#also echo being so fascinated by the outside world is so interesting to me

[basicallyjaywalker]

*cracks knuckles* well if I'm gonna work on my OCs and now that someone's reminded me how actually tragic Echo is

Let's talk about Jasmine and her relationship with Echo

I feel like they would get really close if they ever met. I think Julien would tell Echo about her in a way he wouldn't tell Zane because he was scared Zane would tell others someday. Echo won't ever leave the lighthouse, so he can't tell anyone. He would know about Julien's other child, but he would figure it's Zane, the one he replaced. When they meet, once they figured out they were related, I think Echo would realize and want to tell Jasmine what he knows. Julien wanted to know her but couldn't. He left her because it's what was best for her. I think Echo would want to imagine Julien left him for those kinds of reasons too.

I think they would bond over being abandoned by Julien. Jasmine before she was born, Echo long after. I think they'd each envy each other, in a way. They both resent him (even if they won't admit it), but Jasmine resents him never being there. Echo resents him being there so much, only to leave him. Echo would fill in the gaps for Jasmine on who he was, while Echo is more eager to hear about the life Jasmine lived in the wide world, especially on her own.

I think they'd have a super close bond, I think they should visit Jasmine's home and have a snowball fight, I think she should take him to Borg Industries and watch Echo go starry eyed at all the cool technology, I think Jasmine would help replace his rusted gears and wires with ones that won't deteriorate as easily, i think she'd teach him how to garden and befriend animals and i think echo would be so thrilled to get away from the sea

I think if Echo and Jasmine ever got to meet, they'd find a comfort in each other and a confidant about some of their issues that no one else could provide

[blusocket]

I've seen some people express some confusion about what Fortnight is about, why it opens the album, what's happening in the video, etc, so here's my attempt at an analysis. For the most part I'll be referring to the characters in the video with the names of the people playing them (Taylor and Post) but at times I'm going to be making direct reference to the events of Taylor's personal life and referring to the muses by their names (Joe and Matty) for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

The song itself uses the suburbia conceit as an extended metaphor for the beginning of her relationship with Matty (he's the neighbor she runs away to Florida with, Joe is the cheating husband.) For more eloquent and detailed thoughts on the narrative of the song you can check out Jaime @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes's post here.

The video is really dense, and I'm not 100% confident in every aspect of my interpretation, but I feel pretty sure that it's making extensive use of visual metaphor in order to tell roughly the same story as the song, just in a different setting. To start, Taylor wakes up chained to a bed in a white dress.

To me this suggests that she's been driven mad by being left at the altar, and is now trapped, surveilled and controlled, in a type of asylum. This represents the end of her relationship with Joe--waiting for a marriage that never came, feeling trapped, mentally unwell etc.

She then takes 'forget him' pills which reveal Post's tattoos on her face when she looks in the mirror.

This represents Matty (the "miracle move-on drug") and shows that he made a mark on her while she was still in the asylum--that is, still in her relationship with Joe. Additionally, in the wide shot where we see the mirror, its size and shape are very reminiscent of a one-way mirror, often seen in interrogation rooms and psychological experiments, further reinforcing the idea that Taylor is imprisoned here.

She then is able to go to the typewriter room and do her work, creating art about how she's feeling, shown by her repeatedly typing "I love you, it's ruining my life" on the typewriter. She's still in pain and feeling trapped. While there, she encounters Post and they create art together, which creates beauty and color in her life. The blue and gold obviously reference her writing about Joe, but the fact that her work is gold and Post's is blue may be a deliberate choice to draw parallels between Matty and Joe, as she does on numerous songs throughout TTPD.

The next scene, where Taylor's hair is down and she and Post are wearing the same black coat and pants, takes place inside her head (symbolized by the shape of the papers they're laying on.) She is dreaming about them being free and creating art together, represented by the papers surrounding them and book she's holding, which has the word "us" written on the cover. She's writing their story before it's begun.

She then reaches for his hand in her fantasy, accepting and asking for this relationship

Then we see that she's being studied and experimented on--the results of the lie detector test read "I love you, it's ruining my life." Her pain is an object of fascination.

Interestingly, Post is part of the group experimenting on her, but when the experiments begin to cause her pain, he liberates her.

This inspires Taylor to destroy the place where she's been trapped, which we see through her opening the filing cabinets that cover the walls and destroying the mirror. I also find the shot of her standing still while papers burn around her interesting and significant; I interpret this as Taylor destroying her own work about Joe. By choosing to leave, she is metaphorically burning--rejecting--the story she wrote about them.

Finally, Taylor and Post enter the dangerous outside world together; the rain echoes the lyric "I chose this cyclone with you" on the album's title track. While I do feel the meaning of Post being in the phone booth is somewhat ambiguous, the framing and the accompanying lyric--"I've been calling ya but you won't pick up" suggest that he's attempting to communicate with her but can't reach her. They are free of her prison, but still separated.

Then, he hangs up the phone and reaches for her hand, and she takes it. The final shot of the video is a close up on their linked hands, presenting us with a cautiously optimistic ending--they are lost and vulnerable in the middle of a storm, but they have each other.

I feel this is a somewhat less sinister, for lack of a better word, portrayal of the start of Matty and Taylor's relationship than is suggested elsewhere on the record, though I believe Post's character being part of the group experimenting on her is significant and the editing creates some ambiguity about exactly when and why she decides to break free. But I hope this clarifies how the video sets up the beginning of this story, the fallout of which is then chronicled over the course of the rest of TTPD.

[coldgoldlazarus]

Echoes and Hunters are really interesting to me because of their place relative to the rest of the series, as basically the closest thing to being self-contained Filler Episodes in Samus's life. It can be argued the Prime games as a whole are a filler arc, what with how you really don't need to play the Trilogy to understand the 2D games' ongoing narrative. Even so, it is still a whole arc within itself; despite being decent standalone titles, the phazon connection spanning all three enriches them in conjunction with one-another, and Corruption in particular leans a lot on the setup the first two provide.

Yet at the same time, while definitely connected to the other two, Echoes is distinctly the odd one out in a lot of ways, and the overarching phazon storyline seems almost incidental at times despite Dark Samus and the background setup of the conflict. It's not confirmed either way, but the dark world could be read as a pocket universe created by the leviathan seed malfunctioning, or a whole parallel dimension that it simply broke through into and created the copy of Aether within. Even if it is the latter, the Ing were probably a byproduct of the interaction of Phazon and the dark dimension, but there is also the possibility the were a distinct entity existing beforehand. Regardless of all of that, the Luminoth and Aether as a location certainly stand out as unique, and are only loosely connected to the bigger picture through a shared history with the Chozo.

Hunters, meanwhile, may wind up tying into Prime 4 through Sylux, but that too is extremely incidental to the main story focus, which is even more outright disconnected from the usual Metroid factions and concepts than even Echoes is. As people have joked about before, it really says something that killing Gorea, a terrible eldritch abomination that singlehandedly wiped out an entire galactic-region-spanning civilization, is probably one of the least important things Samus has done in her career. Even that aside, apart from Sylux and Weavel, most of the other hunters are similarly unique and disconnected from the established story, with Trace and the Kriken Empire in particular standing out as an elephant in the room that are weirdly less relevant than the info on them would imply.

And I love the overarching storyline, both of the Prime games and the series as a whole, and how the different mainline titles are for the most part thematically enriched by their interconnectivity and parallels. (Even Proteus Ridley, for all the problems I have with him, I do appreciate as a clear bridge between Corruption and Super.) But there is also something really fascinating to these two more avant-garde titles, that really expand the universe and try new things, instead of remaining confined to the core concepts the series usually keeps a tight focus on.

There is a risk of going too far and possibly losing sight of the aesthetic/thematic shore, so to speak, but I feel like we're not quite there yet, and I appreciate the effort to branch out. On the flipside, there is again some weirdness to some of this stuff being so confined instead of having a bigger impact, (looking at you Trace) but the level of tightness of the mainline games does kinda work in our favor here. Sure it's weird, but it's not out of the realm of plausibility that the Kriken really are a big deal, but just... elsewhere, and mostly haven't directly relevant to Samus's life outside of this one-off run-in with Trace.

Idk, I'm not really going anywhere in particular with this, I just think it's neat.

[caffernnn]

Knock knock bestie have we talked about the goldfish but in the mookverse 👀

OKAY HI HELLO I’ve been spinning this in my mind since you’ve sent it (you’re a visionary, truly) and I’m READY NOW !!! 🛁✨🧡

(… putting a readmore bc this got long lmao)

Sooo, we see goldfish come up quite a few times within the show, most often in relation to Makoto. Whether it’s the literal goldfish he’s taken care of (first fish from childhood, plus the ones gifted later by Haru) or the striking visuals of swarms of goldfish that show up within his shrine vision and stress dream in FS/FS2, they’re looming. In my mind, when we get a Makoto scene where goldfish are involved in some fashion, it’s a surefire signal for me to pay attention to how that moment comments on Makoto’s supportive caretaking abilities — do others trust he can take care of the things and the people he holds dear; does he trust that his efforts will be enough to convey everything he wants to before it’s too late? It’s interesting to think about the implications of goldfish imagery, especially the more abstract/interpretive ones seen later on, because it creates this fascinating opening for the mh mookverse to be tied into that collection. Before even jumping into the universe itself, I’m drawn to its conception — how it’s built in a dream that can be read to be from either Makoto or Haru’s head (if not both), and how many points in the story are these call-response moments crafted from fears and reassurances during the ES era. Seeing how goldfish have brought attention to Makoto’s worry and Haru’s responding reassurance in the show, how might they also find their way into this shared dreamverse, where Makoto’s ability to take care of and protect others is a prevailing theme? (theme, right? Lit nerds don’t come for me rn okay I think I’m using that term right)

There were a couple moments that stood out to me with Big Goldfish Energy when I last read through the story, so let me just tack those up on the conspiracy pinboard really quick 📌

There’s… something about Haru showing up, being declared as specifically half-fish, revealing that he doesn’t have a home or people (or particularly strong conviction) to return to, and revealing he “doesn’t care” about whether he has any of those bonds or aspirations or not (okay, parallel to that fight with Rin in the locker room, I see you~). There’s something to Makoto immediately extending care to this version of Haru: someone who is a practical stranger (and creature) in his eyes, yet has a disposition that he takes personally. The suddenness of Makoto imposing this all-important “power of friendship” on himself, then proceeding to open up his home and his downtime and his life to Haru… it’s an echo to the deep bond they have in the waking world, yes, but it also feels connected to Makoto’s ever-present desire to take care of something/someone. Being a pet owner, being a big brother, being a team captain, being a swim coach, being a firefighter — there is a core part of Makoto that’s not begrudgingly bound to responsibility, but craves and almost chases whatever heartfelt pursuit he can to feel useful. So much of Makoto’s character and his dream (as we understand it throughout ES and beyond) is spurred on by this desire to help. Whether he’s trusted with fish from a fair named after his friends, or presented with a half-fish in his home that wears the face of one of those same treasured friends, of course he pounces and takes on that task with pride.

Now, onto that quality of care:

This moment feels particularly telling about how Makoto’s perception of his role in Haru’s life (both in the mook and definitely outside of it) is shifting as time moves forward. He sees Haru comfortable enough, integrating himself into a shared normalcy with Makoto, but he’s noticing how… limiting, this all might be. His efforts in supporting and caring for Haru now orient towards building hope and curiosity. What would it look like for his fish friend to move to a bigger tank, or be released completely? Beyond this also lies a question Makoto refuses to voice to himself, but still makes its presence known in how this whole “trip to the sea” arc proceeds: how much will it hurt if in all of his pushes forward, Haru finds a beautiful life that’s outside of his own line of vision? He wants what’s best for Haru, he wants him to dream, he wants him to be able to do all of this for himself… but there’s also that part of him that will always hope beyond hope that they both find ways forward where they get to stay by each other’s sides. How much is at risk in letting that glittering goldfish grow beyond its small bowl?

This is all skittering off into a general love letter to the mh mook, but I adore the little details that show that shared care they both have for each other. Like, it means something that Makoto insists that they go to the sea together. It means something that he openly wants to be by Haru’s side when he explores the world again beyond the safe bathtub he’s become so familiar with. If you still think about this as a dream, it clears up one of the ongoing points of contention in the ES time period that Makoto struggles to communicate to Haru when everything blows up: he’s not trying to make demands that push Haru towards one specific goal or away from everything he knows. He wants Haru to find a purpose through knowing his options, and he hopes he can be by his side through it all. God, it just makes me think about their fight and why Makoto couldn’t bring himself tell Haru about Tokyo earlier than he did! He’s scared! He’s attached and scared and trying to be hopeful with all of the change and transition laying ahead of him, but homie doesn’t want to lose his best friend and the life they’ve shared for so long together in the process, and it’s agonizing for him to see Haru so openly dig his claws into a beautiful past and normalcy when Makoto knows they both have to keep moving. MAKOTO CARES SO MUCH!!

