#Switch notes (to be fixed up/confirmed and details added)

[taps-tap]

After a week or so of tapping away at the last configuration, I’ve further confirmed that I love love love Dangkeebs’ DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl switches!

My order for a full set arrived super quickly from Dangkeebs, and now I’ve swapped out the switches I didn’t like as much.

Alongside the Swirls for the position of top favourite is Owlabs’ London Fog switches, so maybe I’ll get more of those after the next payday and I’ll be able to truly try them side by side.

I still like the Gateron milky yellows, much helped by their affordability, and the CJs are also nice, plus the tactile difference of the pandas for a nice pop of interest on my regularly used non alpha keys.

So here is my new test configuration on my Keychron K6.

Going left to right for the top row, then the next row, and the next…

Durock POM (Piano) (L) - Everglide Aqua King(L) - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L)

Everglide Aqua King(L) - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L) - Epsilon(L) - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L) 

Everglide Aqua King(L) - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L) - Owlab London Fog(L) - milky yellow - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L)

Everglide Aqua King(L) - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L) - CJs - Gateron Oil King - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L)

Everglide Aqua King(L) - holypanda - Everglide Aqua King(L) - DK Creamery Blueberry Swirl(L) - holypanda

[gh0stsp1d3r]

- anon

https://www.tumblr.com/gh0stsp1d3r/756767107351543808/aemond-just-loves-to-pull-your-hair-an-were?source=share

just was doing my daily skim of tumblr and refreshed the "Aemond Targaryen x reader" tag and oh!! when i came across your little headcanons/drabble (please bare w/ me🙏 i forget what form of writing that's called) i immediately liked and came to request when you left that note at the end asking for request of his "fine ahh" so i've come up w/ an idea x

Aemond and his hands, specifically his fingers, how would he react to fem!reader having a fascination w/ them (after seeing him play w/ that coin, picking up the marble ball and coin!! moving his hair out of the way...)? like reader staring at and day-dreaming about his long, slim but just enough girth, fingers and her always wanting to hold onto his wrists or intertwine her fingers w/ his and compare the size of their hands?? maybe an oral fixation w/ how reader sucks at his fingers, swirling her tongue around as they lay heavy on the wet muscle?? dom!Aemond might be easier to write for (canon!character wise), but for this request if you're able to do switch!Aemond that'd be appreciated x

maybe some fingering, consensual!voyeurism (reader watching him masturbate as he drags his deft fingers up & down his length, forming an o shape with his hand as she controls when he's allowed to cum – edging and overstimulation?? – and he's letting out small, breathy gasps and slipping in and out of high-valyrian), just realised how slutty this is omg?? sorry!! i just prefer adding detail so writers like you have an easier time writing out requests because i understand how annoying writers block is x

ℋ𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈

A/n: OH MY ANON YOU READ MY MIND BECAUSE THIS IS AMAZING AND I LOVE EVERH SECOND OF IT. I wanna kiss ur brain right now. His hands r so 😩 ily for this request.!

Warnings: hand kink, oral fixation, a lil bit ooc but whatever, switch!aemond, switch!reader, male masturbation, overstimulation, sub! aemond my love . Also im terrible at writing sub characters so pls forgive me !!

MASTERLIST

divs by plutism + strangergraphics

Your secret fascination with his hands had been going on for as long as you could possibly remember. No matter what he did, you found yourself staring at them.

As Layrs Strong sat with you and your husband, you found yourself positioned across from the man, and next to your husband. Aemond held a stone ball in his hand, the king's marker, as he leaned back in his seat, rolling the stone ball between his digits.

Your eyes were practically glued onto his hands, watching his fingers roll the ball around, the important discussion that they were having already tuned out in your mind.

And when he fidgeted with the coin, your gaze was fixed on his hands and fingers. It seemed like he couldn't stop fidgeting with the coin, constantly twisting and turning it, taking it wherever he went.

His gaze lifted, and a small smirk played on his lips. He had been feeding into your captivation, idly spinning the coin between his fingers, relishing in the way your eyes were glued to every subtle motion his hand had made.

Even when he did something as simple as moving his long hair out of his face, you found your gaze moving from his face to his veiny hands.

He noticed it, of course he did. He knew you like no other did at this point.

He first saw it when your own hands were always intertwined with his, always feeling the need to be close, you told him. But he suspected it was for another reason.

He saw it with your delicate touch on his wrist, your fingers lightly grazing his skin.

His suspicions were confirmed when you placed your hand on top of his, subtly comparing the difference in finger lengths without uttering a word about it. A faint smile appeared on his face as he interlocked his fingers with yours.

Now, he was just playing with your obsession. It was utterly adorable in his mind.

As he sat on the bed, his fingers flippjng to the next page of a book. Meanwhile, you had just got out from a bath, clad in a delicate nightgown draped over your body.

You walked over to the bed, he glanced over at you. He smiled softly, you gave him a small smile back, moving and going underneath the covers. Your gaze fell once again, onto his hands, turning the pages every once in a while. He noticed this, sly smile on his face as he shut the book with one hand.

He sighed, moving to sit up. You quirked an eyebrow at him, confused. He turned to you, looking at you with his head tilted to the side.

“I can see you’ve become rather fascinated with my hands,” he spoke, his words making your eyes widen and your mouth fall agape.

“What?” You questioned, and he couldn’t suppress the chuckle that came out of his mouth when he saw your eyes look around the room, nervously avoiding his question.

“Don’t play dumb, wife.” He spoke, his voice low, looking down at you. You swallowed, thinking for a response before his hand gripped your jaw gently, rough hands on your soft skin.

His thumb traced over your bottom lip, you looked up at him as you opened your mouth. He had a smug smirk on his face, putting his thumb that was on your bottom lip into your mouth. His hands suddenly left your jaw, and he replaced his thumb with his index and middle finger, your hands going to grip his wrist.

With a smile still on his face, he thrusted his fingers in and out of your mouth, enjoying the gagging he heard when he hit the reflex. His fingers stopped for a moment, and you swirled your tongue around his digits, him letting out a satisfied hum as he pulled them out of your mouth.

He tugged off his boxers, thankful that he always decided to sleep in nothing but them.

He looked up at you again, his fingers moving to his length, letting out a shaky exhale when his hands began to tug at his cock. You had a smile on your face now, putting your hands over his that tugged on his cock.

He let out a low moan, you running your fingers over his hand gently, as he jerked himself off. He leaned over to kiss you. His lips left yours, and he nuzzled his face in your neck, tracing his nose on your jaw.

He let out gasps, and his breathing was getting shallow. You knew he was about to cum, which is why you whispered to him.

“Stop.”

His eyebrows creased with confusion, and he released a noise that sounded like a whine. He looked up at you again, moving from his spot in your neck, his movements stopping, your hand still on the back of his hand, tracing every vein there was.

You looked back at him, and he exhaled through his nose, knowing what you wanted him to do.

“Y/n.” He muttered, voice sounding like a plead. “Please, Kostilus, my love.” He breathed out, his breath hot against your skin.

You smiled, satisfied with his words. You nodded, and he let out a sigh of relief, his hands moving up and down on his length again, kissing along your collarbones, your other hand on the back of his head, running a hand through his soft, silky hair.

“Kirimvose. Kirimvose, love.” He mumbled against your skin, his native language sounding so beautiful coming from his mouth.

You let go of his hands, watching his deft fingers move up and down his length, letting out low groans and grunts of pleasure every once in a while. His head tilted back, and you swear he’s never looked as beautiful as he does now.

His head turns back to you, mouth agape. He looks at you, and you already know what he wants.

You put your hands back on top of his, speeding up his pace. “Cum for me.” You muttered into his ear, that was all he needed. He came all over his stomach and abs, panting heavily and groaning, letting out quiet curses. His hand moved off, but yours did not.

He looked at you again, gently trying to push your hand away, as he was overstimulated from your touch. It had him crying out, the odd feeling.

He cried out your name, when he felt his cock hardening again, and the pressure already back.

Kostilus- please

Kirimvose- thank you.

[hambrababy]

A Journey Through an Internet Anime Rumor on Takeyuki Kanda

There is a rumor that’s spread about anime director Takeyuki Kanda’s sudden death in 1996 that has nothing to back it up. As best as I can tell, it remains unfounded and almost certainly false. The rumor is that he died in a car crash, but the only available information on Japanese sites doesn’t mention that at all. The oldest source I could find for that rumor was an uncited English Wikipedia article written by an account later banned for bad edits.

The only confirmed detail on Kanda’s death is that he suddenly passed away at the age of 52. That much, at a minimum, is confirmed by an official interview on the VOTOMS website with Ryosuke Takahashi that mentions Kanda’s passing, specifically in its third footnote.

I was (and still am) working on a separate, more fun article about a series of anime image albums, but I got sucked into this rabbit hole over the last few days. I figured I’d tell the story of how this unraveled, as well as share some thoughts on anime rumors in general.

Hey, Maybe Someone Should Check Wikipedia

I was chatting with people from Inka Subs about Vifam, and Ralem, one of the staffers, posted the credits of its 1920’s Chicago gag spinoff OVA short. The credits are in English and contain a bunch of names and inside jokes on the staff involved, and one of them was for the director “Drunkard Kanda”.

Takeyuki Kanda was a seasoned anime director who worked on many shows over his career, and he was Vifam’s series director, hence the shoutout. A tidbit I’d heard through the years and repeated myself was that Kanda died while directing the Gundam: The 08th MS Team OVA because he got into a fatal car accident. Because other staff noted his tendency to drink, that carried the implicit connotation of an alcoholic car crash, which would explain why the OVA had a director change part way through. It’s a short, somewhat dramatic story that gives a grim flourish of sudden crisis to the production of The 08th MS Team.

Except I thought for a second and realized that I wasn’t sure where that detail actually came from. I’d heard it so often, but where did it come from originally? Just to double check, I went to his English Wikipedia page to see if it was sourced there.

It was soon apparent that something was wrong. The Wikipedia page for Kanda was barebones, and it hadn’t been updated since June 13th, 2021. The article at the time had this as its bio paragraph at the start:

None of this information was cited whatsoever. There were no formatted citations, no in-text descriptions, and no links of any kind except external ones to IMDB and ANN. The page had a huge “this article needs additional citations for verification” warning slapped right at the top since 2019, but nothing had been done to fix anything.

I switched over to JP Wikipeda to see if it was listed there. I don’t know Japanese myself, but even from cautiously using both Google Translate and DeepL with the page, there’s no mention there of any sort of car crash, which was also checked by the Inka people who knew Japanese.

I looked back through the history of the page to see where that detail could have possibly come from, and it turned out that unverified detail was there from the page’s inception in 2015. That’s also where I noticed that there was an additional unverified detail about Kanda being “heavily inspired by Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spilberg [sic]” (and 20 days later even added Nicolas Roeg). The user who made that page had not only received warnings from other Wikipedia editors for adding unverified information even before the article was written, but was repeatedly blocked and later permabanned for sockpuppeting, unverified malicious edits, and personally attacking other editors.

Needless to say, the car crash detail is very suspect and unreliable. There’s no reason to believe it’s real based on the existing current evidence. Other Inka members checked through JPN sites with pages about Kanda, and none of them mentioned a car crash. Checking on my own, it’s not mentioned in the Pixiv encyclopedia, the NicoNicoDouga encyclopedia, nor even a fan-site Sunrise encyclopedia. All of those are user generated and don’t have sources themselves, so even the details that are there are unverified.

There is official interview on the VOTOMS website with Ryosuke Takahashi in 2010 where mentions Kanda. The third footnote only confirms that he suddenly passed away at the age of 52 in 1996, with no mention of the cause of death. The note does mention he shared drinks, but there are no further details beyond that.

It’s possible somewhere out there, there’s some obscure contemporaneous Japanese article or coverage where something like that maybe happened. But until any actual proof emerges, there’s no reason to believe the car crash rumor is true, or any of the other details on those JP sites for that matter. The only verifiable detail is that Takeyuki Kanda suddenly passed away at the age of 52 in 1996. If anyone has more reliable information to add to this, please share it.

Other Wrong Listings

The next “official” source I could find for that car crash rumor was ANN’s encyclopedia page on Kanda. The detail has no information on its source unless logged in, but I initially thought it could have maybe had some reputable source.

After logging in, its only listed source was that same Wikipedia article. AniDB's page also has that detail but again only lists Wikipedia as its source.

With all this looking like a mess, I decided to remove that detail from Kanda’s Wikipedia page myself. I also submitted an error report to ANN and to AniDB, both of which are pending at the time of this post.

I decided to later check the 08th MS Team Wikipedia article to correct the information there as well, and that’s where another oddity popped up. It had “citation” on Kanda dying in a car crash, but it was an anime blog that gave me a fake virus warning pop-up ad upon opening. That blog post had no source listed. There was also a link to a different anime blog saying that the episodes were delayed after of Kanda’s death (though they don’t mention the rumor, good on them!), which is at least a more plausible inference based on the release schedule, but still not confirmed. I deleted those sections as well.

I think that rumor is now at least dead on Wikipedia and hopefully soon ANN and AniDB, but by that point it had likely spread for years. I’m thankful people shared my description of this on Twitter, but that’s still a small subset of a niche of a niche on an unrepresentative website. Who knows how far that unconfirmed detail has spread?

Something Was Wrong on the Internet

Despite my attempt to tell this somewhat as a story, all of this was rather basic. Checking a Wikipedia article to see if it has a citation takes seconds. Even with blunt use of auto-translator software, which itself is very imperfect even in the most narrow and careful possible circumstances, checking JP Wikipedia and other bio sites had no mention of anything close to an auto accident. Finding reliable anime information is a thankless task, but doing the most basic fact-checking to see if a detail has a confirmed source is relatively simple. Anything unsourced on Wikipedia is always suspect, and even things with sources there need checking to see what they’re linking too.

It’s commendable that English staff databases and editable encyclopedias even exist, but those also have structural issues. On ANN, you can’t see the source listed for something unless you’re logged in, which seems like a rather serious flaw for a public encyclopedia that’s the most public-facing source of Anime staff information aside from smaller sites like AniDB and AniList. Having an editor manually approve changes is a good deterrent from false info getting posted, but it does make it harder to speedily correct things aside from using error reports to put tiny red warning circles.

As much of a weird obsession this has been for me over the last few days, and as much as it feels good to see this attempt at a correction getting shared, it is still emblematic of a larger problem.

Wrong and misleading information is a longstanding issue in English anime fandom and companies, especially when communication was more limited, but even the long-debunked ones remain nigh-unkillable even now. How many times has the “Ghost Stories flopped” rumor been spread even though it was totally wrong? Or the rumor about where Toriyama “intended” for Dragon Ball to end that’s not only inaccurate across the board but also includes outright hoaxes? Or the lacking knowledge about the anime production process as a whole?

Even from my own experiences, small details can cause these kinds of issues if they remain unchecked. A few 0079 mecha on the Gundam Wiki had to have their articles reformatted because their model numbers were lifted from made-up details posted to Japanese Wikipedia years ago from a doujin site, including the Gaw and the Dopp (thanks to editors MatokoLee and SuperFeatherYoshi for pointing these out!). The Dopp one was copied into the Wiki in 2011, but no one had bothered to verify them for so long because there was no immediate reason to suspect they were wrong. This isn’t as egregious as the prior examples since all the tech specs for mecha are fictional (and sometimes contradictory), but even the tiniest pieces of incorrect anime info can linger on for years.

I won’t give other specific rumors any more oxygen, but this still happens with tons of recent shows. One detail from an interview or one comment from an animator on twitter can get spun into something totally unfounded from the original basis of what they were trying to say, and then those misconceptions only get more repeated and exaggerated the more users and sites they pass through.

To some extent, a certain amount of this is inevitable given the language and cultural barrier for English anime fandom. But since anime has grown far wider from its initial niche, it’s almost even easier for bad information to spread quickly while corrections and actual well-researched information can’t catch up. Running actual news and press sites is challenging as online news faces many economic struggles, and there’s little incentive for individuals or influencer-type people to concern themselves with accuracy. It’s easy, and frankly more entertaining, to mythologize about so many aspects of anime production and history, to spread speculation, or to share funny or gripping details that sound true enough while never bothering to do the most basic checking on any of them.

I sometimes wonder if it is possible to make some kind of website cataloging and debunking common anime misconceptions and rumors. Kazenshuu’s rumor guide is the most comprehensive in debunking anime-related rumors, even if it’s only for Dragon Ball. Wikizilla’s misconceptions page (thanks Chungris!) is also another good example, as is TFWiki’s  “urban legends” page. But there needs to be a way more centralized way to broadcast these kinds of rumor-debunkings rather than individual people happening to find them years later.

The obvious takeaway from all this is for people to be more cautious, which seems straightforward enough, but that only gets so far. My blither takeaway is that more people, myself included, should just learn Japanese. There’s a whole world of anime magazines, interviews, websites, and more that could clear up tons of longstanding rumors and even provide new details never accessible beyond Japan before, but so much remains untranslated. I have paid people to translate things I really wanted to access before (thanks Windii!), but realistically that’s an expense I can’t incur that frequently.

Life is already getting busy for me, but I think there’s merit to devoting enough time to learn some Japanese. Anime is a hobby, but it’s a hobby I love and want to learn as much as I can. Relying so much on secondhand info spread through random people, having to use flawed and unreliable auto-translate programs to skim websites, or being lucky enough to know fansubbers with actual Japanese knowledge isn’t a sustainable substitute for actually knowing things.

Learning Japanese wouldn’t fix everything. Bad information and rumors still spread among JP fans too. Even official sources from companies can intentionally mislead, while faulty memoirs and recollections from animators can get things wrong. But the English anime community needs more serious, verifiable (and far less scattered) work on sourcing anime history and news. If any of us can move that needle and stop wrong info from spreading, then that’s already more valuable than any amount of casual waffling, opinionating, and speculation that only begets more wrong information.

So be the annoying pedant who asks where someone got the detail they’re sharing. Don’t spread something that sounds too neat and simple without bothering to check. Don’t take anything for granted. Learn Japanese and look things up yourself. Demand better of others and yourself.

By the way, this shouldn’t overshadow Kanda’s extensive career in anime. I haven’t finished Vifam yet, but I highly recommend it. Watch the shows Kanda worked on and played a huge role in shaping. Let that be his legacy.

Postscript: Some Better Sources

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I don’t mean to snub anyone, but I figured I’d at least post a few people I know are more thorough with things to steer this post towards a better direction.

Regarding Gundam, I can recommend Mark Simmons’ UC-focused website, Feez’s Turn A blog, and the translations on the Zeonic Website. They have lots of old interviews and production details translated that are invaluable for understanding the behind-the-scenes of Gundam.

For anime production information more generally, I can recommend the Full Frontal team and the SakugaBlog/Booru team. They’re doing some of the best active work in covering current anime creators and detailing the current state of the industry with high quality translations and original reporting of their own.

Windii has been an immense help for me in the past, and she’s actively soliciting to translate and preserve tons of anime (and lots of Sonic) related stuff.

This is with the clarification that I don’t watch anime youtubers, but I can at least say MercuryFalcon has some very well-sourced videos, especially his Toei Fushigi Comedy one.

None of these are perfect, but they do a solid job of translating information that I’d like to see more of. Again, apologies if I forgot or don’t know about other people, but I figured I’d shout out a few of the ones I do know.

[chocolatedetectivehottub]

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[rhaevyn-rants]

How the Mighty have fallen...

My chat with Xfinity that can only be believed by experiencing it....

Live chat started.

Rahul joined the chat.

Hi XXXX, thank you for contacting Xfinity. My name is Rahul. I see you may have questions about your Xfinity Mobile bill. Is that correct?

ME: yes

RAHUL: I'm happy to go over Xfinity Mobile options. Please elaborate your concern ?

ME: I want to know why my phone bill is suddenly $30 more, what is going on?!!! [more than 30 seconds pass] ME: you there? [another 20 seconds pass] ME: SAY SOMETHING!! [me adding a note to emphasize my displeasure] Xfinity has got to be the worst company I've ever had the displeasure to be forced to work with. Are you going to acknowledge your customer here or just leave me hanging? [about 15 seconds pass] RAHUL: Thank you so much for specifying your concern please be assured let me pull up your account details and help you in best possible way. Please allow me few minutes

ME: Stop using cans and talk to me like a human being

RAHUL: I am human being , Please allow me a moment to check the bill

ME: better

RAHUL: Thankyou [15-20 seconds pass] RAHUL: As I can check your bill is $49 , right ?

ME: It's supposed to be $18.34 or $18.38, not THIRTY dollars more! I want to know why

RAHUL: As I can check you are on unlimited plan and unlimited plan cost $45 /mo

ME: No, I am on unlimited and it $18.38. That's what was promised to me and as you can see from my billing history, that's what I've been paying.

