment to collect himself before he saw her.

“Hey, hon,” Lucy said, walking up and touching his arm as she smiled. “You setting up here today?”

“Uh… for now. Is… is that okay?” he asked and Lucy shrugged as she smiled at him.

“Bit slow right now, so make yourself comfortable. Coffee?”

“Yes, please. Thank you, Lucy.”

“You got it, hon.”

“Thanks,” he said again as she walked away and he removed his coat and scarf.

He took out his laptop, notebook and pen, setting them on the table and placing his bag on the seat as he slid into the booth, leaving Ivy’s things inside his bag for now. Keeping an eye on the door, he waited to see if she would be arriving soon.

“Here you go,” Lucy said, bringing him his coffee and a danish. “You need anything else?”

“No. I’m good for now.” He smiled at her and she nodded, walking over to another table.

He opened his laptop and turned it on as he added cream to his coffee. Glancing up, he saw Dana, alone, hurrying through the diner wearing her navy blue puffy coat and blue and white striped beanie with a gray puffball. Smiling at Lucy as she said something he did not catch, Dana laughed and then her gaze landed on him, halting her steps for a second.

Looking at her watch, she raised her eyes to him again and held up one finger. He nodded as she smiled and continued walking into the kitchen, Manny, Joe, and the kitchen staff calling out their hellos.

He waited, his heart pounding in his ears, knowing he was being ridiculous. Why was he so unnecessarily nervous? It was just Dana, the same woman he had spoken to for months.

But it felt different, he thought and he tried to push that thought away.

He heard her laughing and then she was walking toward him, her coat and hat gone, hair in her standard French braids and low bun, apron on and coffee pot in hand. She smiled as she reached him, touching his shoulder and adding a splash of coffee to his mug.

“Hello,” she said softly and he immediately felt at ease, all nervousness gone.

“Hi. You’re sans child this morning. You apparently found other arrangements,” he said and she nodded with a sigh.

“Thank goodness. It’s a huge weight off my mind.”

“That’s good,” he said, glancing at his bag, glad she did not know what was inside, not wanting to be seen as too pushy.

“My sister is a stay at home mom and homeschools her girls. She lives a couple of hours away by train and she offered to watch her for the rest of the week, actually through Sunday. She has two daughters, just a little older than Ivy, so it will be fun for all of them to spend time together and she will still have some schooling. She took the train down last night, arriving after Ivy had gone to sleep, and they left this morning.”

“Oh. Well, that’s great.”

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “I’ve never been away from her for more than a weekend and even that has been a long time. It will be weird to be alone in the apartment.”

“I’m sure.“

“Yeah…” She smiled at him and looked around. “I gotta get to work, but I’ll come check on you. Thank you again for offering to have her here with you. I really appreciate it.” She touched his shoulder again and he nodded.

“I’m gonna change tables, seeing as she’s not coming and I don’t want to take up a large space.”

“That was thoughtful of you,” she said softly. “Thank you.”

He nodded and she watched him as she walked away, turning away at the cross way so as not to run into anyone. He stood up and moved his belongings to the table he usually occupied. Sitting down to an open document on his laptop, he waited for inspiration to hit, even as his eyes strayed to Dana more often than he felt they should.

But nearly every time, she looked back with a smile and he could not help but answer with one of his own.

_________

Inspiration did hit and he lost himself in his writing, only noticing time passing as his stomach growled. With a sigh, he looked up, ready to take a much needed break. Dana caught his eye and smiled as she walked over.

“You’ve been busy,” she said and he nodded.

“I didn’t realize so much time had passed.”

“That’s good isn’t it? Means you’ve gotten a lot of writing done.”

“Yeah. Of course then I have to edit it and sometimes all these words end up in the trash, so to speak. It’s a process.”

“Well…” She shrugged and smiled again. “Would you like something to eat? Would you like some company? I have a break due.”

“I would love some company,” he said with a smile.

“Great. Do you want anything in particular?”

“Surprise me,” he replied and she smiled, walking to the kitchen.

He cleared away his clutter and made space for her to sit down, moving his bag and coat beside himself. Wiping the table down with some water and a few napkins, he sat back down and waited for her.

“Here we go,” she said, bringing out a tray of food. She set it down and he saw that it was club sandwiches, fries, and bowls of tomato soup. “This soup is a little spicier than the one on the menu- Manny makes a special pot for us as some of us like it with a little kick. I hope that’s okay.”

“Sounds great.” He took the plates and utensils off the tray and arranged them on the table as she took the tray back to the kitchen.

She had taken her apron off and put a zipped sweatshirt over her uniform shirt when she came back, carrying two large glasses of water for both of them. Everything set, they began to eat.

He smiled as he watched her wiping her mouth after each bite, always making sure it was clean. She opened her sandwich and added mustard, popping a piece of bacon into her mouth with a satisfied nod.

“So, I don’t know if I’ve ever asked you what your book is about. Have I?” she asked, smiling kindly at him and he fell even further in love with her.

“Um, I’m not sure. I don’t really talk about it as I’m still hopping from different ideas.”

“Is it fiction? Horror?” She shrugged and he smiled.

“Fiction, but I’m trying to let the story come to me as opposed to forcing it out. Today was mostly descriptions of characters and their backstories.”

“I see.”

Her phone beeped and she took it from her pocket, reading the message with a smile and sending one back at lightning speed.

“Ivy’s having fun. They’re painting pictures.” She turned her phone around to show him a picture: Ivy and her cousins all in front of easels at various stages of painting.

“That’s good for her. Oh… I see Princess Pandy has made the trip.” He smiled at the sight of her laying across Ivy’s lap.

“Oh, she never goes anywhere without her.” She put her phone down after another glance at the picture. “She’s had her since the day she was born. She was given so many stuffed animals, but the panda was her favorite from the moment she could differentiate between them. Always had her with her.”

“That’s sweet.”

“Don’t tell her, but…” She leaned forward and he smiled as he did the same. “… I have two backup pandas stored away, just in case something happens to Pandy.”

“Is that right?” he asked with a chuckle.

“It is,” she said, leaning back and popping a fry into her mouth. “I have a girlfriend who has a little boy. He had this stuffie that he loved. It had a bear face and little arms and his “body” was like a small blanket. He loved that thing. Well, one day he left it on a plane and it was no more.”

“Oh no. Please tell me there is a happy ending.”

“Yes,” she said with a smile. “But she had to search for it as they don’t make them anymore. She found someone on eBay who had two and she bought both. When they arrived, she washed them a few times, getting them to a more “lived and loved” state. When she told him Beary had found his way back, her son stared at it and then smelled it, saying he didn’t smell the same.” She smiled again and he smiled back, completely understanding what she meant.

“She told him that he had been on quite the journey. That he had left the airplane and been taken to the “left behind” area where a kind old man had taken him home, gave him a wash and then started to search for a way to find where he belonged. She said that he had traveled in many different cars, trains, and one plane. So many people had spent time with him, had loved him, he must have absorbed the scent of their caring.” She smiled again and he stared at her, blinking his eyes slowly.

“That’s… wow. That’s a great explanation. Did he believe it?”

“He did and he told everyone that his bear had been on a very long and exciting journey back to him.”

“I love that. A bit of the fantastic created for him.”

“Yeah. So… when I saw Ivy’s preference for her panda, I bought two more to have on hand. I rotated them when she was little, so they were loved and became worn in, but always only one out at a time. She has the main one now, but if anything happened, I think she would be more accepting of the replacement as it’s not brand new. You know?”

“Yeah. I think so too. It’s a smart idea.” nodded and she exhaled deeply, reaching for the bowl of soup and pulling it closer.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, eating their lunch. Lucy came by and refilled their water, winking at them as she walked away.

“So you’re on your own for a few days. What do you plan to do?” he asked with a smile.

“Hmm,” she hummed and shook her head. “I don’t really know. I have things I want to do, things I say if I only had the time and now I do, but what I’ll probably end up doing is drinking wine and watching Netflix.” He laughed and she shrugged, scrunching her chin.

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“No. But I do have things to do. It’s already the second of December and we don’t have a tree. Not only that, it’s Ivy’s birthday.”

“Really? She’s a Christmas baby?”

“Nearly was. But no, it’s the eighteenth. I’m glad for it as I was worried she would be late and arrive on Christmas. She was right on time though, as if she knew my concerns. I think it would have been fun, but harder later, not really feeling like she had her own day, you know?”

“Yeah. I can understand that, especially as it’s a day nearly everyone celebrates.”

“I try to make it a big deal for her.”

“I’m sure you do,” he said with a smile and she smiled back.

“We do two advent calendars. A Christmas one we buy, with chocolate treats inside, and the other is a birthday one with little gifts for her every day. Building up to the big day and the gifts she will get.”

He smiled again and shook his head. Her whole face lit up when she spoke about Ivy and it was endearing to watch.

“It’s just little gifts: new crayons, Play-Doh, these little squishy animal toys she likes, a book, and socks. That girl loves socks. She probably has more pairs of socks than anyone.”

“Really?” he laughed and she nodded.

“It started when she was about three, when she was more aware of her clothes and what she liked. She was drawn to socks and always wanted to wear them, no matter the season. She loves them.”

“That’s really cute.”

“And inexpensive, which is nice. I can get her socks in dollar bins, or spring for something more expensive and she would never know the difference. It’s great.” He laughed again and she smiled. “She’s really into knee socks right now. I usually put her in tights under her pants when it’s cold, but… she had an accident one day trying to get them and her pants off and they had to dip into the emergency clothes the school asks us to send. She was very embarrassed and cried when she told me about it. So, knee socks are much better to avoid any other catastrophes.”

“Poor kid. I completely understand,” he said, remembering a time when he was younger and the same thing had happened to him. His teacher always had a box of extra clothes in the classroom for mishaps. She was extremely kind and kept his situation private, but it had still been an embarrassing moment for him. “Knee socks are a better choice. And more fun for her, I’m sure.”

“Definitely.” She glanced at her phone and then looked at him. “I have seven minutes and I need to get back.”

“Okay.” He smiled and she began to eat more of her sandwich. “Hey, would you want to go get a tree after your shift?”

Covering her mouth with one hand, she chewed and raised her eyebrows. Swallowing hard, she continued covering her mouth and swallowed again.

“You wouldn’t mind?”

“Mind? Not at all.”

Swallowing once more, she nodded, reaching for a napkin to wipe her mouth.

“I’d like that. Last year we had a fake tree and it was good but…”

“No, a real tree would be better.”

“I would like that very much. As long as you’re sure.”

“More than sure.”

“Then it’s a date,” she said with a smile and he grinned.

“I’ll be right here when you’re ready.”

“Okay,” she said and he nodded, happy to once again be spending time with her outside of the diner.

#alternate universe #the x files #xf fanfic #new in town #new friendship #diners #holidays #modern setting #getting to know each other #sharing stories #making plans

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the1918 · 3 years

Note

okay but bucky kissing steve’s hole better after he uses it 🙈🙈🙈

Warnings: Rimming. So much rimming. Talk of Steve’s... bottom.

***

Steve is spread out across the sheets on his stomach, spent. He’s got the side of his face resting against his folded forearms, and he’s still working on taking big, beautiful breaths to try and bring himself back down to Earth. Somewhere in the fog of his mind, he comprehends Bucky—still naked in all his magnificence—moving purposefully around the room.

Bucky ditches the used washcloth in the dirty laundry basket. He crawls onto the bed to join his baby, straddling the backs of Steve’s knees. He uses both hands to take a careful hold on each of Steve’s ass cheeks, and he spreads them gently to expose him to the air of the bedroom.

“Oh, sweetheart...”

It takes Steve’s head a moment to catch up, but when he does, his throat makes a high, mortified sound. He smashes his face into the crook of his elbow.

“No, no, Stevie,” Bucky chides. “Don’t get shy on me now.” He leans down and presses a chaste kiss right over the bruise on Steve’s tailbone. “I’m the one who made this mess. ‘S only right that I be the one to clean it up—isn’t it?”

Steve draws in a deep, shaky breath instead of answering. Bucky watches him try to make himself small, even when he’s six-foot-two of pure muscle and more than a stone over two hundred pounds.

“You need to answer me, baby boy.”

Steve whines.

“Yes.”

“‘Yes,’ what?”

“You should—you need to, um. To clean up your mess.”

Bucky groans and bites down on the rounded flesh of Steve’s ass cheek.

“Good boy. And where did I make a mess—”

“—Bucky!”

“Where did I make a mess, sweet thing? Tell me.”

Steve makes a sound that is half-sob, half-moan, and it’s the sound that Bucky knows Steve makes when he wants something very, very much but is embarrassed about how badly he wants it.

A mumbling noise comes from somewhere against the sheets.

“What’s that? I didn’t hear you, sweetheart.”

“My bottom,” Steve bites out, lifting his head. He is crying.

Bucky chuckles, a dark thing.

“Oh, baby boy... your bottom? I just came home to find you waiting for me in a plug and a cock ring, and then I had to spend three hours fuckin’ you silly because you begged me not to stop...” Bucky gives Steve a two-fingered smack against his own come dripping down over Steve’s perineum, then trails his fingers upwards. “...And now you can’t call this little pink asshole what it is?”

“Bucky... please...”

“‘Please’ what, doll? You really gotta start bein’ more specific if you wanna get the things you need...”

“Please, um. Please clean up m—my...” Steve stops with an important inhale, as little as he is big, and he wipes his nose against his arm. “Please clean the mess on my bottom.”

“On your bottom?”

“N—Well, yes, but, um also... in my bottom.”

Bucky laughs, in love beyond any form of volume or time or measure of daylight, and presses a wet kiss against Steve’s gaping asshole.

“That’s a sweet boy,” Bucky growls, licking a wide stripe up Steve’s leaking hole and savoring the taste of himself in Steve’s musk. “Do you want to be kissed like I’m kissing your mouth? Or do you want it like I’m kissing your wet cunt?”

Steve barks. Bucky fucks him through it on the hardworking tip of his tongue.

“L—like, um...” Steve starts, quiet and soft after a little break, “...like my mouth?”

Bucky hums out his satisfaction with Steve’s answer and reshuffles his legs, getting comfortable, settling in. He cups each of Steve’s cheeks in his hands in the same way that Steve cups his jawline when he wants Bucky to kiss him tender and sweet.

“Okay, sweetheart,” Bucky rumbles, the tip of his nose tracing up the slick valley of Steve’s ass. “You stay still while I clean this messy bottom. Yeah?”

***

This tale of true love is extremely dedicated to @canadiangarrison @mitsususu @calypso-mary for enabling and not complaining while i actively steal your ideas,❤

masterlist [x]

#bottom Steve #stucky

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princess-of-riviaa · 4 years

Text

I Want You

Part 2 to I Want More

Pairing: Clark Kent x Reader

Summary: After showing you just how skilled he is at pleasing a woman, it’s your turn to please Clark, and he’s more than happy to tell you how to do it.

Warning(s): oral (m receiving)

Word Count: 1,674

You pull away from Clark despite wanting to deepen the kiss and dare to ask, “Will you show me how to… pleasure you? I mean, I’ve never done anything like that to a guy before. I’ll probably be bad, but…” But I want to make you feel as good as you just made me feel seconds ago.

His gaze turns dark at the question. “I’d like nothing more.” Clark kisses you again.

You move to sit in his lap. There’s something so erotic about you being completely naked while he’s fully clothed. His fingers draw circles in the small of your back and he hums against your mouth, clearly enjoying himself already.

“I think I could spend forever just kissing you,” you sigh.

He laughs. His entire body vibrates as the sound rumbles through his body. “I think that’s the orgasm talking, babe.”

It’s true. Ever since you came around his mouth your head has been fuzzy. You’ve only been able to think about that warm, content feeling in your stomach and the fact that Clark made you feel like that. You swear you love this simple Kansas man.

You can’t remember who deepens the kiss but suddenly your tongues are moving together in an erotic dance and your hips move against him until his erection is pressing tightly against your soaking core. You swallow each other’s shallow breaths.

“Show me, Clark,” you say between kisses. “Show me how to touch you.”

A deep, primal sound that resembles a growl rips from the back of his throat as his arms tighten their grip around you. “I gotta get undressed first.”

“Oh yeah,” you agree, not moving from his lap or ceasing your kissing. “That’s probably a good way to start.” You kiss him a few more times before finally pulling away.

He unbuttons his shirt as you work on unzipping his jeans. His clothes end up in a crumpled pile on the floor, but that’s not where your attention lies. You’ve never seen a cock before so you have no idea if he’s considered bigger than average, but you can already tell that you’ll struggle to fit even half of him in your mouth. Clark is long, a good seven inches at least, and so thick that you have doubts about being able to take him in your mouth, but your stomach stirs at the thought of trying. There’s a deep blue vein that sticks out on the underside of his cock, running from the base to the tip. You lick your lips at the sight of it as you imagine what it feels like. The hair on his pelvis is dark and curly like the hair on his chest. You can’t keep yourself from staring at him.

“Change your mind?” Clark asks.

You shake your head and look up at him. “N-no. I’ve just never, um… I’ve never seen a man’s…”

He smiles, amused. “Is it weird?”

“Yes,” you admit before you realize what you’re saying. Your eyes bulge as you quickly add, “I mean, you’re not--yours is… I don’t…” You close your eyes in frustration and sigh. “It’s not weird in a bad way. Just different.”

You force yourself to look away from his manhood and take in the rest of his naked body. You’ve seen him shirtless before but you’ll never stop being surprised and turned on at the sight of his thick arms and sculpted stomach. And the dark hair on his chest… you have to resist the urge to run your fingers through it. His legs are long and thick with muscle, too, and you find yourself wondering how the hell a man as gorgeous as Clark ever gave you a second glance.

“You have no idea how beautiful you are,” Clark says, and you blush when you realize you said all of that out loud.

You blush and avoid the intensity of his gaze. You return your attention to his cock and bite your lip.

“Wrap your hand around me,” he instructs.

You do. It’s almost humorous how small your hand looks when it’s wrapped around his shaft. The skin is velvety-smooth and warm, very different from how you imagined it feeling.

“Spit on it,” he says. His voice is shallower now, his breathing unsteady.

You blush at the dirtiness of his words. But you listen and spit on the tip of his cock, watching as it slides down his shaft. His tip leaks a clear liquid that you think is pre-cum. It becomes easier to slide your hand up and down his shaft. He continues to instruct you on how to move your hand and how much pressure to apply, all the while struggling to breathe normally. You love that you’re already having such an effect on him.

“Can I… put my mouth on you?” you dare to ask.

His gaze, which has been watching you stroke his cock with a dark intensity, now flicks back to you. His pupils are fully dilated. “Fuck, baby, yes.”

You love that he’s starting to lose control. He’s no longer the contained, well-behaved Clark Kent, but rather a man succumbing to his most basic pleasures. You lean down and give the tip a small, hesitant lick. The pre-cum is salty, almost bitter on your tongue, but the fact that it’s Clark you’re tasting makes you want more. You continue to lick at his tip while your hand moves up and down the base of his shaft.

Clark curses under his breath. “Keep going, wrap your mouth around me.” The way he’s already so breathless and turned on makes the heat in your stomach burn even hotter.

You eagerly comply. Your initial thought was right; you do have to stretch your mouth open wide to even fit all of him inside. His cock is heavy on your tongue and you struggle to fit more than just the head inside your mouth, all the while swirling your tongue in circles on the underside. Your hand slides up and down the parts of him you can’t fit in your mouth. Clark’s abs clench as he struggles to breathe. You love watching him squirm beneath you; love that, despite your inexperience, you can make him feel so good.

“Your mouth is fucking heavy, babe,” he groans out as he brings a hand to the back of your head.

You tense at his touch, surprised to feel his hand, but relax a second later. He fists your hair in his hand. You expect it to hurt, and it does, but the way he tugs on your hair somehow only arouses you more. He pushes your head down on his cock slowly, forcing you to take more of him in. Your body tenses as you realize that you can no longer breathe through your mouth. By the time you remember how to breathe through your nose his cock is brushing against the back of your throat and, though you try not to, you find yourself gagging around his thick length.

“Fuck, baby!” he cries out as your throat tightens around him.

Your initial instinct was to pull back, but after realizing that the tightness of your throat turns him on even more, you force yourself to stay still and let his cock rest there. You keep your mouth open wide as his hips buck up and he begins to fuck your mouth. You struggle to keep your body relaxed as your throat gags and then loosens around his length. Tears soak your eyelashes before falling down your face. You can feel yourself drooling the longer you keep your mouth open like this, mixing with his pre-cum and soaking the bed sheets beneath you. His movements grow more frantic and you feel his legs begin to shake. He’s close, you realize. You look up at him to find his head thrown back and the veins in his neck pulsing as his entire body begins to spasm. It’s such a sight, watching such a beautiful man fall apart at your hands. You suddenly realize why people find sex so addicting.

His seed hits the back of your throat in warm stripes and you struggle not to cough it up. You swallow every last drop that he releases inside of you. He grunts as he cums. It’s a sound you want to hear everyday for the rest of your life. His body relaxes as the last of his seed hits your throat and you pull back, releasing his cock. The red tip rests against his stomach.

“You swear you’ve never done that before?” Clark asks as he catches his breath.

You blush and tell him no. “Was I okay?”

His blue eyes blink up at you. “I think ‘okay’ is an understatement.”

He spreads his arms and you know that’s your cue to snuggle up to him. You lie down beside him and rest your head on his chest. His heartbeat races against your cheek, though it begins to slow the longer you stay there. Your fingers trace meaningless designs on his skin. You keep note of how he tenses when you touch him in certain areas, especially when your fingers circle his hips.

“Clark, I’ve never had sex,” you admit for not the first time.

“I know,” he says, sounding sleepy. His arm slides down to wrap around your waist.

You pick your head up to look at him. “I want you to be my first.”

He reads your face, checking for any signs of uncertainty. “We don’t have to--”

“I know,” you admit. Clark has never pressured you for anything physical. Every time he senses you’re even slightly uncomfortable, he stops. You’ve never dated a man as considerate as Clark. It’s what makes you sure about this. “But I want to feel you like that. I want to share that with you.”

He opens his mouth, then pauses. He must see something in your eyes because he says, “Not tonight, though?”

You grimace. “Is that okay?”

He gives you a gentle smile. “I’d wait forever for you.”

***

Tag squad:

@agniavateira @hnryycvll @littlefreya @celestial-vomit @lestersglitterglue @watermeloncavill @honeychicana @penwieldingdreamer @mary-ann84 @elixasays @buckysgoldenheart @noz4a2 @trippedmetaldetector @omgkatinka @lunedelorient @aphrodites-punch @yespolkadotkitty @sweetybuzz25 @iloveyouyen @deathonyourtongue @utterlyhopeful @wondersofdreaming @tsukuyomi011 @the-soot-sprite @desperate-and-broken @jayismz

Let me know if you want to be added/removed from my taglist!

