#Writed this on the way int he plane!

[twistiraki]

Untill playtime do us part

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗ TᗯIᔕTEᗪ ᗯOᑎᗪEᖇᒪᗩᑎᗪ Pairing Leona x F!Reader Warnings None ‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗

Cheka's high-pitched voice rang through the room, begging Leona to play with him. Leona's eyes narrowed in annoyance as he lounged on bed, not even bothering to look down at him.

"Unca Leona, come on! Let's play!" Cheka pleaded, tugging at Leona's arm.

Leona let out an exasperated sigh. "Cheka, I've already told you, I don't want to play right now. Why don't you go bother someone else?" he said, closing his eyes and leaning back on the couch.

"But I wanna play with you!" Cheka whined, pouting his lip.

"I'm busy, Cheka. Go play with someone else," Leona grumbled, not wanting to be bothered with the young boy's antics.

But just as Cheka's bottom lip began to tremble, Y/N walked into the room. Leona's demeanor changed slightly, a small smirk appearing on his lips.

Leona smirked at Y/n. "Ah, Your timing couldn't be more perfect," he said, teasingly.

Y/N rolled their eyes, used to Leona's antics by now. "Have you been avoiding Cheka again?" they asked, sitting down next to him.

Leona let out a long sigh. "He just never gives up. I can't even take a nap without him bothering me," he grumbled.

Y/N chuckled. "Well, you are his favorite uncle," they pointed out.

Leona grunted in response, not really in the mood to argue. "Anyway, I was hoping you could watch him for a bit. I really need to catch up on some sleep," he said, practically shoving Cheka towards Y/N.

Y/N sighed but nodded. "Sure, I'll keep an eye on him," they agreed, standing up from the couch.

Cheka's face lit up at  Y/N. “Y/N! Let's play together!" he exclaimed, tugging at their hand.

Y/N chuckled softly and nodded, taking Cheka's hand and leading him off to play.

Leona watched as Cheka and Y/n disappeared out of the room before settling back into the couch. He lets out a sigh of relief, finally able to relax without the young boy pestering him. 

A while later, Cheka burst back into the room, excitement written all over his face. "Unca Leona, come play with us!" he begged, tugging on Leona's arm.

Leona let out an annoyed sigh, but before he could refuse, Y/N interjected. "Come on, Leona. It won't hurt to play a little." Y/N said with a smile. “Actually, we were just about to play, but Cheka was certain we needed you too." they asked, gesturing towards the pile of items on their hands.

Cheka's eyes lit up. "Yes, yes, yes!" he exclaimed, running towards Y/n.

Leona rolled his eyes, but he begrudgingly got up from the couch. "Alright, herbivore. I'll play with you guys." he said, getting up and following Cheka and Y/N to where they were playing.

Leona hated that his nap had been interrupted, but he couldn't help but feel a little grateful to Y/N for taking some of the pressure off of him. As they all started playing together, Leona found himself watching Y/N more than playing. He loved the way they smiled and laughed, and the way their eyes lit up with excitement.

As the game progressed, Cheka suddenly announced that they were going to play wedding. "Leona and Y/N are getting married!" he declared, holding up two dolls.

Leona's face turned a little red at the mention of marriage, especially with Y/N. He tried to brush it off ,but felt a little embarrassed as Cheka placed a makeshift veil over Y/n's head. He tried to hide his smile by pretending to look annoyed, but he couldn't resist the small smirk that tugged at the corners of his lips.

Y/n, on the other hand, felt a deep blush creeping up their neck. They had never expected to be in this kind of situation with Leona, especially not in front of Cheka.

Cheka continued to drag Leona and Y/N along with his wedding charade, not realizing the effect it was having on the two of them. Y/N and Leona were getting increasingly embarrassed as the game progressed, but Cheka was too stubborn to give up.

"Come on, Unca Leona, you have to kiss the bride now!" Cheka declared with a wide grin on his face, holding a small bouquet of flowers in his tiny hands.

Leona's smug expression wavered for a moment as he looked at Y/N. He had feelings for them . "I won't bite, herbivore," he teased, leaning down to give Y/N a quick peck on the cheek.

Y/N blushed furiously at the gesture, and Cheka clapped his hands in delight. "See, Unca Leona likes the bride!" he exclaimed.

Leona rolled his eyes, trying to regain his composure. He was about to protest further when Cheka suddenly turned to him with a serious expression. "Unca Leona, do you love Y/N?"

Leona felt his cheeks flush at the question. He wasn't expecting Cheka to be so blunt. "That's none of your business, kid," he replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

Cheka, however, was not deterred. "I think you do love them," he said with conviction. "And I think Y/N loves you too."

"What do you mean, Cheka?" Leona asked, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

Cheka nodded earnestly. "You look at Y/N just like how daddy  looks at mommy. And you talk a lot about Y/N at home. They are your special person, aren't they?" Cheka said, his eyes wide with excitement.

Leona felt his heart skip a beat at the words. He had been trying to keep his feelings for Y/N a secret, but now he was starting to wonder if they felt the same way. He turned to Y/N, who was also blushing, and felt a smirk forming on his lips.

"Looks like the kid's got it all figured out," he said, his voice low and smug. "Maybe we should make this wedding official after all."

Y/N looked up at him with a mixture of surprise and affection, and Leona couldn't help but feel a rush of warmth in his chest. Maybe it was time to stop pretending and finally tell them how he felt.

"You know what, Cheka?" he said, pulling Y/N closer. "I think you might be onto something. Let's make this wedding real." And with that, he leaned in to give Y/N a real kiss, finally confessing his feelings for them.

As he pulled back, he caught Y/N's eye, and something in the way they were looking at him made his heart skip a beat.

"Actually," he whispers in Y/n’s ear, his voice low and smug. "I might just have to take a bite out of you after all."

[professor-glasses]

Impossible for me to explain my feelings toward the Tolkien works without sounding a little bit bonkers. Like I have various interests in different fictional universes and they can be very strong but this one is different. 12 year old me absorbed it in such a way and with such a reverence that my brain processes it not so much as a modern work of fiction as an actual mythos

[cambion-companion]

"Hold Monster"

Based on this amazing post and artwork. I couldn't help but write something for our beloved INT 8 Tav from 1st POV since that's what I feel most comfortable writing.

Raphael x reader!Tav | Tav thinks the hold monster spell works in a very different way

You certainly hadn't intended to trip and fall into the portal, landing face-first on the polished marble floor of Raphael's entryway.

Your presence had been noticed immediately by Raphael who, upon recognizing you, wore a rather aggrieved expression. He set down his quill carefully and rose to full towering height, a slight twist of bemusement curling his lips. "Here I assumed you could go an hour without indulging in foolishness." He strode toward you and gripped you by the scruff like a wayward kitten. "You just caused me to lose a bet with Korilla."

"I really don't know how this happened!" You protested against his grasp as he dragged you back towards the portal. "I would've knocked if you had a door!"

Raphael released you with a slight push, his wings flexing as he glowered down at you. "Innocent or not, a trespass will be received as such."

"Ah! Raphael, it was an accident!" You began to panic as his eyes glowed a bright gold and flames began to dance upon the tips of his fingers. "Oh, not again." You groaned, wracking your brains for something to counter his retribution."

You withdrew a small amount of silver from your pocket and shrieked. "I cast hold monster!!" Then charged at the cambion head-on.

So surprised was he by your yell and sudden movement, Raphael couldn't react in time before you leapt upon him. You wrapped your arms and legs around his torso and hips, clinging to him like a rabid spider monkey.

The force with which you jumped him caught both of you off guard and Raphael toppled to the floor, his wings failing to catch his weight in time. You felt his grip pierce your sides as he stared up at you in utter shock for a moment. The spell had worked, it seemed.

You panted. "I don't want my bottom singed again like last time. That wasn't very nice."

Raphael grimaced, his face sharpening again as his surprise subsided. Emotions warred across his features. "You are a most confounding creature. If I believed you at all capable of rational thought, you'd be a pile of ash this very moment. Now...get off."

"Sorry, I can't." You shook your head sorrowfully. "The spell lasts a minute."

Raphael growled low in his throat, his wings stretching as he slowly got to his feet. You still clung to him, holding him tightly as you could.

With great care and powerful restraint, Raphael removed you from his person limb by limb.

"Wow, you're strong." You said with awe, panting a little from the exertion. Seeing the look on his face you backed slowly towards the portal. "Okay, I can see you're busy. I'll be going now."

"I should think so." Sparks of hellfire danced between Raphael's fingertips as he looked at you, his expression much like one who is considering how best to skin a deer.

Once you'd disappeared back to the material plane, Raphael grunted and looked around his immaculate manor. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the infernal air. "For the crown."

[mythica0]

I have the silliest idea holy shit omg

This involved a but of soft Jax AND lee!jax WHAT A COMBO‼️‼️

So like I have this hc that jax is deathly afraid of super duper loud bangs like fireworks and thunderstorms, there's fireworks or a thunderstorm outside of the circus and jax is hiding wanting it to go away, then someone comes in (character of ur choice but this would fit ragatha) and tickles him to make him feel better and to distract him from the storm

Also hi how are you I hope you're doing well💖💖💖

- X3 anon

Soft side

🎂: TADC

🧁: Jax

🍫:Caine

Summary: during a digital thunderstorm(however that works), none of the circus members have seen Jax leave his room. Caine goes to check on him and sees something… unexpected.

A/N: Thank you anon! This is so cute and I had to write it. Love me some cheer-up tkls. Enjoy! <3

Soft side

BOOM! CRACK! A digital thunderstorm raged outside. Dark clouds covered the sky and flashes of lightning appeared followed by loud rumbles of thunder.

The cast was sitting in the tent to stay out of the rain, but…

“Guys, is it just me or is it quiet?” Ragatha whispered, suspiciously.

Zooble rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s because Jax isn’t here. I don’t know why exactly, but I’ll take the lack of Tom-[BEEP]-ery.

Pomni raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “Huh. I wonder why he’s hiding in his room. Maybe he’s planning a scheme…” the conversation trailed off and the group continued to chat amongst themselves.

On the other side of the tent, Caine heard this conversation. Had Jax really not shown up today? That was unusual for the Rabbit, if only because he liked to, as he put it, “watch funny things happen to people.”

Caine thought he better go check on the bunny before starting todays adventure. As cooky as he was, Caine did actually care about his circus members and wanted to see them happy in the digital plane. And for some reason he was concerned about Jax.

He floated down the hallway and knocked on Jax’s door. “Jax? Do I have permission to enter?”

No response came out of the room, other than a soft whimpering sound. Another BOOM rang out from the thunder, and Caine heard a startled “Ah!” And a slight whine coming from inside the room.

Worried something might have happened, Caine teleported inside the room, concerned. “Jax!”

At the voice, Jax looked up. He wasn’t hurt at all, which relieved Caine… but- something was off.

He was holding his long ears flat against his head, and small tear tracks rolled down his digital face.

“Wha- what are you doing here, dentures?” Jax tried to put on a brave face, but his voice waivered and broke. Once again thunder roared and Jax made a noise of fear, jumped a bit and held his ears even closer to his head.

Caine’s eyes gained an understanding and he sat next to the rabbit.

“You don’t like thunderstorms, huh?”

“What’s it matter to yo-u.” Jax sniffed.

“Well, I don’t like seeing my cast scared, Jax.”

“I’m not scared!” Jax lashed out, offended at the prospect. “I’m fine!”

“Hmm…” Caine thought of a way he could cheer up the bunny, without making him more angry, and he had the perfect idea.

As subtly as he could, Caine reached his hand over and gently poked Jax’s side.

A squeak came out of the rabbit and he turned to look at the ringmaster. “What-What was that about?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.

“Bull[BEEP].”

Caine’s smile grew mischievously. “You know how I feel about swearing mister!” Caine started to quickly scribble Jax’s stomach, making silly noises as he did so.

Slowly Jax regained his usual toothy smile, giggles slipping out of his throat.

“Cahahahaine! Cohohme ohohon! Whyhyhy?!”

“Not so scared anymore, aren’t ya? Tkltkltkl!”

“Oh shuhuhut ihihit!”

“Ooo~ you’re gonna get it, now!” Caine stopped for a moment and pulled his cane from his hat. He waved it like a wand, and a small pink light emerged from it, engulfing Jax in its glittery light.

Immediately Jax’s laughter intensified.

“Whahahahat eveheEHEN IHIHIS THIHIHIS!”

“Introducing my TICKLE RAY 9000! Guaranteed to make even the most grumpy of people laugh really hard!” He spoke in an advertising voice.

“OHOHO MYHYHY GOHOHOD, YohohOU AHare RIDIHICulohohous!”

“Thank you!” Caine winked.

“QUHUHIHIT IHIHIT!”

“Hmm.. if you admit you were scared. It’s okay to be scared! Everyone has fears, even tough little rabbits like you.”

“OHO COHOHOME OHON! Thahats soho MeHEAN!”

Jax started to have tears of joy prick in his yellow eyes from all the laughing. He would never admit it, ever, but this was helping.

“C’mon Jax! You can do it! Tktktktktktktktk!”

“PLeheheHEASe!”

“You know what you have to say!”

“OhoKAHAY fihiHINE! I wahahahas scahahared! Ihim scahahahred ohof thuhunder Stohohorms ahahare yohOU hahahappy NOHOw!”

“Yes. Very. Almost as much as you right now.” Caine teased, turning off his magical little tickle beam.

“You ready to go start todays adventure!”

“Yeheah, yeah just give me a sec.” Jax said, tiredly.

I guess both Caine and Jax had an unexpected soft side.

[sarahowritesostucky]

Hello~ Huge fan of the way you write ABO, especially Hydra Sanitorium and CAfOE. I've been wondering, though - could/would you give a little more detail how Steve ended up in an A/A marriage in CAfOE? I know his line about "rules for thee", but it's so interestingly off-beat (to me) with the rest of his characterization. Are A/A marriages considered same-sex marriages, or do the same categories of LGBTQIA apply in your ABO 'verse, and secondary sex is a different category? That is, Steve was/is "straight" in this context because he was married to a woman. And ditto for Peggy, running the girls' school. How did the presumably very conservative parents of their students feel about it?

Psyched about the new update, btw. I adore Peter, so I'd been waiting for him to show up!

Oh my GOD here 🥇🏆just take it: the award for best, most engaged fan question. What a flippin' awesome question to wake up to!

Yeah Peter is this adorable little wiry, hyperactive, chibified boy that lives in my head for omega characterization. Conservative parents of students would have no issue with an A/A relationship, and I'll explain why.

The same rules of LGBQIA do not directly translate here. Much less importance is placed on primary gender (m/f), and most placed on designation (a/b/o). O/O is the only designation that would overarchingly be considered "gay" or dysfunctional somehow and thus discouraged - and that's b/c of the intense bio need omegas have for alphas. Even still, o/o has often been permitted as a background activity, just so long as they don't start identifying as only wanting other omegas. Historically, A/A relationships have not been viewed the same way.