Ok, back to the mook: I’m obsessed with the moments where it’s made so clear that Haru cares for Makoto and consciously chooses to find his way back to him. Haru isn’t just a passive roommate or pet, but someone who entangles himself into Makoto’s life (shared lunch breaks, walking home, evenings together, etc etc). When given the chance to go anywhere when in the sea, he swims around and then comes back to Makoto. When we get to the fire, where he’s completely out of his element, he actively puts himself in harm’s way to find Makoto (he can’t let his tether to his now beloved constancy and normal burn, right?) to his own demise. He does the scary thing of going somewhere Makoto can’t reach him (bro you 🫧DIED🫧), going through an intense cycle of change (Australia trip could neverrr), and when he pops out on the other side of that cycle with another chance at life, he finds home with Makoto once again. This is our airport reunion, this is our mhtokyo realized — Haru has found a dream, and a crucial piece of that all-encompassing vision is treasuring his most important bonds that pushed him to care about anything. In these moments of Makoto being scared that he failed to care enough to save anyone (the kid from the fire, Haru from the fire, Haru from his ES spiral and breakdown), Haru does his best to convince him otherwise by coming back, sending out a resounding message of not only wanting to be by his side, but trusting Makoto enough to try and build a new path forward with, again and again.

So uhh… the goldfish. Right.

In the story that exists now, there’s a lot to be found in viewing half-fish Haru as a variation or stand-in for the goldfish. It’s an interesting spin in that we see Makoto have a multitude of hopes and fears attached to his abilities to support others through his emerging aspirations, but slapping Haru’s face on a fish reeeally draws our eye to what his subconscious stirs up when focused on his ability to support and take care of Haru specifically. Beyond that, though, if we were to specifically throw visible goldfish into the mookverse, there could be a cute epilogue spin where they have fish in their home together. I love the idea of mook mh getting comfortable enough in their ‘happily ever after’ that they choose to take care of fish together. It’d be cute if it was a surprise gift from one of them to echo back to Haru gifting fish, but establishing growth and security through getting to be the shared caretakers of others? That’s tasty; that’s a nice nod to the domestic mundane security mh get to have in DttF and Tokyo (FS era notwithstanding. She only exists when she’s useful to me) and how they get to focus on helping out their friends for a bit. A lot of soft headcanon or fic potential there tbh.

Oh no, I hope you weren’t originally asking for just a lil hc of them taking care of the goldfish, because if so I 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️

[ghostly-wisteria-tea]

Weird Rants No. 1

My latest fascination of the Set Animal, and it's association with foreigners, the "other" and everything unfamiliar. And how I see 616 Khonshu as more of "Set", than the Myth Khonshu.

So based on mythology, Set, or Sutekh and Seth (by the Greeks), is the God of storms, desert, violence and foreigners.

What got my attention was the fact that no one can fully identify what the Set animal is supposed to be. It's like a mix of many things, yet something completely different.

Like that uncanny valley zone where you think you know what it is, but just can't pin it exactly what it is.

I like to see it as it is intentionally made to be unfamiliar. You know what else is unfamiliar? Foreigners.

It is meant to make you feel weird, because that is the reaction to people once you face something that you are unfamiliar with. Like if you meet a foreigner from a far land with customs you are not familiar with, the first think you feel is either fascination, or uncomfortability for facing something that is outside your comfort zone.

Suddenly you are meet with something that does not match your world view, what you are told to be as "foreign" or "other".

You try to find analogies, compare it with something that you know, but it's not enough to fully. But it is still uncanny, if you don't understand the foreign customs, you end up misinterpreting it since you are seeing it through a biased lenses and end up making shit up mainly to enforce your own beliefs.

(side-eyes Plutarch, Herodotus, every European colonial power and the foreign conquerors, or foreigners in general.)

As is, people and customs that you are not familiar with and consider to be outsiders. As person, you are attached with your home, or what you deem as "home." It's life, language customs, relationship and people. Take all of that away and you end up being very uncomfortable.

You are not in your secure home; you are somewhere else.

Now, this leads to many things.

People who feel the same way will band together, creating an echo effect where the feeling grows. They develop a bond, but it also evolves to be straight up fear, enforcing xenophobia and misunderstanding. It can even be used in political, and emotional social manipulation, propaganda that can be exploited by the powerful, wealthy and elites for their own interest. or to satisfy their attachment to one ideology and push their views.

Fear is a very powerful tool since the dawn of time.

Suketh, as the Egyptian God of Foreigners, to me, is meant to represent the "outside" and many things unfamiliar. Specifically, to the Egyptian world. While the Kingdom have order for humans to thrive, Suketh represents Chaos, and outside foreigner elements who want to hurt and take the Egyptian people down.

Suketh killed Osiris for the throne. He wants to take over the kingdom by force. An action that many humans also do. So he is both Natural and man-made.

He is so stormy, power-hungry and violent, he might as well be Egyptian Vergil from Devil may Cry, because Suketh is very, very MOTIVATED to be king.

Suketh: I am the Storm that is Approoooaaaaachiiiiing.!!!

So, ignoring the memes.

Suketh is still a manifestation of nature, and he can't straight up be destroyed. In a world everyone will have to coexist with whether they all like it or not. Egyptians learned early on that they can't always stop chaos, so they find a way to understand it.

Turn the unfamiliar to familiar.

Egyptian religion believes in ma'at, or cosmic balance and harmony. They don't reject Suketh outright, but instead find a balance while maintaining the core concepts, principles and nature-focused views.

Think of the Yin vs the Yang. Shadow and Light. It's more closer to the more nature-focused belief like Daoism and Shinto.

Suketh does represent everything outside the Egyptian world, but it is also an ally if understood right. Relationships is far more useful than just invading and destroying foreign kingdoms. The king tries to make friends with the outsiders, make treaties, and diplomacy.

Suketh, is then not demonized, but absorbed into the Egyptian world while still maintaining his role, though biased since it is still through the lenses of the native Egyptians looking outside.

Suketh does represents foreigners, the outside and the "other" but not Evil Chaos itself. He isn't the perfect evil/chaos, like how Ra isn't the prefect symbol of order. That role goes to Apep, or Apophis by the Greeks, the Chaos Snake.

Comic Khonshu, at least the more commonly accepted interpretation, is meant to be Eldrich, uncanny and "foreign". Especially when standing next to Marc. The Jewish heritage even pushes that narrative even further. This association of "other" and foreign, and well, negativity matches mostly to Suketh in antiquity. And maybe even Apep, the ultimate chaos. But mostly Suketh, a controlled chaotic element but can be useful at specific scenarios.

This is what also drives me to write fiction on Khonshu, is to remove that Set association since the more I read about the mythology of Khonshu, the more I found just how different it is to the comic interpretations. He is just straight up Suketh in bandages.

If you want a chaotic god, just go straight to Suketh than take a random Egyptian God and turn him to Suketh.

So besides that rant, I really just want to find a way to connect Suketh with the Vergil and put the Devil may cry memes.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Am I the only one who finds the argument between Mal and Alina ep 5 S2 so fascinating? The way she talks about saving ravka and repairing the country reminded me of the darkling so much. Even Mal calls her out on this asking "to what end". It's funny how this comes right after she tries to seduce the darkling like she's an expert or something. She's literally the female darkling 400 years younger 😂 no amount of sun abilities can convince me otherwise. Despite him clinging to Alina like a lost puppy I did appreciate how he called her out though. What do you personally think about that whole argument?

Also speaking of mal I wanted to ask what do hope for with him in S3. I know he's not the greatest character but I'm wondering what changes you hope the writers could make so he could be more interesting. Less love interest, more real living person. I feel there is potential. Compared to the shitstorm he was in the books I honestly don't mind what they do with him in the future. They've practically changed his character completely anyway from being a douche in the books to mr nice guy in the show which I don't know if it's even better or worse to be honest lol. Personally I don't care too much about him but I honestly hope the writers actually try with him. What do you think?

I find the argument between Mal and Alina really interesting for a number of reasons. One, is like you said, Alina sounds alot like Aleks when she talks about saving Ravka. But also when Mal says to Alina that she's not seeing where this really leads, he is really kind of echoing what Aleks has been saying to her, that she is focusing too much on this singular moment, this goal, that she isn't recognising that she is following the same path that Aleks took. I am glad that they had this argument as I think it was needed and for me Mal had become a bit of a yes man to Alina and was just going along with the motions, so I am glad that he did eventually tell her how he was really feeling and that he was hurting and struggling instead of keeping it bottled up. For me this argument really did show how much Mal and Alina are on completely different pages, this whole idea that she's barrelling forward and he's just trying to keep up. Also there is that realisation that the only thing that Mal can do for Alina is give her the firebird, it again comes down to his role in their relationship being about the firebird and that's it. To me this argument not only highlighted how different Mal and Alina are, but how similar Darklina are to each other.

As for what I hope for him in season 3 its like you said, less love interest, more living person. Until now I do feel like there just hasn't been much substance to his character outside of Alina. One concept I did like that they sort of introduced in 1x01 but then dropped was how Mal used to be against fighting, he was the kind of guy who hugged bunny rabbits and took care of animals, he was gentle. But then first army and the state of this worn torn world turned him into a fighter, a soldier. I would like to see them maybe explore the effect this had on him more. I would also like to learn more about his time in the trenches in the first army and how that has effected him. Basically I just want them to show me who Mal is outside of his relationship with Alina, because right now not only do I think the audience doesn't really know but I don't think he knows himself. So hopefully they can really flesh the character out in season 3.

[danpuff-ao3]

Charlie x Draco

Hi there, Echo! I loooooove Draco/Charlie!!!!

1.) What made you ship it?

This ship was first brought to my attention in ye olden days in a fic called The Marriage Stone by JosephineDarcy. It's a background ship that appears later on in the fic and oh my god what the author did with it!! I was sold for life.

In those days, I wasn't really reading outside of Snarry, so it wasn't until I began to broaden my horizons back in 2020 that I really began to explore Chaco on its own. Which was a shame, because it's such a great ship! There needs to be more of it, in my opinion.

2.) What are your favorite things about the ship?

Oh boy, where do I begin??

First...the dragon and the dragon tamer???? Come on! Who doesn't love that??

Secondly...the family rivalry aspect of it?? Arthur vs. Lucius. Ron and Draco in school. Charlie was a bit removed from it, I think, but there's some bad blood there that makes this all the more interesting!

Thirdly...opposites attract. Draco's an only child, Charlie's from a large family. The Malfoys were blood purists, the Weasleys blood traitors. Draco was a Death Eater, Charlie was in the Order. Spoiled, posh Draco from Malfoy Manor; rugged, easygoing Charlie from the Burrow.

Fourthly...the balance. What I love about Dron is the fire and animosity between them, and what I love about Dremus is the security and comfort. Ron and Remus are both options I love for Draco, but Charlie's a sort of middle ground. There's spunk and fire and strength and safety and comfort and security. Charlie is playful and fierce. They could have fun together, and tease each other, and get all hot and bothered, and down and dirty. But never really turning serious or cruel. I think Draco can be bratty and Charlie would be super fond of it and chill and unbothered by Draco's nonsense, which is good for Draco. I think it might bruise his ego a bit at first (and he might want to get a rise out of Charlie) but I feel like they'd settle into a good, happy, stable relationship together.

Fifthly...escape. This is more potential than anything, but the idea that they hook up because Draco needs/wants to escape Britain and goes to Romania and that's where he meets Charlie. It's sort of Draco being in a whole new world and coming into his own away from expectation and judgment.

Sixthly...acceptance. Charlie seems like such a good dude deep down. Maybe he'd be wary of Draco to start, but he'd understand and move forward. Whatever guilt or hurt Draco held onto, Charlie could hold him and help him through it and heal with him. Scars? Charlie has those, too. All the darkness and blood and pain? Charlie's been there, Charlie's seen that. Draco can't do anything that would scare Charlie off, I think.

Seventhly...(is this number thing getting annoying oh no?) they both like Quidditch???? Imagine cute flying dates, or going to a game together!!!!

Eighthly, and finally...A Gemini and a Sagittarius!!!! (I have to do their synastry someday soon.) But!!!! That's such a good pair. I saved this for last so people can happily glaze over the astrology jabbering if they want. But Gemini and Sagittarius are oppositions in astrology, which is the most fascinating match-ups to me personally. (But I'll admit to being biased because my partner and I are oppositions; I'm a Taurus and he's a Scorpio!) The Gemini-Sagittarius connection is fun with all the social, humorous, quick-wittedness of Gemini and all the adventurous, spiritual, open-minded nature of Sagittarius. Both have a lean towards learning, though with Gemini it's very "jack of all trades" and variety while Sagittarius leans towards deeper meaning and higher learning. It's such a fun, charming pair I swear, and I love that for them. (They also both have Pisces moons but we can get into that when I get to their synastry reading!)

