#and I don’t mean in a Gus dying way

[hoss-bonaventure]

i want to expand on this post just cause i can.

so much of gus and jesse’s relationship is played as an affair. this is only because it makes walt’s anger about their dynamic feel more jilted, like a lover. when he confronts jesse about the two of them having dinner he uses language an excusatory husband would use if he caught his spouse cheating such as “tell me you weren’t as his house last night?” it’s very clearly written as jesse being disloyal to walt and their partnership. now the audience knows that’s just simply not true with jesse literally saying “if you kill mr. white, you’re going to have to kill me too” when he thinks gus is suggesting killing him. he’s devoted to mr. white throughly. even when he’s being shoved into these new situations by mike and gus, there’s never a moment where he thinks about abandoning him. he’s still in the back of his mind through everything, and every character knows this except for walt. that’s what makes most of the build-up leading to gus’s death so ironic. to walt, gus is the other woman who needs to be killed for fraternizing with what’s “his”. in reality, it’s his own brutality and sadistic behavior that is putting a wedge between him and jesse. 

it’s very reminiscent of walt finding out about skyler’s affair with ted. he lashes out and throws a tantrum but he never stops for a second and asks why it happened. he never comes to the conclusion that his actions are what’s driving skyler into another’s arms. he plots to get revenge on ted, but it’s never more serious than toxic masculine how-dare-you-sleep-with-my-wife bullshit. he wants to kill him, i don’t doubt that, but he can’t. how can he? killing, torturing, and all that depravity belongs in the “heisenberg” part of his life. he cannot touch ted because he is as mundane as the life he is fronting. 

now, i will admit, the skyler affair storyline and jesse’s so-called adultery are really not that similar at all. like i said, jesse is not betraying anyone--he is still fiercely dedicated to mr. white. his unfaithfulness is only interpreted as much by walt himself, and it’s walt’s delusions drive him away in the first place. skyler cheats as a means of revenge, as a way to take back some autonomy that walt had stripped her of. however, it’s the way that walt handles these individual perfidies that’s so captivating to me. when deciding what to do with gus, he immediately decides he needs to kill him. this was his plan prior, but now it’s more dire. jesse is gone. he needs to kill two birds with one stone: win back jesse and kill gus. more importantly, he needs to show jesse that him killing gus was something he did for the both of them. so thus he embarks on this convoluted, deplorable, fucked-up scheme. and hey! it works. he successfully manipulates jesse once again, implanting in his brain that no one will have your best interests at heart but me. “gus had to go” and jesse has to agree because this pseudo-son is dying and mr. white is right there and he saved him right? he saved brock and he saved jesse and it doesn’t matter that their love has a body count. their reunion is so impactful because they’re like magnets in a way. the connection they share is so strong that it doesn’t matter how hard they fight or run away, they will cling to each other once more. but what’s devastating this time around is that jesse doesn’t have a leg to stand on with mr. white anymore. he almost fucking killed him and it turns out the “real” mastermind was gus all along. so he offers his submission as an apology, when mr. white holds out his hand he takes it because this is how he can say he’s sorry. and walt? how could he not fall in love all over again. he has jesse, freshly martyred and in his arms once again. 

[orange-demons-deactivated2024]

Luke s. x bimbo!fem!reader

not a luke girlie, but I think out of everyone in street fighter 6. he's the only one to fully appreciate a bimbo gf.

When Luke first sees you, you were being harassed by a couple of thugs near his gym. 

And of course, being an outstanding samaritan and having a chance to impress himself in front of a hot girl, he did what anyone would do and kicked their asses.

After he scared them off he went to check if you were fine. To which you wrapped your arms around him to thank him.

That’s how you met.

He likes to show off in front of you, whether in the arena or on the streets.

He also spoils you rotten, that Louis Vuitton purse you were eyeing, purchased. The Dior lip oil that was out of stock, yours. That cute mini skirt you pointed through the window, now lies in your wardrobe.

Luke loves it when you cling on his arm, it really strokes his ego.

When you told him you had a dog named Cupcake he fully expected a tiny spoiled chihuahua. The type that's way too pampered to move. Not a 100lb Rottweiler who serves as your attack dog. She scared the hell out of him when he first came over.

She's fiercely protective of you and only you, so she doesn’t take a liking to Luke no matter how much he tries. 