(The context I'm discussing here is the cultural context of Europe and US from about 1600s-1940s/50s. Here is a post where I talk about other world cultures and time periods, as well as discuss the cultural traditions in the west regarding older alphas being paired with younger omegas)

So the first thing to understand about this 'verse, is that A and O is pretty uncommon. Like 0-10% of the population can be A or O in most places, and probably 5-8% of the world's total population is. Most people are beta.

Second important point: Alphas do not have the same level of biological need for omegas as omegas do for them, so they have more options and flexibility for choosing their partners.

Thirdly: you need to remember that A's and O's are viewed very differently int his world, and this affects what is socially acceptable for them. Omegas are viewed patronizingly as needier and a little biologically dumber than anybody else (b/c they are); they are people who need to BE taken care of. Whilst Alphas are viewed as ultra competent. Therefore, o/b or o/o relationships have never been well tolerated or taken seriously, whereas A/A relationships always have.

In many cultures - including in the west - it is perfectly normal for an A/A pairing to happen. Polygamy of a shared omega spouse between the two alpha spouses would've been a common arrangement, historically and leading all the way up into the 1940's(US)/50's(Europe).

The arrangement of two alphas marrying and being equal-plane partners, then adding an omega third into the mix (kind of like a really, really smart pet/nanny/prostitute, all built into one) whom they would care for and raise their family with together, was a very common social construct in the past.

In Peggy and Steve's marriage, part of the breakdown was to do with this issue--both in changing opinions about it, and miscommunications about wants and expectations.

Hope that helps! 💖Sarah.

[lindsayrps]

too close to the fire

after a few days here, indigo loses count of how many men go down.

a few months and the numbers become so unfathomable that he tries not to think about it. he compartmentalizes it, pushes it deep down into a box in the dark recesses of his mind where it doesn’t bother him when it’s not supposed to. it’s the only way to survive, really, and he knows that he’s one of the lucky ones to be able to do this without it interfering with his ability to get the job done day in and day out. if he thinks about it too much, he’ll start thinking about how he might not be so lucky next time and it could be him bailing out and floating somewhere over germany as he watched his plane dive and go up in flames, leaving those he’d left behind to grapple with his fate, whatever it might’ve been.

death would’ve been a mercy, then, because he thinks that is the worst thing he could’ve done to anyone, eliza included.

but another mission goes south like they all seem to lately. he doesn’t know how many men make it back but it’s less than what they’d left with. all he knows is he’s lucky to make it back in one piece, even luckier to be able to land his plane on the runway without crashing it, an engine sputtering after a spray of flak somewhere over germany. he takes a minute for himself, in the cockpit, watching as the mechanics zoom across the runway in their jeeps towards them before climbing out as they come to a stop in front of his plane.

"how bad is it?" he asks, pulling off his helmet.

"not the worst I’ve seen but," one of them starts, ducking under the wing to get a closer look at some of the damage. "you’re not gonna be flyin’ it for a while, at least."

indigo glances skyward. of course he would get grounded, at worst, or have to find a new bird to fly, something that is only marginally better. he sighs. "right, thanks guys."

he steps away, watching as the returning men load themselves into the back of trucks to head for interrogation without saying so much as a word to each other. indigo thinks he’ll climb on the one david’s standing in front of but he waves them off and stands there, instead, hands on the back of his head and staring out into the open field across from them.

"you good?" indigo asks, approaching from the side.

david shrugs and, for a second, indigo thinks he’ll just leave it at that and they can go but then he says, "you know how many went down?"

"no."

"too many." a pause. "another empty cot, another footlocker sent home, another moment of silence at the club. gettin’ real tired of it, man."

"i know." indigo isn’t really sure what else there is to say. he’s been there, too, packing up personal belongings, writing letters to loved ones back home to give them the worst news they could possibly ever hope to get from someone they don’t even know but who knew their father, brother, son, husband. "we’re all tired."

david scoffs, hands dropping from his head to his waist as he fully turns towards indigo. "that’s all you’ve got to say?"

"hatch, come on." he thought they’d been over this weeks ago with rex. he had been the idiot pulling flak out and bleeding all over the place, it wasn’t something that david should’ve had to bear witness to but he’d known the risks—they all had and they’d still climbed into those planes time and time again. this was never going to be a walk in the park. none of them should’ve ever thought it would’ve or should’ve been.

"how many of your friends have to die before you start showin’ some damn emotion, huh?" david challenges, "who’s it gonna take? sid? elliot?" a beat, "me?"

"you think i don’t give a shit? that i don’t think about what I’d have to say in a letter to your folks if i ever had to send one?" indigo asks. "it’s all i think about when i wake up every morning."

"could’ve fooled me."

"you’re a real bastard, you know that, right?" indigo fires back, anger climbing. they’ve never fought before, not over this. indigo trusted david with his damn life and if he had to climb into a plane with him with everything on the line, he knew he wouldn’t even question it for a second. that he was doubting how much indigo cared about him, or any of the other men, and their wellbeing during every mission was, frankly, insulting. at this point, he thinks david is goading him into an argument, a reason to throw punches and get all of that anger out and he doesn’t want to do it anymore. "get on a jeep to interrogation or i’ll drag your ass there myself."

it’s all but an order and a threat, though, indigo doesn’t bother looking back when he walks away. he goes to interrogation and, a few hours later, gets a better update on the status of his plane. still looking at being grounded for more than a few days but they’d probably have something else he could fly in the meantime, if he wanted.

he didn’t know if he did.

by nightfall, indigo thinks he’s calmed down enough from his row with david to go for a drink at the club. it’s more subdued than usual but that’s to be expected and most of the usual crowd isn’t here. he thinks he saw elliot at the clubmobile listening to jazz records with the red cross girls on his way over and sid was probably in his bunk reading whatever book he could get his hands on, a tactic he does to wind down after missions indigo’s learned. not having to make any stops along the way, he quietly winds his way to the bar and signals for two drinks. david sits on the end opposite him, flicking his lighter open and shut but not bothering to light a cigarette up.

when the drinks are set down in front of him, indigo quickly picks them up and works over to the other side of the bar, sliding onto the stool next to david. silently, indigo pushes one of them towards him before lifting the other to take a drink. david contemplates the glass in front of him, as if he was trying to assess whether indigo had had the time to poison it in the time it took for him to get from one end of the bar to the next but decides, apparently, that it wasn’t possible before downing most of it in one go.

"we good?" david asks.

"yeah," indigo says, "we’re good."

[frosty-oak]

Delivery guaranteed: Introduction

The Atlantic Ocean has water, the pope is a catholic, and Mark had habits. It took him exactly thirty-six and a half steps to get ready each morning (Mark would know, he counted). In fact, Mark tested every pair of socks to ensure they did not interfere with his step length and therefore impede his optimal routing. The last major life decision Mark had made was to move his toothbrush to the kitchen sink, saving him twenty whole steps each morning and felt like at least a chapter in his biography. While many people (multiple girlfriends and his parents) had seen this as a flaw, and tried to “help” Mark with this, three psychologists and two therapists agreed that there was no diagnosis, Mark just liked things as they were.

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

And yet, here he was struggling to push Bella the elephant onto a military class cargo plane with limited success. “YES I KNOW I ONLY HAVE TWO HOURS THANK YOU” he yelled into his phone, currently propped between his shoulder and left ear. Bella sniffed the air a few times, and began quietly chomping at the hay left for her on the floor. Unable to take his anger out on the elephant herself -Mark was quite fond of his not trampled to death body- he began to write a list in his head of all the scathing insults he would call Jane and Andrew as he had decided this was entirely their fault.

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

Jane and Andrew were two of Mark’s three friends, he had known them since he was eight years old and had rarely made friends since (Mark’s third friend was coincidentally also called Andrew and was a work colleague). They had gone to the same primary school, then the same high school and ever since sixth form they would meet on a Friday afternoon at five minutes past four outside ‘The Fox’, sit at the table exactly half way between the bar and the door. Each Friday Mark would drink three pints, have a laugh chatting about Andrew’s revolving door of a love life and then walk home. It was on one of these Fridays that Andrew (Welsh Andrew, not Andrew from work) asked a question Mark had never considered: “why don’t you do something different Mark? Like… you’ve been at that job ten bloody years now, you must be qualified for something better… you must be!”.

Like explaining quantum computing to an ant, or the combined works of Shakespeare to a New England Terrier this concept was vastly beyond Mark’s understand of the world. Mark had been a delivery driver at G&T Operations for the past decade, he had outlasted almost every member of staff there despite former employees describing his role as “mind numbing”, “the dullest thing I have ever done” and “unrewarding”.

As it turns out, yes, he was qualified for a better job, several hundred of them. Despite insisting that he was “perfectly happy in his nice comfortable job” Andrew and Jane corralled Mark into as many interviews as they could manage, the last on the list being “pretty much what you do anyway! What’s the difference between a delivery driver and a delivery operative?” Jane insisted, as the three of them nervously approached what was apparently a delivery centre. Mark was expecting a large ugly rectangle of sheet metal and exploitation, but he did not expect posh, unbelievably posh, has-its-own-moat-and-guardhouse-posh. After Mark had his documents checked and was lead through the heavy iron gate he started feeling quite incredibly out of place.

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

Out of place definitely feels better than out of breath, Mark decided, as he stepped back from Bella, panting heavily. He glanced down at the muddy footprints left on the tarmac, and considered that it looked a tremendous amount like she had yet to move a full inch. After a thorough search of his pockets, the plane, the pilot and Bella herself (who didn’t reveal much, having no pockets) Mark sprinted across the tarmac in circles, pulled his shirt over his head and did a small, awkward dance. “BELLAAAAA! What’s this?” he asked, as the giant caught sight of her favourite tennis ball cascading into the back of the plane. She considered this for a moment, before slowly wandering in and sitting down on the floor with a tremendous noise. “I’m going to buy myself one of those fancy offices” Mark muttered to himself, slamming the door shut and triple checking it was locked.

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

Beyond the moat there were two men wearing suits and earpieces at the door, they looked expensive enough to be palace guards, or protecting a vault in a heist movie rather than a delivery company. One silently extended his hand for the papers Mark had shown less than a minute ago before opening the door and returning his attention to the horizon. “Do I just… in here? Okay lovely thanks.” Mark muttered mostly to himself as he walked in, starting to feel his cleanest polo shirt wasn’t quite appropriate for this.

A gentle gust of wind signalled the door shutting, leaving Mark in a spectacularly bespoke office. Artisanal hand crafted crystal paperweights, silk curtains with tasteful real gold trim, mahogany floors, works of art lining the walls including at least one real Monet gave the impression that this office had been around longer than several nations.

"Mark." He supposed this was technically a greeting, as she marched in and sat down across the large wooden desk. The exotic mahogany desk polished within an inch of its life was somewhere between an antique and a relic, only gaining value as it aged. Mark looked back at the sceptical look currently being levelled at him, and wondered if this was the part he was supposed to say things. “hello?” he tried, and felt the air cool several degrees, evidently that wasn’t a good answer.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

That’s all for now folks! Thank you very much for reading, and I aim to have more out soon with a more cohesive timeline now that we are introduced to Mark.

[soraavalon]

Knave of Hearts: Question 1; There is a holiday named Thricewane.

Tark: *laughs*

Knave of Hearts: Why is it called Thricewane?

Tark: We all just fucking giggle as [something] Thricewane.

Eudora: *mimes ringing the bell*

Tark: Can I make a history check?

DM: Eudora dinged.

Eudora: Eudora dings.

DM: This is first come, first serve, friends. This is an open-note test, this is for player knowledge.

Hunt (OOC): Ooh.

Tark (OOC): Oh, well then fuck. jk

Eudora: It's called Thricewane because it's commemoratin' the merging of three planes.

Knave of Hearts: Correct. I will give you one, an extra if you can tell me which three planes.

Eudora: I believe it was the Material Plane, this here plane that we're on right now, and was it... Shadowfell?

Knave of Hearts: Yes, very good. Two points to Carmilla.

DM: Let me write this down because this is actually point based.

Tark (OOC): Man, I'm so proud of you. I have no thoughts, no knowledge, no nothing. Nyessa's over here freaking right off the bat.

DM: Mm-hmm.

Tark (OOC): I'm so proud.

Eudora (OOC): I remember it because the name and the history behind it, it's neat.

Hunt (OOC): I second-guessed myself.

Marigold (OOC): Oh no.

Knave of Hearts: While we're on the topic, upon Thricewane there is a tradition known as The Knocking what are the words that are exchanged traditionally in this?

Nathaniel (OOC): Oh you mentioned this!

Hunt (OOC): Ah fuck!

Tark (OOC): And this is player knowledge, we can't---

DM: It's an open-note test, but it is player knowledge.

Hunt (OOC): Honestly, I don't think I wrote anything on it.

Tark (OOC): I know. Oh god damnit.

DM: This is legit lore trivia.

Tark (OOC): You make up half the shit. How are we supposed to know?

DM: You gotta listen to me when I talk.

Tark (OOC): Gaaah! *laughing*

-repeating the question-

Hunt: May I make an Intelligence check on this?

DM: You may.

Nathaniel: I will also make a check.

DM: Make a history check, or no this would technically be Society I guess? You could use history if you wanted to if that's better?

Hunt: Well it's the same. *rolls* 10.

Nathaniel: *rolls* I got a 17.

DM: I will say with a 17 'cause ya'll would know this, especially Nathaniel being a normal person. I guess you have a normal family comparatively, which is insane.

Nathaniel (OOC): Amelia did also love folklore.

DM: This is true. I will---

Nathaniel: He probably participated in Thricewane all the time. I probably loved Thricewane as a kid.

-going over whether to let Crow have the point or everyone roll Initiative with INT to see who would know it. We decide Crow gets it-

Nathaniel: *sees what Swan sent* Oh, do I, is the Knave looking for all of these?

DM: Yeah, that's the words exchanged.

Nathaniel: Oh, great. ding. "You knock thrice and the person inside the door says “Someone is here on this long dark night?” the knocker says, “May I come in and sit by your fire?” “Be on your way, the fire won’t warm you.” “May I come in and rest my old bones?” “Be on your way the road is calling.” “May I come in and sit down beside you?” “Be on your way, you are not welcome here.”"

Knave of Hearts: Very well done Bysmark. One point or you.

Hunt (OOC): As a player, I have no memory of that.

DM: That's fine.

Audence Isben (OOC): [in chat] THAT IS AMAZING

DM: This is all taken from, I believe, notes I have shared with people.

[harrywritingsbyme]

Do you think you could write a piece about Harry and y/n having sex but she’s like really short and Harry is like throwing her around and just manhandling her and fucking destroying her guts but also make kinda fluffy pls😔👉👈

Welcome Home

Anonymous Said: Hi I’ve discovered this blog recently and can I please just take a moment to say Wow... you’re writing is amazing and your ideas and concepts are brilliant. I’m not sure if your taking requests or concepts but here’s an idea. SNL pilot Harry like with the grey hair and all coming home to his wife who misses him dearly after awhile followed by you know what. And if you could include size kink (I really liked that concept)

A/N: I’m so sorry it’s so late guys! Since I’ve been writing for a year now, I figured that I’d give an ‘Au’ a try. When I got this request, I was completely floored. Like holy shit, sexy ass older pilot!Harry, and small!Y/n. All of this is perfection and I love this so much! Enjoy🙃

4.7k words

Harry loved his job. He considered himself to be pretty lucky to have the ability to travel the world and see places he’d only dreamt of growing up. Even though he wasn’t in those places for an extended amount of time, simply being there was more than enough for Harry and it made him want to go back and explore. If he was lucky, he’d have multiple flights to the same place or longer layover in these But what Harry loved most about his job was the fact that he got to do it all with the love of his life. 