#clark kent #clark kent imagine #clark kent smut #clark kent x reader #clark kent x you #man of steel #superman #superman imagine #henry cavill superman #henry cavill #henry cavill smut

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thiswasinevitableid · 3 years

Note

For the mermay fills: 10 & 22 with indruck? 👁️👁️ (nsfw or sfw)

I went with ten (tattoos/piercings) first, since 22 will be part of another fill. I went with NSFW, and wrote this as a follow-up to my “Heat” fill from last year.

Indrid swims up and down the hall outside the palace infirmary. He’s far from the only one doing so; the reef serpent wreaked havoc through the city before the Chosen mers defeated it. He’s not even the only person waiting to see if Duck is alright.

“Have courage, Prince Indrid Cold!” Minerva, sporting a new gash on her face, clamps her hand down on his shoulder in what he knows is her version of a comforting gesture, “Duck Newton is the strongest Chosen after myself. He will pull through.” The blue of her tentacles flashes with pride.

“Besides” Ned, the castle mer who has, against all odds, become Indrid’s closest advisor, flicks his orange and silver tail “you informed us yourself there were no futures where our friend passed away.”

“I know.” Indrid takes a breath, intending to explain the tangled net of anxiety in his chest. All that comes out is another, “I know.”

Behind him, he hears two nurses murmuring that they’d better bump the prince’s consort up in the line, but before he can turn and order them not to, they’re gone.

It happened like this: Duck kept his word, began courting Indrid properly once the seer's heat passed, and Indrid reciprocated without hesitation. This caused a near scandal; yes, Duck was a Chosen and thus noble to a degree, but Indrid was a prince, and a prized one. Indrid pointed out that he rather liked someone who cared about his welfare, not just his happiness, and if they had an issue with that, that was their problem not his. And so the comments about Duck moved from to his face to behind his back, which he counted as good enough.

Duck found the whole consort business stressful, given that he’d forgone his Chosen destiny in favor of tending the kelp forests specifically to avoid that kind of fanfare and politics. Thus, they steered clear of the castle when they could, spending their time with their friends in town or in the sunken ship Duck called home.

When the serpent attacked their town, Duck discovered the limits of his rejecting his destiny, and joined the fight to save his home. Indrid is proud of him, even if his stomach churns whenever the futures shift and he has to see whether the strings of fate weave a grimmer outcome for the man he loves.

It’s well after moonrise when he’s allowed to see Duck. The other mer is half-asleep in his infirmary bed, a massive bandage on his side and one of his tentacles bitten down to a nub

“Hey darlin” The sleepy drawl is accompanied by the mer opening his arms.

Indrid carefully settles against the non-bandaged side of him, rests his head on his chest with a relieved sigh, “I’m so glad you’re alright. Or, well, mostly alright. You’re in one piece. Sort of. I, I’m not conveying this well.”

“I ain’t dead, given how today went I’m callin that a win. Besides, this’ll grow back in no time.” He wiggles the stub of his tentacle.

“Mmm” Indrid cuddles closer, purring softly as intact tentacles pet his tail and back.

“When’d you last sleep?” Duck murmurs, kissing the top of his head.

“Not since the attack started.”

“Seems to me we’re both due for some shut eye.”

Indrid nods, right before falling asleep and dreaming of strong tentacles and stronger arms.

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

“Guess I gotta get a tattoo now.” Duck studies the scar on his side, his bandages having permanently come off this morning.

“I suppose so. Though, if you’ve avoided so many other parts of Chosen protocol, I fail to see how skipping this one will make things worse.”

“I dunno, I kinda like this one. Used to strike me as macho bullshit, showin off how many battle scars you got. But now...makes me think of how when the forest gets trashed by a storm, or a huge-ass monster tearin through it, there’s a certain kind of pleasure that comes from watchin it heal, watchin it go from desolated and scarred to somethin beautiful.”

Indrid loves when he talks like this, smiles dreamily as Duck adds, “you could even design it for me. I’d like that.”

“I could do you one better; I could apply it as well. And since I foresee you asking yes, I do have the training to do so. Royal mers learn to tattoo themselves, due to rules about being touched by lower ranking mers that I judiciously ignored.”

“No kiddin” Duck grins, two tentacles coiling around Indrid’s tail, teasing the red stripe, “now that I’m healed up, gonna do all kinds of things to you to remind you why you ignored those rules in the first place.”

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

“Are you nervous?” Indrid finishes setting out his tools on the pristine table in his pristine chambers. He tends towards messiness in his habits, but when it comes to Duck’s health he’s cleaned the whole place by hand and with magic. Twice.

“Nah, I know I’m in good hands.” Even as he says this, a burst of anxious yellow moves up his tentacles.

“All the same, if you need a break at any point, let me know. And if the scar starts stinging or throbbing, tell me at once.”

“You got it, darlin.”

Indrid takes his time using a spell to transfer his design to Duck’s skin, double checking the placement before picking up the charm-powered tattoo gun. When finished, the tattoo will be a small forest of kelp, with the scar making up most of the body of the serpent swimming between the leaves. Six shades of green ink, three shades of brown, one shade of copper, and black for outlining, lay on the table, Indrid dipping into each of them in turn as he brings the image to life.

“Love watchin you draw” Duck sighs, then shudders, “sorry, gettin a hell of an adrenaline rush from the pain.”

“Just try to stay still. If you twitch or fidget too much, it will cause mistakes on my end.”

“Do my best.”

“If you don’t, I’ll just have to tie you down.” Indrid says breezily. The tentacle near him pulses purple. Desire. Interesting.

He’s most of the way through when Duck’s arms shake, his tentacles following suit, occasionally bumping Indrid’s tail or sides.. They’re small movements, all things considered, but in most futures they mean he has to re-do the entire last third of the tattoo.

“Nono, this won’t do at all.” He set’s the gun down, flitting across to the closet near his bed. A sea-grass rope waits, right where he left. There hasn’t been much call for it, Duck capable of restraining Indrid in a variety of ways all on his own.

“Now” Indrid bites off several lengths of rope, “since you cannot be still, I am going to tie your tentacles down. You’re to keep your hands where I put them, or I will tie them as well.”

Ducks tentacles are now deep, unflinching purple, “Holy fuck, ‘drid.”

“Just because I am generally submissive around you does not mean I’m not capable of giving orders.” Indrid smirks, tying the first two tentacles down.

“I, I know, it’s just you, uh, you, you never talk like this.” Duck’s eyes are wide, excited even, as they track Indrid’s circular path.

“I suppose you don’t hear me during advisory meetings, so this is a new experience for you.”

“Maybe I oughta start sittin in on ‘em.” Duck whines when Indrid kisses his cheek but refuses to stick around long enough for Duck to kiss him back.

“Perhaps. Right now, however, you are to sit still until I’m done with you. Understood?”

“Uh huh.” Duck smiles, docile and sweet, and Indrid wonders why they never thought to try this before.

He returns to his work, inking colors into Duck’s skin, enjoying the intimacy of learning the familiar curves of his ribs and belly in new ways. At one point he notices Duck tensing and almost moving his hand, but the other mer catches it in time.

“Good boy.” Indrid purrs.

“Fuck.” Duck tips his head back, “how much longer?”

“About ten minutes more, I’d say. You can manage it my sweet, you’re doing so well already.”

Duck whimpers low in his throat as Indrid goes back to his work. Exactly ten minutes later, he puts a protective covering atop the tattoo and pushes his supply table aside.

“There, all done. You did wonderfully.”

“Great, now untie me.” Duck wriggles hopefully.

Indrid raises an eyebrow, “In a hurry, sweet one?”

“Yes” Duck holds out a hand, trying to coax him closer.

“Whatever for?” He replies airly, as if can’t sense the arousal pouring off his boyfriend in waves, “and stop moving so much, you’ll aggravate the tattoo.”

“‘Drid please” The folds between his front-most tentacles ripple as his cock starts emerging.

“Oh I see.” Indrid swims so they’re face to face, pinning Duck’s hands to the back of the chair as he leans into his space, “you want me to fuck you, is that it? You’re willing to risk pain to new scar tissue, even marring my lovingly done work, just to have your cock played with?”

“Holyfuckinshit, why is this the first time you’re talkin like this?” Duck bites his lip with a little moan as Indrid rubs their cheeks together.

“I don’t know. In hindsight, it seems so obvious; you’re my powerful, competent mate, you always take such wonderful care of me, but you want someone to take away that power from time to time, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” Duck tips his chin up, hoping for a kiss, but Indrid floats backwards out of reach,

“What shall we do about that, hmm?” He swims a slow, tight circle around the other mer, staying just out of arms reach, “shall I keep you bound until the urge passes? No, that’s far too cruel for my beloved. Perhaps I should make you see to it yourself? But no, you might accidentally hurt yourself. Hmmm, what to do, what to do….” He taps his chin as Duck growls and whines, tentacles now straining against their bonds. Indrid knows Duck could snap them easily if he needed or wanted to. Which means he wants to remain at Indrid’s mercy for the time being.

“You do look wonderful like this. I didn’t even plan it this way, but how I tied you shows off most of your assets.” Indrid rubs the upper front of his tail, “now you’re getting me all wound up.”

“Good” Duck growls, tentacles swirling purple and pink.

“Yes it, ahnnn, it is rather good, isn’t it. After all, I have the perfect solution to the situation sitting right in front of me.”

Duck’s cock is fully out, it and the slit beneath it tempting Indrid to abandon his plan. He swims in front of the other mer, eyeing his cock approvingly, “yes, you’ll do quite nicely.”

“Thank fuckOHfummmhp” Duck’s surprised moan turns to a laugh as Indrid, having zipped upwards in a flash, finishes shoving his cock into Duck’s mouth.”

“Yesss, ohyes, goodness I love doing this, you look so charming with your lips around my cock. Ah, ah, don’t you dare move your hands from the chair. This” he gives a sharper thrust, “is all I need to be satisfied.”

Duck moans louder, which Indrid takes as his cue to hold his head in place and fuck into his mouth with abandon.

“That’s it love, that’s it, oh I ought to have done this months ago, tied my big strong hero down and reminded him of hisAHAnnn, his duties as consort.”

“‘M ot a ero.”

Indrid looks imperiously down his nose at him, “It’s rude to contradict someone when they’re giving you what you want, my sweet. I guess I’ll need to render you further incapable of speech” He concentrates and extends his cock, a mechanism meant to ensure he can reproduce with mers of any size or genital configuration but that he uses only to make Duck groan with pleasure.

His orgasm is already racing towards him, as it always does when Duck lets him (or orders him to) fuck his throat, and he shuts his eyes, concentrating on tight heat and the happy, muffled grunts floating up to his ears.

“Just a little, nnnn, little more my sweet, let your prince ravish your throat a little longerOH, ohgods, Duck, sweetheart, yes.” He cums, a shudder rippling down his tail, and doesn’t pull out until Duck struggles to swallow the rest down. The other mer is still collecting his breath when Indrid wiggles down and pushes his tongue into his slit.

“Fuck!” Duck jerks hard enough to move the chair an inch to the right.

Indrid snickers, wraps both hands around Duck’s cock, stroking it hurriedly as he raises his head, “What do you say, beloved?”

“Th-thank you?” Duck cracks an eye open. Indrid nods, then dips his head back down to to suck and tongue at the senstive skin.

“Fuckme, ohfuck, ‘Drid, darlin’, this is fuckin incredible, gonna, gonna be such a good consort, do whatever you say, fuck you five fuckin times a day, just, FUCK, just promise we can do this again.”

“Muv ourse.” Indrid thrusts his tongue deeper, twisting his hands on his upstrokes. The fourth time he does, he pops up to suck on the head just in time to catch Duck’s cum in his mouth. He takes his time, sucking him clean with happy trills and moans while his boyfriend utters curses that would make sailors blush.

He pulls away to wipe his mouth, intending to start untying Duck. The futures show that won’t be necessary,

Snapsnapsnapsnap

The ropes break in pairs, rapid fire, and then Duck is on him, enveloping him in arms, tentacles, and love. He tries to press closer, then winces back, “owfuck, you’re right, the tattoo is real sore.”

“It’ll be that way for a few days. Your Chosen strength will help, but you should still rest when possible.”

“I dunno” Duck kisses him sweetly, then nips his lower lip, “you know how stubborn I can be. Might have to uh, tie me to the bed.”

“That, my love, can be arranged.”

#indruck #indrid cold/duck newton #mermay fills #mermay

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hankwritten · 3 years

Text

Quodlibet

Demoman/Soldier, 2k

Request for ImSorry, College

“How do you even know this guy anyway?” Jeremy asked, leaning over Jane’s back in such a intrusive distillation of his character that this particular instant could have come from any singular moment throughout the semester, right down to the mortal threat to Jane’s class project.

“Watch it, Buster! You are dangerously close to causing the greatest second dolphin extinction event since the invention of the six-pack!”

Trying to dislodge his suitemate, Jane threw his shoulder, pushing Jeremy and his grasping arms backwards and away from the fragile, pseudo-aquatic diorama.

Jeremy slid down Jane’s spine. “Fine, jeez, I wasn’t going to squish your bath toys.” He went boneless just long enough to reach the floor, then promptly popped to his feet and began looking at the aquarium from the other side. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I don't know what you mean by ‘this guy’,” Jane grumbled. “This is clearly a diorama. Not a guy.”

“The guy, man,” Scout nagged, and Jane could already feel the migraine coming on. Jeremy was actually the human embodiment of head pains, to the point where sometimes Jane wondered if he had escaped from a lab that had been trying to bio-engineer the most aggravating person in existence. “This guy that’s making you go wackadoo and put like ten times more effort into a freaking GED project than anyone ever should.”

“This has nothing to do with him.” Jane put an aggressive amount of glue on his last dolphin.

“Right, sure,” Jeremy snickered. “But as soon as I said ‘guy you have a weird rivalry with’ you immediately jumped to him.” When Jane grit his teeth, Jeremy laughed again. “So what is it with you two? You didn’t get the urge to start tearing each other’s intellectual dicks off just because of some Economics of Marine Biology class, right?”

“Applied Oceanography,” Jane corrected, pointedly not looking up.

“C’mon pally, you know what I meant-”

“Hrrn nn brrdaa”

The voice of their third and final suitemate spoke up from a nearby beanbag chair, where its owner was trying to ignite a textbook with a lighter.

Jeremy looked to them, then to Jane. “Really? He plays for the Brawlers too?”

“Yes,” Jane snarled. “Mystery solved. The new power guard is in my oceanography class, and now you will shut your trap, shortstop, so that I can proceed to kick his ass in diorama making and prove that I am the superior guard.”

“That ain’t exactly a perfect chain of events, but you do you pally.” Jeremy pulled to the far end of the couch, drawing his legs into a fold. “Ain’t like, you supposed to develop deep-seated rivalries with players from other schools? Not your own?”

“If you met him, you would understand.” Jane placed some cherry bombs at the bottom of the glass tank. “Plus, he-...” Swallowing his fury, he said, “he got me moved to small guard.”

“To- what?”

“Hurmm umma,” their third put in helpfully.

Jeremy absorbed this for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Oh, oh man. There’s literally a position called small guard? That’s- that’s fucking hilarious you gotta admit.”

“I have to admit no such thing!” Jane rounded on him, diverting his attention from his precious project for the first time in over three hours. “I used to be power guard! Then some one-eyed, Scottish, lay-about, freshman comes in and thinks he can take my spot? This is betrayal of the highest order! A perversion of our constitution!”

“Mrra hudda.”

“I do not care if small guard is ‘technically a step up’,” Jane huffed. “Power guard is further to the front. That makes it better.”

“Basketball’s for chumps anyway,” Jeremy said, apparently having derived all the entertainment he’d wanted from the conversation, laying until he could reach his arms behind his head and dropping his legs in Jane’s lap. “You should try out for a real sport. But hey! Hope your little fish tank fills your inadequacy or whatever.”

“Oh it will.” Jane lowered his face to the glass, breath fogging and obscuring the magnum opus within. “It will.”

“And here you will see what happens when America finally colonizes the ocean!” Jane said to the drooling, glassy eyes of an 8am class.

They were significantly less slumberous when he threw a final cherry bomb into his demonstration, causing a chain reaction as dozens of ‘fireworks’ went off under the ocean, celebrating America’s eventual conquest. To really send the message home, he pulled the ripcord in the back, dropping a miniature stars and stripes behind the tank.

“Oorah!” he concluded.

“...Thank you Mister Doe,” the professor said. “Your time allotted for presenting is up.”

He turned and gave her a big thumbs up.

While some staff at Teufort U insisted you call them by their first names, this professor was not one of them, and it was rumored that the TA who had once dared to call her ‘Helen’ in front of her students was never seen again. However, no one could be that much of a hardass all the time; Jane was confident his project had just blown her out of the water (pun intended.)

She eyed his thumbs up with her perpetually sour face. “...That means return to your seat, Mister Doe.”

Jane picked up his aquarium and strolled jauntily back to his desk.

His good mood dissipated as soon as Tavish was announced as the next presenter. The usurper pulled his aquarium in on a cart, a sheet draped over to allow for a dramatic reveal. Dammit. Jane should have thought about dramatic reveals.

Tavish grinned at his audience, whisking away the blanket with a flourish.

“Behold!” he declared. “You’ve heard of desalination to deal with the oncoming global water shortages, but my proposal is this: a complete and total refinement. Salt water? Pah! Whiskey oceans are where it’s at.”

The tanked sloshed, full of something clearly scrumpy or scrumpy adjacent. Within the alcohol floated an awfully realistic looking octopus, expertly crafted and swishing with the tank’s movements. An eyepatch covered its left side.

“With the addition of boozed-based life forms of course, for an entirely new ecosystem.”

Jane curled his lip. Damn. He was good.

“...Mister DeGroot,” the professor said, “might I remind you that this is an alcohol free campus, regardless of any student’s legal status to drink? And, even without that, you are not currently twenty-one years of age?”

“Drinking age is sixteen in Scotland, Ma’am.”

“Sit, DeGroot.”

Tavish sat. He shot Jane a smug grin. Jane scowled.

“That concludes our presentations for today.” If the professor’s voice got any more disappointed, she could have been a ringer for a Badlands Brawlers fan. “As you know, the diorama that scores the highest marks will receive extra credit toward our upcoming final exam. I use the remainder of the class time to grade, and announce the winner shortly. Please return on the bell if you wish to receive those extra credits.”

The ‘bell’, unlike those rinky dinky little red bowl things they had in high school, was actually a proper bell tower, situated over the science building and able to be heard anywhere on campus. This was where Jane retreated to wait out his nerves, pacing around the semi-enclosed area and mulling over his chances. Fine, Tavish’s had been good. He was used to Tavish being good, the bastard, but Jane’s was better, and this time he was going to mop the floor with him.

“I am going to mop the floor with you!” he declared to the heavens.

“Not with that sad display you won’t.”

Jane jumped. A quiet moment of solitude foiled, besieged by his mortal enemy who’d somehow snuck up on him in order to lean cockily against the door to the stairs.

“My display was anything but sad.” Jane shook his fist. “It was joyous! Victorious! Other words that mean not sad!” When Tavish continued to smirk at him, he added, “plus, your idea is bad anyway.”

“Aye?” Tavish challenged. “How so?”

Dammit. Jane hadn’t thought this far. Replacing the oceans with whiskey really did seem foolproof...except…

“If there is no more water, then you can’t make other type of booze either!” he declared triumphantly.

Tavish jaw clenched. Ha! Good. Let him get angry for once.

He walked over and got right in Jane’s face. “Well what about you? How are you going to light off the fireworks underwater?”

“Oil, salt, and various temperature and pressure difference!” Jane didn’t like the other man in his space, and gave him a shove. They were always doing that to each other during practice, blocking and shoulder-checking harder than necessary, doing things that would certainly be penalties in an actual game.

“Who cares?” Tavish shoved him back. “No one’s going to see them anyway.”

Jane grabbed him by the front of the shirt and shouted, “the dolphins will! You would know that if YOU HAD BEEN PAYING ATTENTION.”

One, dangling, aggravating second stretched on, catching friction as they pressed noses and breathed heavy with the effort. Then they reacted simultaneously, lunging forward and attacking each other in mouth to mouth combat.

Jane growled furiously, trying to gain the upper hand, but Tavish was just as motivated not to let him get it. The pair of them sucked at each other’s faces, mastication muscles competing for this year’s WWE championship belt, crashing against the nearest half-wall surrounding the roof. A more wary observer might have worried about them careening over the edge, but Tavish and Jane had more pressing things on their minds. (And ‘more pressing’ was exactly how they were going to resolve it.) Just a whole mismatched ball of absolute frustration as they worked out several months of pent-up attraction.

Their combined rage might have carried them to hell and back, had the bell not struck 9am at that exact moment.

They both screamed, trying desperately to cover their ears as they hundred and fifty year old bell GONGED above them, rattling teeth inside skulls and causing tears to spring to their eyes.

“God! Why don’t they have a warning sign up? Bloody hell!” Tavish moaned, having found his way to the floor and using his beanie to futilely cover his head.

“What???” Jane, who already didn’t have a good ear at the best of times, worried briefly that he’d finally gone deaf.

“What?” Tavish asked. “I can’t hear a thing you’re saying.”

“What?”

This went on for several minutes, the two men lying on the floor of the bell tower.

When they finally staggered down to class, it was in a terribly haggard state, and new bruises around their mouths.

“Hello professor,” Tavish, the least winded of them, declared. “It’s alright, you can tell us which one was the winner now. We’ve worked out our differences, and determined to let the best man win.”

“The best man will be me, but yeah what he said!” Jane put in.

“If you’re going for flashy, maybe, but on sheer sustainability-”

“No one’s going to eat alcohol-based sushi, cyclops-”

“Enough,” the professor cut in. “Neither of you won the extra credit points.”

“What?” Tavish gaped. “But ours were the best out of anyone’s! How could we possibly lose?”

“The assignment,” she said in a clipped voice that spoke of years of dealing with the exact idiots that Teufort tended to attract, “was to create a physical display of algae chemical reactions at different levels of light and pressure as found in the oceanic zones. Not only did you not win, you have failed this project. Now, since I have a lecture in Hale Hall in fifteen minutes, I suggest you both move out of my way, otherwise you will not have the chance to recuperate those points on the final exam. Goodbye gentleman.”