3.) Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Not that I can think of!

others answered: Dramione, Snarry, Jegulus, Jily, Dron, Starbucks, Riddledore, Snupin, Remadora, Fleurmione, Snack, Snumbledore, Scorbus, Jeddy, Moonchaser, Snamione, Ronmione, Tomarrymort, Snape/reader or OCs, AD/GG/TMR, Chaco.

[decepti-thots]

i was talking to @satellitesoundwave about sotw on a post they made talking about how distinctive tarantulas' (and hubcap's!) dialogue "sounds" in the comic, because i was like YEAH, and it's neat how distinct it feels from mesothulas' dialogue too, actually. and they pointed out how interesting the division between those "two" is, given that it's emphasized repeatedly that the primary purpose of the noisemaze is to destroy a mech's internal sense of identity, and i went WOW, IT IS. i was immediately curious as to how tarantulas does talk about the change in identity he goes through in the comic itself with that angle in mind, so... i went back and skimmed through parts where I recalled him bringing it up.

and it turned out to be fascinating because... yep. in multiple ways he points not only to his becoming "tarantulas" as a kind of metamorphosis (one which above he holds over prowl very specifically as a kind of "i managed what you couldn't" flex), but also to the dissolution of his identity as "mesothulas" as a prerequisite to that, as a direct result both literally of the noisemaze and also figuratively what prowl did to him.

first port of call: the way he narrates the experience of being trapped in the noisemaze to prowl.

so mesothulas had that failsafe to escape but he immediately broke down upon being shoved in there and couldn't even remember who he was, let alone that he could activate it. he did eventually come back to himself enough to trigger it, of course (and i find it interesting that the trigger is within his own body, so he very literally has to remember himself to do so), but not before a very long period of what basically seems to be a kind of ego death.

beyond just the 'mad science torture dimension Literally made me forget who i was' angle, though, when he teleports out it's back to the lab that prowl had destroyed. and he describes it as being something that prowl gave him and which allowed him to self-actualize into what he sees as the full, true version of himself. he calls it his lab but also his home, and he makes that delightfully melodramatic (in the truest and most classical sense of the word) comparison to his own spark being destroyed. the noisemaze broke down his sense of identity in a very immediate and literal way, but what prowl did also destroyed his sense of identity because mesothulas had built that identity up entirely around what he did within the environment prowl constructed for him. and, in a very real sense, to contain him. when prowl gave him that lab and an endless stream of resources and ideas and no contact whatsoever with anything outside, he created an environment in which mesothulas could exist perfectly removed from the world he wanted to study as an impassive observer, and he also helped mesothulas conceptualize himself in an environment made just for him and become... the most version of himself, for lack of a better phrase. like an echo chamber where all you ever hear is the increasingly loud sound of your own voice bouncing off the walls.

but he wasn't actually alone. that identity was completely, absolutely dependent on prowl as the structure it was built on, and prowl could collapse the entire artifice at a moment's notice. mesothulas' intense, disturbing codependence is completely by design and prowl's sweeping away of the whole foundation on which it's based completely destabilises not just their working relationship but the self-conception mesothulas has created for himself. by isolating him prowl had indeed made him the truest version of himself, but also one with no way to exist independently in a broader context. he had to stay exactly where he was, apart from what he studied, or it all fell down.

and that's really explicitly his own conception of events, too. see:

left me to crumble obviously refers to the fact prowl literally expected him to die in the noisemaze, but even though he survived, that's still to some extent what happened. not even getting out stopped it because just prowl doing it removed any framework mesothulas had for understanding who he was. mesothulas pretty much ceased to be in short order as a result. (sidenote: that he considers the loss of his lab to be the loss of his home, and then makes a new home in the noisemaze itself as the thing that is representative of his metaphorical death, is. a lot. did i mention melodrama applies to this guy in a very classical sense.)

the whole concept of what prowl did to him being worse than death comes up a couple times. it's why, if prowl refuses to come back to him, he wants to completely strip away everything prowl has, rather than just kill him. it's interesting to think about how he conceives of this, too. the data he's threatening to release canonically does not necessarily include stuff that is explicitly linked to crimes that prowl committed. (that was on the cards at one point, according to the sotw bonus material, but didn't make it in.) it's data from the aequitas trials, and prowl did not stand accused in those. what mesothulas is threatening to do is destroy the autobots and, in doing so, prowl's standing within them, not least by revealing him as one of the people covering things up re: other autobots' war crimes. a huge part of prowl's sense of identity is predicated on the idea that what he did and does is justified because it's for what he sees as 'the greater good' and, to him, that means furthering the goals of the institution he commits himself to. if that institution splits apart into chaos, if he loses his role in it because it can't support itself, that's the clearest parallel tarantulas can create to what was done to him. to find what prowl defines himself by externally, is reliant on for a sense of self, and destroy that.

tarantulas is basically what happens when he goes out and tries to find something to tether his identity to once his original one has been nuked. mesothulas is completely gone, both because the noisemaze irrevocably changed him and because mesothulas had come to only exist in the tiny little perfect bubble prowl crafted to keep him happy and, it turned out, could take away at a moment's notice. (it's really telling how prowl tries to act like mesothulas is pulling his strings somehow in the flashback when the power balance is so wildly uneven in his favour.) he changes himself so completely that he becomes about as close to a different species as it's possible to be, right down to the part where he stops being entirely mechanical. and i think that makes his adoption of an organic element make way more sense. because tarantulas doesn't... respect organics. he uses derogatory language towards verity because she's organic. but the furthest thing from a cybertronian is an organic, and tarantulas' entire new identity is one that divorces itself as much as possible from mesothulas. there's no sense of continuity there. this is also where the way he talks comes in. tarantulas just talks differently to other cybertronians. he uses these organic metaphors and dramatic turns of phrase nobody else does. he's uncanny when seen in contrast to them. and so, too, are the chimeracons he made more like him. (sidenote: this is why tarantulas being Weirdly Horny is, yes, funny, but also actually has a purpose. it marks him as 'other' to every cybertronian we ever see in a way they have no real context for. one day i will keep a straight face about Weird Horny Spider Robot Guy being a real thing to write actual meta about that.)

...well, mesothulas is completely gone in Sins except for one specific moment:

this is the only time prowl calls him mesothulas after being told his new identity. it's not something tarantulas rebuts, either. the one big thing he doesn't want to divorce from who he is now, post-"rebirth", is that he was still the person who made ostaros. (and no, i don't think his desire to rekindle his relationship with prowl counts; he wants to do it under distinctly different terms than before, and you can see why.) ostaros was the one thing he did as mesothulas that he doesn't want to let go of, that not even prowl (he assumes) killing ostaros actually erases. and it's funny, because mesothulas is so convinced he can't do anything like creating ostaros without prowl again, but it's also the thing that persists in his sense of self totally independent of prowl. he even goes out of his way to say that he isn't asking about ostaros' fate because of prowl. it's such a weird double bind he has mentally.

(the next time he gets called mesothulas, btw, is when springer calls him that when acknowledging him during wrequiem, first referring to mesothulas, not tarantulas, being who made him, and then just before tarantulas' death. PAIN.JPG.)

this is LUDICRUOUSLY long so a final point. i think it's really interesting that tarantulas both sees mesothulas' "death" as an injustice and also his own "rebirth" as tarantulas as a triumph, and i don't think the narrative actually contradicts this at all. tarantulas is many a B-movie villain trope (and we love him for it), but one thing he never really is in Sins is pathetic or delusional. he did do what prowl never managed, just like he said. he changed. he changed into a literal monster, but he did do it, and he did it completely on his own. prowl destroying mesothulas after creating him according to his own wants and needs was awful; tarantulas creating himself in defiance of that is not good in the moral sense (see: b-movie monster villain) but it is legitimately impressive. and tarantulas doesn't even get properly defeated, certainly not by prowl but actually not by anyone. he runs off to go save springer, forgetting everything else he had cared about the second he realises he's there, the one thing he kept across both identities. the final climactic moment of sins for tarantulas is a kind of realization of his desire to craft an identity outside of prowl: in that sequence, he's not thinking about prowl at all.

[knowlesian]

part of what really gets at me about the deft way this team tells stories is how it might be one of the most intersectional shows i’ve ever seen. there are just so, so many ways this is true, but since i’m writing about ed and how class/race/sexuality can slam into each other, right now izzy and ed are top of mind. their Whole Thing needs a really long post of its own and that’s coming too, but just to get the barebones thoughts down:

on one hand, you have izzy. on the surface, izzy is playing out his own textual storyline about what happens when your own hatred for yourself and who you love and how you want to love them makes you into a Big Fuckin’ Terrible Grody Idiot, obviously, but given his narrative pairing/echoing of ed he also takes on a larger thematic role as… essentially, the narrative version of White Colonizer Jesus. he’s all up in ed’s shit, demanding ed fill the role he needs and act the way he wants. he is literally constantly telling ed to stop listening to himself and fit the brutal role izzy thinks is ed’s natural state; he is Making It Fucking Weird, forever, and he will kill or die in service of trying to force ed to fit into his stupid boxes. his sexuality only makes it even crunchier and more complex! it’s so good. 

i would honestly not really care about izzy’s side of this at all if he was straight, because it’s just Not As Interesting. “what does it mean when the part of your identity that exists outside the understood parameters crashes into the ways you get to benefit from systemic injustice” is among the really challenging topics the show is more than ready to tackle. it’s also one of those questions i really do think anyone who cares about this stuff needs to sit with and think about, or risk being izzy.

(the stuff in there about the way masculinity needs to be understood as a history of “okay but what masculinity though? for who, and how?” is so good. you’ll run into a lot of people who think The Patriarchy just means men and that’s not… you know, literally entirely wrong but it’s not actually right, because when we say patriarchy we’re all mentally filling in a lot of qualifiers beforehand and the qualifier at the tippy-top top of that list is white. anybody who thinks about this stuff for more than half a second in good faith should square with that fact, otherwise we are never going to dismantle this shit. to live in a patriarchal society and be processed by the world as a man is to stand to be able to reap certain benefits, but narrowing the analysis down to a flawed and binary understanding is... you know. categorically Not Helpful.)

i’m going to talk more about this in the next analysis i do about ed and stede and the moonlight because it hits on gentler but very similar themes, but i wanted to quickly spotlight how ed’s beats with izzy are extra fucking fascinating when you factor in how izzy functions not just as a character in his own right, but a commentary on the brutal history of white men bringing their Weird Jesus shit everywhere they go and forcing it down the throats of the people who were already doing fine, thanks, please leave, you “discovered” fuck-all because we were already here.

(man, the toe scene is WILD on that end. i love this show.)

[thechangeling]

But you like her better: Part 1

This fic features Kit's potential new girlfriend hinted at in a letter from Tessa to Magnus in CC's newsletter. A bunch of people in the fandom built her from the ground up @littlx-songbxrd @foxglove-airmid @the-wckd-powers @adoravel-fenomeno and @thomas-gaypanic-lightwood to name a few, and gave her a personality, name and backround. Their name is Marí.

Kit uses he/they pronouns in this fic and Marí uses she/they.

Cw: Disassociation (or at least how I experience it idk it might not be the same for everyone), negative self talk, self injurious stims, and bad coping mechanisms.

Title is from Heather by Conan Gray.

Marìa. Marí as she preferred to be called, was a bubbly kind soul with a wide inviting smile and a melodic voice.

Even Ty could admit that they were quite beautiful, despite not seeing women (or in Marí's case anyone who was particularly alienated with womanhood,) in a romantic or sexual light. It took him awhile to realize he was gay, but when he did it just seemed so obvious. He had gone through a minor phase of experimentation at the scholomance when he was younger but it hadn't lasted long.

Still Marí was stunning. And perhaps what made her even more stunning was her kindness and generosity. Ty had met her on the beach in LA while she and her parents were visiting the LA institute for a downworlder/shadowhunter summit being held by Helen, Aline, Mark and Cristina, similar to the one Julian held in 2012.

Ty noticed that Tessa and Jem were present, but Kit was not. He was not exactly sure how that should make him feel. So Ty elected to push the pain in his chest further down. To shove all if his unresolved feelings and worries and questions about Kit Herondale back into the metaphorical box and move on.

So he had gone outside to walk on the beach to distract himself when he found Marí sitting on the sand and crying.

Apparently according to them, they had come across a few dead moon jellyfish, or Aurelia aurita as was more scientifically accurate, that had washed up on the beach.

Ty remembered being moved by how she had such compassion for another living creature who wasn't even a person. It was rare. Ty had helped her bury them. She seemed wary and a little hostile around him at first, noticing his runes. She was clutching her body tightly. Ty noticed her anxiety and told her how he was also a lover of aquatic life and he found marine biology fascinating. This had prompted her to instantly change demeanor and become very excited and start jumping up and down and waving her hands before she told him that she was studying marine biology at university in Devon.