You like to see if your new lipstick is smudge-proof by kissing him. You would sit on his lap and pepper his face with kisses, not like he’s complaining.

You insisted on wearing matching lockets, so Luke keeps his on the chain holding his dog tags.

You made it a point to have your picture on one side and his on the other. So when you closed it, you both would be kissing.

Well...at least that's what you said.

Every time he enters a tournament before he goes into the ring, he kisses his locket good luck.

He’s the type of guy to say wear what you want, I can fight.

But if he notices someone who can’t take their eyes off of your low-cut top, he’ll pull you closer by your waist.

You randomly asked him one day how it feels to be put in a headlock, because you saw him do it to one of his students when you went to visit him at the gym. So he decided to give you a demonstration.

His forearms weren't tight enough to restrict your airflow, but you could definitely feel your cheeks squish and your lips puckering. Maybe dying like this wasn't too bad.

Luke laughs at you for liking this too much. 

You like to show him the cute charms on your nails every time you get them done.

One time when you both were making out, you noticed one of your gel nails was broken, and that was the only thing you could focus on for the next hour, despite him whining for you to keep kissing him.

He knows you don’t like it when he tries to hug you when he’s all sweaty because you don’t want his sweat to get on your outfit.

but he still does it anyway even after you push him away.

He's never cared much about the latest fashion trends or the makeup drops from famous influencers, but he’ll allow himself to be dragged to the mall if you beg him enough.

He’ll hold all your bags with no complaints.

He definitely gives you princess treatment. Like massaging your legs when your feet hurt from wearing heels all day, or even paying for all your shopping expenses when you refuse.

When you come home from a successful haul you're always eager to show him. And he will tell you which ones he likes the best.

He says to give him a little twirl.

You complain to him about how much you don’t want pizza because he eats it all the time.

Every time Luke is able to customize a character in game, he makes them look like you. 

He does his best to have them adopt your style and mannerisms.

Luke knows he doesn’t need to protect you 24/7 because you’re capable of handling yourself, but he still wants to teach you a couple of moves in case something does happen.

He taunts you a bit so you can pack more to your punch.

And let me say, you have a mean, right hook. Knocked Luke in his jaw.

He actually thought it was pretty hot, especially when you were fussing over him. 

When you guys travel, he gets to relax in your pink car. The seats are lined with fur and filled to the brim with stuffed animals. Fuzzy dice hanging from your rearview mirror and snacks in the hidden compartments of the car. 

He makes you drive because he can’t see through the gaps in the plushies like you do and gets too distracted by them. 

You text constantly since you both have different routines. But you mostly send pics of yourself when you're in dressing rooms. 

You: [sent pic] Does this skirt make my butt look big?

Luke: I think you should go shorter. 

So you do.

Playing co-op with this guy is easy for you. Mostly because he’s good enough to carry both of you through an entire game. 

It’s different if you're competitive, because he is too. So he won’t let you win so easily. 

But if you decide to opt-out, he’ll sit on the floor while you passively braid his hair. You even stick a couple of hair clips in his hair with small charms on them.

As much as you love Luke, you hate sleeping over his house. He doesn’t have anything to eat in his fridge other than protein shakes and red meat.

And showering was a different story. Body scrubs, lotions, scented shampoos, and conditioners are nowhere to be seen. You have to tuff it out with the 3 in 1 men’s shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.

But you do like snuggling with him in bed because he gives the best hugs, so you guess you can deal with it.

love potions (feat. princess paparazzi)

[nenilein]

Drama CD #1-1: The Genie of Wishes in the Underground Ruins (ENG)

[DISCLAIMER: This translation was made by me! Feel free to repost parts of it or the entire text wherever you want as long as you credit the translator correctly!]

INTRO

Arle: Drama CD Puyo Puyo! 

-

STORY

Narrator: A dark underground ruin crawling with dangerous monsters… This is the setting of a certain legend the people tell. It is said that within this ruin a being known as the “Genie of Wishes” has been sealed, and that he shall grant but a single wish of whoever comes to break this seal… 

SFX: *Puyo popping sounds*

Arle: Hah! There! One, two… Ice Storm!

SFX: *Monster dying shriek*

Arle: I did it!

SFX: *bouncing*

Carbuncle: Gugu! Gugugu!