She stripped the last of the grading notes off her desk, shoved them into a manila folder, and disappeared out the door.

Tavish and Jane watched her go. The minutes ticked by on the wall mounted analog clock, which probably could have told them the time just as well as the giant bell that had nearly deafened them.

“Hey,” Tavish said, elbowing Jane in the side. “I got to take Basic Intergluteal Numismatics next semester.”

“...Yeah? And?”

“Bet I can solve systematic inflation before you can.”

“Oh, you’re on son.”

#demosolly #tf2 fanfiction

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transsexualhamlet · 3 years

Text

tg anime vs manga *sighs*

i have the power of hyperfixation and anime on my side! AAAAAAAA

Ok now that we’ve gotten the sins of re post out of the way we need to discuss this. And I just feel that this needs to be covered because I can’t ever get away from constant discourse on this, mostly fueled by manga readers who feel entitled to always think they’re superior for reading the manga, that the manga is the only real canon, that it’s more complex or better, I’m so fucking tired of it. I am also a manga reader, and I tend to get like that sometimes too with many series (for example no. 6 and the promised neverland.) I get it. It can be really annoying to see something butchered on screen to what the original is, changed or represented differently or given a different message or simplified. But just. Some people like the anime and it’s not a goddamn holy war for y’all to fight. It only makes anime fans not want to read the thing even more yknow cause manga readers are pretentious assholes, and I am aware of this as one of them.

(again ok i’d like to mention i know this fandom is basically dead but a certain p*nterest is always like 4 years behind on fandoms so i keep fucking running into Discourse that’s like, still current, whenever i want old random ass content) (and youtube, why do i look at youtube comments, because I personally enjoy being offended? yeah probably)

And that brings me to the point of this anime vs manga.

This is a lot harder to compare than a lot of other series, because there are just... so many more differences not just in the style and vibe but the story itself.

Disclaimer, I’ve never watched the anime for :re and i don’t intend to, because I honestly have no earthly clue how tf you can get from the highly diverged tokyo ghoul root A to re and make it make sense, and I don’t really want A ruined for me. So you can call me biased towards the manga in the case of re, i guess (which makes my eventual conclusion even more strong I’d say) Honestly I just see them as two completely different stories, the manga’s version connecting with re and A just like... ending there. So how we’re drawing the lines is basically tokyo ghoul A versus the manga and :re. God, I know this isn’t a fair fight because I already hate re so much, but I feel like the manga’s story is much more intertwined with :re than the anime’s is, so that’s what we’re going with.

oh god also another disclaimer this opinion is coming from the biggest fucking kanehide whore, you can disregard anything i say if you ship The Straights and/or do not care for my boi hide

To be honest, if I can take my own conclusions and liberties to the story, I like both versions, each have their pros and cons and kind of a conflicting message. They can’t really coexist. Usually I’d consume all versions and then create one consistent canon in my head for what I accept as the true events (for example my main owari no seraph, first season of the anime is canon but after that we only follow the manga since those can come together and make sense.) but it’s very hard to do that in tokyo ghoul, since I must confess... I really like root A. Like of course, it’s a lot different from the manga, but tbh I think it’s super valid. (unlike most Fans TM like this Fan TM who i’m sending this post to just to spite their singular Youtube Comment Section Discourse, yes I did write this post for you and many others like you) But the ideas that make up root A conflict a lot with the ones of the manga, so I just have to accept that they’re separate things and treat them as such.

Now to break it down so people can understand where I’m coming from I guess? God this is already so long here’s a read more

The Case for The Manga (including :re manga)

More Lore + Plot Shit: One of the main reasons that manga readers are pretentious little bitches is a valid reason, namely that, as is the case with most manga, there’s simply more to it than people can fit into an anime. (Although people need to understand that’s because,,, it’s simply a different medium, so it will have different pluses and minuses, such as for example a soundtrack, color, moving pictures,,, you know, all that. Anime onlys don’t say that the anime is better by stating these things that a manga won’t have... because they’re fucking obvious. So manga readers should stop acting like an anime is inherently sub-par for being less in depth, but we digress.) I can understand that reading the manga is kind of important for wanting to understand the lore (though there are like so many other reasons ppl might want to watch it other than to get the lore) and without the explanation of how all this came to be and how it works, everything tends to be really mysterious, confusing, and seemingly random. It’s really nice to know what’s all going on, of course, and stuff like the washuus, rize’s backstory, the explanation for like, kaneki in general, all that- if you’re looking for like, plot shit, manga is definitely your go to. But like, sometimes, you like, don’t actually care about those things.

Haise: Of course one of the most important things about well, including re is that I fucking love Haise. Like he is my favorite Kaneki. He’s just so wonderful, look at him in he glasses and he floofy hair and he striped pants and he energy boxers and he s p i c e and he MOM. And I really like how they took Kaneki’s character and developed it more with Haise, you can see his turnaround from innocent--> Emo--> Trying To Be Innocent Again But Failing and I think that’s really sweet tbh. I rejected that at first because I didn’t understand it but once I actually read re I thought it made a lot of sense and was a logical thing to do with his character. (though, uh, moving forward, after his hair changes again i disagree with it, haise 1.0 is a good take and i love him and i want the best for him) I could go on I’ve already written a post of what I think is wrong with :re so if you want to hear my take on kaneki’s 37 pokemon evolutions that’s in there

Good New Characters: And of course there are my favorite bitches such as quinx squad, oh my god, there was a terminal lack of dumbass squad vibes in the original and ishida fucking gave it to us, I love them, I love them with all my heart and I think that if I wasn’t attached to them I’d probably just cancel all of :re but like this is just my personal problem. God I love them. Ishida always pulls through with characters I’m now too attached to.

Vore Lmao:Ok like hear me out. I just get a laugh out of it every time the manga has to remind me of this little fucking fact. Like ok I just. Cannot get over it. It’s so serious about it too and like I realize it’s a serious deal but o h m y g o d

Ok and now that we’ve got that little rant over I do want to say that it is like actually really important past the “lmao that’s pretty gay” bit, like??? In some ways it’s more fitting than the anime because well, ishida’s point always seems to be “what would mentally and physically hurt kaneki the most right now” and does it because that’s who this bitch is. But it just?? Kind of makes a bit more sense for the storyline if we’re being picky here, it’s so,,, painfully on point? Like the entire reason he gave in to Being A Ghoul and all was so he could save his friends and shit (i actually do not remember if this was a thing in the manga but like? when he was being tortured and he like imagined hide being really mad at him and getting killed by jason and shit?) LIKE AND THEN HE GOES AND HAS TO BASICALLY BE THE PERPETRATOR OF THAT HIMSELF, FUCK, it’s a lose/lose situation of “don’t do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer” or “do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer but like, later” ishida please

The meaning of Hide being alive: Ok this is just me crying over chapter 75 still but like. Instead of in the anime, where hide’s point seems to be that instead of letting kaneki sacrifice anything more he’d be the one to give his life up and such, and save kaneki, in the anime tbh he just really wanted to be with kaneki right then?? and like ouch but understanding that in the manga he wasn’t just planning on dying and leaving kaneki to deal with it afterward he wanted to go on and continue to try to help the guy no matter the shit he had to go through, no matter if the dude just like forgot that he existed for two years and all- LIKE UH CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW HIDE DOESN’T EVEN EXPECT ANY APOLOGY? like kaneki’s like “OH MY GOD I’M SUCH A TERRIBLE PERSON” and hide’s like lmao nah it’s cool i’m thriving- that his big motto was “live” rather than “peace out motherfuckers it’s been fun”. Cause. Fucking. Ishida. Can’t kill off characters well but like at least he made keeping this one alive justified.

The D e t a i l s: Ok well I feel like this is something everyone knows but the anime is missing a lot of really,,, crunchy details that the manga throws in there, like, well, kaneki’s fucking,,, bones thing, and other assorted details, g o d like those are missable if you want to never understand half the memes but also like,,, sometimes you just gotta read that shit. It also like, makes more sense when you do but sometimes it’s just stupid things that aren’t important but are fucking hilarious.

The Flavor: In general I’d say the greatest difference between the anime and the manga is the general flavor of the thing, the vibe in the manga is a lot, to be frank, darker and grosser and bloodier than the anime, which is a lot more focused on being pretty and Tragic than “HOLY SHIT WTF” but like. That’s valid. With that comes it being a lot more, real, and although the art may not be as polished as the anime’s, sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and the really gritty sketchy shit that’s in the manga sometimes is exactly what it’s supposed to be for the manga. (in the anime, i’d say that the colored and polished style fits it better, so we’re good there.) It’s a lot more real, in the manga, when the anime hesitates to “go there” a lot (and well, sometimes that’s welcome, but sometimes it’s like y o u g u y s c o m e o n r e a l l y maybe i DID want to see that did you ever think of that)

So like, to sum it up i’d just like to say it’s more detailed, sharper and darker and is simply So Much. There is just More Content

The Case for Root A

ON THE OTHER HAND, (buckle up fuckers)

Depth of Emotion (that Ishida was too much of a pissbaby for): God like you know what I mean if you read the last post, we spent a whole episode on these gay fucks in root A, with backstory and dreams and drawn out suspense and emotion and GUYS LOOK AT THEM NO REALLY OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS whereas hide’s limelight in the manga is a whole... two pages, oh whoopee, and that’s mostly due to the fact of ishida putting himself in a spot of “oh fuck goddamn if i drew that in i’d get flagged for gay porn” but that’s his own fault, so he downplays the whole scene and really keeps it in the dark, whereas in this anime it’s understandably a lot less,,, like that, but how it plays out here is simply... really nice and makes you cry and shit, whereas in the manga I’d go “oh god oh damn oh fuck” *laughs my ass off because i really can’t take this seriously*. You get just... more here.

To elaborate on this, in the anime, as a gay fucking bastard, I can get practically an endless amount of content from episode twelve, and endlessly stew over all Those Things about it, every hard hitting line, the expressions, the music making it even sadder, the ways the VAs say the words, the cinematic beauty of the blood dripping on the floor and like how it’s supposed to make you think it’s kaneki’s, GOD I COULD FUCKING GO ON, but if we want to get that in the manga...

we get three incredibly basic lines, a blackout, and then a “QUICK LET’S MOVE ON TO SOMETHING ELSE BEFORE ANYONE NOTICES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT HAHA”

So if we want to have more, we need to write it. (sadly) None of it is ever played out canonically so like,,, all we can do is infer and make shit up. It’s like, I am a writer so like that’s my whole job but I really would rather have more content, and have the content that’s there get to be emotional instead of *blank face* “this is plot that is happening, sadly” but like maybe it’s just bc i’m gay

Really Fucking Beautiful (aesthetically as well as story-wise): This kind of just goes hand in hand with the depth of emotion bit, and I think it can’t really compared to the manga here because I’m gay so I see pretty colors and cry so the anime is understandably appealing for me, but I’m also talking emotionally, yeah. There’s a lot of plotlines and implications of the story that are really well played out, I always love to watch the original because it does a very good job handling a lot of the harder topics and stuff that makes the whole thing worthwhile- like the whole point you’re supposed to see that the ghouls and humans are both just as monstrous when you break it down, that there are good and bad people on both sides, everyone just wants to live and feel good in their own life and perspective, everyone has reasons that justify their behaviour in their mind, sometimes you just can’t win no matter what, all that... they’re all really important messages and make the whole story, and they were handled much more delicately and with more expertise in the anime.

It’s hard to pin down, but I feel like the manga was just based more on Fight Scenes Characters OoH Fake Science and kind of just gave kaneki infinite power ups after Trying Harder no offense, obviously those things were there and they were still very good in the manga it’s just sometimes they were cheapened a lot by ishida really not keeping track of what he’s trying to say with his story and sacrificing it a lot for “BUT WHAT IF KANEKI’S HAIR AND IDEALS CHANGED AGAIN” instead of making it a whole cohesive work. (and yes, I am VERY aware of your “well aCtuAlLy the hair represents his sanity” thing i know i know and i’m about to rip it to fucking shreds so)

Understandable Character Development And Staying True To It: Which brings me to this point, character development. This was another thing that was just... handled with more expertise in the anime, whoever was in charge of it. Mostly this has to do with Kaneki, since like, no offense but he’s the only one who ever gets much character development other than like, juuzou (asmr you only get character development if your hair color changes) oh and i guess there’s tsukiyama but he’s someone who shouldn’t have gotten character development. Touka gets character development only before re for some reason, and like tbh that’s kind of it. I do think Juuzou’s character development was valid, because well... it made sense? I complained about it before because I was like “well he just turns into spicy L” but i’ve since changed my opinion, he’s best boy. But Kaneki? They went way overboard with him in the manga, and generally? Calm tf down ishida.

Breaking it down, one of the main things that most of the tried and true manga stans seem to hate about the anime the most is Kaneki going over to Aogiri in root A. Since they’re much more acclimated to the manga, they don’t understand why he would do that (quoting a particular ‘probably made sense in the manga!’ yes i know that whole thing was poking fun at the show and i felt it lmao) and they just pin it to “ahaha he has now become Edgy for the fans ehehe time to make fun of him” and TO BE FAIR YOU’D BE COMPLETELY RIGHT. I love to make fun of Kaneki when he does his edgy bitch thing because that’s what he is. A basic edgy bitch who is just,,, such a main character. But like. He does actually have his reasons despite popular opinion and to be honest I think they’re a bit more valid than in the manga, where he’s just like “well I’ve been tortured, that was not pleasant and i kinda did a bad thing, let’s go back to anteiku but i’m just gonna Try Harder To Fight this time”. I can understand that, but like, it seems like in the manga every Character Development of kaneki is some form of “i will now be stronger” except for the singular “I will now be a different person” which, well, we’ll get to that.

In the anime though, even if it seems like more of a basic edgy bitch move, it’s like?? It makes perfect sense to me, and to be honest more than the manga does? Obviously he doesn’t wanna be best bros with Aogiri, he realizes they’re all bad people who have done really terrible things, but the fact is he now sees himself as the same thing, he now understands their motives because in his mind he is also now Bad TM. His whole character development of being tortured was that peace wasn’t an option no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn’t live being a pacifist and the world was forcing him to give the “i am the only one that understands! we need to stop fighting!” bullshit up because there was no way to achieve it. He realized if he kept himself the way he was more people he loved would be hurt like they already had because he couldn’t, so he doesn’t just Decide To Become Stronger, he gives up his humanity. And that includes basically letting himself defend his own actions and try to do “the right thing”.

Him then joining aogiri makes sense because well. They’re the people who are the strongest, who have the power, who are the same as he sees himself. He still wants to protect the people he loves, he just also realizes he can’t do it by working with them since he now understands that their more peaceful ways will by definition get them fucking killed. His understanding is flawed, of course. He’s not really right. But this is his understanding and from that it makes perfect sense for him to join up with aogiri and try to still do as much as possible from that standpoint, realizing that most likely the people he’s trying to protect will hate him for it. I think that makes sense to me, what do you not understand about it? (I also understand that may make some people mad because he’d Doing Bad Things but I point to you he’s so soft, remember when he was really nice to naki when he was literally the one who killed the guy naki was crying about? remember when he was doing a raid and he saw that guy hiding and he never mentioned it? remember like the seventy times he Cried TM, yeah he’s problematic obviously but if you want problematic I’ll point you to a certain fucking black reaper. Shironeki has nothing on that asshole.)

I think what Kaneki did in the manga was fine, but in general the anime (again) had more depth of understanding and emotion versus a steady Try Harder Get Stronger shonen deal, which, well, fair, but like, nah. Continuing why I think the anime dealt it better is the ending of A, which was a lot more well rounded then *kaneki gets stabbed and then there’s a lot of random plot shit going on in the background*. Here Kaneki then got to round out the end of his character development by realizing slowly through the second half of this season, him becoming a kakuja and then basically deciding like, not to

((kakuja kaneki was dealt with again different in the anime and manga because he basically stopped trying to use it in the anime bc he realized it was a bad fucking idea but this goes along with the ‘his character development of “i’m gonna do bad things for good reasons” --> “actually no wait that was a bad idea” was actually done in root A instead of being dragged out into :re and it’s appropriate for its own medium and the messages it’s trying to get across so manga loyalists hate it’ but we digress))

So in root A we got to see him actually develop and realize himself through the second half of the season starting with cochlea, his interactions with Amon, and ultimately through Hide, that he’d been doing the wrong thing by becoming more monstrous/fighting harder because what he did was ended up forgetting the most important thing, *smiles in gay* HIDE.(well, his humanity. yeah. i cite the terrible opening for root A with the fun ‘the hands taking off kaneki’s mask are hide’s’ bit.) He then remembered again why he wanted so bad to stop the war between humans and ghouls, he wanted to be able to live in peace and not have to be a monster- something that was not dealt with in the manga (though for understandable reasons of We Need To Fuck With Him In Re More, they then didn’t deliver on creating something like that later so I take this.)

That’s most of the difference between the original manga and anime, but I’d also like to discuss (briefly, I’ve already yelled about them) the ridiculous amount of hurdles ishida went through to fuck with kaneki in the manga, Of course there is the fact that well, the slower transition of his character does make some more sense for the manga because if you take :re into consideration, his eight billion character changes are more tolerable when they haven’t like, already happened before in the manga (just the anime). It makes more sense there for Haise to be tormented by past kaneki telling him He’s Too Weak because in the manga he hasn’t already had that development prior to “dying”, and he lost his memories still believing he had to be strong even if he did bad things, whereas in the anime it doesn’t track because at the end like i just said he kind of gives up his ghoulhood on purpose because he realizes that joining aogiri and fighting and shit was really wrong because, hide. So I can see why those character decisions were not made in the original when planning for :re, but... the fact remains that those previous decisions do not make up for how absolutely weak :re’s game ended up being with kaneki.

So tldr this entire section, All the manga’s defense of how they handled Kaneki’s development is basically void because all those choices were buildup for development in :re which ishida then COMPLETELY fell down on. So the alternative is better.

And now comes my yelling about how exactly Ishida fucked it up: hair colors and kaneki’s 80 kanekis. If black is supposed to represent sane and white is supposed to represent insane or, whatever, i dunno, who tf thought black reaper kaneki was sane? Who tf would think kaneki in the end isn’t? I haven’t looked into this really, and I’d really love it if someone explained it to me the way ishida was going for bc I do not understand it. Like that tracks with Juuzou, and with Kaneki up to Haise Original, but they don’t really make a cohesive sense seeing as after Haise’s hair color changed again that whole deal kind of goes to shit. Not to mention... I just... they completely failed to make those character changes actually part of the story, I’m mostly complaining about black reaper haise, none of him makes any sense. What’s his deal? He wants to protect who he loves? Tracks with the ghouls but fun fact he abandoned his kids? He actually cared for them? What then, he wants to be the strongest as possible? Sure but then?? Why?? I don’t understand his motives at all.

We also didn’t get to see him get his memories back either, which I was actually very much looking forward to, it just,,, like all of a sudden he’s talking with eto about yoshimura and i’m like bruh when tf did that happen? It’s bad, and although chapter 74-76 is super valid, and his change back into white hair kaneki makes sense, I also have the complaint about how haise basically disappeared just like he was worried he would. I think that was bad and I’ve said that already, it doesn’t make sense, he just literally throws those entire two years away to go back to the way he was before he was with the CCG and just forgets everything he’s wanted for the last few years? Fiction logic test fucking failed, and you’ve also broken my heart. Love Haise. You got rid of him. I love kaneki too but like. Why don’t they just. Like. Merge. He is one whole complex person, not one and an imposter, god.

This is a big negative for re and the manga, so automatically a positive for root A where I simply Do Not Have To Deal With That Bullshit and the character development actually makes sense. I can understand the decisions in the original manga could have set up for good development in :re, but they completely failed to deliver.

root a didn’t fast forward to re at the end god damn let us process this shit first before you try to connect it to something else: The thing with this point is that it’s really difficult to separate the original manga from the continuing story in :re because the thing intertwines so much and immediately moves us forward with a ton of plot points for the next part of the story before we’re done with this climax and the end of this story. Sometimes that’s ok and I can see doing that from an author’s perspective because you want people to continue reading your story instead of taking that as the end but it’s really annoying on a reader’s end, because I’m picky and I want to be able to just be able to enjoy my original canon without it like, metaphorically touching :re on a plate. It’s something that I don’t even do with my own longer stories, like for example I have like a trilogy of >100k fics that like, well i’m technically not done with them but like.

People really like the first one because it’s more focused on a more popular ship and basic elements people like about the thing, and then by the second book it moves on to talk more about the plot and lore and brings in more secondary characters. And so I knew that a lot of the readers of the first one wouldn’t want to have to deal with a lot of the “oh well stuff is happening elsewhere that will effect stuff later!!!” random plot shit that none of my readers actually cared about. So I kept it to wrapping up the points of the first book and then leaving the introduction of new characters and plot for the people who actually wanted to read it. Ishida didn’t do that, and of course it’s within his right to like?? Want to promote the next series but I’d have enjoyed it more if we ended it at kaneki’s “death” and wrapping up the deals with the rest of the characters instead of quickly shoving in the beginning of seventy more plotlines before the book ends. Like honey I simply do not have the reading comprehension for that. In the anime we get something that... makes sense.

In the anime, however, it’s quite the opposite, for example the reveals like Eto=owl=takatsuki sen were pushed before that and they saved episode twelve for, well, the end bit. Like what was actually the ending. There were detriments to this I had to say (LIKE GUYS I GET IT HE’S CARRYING HIDE HE’S CARRYING HIM I GET IT YOU’VE BEEN DOING IT FOR HALF THE EPISODE NOW OK I UNDERSTAND CAN WE MOVE ON) But like, I prefer the concept of a simple idea with as much emotion squeezed out of it as possible to a ton of confusing and contradicting ideas that are touched on for a second before moving on. So the *cries for half an hour* ending was much more appealing to me, and I can keep that separate in my head from any of the ideas that :re creates, letting me pretend it doesnt exist and imagine that’s the end and there’s nothing else to worry about. If we want to move forward and hear more, then we can, but it isn’t necessary like it is with the manga.

No Bad Takes that are hard to pry apart from good plot and characters:This is basically the downsides of the new characters, which is well, if I had to make a whole ~keep reading~ post about how problematic everything in re was that does have to count as a downside. I love the new characters, but they also come intertwined with a thousand really bad takes on like, everything, and of course I can ignore it and just act as though they were written in like, to be perfectly honest, a non transphobic way, it’s a real downside when the original anime was pretty pain-free in the way of their takes on their characters. They fucked everyone up in re and I will not elaborate, we’ve talked about this, it’s just the anime, and which i mean season 1 and root A, don’t really have any bad takes I need to try to get rid of, it’s surprisingly something I have little complaint about at all and I ALWAYS have complaints.