When you two first met, Harry’d been a pilot for some years and you were just hired for your job as a flight attendant. You knew that it wasn’t the most glamorous profession int the world, but you wanted to dip your toes into the pool of world travel, and this was the route you were taking to start. Before your first flight you’d asked around about the pilots for your flight and you were met with the same response each time. Everyone said that Harry was one of the nicest people in the world and was pretty good looking too, but his copilot was the person you were advised to try your best to avoid. Luckily, you only had to interact with Harry. Both you and Harry hated to say it and be all cliché, but from the moment you two laid eyes on and interacted with each other you both were hooked. Even though the both of you could’ve really used the entirety of your breaks to get some sleep, you and Harry couldn’t stop talking to each other. From that point on, the two of you became inseparable. During layovers that were more than just a couple hours and Harry had some spare time outside of his duties as pilot, the two of you would spend time together. You two were so caught up in each other and being together that you’d swap flights and breaks with the other flight attendants so that you and Harry could be together. And Harry did the same. He’d always put in a word with the people who made the schedules to ensure that he was flying the flights you were on or he’d try to get you on his flights. 

After constantly being on flights together and even running into each other during your times off, you and Harry were pretty convinced that you two should give a relationship a try. Even though there was a significant risk involved with starting a relationship with someone who was pretty much your boss and/or employee, you and Harry were willing to take that risk. And you two never looked back. In fact, disclosing you guys’ relationship made things way easier for you and Harry; you two were almost always on the same flights together. Now, you two are happily married and traveling the world together about 99% of the time. You both absolutely hated when the 1% times came around. You two became so used to being on the same flights that when you weren’t, you and Harry were a bit sad and even a little homesick believe it or not. This time unfortunately was Harry’s turn to fly without you. There wasn’t a moment on his trip that Harry didn’t miss you. He was focused on his job but he was still thinking about you. He was constantly wondering about what you were doing at home. When he took his break he just laid there and the cuddles and kisses he’d get if you were there with him. He also missed listening to your passenger horror stories and pushing you to just keep going. And on top of all that, Harry missed all the times you two would try to quietly go at it in the bathroom or crew resting area depending on whether or not you two were the only ones on break. Even though he was able to talk to you during his layover, he was counting the days and eventually hours until he came back home to you. As soon as he landed on the tarmac at the airport, Harry was on a mission to get home. After following all the necessary after flight procedure and filling out all of the necessary paperwork, Harry threw his bag into his car and sped home to you.

Surprisingly, Harry was able to get home and not get a ticket. He quickly pulls into the driveway and carries himself and his bag into the house. When he walks through the front door, Harry could immediately feel your presence. He could feel your warmth radiating through the entire house. All he had to do now as find you. Before checking upstairs, he makes his way around the main level of the house to look for you. As he exits the kitchen and makes his way down the hall, Harry could hear your soft hums getting louder and louder. When he reaches the laundry room, he sees you standing at the folding in the corner. Simply seeing you bought a big smile to his face. He then wastes no time coming over to you and wrapping his arms around your smaller body. 

“Honey I’m home.” Harry happily coos in your ear before pressing a soft kiss below it. When he does this, you turn around in his arms to get a better look at him. 

“Welcome home.” You whisper back to him, lifting yourself up onto your tips of your toes to bring your lips to his. As soon as your lips connect, the both of you release sighs of content. You two were back together. It doesn’t take long for Harry’s arms to tighten around your body and hoist you up onto the table behind you. The kiss lasts a little longer before you pull away from his lips. 

“How was your long haul without me?” You hum, sliding your hands up the lapels of his jacket.

“It was hell.” Harry says pointedly. 

“It couldn’t have been that bad.”

“Was thinking about you the whole time.” Harry frowns a little at you to emphasize his point. 

“I missed you too baby.” You coo softly to him. You then reach up and pull the captains hat off of his head, sitting it down next to you before pushing your hands through his greying curls. When you two first met, he had some grey hairs here and there. But now they had taken over just about all of his head; and you were very into it. “Any annoying kids or weird old ladies?” You ask him. 

 “For the kids, I wouldn’t know. I like to stay in the front of the plane or the crew area.” Harry begins truthfully. “But as for the old ladies, they always want to break off a piece of this.” He continues smugly.

“Why would they want you? Do they wanna swap arthritis creams or something?” You joke with a laugh, watching his face fall in the process. 

“I will have you know that I’m considered a silver fox. And you know it.” Harry defends, slightly tilting his head up away from you. When he says this all you could do was pucker your lips and bite the inside of them because what he said was in fact true. You just couldn’t let him know that. “Now what’d you get into while I was gone?” Harry asks curiously with a smirk from his previous victory. 

“Did some stuff around the house and I did a little missing you retail therapy.” You reply happily. 

“So I take it that the credit card bill this month is gonna be a little higher than normal?” Harry asks suspiciously. 

“Just a little.” You whisper trying to undermine your shopping spree. 

“A little?” Harry asks you again, already knowing that you’re undermining how much you actually spent. 

“Mhm.” You mumble, nodding your head sweetly in the process. 

“You’re too cute and pretty for your own good.” Harry chuckles and shakes his head down at you. 

“You love it though.” You hum happily up at him, wrapping your arms around his neck. 

“I do.” Harry sighs contently. This is what he missed. He missed being in your arms and just loving on you. He loved seeing your smile and feeing your small arms wrap around him. “I actually bought you a couple things.” Harry whispers, tightening his grip around your back. 

“Is it more skimpy lingerie?” You question him, making sure to spread a wide smirk across your face. Instead of readily replying to you, Harry simply unwraps one of his arms from around your back and he brings it up to the front of your dress. Since the front of your dress was loosely wrapped around your body to keep it closed, Harry as able to simply pluck back the top a little to get a good look at your body beneath the fabric. 

“Well I guess this is my cue to stop buying the lingerie, since you’re not even wearing it.” Harry points out, looking down into your dress to find your bare, supple breasts resting on your chest. It took a lot of self control for Harry in that moment to not stick his hand down your dress to take your plushy flesh into his hand.

“Well I thought it was for our sexy times or when I send you pictures while you’re on a trip and on your break or stuck in a hotel room without me.” You explain to him. You even throw in a little pout; you wanted to keep your fancy and very pretty lingerie flow going. “But I am wearing one of the pairs of  panties you picked up in Italy if you wanna see how some of your purchases look on me.” You whisper lowly to him. You then use your arms that are hooked around his neck to pull his head down closer to yours. Harry was already a bit hard from finally being home with you. Now he was getting even harder from your words. 

“Is it bad that I’ve only been home for 20 minuets and I’m already thinking about completely ravishing you?” Harry mumbles against your pillow soft lips. “Just so pretty baby.” Harry grumbles frustratedly before bringing his mouth the rest of the way to yours while pulling you closer to the edge of the table. He couldn’t believe that he, a man who turned 40 a couple months prior, was getting all riled up and turned on the same way he did 20 plus years ago. That was just the age defying effect you had on him. 

“No, not at all.” You begin as you pull away from the short lived yet beyond passionate kiss, slowly bringing your left hand up the back of his neck to his hair. “In fact, every time I see you in your head to toe pilots get up, I’m always fighting the strong urge to fall to my knees and take your cock down my throat.” You bluntly continue, your voice filled with a very nonchalant and teasing tone. 

When this statement left your mouth, Harry was a little bit taken aback. But at the same time he wasn’t. After slowly building up your friendship that in no time blossomed into a more romantic relationship together, Harry was able to slowly show you the ropes so to speak and teach you just about everything you knew when it came to the bedroom and a happy and healthy relationship. When you two progressed to the more intimate stage of your budding relationship, you were pretty inexperienced. You didn’t know your way around the bedroom at all. You we’re still a virgin and you didn’t even know the ins and outs of making out with someone. All you knew was that this smart, extremely kind, absolutely gorgeous, and just overall stunning human being, older man who just so happened to be the pilot on your flight had taken a strong interest in you. And luckily for you, your lack of experience was the least of his concerns. It was like you hit the jackpot with him. Fast forward to now when you two are a married couple, you’ve taken all of the tips and tricks he’s taught over time and you’re running with it. Harry wasn’t the only who had the ability to do things to your body that would make your toes to curl, your entire body to go numb, and cause your mind to deem it all indescribable. You also had the ability to turn Harry into a pleasured, borderline incoherent, and moaning mess; something that most women in his past who were his age or slightly older weren’t even able to do. So it wasn’t a complete surprise that those words came from your mouth.

“Who knew that my pretty little wife had such a filthy mouth.” Harry gasps with a condescending tone.

“Well I’m not a prudish old man like you.” You simply reply. This was the button in Harry that you loved to push. 

“I don’t know where you’re getting that from but I’m far from prudish and I’m definitely not an old man.” Harry says matter of factly. “If I remember it correctly, I made you wear vibrating panties for the entirety of an 18 hour flight.” Harry recalls, making his point against being called prudish. 

“Everyone uses those. Especially older men.” You smugly whisper back, pushing even harder on this button of his. 

Harry knew exactly what you were doing. He knew that you were pushing his button so that he’d unleash everything he had built up over the course of his trip into you. It didn’t take much for him to realize that you wanted him to really make up for not being with you for almost a week. The both of you were itching to feel and be around each other again. After you and Harry made it past the learning and teaching phase of you guys’ sex life, the two of you acquired a constant hunger for one another. When you and Harry had some time off, the sex would be nonstop. Whether it was cockwarming or full on sex where you’re riding his cock or he was slamming himself deep into your pussy, you and Harry were always looking for ways to be around each other like this. And it was exactly the same when you two were on the job. Even though you two didn’t have the freedom to go at it whenever you wanted, you and Harry still found ways to be with each other. For some reason, seeing each other dressed in your uniforms was a bit of a turn on. It didn’t help that the both of you were borderline thrill seekers and loved the rush that came along with trying to be quiet as you both were experiencing some of the best pleasure you’d ever felt.

“Well do all older men pound and shove their cocks into their girlfriends, and now wives tight little cunts over and over again until she’s begging and crying for him to slow down and let them cum? Because if not, I’ve got countless stories about me doing that to you in the cramped bathroom on a flight, in restaurant bathrooms, dressing rooms, upstairs, on the couch, the kitchen counter, right here on this table, and many other places.” Even though you acted confident and enjoyed battling Harry for dominance, you were able to easily fall into a more submissive role. The way he’s calmly able to say the filthiest things made your body quake and your panties become even more soaked than they already were. You were never going to be able to forget about all of those times. How and why would you ever forget the times where he’s hoisted you up against a door or a wall, or pushed you down against the counter, tightly wrapped a hand around your mouth to keep you quiet, and deliciously slammed his cock up into you? If you focused in on those memories, you could remember and almost feel him inside you.

That’s what you wanted right now. You wanted him to pound into you so hard that you’d a sore, moaning mess and you wanted to make up for the time you two weren’t together. This was the first time in a good while that you weren’t scheduled for a flight with Harry and you really missed him. And his cock. So if you had to push one of his buttons to really get what you both wanted, you were going to do it. 

“Well I think you guys can do that,” You begin, pausing to run your hands down from his neck and across the expanse of his broad shoulders. “I just think that you may need a little help if you know what I mean.” You finish. When you say this, Harry knows exactly what you were implying and he wasn’t having any of it. 

“You and this pretty little body of yours is gonna get it.” Harry growls before yanking you up from the table and pulling you into his body. He quietly marches you both up the stairs and to your shared bedroom. When he reaches the foot of the bed, he releases his once tight grip on your body and drops you down onto the bed. He continues to go about everything silently, shoving his jacket off of his shoulders and working on his tie and shirt.

“You look really hot in that uniform just so you know.” You admire from the bed below him. You watch him chuckle at your statement as he shrugs his shirt and undone tie off his body. You were really turned on right now. Like the sight of his bare, toned and tattooed chest and arms was a sight you could stare at forever. Add onto that the fact that he was mad and taking control over you and you were setup to be a complete mess. And your panties could definitely attest to that. You were completely drenched and dying to feel him against and inside you. 

“You don’t have to butter me up baby.” Harry begins as he undoes his shoes. “M’still gonna take care of you and that smart mouth of yours.” Harry guarantees, shoving his shoes and socks off his feet and standing back up to work on his pants. “Gonna make sure you know what I can do to you.” Harry finishes, finally undoing his belt and shoving his pants along with his boxers down his legs. When you see his thick and very hard cock, you couldn’t stop a moan or two from escaping your mouth. “I take it someone needs my cock.” Harry chuckles at your desperation for his cock. He planned on showing you just how much you needed him. He then comes closer to the edge of the bed and in one swift motion, Harry pulls you up from your lying position and flips you onto your front. He masterfully undoes the tie on the back of your dress and he flips you back onto your back. He tugs at the fabric, opening your dress and exposing your partially naked body to him. He takes a moment to admire your body and all he could do is bite his lip. He couldn’t believe that he managed to be away from this for nearly an entire week. 

Harry quickly snaps out of his trance when he feels his cock twitch slightly and he leans down to scoop you up into his arms. When he does this, Harry keeps you low in his grip so that you’d be right against his cock. He keeps one arm securely around your body and pulls your arms from the dress. Once it’s completely off of you, he drops it into the pile of his clothes and drops you back onto the bed. Before crawling up and on top of you, Harry uses your claves to push you a little higher up onto the bed and to flip you back onto your stomach. When he does this, you really know you’re in for it. Whenever you were in this position Harry really made sure to slam into you and make you scream. When he crawls up and is on top of you from behind, he wastes no time in ripping the barely there panties off your body. For the first time in what felt like forever, Harry didn’t snap the delicate undergarment in half. Once they’re out of the way, Harry has complete access to your body.

“Gonna be a good girl and take daddy’s cock?” Harry asks, squeezing the flesh of your ass before raising it up just to crash it back down.

“Mhm.” You whimper, really feeling the sting from the sudden slap.

“Use your words.” Harry demands, raising his hand back up to deliver another slap to your backside. 

“Yes daddy.” You cry out to him, this time feeling not only the sting of his slaps but also feeling of your juices dripping onto the sheets.

“Good girl.” Harry hums at your response. He then straddles your thighs, wanting to keep you in place when he pushes into you. He lifts himself up so that he’s hovering over you, and he grips onto his cock to give himself a good squeeze, resulting in him letting out a loud grumble behind you (that went straight to your clit). He tightly grips onto the flesh of one of your cheeks and he pulls your ass apart to get a better view of you. When he sees your puckered hole, Harry gets a little idea. In the process of lining himself up with your entrance, Harry uses his cock to put a little pressure on your tighter hole. When he does this, words begin to pour out of your mouth. 