Arle: Oh! Carby’s using that Puyo as a trampoline! That sure looks fun!

Arle: But this isn’t the time! C’mon, we gotta hurry on along!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

SFX: *their footsteps as they run further into the labyrinth*

Arle: It sure has been a while since we’ve gone on this sort of adventure, hasn’t it? Let’s make sure that the first people to break the seal on the wishin genie sealed at the center of this dungeon will be us! Okay, Carby?

Carbuncle: Gugu, gugu!

Arle: Yeah, you’ve right! That’s why we’ve gotta speed up! I mean, what if somebody’s already gotten in here before us?

Witch: Howdy!

Arle: WARRRGH!! …Witch? Don’t scare me like that, geez!

Witch: Oh, c’mon, gimme a smile! Say ‘Howdy!’

Arle: H-Howdy…? Wait, if you’re here, then that means… You’re after the wishing genie too, aren’t you? 

Witch: Yep, guess I am.

Arle: Then you leave me no choice! Let’s battle!

Witch: Now, hold on a minute! Personally, I’ve got no intentions of scuffling with you, Arle!

Arle: Huh?

Witch: I mean, this dungeon is dangerous, like, VERY dangerous. And I’m just a frail little witchling, oh, however will I make it through here on my own? So I was thinking, Arle, how about you and I team up for this adventure? 

Arle: Heh? Um, well… 

Witch: Oh, please, please, pretty please? Do it for your old friend Witch~? 

Carbuncle: Gugu…?

Arle: I mean, if you really wanna party up that bad… I guess…

Witch: …As if~…Ohohoho…

Witch:  Gotcha guard down! Meteo!!

SFX: *attacking sound*

Arle: Heheh! Not a chance!!

SFX: *spellcasting and attacking sounds*

Witch:  WHOA!!

Arle:  I knew it! You were never the type to play nice. I figured you had some kind of ulterior plan, so I made sure to prepare a counter attack when you weren’t paying attention!

Witch:  Urgh…This blows…

Arle: You stay here and take a little nap now. 

Witch:  Hmpf! This isn’t fair, you know! 

Arle: Right back at you! Seriously… Anyway, Carby, let’s move on!

SFX: *footsteps*

Carbuncle: Gugu!

Witch: W-WAIIIIT!

SFX: *they keep running*

-

Arle: *sigh* So Witch made it here too… And if she did, then I bet-

Carbuncle: *gasp* GUGU!!

Arle:  Huh? Carby?

Schezo:  Hmpf… Arle. It would see you too have laid your sights upon the legendary Genie of-

Arle: YES, BINGO!! I KNEW it was gonna be Schezo next~!

Schezo:  What the- S-STOP POINTING AT ME! My face is NOT your bingo sheet!

Arle: Geez, it’s just a figure of speech, calm down! By the way, what’s it you’re after today? My magic power or that of the wishing genie?

Schezo:  Hmpf. I shall answer you. What I desire… is BOTH! 

SFX: *sword slash*

Arle: Ack! Rushing forward and attacking is not cool! 

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Schezo: It is your own fault for neglecting your guard! Finally, today will be the day that I shall make you my own! Oh, roar, my Dark Sword! 

Arle:  Urgh! I can’t fall behind…

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Arle:  Judgement! 

Schezo: That won’t suffice! I am more than ready to neutralize and counter that attack! Sting Shade!!

SFX: *blast*

Arle:  Argh! Schezo is always so strong…!

Schezo: Hmpf. Are you ready to beg for your life now? …W-Wait! What is that there dangling from your hip? It is… so round! 

Arle:  That? Oh, that’s a good luck charm Amitie gave me a while back. It’s a little plush figure that looks like an acorn frog. I think it’s really super-

Schezo: Uhh… it’s so cuuuuute…!

Arle: Yeah, right? It’s super cute and…! Wait, huh? 

Schezo: Such a lovely sight…! While the real thing is already unsurpassable in its adorableness, seeing a plush figure modeled in its image is just too…!

Arle: Um, Schezo? Anybody still home in there…? 

Carbuncle: Gugu, gugu…

Schezo: Right now, there is nothing… NOTHING I desire more than to have YOU!!

Arle: Ah… um… You mean… the plush, right? Okay, anyway…

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Arle: Seriously, how can he leave himself wide open like that… Urgh… I can’t even feel any good about this, but… let’s just get this over with.