RAHUL: Sure let me check that

ME: I've also chatted with you people recently about it being unlimited at that price and was told by the rep that I was indeed on unlimited for 18 [more silence ensues, lost track of how long at this point as I'm reading emails until I hear the tone that someone has actually responded]

RAHUL: are you enrolled for any bundle deal with internet ?

ME: I am assuming that is why I got the price

ME: And why are you asking me? You have my account information in front of you, right?

RAHUL: XXXX I can check that you are on the by the plan in previous You usage is very less so if you want I can switch you on the by the gig plan back then you will get the same charges as you were getting in past bills

ME: NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't you dare. OMG you people are unbelievable!! Do you even put notes in your customers' accounts? Do you even listen to us? Do you even care? WTF! NO!!! I want what was promised to me. UNLIMTED FOR $18.XX a month. Make that happen, don't explain, just do it. The last rep said he did but apparently he did NOT

RAHUL: I really felt sorry for this XXXX be assured we are here to help you with the best and just a moment to do the right thing for you. [what English are you even SPEAKING Rahul?] ME: I'm tired of having to constantly get in touch with you people to fix my account You promise me one thing, then turn around and change it without telling me If you don't have permission to do this then escalate me to tier two

RAHUL: I didn't changed anything now , please be assured I will resolve this now XXXX please calm down , Allow me a moment to resove this.

ME: I used to do your job at Comcast about 25 years ago, when the call centers were here in the US.

ME: [after the "calm down" remark] OK that's a huge mistake. Don't ever tell a customer to calm down. You have to use your senses to calm them yourself.

RAHUL: XXXX I am doing by best for you , please allow me a moment to resolve this

ME: I'm not stopping you

RAHUL: I want to confirm that you were getting the discount of your internet services as I can check you have internet services as well but you not get the discount on this bill so I just need to connect you with that advance team who will resolve this bill concern and yes please sorry for that :) shall I connect you quickly ?

ME: yes

RAHUL: One moment while I connect you to the appropriate team. You are being transferred. Please hold…

Rahul left the chat.

Sanjay joined the chat.

SANJAY: Thank you for waiting Just to confirm your query is about internet billing

ME: No

SANJAY: Just to confirm your query is about internet billing ? Is that for mobile ?

ME: Didn't Rahul tell you our conversation? Didn't he write notes in my account like he's supposed to? Didn't he chat with you first before sending me to you?

SANJAY: I really apologize however I am from the internet billing team and can help you with options to lower your internet bill

ME: Then Rahul is clearly an idiot Just so you know, I am obviously not happy with Xfinity.

SANJAY: Let me connect you back with mobile billing team as your query was about mobile , they will help to fix this.

You are being transferred. Please hold…

Sanjay left the chat.

Paras joined the chat.

ME: I am tired of having to constantly contact you people, constantly get told everything is as I want only (OMG he transferred me as I typed this RUDE)

ME: This is unbelievable I wish there were timestamps in this chat app so you can see how long I had to wait between these people

PARAS: I apologize for the inconvenience you have faced.

ME: Then fix it

PARAS: I would like to inform you that you have been connected in the wrong department, I'll just connect you with the right department who will help you. One moment while I connect you to the appropriate team.

ME [fumbling to type quickly]: NO!!@! don't you dare!

You are being transferred. Please hold…

Paras left the chat.

Manohar joined the chat.

ME: unfuckingbelievable [note that above 'somewhat' expletive was typed before I even saw Manohar start to type and s/he never said a word.] Manohar left the chat. Agent lost connection. Please wait while we attempt to reconnect you.

ME [typed before I saw that they left and also completely disconnected me from chat]: I swear to all the gods Manohar, if you transfer me…

Main Menu: Are you moving? I can help transfer your services to a new address. Let me know how I can help.

Schedule a move

Activate equipment

Learn more

ME: Now I'm being connected to an agent again. From the start. See how shoddy these people are?

OK. Which service do you need help with?

Xfinity Mobile Xfinity Services Xfinity Mobile Thanks, I can help with most issues, but I’ll put you in touch with an agent if you need more assistance. What do you need help with today?

Activation Billing Troubleshooting Other Billing Your Xfinity Mobile bill is paid automatically every month with your card on file.

View my Xfinity Mobile bill View my Xfinity bill View recent payments Make a payment Make a quick payment Payment flexibility Update my card on file I need help with something else

Chat with an agent Chat with an agent Got it. I'll put you in touch with a live agent now. Live chat started.

Connecting you with a live agent Please wait Live chat started. We could not reconnect with your current agent. Looking for additional help. [an eternity later…] Pruthvi joined the chat.

ME [preemptively]: Pruthvi, please have patience and wait as I type out a story for you

ME: I have been in this chat for almost half an hour now. I have been transferred 3 times to the wrong people. No one has taken notes in my account. My phone bill has gone up $30 when I have been promised PROMISED three times that I am getting unlimited for $18 a month. My bill suddenly went up to $49 without warning after I was promised that it would stay at $18 for unlimited. You people never notate my account, no one knows what the last person said because NO ONE ENTERS NOTES!

PRUTHVI: Yes I really understand your situation, notes gets entered manually in the system however let me check the chat of the previous agent to know the things discussed, Xfinity appreciates your business with us so I will try my level best to help you now itself Just spare me a minute

ME: thank you

PRUTHVI: You're welcome. [after reading several emails and doing other things, we finally get…] PRUTHVI: I am from the billing department and I see that your query is purely based on mobile bill , I have limited access to that what I can do here is , we have a best agent having all the access to it who will be able to help you in this This time your query will be resolved

ME: So I'm being transferred yet again. Unbelievable. You say it will, but it never is

PRUTHVI: I am from the billing team I understand your concern

ME: and it's my bill I have issue with

PRUTHVI: Yes , but I do not have the access to mobile bills I can only help you with the cable/ internet bill

ME: what kind of system is that? wow just go ahead and transfer me, I'll probably end up back with you later anyway

PRUTHVI: I promise you that I am connecting you to one of the best agent having a mobile bill access

Please stay connected.

ME: so you're not billing, you're internet billing [rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all]

PRUTHVI: Yes

ME: just do it

PRUTHVI: Okay! You are being transferred. Please hold…

Pruthvi left the chat.

Sakshi joined the chat. [I wait for over a full minute] ME: Is someone going to talk? [another 20 seconds] ME: HELLO???? [more time passes] SAKSHI: Yes , please share your concern i am here to help you only .

ME: I've been in this chat for over half an hour, I have explained myself to four other agents. Are you seriously telling me no one told you my problem?

SAKSHI: My apologies for the inconvenience. Let me check your previous conversation .

ME: No, it's YOUR job to read the notes. It was the last agent's responsibility to tell YOU what my problem is

I am your customer, it's not my job to keep explaining myself over and over and constantly be transferred to yet another agent who doesn't seem to be able to help me.

SAKSHI: XXXX, Please allow me couple of minutes however i am here to help you only i can understand your part being a customer . I am asking for your concern as you will better explain it to me as i am getting only the summary of the previous chats . As i have see your concern is about mobile bill that went up $30 . May i know if i am right ?

ME [reaching for my Ibuprofen]: good grief, this is wearing me out. I was promised unlimited mobile for $18 a month. This was when I first transferred my mobile service to Xfinity. I would NOT have made such a major change unless I had been promised the price and service.

ME: It was all fine for the first several months then I suddenly started getting overage warnings.

ME: I've been in touch with Xfinity several times about this and every time they assure me it's been corrected. That I'm back on unlimited for $18

ME: And then I get the email today showing I've been charged $49!!!

ME: This is the most disorganized, unprofessional, sneaky company I've ever had to work with.

ME: You are not trained properly, no one enters full notes, I get transferred around from person to person

SAKSHI: May i know if you get the bill with unlimited plan in $18 with any joint deal like bundle deal discount ?

ME: It's all a sham. I just want my unlimited mobile for $18 that I was promised. Don't ask me what plan I have, you're the company, you're supposed to have access to my account. You tell ME what plan you see? I've already explained myself. I was told when I transferred my phone to Xfinity that since I've been a customer for so long (and yes, because I have internet) I would be given the unlimited plan for $18. No special offer, no time limit, just $18 unlimited for as long as I was a customer. Unfortunately I trusted you people so I don't have a written contract on this. If I get told you won't give me what I was promised then I will be on the phone today begging Cricket to take me back. You people are UNREAL! And since none of you take proper notes you'll never find all the times I've been in contact with you over this.

SAKSHI: XXXX , as i can see your mobile . You have one line with unlimited plan for which you are charged $45 however as per that the charges are valid there is no other promotion added with the order on your account however there will some bundle deal discount that you are referring to so let me connect you to the internet team for taking care of that . You are being transferred. Please hold…

Sakshi left the chat.

Rohit joined the chat.

ME: And here we go again… transferred without even giving me a moment to acknowledge or approve the transfer. Is this really happening?

[several moments later…] ROHIT: I apologize for the inconvenience however as I can se your issue is related to mobile and I am from internet billing so let me connect you with them You are being transferred. Please hold… <> Rohit left the chat.

Komal joined the chat.

ME: I think they just keep transferring you around so that you finally get so fed up you just end the chat and "leave them alone."

KOMAL: XXXX, I'm really sorry for all the inconvenience you faced! I would feel the same way in your situation . Let me quickly review your chat and see what best I can do to help

ME: Yeah sure. You're just the 7th agent I've been cycled to. Amaze me.

KOMAL: I can totally understand how frustrating that was. I see that you have a query regarding your phone bill and I am from the Mobile department . I'll do my best to resolve this for you as quickly as possible. Would you mind waiting a couple of minutes while I look into that for you?

ME: If I can finally get what I have been promised since the beginning, I can wait as long as you like.

KOMAL: Thankyou for your understanding and cooperation. Please allow me a few minutes to review your account. Meanwhile, please do not press the back button and also avoid using other applications for us to stay connected without any interruption.

ME: I'm aware of how the internet works I worked for Comcast about 25 years ago, when the call centers were here in the US and we were trained to take detailed notes in customer accounts to avoid crap like this. Oh how the mighty have fallen… [queue the elevator music now as we wait] ME: XXXX I'm really sorry, you ran into trouble! I just need a little more time to look into this for you and then we'll get this sorted .

ME: Sounds good. I've been in this chat for so long now I need to use the ladies room. I'll be back in a minute.

Take your time .I would just request you to keep this chat window open so that we can stay connected while I am looking into your query.

ME: You really think I would close it after an hour? How stupid do you think I am?

KOMAL: I hear your frustration and understand where you're coming from. I'm so sorry you experienced that. We strive to provide a much better experience than what you've had today.

ME: It's not just today I've never had a totally good experience dealing with you people. Let's just fix the problem hmm?

KOMAL: I really apologize for the inconvenience caused to you be rest assured I am checking the details from my end and I will definitely do my best to fix it for you as quickly as possible

ME: I just want what I was promised. It's not rocket science.

KOMAL: Please allow me a couple of minutes to review your account. I really appreciate your time and patience with me.

ME: I'll be here

KOMAL: Thank you so much.

New Message KOMAL: Thanks for waiting [I wait for him to continue, you know, as in he doesn't need my permission like some puppy. Nothing] ME: so?

KOMAL: XXXX as I have checked that previously you were on by the gig sharable data plan which previously was for $15 . However, the charges for the Unlimited lines are $45 in third generation . What I can do for you is switch your plan back to By the Gig as I see that you average data usage is less that 1 Gb /cycle . That would help lower your bill. As per the revised prices you'll have to pay $20 for the line +taxes . And if you want to keep the Unlimited line I can help you lower the bill to 40 by upgrading the plan to fifth generation .

ME: No. That is not acceptable. Like I've told all SEVEN of you, I only did the major task of moving my phone over to Xfinity because I was promised unlimited for $18 a month because I was a long time customer. Do you really think I would go through all that hassle for $49 a month unlimited when I already had $35 a month unlimited. REAL unlimited? No, you guys can say good bye to my mobile service. I'm so angry and wish I'd never left Cricket. They have quick customer service, they are organized, they are here in the US and they're cheaper and better. I'm done with you guys.

KOMAL: XXXX It is great to see that you have been giving us an opportunity to serve you .You had choices and thank you for choosing Xfinity over others. As your data usage is less than 1 Gb and Xfinity also provides millions of hotspots across the country (Please refer the link http://wifi.XFINITY.com/ to check available hotspots ) , I'd suggest you to switch to By the Gig plan where you'll only have to pay $20 + taxes for the line and you'll still get unlimited text and calls under this plan also.

ME: No. I'm not compromising. I either get what I was promised or I'm gone. I would NEVER have switched to Xfinity if I knew you'd start monitoring my usage on an UNLIMITED PLAN. That was the deal. That is what I was promised. Unlimited for $18. I will not accept anything other than that. Period. End of discussion.

KOMAL: XXXX , Just to confirm, you were promised that you'll be getting an Unlimited line for $18 when you switched to Unlimited line on May 15 ?

ME: No I was promised that I would be getting unlimited for $18 when I brought my phone to you guys, over a year ago.

ME: And it has only been in the past few months that I've started getting usage warnings. Then the price went up… AFTER talking to you guys and being told it was unlimited for $18 and it was all fixed and done.

ME: Nope. You've all done enough damage, you're disorganized, you don't talk to each other, no one enters notes, no confirmations are provided to the customer in writing, even when we ask, BEG for it. We have to "trust" that you did what you said. I'm so over it.

KOMAL: XXXX, I totally understand your frustration . However here in your account history I see that you were previously on By the Gig line that's why you've been paying $15+ taxes for the line all this time and you recently switched to Unlimited that's why your bill increased to $45+taxes

ME: I should not have been "switched" to what I was already supposed to have. I don't care what your notes say. As I stated, I've been going through this nightmare with you people for months. I know what I was promised. If what they offered was indeed by the gig, I was never informed of this. They assured me that I would get unlimited. It was a ruse to lure me into switching providers. That is a nasty thing to do. Then when I was close to going over for the first time, I finally became aware of my plan.

ME: I trust too easily. That changes now. If you don't get it in WRITING, don't do it. Lesson learned.

KOMAL: XXXX I sincerely apologize for all the confusion . I understand your side as I am a customer myself and I'd feel the same if I had faced the same issue .

ME: I only wish there was another internet company I could use in my apartment, then I could completely leave Xfinity once and for all. But no, Xfinity has a monopoly here.

[captainmdhridoyhossain-blog]

[ad_1] Turns out Google imposes a hard limit on the number of files you can upload to Google Drive, its cloud storage service—despite a lack of clear documentation that outlines the restrictions. That magic number? Five million. This hidden count only became apparent when users started running into it. As reported on Reddit and shared by CNET, users discovered this cap the hard way in February. In a post on Google’s IssueTracker, both individuals and businesses noted that uploads had stopped working on their accounts, but without a clear explanation for the failures, leaving users confused while scrambling to deal with broken automated integrations and backup systems. Upgrading the account to a higher amount of storage also did not fix the problem. In early March, Google’s customer service agents revealed the hard ceiling in individual replies to account holders, stating they could not exceed 5 million documents—even when the total storage used was under the plan’s limits. A Google Workspace spokesperson confirmed this policy in a statement to CNET, saying individual users were limited to 5 million total created items to “maintain strong performance and reliability.” However, the rollout of this limitation appears to be inconsistent, with others on the IssueTracker thread hitting the restriction at the 1 million mark. If you’ve encountered Error 403 (“The limit for the number of items, whether trashed or not, created by this account has been exceeded”), you may have tripped into this issue. Mention of this restriction on file count remains missing from Google’s documentation, too. At the time of this article, only a help page covering individual file limitations (with surprisingly fine detail) exists. Meanwhile, shared drive accounts have their file limits clearly listed as a maximum of 400,000, and competitor Dropbox has no limitations on the number of files uploaded; same for Box, which the company confirmed to CNET. Affected users now face a hard decision: Switch accounts (either to a rival service or within Google), or begin deleting files. Neither task will be simple for those part of wide organizations (one person described this limitation affecting “tens of thousands” affiliated with their org) and folks who had used their accounts for cloud backups. Backup software can create multiple small files as part of incremental backups, which can add up over time—as was the case for the Redditor who alerted r/Google to this issue. In response, other Redditors pointed out a temporary workaround—adding all documents to a few zip files. (Never change, Reddit.) [ad_2] #Google #Drive #hidden #file #cap #million #documents

[pitagain]

Wow, with a list that varied, I'm surprised I have any games to recommend at all, but here goes! I'll go over each game in more detail if asked:

3DS exclusives -

Dilon's Rolling Western trilogy (Tower-defense action game combo, although it does suffer from "right-hand-only" controls for the 1st game, which later ones fixed)

Rising Board 3D (Not much of a goal in this one, but its gameplay is fairly stand-out among other "stunt" games of its kind)

Harmoknight (The Game Freak rhythm game that needs no introduction)

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity (I'm definitively confident in saying this is the best story ever told in a Pokemon game, as well as one of Spike Chunsoft's best works, as well as a decent beginner entry, thanks to its relatively easy difficulty! It pretty much defines many of my preferences in media to this day, from characterization, to atmosphere, to that phenomenal music! I'd say only the sound design and lack of option to skip text without external cheat codes (Which I can provide) falls notably short. Although somewhat simplified in comparison to other entries, it's still best experienced via learning that sweet dungeon-crawler gameplay depth in-game dictionary accessible via the highlight text button made available ever since the 1st entry [Red/Blue Rescue Team, which got the DX remake on the Switch in 2020])

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon (For those who played the rest of the series, seeing as its got a bunch of cameos for characters from previous games. Also has the most addicting gameplay via its many Shiren-inspired additions)

3D OutRun (Has more content to add to the beloved 80s arcade "driving game" classic, including unique music made just for it, and unlockable easy mode upgrades, although the Switch "Sega Ages" counterpart adds even more via remakes/demakes of existing series music!)

Pokemon Rumble Blast (The single best entry in what's otherwise widely considered a mediocre spin-off series, due to its simplicity, even in comparison to the core series. Have yet to get far enough into this to know why it's considered great, but my experience playing the original Pokemon Rumble and Pokemon Rumble World were pretty bad, so I'm interested in seeing how this entry improved the series design before spiraling into microtransaction nonsense for later entries)

Rage of the Gladiator [Improved Remake] (I can't find the game on the iOS store for the life of me, and its Android version has been confirmed to be removed, so for all intents and purposes, it's stuck to the Wiiware original and this 3DS release, therefore making it exclusive. Not only was it one of Wiiware's best, but it also built upon what already made Punch-Out!!'s tough, but possible to master pattern-based fights so appealing, by adding a talent tree system to make your attacks varied among playthroughs. It gets every bit as difficult as you'd expect, which for me at least, makes overcoming the challenge all the more satisfying!)

Virtual Console/Non-Exclusive stuff on the 3DS that you most likely already did, but might've missed for all I know -

Shantae, Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (A well-renowned 2D adventure game series in the vein of say, Legend of Zelda, or other old games known for their labyrinths, puzzles, item collection game, and combat. The first one and Pirate's Curse are my favorites of the series for their elaborate design and nice length, while Risky's Revenge is still important enough to the series from both gameplay and story development perspectives to pick up, just note that its status as a DSiWare title seriously limited its file size and content as a result)

Gargoyle's Quest (The start of a trilogy of games starring Firebrand, who's the same species as those dreaded Red Arremers from Ghosts n' Goblins series. It also has some of that 2D adventure game feel, although more platform-heavy, with some "Zelda II world map" shenanigans thrown in. Its decent design already makes me pretty excited to play the other two games what's surprisingly one of Capcom's highest rated series, despite not getting mentioned often)

Tails Adventures (So what if you made the 2D adventure game formula feel more like a Search Action game [Or what others would the bizarre term "Metroidvania", despite only a few games in said genre feeling like Metroid or Castlevania at all], and removed the Sonic franchise's focus on speed? Sounds like a recipe for distaster to many, but as someone who wasn't fond of how Sonic platformers were designed, this was a breath of fresh air that quickly climbed up to my #2 favorite Sonic game [Only behind Sonic Riders; another spinoff, go figure]. Biggest issue is the limited amount of gadgets you can bring to each stage visit, otherwise, this game gets what makes both the genre and Game Gear shine in more ways than one!)

Wario Land series [Minus 3. That game doesn't understand what makes Search Action games good in my book] (I don't need to introduce you to this wonderful platformer series either, especially since I'm about 90% sure you already tackled it. Its got personality, good design, interesting gameplay concepts, dazzling aesthetic, and plenty of Wario to go around!)

Mega Man World series [III, IV, and V in particular, as the first two had... less than stellar design] (A gameboy series that might seem like mere ports at first glance, but feature more and more original content with each entry! So much so, that V has an almost entirely original cast of enemies, stages, music, weapons, and bosses! I still find IV to be the best designed though, and definitely a personal favorite, for not being handholdingly easy like V, nor somewhat unwelcoming in difficulty like III. If you don't like the classic series Mega Man gameplay formula after an entry besides the first two games [The console ones, I mean, confusing, I know], this won't win you over, but if you do like such gameplay, this is a treasure trove worth exploring!)