The mention of Devon should gave promoted Ty to wonder if Marí knew Kit but he was still putting up mental blocks to protect himself from the Kit situation so it hadn't crossed Ty's mind.

They had sat on the beach and talked for hours. Marí told him their name and that they used she/they pronouns. They also told Ty that they were from Devon, but their family was from Loiza, a city on the Northeastern coast of Puerto Rico. And also that they were all werewolves who pretty much hated shadowhunters but he seemed ok because he liked jellyfish. They mentioned that marine biology was one of their special interests and that they were autistic and had ADHD.

It would have been the perfect opportunity to tell Marí about him also being autistic but Ty being guarded and asocial, decided not to and told her as little as possible. He supposed he had some trust issues after everything. He mentioned his name, that he was attending the scholomance, and a few basic facts about his family. He also talked about his friend Alyssa Reyes. 

Alyssa or Ali as he called her, was a werewolf with Maia's pack in New York. She was assigned as a liaison to the scholomance to act as a bridge between the werewolves and future centurions. And BOY had she complained about it. Alyssa was basically the president of the fuck shadowhunters club and she was autistic and had ADHD. She and Marí would have gotten along quite well.

Marí overall did most of the talking but she didn't seem to mind. On the contrary.

Ty had no idea that by that point they were already dating Kit.

When Kit returned with apologetic smiles and a new found charisma and confidence, he also brought her. And she was so happy to see Ty again that he felt so guilty for feeling torn up inside.

Ty couldn't hate Marí. Not even if he tried. They hadn't done anything wrong and neither had Kit. So Ty would just have to settle for hating himself for being angry over nothing.

Kit and Ty weren't really talking. Sure they had exchanged some words together when basically forced to, but Kit was being standoffish and Ty was still feeling a little annoyed. But mostly hurt. Ty had heard that Kit was using he/they pronouns and now identified as genderfluid. He had so many questions for Kit but Ty knew he couldn't ask. At least not right now.

Currently Ty was watching Kit and Marí talking. Kit was in the middle of telling her what looked to be a funny story based on the way she was laughing. Kit pushed a lock of dark curly hair back behind her ear and smiled.

Ty felt queasy. He bit his lip and averted his gaze trying to shake off the horrible feeling. Everytime he saw them together his chest felt like it was being squeezed by a juicer. Like he was being crushed and torn up on the inside and it was his fault. Just like it was his fault that Kit left. Or maybe that wasn't true. Maybe it was just inevitable but that didn't make it any easier.

Ty didn't have the right to be jealous or upset. He had no claim over Kit. He was being ridiculous he told himself as he attempted to shove all of these dark feelings into the box.

But this time it wasn't working.

"Alright you look like you're about to snap crackle and pop," Ty heard a voice say beside him. "What gives Sherlock?"

Ty looked up to see Alyssa Reyes standing next to him. When they had all congregated together in the LA institute and Kit had brought Marí and his friend Janessa back with them. Ty had decided to bring his lucky charm and close friend with him.

When Alyssa first came to the scholomance things were quite rough. But they had connected, first on the basis of being autistic and then through other things. Ali also had a love of mysteries and the two of them together were quite the team. The two of them had become incredibly close. Anush called her Irene because she was the only one who could outsmart Ty.

Speaking of Anush..

He was currently still back at the scholomance. They had both decided it was best for him to stay behind so they could spend some time apart. They had recently broken up after Ty finally realized he wasn't in a good place emotionally to date anyone. Ty had been forced to put Livvy's spirit to rest permanently when it started to have an affect on the mortal world negativity. It had been Livvy herself who had begged Ty to save the world at her expense.

That had been about a month ago and Ty was still relatively numb. He had a feeling it would begin to hurt eventually. Just not yet.

"Hey did you hear me?" Alyssa raised her voice. "What's wrong?" Ty refocused on his friend.

She was wearing her costume for the Halloween party they were all attending tonight. Kit, Ty, Dru, Alyssa, Marí, Jaime, Janessa and Thaís. It was Dru herself who had suggested they need a break from essentially preparing themselves for what was probably going to be another war. So they were headed to a vampire hosted party at a club in downtown LA. Alyssa had been sure to grab earplugs for Ty and herself which he was grateful for.

Alyssa was dressed as Aeryn Sun from Farscape, one of the many autistic coded characters from scifi that she was obsessed with. She was wearing a long black leather trench coat with black leather pants and a black tank top. Her dark brown hair was pulled back onto a long braid traveling down to her lower back. She even had leather boots and a fake blaster gun holstered at her thigh to complete the look.

And Ty of course, was dressed as Sherlock.

Ty shook his head at her. "Nothing Ali I'm fine."

Alyssa glowered at him. "Bullshit you're fine. I thought we agreed never to lie to each other?"

Ty sighed, gazing back at Kit and Marí, still smiling at each other. Alyssa followed his gaze.

"Oh you're jealous aren't you!" She declared matter of factly. Ty instantly shushed her.

"Oh relax they can't hear us, she muttered. We're too far away." She twirled her long braid and stimmed with the ends of it. "You know if you plan on taking your anger out on that lovely girl, a member of our COMMUNITY no less, who has done absolutely nothing wrong, then I'm like legally required to throw hands," she said with a smile.

Ty didn't smile back. "I wouldn't," he murmered, looking down. He had been flicking his fingers lazily at his sides, but now Ty found that wasn't good enough. He dug his fingernails into his right palm.

Alyssa looked concerned. "Hey I was just kidding," she said softly. She took his hand that had been creating little half-moon red divots on his skin and carefully threaded his fingers through her own.

Ali squeezed Ty's hand. "You know I'm on your side no matter what." He squeezed back.

Ty looked at the couple again. Emotions swirled all around his heart like little ribbons grazing against the sides. It wasn't just jealousy neccessary and Ty was a little shocked to find that he wasn't angry anymore. He was just...what?

Sad?

Sad didn't even begin to feel like it covered it. He felt so lost. And alone. And.... He felt himself starting to drift away, separating from himself. Ty could hear the fuzzy far away echo of someone trying to speak to him, but he couldn't make out the words. They were getting further and further away.

Everything was blurry and out of focus.

"Ty!" He heard a voice shout. With a jolt he was snapped back into his body. He turned to face Alyssa who was staring at him, looking obviously alarmed.

But the worst part was that everyone else was staring at him too. Including Kit. They looked  shocked, but also something else that Ty couldn't quite pinpoint. There was an air of desperation to their voice when they asked,

"Are you ok?"

Was Ty ok?

It was such a funny question coming from Kit who hadn't spoken more than two words to him this whole time.

Kit who had left.

Ty didn't know what else to do except laugh. He burst laughing hysterically, almost falling from his position of where he was leaning against the wall. He desperately tried to gasp for air as he cackled.

Everyone was staring at him looking horrified. Dru pulled out her phone as if she was contemplating calling someone, then decided against it. Tears were starting to roll down Ty's cheeks as he kept laughing.

Alyssa grabbed his arm. "Alright, come with me," she ordered, dragging him to the side. Ty managed to stop laughing as she guided him firmly into the training room.

Ty's eyes were still blurry with tears, so he wiped them away. Alyssa was smiling at him softly, looking sympathetic. "It's gonna be ok Ty,: she cooed, taking his hand again. Alyssa began to rub slow soothing circles onto his palm.

"Ok, you wanna tell me what's going on now?" She asked gently. Ty sniffed and used his other hand to wipe away the rest of his tears.

"I don't know what to say," he admitted. "I don't know how to describe or explain it.

Alyssa nodded. "Well, try. You can use quotes or song lyrics if you want." Ty smiled. He was grateful that Ali understood.

Ty chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. "It feels like a tear in my heart. Like a part of me is missing and I just can't feel it," he quoted. Alyssa stared at him, pondering. She continued to stroke his hand.

"Do you think what you're missing is Kit?" She asked. "Do you miss him?"

Ty glared at Alyssa and snatched his hand back. "No," he said firmly. "I don't."

Ali rolled her eyes. "Jesus you're almost as bad at love as I am! It's like trying to open a rusted toolbox with a fork getting you to open up!" She snapped.

Ty bared his teeth under closed lips and glowered at her. "Well maybe I never asked for your help!"

"Well maybe you should calm down and recognize that I'm your friend and I'm worried about you!" She shouted back.

Guilt instantly washed over him, pricking his skin. Ty squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm sorry Ali," he whispered.

He wished he could cry. Now more than ever Ty wished he could make himself cry. Over Livvy, over Kit. Over the coming battle. Over everything.

"Do you love them?" He heard her ask. There was no need to ask who she meant.

Ty opened his eyes. This was the thing he never acknowledged. Never said outloud. Never even let himself think it. Because it was terrifying. The acknowledgement of the truth.

The truth was that Ty would probably give his life just to see that adorable smile one more time. That he could tell you how many freckles Kit had because he had spent so many hours staring at Kit and counting them.

The truth was that when Kit held him, he felt closer to anyone then he ever had in his entire life. Ty had sat outside of Kit's door for hours, days even when they had first arrived because he had felt something, even then. Something pulling at him from the other side of that door like a magnet. He told himself it was just curiosity. A scientific curiosity.

It was the only thing that could logically explain Ty's obsession. It wasn't serious. It wasn't-

"I love him," Ty admitted shakily, breaking the silence. Even Alyssa looked a little suprised.

"I'm in love with Kit."

Before Ali could respond, Ty sensed movement by the training room door which they had forgotten to close. Ty instantly whipped around to see who it was, wondering frantically if they had overheard what Ty had said.

Standing in the door frame wearing her Mortica Addams costume for the party, complete with a jet black long wig was Marí.

And the look on their face suggested to Ty that they had heard every word.

I will try and get part 2 up as soon as I can! It will be from Marí's perspective.

The song Ty quotes is Can you hold me by NF.

Tag list: @playwithravenclaw @lavender-scented-rat @jazzkaurtheglorious @waterlillies   @nott-the-best @stxr-thxif @magnus-the-fabulous-entp-bane @foxglove-airmid @littlx-songbxrd @clarys-heosphoros @thomas-gaypanic-lightwood @arangiajoan @queenlilith43 @adoravel-fenomeno

[bflanddaddy]

Naga!Boyfriend: “....Mmmmm! ...So, it appears the villagers has offered one of their own to become my next meal. ..Although you are chosen, I do believe they don’t realize that by making you my next meal...I prefer to take my time with them in the hopes that they’ll become my permanent partners in paradise. Sadly, the ones your people constantly give to me always end up either eaten...or basically dead. ...I can only hope you’ll be different. ...Now then...I believe I should inspect every single part of my new prey here, see what kind of human you are. ...Oh my~. Your skin..it feels so soft...so smooth...like that of a newborn. No scars...no blemishes. ...Guess they REALLY need to make sure they pop out nice, good looking stock for me, hmm, hmm. Let’s see if you’re a good kisser. You’ll definitely enjoy having my long tongue work its magic inside of you and also on the outside too~. ...Mmmm....ah, yesssss. Your lips feel so elegant and warm to the touch; even feeling those pristine pearly white teeth against the tip of my tongue is enough to take interest in you. Don’t worry...even though I carry poison in my fangs...I’ll only leave a tiny mark on that cute lil’ neck of yours; wouldn’t want my lil’ doll to succumb to my venom now do we? Hmm, hmm, hmm~. ...There we go. Now that you’ve been marked, let’s see what else you have. Take a good LONG look into my eyes. You will do EXACTLY what I command of you to do, and you will do them accordingly. Now...reveal more of your body, I want to see your bare flesh exposed before your deity. ...Oooooo~! How fascinating. A nice pair of breasts...E cups I take it? You know...every woman that’s ever been in my cave don’t have such big melons like you do. Bet all of the men in your village can’t look away at your beauty. Too bad you won’t be mating with any one of those low lives, now that you serve me. ...Mmmm...yesssss. Moan for me, darling. Moan louder to let those filthy rats from your village know who is your mate. ...Heh, heh, heh. Good...such an obedient human you are. So long as you’re under my spell...you will please me no matter how much you beg for me to release you from it. Now...play with one of your cute lil’ nipples and use your other hand to pleasure yourself down there. I want to see you shiver and squeal in ecstasssssy. Are you enjoying the performance you’re giving me? Good...it pleases me to see my mistresssss be excited for what will come very soon, hmm, hmm, hmm~. Now, now...don’t come just yet. If you do, you will be punished in more waysssss than one. ...Tsk, tsk, tsk. Naughty human. You dare to disobey me...oh what will you ever do to make up for it? Hmm....I’ll show you what happens when someone daressss to disobey. I’ll have to roughly lick all of those fluids off of your slutty body first...and then...take care of opening up your inside with it. Go ahead...moan, let your voice echo through out this cave and carry it to the outside world. To know that the men will be struggling with so much pent up sexual tension because of you being dirtied by me will make it all the more victorious on my end. ...Hope you enjoy having more than one dick enter inside that hole of yours because once you have a naga enter you, you’ll be wanting more of it. ....Mmmm...yesssss. Your insides feel warm...and it will slowly take my shape in you. I’ll be the only one to take away your precious virginity, my love. Gyrate those slutty hips of yours, I want to see you indulge yourself on how much you love having two hard, pulsing cocks work from within. ....Ooooo~! Oh yessss, babe. I’m almost there...! Let’s hold you down nice and firmly, have to make sure you receive the entire load of your precious deity’s warm juice. ...Now, my little human...scream! Scream in pleasure! Let your voice bellow out until it falls deathly silent! ....Mmmmm! ...Ha....Ha....heh, heh, heh. Oh yessss. I do believe that you will do me rather well. You belong to me...now...and forever~.”