“M’too tight daddy.” You rush out to him, trying to stop his actions. Harry knew that you were too tight for him at the moment, but he just liked to work you up a little and hear you beg.

“Don’t worry baby. When were done, daddy’s gonna get you nice and ready for his cock.” He promises, lowering his cock from your second hole down to the first. When you feel his thick head nudging at your entrance, your moans got louder. You needed him to be inside you already. 

“Want your big cock daddy.” You beg. You try to move back against him but he’s practically sitting on your thighs, which is pinning you to the bed. 

“Whats the magic word?” Harry teases.

“Please daddy?” And with that, Harry is finally sinking his cock into you. When you feel his cock stretching you to fit all of him, your mind goes blank. All you could come up with was strings of loud moans and feeling good. You felt full agains which was all you really wanted. As he continues to sheath his cock with your walls, Harry’s hand leaves his shaft and goes right to your other cheek. He pulls your ass completely apart and watches as his cock disappears into you.

“That’s it, take this cock sweetheart.” Harry pants in amazement. He was still in awe at how a small woman like you was able to take every last inch of his manhood. Once he’s fully inside, Harry’s eyes trail up your body to find you resting your cheek against the sheets with your mouth wide open. Thats what he wanted to see. Keeping his hands on your ass, Harry lifts himself up so that he’s hovering over you and goes straight into slamming in and out of your tight and very wet pussy. As he does this, your entire body quakes at the amazing sensation of him fucking you. Feeling him pound into your stomach as he called you his sweet girl and his pretty little wife was beyond extraordinary. You could feel the familiar tight and warm knot beginning to form in the pit of your stomach already.

As Harry fucks into you, he’s beyond turned on. The way you’re pinned below him as he shoves his cock deep into you along with you pitifully whimpering, moaning, and crying at how good he felt was really doing things to Harry. He never wanted to be away from you ever again. He wanted to feel you every single day.

After fucking into you from behind for a good while and feeling the tight burning sensation forming in the pit of his stomach as well, Harry figures that he’s going to cum soon and he wants to watch your face twist as he does. He then proceeds to stop thrusting all together and pull out of you, which causes you to grumble, resulting in you receiving a hard “shut up” slap to your ass. He then gets lifts himself off of you and flips tugs you onto your back. He knocks your legs apart and gets in between them before slamming his cock back into you.

“Like this baby. Like it when daddy takes control of this tight little cunt of yours?” He pants, continuing to slam his his cock into you. You were too caught up in how good he was making you feel that you couldn’t even form a worded response. All you could do was thrash your head against the bed in agreement. When he sees this, a very wide smirk rises to his face. This is exactly what he missed and wanted to see. You taking all of his cock while you’re quivering and barely holding on. As he continues, Harry can feel the warmth from the pit of his stomach spreading to his entire body, signifying to him that his release was getting extremely close. Judging by the way your once tight grip on the sheets has gone loose, your pitiful whimpers, and the way you’re tightening up around him you’re feeling the exact same way. To make you cum around his cock, with him following right behind you Harry only has to do two things. First, he brings his palm to your lower stomach and presses it into you; putting pressure on the warm knot that was about to explode and allowing him to feel his cock moving inside you. He then comes down, bringing his mouth to your ear to whisper one thing into your ear. “Not too bad for an old man right?” Harry hums patronizingly into your ear. He wanted you to eat your words. And you were. His words, the pressure from his hand, and his cock causes you to burst at the seams around him. You let out a mixture of gasps and whimpers as you completely let go around Harry’s cock. When he feels your walls contracting around him, Harry lets go as well. He releases every last drop of the sexual frustration he’d been carrying around all week; and it felt so good. He loved painting your walls with his cum.

Once the both of you are done and it’s safe to pull out, Harry’s slowly pulls his sopping wet cock from your cunt and collapses onto the bed next to you. 

“Harry, I can’t feel my legs.” You whimper after a couple minuets of silence. 

“M’surprised you’re not used to it by now.” Harry hums smugly. Once he says this, a temporary lull fell over you two. You and Harry were very anxious to go at it again, but you two were holding off to see who would initiate round two. 

“Did you take something before you came in the house?” You whisper over to him, deciding that you needed to be the one to initiate round two.

“Do I need to come over there and shove my cock down that pretty throat of yours for you to get the point?” Harry chuckles at your persistence. 

“Only if you want to.” You whisper sweetly. 

“Oh I want to, and don’t you doubt that.” Harry says matter of factly. 

“Well can we cuddle first? Haven’t cuddled since the night before you left.”

“Anything you want.” Harry coos before moving closer to your limp body. 

Masterlist

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Comics: Spies Like Us and Dime after Dime or Weblena: The Preschool Days (Lena Retrospective) (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Shadow Into Light, My Lena Retrospective, which fittingly has now come to Women’s History Month! I sadly do not have anything besides this arc prepared for the month. This month is pretty packed for me with two shows a week to cover, as while there’s only two weeks of Ducktales left final space starts up right after to take it’s spot, two arcs to cover, and two time specific movie reviews: animal crossing the movie and the 1990 TMNT film. I will try to get more than the currently planned top 12 superheroines list out there... but this month is very tight as is, so if I do not I deeply apologize.

Now that’s out of the way, it’s appropriate we start Women’s history month on some likely lesser known parts of Lena’s history, with some comics stories focusing on our faviorite emo lesbian duck and her 87 counterpart. Before I get started on that though Kev my patreon pointed out something intresting a few weeks back i’ve been forgetting to get to and since we’re looking into Minima, I felt this was the perfect time to do so: Lena’s Concept art. 

There’s quite a few things to gleam from this. For starters as pointed out in the reddit thread I got the image as a whole from this was made in 2015, meaning Lena was one of the first new characters designed for the series and was part of it from the VERY early stages, as evidenced by the fact that despite clearly having their new personalities established, Beakly and Webby still had the old designs. 

The other notable change is that her first design was way more like both Magica nad Minima, a bit more modern, but clearly far more obvious who she was related to. She also had all black feathers making the shadow twist a bit more obvious and was likely done away with both to avoid giving that twist away, the same reason for the fake lestrange name, and to avoid accidently black coding her, as while Lena being black would’ve been intersting, it also would’ve invited a firestorm of controversy given that their one black character in season 1.. woul’dve started off as a homeless, manipulative antagonist, and none of that would play well nor was it something the progressive crew of this show couldn’t spot from a mile away.  And even this early on they have an almost final design ready, simply changing the shirt to fit her personality more, and her hair to be pink because it honestly looked better She also had green eyes throughout, but for whatever reason they phased them out. That part I don’t quite get as they look nice but probably they were hard to translate to the reboot style once they settled on their own. Her purple eyeshadow and haircut though have stuck since and were good calls. 

One last VERY obvious note.. Webby was gay for Lena from minute one. While Dana helped it is now VERY obvious they gay coded this relationship from the design phase, and the crew was entirely aware the whole time and I gave them less credit than I should have. They clearly had this in mind, and it’s very likely ONLY subtext because Disney, while making more and more progress, is very reluctant to have queer characters as Owl House was a struggle and since they have a tighter leash on properites based on the sensational 6, that means Frank knew they had the same odds of making Webby or Della queer in anything but subtext that a pig has of suviving in a slaughterhouse. I bring this up because I fear the series getting accused of queerbaiting somewhere down the road instead of doing what they could with a bad hand and hoping they could make the show as gay as they could. Penny is as out as they posisbly could get her, and Violet and Lena’s dad’s got a full apperance, if no speaking role that made it obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt their gay and did it in a plot important episode. So they did their best and I want them to get credit for that. 

But while this is all intresting stuff, join me under the cut for the meat of today’s review as I dig into Lena’s only apperance in the tie-in comic that was never punished here, and the only apperance of her protoype Minima.

Spies Like Us:  As I mentioned this comic was never published here which is doubly weird to me because of how I knew this story existed. Since I follow comics weekly and buy trades reguarly, I read the solicits companies put out eveyr month to see what new series are coming, what the ones i’m currently reading are doing, and what trades are coming out. That sort of thing, and it’s something I love. I know their basically adds.. but their well put together adds that really pull you into the books you like. The big two and the indies are all very good at it and sometimes i’ts the only way to know a comic is coming if the company dosen’t make a press release for it ahead of time. 

So naturally given there are several comics I follow at idw, paticuarlly the TMNT comics, I read those solicits and found they were going to do an issue with Webby and Lena becoming spies, and was excited about it. I ended up forgetting about it and never really followed the Ducktales comic as it came out, and upon reading an issue or two recently, one for another comission by kev as one story, happy happy valley, was particularly terrible. For those who haven’t read the story or my review, it involved the family getting stranded on an island where their forced to partake in activites and smile..that somehow turned into an aseop about Louie wanting to be rich. It ended with this

Yes.. really. That actually happened. But even with this, I fully planned to cover the issue when I covered Lena, and brought it up to Kev when he commissioned the retrospective. He gave me the discord equilvent of a blank stare and had never heard of it. I soon found out why: the story was replaced as, and fair play to disney, it spoiled Beakly’s past from the agent 23 episode which wasn’t going to air in time.  What dosen’t work is they never reprinted the story in The US.. didn’t put it in a future issue and just swap it’s place didn’t put it in the nothing. And the story was fully complete as we’ll see, with a cover and everything so they had no excuse whatsoever to NEVER use it, even with what happened to Lena in the season finale, this clearly took place before that and it was weird to just shelve it because of that. But thankfully when a bunch of the stories were reprinted overseas, this and another one, also webby centric got published overseas. But not in english.

Lucky for me, I was able to find an english translation of an english story which you can read RIGHT HERE. It was translated by @neopuff and I thank them for it as without them this review would not be possible and want to give them all the credit. So was it worth all their hard work translating it? Well let’s take a look. 

We begin at the Manor where Lena is skulking around suspiciously.. though it turns out she and Webby are just playing hide and seek. Though Lena accuses cheating. The dialouge here is pretty flat though that’s not Neopuff’s fault at all. As I can attest from reading other stories a lot of the early IDW comics are just this flat in dialoguge no matter the writer as they were likely given character descriptions and basic info about the show they likely had written up for merchandising and Frank and Co were given no involvement and likely weren’t made avaliable to consult on the comics to help them be a bit more fleshed out. It’s very obvious to me Disney just tried to get these pumped out so they’d have a series in stores to tie in without carring about qualities and given Scrooge debuted in comics, their lack of care toward that side of things in general, but especially in the first american published original duck comics in a while, bothers me a lot. It’s inexcusable. 

That being said the story isn’t half bad nor is the setup as the two hear a beeping and find it’s Beakly’s phone going off with a mysterious message from Q, Webby thinks she’s been reactivated, and is encouraged by Lena to go look after her while she stays along. While Webby says in response

It just feels grossly out of character for both. Lena is far more subtle about manipulation as shown five minutes ago and Webby blindly trusts her. Because she has a massive crush on her and is naïve about how the world works. It just seems very odd of her to get suspicious as she never does on screen, and again it comes off as Disney having barely given the writers any materials on them when i’m sure Frank or Matt would’ve been happy to write up a thing for them to help outside of the usual press materials they were given. 

Though hte last line isn’t all that out of character and has an obvious answer as within a jumpcut Launchpad’s taking them to London and is told to blend in.. which he does with an australian flag and accent.. good gag. 

So our heroines do some heroic breaking and entering and look for the package, but soon find while hiding it’s already in transit.. and had obvious bows on int. Whoops. Our heroes trie the old follow tha tcar bit and refreshingly, it dosen’t pan out as the guy stops and tells them to get out. A nice twist. Unable to follow, our heroes instead find launchpad lost, as his map is upside down

So Lena dares him if he can follow that plane, a nice bit of character for both. I will give Joe credit. While the dialouge’s a bit flat and there was that out of character moment.. for the most part he does nail the actual character down and does use it decently enough. He’s just not given enough page room or actual details to work  with is all. 

So while our heroes follow they end up having to crash as they run out of fuel.. lucky their with the expert but end up near home where the package is delivered to. Turns out this wasn’t a spy thing, this was just a thing with her aunt. That’s fine and a nice gag.. it’s just ruined by just sorta.. ending. Lena leaves disapointed and Beakly scolds webby for “playing spy” and she’s sad. That’s it that’s how it ends. Which dosen’t fit the characters, as while Beakly would defintely scold her, it just dosen’t FIT that she’d be that tearse or not appricate the effort or give her an actual lecture and it feels like Joe had no idea how to end this after the gag and just.. ended it. 

Final Thoughts for Spies Likes Us: This was okay.  It is a bit of a disappointment as for the only story not available.. i’ts just okay and not really above an average Ducktales comics story, with some nice character bits but feeling a bit weak overall, as do at least the first half of the idw comics. I haven’t read the later stuff to see if it got better. It’s worth a read if you like Webby and Lena as characters and it’s not BAD, it’s just not anything impressive and is a simple hyjinks filled misunderstanding story. 

Dime After Dime:

So now  we go back a bit to the original. I didn’t do these in chronological order because frankly, Dime after Dime is the better story of the two and the bigger one at that, so I have more to work with here. But the original also had comics and honestly from the few i’ve read much BETTER comics. I chalk this up to two things: The Ducktales 87 comics seem to have come out AFTER the series was already a hit, and since Ducktales is pretty close to the original uncle scrooge comics minus it’s own tweaks here and there, it’s easy enough to just write the stories like you would a regular uncle scrooge story, just with Webby and Launchpad added, whereas the idw writers were staffed with writing for all new versions of the characters with noticable differences without much to go on.  It’s why to me with tie in comics you have two options: Wait long enough so you can put your story inbtween the episodes like the Steven Universe and Regular Show comics did or just make your own continuity entirely like the Adventure Time Comics and the Archie TMNT Adventures series did. The ONLY time i’ve seen a comic work like this is the Bravest Warriors comic, which had a talented writer and fit well enough in the margins until it sadly ended.. and honestly is BETTER in some cases than the series. I might get to it someday. The point is this comic shows why you need to have a deft hand adapting something instead of just falling your arms about and hoping it’ll work. 

So today’s comic was part of some Disney Series called cartoon tales, which clearly repackaged comic stories from wherever, and put them together. I don’t know much about it and the only other issue avaliable collects the disney adventures adaptation of “Just Us Justice Ducks”, which I might cover at some point. This book does have two other stories which i’d be happy to do on comission or on my own at some point, one involving gladstone the other gizmoduck, but for now, i’m just sticking to the title story and the reason you all came here. 

So we open with Magica gazing into her crystal ball from her Mt. Vesuvies base saying that Scrooge will never know what hit him I know exactly what and who wiil hit him thank you very much. 