Metroid II: Return of Samus (Doesn't need an introduction either; it's genre-defining, after all!)

Ace Attorney series (Yes you've heard of this one too, but I'd still say go for it! It and Danganronpa have their ups and downs, as well as occasionally dated writing, but serve as solid murder mystery series that are ambitious and complex in their own ways. Although far more forgiving in terms of spoilers affecting the experience, Ace Attorney is still best played blind, because lots of the fun comes from solving these mysteries on your own; it's not just about finding the killer [As the first game already tells you who the culprit is upon starting the first two cases; not even a spoiler as a result], it's also about figuring out the interesting logic behind why the killer is guilty, and why your client is innocent, leading to that long sought-after "galaxy brain" moment!)

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (Only finished the base game "Shovel of Hope" campaign so far, but this is the kind of action platformer where jumping and whacking stuff with the shovel are equally effective in combat. The Mega Man kind of level design I find intuitive and engaging is apparent here too, it's another reason that other inspired games like Freedom Planet [Released the same year as Shovel of Hope, coincidentally] also enticed me! I don't think any description of this indie classic can do it justice, especially now that it has four full-fledged campaigns [Fifth if you count the brief Showdown one], each with wildly different playstyles that'd be too difficult to explain individually in this kind of post!)

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (Might as well get the Kid Icarus trilogy closer to completion)

Oh yeah, does anyone have any DS/3DS recomendations?

Been looking to try more stuff in both of these system's libraries!

I am fairly familiar with both but im sure ive missed some gems in there

[genshin-impact-updates]

"The Exquisite Night Chimes" Version 3.4 Update Maintenance Preview

Dear Travelers,

Our developers will soon begin performing update maintenance. While the update maintenance is in progress, Travelers will be unable to log in to the game. Please take note of the update time and schedule your game time accordingly.

After this is complete, the game will update to a new version. We recommend that Travelers install this update over a Wi-Fi connection.

〓Update Schedule〓

Update maintenance begins 2023/01/18 06:00 (UTC+8) and is estimated to take 5 hours.

〓How to Update Game Client〓

PC: Close the game, open the Genshin Impact Launcher, and click Update.

iOS: Open the App Store and tap Update.

Android: Open the game and follow the directions on-screen.

PS5™ and PS4™: Highlight Genshin Impact from the Home Screen, press the OPTIONS button and select "Check for Update."

Please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service if you encounter any issues installing the new version. We will do our very best to resolve the issue.

〓Compensation Details〓

Maintenance Compensation: Primogems ×300 (60 Primogems per hour the servers are down)

〓Scope of Compensation〓

Maintenance Compensation: Travelers who reach Adventure Rank 5 or above before 2023/01/18 06:00 (UTC+8).

Please claim before the end of Version 3.4.

Our developers will distribute compensation to Travelers via in-game mail within 5 hours after the update maintenance is finished. The mail will expire after 30 days, so don't forget to claim the attached compensation in time.

For more update details, including bug fixes and other compensation details, please see the Version Update Details notice to be posted at 2023/01/18 07:00 (UTC+8).

〓Update Content Overview〓

〓Adjustments & Optimizations〓

● System

In "Mystic Offering," the selected Artifacts will not be cleared after switching the Artifact Strongbox.

In "Mystic Offering," a second confirmation pop-up window has been added when selecting an enhanced Artifact.

Optimizes the filtering criteria of Artifacts in "Mystic Offering."

In "Mystic Offering," Artifacts can be selected in batches by scrolling.

● Audio

Optimizes the sound of some Elemental Reaction effects in Genius Invokation TCG.

Adjusts the playback logic when characters' weather-related and standby voice-overs are triggered at the same time.

● Characters

Optimizes the appearance of Yelan's hands in her model.

Adjusts the appearance of Dori's legs in her character illustration.

● Genius Invokation TCG

Adds a function to end turn using a controller when playing Genius Invokation TCG. While using a controller, when the cursor is hovering, hold the X button on the PC and PS4™ or the Circle button on the PS5™ to end the turn (using the Dualsense™ and DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controllers as examples).

Adds L1 and R1 button prompts when using a controller to play Genius Invokation TCG (using the Dualsense™ or DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controllers as examples).

Adjusts the number of charges and Elemental Dice required, as well as DMG dealt by the Elemental Burst for the Character Card "Yoimiya" in Genius Invokation TCG: the number of charges required has increased from 2 to 3, the number of dice required has increased from 3 Pyro Dice to 4, and "Deals 3 Pyro DMG..." has been adjusted to "Deals 4 Pyro DMG..."

Adjusts the DMG dealt by the Elemental Skills "Blustering Blade" and "Frosty Assault" of the Character Card "Maguu Kenki" in Genius Invokation TCG: these two Elemental Skills will no longer deal DMG, and will only summon "Shadowsword: Lone Gale" and "Shadowsword: Galloping Frost," respectively.

Adjusts the effect of the Event Card "Minty Meat Rolls" in Genius Invokation TCG: this effect can now trigger up to 3 times.

Adjusts the number of uses for the Team Combat Status "Catalyzing Field" in Genius Invokation TCG: the number has decreased from 3 to 2.

Adjusts the number of Elemental Dice required for the "Floral Sidewinder" Talent Card in Genius Invokation TCG: the number required has been increased from 3 Dendro Dice to 4.

Optimizes the appearance of some Character Card faces in Genius Invokation TCG.

Optimizes the special effects of the shielding effects for cards when playing Genius Invokation TCG on mobile.

Optimizes the animation effect when a new Character Card is played in Genius Invokation TCG.

● Other

Adjusts the description of the achievement "A Well-Trained Archaeologist."

Adjusts the number of Teleport Waypoints required to unlock the achievement "Over Sandstorms and Mirages (I)." The original total number of Teleport Waypoints required to be unlocked is 26, and is now adjusted to 27 (if the achievement has been completed, the completion status of the achievement remains unchanged).

Adjusts the rules for obtaining the Elemental Resonance effects: when there are four characters in your party, or four or more characters in your party due to trial characters, Elemental Resonance will take effect as normal, with the specific Elemental Resonance effect determined by the corresponding elements of the first through fourth characters in your party (prior to the adjustment, Elemental Resonance would not take effect if a Trial Character was present).

Removed the second confirmation pop-up window for skipping the cutscene for the second phase of the "Shouki no Kami, the Prodigal" boss fight. Now, clicking "skip" will directly skip the cutscene without a need for confirmation.

Adjusts the height range for triggering some Random Events.

*This is a work of fiction and is not related to any actual people, events, groups, or organizations.

"PlayStation", "PS5", "PS4", "DualSense", "DUALSHOCK" are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

[youwerenevermeanttofeelalone]

The Kind that Never Slows Down | Damian Wayne

✦ pairing — older!Damian Wayne x female!Plus Size Reader

✦ word count — 10k

✦ summary — Gotham is hit with a spell that changes your perception of Damian forever.

✦ warnings — nsfw, semi-public sex, non-con sex (not really but just to be safe), angst, language, light jealousy, light possessiveness, mentions of food, smut, unprotected sex (please don’t do this), consensual sex, vaginal sex, cunnilingus, fluff.

✦ author's note — this one should’ve been published a long time ago, but I just got around editing it. Hope you like it.

════════════════════════

The abandoned building smelled like piss and mold, the only light available entered through a broken window, and you were pretty sure you had heard rats roaming around.

But you didn’t care. Robin’s hands were all over you, plump lips sucking on your neck like his life depended on it as he pounded into you.

It wasn’t enough.

He had skipped foreplay on your insistence. You needed him more than anything, if he didn’t fuck you right there in that moment you wouldn’t be able to survive.

He grunted out of pleasure as you clenched around him, gripping your hips to ground himself as he picked up his already relentless pace.

It still wasn’t enough.

Having his cum down your thighs and marks over your neck from his kisses wasn’t enough either. Your body craved all of him, including his whining and abrasive words.

Noise outside prompted him to part from you completely. Both of you fixed yourselves as best as you could in silence, avoiding looking at the other.

You followed him outside with a sense of guilt hovering over you like a dark cloud. You felt like you had just gotten out of a trance after committing the worst of the crimes.

Nightwing stopped you by yelling, “Where were you? I looked for you two everywhere.”

“We were looking for you,” Robin lied smoothly.

Nightwing’s shoulders slumped as he nodded. “Well, Zatana undid the spell.”

Suddenly Damian’s urgent voice as he said he needed you made all the sense in the world. His need for you and your need for him had been magic-induced.

Of course it had been! You two were mere acquaintances who fought all the time for the most minimal things in the world or ignored the other to the point of making people around you uncomfortable. It was a surprise that you worked well together at night.

“A lust spell, right?”

“Well, no,” Nightwing chuckled. “According to her, the spell showed people what their heart desires the most.”

Robin stiffened beside you, and you felt every drop of blood drain from your face and fall to your feet.

“Did you hear a lot of people having sex?”

“Yeah,” you croaked. “Tons of them.”

The moment you got home, you ripped your suit off and walked into the shower. You washed his cum off you, scrubbing your body twice just to make sure.

Wishing the soap could erase the marks on your neck and the memory of the way he had moaned your name, you decided to take a pill to sleep.

You hadn’t needed one of those in months, but Damian was that special. Or annoying.

God, you hated him and his stupid ego. He would surely find funny the lengths you would have to go to put this in the past.

He loved being the center of attention as much as he hated you, that was why you always tried your best to avoid him. When you didn’t avoid him, he made weird faces at you and scoffed every time you laughed.

Turning the lamp off, you hoped for the best.

Meanwhile, Damian ignored Dick’s inquiries. Why did his brother care if he was extremely quiet or if he looked like he was about to explode?

Your scent was all over him, still bewitching him, overpowering his sweat and the smell of everybody around him.

Looking down at his hands, the gloved palms that had hours before gripped and traced as much of your body as your suit had allowed him to, Damian clenched his jaw.

How could he have been so stupid? There was no other reason for you to beg him to fuck you the way you had — magic! He fucking hated magic.

But Dick’s explanation... that was worse. More stupid. He hated it too. His brother had to be wrong.

It wouldn’t be the first time someone from his family was wrong regarding magic, and Zatanna while an expert had her own biases.

Besides, his heart could have been desiring to get off the most just like yours. The two of you were busy people after all.

“Did the spell show you anything, Dami?”

The prettiest face he had seen in his entire life. “A pet demon.”

He regretted the lie the moment he said it. Damian wished a lot of things could be different. His mother would be furious if she knew how sentimental he was becoming, if she found out how often he gave into wishful thinking.

For once, he wanted to be open. But as always something was stopping him. Sometimes he wondered if he had been born to be like that or if his grandfather had simply lied.

Leaving the cave the moment he was dismissed, he trotted upstairs almost praying Dick wouldn’t follow him.

He couldn’t stop replaying the way you clung to him, or the harshness of your kiss. It had felt real, and too perfect to be happening to him all at once.

But you hated him, everybody and their mother knew that.

════════════════════════

Barbara had never been subtle around you. There had never been a need for such a thing — she was like the older sister you never had, you two carried the other’s secrets and burdens.

Back when you met her, barely as a teen, she provided a safe place you only had ever dreamt of having. You vowed to give it all back; she deserved it.

“What’s up with the turtleneck?” She asked, unsubtly so with her bright eyes on your neck.

“I have a cold,” you feigned a rasp. Perhaps this secret wouldn’t be shared.

“Mmmh. Really?” She poured herself a cup of coffee. “Dick said Damian was feeling under the weather too.”

Yup. Definitely not sharing. It would be embarrassing. She had always had the theory that you were in love with Damian just because you complained about him on a weekly basis.

It was like she had never met him.

In a way, the theory was correct. But it lacked a lot of details — a spell had confirmed it from all things. It sounded ironic, quite suitable to your situation.

“Flu season, I guess.”

It was a bad lie. Everybody knew when flu season arrived because Tim started getting a stuffy nose and limiting his consumption of Red Bull in order to drink more water.

”Did the spell from the other night show you anything?”

You faked a cough, shaking your head. “I was busy on patrol.”

“I was too and I saw Dick.”

“That’s just wishful thinking, Babs. It’s cute, though.”

Her not seeing Dick would have surprised you. They had known each other for years, gone through so much together... most people wanted what they had.

“Is there a particular reason why you’re lying to me?”

You wrapped your fingers around your mug. The heat transferring from the ceramic to your palm reminded you of Damian’s breath on your lips.

Taking a gulp of coffee, you blinked rapidly. “You don’t think it’s cute?”

She rolled her eyes. “Everybody saw something. It’s how those spells work.”

“There must be something wrong with me.”

There really had to be something awfully wrong with you. Saying out loud that you wanted Damian more than anything in the world terrified you.

It was a normal thing. Not wanting him specifically, but wanting someone — everybody craved attention and love at some level, you just happened to crave Damian’s at every single one.

He was the problem, not you.

════════════════════════

Movie marathons weren’t something Damian really cared for, but they were better than hearing his father complain about minor things like if he had ruined a goon’s lungs or whatever.

Alfred called it bonding time which he supposed was a fair assessment. He found Tim’s taste in movies quite good, and now he didn’t get the urge to strangle his slightly older brother in his sleep.

His stepmother was there too. Selina had been the reason why Bruce shifted his ways, she urged him to either find a balance or stop adding people to the team.

Duke made him pass a bowl of popcorn to Tim who did the same to Stephanie. The bowl landed on Dick who was on the row behind them, just next to Jason.

Getting more comfortable on his seat, his eyes fell on the empty spot to Duke’s right. Cassandra used to sit there until one afternoon Duke couldn’t seem to shut up and she asked you to switch places. You always went with the things Duke said, sometimes even asked his opinion.

Damian complained once, telling his sister to suck it up next time. But Cassandra would never do something he told her to, that was perhaps why she was his favorite.

Everyone around him was in an amazing mood which he didn’t understand. Bruce had just tried to tell a joke, and Jason was mocking how dumb it was.

Selina laughed loudly, in that way people did when they felt genuinely happy. At least that was what he supposed; Damian wasn’t sure he had ever experienced happiness.

The sound of an approaching wheelchair made his ears perk up. Not a single pair of shoes could be heard against the floor. Fighting a frown, he turned to look at the door.

Barbara waved at all of them with a smile, maneuvering her wheelchair to sit next to Dick’s seat. Craning his neck with the excuse of saying hi, Damian watched her give Dick a chaste kiss.

“Where’s (Nickname)?” Dick asked, lifting his arm to rest it on the back of Barbara’s chair.

“She said she was feeling sick. Although...” Barbara giggled, leaning onto Dick’s arm. “I heard the voice of a guy in the background so she might have company.”

Damian felt sick upon hearing such a thing. First, you had asked to be paired up with Duke for patrol and now this? It was too much even for your pettiness — granted, he had planned on putting more distance between you two, but he hadn’t gone around trying to find someone to erase you.

The thought never crossed him, not for a single moment. He had wondered why he wished to cling to a memory when he had never been the sentimental type, but he realized that to be the entire point of deep desires.

“Well, it’s time,” Stephanie commented, “she’s been single for too long.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to scare him off,” Selina added.

Damian stood up from the now uncomfortable seat, forcing Duke to do the same so he could leave. Duke stared at him weirdly, with worry, as if he knew something Damian didn’t want him to.

He probably did. Damian had been careless two times in a row. God, he needed to get a fucking grip. Unconsciously, he fiddled with the neck of his sweater.

“Oi,” Jason called for him, “where are you going?”

“Out,” he answered angrily. “If other... members... may skip this, why can’t I?”

Barbara and Dick shared a sideways glance.

Only telling Alfred that he would be back later, Damian followed the path towards the garage. Skipping his bike for once, finding himself thinking he wanted to take as little shortcuts as possible for whatever reason, he took his car.

Damian had always been a fan of driving. He didn’t know why, it was tedious and didn’t serve many purposes in the grand scheme of things; not to him. Ever since he learned, he took every opportunity he got to drive whichever vehicle he could get his hands on.

Having control over vehicles and machines was nice, he supposed. If people were a little bit more like said things, everything would have been easier. The world would be boring, but easier to habit.

Saving people was easy, caring about them from afar gave him enough human interaction for his standards, but he would never understand them.

And for the first time since he tried to decode his mother’s attitude, he wanted to understand someone more than anything. Perhaps that way said someone would understand him back and untangle this mess.

The building before him wasn’t welcoming. He had never put foot into that place, but he knew every single person that lived there — patrol gave him that kind of knowledge. And he did some research months ago, but no one needed to be aware of such thing.

He pressed his ear to the door he had been looking for. The dishwasher was on, but he couldn’t pick up any other sound. Damian knocked on said door three times, quickly and loudly. There was no answer so he did it again. A door slammed shut inside the apartment, a groan accompanied by a string of curses got clearer as stomps approached him.

Standing tall and straight, he felt a thrill down his spine as the lock was loudly fiddled with.

You swung the door open, rubbing your eye. He observed you had thrown a turtleneck on, upside down. Damian walked past you without invitation, analyzing the living room.

There were no clothes scattered all over the floor like he had imagined he would find.

“What are you doing here?”

He ignored you, exploring the kitchen. Damian opened the fridge, narrowing his eyes as he inspected. He did the same with the cupboards.

Shoving your bedroom door open, he found the bed undone. The TV was on, playing an old movie. He heard your steps as you followed him, repeating your question.

“Is someone from the team in danger?” You asked next.

Damian pulled your closet open, tilting his head. You could’ve been more organized, he admitted to himself, but there was nothing unusual.

Craning his neck to look at you, he inquired, “Where is he?”

“Where’s who?! What’s going on?”

He stared at you, waiting for you to crack. To his surprise, you stared back — defiant, blinking less and less as the seconds passed.

You were mad, he could tell. It only made him grow more suspicious. Tensing under your eyes, sharp instead of soft like they usually were, he scoffed; he couldn’t show he cared.

“Dude,” you insisted, “you are scaring me. What happened?”

Shaking his head, he pushed past you again and continued his search. The bathroom was warm, the mirror fogged up and tiles sprinkled with drops of water.

He turned around, watching you again. Well, your hair was wet now that he paid more attention to it...

Damian checked in the small laundry room too, but he found bottles of detergent and folded towels next to your suit. Nothing else. No one else.

“Damian—“

“Shut up.” He pointed at you with a finger.

“You are the one who came to my place to look for whatever or whoever you are searching for! Unprompted!”

He didn’t answer.

You went back to your bedroom to turn the TV off and pause the movie, resigned to the fact that he had ruined your self-care day.

No one knew you would be home that day. You had ignored everybody’s calls and avoided being active on social media just in case they were stalking you. Turns out the utmost secrecy isn’t enough to avoid Damian Wayne.

He stood in the living room, looking down at the coffee table as if expecting the furniture to turn into something else. Fixing his eyes on the centerpiece he knew Dick had given you as a gift because it reminded him of you, Damian furrowed his brows.

“Have you been alone the entire day?” He asked, feeling your presence behind him.

“My neighbor brought some cake. Other than that, yeah.”

“Barbara said you had... company.”

“I haven’t talked to Babs in days.”

Barbara had continued asking about what you saw that night with the spell, and you weren’t willing to say it still. Weeks had passed, but it felt like mere seconds had at times. It was so easy for her to ask, to assume things.

Only you knew the conflict you were feeling. She would never understand how awful it was to find out the one you desire the most is the one who likes you the least.

You had entertained the naive idea that he was in the same position, but the more you replayed what had happened, the more you convinced yourself it had been one-sided. He gave in because the release was pleasant, nothing else. People say things they don’t mean while having sex.

You had done it before, for fuck’s sake. You had faked having a good time before, who was to say Damian hadn’t done the same with you?

“Have you seen anybody else?” He blurted.

“My neighbor, I told you.”

He reformulated, “Have you had sex with anybody else?”

You considered lying, you really did. It would make the tension go away, you would have to see him around with other people but it would save you from a lot of embarrassment.

A part of you told you it was stupid, that you wouldn’t be able to take it. Much less when the people who usually took some interest in you tended to ghost you for whatever reason.

“Not since that night, if that’s what you’re asking,” you admitted.

“Good.” It slipped, but he didn’t care. He meant it, and it felt nice to say things he meant, no matter how harsh they could sound.

You rounded the room, crossing your arms as you stood in front of him. “Why are you here?”

“I was told you had company,” he repeated himself.

“And your logic was to interrupt me?”

“Yes.”

You couldn’t believe him. Did he want you to be alone and miserable your entire life?

The worst part was that you would probably be. Finding out you liked him, that you wanted to have him around, that you craved his attention, and his touch, rocked your world and shattered it.