[lifewithdavefarts]

DaveFarts - Episode 10 “The Elevator” [Episode List] After visiting a friend’s house, Tim and the gassy-as-usual Dave take a really slow elevator together.

The Elevator

I took a quick sip of beer as our friend Adam left the living room to get another can in his fridge. What was left was a weirdly awkward silence and Dave, with his own beer, glaring at me.

“Dude,” he whispered. “It’s been a hour. I thought you were gonna tell him.”

I chose Adam as the first non-Dave bud to come out to, but it ended up being surprisingly hard to do. It’s not like Dave was forcing me or anything, or that Adam was a bad person; on the contrary, Dave was simply there with me as my emotional support in case things go south (but we both know they won’t) and Adam was, well, just Adam. Dave’s rightful reaction to me not coming out as planned didn’t bother me and as I said he wasn’t there to intimidate a confession out of me.

“Look, I don’t feel ready, okay?”

“You’ve been talking about the weather for 20 minutes.” he hissed. “What’s next? Geology?”

I chuckled. “Actually, this reminds me that they found this weird rock in South Amer-“

“I can’t believe this.”

“What’s not to believe? You take a big shovel and-“

“And I’m gonna dig my own grave if you start talking about rocks.”

I chuckled again. I know he wasn’t really mad.

Annoyed? Maybe. But mad? Nah, that’s a stretch.

He had all the rights to be annoyed though, but in the end it was my decision to make and he knew this.

We kept whispering as we heard Adam rummaging the fridge like some kind of raccoon longing for a cold drink.

“Look.” I said. “it’s late now anyway. Let’s just leave. Sorry I wasted your time.”

“Fine.” he replied. “Let’s finish our beers first at least.”

“That goes without saying.” and I took a long sip.

Truth is that I hadn’t any real reason to hide my homosexuality from Adam or any other of my buds actually. First, we’re in our 20s, we’re all mature and open-minded here. And in the end, excluding the whole fart-thing going on with Dave, they were all like him, chill guys. Adam, despite always sounding like someone who wants to have none of your shit, or anyone’s shit really, more than once proved that it’s just a facade and not-so-deep down he’s always ready to listen and back you up whenever you needed it. He did just listen to me talking about the weather for 20 minutes, so either he’s fascinated by the subject or knows I’m trying to tell him something else and is just patiently waiting.

The thought of wasting both of my buds’ time in a way or another kind of bothered me to be honest, so I was more than okay with wrapping things up and just leave, which me and Dave did mere minutes later.

“See you bro.” my bud said to Adam, standing by the door, as we went outside in the hallway, not far from the stairs and the elevator “Tim wants to talk about rocks so I’m taking him out of here before he kills you with boredom.”

“The one they dug up in Colombia?” Adam asked, much to our surprise.

“Yeah.” I answered. “They know it’s andesite but it has some interesting carvings on the surface and-“

A startled “What the fuck.” from Dave echoed in the hallway and the entire apartment building.

“What the fuck indeed.” Adam uttered, rather excitedly, completely missing the point. “This could change the archeo-history of the entire region.”

“I heard enough.” Dave said as he walked towards the elevator.

Both me and the other rock-enthusiast laughed at his reaction.

“By the way, I’m going to join you for a bit as I gotta walk the dog.” Adam remembered, reaching for a leash behind him.

“We’ll see you outside then.” Dave replied and then turned to me. “Tim, elevator, now.” he ordered.

“You sure, guys? You remember that thing is slow as shit, right?”

“We’ll be fine.” my bud said, patting my back. “I guess I’ll make Tim last longer then.” he joked.

“That only happens when you call me ‘daddy’” I joked back, as we walked towards the elevator, leaving our common friend behind.

“Rrrright.” Adam said. “I’ll get the dog while you two solve your sexual tension. See you outside.”

I pressed the button to summon the lift, Dave’s arm still around my shoulder as if he had something to show me. Truth to be told, I somehow knew where this was going.

As the panels of the door opened, we stepped into the elevator cab. I pressed the “G” on the control panel. I heard a mechanical noise and the elevator started its long, slow descent (we were at the 10th floor), after the doors closed behind us of course.

It was a cold evening and the cab wasn’t any warmer. I turned to Dave, who was wearing a dark blue hoodie and a pair of grey jeans. He looked at me with a smirk, hands in his jeans pockets; he raised his eyebrows and, without warning, a loud thunder echoed in that enclosed moving space.

The roaring fart had a slow start, with some interruptions, actually a sign for how big it was, but Dave, being an expert, quickly tamed the gassy beast and properly “tuned” the sound of the blast after a couple of seconds, keeping a consistent pitch, while also making it sound loud and deep. It felt like he was ripping one of those huge “when the girl finally leaves” farts, only, well, Dave-sized, which is always a sight to behold… hear? In this case there was no girl so he probably simply held all of his farts in to not ruin “the moment”, in case I wanted to come out back at Adam’s place (with beer acting as a bonus fuel).

A silly smile was drawn on my bro’s face as the fart kept going strong and proud, sometimes reaching some incredibly loud moments. He chuckled a bit and even winked at me when the blast made some particularly “meaty” noises, if that makes any sense. The fart was impressive on his own but Dave “interacting” with me while still masterfully passing gas was incredible as well (and, of course, hot).

The number 6 on the control panel lightened up and only in that moment I realized two things: the first being that the elevator was indeed slow as fuck; the second is that around 40 seconds passed and neither Dave nor his fart “flinched”. I was widely aroused by that and I felt the air around us getting more and more “polluted”, but not in an unbearable way actually. The blast kept echoing inside the elevator and I’m pretty sure that it could have been easily heard, albeit a bit muffled, by anyone taking the stairs.

Dave farted in my face many times, but no fart reached the length and power of this one, which is saying a lot. My bud’s butt-burps normally last around 6-12 seconds and don’t get me wrong they’re amazing, but man, maybe this one rip would have been too much to endure even for me: it simply wouldn’t stop. It’s like there was a loud engine in the elevator which couldn’t be turned off as I couldn’t hear anything else.

I was instead the opposite of turned off and teasing bastard Dave Maning knew this and, as usual, had no issue with it. At this point it was a race between Dave’s longest fart and the world’s slowest elevator.

We were now at the 3rd floor and my bud probably wanted to do a “big finale”; he was visibly pushing the blast out now, as if he wanted it to last as long as possible, a smirk still drawn on his face. He closed his eyes and the sound made it look like another fart was ripped over the sound of the previous fart, as if two audio channels in his ass somehow overlapped. The sound was of course louder than ever; the smell now, and only now, getting a bit hard to get used to. But to be honest, Dave’s skills as a sound designer alone were impressive enough.

A big part of me, mainly the one between my legs, wanted to get on my knees and plant my face in his denim ass before the fart faded out, but I knew that would have been too much even for such a chill guy like him. I’m sure he wouldn’t hate me or anything at this point but we both know there are some untold boundaries and honestly it’s better this way. I know how lucky I am to have someone like him around (farts or not).

My farting bro probably read my mind as he slowly turned around and got closer, again without affecting the fart’s quality and, being a bit taller then me, basically farted on the upper part of my hip. It almost made my entire body shake due to its power and it felt good. Now I really wanted to bend down as if I was tying my shoes but what stopped me this time was also the thought of… not surviving. I was familiar with Dave’s farts but this was absurdly powerful even for him.

And finally, as Dave resumed his previous position, again looking at me, the fart stopped, followed by my friend letting out a relieved whistle, and then an immature cackle.

Not even 2 seconds after that the elevator reached its destination, stopping as well. I jokingly clapped my hand and shook my head in disbelief. “Bravo!” I said, as if I just watched some fancy stage play.

Dave simply smiled and turned his back at me to face the exit, as we both waited for the just-as-slow panel doors to open.

“At least not all the time here was wasted.” he laughed.

“Bro, we had a beer together. That’s never a waste of time for me.” I replied.

“Wow. Rocks, gay and cringe. You got it all, Tim!” he replied.

We both laughed at me being needlessly cheesy and finally stepped out of that gas chamber. Someone stepped in the cab as we left it and the doors closed, leaving us in the hallway at the ground floor. We heard muffled coughing noises almost immediately and we laughed again, as we knew the disgusting reason. Poor, innocent soul.

“Ok but bro” Dave then said, looking a bit more serious. “You gotta do it someday. Trust me you can trust all of us.”

“I know man.” I replied, as we walked towards the exit “Next time I meet Adam, doesn’t matter where and when, I’m gonna tell him that I’m gay.”

My voice echoed in the building and through the stairs, but I didn’t care.

“You’re… gay?”

Okay, I cared.

We both turned around, puzzled.

It was Adam, right behind us (with this dog on leash), descending one last set of stairs before ending up in front of us. Somehow he’s been slower than the elevator, which both me and Dave found hilarious but I also had other emotions going on that moment.

Dave patted my shoulder encouragingly and stepped back: it was my time to shine.

“Yep.” I simply said. “I wanted to tell you hours ago but I didn’t have the guts to do it.”

Adam just stared at me with a confused expression.

I didn’t feel as nervous as I anticipated. “Yes, Dave knows it…” I quickly added, noticing him staring at my other straight bud. “And I asked him to not tell anyone.”

A moment of silence followed and those always feel like they last hours.

“I mean you two clearly have been dating each other for years” Adam joked. “So it’s no surprise, really.”

“WHAT WE HAVE IS SPECIAL!” Dave shouted, jokingly faking a desperate reaction.

I simply laughed and before I could process how well everything was going I felt Adam doing something very unusual for him: he hugged me.

“I’m glad you told me, man.” he simply said. “You know you can count on us.”

I know times have changed and all but this felt like a victory. Every time I’m gonna come out to a friend of mine it’s one step closer to the peak of a mountain and once at the top I will finally-

“Fuck, I forgot my phone.” Adam said, patting his pockets. “I’ll just take the elevato-“

“NOOO!” both me and Dave screamed, knowing that it was still a deadly gas chamber.

Adam simply replied with an annoyed expression and went for the stairs, the dog just behind him.

“Oh hey by the way.” I asked. “What took you so long? You said the elevator was slow but somehow we made it here before you.”

“Don’t underestimate me.” he replied. “It’s just that I heard some weird noises echoing through the stairs and me and another guy tried to understand what it was.”

Dave tried to not to burst into laughter, while I simply smiled like an idiot. Adam and his dog then went up the stairs and left us in silence, not until my gassy bro decided to break it the way he usually does.

A loud fart erupted and echoed through the building, only lasting around 4 seconds this time.

“There it is again!” we heard Adam say, a couple floors above us.

Me and Dave shared an amused look and went outside trying to not laugh like immature idiots. I felt the cold weather all over me, which was relieving considering the gas trap I’ve been trapped into only minutes earlier.

Despite a slow, yet really entertaining elevator ride, and my awkwardness, no time went wasted today.

“I’m proud of you, bro.” Dave said, this time serious, but still smiling.

“Wow.” I replied. “Straight and cringe. You got it all, Dave.” and winked at him.

“Don’t get too cocky now, rock nerd.”

I was rock-hard, to be more precise that’s for sure, but that was a detail I’d take care of later, perhaps thinking back of that absurd elevator ride. Whenever I’m with Dave, I’ll make sure we’re never taking the stairs again.