Hide!!!!: Obviously, you can tell that a lot of my opinions are going to be hide based because he’s the only thing I ever think about. But we have to take into account just how... hide???? This goes a lot into the depth of emotion bit but it also offers the other side of the argument for Hide’s part in the :re manga, which well. Was mostly chapter 75 if we’re going to be perfectly honest here. He doesn’t get any other limelight. Even in the chapter where Kaneki meets him again he gets a whole what, three pages? In the manga, he has an extremely valid deal about basically, living, keeping going no matter what, and that is a fitting part for the manga, considering the rest of the points there ride more on Keep Fighting instead of Think About Your Emotions And Morals, but honestly chapter 75 was really valid. So why do I still think the anime’s version where he like (ok I don’t know about the re anime we’ve discussed this, i don’t even know how they choose to explain that) he like, dies in kaneki’s arms is better overall? Again, I would have totally accepted that deal if it was made a part of the story because it made me cry, it was super valid, and if they’d continued in that way I would have agreed with it completely over that. But the fact is again that they failed to deliver, and Hide got largely ignored, suffered so much with so little outcome. There was so much buildup and it was incredibly valid, but when the time came for them to meet again and basically show... why it was important that Hide lived in the end?

They didn’t. They straight up didn’t. Kaneki’s like “oh sorry bro... glad you’re alive and all...” *goes off and fights* and like? Honestly? @everlastingspiral is right, if that’s all they’re gonna do with him what’s the point of keeping him alive? I love every single panel of him and I wouldn’t have read re if he didn’t, but hide gets absolutely NO payoff. For letting kaneki literally vore his entire mouth off, leaving him disfigured and unable to talk, then kind of disappearing for two years and doing seemingly nothing but trying to help kaneki even though he’d forgotten the guy existed, risks his life like a thousand fucking times, eventually gets back to him and the dude’s running a fucking anti-human organization, helps him like Not Be A Volitile Pile Of Flesh Anymore and then what should have been a very important moment of them meeting again gets completely overshadowed by touka and random plot shit and more fights and they barely interact, they don’t even hug or anything, they barely talk, and at the end hide is still there but to be honest he’s gotten absolutely no thanks for all he did and ishida acts at the end as though he’s done very well with hide and gives him a tiny bit at the end throwing in a tragic backstory for fun (which hot take he really didn’t fucking need on top of it all) and... there’s no real hint that Kaneki is better off with Hide there, even though there should be. In 75, in his dream, kaneki is sobbing and crying and all like i’m so lonely without you but when they actually meet each other again? “yo” “hey” “uh sorry about,,, the thing,,, you know” “nah man it’s ok” “let me talk about myself for a bit” “yes you always do do you want to hear what I’ve been up to” “not really” “that’s fine i’m only here to support you”

...So you can understand why I’ve gone a bit sour on that. If that’s all you’re going to give him? Hot take? Let him die. Hide deserves better. (and i will deliver that in writing, but for the purposes of canon.)

In the anime, however (not counting re again... although he still gets the short end of the stick just in the original manga too compared to the anime) he’s properly dealt with! he gets his proper limelight and he gets acknowledged for what he’s done thusfar in the story, which is already so much. Kaneki then realizes that, but it’s already too late (or it isn’t, and they like negotiate with the ccg and then they get to live happily ever after) either way he gets appreciated and he gets hurt, but it’s properly acknowledged. And after all that, after saving kaneki and getting him to the cafe and doing it all while bleeding the fuck out, he gets to spend that time with kaneki and die in kaneki’s arms. And frankly? That’s all I think he’s ever needed. It’s really poetic and pretty and brings kaneki’s character around full circle, and even if it’s overly sappy, cliche, drawn out... he gets the attention he’s due and he gets a fucking break. He wanted to show Kaneki he wanted to do something for him and save him instead of the other way around, but then HE GOT ACKNOWLEDGED FOR THAT, instead of just well, tirelessly working towards it forever and having to be content to be a background character with practically no value to Kaneki anymore.

Keeps The Same Vibe: The big thing about this is that with the manga and with re, shit just goes all over the place, and I feel like I’ve amply showed that already through this essay or whatever this is. Again about the consistency and the professionalism, It’s a concise story that makes more sense than the manga while also being simply neater and more deep, making sure all the points, themes and messages work together and make sense to create a cohesive deal even if it’s not as long. (the manga is like ishida had a TON of good ideas for an essay but then fleshed out the thing ten minutes before deadline and managed to completely lose what his original thesis was even if the thing was 10 pages long.) Basically. yeah. That kind of sums it up, my last point concerns the ending.

Not Cheap Ending: If you want to hear my take about how absolutely terrible re’s ending was, check out my The Many Sins Of Tokyo Ghoul :Re post, and we’ve discussed how the original’s manga ending was bad and well not really an ending, it just leaves you unfulfilled and takes you into “well I guess I have to start a whole nother sequel series ig...” but root A like? Actually ends it? If a reader didn’t know that there was any content after that, they could pretty much infer that hide’s death or almost death whatever you inferred out of that ending (again we’re ignoring re) allowed Kaneki to finish his character development and realize they needed to stop the war, which basically tracks with what’s going on in everyone else’s perspective- eto’s problem with the world because of what happened with everything, is basically like, all of aogiri, juuzou and shinohara, amon and akira and kaneki and they can realize all they have to do is just sit down and fucking stop it because none of them want to be fighting, hide is the catalyst for that because the CCG can see how Kaneki cares for him? And it’s so open ended that you could just like literally believe that and there’d be no way for that canon to tell you otherwise, or you could go onto re and whatever if you wanted to. I think that’s the best thing.

In conclusion, both have valid points, and in general I’d say that the manga goes better with :re and the anime is better as a stand alone but if I had to choose overall, this particular anime is better (taking into account only seasons 1 and 2), for mostly the reasons of favoring a simpler story taken with much more care and depth versus a more complex story with many, MANY imperfect elements, and I am aware I will get shot on sight for this opinion. So sue me.

#tokyo ghoul #hideyoshi nagachika #kaneki ken #tokyo ghoul :re #essay post #god i've been writing this for so fucking long #but i'm right #y'all fuckers asked for a fight? you're getting a fight #rowan's hyperfixation essays

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recurring-polynya · 4 years

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Apparently, if you send someone an ask, but then deactivate your Tumblr, the ask gets deleted. I got this from our old friend k-rukias, and fortunately, I already had it copied over, but anyway, that’s why this isn’t in the standard ask format. Anyway, k-rukias, I hope you’re still out there somewhere and there’s some way you can see this!

k-rukias asked:

you grasp byakuya’s character SO PERFECTLY it always makes me laugh out loud, especially your “Uncle B” stories. i’d love it if you could write more of the kuchiki-abarai family+ichika(maybe throw in some byakuya&toshiro being bffs) I SWEAR YOU DO THE DOMESTIC GENRE SO WELL one can tell you have kiddos 🥺💕

“Give Uncle Byakuya a big hug, Ichika,” Rukia instructed, stifling a yawn. “You’ll see him again on Saturday.” Despite the cheer in her voice, the second Ichika’s tiny face was buried in Byakuya’s chest, she shot her brother a thumbs up and a quizzical look.

Byakuya gave a very firm thumbs up in return. His inconsiderate adjutant was having yet another birthday, and Rukia had asked if they might hold a small family celebration at the manor this year. Byakuya wasn’t sure why. Surely the man would prefer not to see his commanding officer on his own birthday, but Byakuya loved his sister and had made the arrangements she requested.

Ichika finished rubbing her sticky cheeks all over the silk of his kimono. “Here, Uncle B,” she said, handing him a folded piece of paper. “It has to be just like this, okay?”

“Of course, my blossom,” he promised.

“No, it doesn’t,” Rukia mouthed to him behind Ichika’s back. “Okay, kiddo, you ready to go home and see if Daddy missed us?”

“I bet he fell asleep on the couch again!”

“We’ll find out! See you, Saturday, Brother!”

“Enjoy the rest of your evening, Sister,” Byakuya entreated her.

“If you have any questions, please call me,” she begged. “Or send a Hell Butterfly, or however you communicate with people these days.”

“I am very good at Text Messaging,” Byakuya assured her.

Rukia gave him an Extremely Disrespectful Look, which he tolerated, because she looked very much like Hisana when she made it.

“I will not have any questions.”

As his beloved sister and niece took their leave, he unfolded Ichika’s piece of paper.

He stared at it.

He had so many questions.

“I do appreciate that you texted before you came over,” Captain Hitsugaya informed him stonily. “But next time, could you text, like, more than a minute before you show up? Maybe wait for a reply?”

“Is now not a good time?” Byakuya asked. “Have I interrupted Squad 10 napping hours?”

“I just… would have picked up first,” Hitsugaya grumbled, trying to keep a stack of paper from falling off his desk. “And it’s always Squad 10 napping hours.”

Currently, Lieutenants Matsumoto and Kuna were sprawled out on the Squad 10 couches, snoring quite loudly.

“I have seen it worse in here,” Byakuya replied. “I am your,” he swallowed, “friend, and I accept your imperfections.”

Hitsugaya glowered at him. “What do you need?”

Byakuya spread Ichika’s instructions out on Hitsugaya’s desk. “Can you tell what this is?”

Hitsugaya’s eyes scanned the drawing: the lumpy creatures that might be rabbits, the crayon scribbles, the puddle of glitter. “Is this a test?”

“If it is, I am in danger of failing it,” Byakuya admitted.

“Ichika made this?” Hitsugaya guessed.

“I imagine the glitter gave it away.”

“Can’t you get Abarai to decipher it for you?”

“I cannot. I am hosting a ‘Surprise Birthday Party’ for him this weekend, and this represents Ichika’s vision of it. I need to identify the items in the picture so I can have them for the party.”

Hitsugaya nodded slowly. “Ah. These are probably balloons, then?”

Byakuya straightened up. “Balloons or lanterns? Or possibly the overhanging blooms of the wisteria?”

“You’re overthinking it. She’s five. It’s balloons. Can you ask Rukia?”

Byakuya’s mouth turned down at the corners. “Ichika’s art style bears a certain… resemblance to her mother’s. I am worried that if I ask for help…” he trailed off.

“Gotcha,” Hitsugaya replied brusquely. He sucked his teeth, and poked a finger at the page. “Well, this is obviously Abarai.”

“Yes, he is always distinguishable by virtue of the fact that she draws him three times as large as the rest of us.”

“Also, he’s the only one with pink hair and stripes,” Hitsugaya replied, raising an eyebrow. “Oversensitive, much?”

“I am only three inches shorter than he,” Byakuya grumbled. “The hair makes him look taller.”

“You are not getting any sympathy here, give it up,” Hitsugaya grumbled back. “He’s got a hat on, I think? A party hat?”

“Yes, I did get that far. We are all wearing hats.”

“Abarai also appears to either be wearing a lei, or he is in bankai.”

“A lei?”

“A flower necklace? We should have some around here, from the last time Matsumoto threw a luau.”

“Ah, thank you,” Byakuya replied. He had not actually expected Hitsugaya to be quite this helpful, and he wondered how he was going to repay the man’s patience in this matter.

“All this stuff on the table is… food, maybe? Gosh, I cannot tell what any of this is. These things look like fish, but they’re brown… taiyaki, maybe?”

“Oh, yes, I had figured that part out as well. Even I know that taiyaki is Abarai’s preferred celebratory food. I actually have a specially made mold--”

“You should make normal ones. Fish ones.”

“He likes Admiral Seaweed taiyaki.”

“It’s the man’s birthday, don’t make him pretend to like your weird taiyaki.”

“They have more crispy bits because of the arms and legs! He told me that specifically, in a complimentary manner!”

Hitsugaya gave him an Extremely Disrespectful Look. Unfortunately, the young man did not have the advantage of resembling Byakuya’s beautiful late wife.

Byakuya was distinctly Not Sure About This, but Hitsugaya had hit a wall and decided they needed to bring in ‘a bigger gun.’

Byakuya hadn’t actually set foot in the Squad 5 offices since Aizen’s departure. He didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about Aizen, generally, but at least the man had a classical taste in decor. Now, his former workspace more closely resembled the interior of an eclectic Living World coffee establishment for beatniks. One wall (but not the others) was painted orange, and covered in strange, stylized art that appeared to have been done by the captain and lieutenant themselves. The rug hurt his eyes. There was a beaded curtain.

“I don’t know why you thought I was going to have any insight on this, Shirou,” Lieutenant Hinamori grumped, squinting at the picture. “Renji’s the only one who can decipher these things.”

Byakuya could not help feeling the tiniest bit smug that he was not the only one who was sassed by his loved ones.

“Well, I figured you’d been to an Abarai birthday party or two,” Hitsugaya excused.

“Yeah,” Hinamori replied. “The grown-up ones. Unless this thing over here is supposed to be a tokkuri, and Captain and Lieutenant Kuchiki are arm wrestling, I can’t help you.” She frowned. “You’ve been to an Abarai birthday party, haven’t you?”

“They’re a little wild for my blood,” Hitsugaya excused. “And nobody likes drinking around their captain. I’ve been, but I usually leave before he starts bench-pressing people.”

“There are captains who come,” Momo pointed out. “And I doubt your presence would slow Matsumoto down, anyway, she’s impervious to that judgemental thing you do with your eyebrows.” She contemplated the paper. “What are these weird marks? Is this a speech bubble?”

“We couldn’t figure those out,” Hitsugaya admitted.

“Lemme take a look,” Captain Hirako, who was unfortunately present, announced. “Sometimes you gotta look at things from a different perspective.”

He turned the paper upside down. He turned it backwards. He turned it right side up, and turned his head sideways.

“I got nothing,” he replied. “Kid’s got good style though. And I think Momo may be onto something, actually. I went to Abarai’s last birthday party, and Kuchiki the Younger beat me at arm wrestling in an embarrassingly short amount of time.”

“It’s your noodle arms, sir,” Hinamori supplied. She stuck out her lower lip. “A different perspective, though, is not a bad idea. You know who you should go ask?”

Byakuya did not want to hear the answer.

“This is dango. This is katsudon. This is shaved ice.”

Byakuya was frantically taking notes.

“How… how can you tell?” Hitsugaya gaped.

Hachigou Nemuri regarded him with her serious, dark green eyes. “I have seen many of Abarai-chan’s drawings.”

Akon made a grumbling noise. “Abarai-chan’s drawing fuuuuu---udged up Nemu’s image recognition subroutines for months. I mean, it was a good thing, in the long run, I ended up implementing an entire art appreciation suite of dynamically created subroutines. It took me forever to figure out why she couldn’t recognize normal drawings of things, though.”

“What are these marks?” Byakuya asked, pointing to the funny squiggles hanging above everyone’s heads.

“Abarai-chan can’t write yet,” Nemu explained.

“Yes, I know that,” Byakuya replied.

“Writing is a form of communication that utilizes mutually understood symbols to convey an idea from one party to another,” Nemu recited. “Abarai-chan does not yet grasp the importance of a common dictionary in the delivery of information.”

Akon scratched his neck. “You’re saying Abarai-chan doesn’t know very many kana, so she just makes them up.”

“Correct,” Nemu agreed.

“Can you read them?” Hitsugaya asked hopefully.

“She does not employ a self-consistent character set.”

Byakuya and Hitsugaya’s eyes darted to Akon, who was unwrapping a piece of nicotine gum.

“She makes it up as she goes along,” he elaborated, cramming the gum in his mouth. “There is no translation.”

“Momo thought it might be a voice bubble, like in a cartoon,” Hitsugaya mused.

“Maybe it’s just a title to the piece,” Byakuya surmised. “Father’s Birthday Celebration’, for example.”

“Abarai-chan calls Lieutenant Abarai ‘Daddy’, not ‘Father’,” Nemu corrected.

“It was an example,” Byakuya bit off testily.

“This could be cherry shaved ice or strawberry shaved ice,” Nemu added hopefully. “Abarai-chan likes strawberry shaved ice, but I prefer cherry.”

“You are not attending this party,” Akon reminded her.

“I just thought Captain Kuchiki might be interested to know,” Nemu sniffed. “In case he felt like buying me a shaved ice. As a thank you for my services.”

Byakuya examined Ichika’s diagram and compared it to the celebratory items currently marring the beauty of his garden. He had the balloons. The hats. The dango. The taiyaki. Both strawberry and cherry shaved ice. “I think I have replicated everything,” he declared. “Have I missed anything?”

“You don’t have rabbit ears,” Hitsugaya replied dryly.

“The rabbit ears are symbolic,” Byakuya explained. “I am wearing the lei. You should put on a lei.”

“I am not putting on a lei. I am not in the picture at all, actually, so I think I should probably scram.”

“You could stay,” Byakuya replied, feeling a little odd about it.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t this a family thing?”

Byakuya blinked. “Family gatherings are large, mandatory, and unpleasant. This is a small party and I am very fond of the Abarai.”

Hitsugaya just stared at him.

Byakuya squirmed. “The fact is… I am not good at things like this.”

“Of course you are. Ichika adores you. Rukia and Renji do, too.”

A normal person would have wrinkled their nose, or sucked their teeth, but Byakuya wasn’t really into making facial expressions, so he just made his usual one and stared off into the middle distance briefly. “Hisana was very good with people. At these times, I often think about how easily she would host a birthday party for a brother-in-law, how natural she would have been with Ichika. She loved children.” He contemplated the drawing. “I am sure she would have interpreted this perfectly, text and all.”

Hitsugaya, who did make facial expressions, blew air out of his cheeks. “If it makes you feel better, I can stay.”

“I would, very much, appreciate it.”

Seike, Byakuya’s chief retainer, shuffled out onto the engawa. “Lord Kuchiki, the Abarai are here.”

“Please escort them out here,” Byakuya replied, plunking a hat on Captain Hitsugaya’s head, and one on his own.

“It’s so unusual for Uncle Byakuya to invite us over on a Saturday,” Byakuya could hear Rukia’s voice before he could see her. His impression was that the ‘surprise’ involved in this party was a figleaf for Ichika’s sake. Abarai was a fool, but he wasn’t an idiot.

“What is this?” Abarai exclaimed as he and his family stepped through the doorway, although he did a genuine double-take at Byakuya’s flower necklace.

Ichika’s face lit up as she took in the decorations, the food. But then her expression turned to dismay at her uncle, standing still and awkward. He had missed something. It was the text. It was important after all.

Hitsugaya’s elbow jammed into his ribs. “Surprise!” the younger captain yelled. A voice bubble! Of course!

“Surprise!” Byakuya added, belatedly.

“Happy Birthday!” they shouted together, with Rukia and Ichika joining in a beat later.

“Well, I’ll be!” Abarai did his best impression of a surprised person.

“Were you surprised, Daddy!” Ichika asked, jumping up and down and tugging on her father’s hand. “Were you?”

“I was very surprised,” Abarai reassured her.

“Why is Captain Hitsugaya here?” Rukia asked, utterly befuddled.

“I heard there was shaved ice,” Hitsugaya excused very quickly.

“Uncle B did all of it, Daddy, just for you! Isn’t it perfect?”

“Of course it is,” Abarai snorted. “If Uncle B did it, how could it be otherwise?”

#my writing #byahitsu brotp #kuchiki-abarai family feels #this is over 2k words it's no wonder i can't finish out my drabbles #happy birthday renji!#it's renji's birthday until i say it isn't

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feverinfeveroutfic · 3 years

Text

chapter six: a man of many colors

“let’s fall in love with music. the driving force in our living. the only international language, divine glory, the expression, the knees bow, the tongue confesses... the lord of lords, the king of kings.” -”man of golden words”, mother love bone

Joey led Sam over to the other side of the room once they had their cups of coffee in hand. They took their seats near the bathroom doors, far away from Cliff and the other boy Alex. The outside lights shone down on the crowns of their heads: Sam could make out sight of jet black hair atop Cliff's head, although when he tossed his hair back with a flick of his head, it disappeared. But that tiny ribbon of white on the right side of Alex's hair shone bright under those golden lights, even it being so small and slender. Through the shadows and the pane of glass, Sam could make out the sight of Alex's tummy poking out over his belt. She kept her eye on his lanky little body even as Joey returned to her with a muffin in hand.

“What'cha lookin' at?” he asked her as he took off the paper from the muffin stump.

“Alex,” she quipped almost without thinking.

“He's pretty cool looking, isn't he?” Joey said with that lopsided smile upon his face. “Got that li'l white stripe at the top of his head and he just stands out to everyone, too.”

“Marla, Aurora, and I were talking about his stripe not long ago and we were all just fascinated by it,” she added.

“I think it's a birthmark,” he suggested, “at least that's what I've heard.”

“You don't think of the hair getting marked at birth,” she pointed out, to which he shrugged as he picked off a piece of cranberry muffin and offered it to her. “Ooh, yes please.” She took the piece and stuck it into her mouth. “Light and fluffy,” she added.

“Still fresh from this morning,” he remarked. “But yeah, that's what I've heard about that little thing is that it's a birthmark. I don't really know for sure—I'll admit I dunno much 'bout biology.”

“I think it's interesting,” she continued as she swallowed the bite of muffin and took a sip of coffee.

“I do, too,” Joey admitted, but then he shuffled his weight; “I don't really like starin' at him, though, especially since he's still kind of a young buck. As far as I know, anyway. There's so much of this scene that's still a total unknown to me.”

“Yeah. He looks—kind of uncomfortable right there.” Behind the glass, Cliff chuckled at something and Alex dropped his gaze to the surface of the table before him with a nervous little smile on his face. Cliff said something and gestured towards him, and he shrugged at him, still with the nervous smile on his face. He set a hand on his little belly and he looked down at his waist and his thighs. Cliff said something and he replied with something else.

Cliff nodded his head and he stood to his feet: he then opened the door.

“I'll be right back—” he told Alex, who nodded at him as Cliff stepped into the coffee house. Sam showed him a pretty little wave and he winked at both her and Joey. She brought her gaze back over to Alex out there on the porch. He rested his chin in the palm of his hand and gazed out to the darkness. A thoughtful look rested on his face, and she wondered what he was thinking right then.

Cliff asked the barista behind the counter for a couple of muffins; Sam returned to Joey, who took a hearty drink from his cup of espresso. She eyed his throat and his slender shoulders all the while, and she imagined herself drawing him some more for school. He set down the cup and nodded his head.

“Sometimes all ya need is a cup of espresso to get ya movin',” he declared.

“But it's nighttime, though,” she pointed out.