Arle: MIND BLAST!

SFX: *blast, cartoon birds tweeting*

Schezo: WAAAARGH!

Arle: Critical hit straight to the brain, huh? Anyway, you spend some time recovering from the mind-melt here now!

Schezo: *lisping* Uhh… uhh… Where’sh this? What wash I… doing…? 

Arle: Okay, Carby. Let’s hurry on along!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

SFX: *footsteps as they leave*

-

Arle: We’re pretty far in now, huh?

Carbuncle: Gugu…

Arle:  I’m pretty sure we’re just about due for her now…

Rulue: OH-HOHOHOHO!

Arle: *sigh* Yeah… There’s the laugh. I figured. I knew she’d show up. But, still..

Rulue: I had a feeling you would be here, Arle! 

Arle: Hey there… Rulue…

Rulue: You must also be searching for the Genie of Wishes. But in the end I will be one to undo the seal! And then I shall have a GORGEOUS wedding with my darling prince, Satan!

Arle: Yeah. That stupid, bland wish sure sounds like you.

Rulue: *shrieking* What are you calling “stupid” and “bland”!? Arle! Not only must you always stand in the way of my romance with my Satan, but now you’re also being so incredibly rude to me!!

Arle: What did I even do!? It’s Satan who’s obsessed with chasing me, not the other way around! 

Rulue: *shriek* You will pay for this…! I will shut you up for good with my marvelous martial arts techniques! 

Arle: *sigh* Yeah, of course this is where this conversation went.

Rulue: I will NOT hold back for a second! 

SFX: *Puyo chaining sounds*

Rulue: Queen’s Dance!

Arle: AAAAAAHH!!

SFX: *blast, more chaining sounds*

Arle: AHH, she sure still knows how to pack a punch! Urgh, and I’m still powered out from casting earlier. I really was hoping to avoid more battles… Looks like I’ve got only one choice!

Rulue: Come now, Arle. What’s wrong? Show me your best shot!

Arle: Hey, Rulue! Look behind you! It’s Satan!

Rulue: Such an obvious lie! That trick won’t work on me.

Arle: But Rulue, he’s waving at you~

Rulue: Ungh… As if I’d fall for this…!

Arle: Oh! And now he’s winking at you!

Rulue: …Uhhh….uhh…!

Arle: Ah! He just blew you a kiss!

Rulue: …She’s lying… I know she’s lying, but… Oh, why must you betray me, my foolish heart…!? OH, MY DARLING, SATAN~!!

Arle: Hngh! Fireball!

SFX: *chain sound, blast*

Rulue: AAAAAHHH!

Arle: Sorry for this, Rulue. But I really don’t think you should have THAT wish granted~!

Rulue: How dare you… AAAARLE!!

SFX: *footsteps as Arle runs away*

Rulue: COME BACK HERE, RIGHT NOW!

-

SFX: *still running*

Arle: *pant, pant…* …Ahh!! There it is! The final door!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

Arle: The wishing genie is sealed behind that door! And we’re first in line to unseal him!

Carbuncle: Gugu!

SFX: *gate opening*

SFX: *slow footsteps*

Satan: Truely, Arly, Carbunny! You two ARE first in line! Let me congratulate you! …Or, well, you would be first. If one were to not count me! The great monarch of the night, Satan!

Arle: Satan? You’re here too!?

Satan: I had a feeling you would not miss your chance to visit this place, so I waited here. Hah. And you have done well defeating the many opponents in your path and making it here first! I expected no less of you, Arle! You are truly worthy of being my wedded empress! 

Arle: I keep telling you! I’ll NEVER be your “empress”! *sigh* How many times have I said that line now? I’ve kinda lost count. 

Carbuncle: Gugu-gu…

Satan: Now, now, there’s no need to be flustered! WAHAHAHAHA!!

Arle: This is really bad… Satan may be a moron, but he’s also really super powerful…!

Satan: Now, Arly, Carbunny, time to stop playing coy! Else I’ll have to be a liiiittle forceful in escorting you out of her~!

Arle: *sigh* Overthinking this isn’t going to help… Let’s get this going, Satan!

SFX: *Puyo popping sounds*

Arle: Hah! There! Fireball!!

Satan: Oh my, oh my… I suppose I shall accept this symbol of your burning passion! 