End of Episode 10

[wrctings]

Jean Kirschtein x reader | Friends, or is it more?

the more i watch aot, the more i love jean... his moments of self-doubt and his moved smile truly are heart-wrenching 🥺

fandom: Attack on Titan pairing: Jean Kirschtein x reader summary: Where you realise that you’re falling for your best friend, whose heart is already taken—or so you thought. Fortunately, what becomes a saddening party can also turn into an unexpected occasion to make things right. word count: 3.3k

Sometimes, belonging to the Scouts regiment came with something that, from up close, resembled a flicker of momentary joy. You had, of course, been aware of the harrowing shadow of a reputation that trudged behind the wings of liberty: danger, death and despair; the three Ds accompanying your pledge to humanity drummed their deafening beat alongside your horse's frenzied gallop whenever you took place in the formation that led you outside the walls, the wind hurling through your hair and your senses at the height of their tension, ready to signal the approach of a titan at any given minute, bracing your body for every possible threat. You had faith in commander Erwin, had faith in your comrades—if giving your life was necessary for your cause, then, you had silently promised yourself and your people, you would give it with eyes wide open and undefeated fierceness, be it in the heat of battle or any other way. The wings embroidered upon your cape represented your beliefs more intensely than any word—as long as there was a Scout left, hope would live still; blossom upon the tall grass that freely grew upon the tombs of your fallen comrades. Even the smallest victory made you believe that a change could be made—and even the smallest victory was celebrated in the battalion as a sign that bode well for the foreseeable future. It was such celebrations, though as small as the victories they marked, that made room for moments of joy the regiment could barely encounter at other times. And when those moments came, life suddenly appeared coated with a hundred colours, full of humorous idiocies and heedless amusement that stirred up in you all the youthful glee of not caring about a thing in the world but the people around you and the drink in your hand.

"You guys won't believe the position we found Bertholdt in this morning!"

Seated beside Armin, who himself flanked Eren as Mikasa had naturally settled on the other side of their childhood friend, you leaned further on the wooden table of the barrack in order to hear your brunet friend more distinctly, his excited voice reviving the conversation at once. Drawn by a cheerful and carefree sort of curiosity, which was well fueled by the general bright mood, finding out about Bertholdt's daily sleeping position suddenly appeared like the most fascinating event one could discuss, especially when followed by the boys' weather previsions based on their comrade's often strange and tangled up poses. You exchanged an amused look with Mikasa, and though your friend's features remained almost as impassive as usual, the vivid twinkle you caught through the dark shine of her eyes mirrored your cheery behaviour; Armin's face, on the other hand, wore an expressive smile, the blond boy remembering vividly the description of Bertholdt that Eren began recounting.

But even as you laughed at the image of Bertholdt's knees somehow managing to stay bent as he slept on his stomach, the upper part of his legs outstretched toward the sky in an unusual—to say the least—position, your gaze went on sweeping the room, in search of the one person you couldn't wait to chat with again, though you also got along really well with Armin, Mikasa and Eren. The only problem was, said person was not that fond of the self-righteous brunet ball of energy sat at your table, so you were not surprised to find him in Conny and Sasha's company instead, talking animatedly. You had already had the opportunity to chat with Jean earlier that evening, the two of you having grown so close to each other that it would've been impossible for you not to cross paths tonight, but you wondered whether you would drift toward each other again before the makeshift party came to an end; Captain Levi had been surprisingly unbothered by your shy request to celebrate today's mission's success, accepting it on the sole condition that only soft drinks were to be consumed—Armin suspected that Commander Erwin was responsible for granting the new recruits' wishes, as they had after all already endured quite a lot during the expedition to retrieve Eren from Annie.

"We better watch out for that sleeping position of Bertholdt's, maybe it means good luck," Armin observed lightheartedly, taking a sip from his drink.

"You should keep a notebook with all of them, and maybe you'll crack the code someday," you added with a chuckle, the three of you glancing at Bertholdt.

Having your 104th comrades with you in the Scouts regiment really did bring you a lot of comfort to help you navigate these new uncharted waters, though it also made it acutely unbearable to imagine that some of them might not make it back next time; Marco served as your first and most painful lesson that even those dearest to you were never safe. It was after the freckled boy's death that you and Jean had truly bonded, brought together by the devastating loss of your kindhearted friend. You had become each other's rocks since then—checking up on each other after training sessions and expeditions, playful teasing and calling each other all sorts of funny nicknames rooted into the core of your friendship, giving it all its strength. And it was when you had been injured during the 57th expedition and Jean had almost hysterically ran up to you afterwards, cursing with no restraint and holding your arm so tightly it hurt when he helped you limp toward the medical wing, that you had been hit for the first time, though still shaken from slaying a titan and the bloody cut burning your leg, by how grateful you were to have made it out alive, to have Jean by your side. It was then that you had realised that there was no one else you would rather be with than him—it was something more than anything you've ever felt before, as your timidly pounding heart had been reminding you ever since.  

But another thing unavoidable when being friends with Jean, of course, was the bickering between your comrade and Eren—and this evening was no different from any other week. A few minutes later, as you engaged in a pleasant conversation with Armin, your attention was drawn by the thunderous eruption of voices that suddenly shook the walls of the barrack, making many pairs of surprised eyes turn toward the belligerent protagonists of the argument. It just had to be Eren and Jean, hadn't it? Like the rest of your comrades, you couldn't possibly guess where the spark that ignited this new inferno came from, but with these two, a valid reason often wasn't needed; to the greatest despair of the 104th, both boys possessed magic powers to summon reasons to fight out of thin air. At the present moment, both Eren and Jean were actively yelling at each other, shooting names and accusations back and forth.

However, the lack of rational incidents to cause such a scene didn't mean that there was no deeper reason for Jean's outbursts, just like Eren's counter-attacks originated from his legendary stubbornness already well-known to his fellow comrades. You had been suspecting for a long time that Jean mainly proclaimed his hatred towards Eren because of Mikasa. Before the 57th expedition, when both of you were in a playful and mischievous mood, you would even friendlily tease Jean about his soft spot for the dark haired young woman, which he hadn't hidden very well ever since Mikasa and he met for the first time. It was quite unfortunately, really, that your heart had finally chosen Jean, of all people, to fall for—as if you weren't well aware of how much he admired and liked Mikasa! And this mascarade surely had to have been orchestrated to get her attention, just like many other failed schemes of Jean's, as Mikasa barely seemed interested in anyone but Eren, Armin, sometimes Sasha, and you.

"There he goes again..." You muttered downheartedly, sparing a glance at your best friend.

"It's Eren and Jean, after all..." Armin responded with a sorry smile, squirming on the bench to get further away from Eren, who was now up on his feet and facing Jean with balled up fists. Mikasa watched the two boys through squinted eyes, at the ready to jump and knock over Jean if needed—at least, your friend's plan to get her attention had succeeded.

"I know how this is going to end," you told Armin under your breath, averting your gaze from the fighters. "You know what, I think it's right about time for me to head off. I don't want to witness Captain Levi tearing their heads off for wrecking havoc in here."

"Really? Don't you want to stay a little longer? I'm sure it won't come to this!"

"I don't even want to know. Goodnight, Armin, thank you for the nice chat," you excused yourself, fleeing from the barrack swift as a cat, only the passage of a furtive ray of light on the floor signifying that the door to the room had been opened as quickly as it was closed.

You knew better than to cling onto something you could not reach, so why endure the spectacle of such a foolish play?

*

Outside, nighttime had descended upon the camp with its soothing quietness. Nothing in sight but the warm flutter of torches fixed upon the barracks; nothing ringing in your ears but the chirping melody of a cricket's song, its echo delicately carried away by the evening wind. No ecstatic shouting, no blaring laughter. Nothing but a lone constellation half-veiled by the grey trail of clouds that unhurriedly floated upon the dark depths of the sky. No Jean, no Eren. You took a lungful of fresh air before a long sigh lifted off your chest—if only things could go back to the way they had been. Back when Jean was nothing but a fun and (sweetly) annoying horse-faced boy to be around, and no cause for heartache.

You took some more steps ahead, the muffled sounds you could still hear from inside dying out as you walked further away. Although you had told Armin that your time to go had come, you didn't feel like getting back to bed right now; actually, you didn't feel like anything but escaping for a little while.

At last, you decided to retrace your steps, taking a seat on the ground beside the barrack you had abandoned, your back pressed against its wooden surface. On the other side, the cacophony hadn't ceased, only muffled by the wall that separated you from the inside mayhem. Had Jean and Eren opted for a fistfight denouement by now? Would Mikasa intervene?

But before you had enough time to explore the many scenarios your imagination could sketch out, the door beside which you had settled opened abruptly, a wide stream of light flooding the ground at once. In the blink of an eye, a visibly disconcerted figure appeared on the threshold, freezing as they took a look around before rapidly bifurcating to the side in order to follow one of the torchlit paths...

"Jean?"

"Y/n?! What are you doing here?" Jean rushed toward you as soon as he noticed your silhouette from behind the shadows, discovering your hiding-place. "I didn't even see you leave..."

"I'm sorry, I was starting to feel tired." Touched by the fact that Jean had left the room to look for you, you attempted to give him a plausible excuse.

"C'mon, you can get through a day of training, but you can't get through one of the only party nights we're lucky enough to have?" Jean taunted, taking a seat next to you. "What's the matter?" he gently elbowed you, throwing his neck back so he could press his head against the wall behind. "Just when I was about to defeat Eren..."

"Defeat Eren, really? Statistically, it's more likely for Captain Levi to smile than for us to see that happen," you laughed tiredly, trying not to think about how Jean would probably soon get back to Mikasa and the others.

"Yeah, yeah, tease me all you want, it'll happen. Someday this idiot will get his ass handed to him."

Closing your eyes, you only had it in you to maintain the forced smile painted over your lips while fighting back the rush of stinging tears that suddenly overwhelmed you. Why did Jean had to come and check up on you now of all times, right when you were more than ever convinced that you were starting to fall for him, and it couldn't be clearer that his every move longed for someone else?

"You know, I was going to get him, but Mikasa can get scary..." It was as if he could decipher the riddles of your mind, unaware of the way your heart convulsed. "I wouldn't want to cross her. Why would she hang out with this idi—"

"Look, Jean, if you've come here to rant about this, then you can leave," you ended up snapping, biting back more acre words . "I'm tired, okay? Just get back to the fun inside."

"You... You don't feel like talking?" Jean's voice softened from incomprehension, trying to read your tone. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad. Hey, you really don't want to talk?"

You shook your head in response, scolding your own self for such pathetic behaviour. Jean couldn't possibly know about your suppressed feelings, so your attitude must indeed appear more than confusing, especially since you were so used to confiding in each other and cheering each other up, for the past weeks more than ever. In the wake of Icarus's ascend towards the sun, untethered and naive, your wings of wax were melting... But who could've predicted, as much as a month earlier, that the loveable idiot by your side would doom you to downfall?  

"Okay... Well...," the young man ran a distracted hand through his hair, frowning as his jaw clenched. "Then I'll talk. You know, I had an idea for tonight," he began after collecting his thoughts, breaking through the hesitant seconds that had temporarily numbed his tongue. "It was our first successful expedition after that near-death experience after all, so I thought I'd better make the most of it and make tonight's celebration useful. Who knows when we'll get another one. Maybe you're right and it's actually more likely to see Captain Levi smile than to get another one of these again soon." Jean's speech ran freely now, his torrent of sentences—for the moment still not making clear sense as to where they were headed to—submerging you in the familiar flow of his voice. As of late, your greatest fear had become to miss its distress call in the ranging mist of a battle, to watch Jean's body be torn to shreds as you could only scream until everything else vanished... "So I thought I'd be brave, for once." He took a deep breath in, fingers nervously wrapped around the back of his own neck. "There's this person I like."

There it was. Somehow, you knew that it would be coming—after the stunt he pulled earlier with Eren...

"They're much braver than I am, but they probably know that already," Jean went on, chuckling self-depreciatingly—he knew he could poke at himself in your company without being ashamed of disclosing his flaws. "They wouldn't hesitate to come and rescue me, even if I were grabbed by a titan. And they're really beautiful, too—"

"Look, Jean, if you've come to talk about Mikasa, just save it," you could only murmur. "Pl—"

"And, quite surprisingly, they're also a dumbass!" Jean didn't let you finish either, shifting his head so he could see your face better. "But that's something both of us have in common." Taken aback by such a strange confession, you opened your eyes to take an intrigued look at Jean while hoping that he wouldn't notice the tears you had at last blinked away. You met his gaze head-on, even among the shadows that coiled over his face.  "Because they think that I still have a thing for a girl I liked for two weeks, while I've been talking about them all along."

"What—"

"You know, you're the one who makes being called "horse-face" the funniest," Jean cracked an unsure smile at you, fiddling with his hands. "Alright, it's the bravest I'll ever be, so time to crawl in a hole and die now," he immediately added more anxiously, looking like the unexpected nature of his confession had stricken him for the first time.

"Wait, Jean, no!" It was as if, for the first time in a span of unending minutes, you could breathe again. "Wait, is this... Is this for real?" You asked in what came out almost a whisper, fearing, in this instant where your hopes balanced on the edge of a precipice of churning doubt and elation, that this was a joke you would not be able to forgive. Jean was better than this, but what if?—the thought drilled into your heart.