Who would ever compare to him? His flaws were other people’s better qualities, even you who didn’t know his good side that well was aware of that.

“Do you really hate me that much? I’ve never done anything to you!”

He finally lifted his head. You wished he hadn’t, you wished you didn’t have to see anything other than anger in his handsome features. “I don’t hate you. I would make your life a living hell if I did.”

“You could’ve fooled me,” you chuckled, way more sadly than you thought yourself capable to feel regarding anything that came from him. “You roll your eyes at me every time I visit your house, Damian.”

“It’s not intended at you.”

“The scoffs sure are,” you reproached him, “and your stupid comments of how unfunny anything that makes me laugh is.”

“It’s not because of you,” he shouted. Shaking his head, vexed, he twisted his mouth as he huffed his anger out through his nose. “Cassandra’s jokes aren’t even that funny.”

“See?”

“Why don’t you laugh at mine?” He reproached now, crossing his arms to mimic your stance. “Why is it always one of my siblings or my friends who get a positive response but not me?”

“Oh, come on! You’re saying that like I didn’t come by hearing you say my name a few weeks ago!” Your words stunned him into silence which you used to your advantage. “You never tell jokes in front of me, how am I supposed to laugh at them? I always feel like shit because you only accept being around me on patrol, you entrench yourself in your room and make a point to slam the door shut just so I hear... you know what? Forget it.”

“I hate seeing you with them,” he said, wishing his words hadn’t carried that much emotion. “I always bribe people to not ask you out or to leave you alone, I have to watch you hug Jon and kiss my siblings’ faces. You’re always so damn nice until I appear... I prefer being alone than enduring your indifference.”

You widened your eyes. “You bribe people to not ask me out?!”

“Is that the only upsetting part from everything I said?” he snapped.

“No, no. Of course not. I just...”

He hummed. “It’s stupid, I know.”

“A waste of money, honestly.”

“If I didn’t, you would be with someone else right now. Probably Duke, you’ve always liked him.”

“You bribed Duke?” You let a small laugh out. “Duke? Our Duke?”

“Yes! Stop mocking me.”

“Duke knows everything, you know?” You admitted, uncrossing your arms.

You hadn’t been able to keep things to yourself for that long. Seeing Damian around suddenly hurt. The feeling had always been there, but finding out that he was your heart’s deepest desire wrecked your perception

When you told Duke, he reacted casually, as if you had told him the most obvious thing in the world. He said you and Damian were the only ones who hadn’t seen it.

“He knew certain things before I did, in fact,” you added. “Besides, I see him as a brother and he sees me as a sister.”

Damian nodded. It made sense, now Duke’s attitude seemed normal in comparison to what Damian had assumed.

He always assumed things. Bruce had told him once that he needed to learn to ask before acting out — this was the first time Damian found his father’s words useful.

“Why did you kiss me that night?”

“I believe it was more than kissing.”

“Yes.” Damian hadn’t been able to forget, he never would. “But why?”

“I felt... I don’t know how to explain it,” you confessed.

The room suddenly felt small, extremely hot. You shed the stupid turtleneck, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done the stubborn marks on your neck.

Make-up had hidden them well for a few days, and most of them had faded already, but there were two bite-marks, too big and deep, that needed more healing time.

“I was scared,” you told him, “that’s why I felt the rush to take your hand. And it was enough for a while, but then it wasn’t, I wanted you closer.”

“I couldn’t breathe. I assumed I was being poisoned. Then you took my hand and I panicked for a moment, I thought...” his voice broke.

You gave him time, trying your hardest to hide how surprised you were by hearing him like that.

“I thought you were having the same symptoms,” he rasped. “I’ve been trained to fight those things off, but you haven’t and I knew you would die. Your hand made it better for a few minutes, then I needed you closer too.”

“We can forget about it if you want,” you assured him, avoiding looking at his face in case your comment relieved him.

“I don’t.”

Damian reached for your hand in the same fashion you had that cursed —literally— night, shakily, urgently.

And in the same fashion he had, you allowed him to take it.

He brought you closer to him. You observed he looked more tired than ever, perhaps because things had been tense for the past weeks. You couldn’t have possibly looked too different.

“The spell doesn’t have to dictate this,” he said, tilting his head to look into your eyes. “It won’t. You know I don’t trust magic.”

“The spell is not the problem,” you whispered.

“I didn’t think there was a problem.”

“We have never spent time together outside of patrol, Damian.”

He sighed, nodding. “Get changed. Let’s go out.”

Only a lunatic would give their self-care day up for a guy. Well, you didn’t really care if people thought you were a lunatic, and Damian wasn’t just a guy — still, giving up the ice cream in your fridge was a sin.

A sin you were happy to commit.

Damian waited for you to get changed, patiently if anyone asked you. It had taken you a few minutes to even choose something appropriate, based on his own outfit because that was just logic.

He slipped his cellphone into his pocket while you locked the door. As you turned around to take off, he offered his hand.

You took it, intertwining your fingers with his as you walked down the hallway. In the middle of the stairway, you bumped into one of your neighbors who smiled sweetly at both of you. To your surprise, Damian smiled back.

Also surprised to discover he hadn’t taken his bike, you bowed as a thank you when he opened the door of his car for you.

“Do you want to put some music on?” he offered.

“You pick,” you said, curious as to what he would play.

You could’ve sworn he was nervous as he stared down at his phone, looking for something to play. He scrolled down, then up — he switched apps, then continued scrolling.

“I’m not picky.” Your tone was soft, an attempt to assure him.

“I don’t really listen to a variety of genres.”

“What do you listen to the most?”

“Classical. My mother got me used to it.”

You rested the side of your head on the backrest of the seat, looking at him. “You can play that if you want. Or we can just talk about the weather and whatnot. I think it might rain tonight. You like rain, right?”

He locked his cellphone, turning to face you. “Yes. It calms me.”

“I hated it as a kid,” you disclosed, hoping it would ease the tension and better his mood. “I was scared of thunderstorms.”

Igniting the engine, he prompted you to continue, “Not anymore?”

“No. My mom used to tell me that the only reason why they were so noisy was that the sky was happy to unwind and eventually I believed it.”

“That’s cute.”

“I had a phase in which I was in a bad mood if it didn’t rain.” You laughed at your own comment. “Now I like it just fine, less obsessively.”

“I had a similar fixation with snow.” He laughed too, and your stomach did somersaults — it was the first time you had heard him laugh genuinely.

Damian didn’t talk about life at The League often, he didn’t feel compelled when he knew the preconceptions that came with simply mentioning the place or his maternal family.

In fact, everything Batman Inc.’s members knew had been from Bruce. He liked the secrecy, those were parts of him and no one else. But he was willing to share tiny pieces with you.

He saw it as something supposed to be shared between two people interested in starting a relationship.

So he continued, “I would only climb mountains if they were covered by snow. My mother called me a brat many times, but she gave into my wishes for a while.”

“How did you grow out of it?”

“I broke my elbow.” He briefly looked to the side and then took a turn. “I proved her right, and I didn’t like not having the last word so I started despising the snow. I don’t mind it now.”

Before you could ask anything else, he pulled into the grocery store’s parking lot.

He picked a basket once inside the store, making a motion for you to follow him.

“What are we buying?”

“Fruit and whatever you want for a picnic.”

Realizing you weren’t near the fruits aisle, you gripped his sweater, steering him to the other side. Of course he wasn’t used to doing groceries.

He silently allowed you to guide him which was a win, Damian hated being told what to do no matter how small the suggestion was.

It didn’t take either of you too long to get everything you needed, but he spent ten minutes choosing a blanket as if he wouldn’t ruin the poor thing with mud and insects.

Passing the clothing area on your way to do checkout, you elbowed him on the side. He stared down at you, then followed your eyes as he realized they were fixed on something.

Damian groaned. “You’re so funny.”

“Oh, come on! You’re telling me you wouldn’t buy Batman underwear?”

“No.”

“You’re lying.”

“I am not.”

You narrowed your eyes, keeping your laugh in when you saw what resembled a pout on his face. “Robin’s?” you tried.

“Perhaps.”

You lost it at that. “Are they comfy?”

“Will you stop laughing if I say yes?”

“Only if it’s the truth.”

He just nodded, then did the gesture upward so you would resume the path towards the exit.

Pleased with his answer, you walked towards the checkout line. Damian stood behind you, breathing your scent in.

“Is that a new perfume?”

You craned your neck. “How did you know?”

Shrugging, hoping he was being nonchalant enough, he said, “I have a good nose.”

After a brief fight over who would pay for the groceries, —which he won by saying it had been his idea—, you left the store in direction of the park.

Your hand found his naturally, as if your palm’s place was to be pressed against his bigger one.

It felt good, but not really because of that bullshit —true, but bullshit still when magic was so unpredictable— of him being what your heart desired the most. The truth was that you could feel in his grip how much he wanted this to go well.

Swinging your clasped hands, you walked around the park, looking for the perfect spot to sit at.

You found a spot away from the kids running around, against a tree. Damian laid the blanket on the grass, placing the paper bags onto it next.

He slid an arm around your shoulders, using his other hand to eat.

“Do you think your family is already spying on us?” you asked gazing at him as you leaned onto his arm.

“I am certain.”

“You don’t mind?”

He lightly smiled at you, reaching for a strawberry. “Not at all. Do you?”

“Nah. I’m not looking forward to Barbara’s teasing, though.”

“Why did she tell us you had a guy over?” He bit down into the fruit.

“She has always said I have feelings for you.” You wiped the corner of his mouth with your thumb. It never occurred to either of you that you would need napkins. “And I guess she put two and two together when we covered our necks and used the same excuse.”

“In my defense, I could have blamed Tim.”

“In my defense,” you copied his smart-ass tone, “I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“You told Duke from all people.”

“Duke was supportive.”

Damian hummed sarcastically. “I’m sure everybody knows the details already. He loves to gossip.”

Seeing you frown before you turned to look to the other side, he reached for your farthest cheek, softly pushing your face so you would stare at him.

“I don’t care if they know.”

You wished you could have believed him. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have avoided me the same way I avoided you.”

“I cared,” he clarified, “not anymore.”

“What changed?”

“Me, my priorities… my vision of you, of this.”

You took an apple in your hand. Rolling the fruit in your grasp, you only nodded. Saying something else would have been nice, appropriate even, but words escaped you.

The fact that he didn’t hate you was still pretty new, shocking to some extent. His willingness to be seen with you by family and strangers alike was a huge compliment, and a big deal.

It was too serious so suddenly… you liked it no matter how scary it was. There had to be a reason why he felt so sure about this, and trusting Damian had never been a bad idea.

Except from that time when you ended up with stitches all over your arm, but you could let that go if it meant having him by your side. As corny as it sounded.

“Meetings will be weird, won’t they?” You sunk your teeth into the apple, hearing him chuckle.

“Less awkward, I hope. Although I enjoy vexing my siblings.”

“We can have fake fights in front of them if you want.”

“And blame them for our nonexistent problems?”

“Of course, I’m sure they will try to give their input either way.”

Damian groaned. He feared just that. It would be out of a place of care, he knew, but it didn’t make it less intrusive — he could picture Dick, sitting down in front of him in the cave, with a big smile and dangling his finger as he told him the way he was supposed to treat you.

He liked to imagine that Cassandra would only threaten him. Perhaps Stephanie would do the same and stop Tim from patronizing him.

Not wanting to ruin the moment by thinking what would Jason and Duke do, he shifted and changed the subject to the movie you had been watching earlier.

You explained that it had been one of your favorites and told him the plot between bites, amused by the fact that he was trying to look interested even though you knew it wasn’t his type of movie.

He told you about the movies the team was supposed to watch that day. You didn’t feel guilty for skipping; as much as you loved them, you needed time for yourself.

Spending time with Damian on this occasion counted as time for yourself, although you would make yourself clear to him that you would eventually need alone time for real. It was a mere exception.

The two of you walked around the park for a while, talking about random things. He was surprisingly easy to talk to once you tried, and God did you try.

It couldn’t get better than hearing him speak casually, about the architecture nearby and the types of flora around the park, in a light tone and with his hand in yours.

Your fingers played with his, and once again you found yourself in awe of him, of how comfortable he was with the mindless gesture and his willingness to keep up with it. You doubted someone would ever surprise you as much as Damian did.

Slowing down a little bit to take the scenery in, you naturally tightened the grip of your fingers on his.

It was such a nice day to be outside… perhaps the weather cast had been wrong and it wouldn’t rain.

The city was bathed in a pink glow as the sun set, unrecognizable. No one would have guessed such scenery to take place in a deeply violent and corrupted place, not even the most optimistic person in the world.

You remembered clearly how surprised Jon had been the first time he saw something other than thundering rain and gray skies in Gotham.

Glittering under the sunlight, the flowers at the end of the playground looked alive for once as the sky stunned many around you. And when you turned to look at Damian, curious about his reaction, you found his eyes solely on you.

The trees, so green under the light of dusk, had nothing on Damian’s eyes. Such thought, so familiar that you felt as though it wasn’t the first time it crossed your mind, so natural that you found it a fact and not an opinion, made you forget about everything around you.

He continued gazing at you, finding the curiosity in your beautiful eyes flattering. Oh, how much he enjoyed being the object of your attention.

The scenery behind you was gorgeous, he was certain of it. In his opinion, you complimented the view in ways nothing would ever do — there was something in your peaceful semblance as you tore your gaze off the sky and admired him instead.

You could’ve been sharing a silent moment with the strangers around you, one of those things he had heard you say once made the world make sense, yet your eyes were on him, on his face. And it made him feel important like nothing before had.

His father’s praises, the ones he had sought for so long were nothing in comparison. Dick’s patience although fundamental to his development as a man fell short against the way your eyes were shining for him.

Twilight swirled around you, but his eyes never left your face nor yours did his. The world didn’t exist, and if it existed, then it didn’t matter — not when you found him worth all your attention, not when he thought you to be brighter than the sun itself.

The air in the car as he drove you back to your place was thick and tense. He hadn’t said a word since he told you about that time Bruce inaugurated the school across the park.

Damian looked lost in thought, like often you had seen him while out on patrol. The places his mind took him had never compromised his performance — you admired that.

Bruce had called him out an infinite amount of times, but he couldn’t do anything else when Damian always delivered. You had wondered how he did it many times, but now you had to assume Talia taught him.

He walked you into the building, fingers brushing your wrist as you fell in natural silence.

Fumbling for your keys, you felt him lean onto the wall just next to your door. You took more time than needed to open the door, hoping he would say or do something.

When he didn’t, you pushed the door open and turned on your heel to face him.

“I had an amazing day with you,” he said, eyes on yours.

You breathed out, “I did too.”

Why couldn’t the day last longer? You logically knew you would see him again, but something inside you wanted him to stay. You wanted him to stay, better said.

Would it be too bold, too sudden, to invite him in? He probably had patrol that night — hell, you were supposed to be getting into your suit at that moment instead of pondering on whether you were brave enough to imply you wanted to spend more time with him; preferably in your room, naked.

Fuck it. If he said no, you would say you had patrol either way.

“Do you want to co—“

“Yes,” he answered before you could finish the question, letting a relieved sigh out.

You pulled him into the apartment, arm around his neck as you used your other hand to close the door.

His lips fell on yours as he kissed you slowly, arms delicately around your plump form. He took his time to map your lips with his own, somewhat afraid of kissing you wrong.

Damian grew confident as you attempted to kiss him more firmly, as steadily as your giddiness allowed you to. Tasting the fruit he had eaten earlier off his tongue, you wrapped your other arm around his torso, bringing him closer.

Smiling on your lips, he angled his face, kissing you with the same urgency he had the other night.

Eagerly, he tangled his tongue with yours until both of you were panting in search of air. As you caught your breath, Damian fiddled with the ends of your turtleneck.

Clearing his throat, he asked, “Can I take this off? It’s getting in the way.”

“I can take it off—“

“I would like to do it, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t,” you assured him.

Damian slid the turtleneck off you slowly, huffing a small laugh when the blouse you were wearing under inched up. Placing the item to the side, he leaned to kiss your jaw.

Placing your hands on his sides, you slanted your head upon feeling his lips travel down to your neck.

He kissed the bite-mark left from before, softly, giving it small pecks. “Did I go overboard with this one?”

“A little bit. It’s been a pain in the ass to cover.”

“I’ll be more careful from now on,” he promised, leaving more light kisses over the area.

Your pulse quickened at the implication of his words. Damian felt the rush of blood on your jugular where he scattered wet kisses.

He trailed his lips up, breathing in your ear. You shuddered, fighting a whine as your hands looked for the hem of his crewneck sweater.

You inched the sweater up to his chest and waited for him to stand straight so you would be able to take it off. Damian was too busy kissing your face to care.

“Hey,” you did whine this time. “Damian, let me take it off.”

Smirking on your cheek, he hummed. Slowly, painfully so, he pulled away from you.

Once you had gotten rid of the sweater, you grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. He curled his arm around you again, wanting you flush against him.

He slid his hand down and took a handful of your ass, making you buckle your hips up. Dragging his lips to your jaw again, he said, “Your stupid suit didn’t let me do that last time.”

One of your hands stayed on his shoulder while the other landed on his hip. Your fingers played with the loops of his jeans as he continued gripping and grabbing your ass like he had never touched one.

Angling your face, you attached your lips to his neck. Damian’s grip on you tightened.

“I want to take it slow,” he whispered, “but you’re making it really hard.”

“Metaphorically?” You mouthed his throat, hand sliding down to his chest, squeezing itself between both your bodies.

“And literally,” he whined. You loved the sound, for once not demanding yet still bratty.

As your hand slipped downward, you continued kissing his neck, paying special attention to the juncture of his neck and shoulder. You hoped your lipstick wouldn’t dirty his shirt — or maybe you hoped it would, both were fine with you.

Damian put some space between you, understanding what you were trying to do. While you undid his jeans, he undid yours, considering it would be better to get rid of everything on his way now that he was still feeling patient.

Shoes and socks off, the two of you shed your jeans without care of where they landed. Now the living room’s floor truly was covered in scattered items of clothing and this time Damian enjoyed the view.

“Come here.” He reached for you, eyes on your chest as his hands ghosted your sides.

You looked up at him, unable to hide the enjoyment you got from his hungry eyes being all over you. Following their movements, you also observed their slow dilatation.

He inched a hand up your side. You assumed he would finally knead your breast but he merely ghosted its outline, head tilted as he watched his own hand move.

For a few moments, he only did that, almost as if he was in a trance. The warmth of your own palm on his lower abdomen as your fingers brushed the elastic of his boxers made him react.

You pushed him back, towards your bedroom, pulling the door open and shoving him inside. He smiled, lifting his arms in mock surrender.

Damian sat down on your bed, relishing into the smell of everything you owned — the bedding smelled like a mix of fabric softener and your delicious new heady perfume.

You got the urge to kiss his entire face, hands on his shoulders as he slanted his head back for you to do it comfortably. He relished on the gesture too, so spontaneous and warming.

He placed his hands on the backs of your thighs, urging you to straddle him. Watching you second guess yourself, he drew you closer to encourage you.

Giving a last kiss to his nose, you complied. Damian snaked his arms around your waist, a pleased smile pressing against your chin before he kissed your mouth.

You bit his lip, tugging on it. He crashed his lips against yours again just to then do the same himself, intentionally bitting harder than you had.

A moan escaped you. Feeling his cock twitch under your navel, you rocked your hips to watch his reaction.

His arms tightened around you as he tutted against your core. “This is the reason why I never train with you,” he groaned.

“I thought it was because I almost broke Tim’s leg once.”

“Don’t mention anyone else right now.”

Right. You had forgotten he had been jealous earlier.

Damian rolled over, switching places with you. He kissed you before you could pout, cradling your face with one hand while he held himself up with the other.

You placed a hand on his upper back while the other rested on the side of his neck, kissing him back with the same amount of passion he was kissing you.

He had you breathless in a matter of seconds, and as he broke the kiss, you saw his nostrils flare in attempts to catch his breath quickly.

Trailing kisses down your neck, he dropped his hand to your breast. This time he kneaded it, humming against your skin when you reacted with a small sound. His thumb brushed your nipple, playing with it while he busied himself with leaving marks on your chest.

So much for being careful, huh. At least those were easier to hide.

“Do you want me to eat you out?” He asked bluntly.

“If you’re in the mood.”

He kneeled on the bed, hooking his thumbs in your panties to slide them down. You lifted your hips to help him out, laughing when he threw your underwear behind him with little care.

You opened your legs for him, finding a comfortable position as he stayed there, taking all of you in, completely naked and at his mercy.

He kissed your thighs first, teasingly nibbling on them. Every time he got closer to the center, to where now you needed him instead of only wanting him, he pulled away and went back to your thigh.

Slowly, he dragged his index finger up and down your folds. Damian rested his chin on your right thigh as he watched his finger collect and smear your wetness, proud of the fact that he was the one who had made you wet. No one else.