Scrooge is seeing Webby off to her first day of day camp, getting all teary eyed which is touching. Beakly apparently goes with her as the story never SAYS Sshe does but she’s not also not around when the story moves on, as Launchpad says it looks like rain. Scrooge dismisses him, though Launchpad turns out to be right. Scrooge had good reason for once though, instead of just being a dick good on you comic for making me not want to punch him in the face, trust me that is a high bar to clear with the scrooge comics, as the weather was fine just a minute ago. Naturally it was Magica All Along! Nothing scrooge can do now that eveyrthing has gone wrong! Her entrance though is sadly not a catchy earwormy tune, but .. this confusing line

I think your thinking of Gladstone. And he’s still single so.. have at that but no Scrooge is the one who values hard work over anything else and brags about THAT or being rich. I .. I don’t get this line and frankly I don’t want to. Even in stories where the dime is supernaturally lucky and the source of his wealth he dosen’t boast about it because he’s not stupid and dosen’t want everyone knowing how to bankrupt him instantly. This line will baffle me until I die, presumably, given my life’s tragetctory, after reviewing an episode of mighty ducks and slipping on some a jerky wrapper. 

Scrooge asks what she wants... 

No this isn’t that kind of story sadly. Her plan is to.. zap the bin with lightning and take the dime. Really just went with your first draft didn’t you magica? But as stupid as this plan is Scrooge has prepared for it. He installed a lightning rod on the bin to save on power, and to power his new super soaker traps. So all Magica did was save him money. She flies off and nothing is acomplished. 

So we get back to Webby at the Teenie Weenie Day Camp.. and just so you don’t think that was a terrible joke on my part...

My theory for how this name got approved at all is the editor KNEW how that sounded and just wanted to see if Disney would actually print a comic with the phrase Teenie Weenie without getting what it means in slang or how hilariously inapproriate it is to namme a children’s camp after it. 

Your probably wondering who that grown woman calling Webby a dweeb is. Well story wise, she’s SUPPOSED to be another kid at the camp around Webby’s age. In practice, she looks like THIS in closeup

So it looks and plays like a 30 year old woman snuck into the day camp and no one’s noticed she’s not actually a children. Or their just humoring her because she had a week to live. I don’t know. I do know she doesn’t get to judge on names. 

Snippy Von Glitz, proof rich people really do hate their kids and this this comic is trying personally to give me material. Snippy is your average alpha bitch, taking a chair from Minma and being obnoxious and classist and all that jazz. Minima gets hers back by making the chair bouncy then returning it to normal so Snippy gets in trouble when she makes up things about the chair, with the lady in charge getting ready to call her Dad. You cannot convince me that her “Dad” is just what she calls her husband, this is how they both get off, and that the lady at the preschool only tolerates it because they pay her a lot and so far the kids haven’t noticed Snippy is 30. Webby likes minima finding her name pretty, proving that the ho yay is alive no matter the webby and magica relative, and Minma returns the favor by saving her from a block. 

Minma is reluctant to make an actual friend, finding they aren’t worth anything and given most of the kids here apparently pick on her and her aunt is well.. Magica, it’s understandable why she’d be so cold. But Webby presses on and says something from Scrooge about friends. Which given Ducktales scrooge has none goes weird but it gets Minma to find out she knows and lives with Scrooge, so she cons webby into taking the dime for show and tell, showing that she can manipulate them with her powers, and that he won’t notice it’s missing, getting her with “I thought you wanted to be friends” 

So let’s pause for a second and compare and contrast the two: Both are the niece, or at least sorta in Lena’s case, of Magica, both manipulate webby, and both are her first real friend: The 87 boys are little monsters and I don’t consider them friends or even brothers, while the 2017 ones are just that: brothers. Their her siblings in all but blood, not friends and have hteir own long complicated history. 

But otherwise the two are vastly different. Lena is a far more complex character as she’s been abused her whole life, is a rebel because Magica hardly gave her agency, and while she starts wooing webby out of self interest it’s clear even as far as the first episode she cares. Lena would gladly be part of the world if she could and this whole scheme is to gain that choice. 

Minma is still sympathetic but very different: She walls herself off because the other kids laugh and mock her for being herself and lashes out at them.. not unreasonably mind , but still feeling she needs no one else.. but as we’ll learn later she’s only helping Magica to finally feel accepted, to get all the fancy clothes and stuff that will make her popular instead of that grown woman masquerading as a kid for disturbing reasons. Minma is at her heart just a hurt kid desperate to fit in. And while Lena shares the desire for a place to belong.. it’s at it’s core much sadder. Lena.. wants a family. Someone to love her and to care about her and actually look after her. Minma has that she just wants to be loved. it’s similar but very diffrent and I can see why Lena evolved into what she did, as Frank and Matt ended up going in a far darker but ultimately more interesting direction. Minima is not a bad character at all though and without her I don’t think we would’ve had Lena, but at the end of the day the 87verse is just not that complicated, so the reboot needed something more and that more evolved into who we have now. 

Both kids excitedly talk about their new friends, with their respective guardians being distracted. Scrooge is distracted by the fact his car is a bit bumpy and Launchpad offers to fix it up for free with some parts from a buddy, which given the sentence “This won’t cost you anything” makes him erect, Scrooge agrees. Magica meanwhile, whose watching Minima while her mom is away which raises a LOT of questions we don’t have time for like who she is, is she’s poes wife or does Magica have other siblings... it’s a lot of questions we’re never going to get answers to. 

The next day Webby got the dime easy as Scrooge was distracted. so Minima swaps them while she’s distracted. But while swiping it was easy, which to be fair Webby is likely approved in his security so it woudln’t match her.. or the story just needed to progress. You make the call. 

Magica does the logical thing and goes and get sthe dime and the story ends there.. and i’m shitting you, she of course brags to scrooge, reveals minima as her spy, and offers to RACE him for it shortly after he realizes he has a fake.

The only major flaw in this story is Magica’s overconfdience, which isn’t BAD persay, but here has gotten to dumbass proportions. She just can’t plan for anything and a CHILD has a better plan than her that only dosen’t work for reasons we’ll get to. And that plan is almost ruined by Magica taunting scrooge!

So a race is on but Launchpad has transformed Scrooge’s old Model T into this

Damn that’s cool. Scrooge of course dosen’t like it, but honestly you get what you paid for. Oh that’s right you paid nothing for something you NEED to use every day for transportation. 

At  the rickity thickity bridge, Steve Buschemi’s worst roll and her minion ask Webby to roll with them and Minima mistakes this for betrayal planning to soak them all.. only for Webby to DEFEND HER, pointing out minma’s her friend, how she dresses is fine and she loves her no matter what.. the last part’s implied. The 30-year old asshole and her minon leave Webby and Minma is genuinely touched, as no one’s done that for her before. She put up so many walls... she didn’t realize someone could ACTUALLY care about her, so obessed with thinking she had to be like that soccer mom in preschoolers clothing, she just had to be herself: kinda werid but in that fun adams family way. Webby says she knows Minma would do the same.. so while she prepares to let’s get back to the race. Magica realizes Launchpad’s roadster is actually gaining and spreads some tacks, but Scrooge counters with some money.. because of course he has a lot of money in the trunk. But Magica takes out the bridge and while scrooge awesomely JUMPS IT... he’s still too late. 

As you probably guess though, Minima had a change of heart, and gave Webby the real dime back, and Scrooge confirms it. Minima TRIES to tell Magica, and Magica is horrified her niece is a goody goody “I”ll never hear the end of it at my astral aerobics class”.. I.. I want to see that. Let’s raise those spirit ladies and kick kick that soul, doge that shadow king punch them in the soul. Yes! Now eat it eat it and absorb it’s power!

We end on a button joke as Webby apologizes for taking the dime., Scrooge accepts it and Webby tells them magica learned to carpet and they gulp for some reason. 

Final Thoughts on Dime after Dime: This story was decent. It has problems, some jokes don’t land and Magica is made horribly incompetent, but minima’s character arc is endearing, and Webby herself is precious as always and her winning Minima over feels genuine. And Scrooge is in prime adoring uncle mode with her and i’ts just so cute. And the roadster race is pretty awesome to watch honestly. It’s an exceptional and enjoyable tie in story.. and not the last ducktales 87 story we’ll be covering here. Wink wonk. 

Next Time: Things get DARK as Lena and Webby head into the depths of Scrooge’s hidden bin and Lena heads into the depths of her own soul. 

Tommorow: Woo-Ooo mofos as we go back to the very beginning of the reboot! A family restored, a lost city to explore, and a glomgold rises! Be here or be square. 

[fiddlepickdouglas]

Viva Las Vegas, Pt. 13 - Sketch/Ache

Summary: Sunset Curve Alive AU, Willex, so close yet so far, 3k

@trevor-wilson-covington is the bestie who makes these lovely edits, we stan supportive friends

WARNINGS: death mention

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12

October already? Looking at the work schedule posted on the wall, Willie ran a hand through his hair. The time really was just passing him by, huh? Another day over, he grabbed his skateboard and strapped on his helmet.

“Hey, Willie?” His manager, Kyle, called after him before he got through the back door.

“Yeah, man?” Willie turned to answer him.

“This Saturday we need some extra hands while we’ve got a group performing. Could you be there?”

“Totally, man,” he said, smiling with assurance before heading out into the street. Los Angeles was fresher than Vegas, at least for him. He loved the breeze from the ocean that swept in every evening and being near the water in general. There was so much more to do, as well, and he didn’t think he’d ever exhaust that list. Just the number of places to skate was constantly growing, without mentioning the rest. Of course, he had been hoping to do some of them with Alex by now, but that was easier said than done. Sunset Curve didn’t seem to be doing too many shows at the moment, and that was all he really had to track him with.

Stopping at an antiquated apartment building, he headed down a stairway into the basement and burst through the door.

“Guess who’s home!” he cried. Sheldon came pattering over with his ever-cheerful prrrp and rubbed against his leg. Kneeling to pet him, Willie chuckled. “Aww, I’m happy to see you, too.”

He immediately went over to the cat’s bowl and poured some food in, listening to Sheldon purr loudly as he ate his dinner. Willie grabbed some food for himself to snack on as he sat at his desk and looked at the unfinished drawing that had been left there early that morning. He’d begun covering his walls in sketches again, and this time he didn’t have to be afraid of everything being torn away. In fact, Willie couldn’t even believe he had convinced himself that his life was fine when staying with Caleb.

Things had changed entirely. Since his brief adventure out in the desert, Willie was fully independent. He owed most of it to Bessie, still, and he thought of that woman every day. She hadn’t left him any way to contact her, otherwise he’d want to send her a thank you card at least once a week. It even overshadowed the fact that he’d actually ridden in a plane with Harrison Ford.

Willie remembered how incredibly short the flight had been in comparison to the rest of his journey. Bessie had donated an old cat carrier that they strapped into the cabin for Sheldon while Willie joined Harrison in the cockpit. It was nothing like watching the man fly the Millenium Falcon, except that it felt like they had gone into lightspeed and landed not too long after taking off. 

“You should be proud,” Harrison had told him. “You didn’t get sick.”

It had taken Willie until after they landed at the Santa Monica Airport to realize that he’d hardly spoken a word because he kept looking at him in pure shock at the reality of the man. His embarrassment must have appeared obvious, because Harrison Ford leaned down to look him in the eye.

“I’ve seen it a million times, don’t worry about it.” There was something sage about the resting expression on his face.

Chuckling in a flustered manner, Willie tried to think of the best way to thank him.

“Well, that was...that was really amazing, Mr., um...Mr. Ford. Thank you.”

The old actor smirked a little. Willie had seen a handful of actors come through the diner in Vegas before (at least, he’d been told they were famous, since he didn’t recognize most of them), and none of them were nearly as friendly.

“Willie, right?” Harrison had asked. It was enough to get him starstruck all over again, but he managed to nod. “Well, since I’ll never see you again, I’ll give you some advice.”

Willie listened intently.

“If you believe something is worth it, don’t quit. From what I already know about you, it doesn’t look like you do, so I have an extra piece of advice for you: planning and preparation is everything.”

Thinking back to when Bessie had scolded him about not riding the bus, Willie cowered inwardly. He couldn’t imagine how stupid he had sounded then.

“Do you know where you’re headed, kid? I can call a cab to take you anywhere you need.”

“How come you’re so nice?” Willie blurted. He hadn’t meant to.

Harrison Ford bowed his head, still smirking, and looked back up.

“I was twice your age before I really got anywhere. Now I’m just an old man who still does the job. Doesn’t mean I’m always nice, but sometimes….” He shrugged and gave him a wink.

Nodding, Willie had thanked him again. Harrison Ford held out a hand, which he shook with great enthusiasm before accepting the offer for the cab and saying goodbye. When he’d asked to go to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the cab driver had looked at him in confusion.

“You do?” the guy asked. Seeing the definitive nod from Willie in the back seat, he just looked resigned. “Okay.”

Shortly after being dropped off, Willie had realized why the cab driver had responded that way. Standing before Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the street was just another place covered in gum, surrounded by people dressed as other celebrities. He saw other people taking pictures with them, and saw that the ones all dressed up were being paid. Some young woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe was doing her best to catch his interest with a flirty pose and a wink. Awkwardly smiling, Willie turned away and went to explore that area of the city. It was a good thing he hadn’t owned a camera then.

Now, he had decided to get a cheap one, just to capture anything he found interesting when he saw it. He’d accumulated a handful of things in the past few months: the basement apartment, a mattress, his writing desk and chair, and his job at the record-store-slash-cafe, among other things. The fridge had already been in the room, which was a nice perk. It was cool enough that the owner of the building had been willing to rent to him even though he was still underage. Working at the record store was much better than both the diner and the hotel, although his hopes of having Alex or his friends chance to stop in were dwindling some.

For now, it was much like before he’d left Vegas, only without Caleb’s dark shadow constantly looming over him and a few more memories restored. And, of course, he could keep Sheldon with him. It was strange how meeting Alex and being at the Pearl already felt like a dream. Willie often had the thought that maybe he should move on and start planning out whatever he wanted now. Maybe Alex had just been the catalyst to get him out of a bad position and help him move forward.

Staring down presently at the drawing on his desk, Willie sighed. Alex’s smiling face (what he could remember of it) beamed up from the page. Sure, he could tell himself to be over it, but was he really? Sheldon began running about the apartment like he was being chased by an invisible foe, creating a distraction from Willie’s thoughts. After a while, he went to bed and lay awake replaying in his mind the last few moments he’d actually seen Alex. It was still so vivid. If it was no longer important, why could he recall it so well?

He watched as Alex stood up and held out a hand toward him. Taking it, he was impressed by the strength with which he was lifted off the surface of the observation deck. His mind returned to earlier that day when the situation had been reversed, and he wondered if Alex had felt the same exhilaration from that moment of closeness. He already missed the feeling of Alex’s fingers through his hair. Gaining his balance, he let go of Alex’s hand and a nervous giggle escaped as a bout of giddiness came over him. 

“You alright there?” Alex teased, grinning.

Shaking his head, almost to clear it like an Etch-A-Sketch, Willie grinned back.

“I’m having a good time,” he told him.

The warm smile that spread across Alex’s face and the way his eyes lit up deserved to be captured forever. Willie was sure he could fill a thousand pages of sketches, even if they were all of that one expression.