“Better than a swig o' booze,” he followed up.

“True. But still. I can't see how you could need to get moving at nighttime unless you work graveyard shift.”

“But I do like this, though,” he remarked with a nod of his head.

“What, drinking coffee at ten o'clock at night?”

“Yeah. There's something kinda—what's the word, quaint? About it.”

Sam showed him a thoughtful little smile. She could understand where he was coming from with that, especially once she thought of her old life in California.

“Especially since we're in downtown New York City, too,” she added when she brought her cup to her lips for a drink herself. She caught a whiff of the caramel on the inside.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cliff hovering near the pastry rack next to the cash register.

“I still owe you a trip upstate,” Joey spoke before he took another sip of espresso.

“You still wanna take me up to Poughkeepsie?”

“Maybe,” he quipped. “Or maybe I'll take ya up to where my parents still live at and where I grew up—outside of Syracuse. It's kind of a long drive, though. I'd haveta get a brand new car, too, y'know.”

“One that won't catch fire,” she joked.

“One that won't catch fire, right!”

Sam looked over at Cliff, still by the pastry rack next to the cash register. He had stuck his hands into his jeans pockets and he gazed on at the painting on the wall next to him. She returned to Joey, who kept his cup of coffee by his mouth and nose but he didn't take another drink from it.

“Just a bunch of thoughtful boys,” she proclaimed.

“I'm just lookin' at that painting behind you,” he said with a gesture of his head. Sam peered over her shoulder at the long framed painting of a city street lined with dark buildings. A few white horses trotted on the pavement.

“Every shop I've gone to here in the City is so cozy and comfy,” she noted as she shook her shoulders a bit and returned to him; she caught another glimpse of Alex outside on the porch, but she had no idea what he was doing right then.

“That's the power of the City,” he told her with a raise of his eyebrows. “Even I can say that.”

“What's Syracuse like?”

“Nuthin' like the Big Apple. Nuthin' like it. It's funny, too—people often call it the donut, 'cause there's no inner city, like there's the freeway runnin' through the place in a circle and there's nothing else there. We also get snow at the weirdest times of the year.”

“Carson City was like that,” she said.

“Really?” He knitted his eyebrows together. “I don't think of Nevada as bein' like that.”

“Snow when it's supposed to be summer,” she continued. “In fact, come to think of it—New York City is kind of like both Vegas and Carson, and I picture Syracuse as being like Winnemucca or Elko, the latter is kinda down in a hole. A hole in the middle of the desert.”

“Kinda—like a donut,” Joey said with a nod of his head and the return of the lopsided grin. He offered her another piece of muffin and she took it for herself.

“Like a donut,” she echoed with a smile on her face.

Meanwhile, Cliff thanked the barista and took a fresh pair of muffins for himself and Alex. Sam noticed the one in his right hand was double chocolate, and the chips had melted a little bit. She watched him walk back outside to the porch: Alex's face lit up at the sight of that chocolate one.

“Fresh out of the oven, so be careful—” Cliff's voice fell out with the door closing behind him. Sam turned back to Joey.

“Aw, man, you could've gotten a chocolate muffin for us,” she said, to which he shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh, well. This is pretty good, though.”

“Oh, yeah. This is extra fresh.” Joey took another sip of espresso and then he raised a finger to her.

“Sit tight, I gotta use the boys' room.” He climbed to his feet and he made his way over to the little nook with bathroom doors next to them. Sam then turned her head to the right once again and she watched Alex eat up the chocolate muffin as if he was starving to death. Cliff said something to him and he eagerly nodded his head: a little curly lock of his jet black hair sprawled over his shoulder.

Sam flashed back on her old home life in California and Nevada, and she wondered, given he hailed from the West Coast himself, if he missed it at all. She felt at home in New York City but it was the very sight of him that made her think about the West Coast yet again. She wondered about him, more of his story there in the Bay Area. She was about to stand to her feet and walk out there to introduce herself to him, but before she could do anything, Joey emerged from the bathroom.

He gave his lush black curls a toss back from the side of his neck and he rubbed his hands together.

Sam caught that soft smell of soap on his skin.

“Ooh, that smells good,” she complimented him.

“I try my best,” he admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. “I could take ya home but—y'know.”

“You don't have a car anymore.”

“I hope that'll change soon.”

“But what're you gonna do, though?” she asked him.

“Frankie'll take me home,” he reminded her.

“Oh, yeah, that's right!”

“Don't worry 'bout me,” he assured her.

“I kinda do worry about you, though,” she confessed, and Joey raised an eyebrow at her. Outside, Cliff burst out laughing at something. Sam turned her a bit: he clapped his hands at something while Alex had tilted his head back over the top of the chair. He still had some muffin stump left over.

She returned to Joey and his raised eyebrows.

“You worry about me,” he almost whispered it.

“Well, especially after,” she started but she hesitated to choose her words; “—the car burning up in broad daylight on the freeway. You getting drunk and puking your guts out after dinner. I kinda worry about you, Joey. You feel like a friend to me. My upstate friend.” She lowered her gaze to his hands as they rested around his cup of espresso.

“Frankie and I were the first guys you met when you moved here after all,” he pointed out in a soft voice.

“Yeah, you were! The very first New Yorker dudes I met. Frankie also met my parents.”

“Frankie met your parents?” he chuckled at that.

“Yeah, he came over one day and my parents were in town then. It was a little awkward because he was one of the first New Yorkers I met and it was right after I moved here, so they were like 'wow, that was quick.' And yeah, my landlord Emile doesn't count—he's from New Orleans.”

“Love New Orleans,” Joey said with a nod of his head. “You ever been there?”

“I haven't, no.”

“The next time Anthrax goes out on a big ass North American tour and one of the stops is New Orleans, you oughta join us.”

“I'd have school, though,” she pointed out. “School plus Stormtroopers of Death and Metallica.”

“Busy lady.”

“Better than doin' nothin'.”

“Better than doin' nuthin', yeah. Tell you what—” Joey glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping on them. The barista had disappeared into the back room while Cliff and Alex stayed outside: they were alone in there. “—when I get a new car, I'll come get ya and I'll take ya upstate with me. To Syracuse.”

“Beautiful Syracuse,” she declared.

“Beautiful Syracuse on a lake and a forest—we'll go out to Lake Ontario, too, where my parents still live and where I grew up. Under one condition, though.” He finished off the rest of his muffin right then.

“What's that?”

He swallowed it down and cleared his throat. “It's not a date.”

“No, it's not,” she said. “I mean, you and I both said it ourselves the other night: I'm not your girlfriend.” “And I'm not your boyfriend,” he added.

“If anyone asks, I'll tell them that we're just friends.”

“Doubt anyone'll ask.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I just doubt it. Don't really see it happening.”

“What if someone calls me your girlfriend?” she asked him.

“We'll give 'em that logic.” He flashed her a wink. Those big brown eyes were clear and bright from the espresso: indeed, he tipped the cup back and finished off the rest of the coffee. “C'mon—let's go see if Frankie's willin' to take the both of us home.”

“I think Aurora's giving me a ride,” she recalled.

“Okay.” They both stood to their feet at the same time, and Sam picked up her cup and adjusted the strap of her purse. Joey held the door for her and they stepped out to the front porch. Alex had made his way over to the sidewalk while Cliff stood at the railing with a cigarette in hand.

“You guys headed out?” he asked them; he stuck it into his lips.

“Yeah, I'm hitchin' a ride with Frankie,” Joey replied as he brought his cup of coffee closer to his chest.

“Will we see you again?” Sam asked Cliff.

“You might be seein' me sooner than you think,” he promised her as he reached into his jeans pocket for a lighter. She pressed on to the sidewalk as if she was walking after Alex: Joey lingered close to her as they reached the dark street. Aurora strode out of the door with the bouquet of tulips Cliff had given Sam: the yellow petals stood out even in darkness.

“Wonder where Frankie and Danny went off to,” Joey muttered under his breath.

“Alex!” Sam turned her head to the right, and she spotted a little white van posted up at the corner. The back door slid open and she spotted Greg there in the back part of the van. She watched Alex as he sank down into the back seat of the van. Even in the darkness, she spotted that white sliver on his head as he took his seat. It was the last thing she saw before Greg slid the door shut and Legacy drove off into the darkness.

“Let's get outta this dark street,” Joey advised her, and he set a hand on her shoulder. Sam glanced back at Joey and the gentle expression on his face. Even in the darkness, she could still make out the clear look of his brown eyes. She hoped his eyes would stay clear as a bell like that more often as they crossed the street towards Aurora and Marla.

* * * * *

Sam reached the surface of the pitch black waters and she gasped for air all the while. She spotted Zelda up above her: she stared back at her with such a disgusted look upon her face. She rested her hands on what appeared to be nothingness right between her and Sam. It took her a moment to realize it was glass.

Sam turned her head and spotted Marla modeling before a big slender mirror. She didn't recognize Marla at first given she had dyed her hair to a plain platinum blonde, but she knew it was her. She wore a white dress with a long flowing skirt that seemed to go on forever.

It was her wedding dress. Indeed, she put on a blue bracelet which she took out from behind her ear. She wore a corsage on her other wrist.

Sam shook her head.

“Marla!” she called out to her from the waters. “Marla!” She never turned around. Instead, she kept looking on at her slim body wrapped up in that white dress. Sam returned to Zelda, right above her. Her dark face glared back at her from behind the glass. What appeared to be koi fish swam around her face and her hands.

She drowned above her, away from the waters.

Sam brought her gaze down to the stretch of waters before her. The sky was a rich rusty orange, but the waters were black. Where was he? Where did he go?

She paddled her hands about to keep herself afloat. “Where are you, baby?” she called out to the dark waters before her. Nothing. He was nowhere to be seen. Sam brought a hand to her face to keep the waters off of her skin.

The waters hardened underneath her and she landed on the seat of her pants. She peered behind her to the doorway: through the crack between the door and the frame, she caught the sight of the wedding. Marla's wedding. Marla's wedding to whom?

Sam climbed to her feet and she peeked through that sliver. She couldn't see Marla's face to her left there, but she knew it was her even with that bright blonde hair. She wondered if anyone could see her given the sheer amount of people in that room. The three tiered cake in front of her beckoned her for a slice by herself, before Marla and the lucky man had a slice themselves.

Indeed, he moseyed over to the cake with the knife in hand. Marla reached across the table to help him: Sam lifted her gaze to see—

“Joey?”

Those black curls glistened under the pure white light over them. Even on his wedding day, he kept his hair long. His sun kissed skin was even more sun kissed, almost as black as the waters she treaded within back there.

“Care for a piece?” Joey asked Marla, who gave her blonde hair a flip back. It was Marla, who had left Charlie for Joey at some point. She left Charlie and now she had made herself a bride with a bit of haste on top of that.

Sam opened her eyes to be greeted with bright yellow morning light. It had been a while since a dream had left her feeling confused, but that one in particular made her wonder if there was any truth at all. If Marla and Charlie had a solid grounding on their relationship at all. They seemed happy to her, but she couldn't really tell.

It was a bright beautiful spring morning in New York City, the heart of spring: the early morning sun shone upon the yellow petals of those tulips, which she had found a vase for and placed on the coffee table.

It would be another month before Stormtroopers of Death embarked on a little tour for themselves. Anthrax, meanwhile, were on a short break before they went out on a tour, and she decided to enjoy her first round of spring in the Northeast with her new batch of drawings. She still had to fetch that old journal from under Frank's couch cushion. They had gone off to a short string of dates the week before and thus there was no way she could go down there for anything: by the time she had remembered it, Frank had already locked up his place and followed Charlie out to their little van.

As she poured herself a cup of coffee, a knock on her door caught her attention. She opened the door to be greeted by Cliff: he still wore that wide brimmed hat from before and he smelled of fresh flowers once again.

“Cliff! What're you doing here?” She glanced behind him to ensure if he was alone. “How'd you find me?”

“Charlie and Frankie told me,” he answered with a shy little smile on his face. “I hope I'm not bothering anything.”

“Not at all! Um—come on in.”

He almost bowed his head as he entered her apartment: she spotted the bell bottoms around his feet, a striking look in comparison to Joey's tight fitted jeans. He removed his hat and shut the door behind him.

“Would you like some coffee?” she offered him as she made her way to the kitchen.

“I already had some, thank you,” he replied as he took a seat on her couch. “Those tulips still look good.”

“Oh, yeah, they're doing great...” She picked her coffee mug off of the counter and then returned to him. “So what brings you here?”

“We were just in town and—I wanted to swing by. Charlie told me you're usually up early so I took a shot in the dark.”

“Sometimes the shots in the dark are the most accurate,” she stated as she took a seat next to him on the couch. She gazed down at the bell bottoms and his big black boots with the pointed toes.

“Cowboy again,” she noted.

“Forever and always,” he replied, and she gazed on at him with her cup of coffee close to her mouth. She thought of Joey and if he had bought a new car at some point during their short stint of a tour. Her dream was still very fresh in mind and she wondered if there was any truth to it, especially with Zelda drowning and Joey and Marla getting married.

“Are you guys on tour at all?” was all she could ask of him. “Like, I know Anthrax is doing something right now, but what about the fabulous world of Metallica?”

“We're on break right now. We've been on break actually since March. It's kind of weird to me, if I'm being honest.”

“But you all come up here to New York City at the same time, though?” she chuckled at that.

“We're friends, Sam. We like to have little play dates every so often.”

“Play dates outside of the tour.”

“Right. I go into little book shops like the one you and I were in that one time and I check out the literature in there. Kirk and I are kinda like the bookworms of the band—we're like Scott, Frankie, Danny, and Charlie that way.” He paused for a second. “Have either of them showed you their comic book collections lately?”

She shook her head as she took a sip from her cup.

“Those guys and their comic books,” he declared. “James likes to give Kirk and me flak for being into books, but those guys are the real nerds, though. When they get back from their little tour and they've got some pennies on them, ask them to take you to the comic book store and see their reaction to it.”

“Will do,” she vowed, and she took a glimpse over at the tulips before them. As yellow as the day he gave them to her.

“You really are a man of many colors,” she said in a low voice. “You and Joey both.”

“Alex is, too,” he blurted out. And he turned to look at her with a twinkle in his eye. “You know, that kid from Legacy who's like crazy with the guitar even at his age.”

“Yeah.” She knitted her eyebrows at him. “Him, really?”

“Yeah, he just strikes me as that kinda guy,” Cliff confessed. “He's a pretty cool kid—like he should be in like the art student crowd, or with the band kids. Real quiet and soft spoken—although his voice alone will tell you a different story. He keeps to himself, like he's actually kind of shy. When we were sitting on the porch of the coffee house the other night, I actually had to coax the words out of him. But he's pretty bright, though—Satch taught him well. When Legacy comes back out this way, and we all get a chance to truly hang out with each other again, you guys oughta get together at some point. Or better yet, I'll see if I can introduce you to each other at some point.”

Sam took a sip of lemonade and gazed on at the low hanging afternoon sun through her rich dark lenses.

“So when does Metallica go on tour again?” she asked him.

“Like I said, we're on a long break at the moment,” he explained, “so we can have plenty more time to figure out the new album and figure out the bulk of the studio time and everything, because right now it's just setting things up and getting it all together. We pick up where we left off over in England in August and then we come back to California for a few dates after that, and then another long break followed by two more dates around New Year's.”

“Wow,” she breathed.

“We learned right away on the last record that we're gonna be on the road for hundreds of days at a time,” Cliff continued as he adjusted the brim of his hat. “Literally hundreds of days.”

“What're you guys gonna do in that other long break?” she asked him. “The one after the summer?”

“I think that's when we really get down to brass tacks,” he told her, “that's when we lay down the new songs that we've written and actually get moving on Master. Or Puppets, as James refers to it. I think, anyways—I have to ask Lars about it. The thing we were doing a couple of weeks ago was just getting things started and squared away—the kind of boring stuff Aurora has to put up with.” That brought a laugh out of her.

“You're a California girl yourself,” he lowered his voice to a near whisper.

“Yeah.”

“Each of those remaining North American dates are over in California. We oughta fly you out there with us. You, Marla, Aurora, and Zelda. You can see the Legacy in action on their home turf, too.”

“That is if I don't start school at that point, though,” she pointed out. “I start the ninth of September.”

“We'll get you home in time,” he promised her with a wink. She swallowed and then she turned to him. He gave her flowers. He danced with her. It was so obvious to her at that point.

“Cliff, it's hard to believe that—a kind boy such as yourself has had so much pain in your life,” she admitted. “Like I don't really imagine someone with as much agony as you've had with losing your brother at such a young age being so sweet and gentlemanly.”

Cliff shrugged his shoulders at her.

“As I've said, the pain drives me,” he replied. “It's what keeps me creating and it's also what keeps my heart alive...” His voice trailed off for a moment, and then he turned his head towards her. “You got anything to eat?”

“Not right now, no,” she confessed. “I've gotta get some things.”

“I also promised Kirk to get him a horror book from that book shop you and I were at that one time, too,” he added. “Some rare edition of it that he's like drooling over. When I was there, I saw it but I didn't get it because I didn't know what it was. I told him about it the other day and he goes, 'dude! You should get that when we're in New York next week!' And I was like 'okay, I'll do it. I think I'll have more money by then, too.' So—” He reached forward for his hat. “—I shall leave you to it, dear Sam.”

“The sooner the better for me, too,” she noted as she stood to her feet. She was about to make her way back to her room when he stopped her.

“Sam?”

“Yes?”

She faced him straight on. Cliff towered over her with that hat strong and high pointed towards the ceiling. He sighed through his nose and then he stooped down towards her. He pressed his lips onto hers. Even though Sam had touched herself in the past, she never had anyone else touch her lips before. The fine fuzz over his upper lip brushed against her skin, such that it made her bare toes curl right into the soft carpet beneath her. The feeling made the butterflies whir up in her stomach.

He pulled back and gazed right into her eyes.

“What was that for?” she could hardly speak.

“I wanted to show you the truth before I go,” he confessed in a low voice. The warmth crossed her face, and he winked at her. He adjusted the brim of his hat before he stepped out of her apartment without another word. Sam brought a hand to her chest for a second and then she fanned herself. It wasn't very hot in that apartment but she felt hot soon enough.

“I just had my first kiss,” she said aloud. “Oh my god, I just had my first kiss with the man of my dreams.”

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writingsofmyimagination · 4 years

Text

Silk Tie

Summary: Wide awake with midnight munchies? No problem. Dom Hobi (As if he’s anything else :P)

Hobi x Reader. (Established relationship)

Genre: 18+, PWP basically. Hobi ruins me like that. Some cute stuff though :P Not going to lie loved writing this hope its not too terrible.

Words:2564

Warnings: Swearing, Smut (Light bondage, Oral F receiving, Slight Exhibitionism, Spanking, Hint of Cum Play) Think that’s it.

Enjoy ARMY. Love You ALL! Please Reblog and Comment your thoughts.

“What time’s your alarm set tomorrow?” you inquired, rolling over enveloping your arms around Hobi’s chest. You were shameless in trying to share the body heat permeating of his skin; being greedy with the warmth already supplied to you buy the cosy duvet shrouding you both.

“4” Hobi groaned mid-stretch, one of his hands falling to your waist.

“What!” your normal tone hiked up a few notches higher looking up at him. The brown wavy hair pushed back from his forehead as he chuckled.

“We’ve got a shoot tomorrow what do you expect?”

“Well, wake me up at that time and BTS will need a new choreography lead” you toyed.

“I’ll do my best” he rewarded your forehead with a delicate kiss.

“How have you slept this week?”

“Too well”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I suppose not. I’ve missed this though” gripping his body where your hand rested.

5 hours later you were wide awake, irritated at the amount of tossing and turning you’d done. Huffing, you threw the covers off and made way for the kitchen. Your feet cooled on the marble floor as you stood focusing your sight on the cereal cupboard. You needed Frosted Shreddies. The moonlight slithered in the high panel windows, an opaque white stream guiding you to slump down feet under you on the sofa. The TV near on silent, your gaze barely registering the cascade of moving pictures in front of you. Going back up for seconds, the patchwork wheat lightly clanging in the porcelain bowl. Ears pricked up at the sound of light shuffling behind you. Hobi was heading over to you, grey trackies cushioned at his hips. The midnight beams bouncing of his delicious sculpted torso. His hands slid around your front, his head resting on your shoulder.

“What’s keeping you up baby?” he spoke softly. Since the news Hobi had been much more observant of you. He’d have never normally left the comfort of the bed to come and find you.

“Cravings” You lifted up he bowl and twirled in his grip to face him. The concern dropped from his face as quick as he dropped down to your waist level.

“Why don’t you let mummy sleep this is no time to be hungry? And you could have at least picked a nicer choice than dry shreddies” he spoke to your stomach holding a hand there. You chuckled batting his hand away

“Hobi, Stop!”

“What?” he whined dodging a playful attack to his arm. You finished your mouthful before answering.

“We don’t want the boys hearing it’s only been nine weeks” His smile was not the least bit apologetic, keeping this from them had been the hardest for him by far.

“And I doubt squishy can hear your disapproval of craving choice” you added.

“Hey you told me at nine weeks the ears get more defined even though squishy is just a grape” he protested taking the bowl from you and placing it behind you.

“Touché Mr Hoseok that I did” Unobstructed he was now free to pull you into a kiss, allowing yourself to be pushed back against the side. Your hands locked behind his neck as he left your lips chasing his. Finally getting Hobi back after week, your fluctuating hormones were giving you serious that only Hobi could currently take care of.

“Shouldn’t you be heading back to bed. You’ve got to be up soon. I’ll be fine” you suggested rummaging the bowl, hands hurrying to continue snacking.

“Probably” he agreed

“Buuut?” you goaded.

His hands ventured underneath your night shirt, his shirt and traced your sides teasing his hands just underneath your breasts. One of your weak spots.

“I missed you” He was creeping and you both knew it. You were enjoying cute Hobi, you knew it wouldn’t last. Your hands dropped, trickling over his chest.

“Missed what exactly” you teased. He knew he’d been busted. Something darkened behind his eyes when his desire took over; it was unmistakeable, devilish. He hesitated.

“Sure it wasn’t this?” you took lead of his hand and guided it beneath the slack waistband of your underwear. Slowly coating his slender fingers with yourself; both your eyes flashing wickedly at each other.

“This is most definitely part of it” You left him taking over your lead. His forehead fell meeting yours, his eyes focused on his hand. The atmosphere between you quickly deteriorating into a heated starved cluster.