Your breath hitched in expectant excitement as you saw him finally bury his head between your thighs. His tongue followed the same path his finger had outlined, at the same rhythm.

“You taste even better than I imagined,” he praised, licking his bottom lip clean.

As he gradually increased his rhythm, licking long stripes along your folds, you got bolder and urged him to be firmer by pushing your hips upward.

He moaned against your pussy, playfully sucking your labia to let you know he got the message.

Bringing an arm up to pin your hips back down, he used his other hand to open your legs a little bit more and part your labia.

Damian pressed his tongue on your clit, moving it gently at first. He wanted to know exactly what you liked and how. It didn’t take him long to switch between using his lips and his tongue which earned him a loud moan.

His hand caressed your thigh, eventually sliding between the mattress and your body to grab your asscheek.

You whined his name, reaching down to hold the back of his head. It was clear to you that he was enjoying every sound he managed to make you blurt, and it felt really good, but you needed more.

Out of nowhere, he tugged on your hips to slide you down the bed. Kneeling on the floor, he sucked fervently on your clit.

You fisted the duvet, begging him to keep going. Damian complied happily, mouth latched on your clit as your pussy swallowed his moans and the four walls of your bedroom made yours bounce.

They were music to his ears and his entire body. He could feel the tingling all over him, excitement and pride flowing through his bloodstream.

Massaging your ass, he couldn’t help but chuckle upon feeling both your hands on his head now. He allowed you to push his face farther in, not once slowing down.

Your hips bucked up and instead of restraining you, he moved with you. If you moved up he did down and vice versa. You got louder and he marveled at how responsive you were to him.

He growled, gripping your ass with force as he sucked on your clit until his cheeks were hollow. He let go only to repeat the motion, letting his tongue wander when he needed a break.

You tugged on his hair, squealing. Your body tensed in his grasp, prompting him to continue with his ministrations. Feeling the tremor in your legs as you tried to settle back down on the bed, he started lapping tenderly.

You caressed his hair, panting with your eyes closed. Damian lifted his head, hands softly dancing over your thighs as he stood up.

Feeling him hover over you, you opened your eyes albeit with a little difficulty. His mouth and chin glistened with your slick, wanton eyes inspecting your semblance.

“Do you want me to suck you off?” you rasped before clearing your throat.

He caressed your sweaty cheek. “Later.”

“Bu—“

He shut you up with a kiss. “Later, please? I just want to be inside you.”

Nodding against him, you kissed him again. Tasting yourself off his tongue was addictive. You held him still for a moment, licking your slick off his gorgeous face.

Damian growled, deep and loud this time, hands already on your waist. “Should I wear a condom this time?”

“No. Unless you want to?”

He shook his head. He didn’t want a single thing to keep him from feeling you fully. Damian stood from the bed. “Get on all fours.”

You rolled on your side first to then do as he had told you, holding your breath as you waited for him to stand behind you.

He rested a hand on your hip. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” you gave him your consent.

Damian entered you slowly, little by little, less worried about hurting you and more about making you feel every inch of him as his cock filled you.

You breathed out through a whine. He gave you time to adjust to his size, leaning to kiss the scar on your back.

Wanting to stay like that forever, you waited more than you should have to. If he was aware, he decided to be patient — such thing only made you grow wetter.

“Go ahead,” you told him, hoping you didn’t sound too desperate.

Reaching over, he gripped your hands. “You feel amazing, beloved.” He kissed your shoulder, nibbling on your skin as he rocked his hips.

God, you didn’t know if his comment had been what flattered you or the pet name. Either way, hearing them was as amazing as the way he felt inside you, filling you like no one before him had.

His hands left yours. He opted for placing them firmly on your hips and thrust into you steadily, keeping you from moving too much.

Humming in pleasure, you held the edge of the bed in anticipation. He went faster exponentially, calculating every single one of his thrusts.

Having control over his thrusts and the movement of your hips was nice and all, but he needed you closer.

Slapping your thigh, he croaked out, “On your back.”

You missed his girth the second he parted from you so you could change positions, it made you feel empty.

Damian helped you get comfortable, holding your thighs open before you got the urge to rub them. He smirked when you glared at him, hand leaving one of your legs to hold his cock.

He penetrated you again, bottoming out immediately as he made himself comfortable on top of you.

“Fuck, Damian!”

His hips snapped forward involuntarily. Both of you moaned at the same time, he pushed against your g-spot and you throbbed around him.

His movements were rougher like this, wilder. It was as though he wanted to prove a point to himself, you didn’t know which and you didn’t care as long as he fucked you like he needed to be inside you in order to be complete.

“Say my name again,” he rasped the command.

And how could you deny him? You repeated his name as many times as your moans allowed you like a broken chant.

Damian’s pace got quicker every time he heard his name fall from your lips, a tad uneven as he allowed himself to get lost in the pleasure the mix of everything was bringing him — your walls gripping his cock, your hoarse moans and the angelic way honey dripped from your voice when you called for him.

You dragged your nails all over his back, moaning and whimpering in his ear. He was so loud in your own ear, saying things in Arabic that you couldn’t understand in such a fervent tone that you weren’t sure if you would come because he was fucking you into oblivion or because of his strained voice.

Hearing your name slip in his prayer-like monologue, you cried out upon feeling your stomach get tighter. You clung to his shoulders, letting him ram into you in unsteady thrusts that went from slow to hammering in seconds.

His tongue slipped, Damian started switching between languages. Grip on you tightening to the point of being bruising, he begged, “I need you to come first, please. I— shit.” He dropped his head into the crook of your neck as you wrapped your legs around his hips, clenching around him.

You threw your head back, arching up to meet his latest thrust as your orgasm flew through you. Distantly, you processed a few of the sounds you were making and some of the ones you were elating from him.

Strings of hot cum covered your walls. He growled on your skin, saying your name and something you couldn’t really understand.

You let him ride off his orgasm inside you, hearing the mess he was making as the wet sounds from your slick and his cum mingled. His mouth covered yours in a tired kiss, lazy and with a hint of the tenderness he had put to the side even though his intentions had been different.

Once the two of you had caught your breaths and he had made an even bigger mess, you pulled the bedding off the mattress and threw everything into the washing machine.

He was all over you as the two of you shared a shower, so close that scrubbing off took you way longer than it should have.

In all honesty, you didn’t mind. You were too happy to complain about his annoying little antics that you couldn’t wait to get used to.

”Should we suit up?” You asked him, watching the water drip down his chest like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“They can manage without us for a night.”

“You want to skip patrol?”

Drying his arms, he copied your tone, “You don’t want to spend more time alone with me?”

“Of course I do,” you replied immediately. “But you love patrol.”

He stood still, somewhat stiff in front of you. “Not enough, it seems.”

You dropped the topic at that and went on with drying your body.

He only put his underwear back on while you slipped a pair of panties and a t-shirt, awkwardly trying to find something to change the topic.

“Do you want some ice cream? I have a tub in the freezer.”

“Sounds good.”

A nice moment you shared, silently eating ice cream. He sat close to you the entire time, brushing your side.

It felt natural, as though you were supposed to be doing that and not anything else. Patrol could wait, and his family, and your friends, and the entire world.

The world stopped so you two could enjoy the moment, the day. Or perhaps it didn’t and you just couldn’t bring yourself to give this up for it — but he couldn’t either and that meant everything to you.

Damian never skipped patrol, he hadn’t done it in the worst moments of his life and you never expected to see the day in which he would find something more worthwhile.

You found a clean sheet for the bed in the laundry room which saved you from having to squeeze yourself with Damian on the couch. Maybe it was time to get a bigger one.

He rested his head on your stomach, cheek against your belly as he looked up at you. You could tell he wanted to say something, his brow was ever so slightly furrowed, and his eyes seemed clouded by a thought. He looked pretty nonetheless.

He traced his fingers over your thigh, drawing little doodles. You could make some up by feel — a flower, a bat, his name, a few stars, his name again, an R inside a circle, a heart, his name for the third time.

“I think I would’ve broken my oath to my father if you had had someone over.”

You slid your hand off his hair to caress his cheek, too worried to hide your frown. Damian took his promises and oaths seriously, more seriously than anything else. You had seen his family use said thing against him.

“It wouldn’t have been worth it,” you tried to reason with him. “It wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“Would you have gotten mad at me?”

“I don’t know,” you admitted. “It would’ve depended on a lot of things. Without context, obviously, but...” Realizing you were about to make up excuses for something that hadn’t even happened, you decided to ask, “Why are you still thinking about that?”

“I don’t want you to forget about me. Ever.”

“Are you planning to say goodbye or something of sorts?”

“No!” He glared at you for even considering such a thing to be a possibility after everything the two of you had talked about, after everything you had made him feel. ”But I...” Damian scoffed. “I can’t explain to you how horrible it felt. My eyesight clouded the moment Stephanie said it was time for you to start seeing someone.”

“Jealousy does that to us.” You tried to sound wise by saying it, an attempt you found quite pointless as you replayed it in your head.

Silently, he lifted his head off your stomach in order to lay down next to you. Shifting so he would be comfortable, you held your head up with your hand to properly gaze at him.

Damian mirrored your position. He told you, in a hushed tone like it was his deepest secret, “I felt like you were replacing me.”

Stephanie only had said that because it was the truth. Your relationships always fizzled out after the first two months so you had stopped trying. Then there was the fact that Damian himself had sabotaged who knows how many of them...

From her perspective, it made sense.

“Damian...” you trailed off, in vain. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Tell me you won’t.”

“I won’t replace you as long as you don’t replace me.”

You thought he would find the comment insulting even though it was perfectly sound. But for God knows which time that day, Damian surprised you by scoffing with nonchalance.

Dismissing your worry, he slid closer to you, resting his forehead against your flexed arm. “I couldn’t possibly be happy without your perfume all over me.”

Grabbing him by the hair, you forced him to lift his head. His eyes found yours in a second, curious. You dropped your hand to his neck, sliding it up to his cheek.

Giving him the sweetest kiss you had ever given, tracing the side of his gorgeous face tenderly, you hoped you were doing a good job expressing what you wanted to communicate.

You were. He gave you in return the brightest smile you had seen in your entire existence. It was all for you, something you had caused, something you wanted to see for the rest of your life.

Damian pulled you onto his chest, laying on his back. He mindlessly ran his fingers over your side and up and down your back while you listened to his steady heartbeat.

You couldn’t possibly feel complete without him ever again.

[eirikaanemo]

Venti's crush is a sister in the Church of Favonius. That's the entire prompt. Okay, she may have overheard Venti when he asked for the Holy Lyre and maaaaybe she gave it to him (in the name of freedom!), but she probably wouldn't be a sister after that.

Venti x GN!Reader

1.7k Words

Warnings: Eviction? Kinda?

Notes: So, halfway through I remembered "Sister" is a gendered term, so I switched it to "Disciple". Hopefully that still works!

Part 2: His Fight

His Lyre

He first caught your attention while he was doing a street performance. You were walking down the street, minding your own business, when you heard a melody so beautiful that you swore it had to be Barbatos himself. Following your curiosity, you found him performing a ballad for a group of children. His clear tenor painted looks of wonder on their faces as he regaled them with tales of Vanessa and the revolution of freedom.

You couldn’t help but stop to watch as well. He had captivated you as much as he had the children and you didn’t regret a thing. After Vanessa’s tale he sang of the fall of the storm god, the rise of Barbatos, the shaping of the lands, and the rise of Mondstadt. Every song seemed almost more amazing than the last.

It was getting close to evening by the time you were able to free yourself from his spell. Or rather, he stopped casting it. His last few notes rang out and faded into the darkness. You almost didn’t dare to breathe in fear of breaking the serene silence that overtook the scene. Then his eyes opened.

This was your first real chance to get a good look at them as he was usually facing just slightly away from you. Everyone else had gone home, so as he scanned the area, his eyes fell on you. And suddenly all you could see was his eyes. They’re beautiful, you thought to yourself, a hint of blush warming your cheeks.

His braids swayed a bit as he tilted his head curiously and a smile flashed across his lips. “It’s not often I see a Disciple here, tell me, did you like what there was to hear?”

“I did,” you confirmed. “I’m very impressed! It was almost like I was listening to Barbatos himself!”

He looked stunned for a moment, then an odd look crossed his face before he quickly covered it up with a broad smile. “Thanks! I appreciate the sentiment! That’s really quite the compliment.”

You were able to spend the next little while chatting before you had to go, but similar scenes occurred fairly often as time went on. About the tenth time or so he decided that you were friends, which you had no objection to. Though there was always a small twinge in your heart whenever he called you that for some reason.

Along with becoming friends, you started to notice some things. His songs are… very detailed in a way that makes them line up with records that rarely see the light of day. While you do your best to share Barbatos’ gospel of freedom with everyone, some records are just too fragile to be available to the general public. So the Disciples, like you, memorize them and tell them to the worshipers who come to the Cathedral.

However, either on purpose or by accident, most of the time Disciples will mix up little details or paraphrase things or skip over sections in a way that can confuse the story some. But Venti’s songs match every detail shown in the records, and more. You had checked multiple times and it always came out the same way. He was one hundred percent correct, in every song he played.

Then there was his hair. You’d never seen anyone with their hair being tinted at the ends like that. And you couldn’t find the hair dye he used either. And oh boy had you looked. You wanted teal in your hair too dang it! And when you finally asked him where he got it he laughed and said it was natural. How is that fair?

And then there are the times where he just didn’t act quite human. Like forgetting to eat all day without realizing it. Or referring to other people as “humans”, as if he, himself, isn’t human. Or how he only ever wears one outfit. Or the way anemo energy seems to flow through him instead of around him. You wouldn’t even have noticed that last one if it wasn’t for the fact that you are hypersensitive to it due to how you use your anemo vision. From all of that, and more, you can just tell that something isn’t quite what it seems about him.

So when you’re cleaning the cathedral in the back and hear him out himself as Barbatos to Sister Gotelinde something just clicked. Oh, of course he was Barbatos. What else could he possibly be? Too much added up for it to not make sense! Unfortunately by the time you were done reeling from shock Sister Gotelinde had sent him right out the door.

You had caught enough of the conversation, though, that you knew that Venti- no, Barbatos had need of his lyre. So you came up with a plan. This was going to get you in so, so much trouble. But this is what needed to be done. You need to get him his lyre.

It was surprisingly easy to swipe the lyre from its pedestal and avoid the other inhabitants of the Cathedral by taking back passageways. You had almost made it out, you were so close when you suddenly ran into someone.

Holding a hand to the point of impact starting to swell on your forehead, you squint over towards the other group. When your brain registers that you just ran into Venti you gasp and scramble to your feet, still holding the holy lyre to your chest. “Oh my goodness, I’m so, so sorry Venti,” you apologize. “Or, uh, would you prefer I call you Barbatos?”

Your friend blinks once, then twice, dumbstruck by the situation. “Venti is fine,” he scrambles to assure you after a few moments. “How did you know?”

“You weren’t exactly the quietest when speaking with Sister Gotelinde, Venti. And I was cleaning just out of sight. It made a lot more sense than some other explanations for your weird behavior that I’d come up with.” You admit sheepishly. “And I believe this is yours.”

His face lit up as you held the holy lyre out towards him. “The Lyre de Himmel! Thank you so much! See that, Traveler? We didn’t even have to steal it! I promise to do my best to take care of it.” You quirk an eyebrow as the Traveler finishes shaking off the effects of running into you.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, and you better.” you tell him pointedly, causing him to giggle nervously. “Besides, the two of you need to go! I… didn’t exactly tell anyone about this. Good luck with Dvalin, Venti, Traveler. May Barbatos be with you!” You called out the last part out of habit.

Moments later you felt a hand clap onto your shoulder. “Dear,” Sister Gotelinde drawled slightly. “Please tell me you didn’t hand our sacred treasure over to that alcoholic bard.” You’re silent for a moment before years of being at the Cathedral won over your common sense. “You know I can’t do that, Sister.”

She sighs from her position behind you and her hand tightens on your shoulder. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how much trouble you’re in, especially if it doesn’t come back in one piece.” You gulp.

“Yes, Sister Gotelinde.” You murmur.

“Good, now get back to cleaning.” She instructs you curtly.

Nodding, you turn and walk past her towards where you were cleaning. She continued on, likely going to report the situation to Sister Barbara. You really hope that Venti keeps his promise.

While you try your best to put the situation out of your mind, your thoughts keep drifting back to it the whole next day. The nightmare you’d had that night hadn’t helped either. It had been a morbid scene, a broken lyre on the ground with an equally broken Venti as a triumphant Stormterror screeched over their still forms. You’d woken up sweaty.

Logically you knew that Barbatos- no, Venti wouldn’t fall to Stormterror. But the scene still wouldn’t go away. And neither did the awkward feeling that accompanied your usual duties as a disciple. Some of your regular duties were suddenly almost… laughable? You now knew that Barbatos didn’t care about a good chunk of what you did in the Cathedral that some considered absolutely essential.

Your attitude didn’t help your position though, not with everyone now knowing what you did and watching you closely. The day is long and you feel trapped every second of it. Then Venti returns victorious with a broken lyre and everything crumbles around you. You’re kicked out, banned for life, right after him, with a suitcase of your stuff chucked out after you. Even though he ‘fixed it’.

Part of you wants to just lay there and regret your life choices; but you can’t help but smile when Venti reaches a hand out to lift you up, laughing about the irony of the situation. A small smile manages to reach your face as Jean starts chuckling too.

“Don’t worry too much, I know you’ve done a great good for Mondstadt.” She reassures you. “I know you have a vision, an anemo vision at that.” She gives Venti a pointed look. “How would you like to become a knight?”

Your smile grows into something a little more natural. “I’d like that, thank you Jean.”

“It’s no problem, really the least I could do. I’m sorry it had to end like this. Now, come to my office when you have a moment so we can formalize it. But for now I need to go and formally close the Stormterror case.” With a sigh she walked past you towards the knights headquarters and the inevitable paperwork which awaits her.

“I’m sorry that you got kicked out,” Venti apologizes once Jean’s out of sight. “All you did was help and you got in trouble for it.”

“It’s alright, Venti,” you try to claim. “It was kind of awkward knowing that you are Barbatos anyway.”

“Still,” he pressed. “You put everything on the line for me and I really appreciate it. I’m really sorry I didn’t follow through. I’ll have to make it up to you. And I know just where to start.”

His kiss to your cheek was quick but sent a warmth blooming across your face, contrasting with the coolness of his lips.

“Of course,” you mumble, embarrassed. “It was your lyre anyway.”

“It was,” he agreed. “But you believed me. And that really does mean a lot to me. Thank you, really.”

[taps-tap]

Switch notes (to be fixed up/confirmed, and details added)

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black lotus

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Epsilon

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The keyboard in the background is NK65 entry edition

[flightsoffandom]

Peer Pressure

Pairs: Aaron Hotchner x Reader (Future SugarDaddy!Hotch x SugarBaby!Reader)

Words: 6998

Summary: After a casual comment to your friends, an interesting opportunity falls into your lap. Curious to see where this opportunity leads, you go along with it. This odd string of events has a very intriguing outcome.

Warnings: None really, Peer pressure I guess (I mean it is the title of this chapter)

Notes: Left completely gender-neutral. Please feel free to send me any questions, comments, or suggestions about this fanfic because I’m kinda in new territory, so any feedback would be helpful and appreciated. <3 I found a gender-neutral term for Parent, so instead of using ‘Sugar Mommy’ or ‘Sugar Daddy' at one point, a character used the term ‘Sugar Renny’ (‘Renny’ is shorthand for ‘Rents’ which in turn is short for ‘Parents’). I will probably reuse the term in other fics because, honestly, I think it’s a hella cute term for a parent. Please know that I don’t support using some of the behavior displayed in this fanfic in real life. That being said, this is indeed FanFiction, and some of it was added for comic effect or whatever else. Don’t peer pressure your friends into doing something they don't need and/or want to do. You don't need to date someone ever or date consistently in order to be a fulfilled person <3

Beginning of Unconventional – Peer Pressure* – Second Date

Rossi sat utterly relaxed in the chair across from Hotch’s desk, “When is the last time you went on a date?” Rossi had been relentlessly questioning Hotch about his love life for the last fifteen to twenty minutes. Hotch groaned, “Is this really a good use of our time, Dave?” Rossi gave a very dramatic nod, “Yes. It is.” Hotch had been staring at the same paper, unable to get any work done, “I don’t have the time.” Rossi gave Hotch an unamused look. Prompting Hotch to add, “Finding someone who has a schedule that lines up with mine would be damn near impossible.” Rossi got a mischievous look on his face. A look that always meant he was up to something. Rossi smiled, “There are certain…” Rossi moves his hands as he speaks, “arrangements. People who are willing to spend time with you at the drop of a hat.” Aaron narrowed his eyes, watching Dave closely, “You’re not seriously suggesting a prostitute, are you?” Rossi laughs, “You are not that much of a lost cause… yet.” Rossi pulls out his phone and starts messaging someone. Aaron was more suspicious than curious, “Then what were you suggesting?” Rossi looks back up from his phone, “Something more in the sugar baby range of companionship.” Hotch’s eyes went wide, completely taken aback, “What?” Hotch pauses, thinking this was a joke. Rossi’s face, however, showed that he was serious about his suggestion.