“Me, too,” Alex said, eyes wandering all over Willie’s face.

Before Willie could blush too hard, he picked up his skateboard.

“I know some shortcuts that’ll get us back to the hotel pretty quickly,” he started, pressing the button for the elevator. He didn’t want to go back so fast, but he had to remember his early work day in the morning. Caleb always had some sort of laundry list on the days he didn’t immediately go in to work at the diner.

“You’ve been a good tour guide so far,” Alex said as they stepped into the elevator.

Casting a wistful look back at the splendid view of Las Vegas, Willie watched the doors shut. Once they got out to the street again, Willie looked up at the hat sitting on Alex’s head. Impulsively, he lifted it up and put it on backwards, grinning at Alex.

“How does it look?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Alex’s jaw hung open for a moment, his nervous smile betraying him.

“It looks good,” he said in a breathless manner. It was such a cute expression, Willie wished he could make it happen again.

Alex was wishing right then that he could keep a picture of Willie with the hat on. He usually didn’t let people just steal it off his head, but when the result was that handsome he wasn’t going to complain. He’d wait until they had reached the hotel to ask for it back.

“So,” Willie started saying. “Back to L.A. in the morning, huh?”

Ah yes, the feeling of being crushed by reality. Alex bowed his head. He wasn’t excited to address it.

“Uh, yeah,” he sighed. “You know, when I got here I was hoping to just get the gig over with and leave, but that...I kind of forgot about that.”

He glanced up at Willie, not sure how much he should go into detail about why he changed his tune.

“But then you met Sheldon and he was the coolest cat ever, right?” Willie teased.

A chuckle of genuine entertainment escaped his throat. Did Willie know how charming he was? Alex wished he knew how to tell him.

“Yep, it was definitely the cat,” he responded. “Although the owner isn’t too bad, either.”

He got a casual shrug in return.

“Well, I know I’m busy, but I could call you,” Willie offered.

Fear pinched everything in Alex’s chest. It almost made him stop in his tracks.

“God, I - ” he started awkwardly, forcing his body to keep moving. “I can’t. I seriously wish I could, but that’s just...not possible.”

He already hated the words the moment they’d been spoken. His parents suspected enough things about him and his activity with the guys in his band, but they would make his reality pure hell if they ever picked up the phone from a guy they’d never met who had shown as much interest in him as Willie. While he felt fine being open just about anywhere else, at home was where he remained most guarded.

Willie was looking at him with slight disappointment.

“That’s too bad, I guess,” he said. “At least I know I won’t be going anywhere for a while, so you know where to find me.”

It was the only consolation they could afford. Alex wanted to make plans right then and there.

“And what would we do if I did find you?” he asked, knowing he was prodding for signs that he wasn’t the only one with hopes. He tried to relax his stride to appear more casual.

“Lots of possibilities,” Willie told him. “I haven’t shown you my favorite museum, or seen you skate - ”

“Just putting it out there,” Alex interrupted, raising a hand. “I cannot skate.”

Willie blew a raspberry. “Maybe not now, man, but you will by the time I’m finished with you.”

The way he wiggled his eyebrows made Alex think of something much different than riding a skateboard. He cleared his throat nervously as he looked up at the street they were on. The hotel was already a block away.

“Whoa, how’d we get here so fast?” he wondered.

“I know my shortcuts,” Willie said proudly.

Unfortunately, he did. Alex wanted more time to figure out a way to see Willie in the future. There had to be a possibility in the future. His long legs could only go so slowly, however, and soon they were stopped outside the hotel doors.

“Are you gonna make it home okay?” Alex asked. “Wherever that is?”

“I’ll be fine,” Willie shrugged plainly. “It’s not too far.”

For a minute, they stood in awkward silence. Alex could feel his entire body burning to make some gesture that left Willie with the right impression. What would be too forward? A hug? A kiss on the cheek? He’d already checked off holding him and running his hand through Willie’s hair, so he wasn’t going to simply send him off with a hand wave or something.

“Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow before you guys go?” Willie said, smirking optimistically.

“Yeah, maybe,” Alex said, trying to return a smile with the same optimism.

“Oh,” Willie sputtered. He took off the hat and tried to place it back onto Alex’s head properly. It didn’t work, but Alex simply adjusted it into its comfortable backward position. His fingers twitched under the temptation to touch Willie’s hair again.

“One of these days…” he muttered.

“Hm?” Willie perked up curiously.

Oh, no, he’d said it out loud. Damn. There was no way he couldn’t follow up.

“Uh...one of these days I’ll be around here again,” he said, nodding to reassure himself. “I’ll come looking for you.”

Willie could only look up at him and smile.

“I…” Alex began to scratch the back of his neck, but forced his hand down into his pocket. It had to be said. “I definitely like you.”

He watched Willie’s face morph from surprise into a smile, and finally his trademark eyebrow raise.

“So do I,” Willie said, biting his lip.

They both giggled, now that their feelings were out there in the open. It only made Alex ache more to stay. Willie placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You take care, Alex,” he told him.

He nodded. “And you be safe, Willie.”

He got one more glance into those gorgeous brown eyes, longing to toss in a line and anchor himself in them. The dim lights from the street played off of the natural glimmer that was always present.

Feeling Willie’s hand slide off his shoulder and down his arm, Alex could’ve sworn there was a tiny squeeze he received at the end of his fingers before Willie let go and got onto his skateboard. He watched him leave until eventually he was staring out into the darkness all alone. Reluctantly, he headed back up to the hotel room.

Alex was lying awake in his bed, silent tears falling down his cheeks at the bitter memory. His last words to Willie had been powerless to protect him. What sort of sick and twisted universe would let that happen? He knew he had no control over those circumstances, but he still felt that if anyone died in a fire, it should be him. Willie had been too wonderful to deserve it.

Turning to his side, he still hated the sobs that wracked through his whole body months later. Most people would deem it pathetic to hurt this much over someone he’d barely known. It was strange, but it felt almost undeserved, like mourning as he did wasn’t allowed. What about the people that Willie had spent time with every day? How could Alex begin to fathom their pain? To them, his sorrow would appear as empty as if he were crying over Freddie Mercury. This hurt far more than when he’d cried over Freddie.

It didn’t help that he couldn’t tell his family. The guys had been okay at letting Alex have his space, but his parents kept making comments about his sudden upset over everything. They would only see death as something bittersweet, a “better place” to go for people who were doing the right things. Of course he was terrified of death - he wasn’t exactly considered worthy of anything good, by their standards. That only made the loss of Willie that much worse. He hadn’t bothered to explain himself to Abbey. He couldn’t put that emotional burden on her.

Before he could let his mind wander further into the dark, Alex tried to find something else for his brain to put on cycle. Oddly enough, it went back to singing for Julie’s mom at the hospital. The words immediately began to repeat in his mind: we all live in a yellow submarine…. It wasn’t a song that he truly loved, but it was catchy. It was the one Willie had suggested they do. Alex remembered how he’d imagined everyone in that room in their own world together, safe and free from worldly cares. Somewhere full of color and warmth and people could be happy as they were.

That’s all he truly wanted. Maybe he would have that with the band, and maybe he’d get away from his parents and finally be free from all of their pressure, and maybe one day he’d recover and find a guy like Willie again. He wasn’t sure what he really believed just yet, but there had to be something good worth holding onto. If it was just some stupid world where he and his friends lived in a yellow submarine, so be it.

[thecreaturecodex]

Great Old One, Chaugnar Faugn

Image © deviantArt user fed0t, accessed at his gallery here

[Commissioned by @monstersdownthepath​. Chaugnar Faugn is a canonical Great Old One in Pathfinder from the Cthulhu Mythos, specifically the novella “The Horror From the Hills” by Frank Belknap Long. Although I’ve been familiar with good ol’ CF since I got a copy of Call of Cthulhu d20 for Christmas one year, I only just now read “The Horror From The Hills” in order to write this entry. I can see why the story hasn’t been reprinted a ton; it’s basically just “The Call of Cthulhu” with more action and more racism. Yes, more racism than Lovecraft. Let that sink in. Also, I think it’s hilarious how many times Long has his characters describe Chaugnar Faugn as unlike any other mythological entity, and completely unimaginable by mere human minds, when he’s clearly Eldritch Vampire Ganesha.]

Great Old One, Chaugnar Faugn CR 26 CE Aberration This creature is vaguely like a parody of an elephant-headed humanoid, but the resemblances to both elephants and humanoids are only superficial. Tentacles held together with webbing mirror ears, and its twin tusks are translucent and interwoven. Its trunk is impossibly long and ends in a lamprey-like maw.

Chaugnar Faugn, the Horror From the Hills, the Feeder CE male Great Old One of blood, patience and remote landscapes Domains Chaos, Death, Evil, War Subdomains Blood, Entropy, Murder, Tactics Favored Weapon Light pick Unholy Symbol An elephant’s head with a bloody trunk Worshipers evil elves, murderers, nosferatu, those seeking revenge Minions faceless stalkers, morlocks, hill giants

Chagnaur Faugn, the Feeder, was old when the planets were young. He is a being formed from the initial creation of matter in the universe, and has traveled the cosmos in search of blood to drink and death to deal. He is perhaps the first parasite, and is truly one of the greatest. His body and senses stretch into both the Ethereal and Shadow Planes, and he will prey on their denizens as readily as any Material creature. Chaugnar Faugn is capable of flying between worlds, but does so only on rare occasions. He has witnessed the birth and death of at least one biosphere in its totality, and wishes to compare that to other arcs of planetary development.

Chaugnar Faugn prefers swift and precise attacks to destructive rampages, despite his bulk and strength. He spends most of his life in the shape of a stone statue, animating only to drink blood or punish followers who betray his faith. If forced to actually fight, the Feeder tramples enemies, then uses his crystalline tusks (which swivel independently) and mighty claws to finish off opponents. He is gifted in magic, and often transforms his allies into monstrous beasts to fight on his behalf, or simply stops an enemy’s heart with power word: kill.

Chaugnar Faugn’s current appellation, The Horror from the Hills, stems from his preference for remote country. He seeks out dispossessed and marginalized groups and bullies his way into a place of honor in their pantheon, demanding blood sacrifice and murdering them if they do not comply. To mark his chosen, he inflicts a terrible curse on them, granting them animalistic features. The trunk and ears of an elephant are a favorite, as they resemble his own form. Chaugnar Faugn teaches patience, for he has lived for literal eons, and savors the suspense of a revenge drawn out. His worship is popular with long lived and endangered species, such as the nosferatu, and he teaches that if they cannot make more of themselves, they should at least be remembered for the terror they inflict.

Chaugnar Faugn   CR 26 XP 2,457,600 CE Large aberration (great old one) Init +18; Senses darkvision 60 ft., hyperdimensional sight, Perception +38, scent, true seeing Aura cloak of chaos (DC 26), unspeakable (300 ft., Will DC 33) Defense AC 43, touch 31, flat-footed 42 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +12 natural, +10 insight, +4 deflection) hp 615 (30d8+480); fast healing 10 Fort +25, Ref +24, Will +31 Immune ability damage, ability drain, aging, cold, death effects, disease, energy drain, fire, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, and petrifaction; SR 37 Defensive Abilities hyperdimensional body, immortality, improved uncanny dodge Offense Speed 80 ft., swim 80 ft. Melee 2 gores +36 (2d8+15/19-20), 2 claws +36 (2d6+15), bite +36 (1d6+15 plus chew magic plus grab) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with bite) Special Attacks blood drain (2d4 Con), curse of Chaugnar Faugn, demanding dreams, insanity (DC 33), mythic (10/day, 1d12), subtle magic, trample (Ref DC 40, 4d6+22) Spell-like Abilities CL 26th, concentration +34 Constant—cloak of chaos (self only, DC 26), true seeing At will—darkness M, gaseous form M, greater command (DC 23), nightmare (DC 23), stone shape M, telekinesis (DC 23) M 3/day—greater dispel magic, horrid wilting (DC 26), quickened mass inflict pain (DC 24), polymorph any object (DC 26), empowered vampiric touch M 1/day—etherealness, shadow walk, power word: kill M, power word: stun M M = Chaugnar Faugn can use the mythic version of this SLA Statistics Str 40, Dex 27, Con 42, Int 26, Wis 30, Cha 27 Base Atk +22; CMB +38 (+40 bull rush, +42 sunder), CMD 60 (62 vs. bull rush, sunder) Feats Acrobatic Steps, Awesome Blow, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Empower SLA (vampiric touch), Greater Sunder, Improved Bull Rush,  Improved Critical (gore), Improved Sunder, Lightning Reflexes, Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (mass inflict pain), Staggering Critical, Stunning Critical Skills Bluff +33, Climb +36, Intimidate +38, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, geography, nature, religion, planes) +33, Knowledge (history) +36, Perception +38, Sense Motive +35, Spellcraft +36, Stealth +36, Swim +43 Languages Aklo, Aquan, Terran, Undercommon, telepathy 300 ft. SQ no breath, otherworldly insight, starflight, statue form Ecology Environment any Organization unique Treasure double standard Special Abilities Chew Magic (Su) A creature or object bitten by Chaugnar Faugn is subject to a targeted greater dispel magic effect (CL 26th). This effect first affects spells that protect against being grappled, such as freedom of movement, before any other spells. Curse of Chaugnar Faugn (Su) As a standard action, Chaugnar Faugn can cast its curse upon a creature within 120 feet. A creature targeted must succeed a DC 33 Will save to suffer a -6 penalty to an ability score of Chaugnar Faugn’s choice. A creature cursed in this manner has their facial features altered to resemble those of an animal. A creature that succeeds on this save is immune to the Curse of Chaugnar Faugn for the next 24 hours. Chagnaur Faugn can use this ability as a swift action against a creature it is grappling. This is a curse effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Demanding Dreams (Su) When Chaugnar Faugn targets a creature with its nightmare spell-like ability, regardless of whether it passes or fails the save, the creature must succeed a DC 33 Will save or be affected as per a demand spell. A creature that passes its save against the damage from the nightmare gains a +5 bonus on this saving throw. This is a mind-influencing compulsion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Hyperdimensional Body (Su) Chaugnar Faugn exists in multiple dimensions at once, granting it abilities similar to those of an incorporeal creature. It is immune to damage from non-magical weapons, and takes half damage from all corporeal sources except for force effects and ghost touch weapons. It can move through solid objects as if they were difficult terrain, except that it cannot end its movement in an object. This ability does not function if Chaugnar Faugn is subject to a dimensional anchor or similar effect. Hyperdimensional Sight (Su) Chaugnar Faugn can see into the Ethereal Plane and Shadow Plane at a distance of 60 feet. It can attack creatures on either of these planes normally, although such creatures are treated as having cover against his attacks. Immortality (Ex) If Chaugnar Faugn is slain, he dissolves into a noxious sludge, and incarnates in his statue form on a distant planet over the course of 100 years. He must remain in his statue form for an additional 1011 years before he can return to animation, but can still use his subtle magic in this forced hibernation. Starflight (Su) Chagnaur Faugn can survive in the void of outer space. It flies through space at an incredible speed. Although exact travel times vary, a trip within a single solar system should take 3d20 hours, while a trip beyond should take 3d20 days (or more, at the GM's discretion)—provided it knows the way to its destination. Statue Form (Su) As a standard action, Chaugnar Faugn can assume the form of a statue of Medium, Large or Huge size. He can use his senses normally in this form and communicate using telepathy, but can take no actions except for his subtle magic. He may resume his animate form as a move action. Subtle Magic (Su) Chaugnar Faugn does not detect as magical when in statue form. In addition, he can spend a use of mythic power to use one of its spell-like abilities or the Curse of Chaugnar Faugn while in statue form. If he does so, he cannot deliver a touch attack unless the creature is touching it. When it uses this ability, creatures that witness the spell must succeed an opposed Spellcraft check against Chaugnar Faugn to determine that he is the source of the spell-like ability. Unspeakable Presence (Su) Creatures that succumb to Chaugnar Faugn’s unspeakable presence find themselves literally falling apart. A creature that fails a DC 33 Will save gains vulnerability to bludgeoning, slashing or piercing damage (determined randomly) for as long as it remains in the area of effect. The save DC is Charisma based.