“Fuck this!” he breathed. In moments your behind tight in his grip, legs secured round his waist. The anticipation to be underneath him on your bed quickly seeped down into panic. Your ass being placed on the glass dining room table. Your hands hanging on to his shoulders as you sheepishly looked at your surroundings.

“Hobi, what… here? We can’t” He was already pulling at your thighs, the silk of your underwear enabling him to have you almost perched on the edge.

“Why not?”

“Erm because you live with six other guys that could walk in any second” You’re protesting weak, underwear already being slipped down your legs.

“Better be quiet then while I have you dripping round my mouth then” The words could only tug at your core for a few seconds before his tongue was pressed flat scooping through your arousal. Your fingers lacing through his hair, tight enough to pinch at his scalp. Your other hand clamped round the edge of the table, colour draining from your knuckles. The slow stripes of his tongue becoming more pressured circular movements honing on your clit. He took a breath, admiring your inner thighs with wet delicate kisses.

“Tell me how good I make you feel baby” he requested, hot breath fanning your core. Fingers stroking your folds in his tongue’s absence.

“Sooo good, please Hobi” His lips curled up against your thigh.

“Uuughh” you winced as his teeth clamped down on your flesh.

“Gotta make sure I have you marked as mine princess”

“Hobi just give me your tongue for god’s sake” Your frown was met with ‘The Glare’. Blood rushed straight to your core, adrenalin pumping ferociously below your skin. You’d awakened the devil. And you were weak for it.

“Up” Any sweetness in his voice was long gone. You were not going to keep him waiting. Even the presence in front of you was different. His chest heaving, passionate eyes and tall toned stature now oozed authority. He swirled his finger round. Turn around. He flicked his finger down. Bend over on the table.

The cool of the glass table was felt through your thin cotton shirt.

“You don’t get to demand what I do to you, do you?” Passively informing you of your mistake.

“No, Sir!” you responded correctly.

“Arms behind your back” You cursed Namjoon silently for leaving a red silk tie slumped over the breakfast bar chair. He secured your wrists with little give.

“Hobi we’re In the kitchen” you reminded

Swear to god if someone walks in…

“You can count with me. 3 okay!” Your pulse already boiling and racing since the second he’d taken the wooden spoon from the cutlery draw. He completely ignored your previous words.

“MMhhm” you hummed.

“Yes” you quickly corrected. Flinching preparing for a reprimanding smack for not using words. It never came.

“1” he warned

“1” you responded through gritted teeth, stalling the moaning whine dead in your throat. The sting prickling on your behind.

“2” you continued, squeezing your thighs together.

“Fuck, I love it when you ask for your own punishment” he growled, the wooden spoon striking the same place again. A cry seeped past your lips permeating into the room. Hobi stepped to you pushing his weight into you gripping the back of your neck.

“Keep It down! Do you want the boys to know you’re here bent over for me in their kitchen?”

“3”

SMACK!

His palm nursed the rose tainted skin on your behind.

“Good girl, all pretty and pink” You hauled yourself on the table, more than ready for him to take you to the bedroom. Force pushing down on your shoulder blades shoving you back down, the heat of your breath fogging up the table.

“Hoseok please, just take me to bed” you whined.

“Oh baby, we’re not going anywhere” His hands trailed up your sides catching your shirt and rolling it half way up your body. His fingertips denting lightly at your sides, his touch becoming soft at your hips. They inched round your behind, dipping between your thighs. The pair of you both gasped, your hips chasing the direction of his fingers.

“Fuck…Baby I think you like the idea of being caught” Your mind was too busy honing in on how his fingers felt gliding through your arousal; your brows millimetre by milometer furrowing each time he purposely neglected your throbbing bundle of nerves. Your sighs and exhales increasingly becoming laced with frustration.

“Does my baby want something?” he coaxed, his bulge pressing into you was certainly one of your answers.

“Yes” you breathed

“Tell me”

“I want you, just touch me” His movements ceased, hovering over your clit, barely making contact.

“You’ve got to do better than that otherwise you’ll get nothing” One his hands was gripping at your hips tightly, refusing them to move into his frustratingly static fingers.

Fuck

“I need you Sir, pleeassee. I want you to fuck me, right here, hard!. I need you to make me cum”

“You spoil me princess” He groaned in appreciation. Instead of holding your hips back he pushed you into his fingers.

“I’ve fucking missed this” you moaned

“Yeah?” The slow circles on your clit spreading already had you arching your back. He shuffled behind you

“And this?” Your wrists pulled against the tie, fidgeting as his hand left you, trailing up to grip your hair.

“Have you missed how good my cock makes you feel” He asked coating it in your answer, you rolled your head, forehead on the glass.

“Mmmmm” you responded in a hum; not wanting to open your mouth for fear of your volume control failing.

“Words!” he scolded

“Volume down baby” he warned. Hair yanked back, he pulled you onto him, hard. His warning was lost.

Your whine was loud and drowned out with an expletive. He refused to move letting you to adjust to him or to listen for any movement elsewhere is the dorm. Or both.

“Such a dick” you breathed.

“But I’m all yours baby” he whispered in your ear. Your hair still gripped. Pulled back against him. His breath passing over your neck in a warm breeze.

“Now if I let you go are you going to be quiet while I fuck you on my kitchen table?” words falling across your skin like honey, clenching around him. You loved when he spoke filth in your ear; and he knew it.

“Yes” it was more of a plea than anything else.

“Good, cos I’d hate to not let you cum cos you can’t do what your told” His grip relinquished and he shoved you back down. Hands harshly digging into your hips stabilising you, his hips already bucking into you roughly. You struggled to filter through your cries and moans into soundless bursts. Becoming too much his hips slowed. Drawing out of you so slowly. Pushing back equally torturously.

“Yellow” You whined. You used this warning for only one reason. To signal to Hobi you were near some kind of limit. He would stop momentarily, and give you free reign to say whatever it was that you needed him to know in that moment.

He stopped.

“What is it princess?” Concern suspended heavily in his voice, it had become more weighted since the pregnancy started, understandably so. Especially with how hard he could go. You’re convinced he has slivers of sadistic tendencies beneath that sunshine smile of his; not that you’ll ever complain.

“It’s too hard to keep quiet, I need..something for my mouth” You breathed. Rather tell him you’re not going to be able to achieve what he wants than not being given release you needed after time apart.

“Is that so?” he teased pulling out of you even more slowly.

“Yes! You feel too fucking good” you complained while obviously not complaining. Stroking the shaft of his well-deserved bedroom ego. The silk of the tie loosened around your wrist, your body spun round, tie secured at your wrists again, in front of you. The ache in your shoulder washed away with the fresh movement, synovial fluid flowing blissfully around the joints. The pair of you out of breath as he hooked your arms over his neck hoisting you onto the table; pulling the back of your thighs forward.

“Use me baby” he panted lining himself back up with you. The strands of his hair were locked firmly in your fists, bracing yourself.

“You close baby?” Your teeth and mouth clamped down onto his shoulder, his skin absorbing the moan he elicited from you with his thrust.

“Mmm” Your ability to formulate words was lost, every thing focused on how the muscles in your lower stomach began to tighten, his shoulder was already blossoming red under your mouth. Your hands had no energy left to pull his hair, falling limp into the restraints. Your moans against his skin became soundless, energy drained to the bundle of nerves in between your legs.

“Cum for me” With the pressure of his finger against your clit, everything unwound. The top half of your body froze, nails clenching into his neck. The bottom half of your body convulsed, unleashing the surge of dopamine flooding your nervous system. Your muscles spasmed clenching around him causing him to still inside you; letting you ride it out until the waves calmed.

“Why did you stop?” His hands stumbled your restraints undone, hooking the tie round your neck.

“Knees!” he ordered

That’s why

Normally you’d flat out refuse, roll your eyes at least but

1. You were in no mood to be a brat and be disobedient

2. The way his eyes glimmered at the image of you on your knees, picturing his cum smeared over the bottom half of your face was too hard to refuse.

“Your too fucking good to me” His praise ignited your smile like a christmas tree, his finger tipped your chin upwards and you stood following his hand. He wiped your face with the silk round your neck.

“Hobi!” you laughed pinching the tie from his grip.

“What?” his tone a pitch higher, he winked sticking his tongue out at you.

“You’ve just wiped your cum off my face with Joon’s tie”

“And? it’ll wash”

“You’re unbelievable! I’ll never look at it the same way ever again” You chuckled retrieving your dignity in the form of your underwear from the kitchen floor.

“What if he wears it to our littluns first birthday party” he was exaggerating his words, teasing your embarrassment further

“Or oh my god what about on stage, at an intervie…” you launched the light soiled fabric directly at his face.

“Okay I’m going to bed” you announced shaking your head, doing your upmost to hinder your lips curving up.

“Love you” he lightly called after you. All he got you from you in return was your middle finger.

“I’ll be in a minute baby”

#ksmutclub #smutcentralnet #kwritersworldnet #bts #hyunglinenetwork #btsguild #networkbangtan #bangtanarmynet #kpopwonderlandtag #hobi x reader #bts jhope #jhope #jung hoseok #bts x reader #bts smut #jhope x reader #silk tie

251 notes · View notes

weclassygirl · 4 years

Text

𝐡𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥

Word count: +5.1k (clownery at its finest)

Pairing: coa!step x oc!ava

Summary: Step actually had help in finding V when she got taken in Tokyo...

Warnings: softness, mention of nightmares

Author’s note: hello, the lovely kat from @the-darklings let me write for her hacker disaster boy Step from her fic “children of ares”, alongside my own oc. as always English is not my first language so beware. take care everyone <3

Pinterest board (includes Ava's apartment)

Gif credits (x)

The knock on her door comes just after midnight. She's not expecting anyone at this time, only in the morning hours, but maybe her client changed his mind.

She goes to the door and looks through the peephole to see a familiar slender figure standing behind it. The woman steps back and sighs. She was worried sick.

She opens her dark door to the man that she haven't heard from in a few weeks. He’s wearing his signature round sunglasses and it still makes her wonder how can he see through them. He sports a striped yellow shirt with suspenders underneath a light wool coat. He holds a laptop in his hands.

A worried and confused expression makes its way onto her face as she opens the door more widely. “Step?” she questions.”What are you doing here? Where have you been?” the woman wonders out loud.

“Buonasera Ava, I am in dire need of your helping hands and brain.” he tells her quickly with a grin growing on his face. He doesn’t respond to her last question.

Ava raises her eyebrows at him. “Dire need, you say?” she acknowledges slowly, waiting for his response. She haven’t seen him in weeks and even tried to contact him but to no use.

“I’ll pay for your services in a form of some hugs and Skittles?” he offers with a playful smile playing on his lips.

She looks up at him, barely seeing his blue eyes through the dark glasses. “Hmm… tempting.” she hums thoughtfully. Ava closes her eyes for a moment and sighs opening the door wider. “Alright, get in.” she invites him to her apartment.

As he walks through the door he says “Have I told you how much I adore you?” and she chuckles, her back turned away from him as she closes and locks the door. Step is patiently standing in the small hallway.

“Don't say it too fast, you still haven't told me why you need my help and where you've been.” she responds as he hangs his coat on one of the hangers on the wall.

“Of course, where are my manners.” he reaches up to his face, takes off the round glasses and puts them in the lapel of his shirt. “I need your help in finding someone.”

Ava draws her eyebrows together in confusion. “Finding someone? That's the easiest thing in the book, you don't need my help for that.” she says a matter-of-factly. Tracking is truly one of the easiest thing a hacker can learn. Why would he come to her in the middle of a night with a request that he could have handled on his own?

“I'm afraid that I do… help me Ava, you're my only hope.” he clasps his hands together in a silent plead. Ava turns her head to the side and scoffs. “Bold move using that reference against me.” she warns him with a smirk on her face.

He steps a bit closer. “You love it.” Ava looks up at his towering frame and rolls her eyes and breaths in. “Okay, turn on your laptop.”

“Right away.” he salutes you and moves to the small kitchen island connected to the rest of the countertop. He pulls out his laptop while Ava begins to make coffee for both of them, she can already feel that it’s gonna be a long night, but that has never stopped them.

As Step taps away on his laptop she pulls out two mugs and pours the dark liquid. She places the mug next to him as he steps out of the seat and points to it invitingly. Ava sits in the dark chair and stares at the screen in front of her.

“So what am I looking at exactly?” she asks as she sips on the hot coffee. He leans over her shoulder and looks at the screen.

“This is as far as I could go into the server. I thought that you could use one of your fancy programs and boost this up a little.” her gaze is focused on the screen but the woman bends her neck and narrows her eyes at the man.

“You could have written one by yourself.” Ava tells him and he pulls back to lean against the counter. “Yes, but you know me, I am too lazy for that.” he admits with a tilt of his head.

She turns to the bright screen and begins to tap in various commands that could help her speed up the process. “But not too lazy to come way over here asking me to do that apparently.” she comments with slightly more opened eyes. A small smile is etched onto her face and Step hangs his head down and laughs.

“Touché, carina, touché.” he admits and moves to sit next to Ava.

“And who am I looking for?” the woman questions, not removing her eyesight from the screen filled with various of commands.

“A woman that goes by V or The Vipress.” he informs her. She stops her typing and looks at him. He’s sitting close to her, their arms almost touching.

“That’s why you’ve been gone? Cause of some girl?” she asks him, a hint of irritation lacing her voice. Step only smiles faintly. “Well, not exactly. My boss wants me to find her, if I do that I get to live the rest of my days.” the tattooed man says it as if it’s the most obvious thing.

Ava ponders at his answer. “So he will kill you if you don’t find her?” she says slowly, but Step doesn’t respond her right away. The golden haired woman turns to him fully, worry evident on her face. “What did you got yourself into?”

Step only draws in a breath and squints. “You see I rather not answer that now.”

“Step…” she warns him, the laptop next to her momentarily forgotten.

“You’ll get mad.” he points out. “Of course I'll get mad. You're gone for a few weeks with no contact whatsoever, I thought that Slifer killed you.”

Slifer. The cyber terrorist group both of them have been apart of at some point. Step has run with them longer then Ava. The woman only worked with them on a specific projects. Never lingered around, but always stayed a bit longer to catch up with Step. Both of them became very fast friends, impressed by both of their skills and fond of each others personality. He was always the one to light up the mood as he walked into the room, while she was also the same but more reserved, preferring to work in peace. The only person that turned out to be able to break that peace without really interrupting was Step.

After Ava stopped working for Slifer, she exchanged contacts with Step, should the one of them need help. He never did and neither did she but he always visited her to talk, watch movies, share some work or even go out sometimes. But now, this time is an exception as he sits next to her, asking for help.

“Oh, I am not with them anymore.” he says bluntly. “What?” Ava asks confused.

“I am not with them, I am with some other group now.” he informs her. The confusion on her face only grows. She knows that Step is highly secretive, she is too, but they trust each other… sort of. “What group?” she questions further.

The tattooed man looks at her and presses his lips into a thin line. “Promise you won’t get mad.”

“Step.” she warns.

“Please.”

She sighs. “Fine.”

Step watches her carefully before answering. “I am working with Camorra now.” he squints at Ava, expecting her reaction.

The woman blinks. That was not the answer she was prepared for. Step looks into her green eyes and notices a gleam of the lamp reflecting in them. He can even see his tiny silhouette in them.

“You… you work with Camorra?” she asks doubt founded. He nods and she steps out of the chair and walks back and forth for a moment. She stops and heads towards Step, hitting him in the arms repeatedly. “Are you completely out of your mind?” she raises her voice slightly.

“Most of the time yes and- ow! you promised.” she stops her actions and glares at him, fire dancing in her eyes. “It’s not like I joined them. The boss himself recruited me.”

“Giovanni D’Antonio hand picked you?” she questions with a slight suspicion. “There’s gotta be a catch.” Ava says this as she sits down on the seat at the counter.

“There is none. If I find that girl he’ll let me stay with them and even help take Slifer down.” he tells her quickly. If he says that there is no catch then it has to be right. Step is… paranoid, to say the least. He would check any little information just to confirm his speculations.

She can’t argue with him, he’s right. Camorra is known for its brutality and power. There is a reason for why they rule in Italy and it came with tons of shed blood. Ava just looks at Step and gives up. “I hope you know what you’re doing.” she whispers loud enough for him to hear. “Alright, back to your girl.” Ava switches her attention from his piercing gaze to the bright screen of the laptop. “When did she went missing?”

Step scoots in closer. "About nine days ago, in Tokyo." He informs Ava as she begins to work and enter the necessary codes and commands.

"One of the most crowded cities in the world." she tilts her head in affirmation. "That definitely doesn't complicate this whole thing." she adds sarcastically and grins faintly.

"Now you see my problem." Step comments and leans back in his seat sipping on his coffee. The pleasant smell has already traveled through the whole apartment and it gives Ava a sense of comfort.

As the woman taps away on the laptop she notices that the whole tracking may take more time than she thought. Step had a good reason to come to her, this whole process begins to look like a maze. "Damn, that's gonna take a while."

Over half an hour passes as Ava plugs in one of her USB drives with a program that could help with the tracking. As the laptop complies with it, Ava and Step try to catch up. He tells her that he run away from Slifer cause they used and betrayed him. He says that Giovanni made him an offer that he couldn't refuse if he valued his life. Ava listens intently to his story and wonders if that could circle back to her. Both of them were close at their on and off time at Slifer, they knew that Step was the only person able and allowed to reach her. She wants to help him take them down, but she prefers to work from her hideouts.

This apartment is her own and only Step knows about it. His paranoid tendencies rubbed of on her. She's grateful for that but finds it annoying sometimes. Always having to watch her back.

Ava moves her attention back to the laptop and taps in some of the last codes that only she has access to. The laptop screen stops as she exclaims. "I think I may have something." Both of them look at the screen… all of it in Japanese.

"Now that's another problem." he points out with a gesture of his tattooed hand. "Sadly, I don't know Japanese that good." he pouts and looks to Ava.

She smirks in his direction. "Aren't you glad to have me on hand then? I still remember some stuff unlike you." she responds in a slightly judgy tone. Step notices it but doesn't comment, instead a smirk of his own forms on his face.

Ava's gaze hardens on the screen. "It's some sort of report." she mutters, her voice low. "The girl has been captured and moved to a secure location at the edge of the city." she roughly translates, her Japanese a bit rusty.

"At least that narrows it down. What about that?" he points to the symbol on the edge of the screen. Ava immediately scans it and both of them are faced with one word.

"Yakuza?" she wonders out loud but doesn't ponder about it for too long. It's Japan, they rule in it. "Probably the ones that took her." Step only hums in confirmation. "You know them?" the woman questions.

"My new boss is not a fan of theirs." he informs her. The space is filled with silence, the only sound that can be heard is the tapping on the keyboard. Ava suddenly hangs her head and huffs, Step looks her way as small strands of hair fall in front of her face. "Can't believe you're working for him." she exclaims.

"Excuse me, I just got there over a week ago." he says with a playful undertone.

"And you should have left them right away." she tells him, worry beginning to lace with her voice. "It's Camorra, Step. You really want to get involved in their business?" she questions him and stops working on her laptop for a brief second.

Step only sighs and his following words are quiet, which is unusual for him. "It's better than staying with Slifer and they could actually help us take them down. Another chess piece off their board I guess."

The tranquility fills up the space between them. Serious conversations are not their thing, but sometimes they have to have one of those to voice their concerns. Their world is not safe for anyone, with him now being wanted it gets even more difficult. Ava's thoughts are interrupted with a soft ping coming from the laptop. Both of the hackers look its way and Ava starts to panic as she sees multiple stuff and windows popping up on the screen.

She quickly crosses the small space of her apartment to her bag and pulls another USB from her collection and attaches it to the laptop. Step watches the whole situation like a movie, not moving from his seat since he knows it won't be good use. If Ava is set on something then it's in better mind not to interrupt her.

The woman taps something on the keyboard and the whole commotion on the screen stops. She sighs relieved. "I am truly glad that I came to you." Step comments from her side and chuckles. She releases one of her own. "Yeah, you would have been dead without me." she bites back.

"May I?" the man points to the laptop. Most of the work is done, the only last thing is for Step to finish the tracking. Ava stands up from her seat and switches places with Step. He begins to tap away as she takes both of their mugs with finished coffees and place them in the sink with a soft clink. She quickly cleans them and turns to the tattooed man. The ink reaching up his neck, cascades down his arms up to his finger tips. She used to trace them whenever she had a pretty rough nightmare and he was trying to calm her down.

Step was kicked out of his house but Ava never had one. She grew up in shelters without even knowing her family. The only thing she remembers as she tried to find them was their reaction to her standing at their doorsteps with a small baby in her mother's arms. She saw that she doesn't fit in their little dream so she left, traveled from country to country until she found herself in Italy.

She met Step at the Slifer, two competitive hackers trying to get by in life. Slifer took an interest in them when they found out about their hits, both of them targeted at some big corporations. They offered a place in their group, Step accepted right away but Ava agreed to work on some occasions.

"You're gonna stay with them." it's not a question, more of an observation. Step looks up from the laptop and stares into her eyes. Her expression neutral. He turns his gaze to the screen and adds finishing touches to tracking the missing woman.

"I have nothing better to do and this time, who knows, it might get me somewhere."

"It could lead you to trouble. You have a tendency to bring them to you like a magnet."

Step grins. "Everyone needs a bit of danger in their life, carina."

"Not if it kills you." she warns with a playful tone and a hint of smile.

"You could join." he suddenly says and Ava raises her eyebrow. "I'm sure they would gladly accept your services." he finishes with a small curl of his lips.

"Camorra doesn't just accept random people."

The Italian mob picks their crew very carefully, if you have some resemblance of skill or talent they consider taking you in. Camorra has eyes and ears everywhere, they know about cyber groups working in the undergrounds, they have enemies in them. Some fear them and step back but there are some that think that they could overpower the mob.

"The accepted me." Step proclaims, the bright light of the screen illuminates his pale face.

"Yeah, cause you were staying with Slifer longer than I did. You being hunted by them made you draw attention to yourself." Ava sits down on the seat next to him and leans the side of her body on the counter. Step briefly side eyes the blonde haired woman.

"You need to live a little Ava. Those jobs that you take up on aren't worthy of your precious brain." he taps her head with his tattoed finger. She leans in closer to him.

"At least I make some good money out of it." she keeps her gaze on him as if to challenge the man. He's not backing down and begins to smile. Both of them start to laugh and in the midst of the cheerful atmosphere the laptop stops it's movement and shows a map. Or more likely a location. They found V.

They can see guards placed in various places outside of the secured underground facility and also some blueprints with the layout of the place.