   Hotch starts to protest, “How is tha-” Rossi interrupts him with the wave of his hand, “Now before you start throwing the rulebook around and get all dramatic about it. It’s not always money, Aaron.” Hotch scoffs. Rossi rolls his eyes, “So closed-minded. It can be gifts, opportunities, or connections.” Rossi looks at his phone again, “That’s something you will have to work out with them.” Hotch couldn’t believe what Ross was saying. Then Hotch realized how Rossi phased that last sentence, “Did you already set me up with someone?” Rossi nods, smirking, “I did. From what I have heard about them, you two would be a good match.” Hotch exhaustedly places his hand over his face, “You haven’t even met them yourself?” Rossi stands up, “I heard it from a reliable source.” Rossi grins at Hotch, “If it makes you feel better, I will be vetting them before I set up your official date.” Hotch wanted to protest to fight this, and Rossi could see that. So Rossi intervenes before anything could be said, “And don’t try to weasel out of it. I can make your life a living hell, and you know I will.” It was a half-hearted threat, one made between friends. That didn’t make the statement any less true, though. If Hotch didn’t agree to this now, he knew Rossi would find a way to trick him into it later. Maybe even getting the rest of the BAU involved. That sounded like a much bigger headache than just agreeing to it now. Hotch reasoned that he could always go to this date, meeting, whatever it was called, and then just never do a follow-up. So begrudgingly, Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke, “Fine.” Rossi had an all too triumphant look on his face as he walked out of Hotch’s office.

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It hadn't been a good week for you. Between getting the news that the scholarship you had been relying on for college was ending, you had no financial backup plan. You had a decent job at a local restaurant, but one of the owner’s kids took over and cut the servers pay. It was that time of year for your apartment to increase rent prices. You have been looking for other jobs but didn’t have any luck. It just seemed to be one thing after another. All of these things weighed on your mind, stressing you out. Before all of that stress happened, you had agreed to go out with your friends tonight. And Oliva wasn't planning on letting weasel out of this so you could anxiously worry about things in your apartment all by yourself.

You wanted to be studying, or filling out applications, or anything but be at this bar right now. Oliva and Mason, two of your close friends, had different plans. The music was so loud you had to yell over it just to talk to anyone. It was so crowded that you felt claustrophobic. And to top it off, the three of you had been looking for a free place to sit for easily an hour. It was exhausting. Oliva tugged on one of your arms, “[Y/N] come on have some funnnnnnnn…” Mason pulled on your other arm, “You promised you would be fun tonight.” You sighed and rolled your eyes, “I agreed to this before I found out I will either have to drop out of school or pick up two more jobs.” Your two friends groaned. The pair finally finds a table, and the three of you jump on it before someone else takes it. Oliva spoke up first, giggling, “You know you could always get a job working with us.” Mason grins, “Being a sugar baby has a lot of perks. I haven’t had to worry about bills in like five years.” You roll your eyes, “I’m glad you guys are happy being sugar babies, but I really don’t think it's the right thing for me.” With the news your scholarship was ending, you had started seriously wondering if your friends were right, though. It seemed like a magic fix to all your problems. You sighed, “But maybe… let me see if I can figure something out, first.” Oliva and Mason were both busying texting away on their phones. Mason shook his head, “You can’t wait that long. It’s like a normal relationship. You gotta feel it out and see if it will work and then mutually agree to the arrangement details.” You dramatically let fold your arms onto the table before letting your head fall on top of your arms.

Oliva pats your back, “It’s alright. I got one lined up for you already.” You shoot back up, “What? I haven’t even officially agreed to it yet.” Oliva grins devilishly at you, “You said ‘officially,’ which means you have agreed. You just haven’t admitted it to yourself or said it out loud.” Mason flags down someone bussing drinks and orders you all a round. Oliva was right. You had basically mentally agreed to it already. You were nervous, though. This was not typically how you did things. You take a drink, “I don’t like being so dependent on someone.” These weren’t objections. They were more just worries you had. Mason laughs, “I mean in a way sure. But doesn’t marriage do the same thing? Married people become legally bound together by all sorts of documents from the marriage itself to houses, cars, or bank accounts.” Mason knocks his drink back and then shrugs, “I’ve never become legally bound to any Sugar Renny’s I’ve had.” He was making sense. You nod along as you drink, “Okay then… I honestly don’t see how it could make things worse.” Olive laughs, “Cheers to that. Now let’s have some fun.” You all gently clink your glasses together before going back to drinking.

After a few hours, Oliva jumps up, “You have to come with me now. We are gonna go meet someone.” You sit there startled, and Mason shoos you both, having his own plans for the night. You stare at Oliva, “How is this happening right now?” Oliva rolls her eyes like you're supposed to know, “Cause he is famous and a very busy man. He calls the shots.” She grabs your arm and starts tugging you through the crowds of people. You stumble behind her. Once you get out the door, you start asking questions, “Who even is he? Where are we meeting him?” Oliva looks around and pulls you towards a car that you’re assuming is an Uber, “So many questions can’t you just be spontaneous and trust me.” Oliva makes you get in the back of the car first, so you didn’t have a chance to run away. You glare at her as she slides in next to you, “I trust you just fine. It's the stranger I don’t trust. What if he is a serial killer or something?” Oliva starts chuckling, which quickly turns to full-out laughter like she knew something you didn’t. You narrow your eyes at her, “You are the worst.” Oliva confirms that the driver knows where to go. The place she stated was pretty upscale. Now you were nervous. You hadn’t dressed for a nicer venue, only wearing clothes for a casual night out. Oliva turns to you, “You might think I’m the worst, but clearly someone needs to intervene. When is the last time you went on a date?” You anxiously breathe in through your teeth, “There was…” Olive interrupts you knowing exactly who you were going to say, “That was YEARS ago. It’s been too long.” You sigh and try to relax, knowing arguing isn’t going to get you anywhere with Oliva.

The drive took some time, and you were getting more nervous, the closer you got to your destination. To try to calm yourself, you switch between messing with your hands and scrolling through your phone. When the vehicle finally stops, it startles you. Oliva gets out first. You closely follow behind her. At this point, you knew trying to sneak away was pointless. Plus, part of you was extremely curious about who this guy was and how this whole sugar baby thing would pan out. You could already see that this place was a higher class then you were used to. Oliva let go of your wrist when she deemed you trustworthy enough to just follow her on your own. You stayed close, feeling absolutely out of place. When the door opens, the smell of cigars and smoke rolls out. Luckily it wasn’t overwhelming, but it was definitely noticeable. Oliva worked her way through the crowd with ease as you trail behind her. Oliva weaves her way through like she has been here before, and she probably has. When she stops, you almost run into her. Oliva motions to a gentleman enjoying a cigar and a glass of what you assumed was alcohol.

The man was quite a bit older than you thought he would be. Not that Oliva had given you any sort of information to go off of. He had grey coming into both his hairline and facial hair. The man was dressed more casually than the posh masses that filled the rest of the building. Oliva said he was famous and you recognized him from something, but you weren’t sure what. He had a suave look about him, and he wasn’t bad looking, just not your type. Oliva walked up to the gentleman, “Davie!” She gave him a big hug, and the man hugged her back. Oliva pulled back, “Steve and I really had fun at the party last week.” This was one of those moments where Oliva got carried away. She was catching up with the nicely dressed gentleman, and you were wondering if you were actually supposed to be here for this. The man clears his throat to get Oliva to slow down, drawing your attention. The man finished his drink, looking overall, somewhat amused, “This is the friend you were telling me about?” He motions to you. Oliva nods, “Mhm, [Y/N]. They are new to all this stuff. I think they will be perfect for what you need.” You glared at Oliva as she talked about you like you weren’t there. Oliva doesn’t even seem to notice, “Which I think I will leave you two to discuss the details.” Your mouth drops open, “Liv!” Oliva turns to look at you, “What? You need to be more spontaneous. So I’m just going to throw you into the deep end of this. Love you, though.” She gives you a loving, albeit annoying pinch on the cheek. You grumble. Before you can stop her, Oliva bolts, quickly disappearing into a group of people.

You let out a long groan before remembering that the famous man was still standing near you. You turn to look at him, worriedly pressing your eyebrows together, “She is a bit of a mess.” Letting out a nervous chuckle as you finish your statement. The man laughs, “Since she skipped over proper introductions. I’m David Rossi.” As soon as he said his name, it clicked. You had seen some of his books. You think you might have even bought a few but just never got around to reading them. You still weren’t entirely sure what was going on, but you offered an apprehensive smile, “I’m [Y/N], but Oliva at least remembered that part.” David motions to the table for you to sit down. He seemed friendly, but between him being famous and Oliva completely underselling the whole ‘throwing you into the deep end’ thing, you were antsy and unsure of what was going on. David seems to catch onto this quickly, “You can relax, I’m not the person you’re being set up with. But I’m assuming Oliva didn’t mention that.” You do relax a bit, sighing as you nod, “She did fail to mention that and pretty much everything else about what is going on.” A waiter stops by handing David a new glass. David takes a drink, “I am here to make sure you're a good fit for a friend of mine.” You nod slowly, “What do you want to know?” David pulls out a small note pad, skimming it as he talks, “You're a senior in college. You have a job, but you're still having a money problem.” There wasn't a question in that it was all statements. David looks back up at you for a moment. You try to get a closer look at that note pad, “Did you take notes about me? How much did Oliva tell you?” David laughs, “I’m an author. What did you expect? I do my research.” You didn't know where to be disturbed or flattered that a celebrity was this involved in your love life. You didn’t get a chance to think about it too much. David spoke again, “Essentially, I know everything about you. Mostly just fact-checking. I wanted to gauge your personality in person.” You sigh and let your face fall into the palm of your hand, feeling slightly overwhelmed at the moment. Surprisingly David lets you take a minute to collect yourself, only starting his questions when you raise your head back up. David looks back over his notes, “You've never been involved in this sort of arrangement before?” You shake your head. He asks a few other questions, clearly trying to evaluate you the whole time. It wasn't too bad, but you get anxious that maybe you were giving the wrong answers. The stress was getting to you a little bit, and David could tell. He quickly asked the questions, giving you just enough time to respond before asking the next one. Finally, he asks his last questions, “Do you plan on making arrangements with multiple people?” Startled by the question, you respond with the first thing that comes to mind, “Ohh god, no. I’m fucking nervous enough about one person.” This was the first candid response that fell out of your mouth. Your eyes went wide when you realized that you said that much louder than you meant too. You try to collect yourself to give a more collected response, but David just starts laughing before you get a chance. David gives a pleased nod as he starts writing something down on a card, “I like you.”

David looked at you, “Now it's time for me to leave but, I think you’re a good fit. Here is the location, date, and time you will be meeting him.” David hands you a card. You choke out of surprise, “What? I don't get to see a picture of him or anything? No further details?” You cautiously take the card. David shrugs and laughs, “His name is Aaron, and that’s all I am giving you. Think of it as a game.” David tussles your hair, “Good luck, kiddo.” You try to stop him, but he is already gone. You were left sitting in the middle of the restaurant, just having spoken to a decently famous man who set you up to be his friend’s potential sugar baby. You had no idea how your life went from 0-100 this quickly. You were in shock. With everything you had been worrying about in your life, it was actually kind of nice worrying about something less serious like this whole Sugar Daddy situation for a change. Maybe you should treat this as a game of sorts like David said and just have some fun. What’s the worst that could happen. David Rossi, a famous author who caught criminals for a living, wouldn’t set you up with a dangerous person. Also, David thought you were good enough for his friend, so that felt like a compliment. You took a deep breath deciding to just go with the flow for a change. Looking down at the card David gave you. The date was scheduled for a week from now. Which gave you some time to figure out how you would go about this. You got on your phone and ordered an Uber to take you home.

You were nervous. It had been a long time since you went on a date. You had never gone anywhere as fancy as the restaurant you were meeting Aaron at, and you damn well couldn’t afford it. Part of you was glad you had a week to figure out what to wear. The other part of you didn’t like having a whole week to overthink everything. However, your life didn’t give you much of a chance to sit around and worry about your upcoming date. Your week was filled with you applying for any and every scholarship application you qualified for. Then there was work, which wasn’t paying anywhere near what they should have been. You applied to at least twenty places. They didn’t seem like they would pan out. You did have a few classes, but you had slowed down a bit on your course load while waiting to figure out what you would do financially. You couldn’t help but think your slight indecisiveness on picking a specific major was a small blessing because it helped keep costs down for the time being. The week just seemed like the perfect example of why having a Sugar Daddy would make your life so much easier.

The day of the date had arrived. You wanted to be there early, considering you would have to play a game of ‘Where’s Waldo’. Getting dressed in an outfit that you deemed nice enough to wear on this date. You stood in the mirror and readjusted your clothes over a dozen times. You patted your cheeks to try to help calm your nerves as you stared at your reflection. You took a deep breath and then finally left your apartment. You were about half an hour early. It seemed like a bit much, but you want to scope the place out before your date arrives. Also, hoping the extra time would help you chill out a bit. You walk into the restaurant already feeling your nerves going crazy. Stepping over to the side, wringing your hands as you looked around. The restaurant just seemed to have the typical groups of society's elite. Everything was bright and shiny. It made you not want to touch anything. There was expensive, breakable artwork scattered about, which made you want to stand still out of fear of breaking something. It wasn’t overly crowded, at least, so that was a small comfort. Your first scan of the room you didn’t notice anything that drew your attention. But you were also nervous enough that you were getting distracted by the wait staff scurrying about. So after you calmed down a bit more, you took a second scan of the room. It was just the same groups you noticed before until your eyes landed on a table off to the side with one lone man sitting there.

You didn’t know how you missed this table the first time you looked. The man seemed a bit older than you. He had dark hair and was dressed up, but not as much as the other people that littered the room. Even from a distance, you could seem that his brows were tightly knit together. Despite the scowl carved onto his face, he still looked very handsome. He looked like he didn’t want to be here. Something inside you told you he was the man you were here to meet. You willed your feet to move, trying to ignore the anxiety still building inside you. You walked over to the table. He had been handsome from a distance, but the closer you got, the more you realized just how attractive you found him. You also started to see how stiff he was sitting. He looked so serious. He intimidated you. You weren’t sure if you actually had the courage to talk to him. You had been staring for a while, and he was bound to notice any minute. Right as you were about to turn tail and run, that was the moment he decided to look in your direction. You froze in place, probably looking just like a deer in headlights. His eyes narrowed, and he started glaring at you. You swallowed hard and tried to speak, “H...Hello.” You sounded timider then you wanted to. Trying to steady your voice, you cleared your throat before you continued speaking, “Are you Aaron?” He studied your face, “Yes.” Once he finished analyzing you, his face softened slightly, “You must be, [Y/N] then” Aaron automatically stood up and reached out to shake your hand. You offered a smile before reaching out and returning the gesture. Your mind temporarily goes blank when you feel his calloused hand in yours. When the handshake was finished, you both sat down at the table. You train of thought slowly coming back to you.

You pulled nervously at your collar, trying to figure out how to proceed. Aaron was still stiff. The glare on his face hadn't gone away. It was utterly silent, and the tension at the table kept growing. It was so bad that when the waiter brought you both a glass of water, they didn't linger at the table to ask anything. In order to do something, you pick the menu up off the table, looking it over. As soon as you see the prices, however, your eyes go wide. You had a rule of thumb whenever you went on any date that you didn’t order anything you couldn’t pay for. Everything on this menu was completely out of your price range. You put the menu back down. Aaron takes notice and raises his eyebrow inquisitively. You gave a nervous chuckle, “I’m actually not that hungry.” You don't know why you felt the need to lie, but none the less you did. He narrowed his eyes at you, studying you again. You felt like he was trying to read you constantly. You couldn’t tell if it was because he didn’t like you or was suspicious, or maybe he still didn’t want to be here. Aaron pushed his menu to the side. His features softening as he has an almost apologetic look on his face, “I didn’t pick the place. Rossi did.” You let out a slight sigh of relief, “Good. I didn’t want to sound like an asshole and bring up that this place is a bit… much. I’m sure it’s nice, of course. Just not really my thing.” You chuckle nervously. For a split second, a ghost of a smile shows on Aaron’s face, “It’s not my kind of place either.” The tension and atmosphere made this feel like a business meeting, and you didn’t like it. The feeling bothered you so much that it prompted you to speak up, “Would you hate it if we went somewhere else then? This just feels so formal.” Aaron nods, “Where do you have in mind?” You can’t help but laugh as you get up from the table, “I have no idea. Some fresh air should help me start thinking straight.” You wait for him to stand up. You start walking away from the table, but suddenly you stop. This place was stressing you out more than you thought because you almost forgot. You dig into your pocket and pull out your wallet. It was a bit emptier than you would like, but that didn't stop you from pulling some money out of your wallet and leaving it on the table. Aaron watches you. You could tell what he was about to ask, or at least what he was wondering. So you answer before he has a chance to say anything, “I know we didn’t really order anything, but they still waited on us. They’ll have to clean the table and stuff as well. Plus, this place might be fancy, but wait staff usually don't get paid well.” You offer a smile before turning around and heading out of the restaurant.

As soon as you get outside, you can already feel yourself relaxing even more. As you take a deep breath of fresh air, you fully realize how much anxiety was fogging up your thoughts. You turn to Aaron and watch him walk out of the building. He still looks so rigid and uptight. This had scared you before, but now after watching him for a while, you concluded that this was just how he was. This realization is enough to boost your confidence a bit. You smile at him, “I know this local food truck.” You check your phone for the time quickly before putting it away, “They should be fairly close by.” Aaron watches you for a while. You couldn’t read his expression. It still just looked like a scowl. Once again, you found yourself questioning whether that was just how he was or if he didn’t like you. Your nerves get the better of you, so you started to backtrack, “That's only if you still want to get dinner… with me.” You pause for a second, not giving him time to answer, “It’s okay if you don’t want to.” You start chewing on the inside of your cheek. He motions for you to lead the way, “No, That sounds fine.” You smile and begin navigating the streets until you find where the food truck is customarily parked this time of night.

You stop when you reach your destination. There is a small line just because of the time of night, but the area isn't overly crowded. You already know what you want, but you motion Aaron to the extensive menu on the truck's side, “Once you figure out what you want, I can order for us.” You smile. Aaron gives you a stern nod. Part of you was surprised he didn’t slip away while you were leading him here. He didn’t exactly seem to be having a great time. Aaron seemed like the type who would be too nice to say he wasn’t enjoying himself, and he would just tough it out. Aaron finds what he wants and tells you. He makes a face, “Do you pay after you get the food then?” You tilt your head confused for a second, and then realize that he expects to pay because of the date's whole arrangement. Which you supposed that made sense, but you didn't feel right doing that to anyone. So in response, you just nod your head. Clearly, it was unconvincing because he narrowed his eyes at you. You slipped away and stood in line before he could say anything. What you didn't plan for was he decided to follow you and stood in line with you. You narrow your eyes at him, and he glances over at you out of the corner of his eye. Aaron’s eyes looked almost playful. You can't help but smile as you quietly ask him, “Are you challenging me to a bill race?” You could have sworn you had seen Aaron smirking before he spoke, “I don’t know what you're talking about.” He looked borderline happy, and it was a good look on him. You playfully scoff, “Good luck.”