[ecoamerica]

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The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Yugi Muto in DnD 5e

A long time ago, I made a build for the Dark Magician (I’ll leave a link [here].) At the time, I’d considered trying to make a build for Yugi, but since Yugi lacks any real powers of his own, there wasn’t really enough to go off of. But with new UA spells that prioritize summoning and new UA subclasses, the time has finally come to give Yugi his proper build. For this build, we are considering Yugi and the Pharaoh to be one character. We will also be treating this build as though Yugi has the Dark Magician as his Deck Master, a special feature used in some side content and video games where the Deck Master actually assists their duelist. So Yugi’s spell list will merge two primary conditions: summoning creatures to fight on his behalf, and spell effects of cards in Yugi’s deck, including one-off cards and less famous cards he’s used to fill out his Wizard Spellbook.

Yugi is an anime character. In the past, my general rule for anime characters is to make them Variant Humans. This is primarily because Anime Characters are stronger than normal humans and often have magical powers that make them not quite human. I’ll be using the Variant Human option, however Kalashtar also works due to Yugi’s split minds and resistance to psychic mind games. Halflings aren’t my favorite race to play, but Yugi is abnormally short, and the Pharaoh is uncannily lucky, so it can definitely work for their build. As a Variant Human, we’ll pick up the Lucky feat and give ourselves +1 INT and +1 DEX.

The Pharaoh is willing to kill Kaiba to win a children’s card game. Yugi is not. They average out to Neutral Good.

The Pharaoh was the King of Egypt. Obvious Noble Background is obvious.

Heart of the Cards

WIZARD    Order of Scribes. This ended up being a perfect storm. Firstly, the new UA batch of summoning spells primarily landed under the Wizard umbrella. So, this gives Yugi a nice variety of summoning options. But it gets even better once you look at your subclass abilities. The Wizardly quill is about the only thing that doesn’t really fit for Yugi, but everything else will. Awakened Spellbook grants the pages Yugi summons from a level of sentience. In Yugioh the cards house duel monster spirits, and Yugi’s grandfather taught him to value the Heart of the Cards, the very idea that Yugi’s deck is a sentient thing. This subclass technically talks about a bound book, but Yugi’s still channeling his magic and spells through his cards, so I’d consider Yugi’s deck a reflavor of his spellbook, thus he’s able to use it as his spellcasting focus. Yugi’s able to alter the damage type of a spell he casts. You could flavor this as classic season 1 Yugioh where nobody played by the rules, or as Yugi pulling a card out of his deck that he’ll never use in any other duel, which tended to be a common deus ex machina for him. Master Scrivener can allow Yugi to copy a card onto a scroll and pull it out of his butt whenever he wants. a fun cheeky way to mock his plot armor. It also casts at 1 level higher, meaning Yugi is one again breaking the rules because he’s the King of Games. Manifest Mind is where the Deck Master concept becomes more clear, as you can create a tiny spectral form of the Dark Magician fighting beside you, and really lets you fully embrace the partnership between Yugi and the Dark Magician in combat. Since this feature does specify using a tiny specral creature, Kuriboh is another good Deck Master monster for Yugi. Finally, One with the Word allows Yugi to swap places with the Dark Magician to avoid one or both of them from being killed. Yugi can also destroy some of the cards in his collection to bring him back to life if Dark Magician is on the field and his spellbook has the resources. This also motivates Yugi to want to collect as many cards/spells as he can, even if he doesn’t prepare them all or use them in his deck. If you really want to play up the roleplay aspect of this build and commit to the gimmick of playing as Yami, you could write spells on sheets of paper and treat them like an actual deck of cards. It’s really just for roleplaying purposes, and could make the game needlessly challenging, but it could also be a fun challenge to hope you draw the spell you need right when you need it. This could be as vague as just having a card that says “3rd level spell”, or as specific as having say as many copies of a specific spell as you have spell slots to cast it. As it’s just flavoring and roleplaying mostly, come up with your own fun ways to incorporate the deck aspect into a mechanic for gameplay and tell me your ideas. I’ll bet there’s many fun ways to make this character work in an inetersting way. 

King of Games

SUMMONING

Find Familiar Flock of Familiars Spirit Shroud Summon Fey Spirit Summon Lesser Demons Summon Shadow Spirit Summon Undead Spirit Conjure Minor Elemental Summon Aberrant Spirit Summon Elemental Spirit Summon Greater Demon Conjure Elemental Infernal Calling Summon Fiendish Spirit

SPELLS & TRAPS

Brain Control // Dominate Person, Dominate Monster, Enemies Abound Change of Heart // Charm Person, Charm Monster Lightforce Sword // Banishment, Plane Shift Magic Jammer // Antimagic Field Burning Land // Blight, Abi’s Horrid Wilting Magical Hats // Blur, Mirror Image Raigeki // Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning Trap Hole // Circle of Death Magic Cylinder // Counterspell De-Spell // Dispel Magic Heavy Storm // Whirlwind Spellbinding Circle // Hold Person, Hold Monster Swords of Revealing Light // Imprisonment Thousand Knives // Power Word Kill Mirror Force // Prismatic Wall, Wall of Force, Wall of Light The Eye of Truth // True Seeing Yami // Darkness Makiu, the Magical Mist // Fog Cloud, Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud Cursebreaker // Remove Curse Dust Tornado // Dust Devil Premature Burial // Animate Dead, Create Undead Ragnarok // Melf’s Minute Meteors General Magic // Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield Setting a Trap Card // Glyph of Warding Anime Protagonist Plot Armor // Wish

As a Wizard, our most important stat is going to be Intelligence for casting. Our Manifest Mind feature gives our Dark Magician our AC, so we’ll want a high Dexterity modifier to improve our Armor Class. Yugi is pretty hard to fool, so that’ll give us a good Wisdom score. Yugi is pretty good at destiny speeches and turning enemies into allies. We’ll give him a pretty decent Charisma score so he can persuade people to adopt his philosophies, or send people running into the shadow realm with his Intimidation. Our build prioritizes amassing strong minions between us and enemies, so we can neglect our Constitution a bit. That leaves our Strength stat to be ignored. Lifting all those small thin pieces of paper doesn’t exactly get Yugi ripped.

Name: Yugi Muto  Race: Variant Human Background: Noble Alignment: Neutral Good Class: Order of Scribes Wizard (20)

Base Stats:

Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 20 (+5) Constitution: 12 (+1) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 10 (0)

Saving Throws:

Strength: -1  Dexterity: +5 Constitution: +1 Intelligence: +11 Wisdom: +8 Charisma: 0

Combat Stats:

HP: 102 AC: 18*  Speed: 30 Initiative: +5 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 14  Dark Vision: 0 feet

Proficiencies:

Acrobatics (+5) Animal Handling (+2) Arcana (+11) Athletics (-1) Deception (0) History (+11) Insight (+8) Intimidation (+6) Investigation (+5) Medicine (+2) Nature (+5) Perception (+2) Performance (0) Persuasion (+6) Religion (+5) Sleight of Hand (+5) Stealth (+5) Survival (+2)

Spell Slots

1st (4) 2nd (3) 3rd (3) 4th (3) 5th (3) 6th (2) 7th (1) 8th (1) 9th (1)

Yugi’s Deck

Cantrips    Firebolt    Frostbite    Lightning Lure    Message    Mind Sliver

1st Level    Charm Person    Find Familiar    Fog Cloud    Mage Armor    Magic Missile    Shield

2nd Level    Blur    Darkness    Dust Devil    Flock of Familiars    Hold Person    Mirror Image

3rd Level    Animate Dead    Counterspell    Dispel Magic    Enemies Abound    Glyph of Warding    Lightning Bolt    Spirit Shroud    Summon Fey Spirit    Summon Lesser Demons    Summon Shadow Spirit    Summon Undead Spirit

4th Level    Banishment    Blight    Conjure Minor Elementals    Summon Aberrant Spirit    Summon Elemental Spirit    Summon Greater Demon

5th Level    Conjure Elemental    Dominate Person    Hold Monster    Infernal Calling    True Seeing    Wall of Light

6th Level    Chain Lightning    Circle of Death    Create Undead    Summon Fiendish Spirit

7th Level    Plane Shift

8th Level    Antimagic Field    Dominate Monster

9th Level    Imprisonment    Wish

Features:

Arcane Rociety. covery. Regain 10 or less level 5 or lower spell slots on a short rest.

Awakened Spellbook. You can alter spell damage type and cast a ritual spell instantly once per long rest.

Lucky. 3 lucky points, add a d20 to rolls before you know the outcome.

Manifest Mind. Your spellbook projects a tiny spectral construct. Its HP is your INT + your Wizard Level and it uses your AC and saving throw die. It has darkvision at a range of 60 feet, sheds dim light at a range of 10 feet, and can pass through solid objects.

Master Scrivener. Copy a 1st or 2nd level spell from your spellbook onto a scroll. Use the scroll any time, and the spell is cast as being one level higher.

One With the Word. When you would die while Manifest Mind is active, purge spells from your spellbook whose level adds to 3d6. They can only be restored with a Wish, and are otherwise lost to you.

Position of Privilege. You belong in high society. People bend over backwards to accommodate you, and you can get an audience with other nobility.

Signature Spells. cast Summon Fey Spirit and Summon Undead Spirit once without using a spell slot.

Spell Mastery. Cast Mage Armor and Hold Person without spell slots.

Wizardly Quill. Less time and money copying spells into your spellbook.

A major downside to this build is that all of his summoning spells require a gold cost, but if you’re fortunate, your DM will be generous enough with the gold to support the costs of this build. Technically, this build really could work for any duelist, and there’s plenty of other yugioh cards that could translate to DnD spells, but we were focused on Yugi’s canon spell and trap cards. We’re also extremely reliant on summoning, so if Yugi can’t summon, he’s going to have a bad time, and the build won’t be so useful.

[swarmkeepers]

top five dnd classes/top five wizard subclasses (since you've done some brilliant meta abt them today!)

oh that’s so kind of you <3 thank you beth i’m glad you liked my ramblings!

idk if i’ve said this but i have not actually played dnd (i’m looking for a campaign! but no luck so far) so the only classes and subclasses i know extensively are a) the ones that d20 characters play, esp the ones i write or write meta for b) the ones that naddpod/other actual play characters play and c) the one (1) my brother plays, bc we talk abt his campaign a lot and he loves playing planeswalker ranger and he makes it sound very fun. deoptimized, but very fun.

that being said i’ll try to take a stab at both if that’s okay!

dnd classes--

5. rogue - the rogue subclass features are so very very cool and diverse and just. punching up, being skilled and dexterous and such a classic classic class? riz gukgak this one’s for you but also it’s for calroy and penny and sklonda and ruby and liam. 

4. paladin - the naddpod tumblr meta got to me, okay? the inherent conflict of paladin-ing. yES. this is a class i don’t know if i’d want to play but the meta is absolutely chefs kiss and the current tuc2 season is really turning that up to 11. 

3. barbarian - anger as power is very very cool to me and like the mechanics of rage are just straight-up good! i think this is probably the class i most immediately want to play. i don’t find any particular subclass super flavorful but the class features and the just. overall philosophy of the class. anger but weaponized. yeah that’s the good stuff. 

2. warlock - it’s about the inherent conflict of a patron warlock relationship. trying to puzzle out the warlock spellcasting mechanics and the cantrip/invocation focus is really interesting to me! ket s-aint-elmo said once that warlocks are debaters, negotiating for a good deal with their patron, and as a former competitive debater i simply have no choice but to love warlocks. 

1. sorcerer - i love metamagic as a mechanic. but (ironically) i find it really hard to write meta or fic about? i really want to play it someday; i think there’s something really fun about inherent magical ability, magic that comes from heritage, magic that can be very controlled or very chaotic! these top 2 are cha caster classes because i love the mechanics and the flavor but i think i’d find them very hard classes to play (just because they’re kind of complicated classes in general but also i don’t think i’m high cha irl. do not make me your party face under any circumstances). they’re both aspirational “someday” classes.

wizard subclasses--

5. war magic - entirely bc of a one ms. esther sinclair. to protect yourself like an abjurer, to wield the raw power of an evoker, but also to be fast and to be tactical and to know what you’re fighting for! 

4. chronurgy - fully because of naddpod HBS. rule of cool, straight up. 

3. divination - portent is just so so good as a mechanic and this subclass more than any other wizard subclass (in a whole int based class! ) is about the power in knowing. yes please. 

2. abjuration - flavor wise, so so delicious. it’s about using knowledge (a thing that is individual) to protect (a thing that is communal)! abjuration also has the most spells that are reaction-cast which is very cool to me there’s something there about urgency and instinct and an innate desire to protect. also, the same way that warlocks and paladins have a kind of inherent conflict to their class, i think abjurers have something similar (is it selfish/is it dark/is it about denial or is it protective/is it asserting yourself for others/is it about banishing the evil to make room for the good). 

1. conjuration - it might be because i just wrote a ton of meta for it today alsdkfja but the transportation/communication aspects of this school are very cool to me? i like the cantrips and the lower level spells which are kind of evocation-y but like. c’mon, this is the school with wish and plane shift and thunderstep and mage hand the conjuration spells are the coolest ones imho. it just feels magical!