"Yes!" Step shouts and immediately picks Ava up in a hug. She yelps in surprise, both of them laugh with victory, Step gives a small peck to her head, cheeks and puts her down on the ground. "You" he points to her "are brilliant!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You don't have to thank me." she says nonchalantly with a grin.

"Oh, but I do." he reaches to his pocket and she hears a rustling of a paper. He pulls out a bag of Skittles and offers them with his hands, slightly bowing. "For your trouble, my lady."

She scoffs and takes the red bag from him. "I am flattered." she opens the candy and takes out the yellow ones and gives them to the man in front of her.

"Do you have a phone I could use?" he asks and she puts the candy bag on the counter.

"Yeah, let me just get it real quick." she crosses the room to her wardrobe and pulls out a box filled with files, burner phones, CD's and USB drives. She takes one of the phones and tosses it to Step. He dials a number as she sits on the couch and turns on the TV, briefly watching the news.

She hears Step talk with who she presumes is Giovanni, in Italian. He quickly tells him that he found the Vipress and sends him every information that both of them found. He doesn't mention anything about Ava and she has nothing against it. She rather work from the sidelines than risk being on the radar of Camorra.

They probably think that Step is at his own apartment and tell him to come to the mansion at 9am. It's currently nearing 1:30am.

As Step finishes the call, Ava places a blanket and a pillow on the couch for the man. He turns in her direction and sees what she's doing.

"Oh, there's no need for that." he says, lifting his hands up in protest. She looks at him with one of the pillows in her hand.

"Yes it is. It's an hour drive from here to your apartment and it's gonna be raining at night anyway. You can stay for the night, it won't kill you." she comments placing the pillow on the couch. "And I still owe you from the last time."

The last time Ava stayed at Step's place while she was running away from one of her clients. Ava has a rule, she doesn't take up the same client twice, Step being the exception. That time the client needed her skills again but she refused which resulted in her being wanted by them. She had to leave the apartment she was occupying at that time and seeked out help with Step. He was reluctant at first but eventually agreed.

Step hangs his head in defeat, he knows she won't take no for an answer. "Up for a movie night?" he proposes.

"Not a movie, but we can watch some TV show. Aren't you supposed to get up before nine or something?" she sits down on the light couch and Step sits next to her, their knees almost touching.

"The definition of sleep is non existent in my mind." he takes the remote and starts flipping through the channels and stops at "The Office".

"You'll regret that in the morning." she says, her gaze focused on the screen. Step briefly side glances her before his attention switches back to the show.

They watch a couple of episodes before Step feels a weight being pressed on his shoulder. He looks down and sees asleep Ava leaning against him. She needs sleep more than Step, she can handle all nighters to a certain point but loves to sleep in late.

Step turns off the TV, carefully moves to not wake up Ava and picks her up and places her in her bed. As he covers her with a blanket her phone pings with a message. He looks towards the sleeping woman and reaches to turn the phone off but his attention is caught with the content of the message. A threat. He reads it and guesses that it must be one of her clients wanting to work with her again. Step turns the phone off and decides that he will ask about it in the morning.

He crosses the room to the couch and places his glasses on the table and covers himself with a blanket. It's dark in the apartment, he hears a faint tapping on the windows. Rain begins to hit it and the sound of it lulls Step to sleep.

Step wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a soft whimper coming from Ava. The man notices that she is having a nightmare and quickly comes over to her side. He knows that waking her up will be no help, so he settles with something that he knows could be of use.

He takes her hand in his tattoed one and traces soft patterns on it. Her whimpers calm down and she immediately relaxes in his hold. Nightmares are common for both of them and they found some ways to help the other throughout the years. The first time he tried to get her to calm down from a nightmare, she almost hit him in the face with a lamp. Now he knows that it’s safer to just calm her as she sleeps.

For him it’s just slowly waking up, without shouting at him, the shouting only worsens the nightmare. She used to just place her hand on his arm or cheek and whisper to him to wake up. Both of them are haunted by their own demons and still manage to smile and be happy despite all of the shit that they had to go through.

The clock next to her shows 6am. Step decides to start his day, he doesn't need that much sleep anyway.

He turns on his laptop and goes through the network, looking at the news and continues writing a program that he started designing, occasionally looking to Ava to make sure he didn’t woke her up. He works quietly and soon enough it's 7:30am.

Ava wakes up to the smell of a fresh coffee. She looks at the clock on her stand and turns on her phone to see one message. She decides to get out of the bed and head to the kitchen. In it she finds Step, turned with his back to her. He acknowledges her with giving her a cup of warm coffee. She takes a sip and immediately melts at the feeling of a sweet liquid warming up her body.

Step watches her and smiles. "Buongiorno Ava." she looks into his blue eyes and responds with a soft "Hi."

Both of them move to the couch, listening to the gentle tapping of raindrops on the window sill. They sit in a comfortable silence before Ava decides to speak up.

"So… you're Camorra now." she says softly.

"I think so." he answers. "Kinda neat, I'll have another place to stay if something happens, they'll pay me some good money." he turns to the woman beside him, the mug warming his hands. He looks down to his cup. "I saw a message on your phone."

"Oh?"

"Yeah… Is someone after you?" he says with a slight worry evident in his voice.

She looks to him and shakes her head. "No." she exclaims but Step feels that this isn't the end. "Well, I'm not sure now. It's just some assholes that needed me for another job, even though I told them that I don't work with the same people twice." the blonde explains.

Step puts his mug down on the table. "That message looked like a threat." he says warily. The glasses on his head reflecting the morning sunshine that started to peak out from the rainy clouds.

"I have it covered." she puts her mug down as well and leans her side on the couch, facing the tattooed man. She leans in a bit closer. He looks at her, doubt filling his face, an eyebrow raised. He doesn't believe her. "I'm serious, you have nothing to worry about. I had a similar situation before and handled it, you know that."

He fully knows that she's capable of surviving and successfully running away from people and problems. But still the thought of losing a person that actually tolerates him, that has been beside him through thick and thin…

"If you need anything-"

She cuts him off. "Yes, I know, I turn to you. Noted."

The silence fills up the air as both if them sit on the couch. They just study each other, Step sports small, nearly invisible cuts on his face while her own shows tiredness from just waking up.

"When Slifer is gone, text me. We have to celebrate somehow." she addresses him and places her head on her hand. "You could always help Camorra with that too."

She looks at him like crazy. "And risk them making me a target? No thank you, I value my life… even though I helped you with that girl." he chuckles at her explanation and some sort of weight drops from her shoulders.

Step looks at the clock beside her bed. 8:10am. The man sighs and begins to rise from the couch.

"I have to go, don't wanna lose my hand or head on my first day."

Ava raises up too and both of them move to the front door of her apartment. "You'll be fine. I'm pretty sure you're smarter than all of them combined." she admits as she follows him. He takes his coat from the hanger and puts it on.

"You're pretty sure? Well call me hurt, I thought you had me for a genius." he comments with a hand placed on his chest, as to show that he's truly wounded.

"I have you for pretty annoying genius most of the time."

He beams and raises his eyebrows in amusement. "You think I'm pretty?"

Ava smiles and places her own hand on his chest, pushing him towards the door. "Always a charmer. Just go, I'll call you later. I have a potential client in an hour anyway."

"You still takes those? In your home?" he questions with slightly widened eyes.

"Not in my home, are you mad?" she exclaims. "Some museum gallery, it's just info gathering. They'll send the rest through the network."

Ava unlocks the door and reaches for the doorknob. "Careful with that. Everyone and everything can be hacked nowadays." he says it with a smile like a Cheshire Cat.

She points between them. "But not us."

"That's why we have people hunting us like witches… Alright, thank you once again for your help carina. If you need me, just ring the doorbell to Camorra, I'm sure they'll open without a trouble." he grins as you open the door.

"Yeah."

As he walks through the door he turns around one last time before leaving. "You shouldn't be hiding your talent Ava. It's no use." he tells her. She knows that he's right, but she can't risk it.

"I call it being precautious. You should have understand it, with you being all paranoid." she wiggles her fingers at him and he chuckles.

He haven't seen her this joyful in weeks, besides not seeing her in weeks. He’s been away, work has been keeping her up all nights and she is known to be a stubborn perfectionist.

"And now I am even more safe and paranoid with the lovely Camorra." he smirks.

Ava tip toes to him, puts her hand on the side of his face and pecks his cheek as a goodbye. He softly holds her waist.

"I'll see you around Step." she pulls away and he puts on his glasses.

"Likewise Ava." he bows slightly and leaves the woman's apartment. She watches as he walks away when she shouts after him.

"You owe me!" her voice echoes throughout the hallway and she sees his faint figure raise his hand up as if to say Of course.

He disappears behind the corner and Ava closes her door, locks it and leans against them. She smiles and shakes her head. The woman moves further into the apartment beginning to prepare for her next client.

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moominquartz · 4 years

Photo

rating: T fandom: Steven Universe prompt: Secretly Drawing the Other warnings: None Apply word count: 3.4k requester: @kohakhearts

[IMG attached]

Connie is in desperate need of a reference picture.

My first complete fic for Fluff Bingo, which is something solely in a writing discord I’m apart of! Yes, it was inspired by BTHB, but it’s fun to have something to go to when I’m all out of angst juice. :)

[Read on AO3!]

~*~

Connie has never been especially talented at anything outside of school. She wins only as many tennis matches as she loses, and she struggles with the advanced sheet music that most of her peers seem to pull off flawlessly. Her grades are always A’s, sure, but that hardly seems like talent or skill, only an ability to test well.

The one thing Connie has never allowed herself to itemize — never allowed herself to compare herself to others, no matter how tempting it is — is her ability to draw.

To be fair, she knows she isn’t very good. When she begins, she’s heavily influenced by the wide-eyed, shoujo anime she adores, and proportions are the furthest thing from her mind. She draws solely for the fun of it, for pure expression. She draws when she’s ecstatic, she draws when she’s angry, she draws when she’s so sad that her tears stain the pages.

It’s only pencil drawings, but they’re very personal to her, and it’s something she doesn’t want anyone knowing she’s doing. Her parents know, because they’re her parents and she needs them to buy her the sketchbooks and the pencils. None of her friends do.

No one except Steven.

“Whoa,” Steven whispers with wide, childlike awe as he holds her sketchbook between his hands. He cradles the book as if it were scripture bound in expensive, gilded leather. “Connie, you’re amazing.”

She blushes. “Oh, it’s not anything special.”

“Are you kidding?” He looks at her with such fervent belief that it throws her off-kilter. “Connie, I don’t know anything about drawing, but look at all the details you put in here!”

That isn’t quite true; Steven draws as well, though maybe not as frequently as she does. Still, she supposes she can see what he’s saying. Even though the proportions are way off and Archimicarus should not be double the size of Lisa’s head, Connie took the time to put in every accessory she loved into Lisa’s outfit. She was determined to make sure Lisa was recognizable, despite the fact that the movie hadn’t come out yet and nobody knew what Lisa was going to look like.

“Okay,” she murmurs, feeling high on the praise. “All right, I’ll take that. Thanks.”

He grins. “Will you show me more sometime?”

“Oh, uh… sure.” Flattered that he’d even ask, she agrees without thinking about it.

Connie starts to draw him. Not out of any intention, and certainly not because she wants to. It happens entirely by accident that she looks down at her sketchbook, struggling to find inspiration, and realizes she’s doodled his head in the corner.

It becomes commonplace that, when they’re spending time together — time not always spent doing something, but rather, sharing the same space and simply being — Connie will draw.

Sometimes Steven asks, but more often than not she says no. He takes absolutely no offense at all, and that’s part of why she likes him. He just lets her do her thing while he chugs through another playthrough of GolfQuest Mini or plans out his next TubeTube video.

Connie’s never been good at drawing real people. They’re even harder to get right than her anime characters. But the doodle doesn’t look entirely bad. It doesn’t look like Steven, but it doesn’t look bad.

And this is how Connie learns to use references: she stares at him while he doesn’t look at her.

She’s nervous at first, watching him while she draws. She’s afraid he’ll realize what she’s doing and draw attention to it. He’ll strike a pose or blush and say something about how she should be drawing someone else, or worse, he’ll ask to see it when she’s done. But Steven doesn’t do any of that. He keeps right on going, completely oblivious.

Connie gets pretty good at drawing him.

Years pass and Connie gets pretty damn good at drawing him.

The way she draws him changes with time. Her skills transform and puberty hits Steven like a freight truck. Every time she sees him, he seems to have grown a few inches. She hardly gets the chance to draw him more than once or twice while he’s in front of her. Once she reaches high school, she has far less time to just “hang out” — or if she does, and they aren’t doing anything, she’s forced to spend her time doing homework.

And then she figures out the work-around.

“What’re you up to?” she asks aloud as she types it into text. “Send pics.”

It sounds as if she’s asking for something else, but she absolutely isn’t. She hopes her Mom doesn’t still go through her text messages, or else she’s going to have a very awkward conversation with her later.

Her phone dings in response before she even sets it down.

w/ lars at the bakery!! lookit this! [IMG attached]

Yes, score! She only hopes it’s got a good enough angle—

—aaaaand it’s a picture of a dessert. It’s a very delicious-looking chocolate orange mousse, but it’s not of Steven.

She tries again on a different day, when she’s so tired of studying her eyes will fall out if she has to read one more word. She pulls out her sketchbook, lays on her bed, and texts him again. I’m so boredddd. Doing anything fun?

To prompt a photo in return, she attaches a selfie while she’s lying on the bed. It isn’t the best selfie she’s ever taken, but this isn’t about that. It’s about getting one back.

Steven, as always, replies quickly. sry, @ LH, can’t talk now. No picture. Connie glances at the clock just to make sure it is, indeed, past 8 PM, and she frowns.

Fine. Maybe she can ask for some help.

I am so sorry, Connie. Pearl’s texts are always way longer than they should be. You should’ve asked me a few weeks ago! I had a ton of pictures saved, but I recently exported them to an external harddrive. And he’s been so unwilling to let me take pictures of him recently.

Connie bites her lip. Pearl isn’t exactly a ‘grandma’ with technology — most of the things she’s learned how to operate, she’s done herself or only after one demonstration — but Connie wonders if she pressed, if she asked Pearl to retrieve her most recent picture of him to send to her, that Pearl would be a little too curious in return.

With all other options exhausted, Connie turns to desperate measures.

“Why am I doing this, again?” Amethyst asks over the phone. “Can’t you just, like, ask him yourself?”

“Please,” Connie all but begs. “I can’t tell you what it’s for, I just need a picture of him from the front, and it need to be at least waist-up. Although if you could get a full picture of him standing up, that’d be even better. Oh, and please don’t let him know that it’s for me.”

“Hmm.” Amethyst’s little hum is plotting, and Connie absolutely hates it. “Well, what do I get in return?”

“Huh?”

“What, you’re not expecting me to do this for free, are you?”

Of course. This is Amethyst. Connie chews on her bottom lip, considering.

“Well, what do you want? I could order Fish Stew for you.” Connie’s mom gives her enough of an allowance for her grades that that wouldn’t be a problem. “Or some of Lars’s bakery’s treats, if you like.”

Amethyst’s laugh goes to her bones. “What? I’m gonna need more than that. Hmm… How about this: I’ll take the picture for you, but you gotta come here to get it yourself.”

“What?” Connie’s voice squeaks. “You can’t be serious, Amethyst! It’s a school night!”

Amethyst snickers. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it tonight. I’ll text you when I have it, and you’ll get it when you come over. Oh, but when you do, you’d better bring two full pizzas with you, okay?”

“O-kay,” Connie mumbles, defeated.

“Sweet. Catch you on the flip side.”

do u need his face showin?

Connie blinks at the text on her phone, three days later. She’s just gotten out of school and Amethyst sent it three hours ago.

Yes.

dam. well heres the outtake [IMG attached]

When Connie clicks through, she gets the full shot of Steven all right. But he isn’t standing upright and still; instead, he’s rushing past the camera, blurring the shot, a hand in front of his face to block it from being seen.

This is a shitty picture.

i kno, that’s why i sent it to u w/o getting pizza, dam!!

In the interim, Connie tries once more to provoke a selfie from Steven. This one requires a little more effort and is incredibly flirtatious — borderline forward — but she has to try it. Her sketches of him seem more and more off by the day, and it’s driving her nuts. She needs that reference shot, at least one.

She has a violin concert one Friday night. She dresses up for it, wearing black slacks, a white button-up with a high collar, and a black blazer. A simple tie, black with blue stripes, adorns her neck, and she lets her hair down. Like this, it would just barely tickle her shoulders. She puts on a little more makeup than she normally would for a concert; she dabbles in foundation, in blush and lipstick, when normally she would settle for mascara and concealer, if she decided on makeup at all.

Eyeshadow is still too foreign for her, but she hopes this is enough.

Then the trick is taking the selfie itself. At first she takes a shot without her shoes on, then decides it would probably look better with them on, especially if she’s trying to get one back. So she puts on her nice pair of loafers and stands at the full-body mirror in her room, taking a deep breath as she tries to set her nerves to rest.

“It’s fine, Connie,” she murmurs. “It’s fine. It’s just Steven, and what’s the worst thing that could happen? That he just flat out doesn’t respond?”

That is, by far, the worst thing that could happen. She doesn’t know what he’d do if he did that, because Steven is always the type to reply within a few minutes. She doesn’t know if it’s just like that for her or for everyone, but she has to trust that he’ll reply to this.

She takes the picture. It’s a little lopsided because her hand is shaking, but it’s the full picture of her, head to toe. She sends it off with a caption that, she hopes, is not too flirtatious, not too forward, because she would hate to put him off:

Don’t I look nice? What are you wearing tonight?

She bites her lip. Mom calls for her to get going, that she’s taken too long, but Steven’s response is almost instantaneous: a long, long string of heart eyes emojis and hearts of different colors and patterns. Then another text, this one saying, you look amazing!! i wish i was there!!!

It isn’t a selfie, and it doesn’t answer her question, but it makes her heart soften nonetheless. He’s so good to her, and of course that makes him difficult to manipulate. Maybe she really should just ask.

Several hours later, on the drive back home from the concert, she turns her phone back on. And to her surprise, there is a message waiting.

sorry this took so long, i wanted to match!! [IMG attached]

She blinks.

Steven has gone all out for this. He’s wearing a formal dress she hasn’t seen before, the same blue of her tie; an A-line that allows her to see the broadness of his chest, with off-the-shoulder sleeves that proudly display the freckles of his shoulders, and a pleated skirt that begins at his waist. His shoes are the same color, heeled, open-toed, and he’s even done his nails.

His makeup is more intricate than hers. Blush, foundation, eyeliner, mascara, an iridescent violet eyeshadow and vibrant lipstick.

He’s sent multiple pictures. One is of him doing a kissy face, eyes lidded; the next is him laughing, blurred from moving the camera, what might have been a shot he hadn’t done on purpose; and the next is of him doing a peace sign.

Connie’s face burns. She’s glad her mom and dad take the front seats, so that she can have this little moment all to herself.

I love it! She hesitates over the send button. He sent her all those emojis, and she can’t even say more than three words?

You look great! Oh, but he looks more than great, doesn’t he?

Can I come over? Now that was honest, but way too suggestive!

She deletes it again and then realizes they’re almost home. She has to send something, she’s been thinking way too hard about it!

You’re the most beautiful, most handsome man in the whole world, and I wish I was with you.

She sends it before she can think twice about it. Steven responds immediately with many more emojis.

Connie can’t get the way he looked out of her head. In school, she doodles the dress in the margins of her notes. At tennis practice, she imagines trying to wear those heels and run at the same time. In orchestra, she pretends Steven is watching, that he came to her concert in that outfit.

She draws him, of course. For hours in her room, she flips through the pictures and draws, and draws, and draws. She draws him in the dress in different poses, in different settings, with different people.

… Mostly with her.

Her outfit’s different, though. It’s not the same, boring orchestra one she had to wear for the concert. She Googles different outfits and finds some fantastic, colorful tuxes, and of course pretends she would ever be able to wear them.

She’s in the middle of coloring a self-indulgent piece in which the two of them are dancing in these outfits (and this is one she would never, ever show to anyone), when she gets a text from Amethyst.

i got the pic. but uh… kinda havin some issues [IMG attached]

Connie blinks.

It’s a picture of Steven, though not the one Connie asked for. He’s closer to the camera, a rage in his eyes as he moves toward the person taking it, mouth open as if speaking.

Oh, no. Is he mad at Amethyst for sneaking pictures of him? Quickly, Connie tries to call her, but it only rings twice before going to voicemail.

Oh, no.

She calls Steven instead. He hangs up on her, too, but shoots her a short text: can’t talk.

URGENT, she replies in all caps and without punctuation. He does not reply.

She grabs her sketchbook, rushes downstairs. It’s late but not so late that she’ll be in trouble. She runs past Dad at the kitchen island, sipping on coffee before he goes in. “Sorry, I’ll be back before Mom!” she promises, slipping her shoes on.

“Where you going, honey?”

“To Steven’s!”

And when she opens the door, there, waiting for her, is a pink-hued lion.

When she throws open the door to the beach house, Steven is still yelling: “—you know I don’t like it when you take my picture—”

“Why?!” Amethyst yells. “Just because it’s me?!”

“No, it’s because I don’t want y’all snapping pictures of me for a scrapbook like I’m a baby—”

“AHEM.”

Connie’s clearing of her throat cuts through it, startling them both. They spin back around to face her, and while Amethyst’s glance goes askew, almost ashamed, Steven sees in her an immediate ally.

“Ugh, Connie, this isn’t a great time!” His voice is high, angry, but not at her; clearly, he thinks she’ll be on his side. “You won’t believe this, but Amethyst’s been trying to snap photos of me all week when she thinks I haven’t been looking, without even asking me or anything, and I’m in the middle of confronting her about it because if she thinks this is funny—”

“She doesn’t!”

“—just because that concealer isn’t working on the dark circles under my eyes, then she’s got another thing—” He cuts himself off, and Connie feels her nerves spike as he turns to her again, looking almost like a startled animal. “—uh… what are you talking about, Connie?”

“I asked her to do it.” Connie’s voice is one of defeat. Shame makes the room feel so much hotter than it is, and she wishes she could hide. She makes do by pressing her face into both of her hands and speaking against her palms. “I’m sorry. I just… I needed to get a picture of you and I didn’t want you to know, and that was probably really weird and creepy of me, and I’m sorry.”

The silence is suffocating. Steven whispers something to Amethyst, and Connie can’t hear the response. He must think she’s so creepy, that she’s been manipulating him somehow, and that she’s a horrible, untrustworthy person—

A moment later, Steven is right by her side. “Hey.” His voice is soft, and he pries a hand from her face to enfold in both of his. It should be comforting, but for a moment, she feels even worse; like she’s tricked him into offering her this kindness. “Um… So, why didn’t you just ask me?”