You already had a plan, and you were going to beat Aaron at this pay race. You knew the people who ran this place, but you weren't going to reveal your secret weapon. You knew a card would be much faster to pay with, so you slipped it out of your wallet and into your hand while waiting in line. When you both got to the front of the line, you smiled when you saw Evie, the motherly woman who ran the food truck. She looked tired but smiled back at you, “The usual?” You nod happily, “Yes, please. But I’m adding his food to my order.” You tell Evie what Aaron had said he wanted. Evie presses the total and does what she always does and gives you a student discount. Evie turns her back to you, “I’m going to trust that you won't jump over the counter like you normally do because you have a guest.” You can feel Aaron giving you a look. You laugh nervously and glance at him, “It’s not as bad as she is making it sound.” Once Evie gets involved enough in cooking your food, you do what you always do. You hop up enough, so your front half is through the order window, and your fingers can press the buttons on the register. You could feel Aaron’s glare as he probably thought you were doing something immoral. You quickly remove the discount from your total, making sure you're paying full price, “You should know better than to trust me like that, Evie. I refuse to let you discount my food.” Evie whips around, glaring at you. You huff as you have to reach further to swipe your card and press the accept button before Evie can fix it. Evie smacks your arm in an annoyed fashion. You wince and drop out of the food truck's ordering window. Evie glares down at you, “You're a student… It's a student discount.” You shrug and smile at her, “Raise your prices, and I’ll think about letting you give me a discount, but currently, you're not charging enough, in my opinion.” Evie shakes her head at you before cracking a smile, rolling her eyes as she goes back to cooking, “You're lucky I like you.” You go to put your card away, “Thanks for putting up with me.” You know you didn't really have the extra money, but you didn’t want to worry about that right now, so ignoring your close to empty wallet, you pull out a few extra dollars. Waiting until Evie isn't looking so you can stick it in her tip jar. If she saw you doing that, you’d get yelled at again. Evie finished both of your meals. Before she hands them to you, she eyes the tip jar. You were predictable, so Evie knew to check every time you ordered food from her. Evie glared straight at you. You raise your hands defensively, and when Evie’s glare intensified, you did something fairly childish. You point at Aaron, not so discreetly motioning your head in his direction to blame him for the money that appeared in her tip jar. Evie shakes her head as she finally hands the food over.

You walk over to a table and sit down. Aaron sits across you with a smirk on his face, “Really? You tried to blame me?” He started to look like he was enjoying himself. You make a playfully guilty face, “You saw how she is.” You start laughing, not even able to keep the fake guilty look on your face. Aaron chuckles. You smile and add, “Plus, I couldn't let you win.” Aaron shakes his head in an amused manner. With that, both of you start eating dinner. When both of you finished eating, Aaron looked at his watch. He gets a conflicted look on his face, “It’s getting late.” It was pretty late, and you weren't sure what else you two could do on this date, but you were slightly disappointed that it had to end. You nod, “I guess it is…” You smile, “I had a great time, though.” Aaron nodded, “It did go a lot better than expected.” You were thinking of how to ask him if he wanted to do this again or if maybe you two should exchange numbers. Aaron seems to have read your thoughts. His eyebrows knitted together, “But… I don’t think we should do this again.” Your breath catches in your throat. You were surprised. You had thought it was going well after leaving the restaurant. You stumble over your words, “I...Uhh…Okay.” You were confused and wanted to ask what the issue was, but then part of you just blamed the circumstances of you both meeting. Aaron's frown sets further into his face, “You seem great…” You narrow your eyes waiting for him to continue. Aaron looks apologetic, “I’ve never been in a ‘situation’ like this. You must have better options waiting for you.” You couldn't help but laugh, “I've never done this before either.”

Now Aaron looked confused, “But you’re-” You interrupt him, “I casually agreed to it a week ago. That same night my friend dragged me to meet David.” Aaron scans your face, trying to read you, “You ‘casually agreed’ to be a sugar baby?” You had both been dancing around that topic all night, but he cut through the pretense quickly, seeming suspicious now. You press your lips into a straight line and let out a heavy sigh, “Absentminded might be a better term.” Aaron looked extremely skeptical, not accepting that as the full answer. You let out another sigh trying to figure out how to explain it, “I’ve been having some issues trying to pay-” You stop yourself, not wanting to get into that whole mess, “I’ve been having financial problems. My friend, Oliva, got tired of me complaining about it and ‘being a major bummer’. So she brought up becoming a sugar baby because that's what she and my other friend, Mason, do for a living.” You pause, taking a chance to look at Aaron’s face. His demeanor hasn’t budged at all. You felt like you were being interrogated, helping you understand the phrase ‘if looks could kill’. You swallow hard and continue, “She had brought it up a billion times before, but it didn’t seem like the thing for me. I hate being that dependent on people. Makes me feel weird. But the problem was weighing on me enough that I said ‘what the fuck, what's the worst that could happen.’” You roll your eyes, remembering the next part, “The next thing I know, Oliva is literally dragging me out of the place we were at talking about how she was taking me to meet someone famous about the whole sugar daddy thing. Once I met David, we had maybe a thirty-minute conversation before he gave me only your first name with where and when to meet for the date.” Aaron looks beyond annoyed. You thought he was annoyed at you until he let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose, “God damn it, Dave.” Aaron mumbled mostly under his breath. When he looked back up, his face had softened drastically, “He didn’t tell me anything either.” You offer a nervous smile, “Both our friends are assholes.” He nodded in agreement. You rub the back of your neck, “I never do anything like this. Oliva kinda just rushed me into it, but I figured, why not?” Aaron watches you, looking conflicted again.

You can’t help but fidget under his gaze. After a long pause, he finally says something, “What are you having financial problems with?” You tried to avoid the question, “It’s not that big of a deal.” He still waits for you to answer. When you keep avoiding both answering and eye contact, Aaron questions you, “Are you lying about having problems then? Because you were more than willing to spend money tonight.” You only shake your head in response, biting at the inside of your cheek as you stubbornly refuse to answer. Aaron further tried to provoke a reaction out of you, “So you're a liar then?” He phrased it as a question but made it sound like he already thought you were a liar. Which got under your skin a bit, so you quickly spat out, “I’m not lying.” Aaron stares you down, “Then answer the question.” Part of you was startled by the tone he was using, but the other part of you knew he was just trying to find out more about you. You sigh, “I… A few extra dollars isn't going to fix my financial problems.” You pause, hoping that he will accept that as an answer. Aaron did not, waiting for you to elaborate. Taking a deep breath before you finally cave, “There is an issue with my scholarship for school and with my place of employment.” This time you weren't trying to avoid answering the question, but you were trying to avoid sounding like you were guilting him or looking for sympathy. Aaron reads your expression and stops the slightly aggressive questioning. He offers you a small smile after a moment, “I’m going to give you my phone number. We can go on another date and discuss things further.” You open your mouth to speak, but you're too surprised to find the words right away. You minorly collect yourself, “You don't have to…” Aaron shakes his head, “I want to. Overall I had a nice time.” He pauses, looking right at you, “To be honest, I was unsure about this whole situation and about you.” He optimistically raises his eyebrows, “I’ve come to the conclusion that you're trustworthy. You seem like a good person. Even though it's a bit more unorthodox then I’m used to, I’m willing to see where this goes if you are.” You can’t help but smile as you enthusiastically nod, “Yes. I… I would like that very much.” You both exchanged phone numbers before getting up from the table. Aaron walks you back to the restaurant your date started at.

Aaron stops before going to his car, “Do you need a ride?” You laugh and shake your head, “Nah, I can just Uber back to my place” Aaron makes a face before rolling his eyes, “Come on. I’m giving you a ride.” He didn’t leave much room for debate, so you comply. You chuckle, getting into the passenger seat of his car, “Your bossy.” Aaron starts the car and laughs, “I have been told that before.” After that, there isn't a whole lot of talking during the car ride. Just you giving Aaron directions to your apartment. The first date tension and awkwardness is still there between you two, but you did feel safe around him. Considering you just met him, you didn't have a bad feeling about getting into his car. When Aaron gets closer to your apartment, his scowl comes back. You were curious, “What's wrong?” He glances at you, “This isn't the best neighborhood.” You couldn’t tell if he was being protective of you already, or it was just general gentlemanly behavior or maybe even a mixture of the two. You thought it was sweet, though. Aaron was right. It was kind of a bad part of town. You shrug, “I suppose. I don’t think about it all that much.” He glances over at you again, this time judgment in his eyes. You roll your eyes dramatically, “But I still make sure to pay attention… I’m not naive.” Most of the judgment leaves Aaron’s eyes, but he still seems on edge about the area. When he finally gets to your place, you hopped out of his car, “Thanks for the ride.” Right as you're about to close the car door, you hear the engine turning off, followed by Aaron saying, “Not so fast.” Aaron gets out of the car, walking over to you. You raise an eyebrow at him. Aaron replies without you having to say anything, “I’m not letting you walk to your front door all by yourself.” You start walking and chuckle, “I walk to my front door all the time by myself.” Aaron walks by your side, giving you a halfhearted glare. You chuckle, playfully nudging him with your shoulder, “Thanks though, it’s sweet.” This earns you a smile from Aaron, which in a contagious fashion, causes you to smile as well. You reach your door and pull out your keys to unlock it. As you open the door and step into your apartment, you have an odd realization that if this had been a date with someone closer to your age, you’d have to worry about them assuming they were invited into your apartment for ‘coffee’. However, Aaron’s motivation was legitimately about your safety. It was a nice change from other people you had dealt with. Getting another sudden boost of confidence, you turned around in your doorway to face Aaron, “Call me soon, okay?” Aaron smiles and nods, “Of course.” You smile back, “Goodnight, Aaron.” Aaron replies, “Goodnight, [Y/N].” He starts to walk away, and you close your door. As you locked the door and got ready for bed, you couldn't help but think about what a rollercoaster the last few hours had been.

Beginning of Unconventional – Peer Pressure* – Second Date

Tags: @joyofbebbanburg @withyoutilltheendofthismess @marvel-is-my-life-blog

[inkedtae]

rupture; rapture ⇾ kth. [M] | teaser

𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 ⇾ ex-boyfriend!taehyung x curvy!reader (f.)

𝑔𝑒𝓃𝓇𝑒/𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 ⇾  angst, smut, f2l(?), e2l(?), ex lovers au, rekindled lovers(?), sculputor au, 18+

𝓈𝓊𝓂𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓎 ⇾  responding to a late night call for help forces you to revisit truths you so skillfully ignored. was it always meant to fall apart to fall back into place?

𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉 ⇾ full: 20k | teaser; 1.2k

𝓌𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 ⇾ slight upsetting themes, mentions of a new relationship, mention of infidelity (tae thinks reader used him to cheat on her date), mention and consumption of alcohol, switch!Taehyung, mullet!taehyung, sub!reader, [redacted] [redacted]!reader, unprotected sex (wrap it to tap it), clay/paint/art sex(?), rough sex, hate-love sex(?), [redacted] sex (?), [redacted] kink, [redacted] (f. receiving), multiple [redacted] (f.), [redacted], overstimulation, a lil [redacted]-[redacted]ing, [redacted] worshipping, [redacted] worshipping, a lil [redacted] biting, [redacted]ing, [redacted]ing, [redacted]ing, begging, teasing, swearing

anon asked: taehyung19angst asghjkll. U have a prompt list ? So for that. Maybe. If u want to. WOW. Ur awesome. The bestest. Okay. Bye. Love. Me.

#19 ⇝ “You said you knew how to do this.”

𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒 ⇾  i decided to share an unedited teaser of what i’m currently working on

☾ banner by ⇾ @editingverse​ (thank you so so so much dear~ please go give her all your love!! this banner is beautiful!!)

☾ anticipated post date ⇾ 15 AUGUST 2020

☾ le playlist (coming soon...)

☾ tag list ⇾ open (leave a comment and/or send an ask to be added)

◖send me a prompt from dabble drabble. i will try to get to it as soon as i can. please note that i have the right to refuse any request i find uncomfortable.◗

Navigating to the chipped yellow door is second nature. Four months of distance does not change how easy it is for you to find your way to his place from across town. Your most haunting regret, however, is accepting his call. You sat around your apartment for months, fantasizing about how powerful you’d feel when your phone rings and you see his name flash only to decline the call. You told yourself that is how you will regain your dignity, how you will reclaim your life. He’s been a big part of it since freshman year. Best friends instantly, lovers only a year down the line. Clicking that red button, rejecting his apologies is how you believed you’d be able to move on and fully erase him from your life for good. 

But, when he does call, and you do not refuse. You don’t even think about declining at all. And then you hear his voice, and he sounds so unsure, so nervous. 

The shame creeps upon you, condescendingly soothing your ego. Where’s your dignity now? It’s as nonexistent as when you stormed out of this very door and swore never to return. You can hear the fates snickering now, watching your pathetic self stand outside of the door. Shaking out a shiver, you gather up the broken pieces of your courage and knock on the door. 

The screech of metal on metal echoes as he unlocks the door. The sound is more comforting than you expected it to be. You can’t remember the amount of times you’ve nagged him to replace the damned thing. It’s old, rusted, and the scratches of the metal made you cringe as though your bones are rotting. It used to make your jaw ache, now it only shudders your courage. Little things already undress your confidence. What will seeing him again do? What emotions will it beckon?

Misery leaks from your bones and into your bloodstream. The door opens to a vision of grace. In his clay-smeared jumpsuit, the sleeves wrapped around his waist and his bare chest exposed, he stares back at you. Though frozen from the winter air, you feel your face grow hot. Eyes shaking, you don’t know where to look. You’re not even sure if you can meet his gaze. It intensifies with every ticking second and his long bangs fall over his lashes. He let it grow out? You’ve begged him to do so for months and once you’re apart he finally gives in? You knew he’d look good, maybe even better than his shorter cut. 

The sight only confirms that you’ll never understand him. But, you suppose, you don’t have to. He’s not yours to understand anymore, not even as a friend. That statement should give you a sense of relief, but it only resurfaces the loneliness you’ve been ignoring for months. 

Shakily sighing, you plaster a polite smile and greet, “Hey Tae.”

Taehyung parts his lips, but his voice catches. He stares back at you, gaze dancing up and down your frame. He drinks in the way your black dress pants hug your curves, and how you dare to wear a tube-top under your coat in the freezing weather. Gulping, Taehyung flashes you a kind, tight lipped smile and moves aside to welcome you in. 

Each step back into his apartment fogs your mind with memories of joy and despair alike. Sometimes, those emotions rose in tandem during the same memory, within the same five minute time span. But other times, those memories are saturated with one emotion or the other. You two could never find that balance; not as lovers anyway, not as you thought.

“Make yourself at hom-” he cuts himself off just as the door shuts. 

You turn to face him, raising a brow at his slip up. Funny how things circle back no matter how much either of you try to suppress them. This place has always felt like home to you. In fact, revisiting it proves that it still does. He just never let you make it official. 

The gloom of four months ago has followed you back in here as well, it would seem. You gulp down the little scratch in your throat and try your best to flash a kind smile. His brows raise at the gesture. You assume a teeth braced wince paints your features instead. 

Clearing his throat, Taehyung corrects himself, “Comfortable. Make yourself comfortable. I’ll grab you a hot drink to warm you up.” His gaze shifts to the slanted window over his little studio sectioned in the corner of his apartment. “It’s really coming down out there.” 

Setting your clutch down on his work table, you nod. He glares at your action before looking back at you. You are fully aware of his distaste for you to dump your things on his work table, even if it happens to be your own sculpting supplies. However, he distrubed your date tonight and that little slip up of his recalls more anger than you care to accept right now. Playing into his pet peeves is the very least you can do to show him that you’re not here for anything else but fixing his sculpture. 

With a pleasant smile plastered on your lips, you peel your jacket off and set it down on the table as well. Taehyung sarcastically smirks then makes his way to the kitchen. You know you shouldn’t but you let your eyes linger on his frame and follow him around the kitchen while he prepares something for you. His shoulder blades flex as he reaches for a mug from the top shelf - a detail you always found makes you anxious because the cups can easily slip out of his hand from such a height and break. 

He must feel your gaze as he glances up at you. “You must be freezing,” he comments. 

Glancing down at your half top, you shrug. “Not really. That’s what a jacket is for.” You shouldn’t sass. It always gets on his nerves. But, with the way he regards you with such tamed hostility and smirks all knowingly, you cannot hold yourself back. He cannot expect to call you over here in the dead of night for help only to glare and sneer at you. 

Out of sheer spite, you sit on one of the stools by the table and bend down to untie your thick heeled boots. He absolutely hates this. Sloppy and messy, is what he tells you when you come into the apartment with your shoes on and take them off near his studio. Taehyung stirs the contents of your mug, tossing daggers at you in his stares. 

It is only now, in the thick silence, do you hear the soft voice of Sinatra through the vinyl player. Glancing over at the source, you recognize the album cover immediately. It’s the same one you gifted him for his birthday last year. His next one is in a couple of weeks. The realization unexpectedly twinges your heart with guilt. You feel as though you should have already bought his gift, planned his party. It is not your responsibility to do that anymore, but you want to and that’s enough for your tongue to coat with disgust and remorse. 

note; please do not leave hate towards me or any other readers. please do not copy, repost, or translate any of my work without my permission.

[the-terminal-archive]

"Ah, Seraph. Thank you for coming all the way here from your humble abode." Tsavorite turned to the gem that presented himself to them, a soft smile on their face. "Are you doing well? Does the plating suit you comfortably?" "I'm doing very well! It all looks so nice, I can't thank you enough…!" "Hah… I try to do my best. Anything to make you the most comfortable that you can be." The compliments made them a little smitten… this frail one always knew a means to make the garnet proud of themself. "So… Topaz has requested your presence within Shining Signal's deepest caves. He wishes for you to see its most wonderful depths." "Topaz…? But with where he lives… Wouldn’t I die before reaching that place?" "That is why Ametrine and myself will accompany you there. Should any danger arise, we will be there to help you with such." "But you have nothing to defend yourself with…" "Oh, but I do. I've developed weapons with the most pristine minerals I could manage. Trust me, you will be safe. None of us will get so much as a scratch." "Oh...that's comforting to hear! I'm happy I mean that much to you both." "It's nothing, really." They cupped one of the shorter gem's cheeks, and he would hold it there. It was warm… "What Topaz will do is quick, we’ll be out of there before we know it, if you're worried."

Seraphinite was about to respond, but was interrupted by a series of beeping noises. "...one moment, please. ...Ametrine? Why are they calling so soon after leaving…?" the mumbling continued as they pressed a button on their scouter. Perhaps it also had an earpiece…? "Hello?" Their voice suddenly switched to its usual confidence thereafter. "Yes, what is it? … … You...found something?" Their eyes narrowed a little in thought, glancing down as a hand went to their chin. "Describe what you have uncovered." The scientist moved over to a desk nearby, writing down the little notes that the quartz told them, stopping when the name was finally given to them. "...Repeat the name…?" They had to be sure. On this last chance, they… they finally found the one they were looking for? Tsavorite's eyes lit up when such was confirmed. "How long will it be before you get here? …An hour, right… you're going to keep losing yourself in these new mines if you keep thinking like that." There was a pause, then a laugh drawn from them. "I can't believe you've found Phantom at a time like this. I don't recall the last instance I gazed at them in complete clarity. Would you mind giving them a dose of that sedative I gave you all the time ago in case you sighted them? ...Yes, yes. The vial. It will simply relax them, nothing more. I wouldn't wish for them to be startled upon waking up. ...Thank you so, so much for finding them. I have something for you when you get back home, I promise you'll like it. ...Pff… Don't go overexerting yourself trying to get back here, silly. Alright… I'll see you then. Take care."

Click. "What’s happening…?" "Well, a specimen has simply been discovered for a little project I'm working on." "What are they like?" "We'll know when they arrive, won't we? It's been far too long since I've seen them… I wonder how those growths have been fairing for them." "Growths?" "They have a small cluster of crystals on one side of their face. It's been decades since then, so it's probably adapted to its host by now. I'm curious about adding other inclusions into them, since they always rambled on and on about how being a quartz wasn’t enough to stop foul beasts...tch. As if they could be stopped to begin with." "They...can't be stopped?" "Once the diamonds start forming? Certainly not. I cannot make that Phantom into diamond, definitely not, but this experiment will leave them satisfied nonetheless." "...I see." Seraphinite nodded, understanding almost none of that. "Can I say hello to them?" "You can, but they'll be asleep." "Oh. ...how long will your experiment last?" "A long while, to say the least. It might also fail, so at worst, they may have a lot of themself eaten away at. It’s nothing that further inclusions and plating can't fix." "Hm… I suppose we'll be going out sooner, thanks to such a sudden finding?" "Of course. Give them a short while, and they'll be here before you even realize."

~

"Okaaay, back in the mines. Mm, I dunno where the entrance is, buuut! Maybe I can find that one point I found a while ago…" Pulling up a few scanners on their visor, they hummed as they glanced at each of them...oh! The radiation one...that's the stuff that caused all those Larimar to bluescreen, right? Yeah, probably.

Why do you keep forgetting things? That isn't like me at all!

They moved about the mines, retracing their steps every so often. Right- no- left? South- no, they've been there before! However, the more they wandered, the more they began to recall the path they took, eventually finding the hand sticking out of the wall- well- hands? Did gems always form this way? They could've sworn that one of them twitched as they passed by. Tsavorite wasn't far, were they…? Hm...oh! No, they weren't! They were actually soooooo close!

Walking into the lab of the scientist, there was a wide grin on their face. "I'm hooome~!" "Ametrine! It's good to see you back! I surely wished you could have stayed longer, but alas, you discovered Phantom. Was there any….activity there?" "Uh, there were two really creepy monsters there, and there are more to come, I think!!" "...I see. So, the outlook is grim." "Huh?" "Nothing." Tsavorite sighed, turning their attention to Phantom Quartz. "So, they've even put inclusions of their own into themself following… hm. Interesting. I'm so glad I'm able to see them once more. Will you allow me a moment with them?" "Mhm!" They handed the knocked out thief over, which Tsavorite seemed to carry with ease deeper into the labs.