"Well... Yes. I'm sorry if I've made things awkward, it's Armin who told you might like me too and—"

"Hey, hey," your hand found its way to Jean's arm in a comforting touch, preventing him from leaving as he made a move to flee after blurting out an apology. Judging by your frantic heartbeat, there was no way you could be the calmer person in this situation—and yet, Jean somehow managed to look even more distressed than you at the moment. "I do like you." It was your turn to get embarrassed, which your flushed cheeks openly betrayed, illuminated by the nearby torch's flitting flame. "But Mikasa...?"

"Y/n, I haven't liked Mikasa for longer than a few weeks. I mean, yes, she's beautiful and strong, but so are you. And you're so much more than that. You're so fun to be around, I haven't laughed so hard with anyone but you. Unlike me, you're not scared to be brave and kind, but with you, I don't need to think which face I need to put on, because I know we don't have to pretend to be someone we're not when we're around each other. And when you got injured... I couldn't stand the thought of losing you. I made myself a promise then that I would tell you, and tonight seemed like the right time. I've been talking to Armin after the expedition and I think he kind of guessed that I liked you, and that you liked me too—I don't even know how or why, but he told me he thought you did. That's not exactly how I thought it'd go but... Trying to get your attention by getting in a fight with Eren wasn't that good of a plan, I guess."

"So that's what it was...! You really are an idiot, Jean Kirschtein," you declared vivaciously, but the moved smile that brightened your face spoke louder than the fond insults Jean and you would fire at each other. "We need to watch out for Armin, he will uncover everyone's secrets, at this rate..." You joked before regaining a more serious attitude, your emotions truly swayed by your friend's avowal. "The expedition changed everything for me too. I realised that I didn't want to go without you. No, I realised that I didn't want to go at all—I wanted to stay. With you."

"Pff, get in line," Jean grinned in spite of the emotional look on his face, sighing in relief. "I've been liking you for months."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely. Do you think I go out of my way to check up on everyone after a battle or that everyone's mom gets the privilege of being the centre of my skilfully crafted jokes?"

"Shut up," you laughed wholeheartedly, your shoulder against Jean's. "Your mom's a hoe."

"Very clever," he teased you in return, face glowing from a joy even more vivd than the fiery sparks that chased the night's spectres away. “I bang yours every night.”

You burst out laughing, rolling your eyes—mom jokes were a must in your goofy friendship. A friendship that, with a bit of unpredicted luck, was on the verge of becoming something more.

[funtimebunnyblog]

Hi!! I’ve got a request. I’m not sure if you’ve seen WandaVision or if you watch MCU movies, but I have one that relates to it. How do you think the pillarmen would react to their lovely s/o having abilities like Scarlet witch? Telekinesis, Telepathy, manipulation of reality, force fields, etc. S/o can also technically have flight by using her telekinesis powers too. She’s incredibly powerful! But isn’t physically powerful.

Oh yes! 😮😍🤩 I love Marvel! I grew up watching the movies a lot (you can thank my older brother for that 🤪) and I LOVE this idea, Anon! ❤❤❤

However, I have not seen WandaVision 😭😭😭 IT LOOKS SO GOOD! But I have cruddy internet due to the fact I live far out into the woods 😔 (and the internet has once again thrown spoilers into my eyes like pepperspray) sooo... I can only hope one day I will get the chance to enjoy it 😅

Either way, I do hope you enjoy this! I'm so sorry this took a little longer than anticipated 😅😇 I promise after this request we'll be back to our regularly scheduled writing!

The Pillarmen (separate) with an s/o that has abilities similar to Scarlet Witch...

(Under the cut for length...)

Kars:

• Kars always found your powers intriguing to say the least.

• Even when he first came to the realization that you possessed some sort of "super human" abilities, he found himself wanting nothing more than to study you.

• Perhaps you had done this to yourself by craft or perhaps not...

• In either case, you both were a couple with same differences.

• You could be out there trying to rise to greater power or status (much like he had done crafting his stonemasks), or even go so far as to try and take over the world with your abilities...

• The only problem being that you only found real use for them when reaching for the T.V. remote when it was too far away or manipulating time itself when you were late for work.

• Kars considered giving you some encouragement in using your powers for more but you held no interest in being "powerful" despite the fact you were already powerful!

• And then there was also the matter of you putting your telepathy to use...

• "Are you in the kitchen?" The ghostly whisper of your voice echoing through his mind never failed to send a shiver down his spine.

• "Yes." He replied, frowning into empty air. "Bring me a popsicle." Came the mental command, only making him sigh aloud. "Why can you not just get up and get it yourself? The living room is literally one room over!"

• "You're closer." The simple reply only made him roll his eyes. "And you're the one with super Human abilities, dear." He responded, unable to stop the curl of his lip into a little smirk.

• He was certain he had you now.

• The massive Pillarman could only blink as the fridge to his right started to emanate with a glowing crimson mist, the door suddenly swinging open by itself.

• A single blue popsicle encased in the same mist picked itself out of the freezer and dangled in the air before him before flying out of the kitchen and into the living room before his very eyes.

• "Thanks for reminding me, honey!" Your cheery voice chirped, echoing off the walls of his brain.

• Kars supposed he just had to be content that you were happy with yourself by doing what you wished with your powers...

• Even if it only encouraged you to be lazy.

Esidisi:

• Esidisi, much like Kars, finds you to be a fascinating creature indeed.

• He had no idea that Humans could do such wonderful things without the aid of some kind of craft; like the stonemask that blessed him his own powers.

• He finds it hilarious, not to mention adorable, that you had all sorts of incredible abilities at your disposal and yet... you carried out your life like a normal Human.

• You went to work and paid bills for crying out loud.

• Even from the moment you two met, he always asked you to do things both crazy and (a lot of the times) not a little dangerous.

• He'd ask you to levitate off the ground to reach for something even though he was tall enough to get it, simply because he was amazed you could do so.

• Or he'd plead with you to take him to another reality so he could fight with the robot-pirate empire.

• The man especially got a kick out of the probability manipulation part of your powers.

• "Say, what's the probability my bathtub will be overflowing with rubber ducks when I go in?" He questioned with a grin.

• You pursed your lips, only half paying attention as you were invested in a video game. You hadn't exactly heard his question but still chose to give an answer.

• "Hmm, 170%." Came the reply.

• That was all the Pillarman needed to hear before Esidisi was excitedly scurrying towards the bathroom, practically bouncing as he stopped to make a grab for the doorhandle.

• It was only in that moment when his question truly sunk in with you, making you blink olwishly as you spun around in your seat to stop him. "--WAIT!"

• Too late.

• The flood of rubber ducks hitting him and sweeping him away down the hall as soon as he flung open the door was highly unexpected but very much welcomed by him.

• If anything, you were happy he didn't have a way to obtain these powers himself; then you would have to really use your powers to fix even more problems he made with them.

• However, you wouldn't deny he helped you get some good practice in when making all sorts of requests...

Wamuu:

• Your powers made Wamuu view you as a worthy opponent for a Human, even long before he fell head over heals for you.

• Before meeting you, he had no idea Humans could obtain such incredible feats and abilities.

• He was under the impression that Hamon was the limitation to Human powers.

• But it was more than clear to him that you weren't exactly a fighter despite the fact you could use them for battle.

• After a little persuasion on his part however, he managed to coax you into sparring or training with him in your free time, making the Warrior absolutely elated to see you in action.

• Fighting against you was exhilarating and actually a challenge to Wamuu, he greatly enjoyed every second of it.

• You could easily deflect sharp blasts of his wind with your force fields like nothing.

• To his astonishment, there was not so much as a hair out of place the time he decided to use his Divine Sandstorm on you.

• "Now, make sure you hold onto me and don't let go." You ordered, smiling softly as his massive arms wrapped around your body.

• Wamuu cocked an eyebrow curiously, frowning down at you where you also held him. You had brought him outside and told him that you were going to show him something.

• "What is--?" The Pillarman's words died on his tongue as he suddenly felt his feet lift off the ground, a weightlessness overtaking his body as if he were nothing but a balloon filled with helium.

• He looked down with wide eyes to find that you and him were hovering right off the ground... no, flying!

• The two of you were actually flying and without wings too!

• You could only laugh at his shocked expression, going higher into thee air with every second. His clothes and the wires of his headgear flapped in an invisible breeze as you took him all the way up into the sky.

• Wamuu finally found his voice, his shocked expression now carrying a HUGE smile as his eyes glittered with delight. "My beloved, you're-- You're something absolutely extraordinary!"

• Your powers and the way you use them will never cease to amaze and impress Wamuu. No matter how many times he sees them it always seemed like you had a trick up your sleeve.

Santana:

• From the moment he laid eyes on you, Santana knew there was something very different about you.

• Something... magical. Out of this world.

• You weren't like any other Human he had ever encountered before (and he had definitely me his share of oddball Humans in his life).

• At first he thought that your super Human abilities were some kind of offspring or held some direct link to that "Hamon" ability he knew Humans practiced...

• But with more examination, more time spent with you and some reassurance on your part, he came to find it was in fact something completely different.

• Always curious, Santana liked to watch you use your powers even for just the little things like moving furniture or turning the lightswitch off from across the room.

• Crash! You had heard the vase break form the other room and weren't surprised to find Santana standing over the shattered remains of pottery.

• The red-head looked surprisingly sheepish, he hadn't meant to break it. "Sorry." Was all he said, baby blue eyes dropping down to the mess on the floor.

• A smile appeared as you waved your hand in the air, a bright red fog following your movement. "Don't worry about it," you hummed.

• Santana only stared, lips parted and eyes wide as the pieces suddenly reformed in mid-air. It was as if time went backwards before his very eyes and before he knew it, the vase was standing before him where the mess of shards once was; completely unscathed.

• "See?" You laughed, more than a little amused to see him so astonished. "No problem."

• A soft smile found its way to Santana's lips. You watched the Pillarman lean down and wrap his hands around the pottery gingerly, picking it up and turning it in his palms to check for any signs of breakage.

• "Impressive..." he murmured, making you feel a little boost in pride.

• You couldn't stop yourself from jumping, a yelp escaping your lips, in surprise as Santana suddenly threw the vase down hard on the floor, smashing it to even tinier bits than before.

• His eyes fell on you, still reeling from shock, as he pointed to the mess. "Again?" He questioned.

• ...with great power came great responsibility. And great messes to clean.

• You could only hope he wouldn't break all your plates next just to see you fix them.

[sourwormsaresour]

Headcanons on the type of pets La Squadra would own?

Holy shit this was too fun to make, especially with giving the pets names.

Sorbet and Gelato have their own Crusty-White-Dog™ that's a Maltese Terrier named Armani. The dog hates and barks nonstop at everything deemed threatening (aka, everyone and particularly the rest of La Squadra) and yet those two will claim she's the sweetest thing in the world. True to her name, they deck her with Armani branded clothes, either specially made dog fashion or they had a DIY done to make it look like an Armani outfit- down to the bright pink leash she wears dripping in the Armani logo. She eats the finest dry kibble and only drinks Ferrarelle Sparkling water; she will know the difference if you switch it up. She's the epitome of "I demand pets but only do so with your eyes" to everyone. Despite loving Sorbet and Gelato the most, she demands all their attention on her and she will cockblock those two if she catches them being affectionate to each other instead. Despite having a nice bed, she always sleeps between the two of them and will whimper if they kick her out of the bedroom so they can get intimate. Those tear-stained eyes always look like they've seen everything, despite being constantly babied by her owners. If Armani could, she would kill everyone.

Risotto, the biggest man in Vento Aureo, has a little Syrian hamster he called Ace. He thought that a pet with a shorter lifespan would allow him the perfect balance of having a pet but not being very attached to it compared to pets that live longer- he was wrong. If you ever come into Risotto's office as he worked, either you are greeted with Ace running around in his green hamster ball, walking around Risotto's desk as he worked, or running in the hamster wheel behind the desk. Ace's tank is an old Aquarium tank Pesci gave to Risotto that is now full of soft bedding, toys, and Risotto frequently cleans it. There are days where Risotto just spends hours watching his hamster walk around the room, eating little treats, and staring at Risotto with its beady eyes. It's gotten to the point where you can't walk into Risotto's office without noticing a lone sunflower seed or piece of bedding on the ground that Risotto didn't notice until you pointed it out. Every time Ace passes from old age, Risotto buys a new Syrian hamster and calls that one Ace. He hasn't kept track of how many hamsters that came and went so far, but treated every one of them as if they were the first Ace. He takes pictures of Ace doing the most relatively boring things and will share them with his members.