“I thought you’d say no.” That’s not quite it. “I… I thought you’d ask why.”

“Well, now I kinda really wanna know.”

“I…” And here it is, the big moment. The confession. She looks down, unable to meet his gaze as her free hand fists at her side. “I’ve been drawing you and I needed a reference.”

There’s another beat of silence. Then two. And then Steven bursts into laughter, loud and relieved and maybe even playful. It still is humiliating to hear, but at the same time, she’s so, so glad he isn’t angry.

“You totally could’ve asked! I would’ve sent one to you, because that’s like… really, really nice of you to draw me.”

“No, it’s not!” And as she looks back at him, she can see just how much he doesn’t see this. She doesn’t tug her hand free because, selfishly, she hopes he never lets go. “I haven’t been doing it because I’m planning to paint you a portrait or anything, I’ve been solely using you for practice and it’s probably a really selfish thing of me, I-I even used the selfies you sent me that one night, and I’ve kind of lost all control over that, because you were so gorgeous in that dress and I…”

“Wait.” He cuts her off, and she bites her tongue. “Can I, like… see the drawings you’ve done? Or a few of them? I know you don’t like it when I ask, but there’s got to be at least one or two you’re proud of, right?”

“You… want to see them?”

“I want to see everything you’ve ever drawn!” His voice is so sincere and enthusiastic that her heart soars, forgetting immediately every single thing she said that could have soured their relationship. “But only if you’re cool with it! You’re such an amazing artist, Connie.”

“I don’t know if that’s true.”

“Don’t start with me. I can go on and on.”

She smiles. She fidgets with a strand of her hair, and though it’s juvenile, she plays witness to the way such a small thing makes Steven’s face light up in adoration.

“Hey.” The word cuts through the moment, startling the both of them, and they look over at Amethyst leaning against the fridge with a raised eyebrow. “So now that like, the truth is out there and all that, I think I’m owed something.”

Connie opens her mouth at the same moment Steven groans, cutting her off. “I… yeah. I’m sorry, Amethyst. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, and I’m sorry for just… assuming stuff.”

Amethyst’s gaze then turns to Connie.

“Uh… Thank you, Amethyst.” Connie sighs. “For doing all of this for us.”

Amethyst laughs. It startles Connie a little, but Amethyst just shakes her head, a knowing grin on her face. “I can think of, maybe, a way for you two to express just how sorry and grateful you are…”

Steven blurts out a “huh?” while Connie giggles, reaching for the phone in her pocket.

“On it.”

#connverse #su #su fic #steven universe #connie maheswaran #isaiah writes #fluff bingo #real talk this was so much fun to write lmao

49 notes · View notes

coolgirl · 4 years

Note

Jason expert rate Jason’s designs

sorry for being late i was busy with school but now i’m free so to celebrate. jason indulgence.

pre-crisis not robin

very cute. i like that it has a lil more of flair to it? the collar and the lines on the gloves and the shorter cape.. also love it has pants. king rlly king. wonder if they already knew he was gonna be robin anyways or if they were still considering nightbird. anyways, 8/10 bc its cute

pre & post-crisis robin (bc its basically the same)

i mean its a classic.. however it reminds me jason was the only robin who was simply given dick’s clothes rather than like. have an unique look? which sucks. 7/10 middle child syndrome is REAL

post-crisis robin (winter edition)

OKAY NOW THIS. i absolutely love. is it tacky? oh yes without a doubt. i still love the pants and the sleeves. finally winter clothes for this child, especially considering his new titans scene where he was bitching about the costume not being snow proof. he got what he wanted! 9/10

new 52/rebirth costume by

EPIC. IDC I LOVE IT.the circles on his arms and his boots.. the lines on his legs.. i just love it. i love the red mask too… it feels.. not more unique, but feels more jason-y than the other costume. 10/10

NOW. onto older stuff

hush

as u can see im VERY confusion about the pouches and the straps?? why??? whats the purpose.. generally its fine. the white strand moved a nation and i think the chest piece is cool, but everything else.. uglee. like the long as hell jacket and him looking 40 years old like why r u 19 looking like fifty? ugly white man. 5/10

winicks/utrh version

LITERALLY A CLASSIC. i love this costume sooo much. like jason obviously grew out of it, as in it wouldnt make sense for him anymore to go with something like this as his main costume because i feel like this fit the utrh mood (him not veing a vigilante/hero/villain whatver but trying to be a mob boss n shit) and it just. fucks. i love the helmet just being plain with no stupid mouth or nose shape. i simply love it. 10/10

nigthwing

its just. its just the nightwing costume. didnt even try he just stole that from dick. he still rocks it and looks better than dick, and u gotta give him points for accessorizing with his dagger. 7/10

red robin

im not. a big fan of this costume.. i think the cowl is ugly, it just does not work for someone as big as jason… however i do like why he took this mantle and what it meant.. 6/10 no words head empty.

oh brother. furryman

ITS SUCH AN UGLY COSTUME. muzzle batman walked so muzzle red hood could run. its just. ugly like ugly. i dont like the ears or again the muzzle or whatever the hell is going on in the arms.. its just so edgy. 5/10

WANNA KNOW WHAT A SEXY EVIL BATMAN COSTUME LOOK LIKE?

Injustice 2 batman

I2 HAD IT IN THE BAG BABY. i like that its like classic batman costume but again! with some jason touches! the red eyes, the electric tiddies making a comeback.. epic genuinely epic. 10/10

and if ur not into evil jason

100% dad ‘i have my life figured out’ batman jason

just like the nightwing costume this is just. batman costume. nothing special or different from it so its like did u even try? BUT in this scenario it actually means smth that he stuck to bruces costume.. sweet.. but boring. 7/10

speaking of. evil ugly designs. ugh i hate this.

this motherfucker

ive never. ever. felt as humiliated by a costume than thetime jason wore this. like MORTIFYING RLLY. its DISGUSTINGGG. the helmet shape. the fucking WHITE. the SKULL PLEASE WHO DESIGNED THIS WHO HATES ME IN PARTICULAR SO MUCH??? THIS MAN DOES NOT FUCK! HES UGLY! HE STINKS!!!! the red guns are epic that much i can say. LOOK AT THOSE PANS GOD ITS SO HUMILLIATING. 0/10 WORST COSTUME EVER.

HOWEVER. winick and the artist spun GOLD from it, because next time jason wore possibly my favorite costume to date

this motherfucker…2!

like look how much better it looks with a little of swag.. the helmet without eyes.. the belts.. the fucking leather jacket.. keeping the red guns/gloves.. like seriously i dont know a better man. the skull is still awful and i wouldve replaced the white for black and MWAH best costume. like the black part at the top make it all red and the white make it black.. god this jason fucks massively i love him. 11/10 my favorite by a landslide perhaps

new 52/rebirth red hood

OKAY I KNOW theyre slightly different (rebirth has shorter sleeves and a more padded look) but to me its like. same thing. okay i think its.. fine. its not phenomenal but its not ugly.. i like the brown jacket more than the black jacket i have to admit, its more distinctive and i simply like the color more, however i do not.. like jason having the bat symbol.. but thats also a me thing about how badly written this is. anyways. the helmet with the mouth disgusts me and everytime its drawn like that its humilliating. like. 7/10. maybe 7+. when it has the mouth or like nose ANY FACIAL EXPRESSION RLLY its a 5.

wingman

oh i absolutely despise that helmet. he looks like fucking. terminator. its the ugliest shape ive ever seen and the visor is.. huge. i dont like the shoulder pads either idk what the fuck its going on with the thing around his neck either.. like hes. knockout batman and i HATEEE IT. damians costume slaps tho. i just… its… ugly. like.. 3/10.

get damian back arc red hood costume

oh im a HUGE fan of this design.i love how his costume is designed in a way thats like. if jason was a dnd character he absolutely would be a tank. the padding, the red undertones everywhere, i just.. love it. i like how all the costumes were done to reflect their personalities you know.. i like this robin red hood hybrid. 9/10 would even say 10/10 bc i just enjoy how gleason draws jason.

red hood/arsenal costume

its like. i dont hate it completely (i love the way the hood+helmet looks) and thats.. yeah thats pretty much all i like about it. i HATEEEE the vest i hate it fr.i hate how huge the sumbol is and idk this costume just does not spark joy. 5/10

outlaw costume

okay this one. this one drives me insane. because like. okay i dig parts of it. i like the lack of sleeves. i like the gloves thingies. i like the hood. i could get aboard him ditching the helmet - it breaks all the damn time anyways. i like the stripes on his pants in the boots. ALL SEPARATE? NEAT. now i hate. hate. the muzzle. like WHY IT LOOKS SO UGLYYY LIKE SO UGLY like unless the artist GETS IT and is SEXY it looks awful. look at this

AWFUL. also like it made sense for when he was on the run and he had to make do and assemble a costume from what he had but like now hes sponsored by lex, get that man a goddamn new suit already please. anyways. 6/10.. like i said i like many elements from it but its still.. kinda ugly all together and depends A LOT on the artist.

three jokers

im torn on this one.. i think its a bit boring.. i dont rlly like the top part, it reminds me SOO much of that one tt issue where he beat the fuck out of tim while wearing a robin costume like i understad the implications of him wearing a costume thats similar to the robin blouse but im not a big fan.. also i prefer the brown leather jacket. its like not his worst costume by far but not the best.. like pretty basic? i would say 6/10

NOW SOME AUS.

tiny titans & lil gotham

okay these two are like. pretty much the canon versions of robin and red hood HOWEVER they both have details that are different from the original version and DESERVE a mention. the curls on robin jason and jasons red gloves/belt are ICONIC. whoever designed them knew what they were about, so 10/10 best bapy jason.

arkham knight

does the person who designed this know how much theyve done for the lgbt community? i hope they do. i love.. a lot about this costume. i love the ears, i love how techno it is, i love the layers to it.. im.. not a big fan of the whole military thingy but i have to admit that applying it to the design itself is kind of neat.. i love the colors too and how.. practical it is while being. well. kinda dramatic? the whole bat aesthetic.. yeah. i love it. 9/10

arkham red hood

this one.. when u think about it the outlaw version is VEEERY similar to this one: the pants, the hood, the jacket eve. however i like this helmet so much more, i have a weakness for eyeless (??) helmets.. i like the little details of it as well, i remember that pic going around of it being held together with like. fuckign stitches and bandaids. legendary. i love this look, i would say 9+/10

injustice 2 jason

okay gonna go ahead and say it: not a big fan of the helmet. it looks like.. a bug? the lenses do not spark joy. this bitch has many styles and like toners etc and i will no rate them all. i think its a pretty basic design, not the best but not the worst either. like if it was an exam i would make them pass but make faces at what im reading like eeehhhgh. 7/10.

hag jason

middle one is like literally, on the outside and superficial level, just. his usual costume. the jacket and the grey kevlar and the bat. now the gloves are sexy as hell.. and in the whit ebackground one u can appreciate the under costume better and i really like it?? i just.. like the design. I HATE HOWEVER the bat helmet. WHY IS IT HOLLOW?? BITCH HELLO?? AND THE BATMAN SYMBOL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! and i like things making sense!!!. we will not talk about jason in this book. like.. 8/10. maybe 9 if im feeling it.

hag jason 2: the hagger and the furious

hes just.. a little old man.. he cannot change this.. i like this design. i like seeing jason grow old. wish it wasnt in this context. my father rlly. 8/10

—-

am i forgetting any jays.. i wont do all animated robins because they all look the same and the one that doesnt i do not like. SO HERES my thoughts..

#Anon #jason todd #jason.txt #THIS has been my weekly jason rant. come back next week for more

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nyarisu · 4 years

Text

Völkerball liveblogging

Dear lord this took me so long to edit you better appreciate it

Reise reise

Oooo~ but I still like the Hellfest version more :)) (Till’s face during the Hellfest chorus will always be my sexuality)

Schneider’s costume is fabulous but I’ll never trust those curls

Also vampire Reesh that’s a good look

Asdfghjklthe vagina entrance XDDD they really had to

Hello nice legs

I’ve watched this only once because i don’t like the sound. Someone said Till was sick and I don’t know what actually happened but his voice kinda sounds like it, especially more towards the middle of the live.

But the chorus is still so nice~

The tongue via Till’s fucked up slut face

Olli’s really serious

"Ist kein Licht am Horizont" REESH DO YOU WANNA KILL ME?? That was one sexy face

I really love Till’s expressions i want to kiss his face

The eyes! And then looking up to the sky<3 (was there even a sky or was inside I didn’t even notice XD)

I really don’t like Paul and Flake’s costumes

Fucking god that entrance is craking me up

Links 234

Hei hei hei!

I love how they all march on the stage

Bwhbwbwhwbhwbwhw XD

That’s a nice middle to wrap your hands around, mr Lindemann

I love when he’s hittig his chest on “links”

THE FANGS

Paul means business XD

You can’t not sing with them during links

Oh the solo<3 sounds so nice live

Thank god my favourite person from this stupid band is also the one most filmes otherwise I would’ve been in trouble

Dem boobs XD

Keine lust

I thought it was Sonne for one sec

He kicked the mic stand XD

Now you can hear he’s a little raspy

Yes Till we know the lyrics’ meaning and also that you’re horny

The chorus sounds nice again, it sounds better when he’s actually siniging vs talking

Who’s foamning at the mouth over that patch of skin under his pants, I’ve seen people talk about that (unfortunately it’s doing nothing for me)

"kaaaalt. Soo kaaaalt" I’ll keep you warm bby just don’t be sad T_T

Ok but Flake’s headpiece is actually hilariuous gotta admit

I really want to kiss Till *opening his mouth like a retarded owl* I don’t think I want anymore

Feuer frei

That was his I’m ready to slut pose XD

DONT HIT YOURSELF YOU DUMB BABY

Ooooooh Olli got shirtless (what were they calling this?)

I really like RZK’s top

Of course he’s gotta bully Flake

Chumby

I’m really trying to focus more on image but the voice is such a big thing for me and it’s clear he has something

The masks!! I love those so much

„Jaaaa”

Wow Schneider’s drumsticks went out with a literal bang

Asche zu Asche

4 lines later I finally realised what song is >.< and only because Till began to sing...

DID YOU SEE WHAT HE WAS DOING WITH THOSE DRUMSTICKS?!? I knew why I had a thing for hands/fingers

Asdfghjkl Richard strutting down the stage with his little red stripe<3

He’s a moody goth and I love his look did he just put his hands on his hips? XD

Till’s cheeks! I want to pinch his face

Everyone’s favourite part and THE NECK TILT ok wow now that was hot

Tho I usually preffer the “In zehn Tagen” to RZK’s “Ich komm wieder” now it was the opposite (probably because I couldn’t see Till that well) and Reesh acting all sexy was definitely improving it

Go Flake go XD he’s so serious and by the end he’s having the time of his life meanwhile Till is having an existential crisis (another)

Olli’s abs are heeeeella nice

Till with his hand over his heart didn’t help his case

Yeah Richard ok you’re sexy i get it holly fuck I’ve never been more attracted to him

And now i’ll never be able to unsee the neck tilt

That ich kom wieder just unmade me

Morgenstern

Bath time XD

I really like when Till slicks his hair back

Dear lord the chorus thank you for your voice sir and congrats on it

I really like the general image of a bassist playing their bass (other verb I could’ve used was fingering XD that’s literally what he’s doing!!)

Ooooh the keyboards sound so nice<3

DON’T pluck your eyes out!

The fire part is really impressive

I love then Richard is doign his gay boy pose XD and then the closeup on him while bobbing his head

I need to say once again the chorus sounds wundershon

Mein Teil

The first 2 seconds I thought it was MHB

Paul and Richard walking towards each other<3

Aaaand the epicness begins!

Schneider is fabulous behind his drums, can’t forget about him

YEET

The tongue’s is at it again

FLAKE POPING UP WITH THAT SMILE CRACKED ME UP you demented human

People are rocking the hell out this song

“durch Engelsscharen” Till’s expression<3

And the maddnes begins. Wow it was shorter than usual... obviously, it was at the beginning

Flake has such a special style of running I can’t XD

Stein um Stein

And everyone is gonna talk about him drawing a house xD it was cute (considering what the song is about)

You’re being a slut again

Aaaaah I want to complain about the playback but I really can’t I rather prefer him with vocal cords. At least the rest of the song sounded excelent!

The little sound at the end of „sein” and his face: childish enjoyment while talking about fucked up shit. If this doesn’t perfectly summarize Till then I don’t know what does

Schenider’s smile

No but really beside the screeching parts he sung it so well!

Were they trying to film Richards crotch? Whatever he’s sexy

Another reason why I watch this only once before was me being kind of meh regarding Till’s look he’s my favourite after all I gotta act the part

Los

My fucking god Scheider’s legs! I fucking love thighs. And he has a nice ass too

Richard’s smile!! Don’t kill me

Is it me or does Till start to stare into space and look generally Not Ok (tm)?

„fucking mickey mouse” XDDD

Los is among the last 10 songs on my list I usually just skip it

I died when I saw him with a harmonica the first time

Flake and Olli XD

Don’t manhandle poor Flake (I really want to say I wish that were me but knowing myself I would probably just deck Till in the face XD)

The sunglasses are sick

RZK and Till headbaning<3

Rip (rest in pieces) to keyboard

Du riechts so gut

THE BOW! The cute flamingo pose aside, that bow is one of my favourite pyro effects ever

And then the synchronised bodybanging<3

That „pang” never sounded so good?

WHY THE FUCK DID YOU EVEN MENTIONED THE NECK TILT REESH IS SO SEXY HERE I CAN’T EVEN

The deepest he sings the lees you hear the raspiness

Lord! The whole audience just fucking went for it

Schneider’s muscles, Richard’s little smirk and Till zombie 2.0

Even more bodybanging. Flake is enjoying himself

WHAT THE FUCK WHY ARE YOU SO PRETTY?!? (me to Richard)

Flake casually going back to his keyboards uthgjkhfzc that looked so cool and smooth

I promise I still drool over Till just... Richard is so prettily standing there! I cant ignore him!

The firesleeves are so cool and it looks so good, especially with them facing different ways

And freeze! Nice and dramatic

Till hammer time

That one guy really feeling the „DRSG” in the audience XD

Benzine

3 consecutive thought: it is Benzine fuck yeah, I can never tell if it’s Benzine or Keine Lust, Till’s terrified face

The most Rammstein song to ever Rammstein

Paul going wild XD but I still don’t like his hat

Flake is spazzing again

Du hast

Thank god I’m actually enjoying this song now, I skipped it for half a year

The drums and the beginning and the keyboards are <3

The tongue >w<

People are going wild

I like Richard’s dramatic gesturing. Pretty rockstar boy

The chorus sounds so good

Flake what is that on your head? XD is he a One Piece character?

Did he just casually shoved the mic into his pocket? XD

I much more preffer the newest effect from Paris onwards (which is also my top favourite)

Sehnsucht

This song has a very special and unique feel to it probably because it screams Live aus Berlin more than any other (and now I feel like watching LAB again)

It’s the chanting in the background probably

He’s sounding sick again :(

You have muscles in the arms (and probably legs too) and chumby in the belly it’s perfect

Lol @ Paul trying to look scary

„SEHNSUCHT!”

Ok Richard honey you can stop with the sexy neck tilt

He’s slapping the hell out of his guitar

Please stop pulling your hair out

Amerika

@Flake on that thing: wierd flex but ok

Sexy fishnet legs

Wow that’s a really soft and nice opening, pretty unexpected

LOL Flake taking off his hat like „sorry for your loss” but considering the song it’s expected from him XD

Beauatiful eyes<3

He’s just nyooming from one side of the stage to the other? XD

That eyeliner looks so fucking good on Till

Flake is suffering :)) (what the fuck was I talking about I can’t remember now that I’m editing)

Even Richard’s hair looks pretty! What the fuck??

The last scene with Schneider (and then his legs)

Rammstein

Those are some fucking guns he has right there

This is the most badass intrumental intro ever

“Scheeeeeein”

Oooooh so this is where that gif was coming from for some reason it thought it was Engel from MSG. Does this live even has Engel on it?

I love when drummers throw their sticks in the air and then catch them again

Ok the image of Till slowly backing off between Paul and Richard who were both vibing in their own way was really nice

Sonne

Schneider is enjoiying this isn’t he XD

For some reason this song doesn’t seem as energic as it usually is?

Was Till humping the mic stand? (more likely than you’d think)

Seing Flake and Till doing the hammer side by side is really funny, that’s some size difference

Ich will

Bye bye mic stand again

Till baby what did you do with your throat to make your voice sound like that?

Richard looking to the side during „ich will” hhhhhHhh

Let me slap that ass Till

I want to lick your face

Ohne dich

Ollie what are you doing

Asdfhjkl Flake comforting Till and the way he just rests his head on Flake’s shoulder is breaking my heart

Poor baby come here and let me love you

You can clearly see he’s trerrified

Lsnhxkvj his eyes<3

Nawwww they are kissing

I am silently thristing over Till don’t mind me

Please don’t cry T_T and then him looking over his bangs sfdghjkl

„is he... ya know” pose with a hand in the air Heirate mich style (aka Till Lehmann is a sub)

Look I know he’s suffering and all but I really can’t focus on that with all the water dripping off him

Stripped

No wonder I didn’t recognised the song it doensn’t even exist to me XD

Till pointing like „you. drop your panties. now” XD

I had half a mind to skip it but then I would have missed Till’s wonderful tongue performance

Was he flicking it to the rythm??

Hearing him sing in english is always so weird (I only recently rediscovered the gem the Children of the Sun is)

Richard what was that sexy face?

Ollie is braving the human seas, telepathy at its finest XD

Hmm that is a really nice lower back

Gangsta XD „how do you do fellow kids”

Paul is enjoying the show

Schneider has killer looks. Literally XD

YEET

Conclusions:

Half of it went really slow and then the other half went really fast? I don’t understand what happened

So this is the setting for Mit Dir Bin Ich Auch Allein... ok, good to know ;)

You sure this was a good idea 4 songs in and I already wrote 2 pages, now the total is at 6.

I’m not particulary fond of the looks and Till sounds sick so I usually avoid this live. Also some songs are weird with the energy so yeah

Richard is so pretty I can’t (and fucking hot how come I don’t remeber this??)

#rammstein #rammbois #liveblogging #I have a temporal crush on Richard quick I need to read some fics #but no seriously why was he so pretty??#Rena's R+ ramblings

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