In a dimly lit room, they would enter, closing and locking the door behind them. It's been a long time since they've been here, and this surely would be the last. Open notebooks littered the place, the center of it all having a large tube by which the Phantom was loaded into. Once wires were hooked into them, fluid mixed with their yellow and blue blood as it sealed them in. "I don't know why you ran before, but… it matters not. You will become the pest control you craved to be, down to a science." They put their hand up to the glass, a smile on their face leaving as soon as it took to form as they gazed at the other’s eye. "... I apologize, however. I wish I could have salvaged your sight in that incident, but… one cannot have the world, it seems. It’s not as if you can hear me, with the state of comatose the vial put you in, however...these are secrets I will carry to my grave." Upon those several notebooks, they all spoke about several things, failed attempts using other gems, but upon realizing the adaptability of Quartz…

One of the notebooks read differently, detailing oddities related to artificially embedding gems into others. Those inclusions? Ah, those were something Tsavorite figured would happen. And now that their beliefs were confirmed… they knew this had to work. No cost was too great for someone that could salvage them all.

~

Ametrine watched the scientist leave as quickly as they came, pouting and putting their hands on their hips. "Hm! I thought they'd spend more time out here… dummy!" "Oh, they're not all that dumb." "W-Well, yeah, but-!!! Seraph??? It's been so long since I've seen you!!" There was an excited giggle as they ran up to the green gem, hugging him. "It's been a while, hasn't it- ah!! D-Don't hug me too tight, please!" "Oh- Right, sorry." the hold of the quartz softened, doing a quick once-over to make sure nothing was chipped. “What did Savvy want you here for?” “Oh, just the usual, more plating, preparing for whatever extravagant event they’ve had Topaz plan for us.” “Oh, that’s right! Tsavorite told me to give you something before we go, since we seem to be leaving a little later… uh...this!!!” It was a crystalline gun, its source material unknown. “They said they would protect me as would you, so-” The sentence couldn’t even be finished, as the weapon was taken right from the hold of the other. “Ooooh, it looks so fancy, like Phantom’s little stabbie-stabbies!” They were in awe, at least! “I’m gonna show those monsters how to stay dead and stop hurting people!! Maybe I’ll be seen by them??” likely in reference to Phantom quartz- “Maybe they’ll want me to come back to the mines!!! Oh, this is great!!!” “...What’s all this ruckus about?” The voice...Oh! Was that garnet back from whatever they were doing? Cool! Now they all could-

… “Savvy, your hair looks weird.” “This is how I woke up.” “Woke up?” Seraphinite approached the other, squinting a little. “Uh...Tsavorite, you haven’t slept…” “...Are you referring to me?” “Yes, why?” “I don’t know who that is.” “Huuuuh?” Ametrine got closer as well- ehm- maybe a little too close, peering at the other. But… they looked exactly the same... “Then...who- or what- are you?” “You’re asking for a name? If I remember correctly, I am to be called Demantoid.”

[phoenotopia]

2020 August Update

For once, development has moved on time (sorta). I am happy to announce that the "Reveal and Launch" trailer for Phoenotopia Awakening will drop this morning at 9AM. And the game itself is set to launch for Nintendo Switch on August 20th.

You may recognize that August 20th is in fact the 6th year anniversary of the Flash game. I wasn't particularly aiming for this date - I actually wanted August 14th. It's like a minefield - even just one week offset forward or backward could put you into a crowded release slot. And you don't know how everyone's moving because they're also probably considering the same things. At some point you're locked in and you can't change course. In the end, I added 1 week to the time I wanted initially as an error buffer in case some things came up - which they did! So August 20 ended up being about just right for us and a neat coincidence to boot.

First half of July

The first half of July, I threw myself well into the PC port. The controls still need to be figured out, but we did make a lot of progress. I found out about a 3rd party library called "Rewired" which is all about supporting a multitude of different controllers, disconnects, reconnects, and so forth. It doesn't take us all the way there, but it did remove a lot of the headache involved.

There's still a lot of design involved concerning controller rebinding. For instance, how much of the controls do you expose and allow to be remapped? Technically, you could allow so much freedom that you can break the controls. One solution for that is to lock a portion of the keyboard to be unmappable and so you're never without controls that can remap a menu.

(my solution was to have a lock screen that confirms you have the necessary inputs to at least return to the rebind menu and fix the controls should they ever be set in so bad a state)

There are also some things that a joypad can do that a keyboard can't, and vice versa. For instance, the control stick allows 360 degrees of movement and detects sensitivity. How much you push the control stick will determine whether Gail walks or jogs. However, the buttons on the keyboard do not have sensitivity - they're either all ON or all OFF. Thus, there's no way to "walk" if using a keyboard. I could add a separate "hold to walk" button to the keyboard but that introduces an incongruence between the joypad and the keyboard.

(Rewired's interface for mapping keyboard and joypads. If a "hold to walk" action existed, it would only make sense for the keyboard column, but not the joypad column. Finding that perfect balance between joystick and keyboard will be a challenge.)

Another snag we've hit are button names. If using a Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft controller, the Right Trigger is either going to be named ZR, R2, or RT. Rewired can be agnostic about joypads, which is great because it reduces the workload on my end, but the caveat is that buttons like this will simply be called "Right Trigger". (See that first image again). Not really elegant...

I can probably fix this after I've had more time to investigate. However, around this time I had to pause PC development, because the Switch version became unblocked and now required my full attention.

Second half of July

The 2nd half of July proved quite busy. As noted in my previous blog post, I thought the Switch version was on track and off my hands. Turns out there were a few more hurdles to clear, and the ball came back into my court, and it moved back and forth a few times. Luckily, the hurdles are really cleared now and we're set to release (August 20!). The specifics of this process are under NDA, so I won't go into details.

We also went around updating a bunch of the game's social media sites - facebook, twitter, youtube. The second half of July was also when we started acting in a PR capacity - we're combing websites and youtube channels and looking for people who look like they might want to cover Phoenotopia. This was fun! I used to read IGN daily over a decade ago (back when Matt and Fran ran the IGN Nintendo channel). Then college happened followed by early work life, and I wasn't able to follow videogames as much anymore. I didn't even have access to a TV for a few years. And I never found a new landing page after that, so combing for websites and youtube channels was a lot of fun. It was interesting to see how the landscape has changed, and the new depth and variety that exists.

We're set to send out a BUNCH of emails tomorrow. Will they catch? No idea... I think if I had 20 reviews on launch day on OpenCritic, I'd consider that a success. We'll see!

Fan Art 

This past month, we see a lot of fan artists cross Phoenotopia with other universes. Luckily, all universes I'm familiar with. I'm impressed by the creativity on display!

First, what if Gail appeared as an enemy in Undertale? Glittering_Touch_904 depicts the scene. Gale, like Sans, has only one eye shining meaning she's about to dish out some serious pain. Nice! Definitely choose the Mercy option.

R_Contagio answers the question of what would happen if Phoenotopia was depicted in the style of Limbo? And the answer is very pretty! I'm impressed by how everything is done with one color. Using a band of white to depict water, the creepy eyes on every creature, the patience in drawing each leaf... very impressive! I'd play this game!

UnrealWorld_32 depicts a scene that asks what it would look like if Gale was still back in Panselo when the invasion happens :D I'm impressed by the use of colors - they look like they could come from the game itself! I think it wouldn't be a fair fight. For the invader.

A rare scene, Didi depicts Gail, hammer at the ready, approaching a dreaded Phoenix Pod. We get lots of depictions of 66, but rarely of the pod itself! In the Flash game, we skirt around how the pod opens by having it opened off-screen, so it's nice to see the pod up close. The mystery remains... how does it open?

Another crossover of Phoenotopia and the Shrek universe - this "Shrale" is drawn by Firanka. I'm impressed by the use of colors - dominant use of red garb contrasts well with her green skin. She kinda looks like a grumpy Namekian. Hah hah. What is she annoyed at? 

Maybe this little running Gail underfoot (also drawn by Firanka)

Coming Up

We'll continue acting in a PR capacity leading up to the game's release. When the game finally does launch on Switch, I suspect I'll become swamped handling bug reports. When the flash game launched, I remember being swamped for 3 weeks straight! Day in, day out, fixing bugs. I suspect it'll be the same with Phoenotopia: Awakening, but to a heightened degree. 

Regardless, we'll post an update on the state of ourselves at the end of September. Even if it's only a small one. Until then!

[officialotakudome]

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Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.3 Detailed

CD Projekt Red has detailed upcoming fixes and content for Cyberpunk 2077:

August 17, 2021 Patch 1.3 is coming to PC, consoles, and Stadia soon! Here is a list of the most notable changes coming in this update.

Please note that the issues listed below did not affect all players.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

A list of all the free DLCs can be found in the Main Menu under “Additional Content”.

Johnny Silverhand’s Alternative Appearance – can be enabled in Settings in the “Additional Content” tab. Multilayered Syn-Leather Deltajock Jacket, Luminescent Punk Jacket – both available in the stash in V’s apartment after receiving a message from Viktor after completing The Ride. They’re of Rare/Iconic quality by default, Crafting Specs to craft a higher quality will also be unlocked. Archer Quartz “Bandit” – available as a reward or for purchase (depending on choices made by player) after completing Ghost Town and then receiving a message from Dakota or Rogue. If you haven’t received the message, make sure to be in the Badlands area and move further away from Dakota’s workshop. Dakota will also need a couple of days to contact you.

IMPROVEMENTS

Improved the minimap’s zoom level when driving, so that it’s more zoomed out and easier to navigate. Automatic Love – screen with pictures of Skye and Angel will be displayed substantially longer, making it easier to choose between the two. Added a button which allows to reallocate the distribution of Perk points on a character’s skill tree. Increased the number of slots for autosaves from 10 to 20 and for quick saves from 3 to 10 across all platforms. Added Database links to Journal entries. Added an accessibility option for center of screen dot overlay which helps with reducing/avoiding motion sickness. It can be enabled in Settings → Interface → Center of screen dot overlay. Fixers will now message V to offer a car for purchase less often. Improved the Screen Space Reflections effect so that it looks less grainy on consoles and on lower visual settings qualities on the PC . Added a filter for quest items in the Backpack. Quest item tags from miscellaneous Job items will now be removed after finishing associated quests, allowing to sell or drop them. It is now possible to rotate V in the Inventory with a mouse. Players will now properly be able to craft a quickhack even if they once crafted it and then got rid of it. Added a comparison tooltip for cyberware. Improved a notification when buying cyberware and not meeting the level requirements to equip it. It’s now possible to upgrade crafting components in bulk. Added new sleeping spots for Nibbles in V’s apartment. Icon on a disposal crate will now turn red when player picks up a body instead of being grayed out. Landmine icon will now be grayed out after disarming it. It’s now possible to use an elevator while carrying a body. Happy Together – Barry now has an updated, more unique appearance. Base item will now be highlighted green like other components if it’s present in the Inventory when crafting the same item of a better quality.

BALANCE CHANGES

Detection time of enemies now depends on game difficulty. Enemies on Easy and Normal difficulties will now detect the player slower. Enemies on Very Hard difficulty will now detect the player faster. Enemies on Very Hard difficulty (and only that difficulty alone) will now be more aggressive when searching around when they are in the “Alerted” state. NCPD will no longer react and turn hostile because of dead bodies in Open World activities. NCPD will now also react to hitting NPCs with a non-lethal weapon. Adjusted the damaging process when shooting crowd NPCs while in combat depending on distance and the weapon used. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper — improved Adam Smasher’s behaviour during the fight. Play It Safe — improved Oda’s behavior during the fight. Transmission — improved Placide’s behavior during the fight. Transmission — increased Placide’s hacking resistance. Cyberpsycho Sighting: Letter of the Law — improved Cyberpsycho’s behaviour during the fight. Every Breath You Take — improved Red Menace’s positioning and aim. Increased stats of La Chingona Dorada (Jackie’s iconic pistols). The Rescue — increased the number of ammo at the beginning of the quest. Introduced minor tweaks and improved balancing of the Contagion quickhack. Improved the Crafting system, so that items with Random quality scale their quality with player’s Crafting skill — it’s not possible anymore to roll a quality exceeding that of the relevant Crafting skill. The level requirement of items will now increase with each upgrade. Note: the level of upgraded items will be adjusted as a result of this change. The equipped items which exceed the level requirement can keep being used but, if unequipped, will have to wait until the required level is reached. Added more crafting specs for cyberware mods. Added crafting specs for knives (available from the start of the game). Updated the number of components required to craft some items, e.g. Bounce Back, MaxDoc, quickhacks, clothing mods and some weapons. Balancing of crafting specs for clothing mods. Balancing the number of components required to craft clothing. Balancing the number of components required to craft Sandevistan Fragments. Optical Camo cyberware will now be available for purchase from Ripperdocs. Adjusted price of the Sensory Amplifier cyberware mod. Rare Unity crafting spec will now be obtainable only during Suspected Organized Crime Activity: Tygers by the Tail. Changed the price and quality of Kerry’s guitar that can be obtained during Gig: Psychofan.

GAMEPLAY

Fixed an issue where crafting specs from clothing stores were available only during the first visit to a vendor. Fixed an issue which occurred after visiting the Nomad Camp, resulting in being unable to use weapons and quick menu items. Fixed an issue where hacking a neutral target wasn’t counted towards the Christmas Tree Attack achievement. Tutorial windows about skill checks will no longer pop up when the “Unauthorized” prompt is displayed on devices. V will no longer look down after using fast travel.

STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE ACROSS PLATFORMS

This section discusses changes that enter all the platforms but many of them make a bigger difference on last generation consoles and lower performance machines.

Delamain’s image will no longer get stuck on holocalls when V leaves the car too fast after completing Epistrophy: Badlands. Item tooltip will no longer disappear if its content is too long. Fixed various typos in subtitles, shards, quests and weapons’ descriptions. Added a text message received after failing Epistrophy: North Oak by leaving the Delamain cab. Changed back the name of the fast travel point near V’s apartment to “Megabuilding H10”. Removed some items labeled as “None” and without proper icons from the inventory. The on-hover menu with multitude of mods on an item in inventory will now show stats properly. Fixed an issue where male variants of the VR tutorial were in Polish for Brazilian Portuguese language version. Black-Market battery mod description will now display strings with item attributes properly. Fixed an issue where the Contagion quickhack button was missing its icon outside of inventory. Status Effects icon of the “Cold Blood” perk now looks like a snowflake. Punk Duolayer Tank Top will now be visible in the Inventory when equipped. Added a loading screen tooltip informing about Fast Forward settings. Fixed the Galena “Gecko” vehicle’s name next to the “Buy vehicle” prompt. Image in the second message from Nancy Hartley in Holdin’ On/Killing in the Name will now be displayed properly. Adjusted wording of the Crafting skill progression reward related to upgrade cost reduction. The image displaying Mackinaw MTL1 in the “Call vehicle” menu will now match with the car’s model. Removed debug strings from the “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” perk’s tooltip. Icon grouping artifacts will no longer get detached from their respective locations on the map when zooming in/out. When Stamina Meter is depleted, the appropriate icon will now appear next to the health bar instead of the overload icon. Villefort Alvarado V4F 570 Delegate description will now correctly state that the drive is rear wheeled. The period of the possible occurrence in the description of Synaptic Accelerator in the tooltip will now display a proper value when playing in Polish. Fists description in the weapon wheel will now display an appropriate item type. Fixed text in the shard about Chiba-11 district. Opening Photo Mode and a vendor menu in quick succession will no longer result in freezing the game. Gold iconic loot icons will now be displayed on the minimap. Fixed an instance where hit markers and kill confirmation weren’t visible when destroying enemy turrets. Fixed enemy markers using the incorrect color on unaware enemies – they will now be yellow instead of red. Fixed an issue when RAM Recovery Rate below 0.50 was not displayed correctly. Fixed an issue when the disassemble item button was displayed incorrectly. Fixed an issue where the buttons on switching mods warning were not working as intended. Fixed the non-functional hinted keys when Breaching Protocol. Removed redundant input hints in the Cyberdeck panel.

GRAPHICS, AUDIO, ANIMATION

Reinforced Composite-Lined Rocker Foldtop is now properly aligned with V’s legs. Fixed an issue where the Monowire could slightly dislocate male V’s arms and clip through clothes. Fixed an issue in The Heist where Flathead’s case could float outside the hotel room in Konpeki Plaza, blocking the doorway. Fixed an issue where changing music volume in Sound settings affected car radio alongside with the background music. Fixed an issue where Takemura`s voice was doubled while talking to V in the van in Down on the Street. Fixed an issue where some netrunning suits clipped with female V’s legs and male V’s pants. Fixed an issue with the running animation after jumping on downwards or upwards slope. Fixed dust particles, which were sometimes incorrectly displayed. Characters’ skin will no longer become too bright in dark areas. In The Information, Smasher’s shadow will no longer appear on the elevator’s door after rewinding braindance to the beginning. Fixed Arasaka soldiers spawning on player’s sight when going back upstairs to save Takemura in Search and Destroy.

ENVIRONMENT AND LEVELS

Fixed various map holes in Watson, City Center, Westbrook, Heywood and Santo Domingo. Fixed faulty pathing for vehicles on the City Center ring road. Fixed multiple places where the player’s character could get stuck permanently. Fixed multiple issues with disappearing environments. Fixed multiple issues with objects popping in on player’s sight. GPS in Biotechnica Flats will no longer lead players to unreachable areas.

QUESTS

Rearranged shards into correct categories. Fixed an issue where calls to quest NPCs would abruptly end, making the NPC appear in other calls and potentially breaking other holocalls from the NPC. Fixed an issue where interrupted holocall would resume along with another call, which could make the NPC appear in other calls and break the next holocall from that NPC.

OPEN WORLD

Fixed an issue allowing multiple debrief holocalls from fixers to play at once, which could lead to blocked completion of various gigs (like Gig: A Lack of Empathy, Gig: Fixer, Merc, Soldier, Spy and others). We continue working on visual issues related to gigs stuck in the Journal, note that the latter don’t prevent district achievements from unlocking. Removed redundant loot from the body in the ferris wheel. Fixed an issue where Quadra Type-66 could be destroyed before buying it, blocking the progression of its “Buy Vehicle” quest and possibly the completion of the Autojock achievement. Fixed an issue in a shootout in Wellsprings where enemies were immortal because the trigger area was too small.

CINEMATIC DESIGN

Fixed an issue causing NPCs to not look at V during various scenes. Fixed an exploit where player was granted a Unity Pistol after each save/load. V’s facial animations while looking in the mirror will now be played properly. Fixed an issue where Rogue was spawning next to the player after calling her and asking about Adam Smasher. Fixed an issue where some NPCs could stop performing animations after a longer game session. Fixed multiple issues with NPCs mounting vehicles incorrectly. Fixed various issues where NPCs could be placed incorrectly and clip through objects after loading a saved game. Fixed an issue that could cause NPC animations to be played in the wrong spot in various quests. Fixed an issue where Jackie could spawn before the player’s eyes during the half-year montage. Fixed an issue where NPCs’ appearances got randomized when looking away. Fixed an issue where quests and scenes could progress before the loading screen disappeared.

MISCELLANEOUS

A gift from Judy can now be found in V’s apartment after player receives a text about it after completing her romance side quests. Fixed some story inconsistencies in radio broadcasts. Fixed the blackout effect persisting during Love Like Fire when using certain language settings.

PC-SPECIFIC

Fixed the issue where tutorial tooltips weren’t correctly displayed on 8k screens. Fixed an issue that caused the game to crash if a save thumbnail was corrupted. Fixed toggling Windowed and Fullscreen modes with the Alt+Enter shortcut. It’s now possible to exit locked scanning overlay by pressing TAB. Added a more compact PC version of the mouse cursor.

CONSOLE-SPECIFIC

Inner Dead Zone setting will now be applicable also to the game menus. [PlayStation] NPCs will no longer speak after being killed. Improved streaming of city lights. Overwriting a save game when there’s insufficient memory space will no longer corrupt the save. Masks and tubes inside the barn in The Hunt will no longer be invisible. Rogue will no longer clip through Johnny and will hold the glass correctly in Ghost Town. Fixed an issue in The Rescue where loading a save in front of the police blockade resulted in the NCPD officer not starting dialogue, blocking progress. Fixed an issue on PS4 where the meeting scene with Judy and Dolls in Pisces wouldn’t start properly. [Xbox] Fixed an issue in A Cool Metal Fire where a part of the scene in Cassius Ryder’s clinic could be cut off after the fade out. Fixed an issue where weapons were equipped to a wrong slot when assigning them from the Backpack.