[asimovsideburns]

dnd session 7 summary, and BOY was it a doozy (also I make no promises about getting things in exactly the right order/maybe skipping things, it was extremely chaotic at all times):

- [ ] We start out by meeting up at Ferris’s place (they’re the only person with more than one chair)

- [ ] (The assassin rogue’s player is absent for this session, so we just said that the character was following up on a lead outside the city)

- [ ] We share what we’ve gathered (mostly—Iraelin doesn’t reveal that her source is an actual child who got caught up in this stuff) and decide to go to Ferris’s dad’s before we head to the warlock lair

- [ ] On our way there, we stop by a market and pick up some fruit. Rockie teaches Ferris how to figure out which peaches are good and how to not crush them

- [ ] Ferris’s dad has created a little robot that writes out the invisible message on the paper. It’s bad news, fellas! They’re trying to summon something from another plane into this one! That something most likely being an archduke of hell! And also violently overthrow the monarchy! Which is like, okay, I do get it, but there are non-devil ways to do that

- [ ] Still not sure exactly why they wanted to kidnap the princess instead of kill her, though

- [ ] The location mentioned in the note as a meetup spot matches the location my source gave me, so we head over to check it out

- [ ] Oh, also, Ferris’s dad let us keep the monodrone buddy

- [ ] We spend like. 15-20 minutes just looking at it and trying to come up with a plan. I’m like, “this reads as boss lair, we should get some door-kickers from the palace guard,” but we just CANNOT decide on a plan so we do the classic “can we do a check to get an idea of a good plan” and we do good and we’re told “if they spot the door-kickers, shit’s going to pop off fast, so be quick or be quiet.”

- [ ] We decide, alright, we’ll do some recon. I drop Aid on the rogue/monk and the artificer (and myself), they go to stealth in, they get spotted by the door guard, artificer kills him with magic missile and doesn’t alert anybody else

- [ ] They sneak in, see a bunch of dudes

- [ ] It is at this point that they decide to initiate Operation Sexy Mailman

- [ ] Bermuda (rogue/monk) is like, “oh I’ll just use my disguise kit to look like a bad guy” WHILE HIDING IN THE CORNER OF THE BUILDING. Negative int mod king. He does not have anything in his kit to do a quick shitty disguise with.

- [ ] Ferris (artificer) decides disguise self is the way to go. As a sexy mailman.

- [ ] Outside, Iraelin, Atlas, and Rockie are just waiting, no idea what’s going on. Atlas keeps using message to get snippets. Ferris says “we’ve got it all under control” so Atlas immediately tells the rest of us that it’s gone absolutely terrible, so I pop my twilight sanctuary and rush the door

- [ ] Sexy Mailman!Ferris steps into the open and declares that they have a letter for “Hank”. Everybody is confused except the extremely powerful spell caster who immediately sees through the disguise and tells the warlocks to attack and also one of them ducks down a hidden staircase to the basement

- [ ] Roll initiative

- [ ] Everybody gets into the building, and this is where it gets wild (sexy mailman was absolutely NOT the wildest thing, and also I NEED you to remember that Ferris is a sexy mailman for the entire rest of the session)

- [ ] Right out of the gate, Bermuda does that rogue shit with bonus monk speed and moves 70 feet into the basement, clocks a magical ritual, and starts hitting people

- [ ] With a 23 stealth, NOBODY knows where they are—not the bad guys, and not us

- [ ] Bermuda goes to work on these fools

- [ ] Meanwhile, the rest of us are squaring up. Ferris fully kills a man first turn. Iraelin casts spiritual weapon. Atlas dashes and quickens burning hands. We’re feeling good.

- [ ] The caster at the top of the stairs? Atlas recognizes her as the palace mage. Wuh oh!

- [ ] The palace mage casts ice storm on our asses, a spell with the same slot level as our character levels

- [ ] I go from 39 hp (with temp hp from twilight sancuary) to 16

- [ ] Ferris and Rockie aren’t doing much better

- [ ] The warlocks are blasting their eldritches but it’s not so bad, at least

- [ ] The second round comes around, not much from us except we kill some weiner guys and Bermuda continues to disrupt the ritual by just fucking annihilating people, also I use my last 2nd level slot on moonbeam

- [ ] The palace mage drops a fireball

- [ ] Me, Ferris, and Rockie all go down

- [ ] It’s bad!!!

- [ ] Luckily Atlas is a divine soul so they have cure wounds, she rushes back and brings me up, I go over and bring Ferris up, Rockie has a failed death save already so if he rolls a 1 he’s donezo, but thankfully he passes

- [ ] By this point Bermuda has knocked out all four people doing the basement ritual (MVP!!!!) and the Palace Mage finally realizes something is wrong, so she dashes downstairs and starts doing the ritual herself

- [ ] Artificer does a thunderwave from above that slams her into the floor, and then Bermuda comes in with three attacks and fucking drops her

- [ ] Who’s not worth worrying about NOW?

- [ ] NOBODY except Bermuda knows the leader is dead

- [ ] We keep fighting, Atlas is openly weeping because her friends almost died because of the same type of magic she uses after she’d JUST started to think her magic is good and she has no idea where Bermuda is, Rockie does a pull up onto the balcony, Bermuda runs up, says something absolutely not related to the fact that he took care of the extremely bad ritual basically by himself, and immediately eats shit with a nat 1 acrobatics check to climb crates up to the balcony

- [ ] That nat 1 is the ONLY thing we’ve seen him do all combat

- [ ] Extremely Bermuda of him

- [ ] Oh, wait, I remember what he said: Ferris’s homunculus servant is a dick and the monodrone is his new best friend

- [ ] (The monodrone has been giving him advantage, the homonculus came down to the basement and attacked the unconscious palace mage he had been trying to take alive)

- [ ] (Also Ferris is extremely jealous of the monodrone. Like a toddler when your parents have a new kid and you’re not the baby anymore, I believe was the analogy)

- [ ] The last two warlocks misty step away and we are like. Wow. Holy shit. That was intense.

- [ ] Atlas is fully sobbing

- [ ] Iraelin goes in for the cure wounds + hug combo

- [ ] This is Iraelin’s second hug in at least 20 years, and the first one was yesterday

- [ ] Both hugs are about comforting someone else. Read into that what you will.

- [ ] She doesn’t! Do! Casual touch! She’ll touch you to cast a spell but she likes to have her bubble! It’s harder for people to stick a surprise knife in you if they’re not in arm’s reach!

- [ ] Everybody else joins in for a group emotional support hug

- [ ] Bermuda whispers in my ear, “So… what happened? What did I miss?”

- [ ] End session

[amerie-wadia]

balancing on breaking branches: part two

jj goes to the water when the world begins to spiral around him. always has → read on ao3

a/n: wrote this a few days ago and waited to post bc i wanted to write more but i like how this turned out and i don’t want to write a bunch of nothing just to meet the word count of the first part. 

If JJ had a boat life would be a lot easier. If he had a boat he’d be setting sail and cruising straight down the Atlantic Coast, swerving a hard right near Miami, and finally touching down in the Yucatan Peninsula. He could swim and surf and eat lobsters until his hair went grey and his back broke down. He could have a houseboat with a slide and sleep with all the windows open so he could hear the crickets and the crashing waves along the rocks and sand.

If he had a boat he could sail away before Pope found him.

But JJ didn’t have a boat. Nor did he have anywhere to hide. He wasn’t dumb enough to go right back to Rixton’s Cove, but he was dumb enough to go to the Chateau. Well, it wasn’t a dumb idea at the time. The HMS Pogue was at the Chateau and JJ was in need of a boat. A plus B and all that.

The real difference was: Pope had a car. So while JJ ran and tried as hard as he could to think about Yucatan and lobsters and stars, Pope had managed to drive all over town and still made it to the Chateau before JJ. And JJ would’ve turned around if it wasn’t so dark outside and Pope’s car hadn’t been turned off.

“JJ? What the hell, man?”

Pope’s voice shocked him and he jumped, instinctively clenching his fists out in front of his chest in case the noise was Barry coming to pay his respects. Or Luke.

It was Pope. Standing, back hunched slightly in the worried way that Pope often stood, with his hands lowered and eyes kind and wide. And JJ had the biggest fucking crush on him.

“You can’t just walk away when someone’s talking to you,” Pope continued but JJ was furious and still shocked and he shoved past Pope hard enough that Pope stumbled. To JJ’s dismay, he followed JJ through the yard and around back. “JJ!”

“Shut up, Pope.”

He marched up the steps of the porch, up and down around the police tape, and into the house. Pope followed him more gracefully as JJ took the HMS Pogue keys from the kitchen counter bowl where they always sat.

“Taking evidence from a crime scene, that’s really smart.”

“This isn’t a fucking crime scene.”

“This isn’t a crime scene? Look around, dude!”

JJ tried to shove past Pope but he stood firm in the doorway with his arms outstretched. JJ wanted to shove him as hard as he could but he also refused to push very hard. Not when one wrong blow could send everything crumbling down.

“The cops are gonna come looking for you if you take that? And what then, JJ, do you want to be considered an accessory for murder?”

“John B didn’t fucking murder anyone.”

“I’m being serious right now. Do you really want to give the cops more reason to put you in jail?”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“Well I do.”

JJ froze, giving up on shoving around Pope and instead he huffed and crossed his arms across his chest.

“Move.”

“Only if you’ll talk about what you said to me.”

“Pope, no—”

“Yes, we’re going to talk about this.”

“God, Pope. Just fucking move!” JJ threw his hands too hard, palms out, and shoved Pope backward. Pope’s grip on the doorframe was stiff and he definitely stumbled but he didn’t fall to the ground like JJ was expecting. His eyes were wide and JJ couldn’t tell if it was fear or just the darkness of the room. “Move!”

JJ knew he was being childish, knew he sounded childish as his voice began to tremble with rage and exhaustion and a bit of desperation. Pope shook his head.

“Let’s talk. That’s all I want to do and then you can sail away to Yucatan or wherever the hell you were planning on going.”

Pope let a hand fall from the doorframe and motioned for JJ to sit down on the couch.

“Wasn’t gonna go to Yucatan,” JJ mumbled as he took a seat. Pope didn’t turn on any of the lights but the moon glowed through the windows just brightly enough that JJ could see the curves of Pope’s face. It was private but JJ knew he was still seen and he wished the moon would just shut up.

“You like me, huh?”

It sounded so innocent when Pope said it that way. Maybe it had always been innocent. But the thought of Pope knowing, the thought of Kie knowing, felt violating and raw and guilty.

“Maybe.”

“It was really brave of you to tell me.”

“Shut up, Pope.”

“I mean it.”

“Shut up, Pope!” JJ yelled, angry that Pope wasn’t angry. Angry that Pope wasn’t hitting him or kissing him. Angry that this revelation seemed to have such a tiny effect on Pope while simultaneously tearing JJ apart. “If I could take it back I would, but I can’t. It was stupid and we can just forget that it ever happened.”

“It wasn’t stupid.”

This conversation was stupid and it was too dark to see Pope’s facial expressions and JJ knew if he got up now Pope couldn’t stop him.

“Can we just forget about it?” JJ asked instead because he most likely couldn’t make it to Yucatan in the HMS Pogue and in a few years all his debts might be paid off and maybe he could actually just buy a plane ticket.

“I don’t want to forget about it,” Pope said, quietly and confidently and in a voice so raw it gave JJ goosebumps. JJ knew it wasn’t what he wanted, knew Pope was just being a good friend. But Pope’s voice sounded different, sounded gentler and it hurt.

“What do you want, then? To sit in the dark and talk about our feelings?”

“Well—”

“It was a rhetorical question, Pope!”

“No, JJ. That is what we should do because John B is dead and you haven’t talked to your friends in two months. We’ve been so worried about you man, about your dad. And then when we finally do talk again you tell me that you’re basically starving and that you like me and now you just want to run away again and ignore us? Not this time.”

Pope’s hand raised into the air and then came crashing down in the space between JJ’s fingers and it was strong and gentle and made JJ’s skin feel like it was on fire. Pope squeezed, drawing their fingers together so tightly that JJ knew he couldn’t just run away. Pope had to know the effect that it had on JJ.

“Please, don’t cut me out again.” Pope’s voice was shaky and it sounded slushy and JJ momentarily forget how to turn inhales in exhales and by the time he could manage to get a full breath in, he realized he was actually going to have to be honest with Pope.

JJ was really good at partial truths. He was a good liar because there was always a tinge of truth—hidden between the lines somewhere—in all the lies he told. He had spent his whole life making excuses and crafting stories that were so close to the truth that no one could see where the blurred lines were drawn in the sand.

But Pope was asking for the truth. The real, whole, honest truth. And JJ didn’t know how on earth to be truthful.

“What else do you want me say?” he asked because there were a million things he wanted to say, but he couldn’t say too much and ruin everything more than he already had. Omitting the truth was different than lying, it wasn’t pretend. It was just strategic.

“How, uh, long?”

“A long time, Pope.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

The darkness coated some of the awkwardness but the air between them was heavy and JJ wished he had something to fiddle with.

“Like, for real?” Pope asked suddenly, maybe even hopefully. JJ wished Pope would stop asking because JJ had already told him he liked him, he didn’t need to be teased over and over again.

“No, Pope, I’m just fucking with you. Yeah, I’ve had a crush on your since I met you and it’s super embarrassing and I really don’t want to keep talking about it, okay?”

“A crush?”

JJ wanted to scream but he didn’t have the energy.

“Yeah, a crush.”

Pope’s hand was still tethered to his own the touch was a bit too much right now. Pope’s grip loosened and suddenly he drew his hand back. Maybe he was thinking about all the times JJ had stood too close or texted him too late into the night. Maybe he was thinking about—

Lips.

Lips pressing against JJ’s own that must belong to Pope because there was nobody else in the room. Lips that engulfed his own, lips that JJ had been dreaming about for years suddenly kissing him. Pope was kissing him.

Hands.

Hands whose fingertips brushed around his ears and through his hair and held his head steady. Hands that could just as easily be hitting him but held him so gently.

JJ’s breath hitched and he relaxed his lips, pressing them against Pope’s and drew his own hands around Pope’s neck to cradle the back of his head.

The moment was gone just as quickly as it had come and Pope’s eyes were the only light in the room but JJ didn’t need to see Pope to know he had never looked more handsome.

“So much for talking,” JJ teased, breathless and flustered but feeling the first shred of confidence he had all night. “What was that?”

“That was a kiss, JJ.”

JJ rolled his eyes.

“I know that. I mean, why did you do that?”

“I’ve always wanted to,” Pope whispered, face so close to JJ that he could feel the breath on his skin. Pope’s lips lingered around JJ’s but didn’t come close enough to touch.

“You have?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Maybe you should do it again, then?”

Before Pope could make up his mind and before JJ melted into the couch cushions, he drew Pope’s face towards his own and pressed their lips together again. Pope’s hands wrapped around his waist this time, tugging JJ closer to dismiss the space between them. Pope’s lips were one thing, but having his entire body pressed against JJ was a whole different story.

It was real and it was happening and it was everything and nothing like JJ had pictured it. All the daydreams of Pope’s hands and his lips and his smile gave him butterflies and rosy cheeks, but the real Pope made JJ speechless, made him feel like he was walking on water, made him feel so confident he could run a marathon or paint the Mona Lisa. The real Pope was a million times better than the daydream Pope.

“Don’t go away again,” Pope pleaded into the kiss, voice wet but light and just as breathless as JJ’s. “Please.”

“I won’t,” JJ promised, tucking his face into Pope’s shoulder and indulging in the immense comfort and safety he felt there. Pope’s arms drew him closer somehow, stable and real against his body.

———————————————————————

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