Illuso got a Sulphur-crested cockatoo named Scapino as a joke. He thought they didn’t require much attention but later felt bad when he found out that they need specific proper care. He proceeds to care for it as if it was his child. Illuso taught his bird how to speak and swear at people, specifically swearing at Formaggio and occasionally at Ghiaccio. This man will shower his bird with the best treats (expensive nuts, dried fruit, chicken bones) and has a special bar for it to perch on when they're in the shower together. This bird has free reign all over Illuso's place and wears a little anklet thing to verify that it has an owner should it escape. The two of them have spa days together and it’s one of the most wholesome things in the world to witness. Scapino will actually join Illuso on missions too, staying in the mirror world the whole time, and it provides him some comfort from his social anxiety. Sometimes Scapino sits on his shoulder as he walks. Illuso trained it to stay and hide in the mirror world so that it wouldn’t fly away or blow his cover when he’s working. But the bird will fly around in there and will watch anyone that’s getting murked in front of him with no remorse and commenting on it too. Imagine you’re dying in the mirror world and your last moment is this fucking bird looming over you going “night night, motherfucker”. JESUS CHRIST. 

Prosciutto used to be on the whole “pets are unnecessary” train but he had considered looking at breeders for the best quality dog. And then one rainy day he found an abandoned Portuguese Water Dog puppy in an alleyway and at Pesci’s insistence took it in. Turns out the puppy was bought by a rich family for their kid but then abandoned when the kid wasn't interested in it anymore. Prosciutto insisted that the dog was going to stay for one night and then sent to the pound first thing in the morning. It's been years now and the little dog is now a big fluffy good boy named Pon Pon. The second biggest chunk of Prosciutto's paycheck is for this dog; I'm talking grooming services with paw-ticures, an all-organic raw diet, the nicest beds that even a human would wish they can sleep on. Pon Pon is properly trained with all the basics and tricks, because Prosciutto doesn't want to deal with a misbehaving dog, but it will use puppy eyes against the old man now and then. He give you the best smiles if you call him a good boy and if you glance at the right time you can see Prosciutto smile for a brief moment. Had he lived longer, he would have made Pon Pon famous on Facebook like Boo the Dog. Prosciutto will also not admit that this dog has helped him get laid a few times, because every person he did bring home always got a kick out of Pon Pon.

Ghiaccio has a pet snake- an albino ball python named Bianco. Ghiaccio was also on the “pets are unnecessary” train too but mainly because he can't stand loud pets (i.e. Illuso and Sorbet and Gelato’s pets). When Risotto suggested he get a snake, Ghiaccio looked into it, researching and meticulously setting up the proper enclosure  and found himself going to a local reptile expo to find Bianco for sale. He’s fascinated by his snake to say the least, and would use leftover containers or Tupperware for Bianco to spend more money on proper equipment or food. Ghiaccio is really involved in online reptile forums and frequently debates with people on topics such as the best substrates to use, whether live rodents are better than frozen, ethics of breeding certain species, etc. He often gets worried when Bianco becomes picky and Ghiaccio would spend sleepless nights trying to get his baby to eat. Ghiaccio would walk around with his ball python wrapped around his neck or lets him slither around in his room under supervision but he mostly leaves him alone in the enclosure. There are times where he would claim he has the best, smartest pet and everyone just rolls their eyes like “yes the white fettuccine that got stuck in a toilet paper roll an hour ago is so smart”. But they let him rant about it. It’s kind of cute to say the least.

Pesci is the definition of people whose entire LIVELIHOOD is making his room into an aquarium. His room is full of strictly maintained, cleaned, and decorated tanks full of various types of aquatic animals. I’m talking Dwarf Puffers (Antonio, Portia, Jessica, Bassiano, and Solanio), Albino Gold Axolotls (Moe, Larry, and Curly), Red Ear Sliders (Franco and Ciccio), Clown Fishes (Browser, Mario, Toadstool, and Koopa), Brazilian Sea Horses (Tom and Jerry), a Blue Betta Fish named Valentina in a 30+ gallon aquaponics tank that grows a variety of plants each season- to name a few. He rebuilt his entire room to keep everything running and even had Melone help him set up timers for lighting and temperature control. Pesci will cry if you somehow made the pH level off by 1 or did not care for his animals properly when he’s away. He’ll even lecture you about bad tank setup. He's a prominent member of the aquarium  community in Italy and will regularly redecorate each tank to suit the year and mood. This is where he’s spending his cut on the 20 million lira job: caring for his mini aquarium room. He occasionally gives away his pets’ offsprings for extra money (he doesn’t breed but sometimes he ends up having a ton of baby animals he can’t take care of) and would have been a YouTuber for his fish content. Now that I think about it, Pesci reminds me of my mutual @nexter2nd. Please go follow them.

Melone has a Holland Lop bunny and you cannot change my mind. He actually had a pet bunny growing up, another Holland Lop named Echo and Grep, and his current one is named Sudo; all three are named after UNIX commands. He has a large dog crate he diy-ed to be a roomy enclosure in his room for her that he cleans frequently but also allows Sudo free reign of the room when she wants to go out. Because of his job, he makes sure all his wires are covered so his bunny isn't tempted to chew them and watches his bunny diligently whenever she roams around. Easter time is when the denim jacket, pastel bows, and flower crowns come out and Melone makes sure to take a lot of photos. He also housetrained his bunny and taught her a few tricks, similar to how he trained Echo and Grep years ago. Sudo is spoiled in terms of getting a lot of pets, new toys, and feasts on the finest veggies and delicious hay. Melone also makes sure the first thing he teaches his Juniors is to not harm the bunny. Surprisingly, he's against breeding Sudo and has her neutered. This is mainly because he doesn't have the time to breed and raise more bunnies but also he hates the idea of selling the grown bunnies off afterward. 

You know that Formaggio has a cat: the little Russian Blue cat named Sweetie Baby. Sweetie Baby was a kitten that he found outside his home. The little thing was the sole survivor of its litter and nearly starving to death, so he took her in thinking he will bring her to the shelter when she recovers; that cat now lets him live in HER apartment rent-free. Despite feeding her cheap dry food and constantly shoving her into bottles, he treats her like a queen otherwise. He will dress her up in little outfits (much to her annoyance) and often would be too aggressively affectionate towards her. Still, there are moments where she would cuddle with him during the later nights and allow him to put on one iced-out bow he just spent a quarter of his paycheck on. Walking to his apartment and even the backdoor of La Squadra’s HQ means carefully walking through the stray cats mewling at your feet, because Formaggio will feed any cat he sees. Initially, Risotto wanted the cats gone, but then he finds out the cats doubled as security when he watched some robber attempting to break in but getting their eyes scratched off instead.

[goldencuffs]

pen pal

Laurent starts writing emails to inmates in Marlas Penitentiary in his third year of university. The only reason he considers doing it at first is because of Auguste, who writes in one of his weekly emails in the middle of a long, sour summer: These emails help, you know. They keep me sane.

The sadness Laurent feels at reading that is immeasurable. He has to go for a run afterwards, because running is more productive than crying. If Laurent starts crying, he won’t do anything else for the rest of the day. Or week.

He keeps writing to Auguste every week, but as he does so, he feels like he could do more.

A few weeks later, Laurent tells Auguste about it over the phone. Laurent never lies, or keeps things from Auguste. The last time he did, he ruined Auguste’s life. 

Auguste, as usual, sounds tired over the phone, his voice scratchy and low. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Laurent bites his lip, phone pressed against his cheek. He always makes his calls in his room, with the blinds drawn, the lights turned off, the door closed, so the room is washed in darkness. It’s the closest he’ll ever get to understanding how Auguste lives now. This is the only thing he doesn’t share with Auguste, because it would upset him deeply. Auguste always thinks he makes these calls in the open, with the sun beating down on him, the wind through his hair — the kind of life Auguste will never have.

Laurent is acquiescent. He says, “Okay.”

They talk about Laurent’s classes, the new neighbour who has really loud sex, and the cat Laurent is thinking of adopting. Auguste assures Laurent that he is eating and that no one has given him any trouble.

When the call ends, Laurent wants, desperately, to go out on a run. Talking to Auguste always does this to him; leaves him jittery, chest concaved, heart racing. The guilt swallows him. So Laurent punishes himself: he keeps himself locked into his room until the following morning.

Summer ends, but the heat in Marlas is relentless. Laurent and Auguste continue corresponding over email and phone, never talking about things that actually matter.

Laurent gets asked out on a date by Pierre, one of the men who lives in the neighbouring apartments. Laurent says no, and Pierre pushes him, hard, against the wall.

Laurent is left with a large bruise on his bicep. He’s fascinated by the colouring; the purple blends seamlessly in with the blue, which runs into the black. He can’t stop touching it all week, pressing his fingertips down on it until his eyes water.

Pierre is an affable man. He is always polite in the elevators, helps the elderly lady across the hall with her groceries and hosts barbeque parties in the communal area. He hadn’t seemed like the kind of man who couldn’t handle the word no. Then again, Uncle had been like that too.

On Friday, Laurent gets drunk for the first time in eight years.

The following day, he gets to talk to Auguste. Laurent is too hungover to hide his own despondence.

Auguste notices. Laurent doesn’t want to waste their ten minutes on something that will upset Auguste. He will eventually tell him; Laurent doesn’t like keeping secrets anymore.

As the call beeps, letting them know there’s only thirty seconds left, Auguste says. “Look, I’ve been thinking… I think it’d be nice if you sent some of the guys here some emails every now and then.”

Laurent perks up. “Really?”

“Yeah,” says Auguste, a smile in his voice. “But I’m going to send you a list of people, alright? I don’t want you emailing some creep.”

“Of course,” Laurent says, breathless. “Thank you. I love you.”

“I love —” The line cuts off.

Auguste’s email drops in his inbox on Tuesday at eleven am, like clockwork. In it, he includes the names of other inmates that are reasonable, suitable. There are five names. Laurent request the email IDs of all of them and sets about writing.

He only gets two responses. One is from a man named Alexon, who says he isn’t interested in corresponding right now, and the other is from Ancel, who writes fuck of. Im not a cherity progect.

Laurent writes Ancel another email, assuring him he’s not a charity project, but that goes unanswered.

Auguste laughs — or Laurent assumes he does because his email says LOL! — when he tells him about it.

So, Laurent goes on the Marlas Penitentiary website. Underneath the How to contact loved ones tab, there’s a link that says: Become a Penpal! Change a life!

Laurent clicks on it.

There are, surprisingly, hundreds of inmates, all of their pictures shown in neat, square boxes, alongside their name, age, sexuality and religion.

Laurent scrolls through dozens of them. He makes note of the younger ones, the ones he might be able to carry a conversation with. He also filters his search to life sentence because Laurent doesn’t want to give someone the opportunity to demand to see him in a few months.

Near the end, Laurent sees him.

It’s hard not to be captivated by his photo. He’s one of the few people smiling in it, and it was obviously taken outside of prison. A large man with curly, styled hair and dark eyes grins at him, teeth white and straight, cheek dimpled. He’s wearing a suit, arms crossed over his chest, arms bulging, shoulders wide. Laurent has never seen someone so attractive in his life — didn’t think people in the real world could look like this, let alone end up in prison.

His profile says: Vallis, Damianos Theomedes. 27. Bisexual. I’m bored in here. I need to keep myself sane. Send me something if you can actually keep a conversation going. Thank you for taking the time to read through this. Sorry I don’t seem nicer. I used to be.

It’s definitely… different. Laurent marks him as a maybe.

Later, Laurent asks Auguste if he knows anyone called Damianos in Marlas. Auguste responds with a, “Nope. And I know pretty much everyone here. So that’s not a good sign.”

“Why not?”

“It either means the dude is a complete recluse, or that he’s barred from most communal activities. Like I said, not a good sign.”

But something about Damianos’ profile keeps Laurent intrigued for the next several days.

He isn’t sure what it is; the picture, of someone who once led an obviously lavish style, or Damianos’ words, I need to keep myself sane, an echo of Auguste’s sentiments. Also the Thank you had been unusual, as well as the I used to be nicer. Laurent used to be nicer, too.

Laurent ends up Googling Damianos’ full name that night.

There are about twenty articles to sift through. All of them detail a violent, horrific crime, where Damianos murdered his own brother in his penthouse.

But even that doesn’t deter Laurent. He remembers how the media, the court, the lawyers had presented Auguste: as someone vicious, cold and calculated, the complete antithesis of how Auguste really was.

The articles about Auguste had been eerily similar. All of them mentioned how shocking it was that a doctor at the top of his game could senselessly murder his own uncle, but very few of them mentioned why Auguste had done it.

They made it out like Auguste was some bloodthirsty maniac, bent on revenge, and not a caring, protective older brother who had been horrified by their Uncle’s actions.

It’s why Laurent decides to give Damianos the benefit of the doubt. If he does end up being a creep, or a weirdo, then Laurent has the luxury of never speaking to him again. He’s not being stupid about this.

His request is fulfilled two days later. Damianos’ email ID is attached at the bottom.

Laurent sends his first email that afternoon.