Arle: Urgh… Ice Storm!

Satan: Ahhh~ Such a nice, little breeze~

Satan: It is about time I returned fire… Disaster!

Arle: *screaming* AAAAAH!!

Carbuncle: *screaming: GUUUU!!

Arle:  Ou, ou, ou, ou, ouch…! Carby! Are you okay?

Carbuncle: Gugu…

Satan: Awww! Don’t make such a sad face my precious little Carbunny! I promise I’ll give you lots of pets after we’re done here~!

Arle: Hm… Satan!

Satan: Hm? What is it, Arle?

Arle: Um…Could you stand over there for a moment?

Satan: For what? Do you want to admire me striking battle poses for a little longer~? Hm~?

Arle: A little further right!

Satan: You mean here? How is this? Does this angle make me look especially handsome?

Arle: Yes, yes, that’s very good~! …Now, Carby!!

Carbuncle: Gu! GUGUGU!!

SFX: *Rubelcrack Beam*

Satan: W-WAAAAARGH!!! M…My eyes! MY EYES!! 

Arle: Perfect teamwork, Carby! Okay, Satan, we’re gonna go now! BYE~!

Satan: U-Urgh… N-No, wait… This can’t be… ARLE, WAIIIT!!

SFX: *footsteps as Arle runs away*

-

SFX: *still running*

Arle: *panting* 

SFX: *stops running*

Arle: *deep breath* Carby! We did it! We’re here!

Carbuncle: Gu-gugu!

Arle: Now, let’s see… Where’s that Wishing Genies sealed? The only thing I can see in this room is some musty, old kind of pot…

Genie(muffled): Over here…!

Arle: Whoaaa!! The pot just talked to me!

Genie(muffled): Over here…! I am sealed within this awful thing!

Arle: Oh, so that’s how it is… Hey, so, I heard that you’ll grant one wish to the person who helps you outta there. Is that true?

Genie(muffled): Yes. No matter how greedy or preposterous your wish, it will come true just as you imagine it! Now, come on, hurry, open the lid of this jar!

Carbuncle: Gugu…

Arle: …Right, you feel it too, don’t you, Carby? I have this really bad feeling about this.

SFX: *someone comes running*

Witch: *panting* …Hold it right there!

Arle: Argh! Witch!?

Witch: *panting* …Now I’ve caught up to you! 

SFX: *more people running*

Schezo&Rulue: *heavy panting* 

Schezo: ARLE! YOU’LL PAY FOR EARLIER!

Rulue: ARLE! DON’T YOU THINK YOU’VE WON ALREADY!

Arle: And now Schezo and Rulue are here too!

Schezo: Now hand me that jar at once!

Rulue: Give it to me!

Witch: No, to me!

[The scene now descends into Schezo, Rulue and Witch incomprehensibly bickering over each other about who should take the pot from Arle. This keeps going as Arle starts to talk again.]

Arle: What do I do now…? Argh! I don’t have time to think this over!!

SFX: *jar being ploppen open*

Witch:  EEK! Arle already opened the jar!!

Arle: Whoa…! *cough* What’s with all this smoke? What is going on!?

Rulue: Kiii! What is happening now!?

Schezo: Wait…

Rulue:  Huh?

Schezo: Something is not right here…!

Arle: Huh!? The smoke is taking the shape of a person!

Genie:  Wa-Ha-Ha… Hehehehehehe!! You fools! Thank you for breaking the seal on me, the Genie of Despair!!

Arle: Huh?

Schezo: The Genie of…Despair?

Rulue: But did the legend not speak of a Genie of Wishes?

Genie: Hahaha! That was a rumor I spread to lure foolish adventurers here. And it seems my plan worked perfectly!

Witch: Then… It was all a lie!?

Genie: That is precisely what it was! I mean who in their right mind would grant you lots’ wishes!? I must say, watching you all be deceived by such an obviously made up tale and quarrel so gruesomely among each other was very amusing! 

The Group: *restless sounds*

Genie: Eheheheheh! My powers are returning to me quickly! Behold the great power that once spread poison miasma across the lands! A magic which’s destructive spells once drove out each and every challenger who stepped before me, and turned this area into a land of despair!

The Group: *more restless sounds*

Genie:  Now, you shall fear me! Tremble in terror! In thanks of breaking my seal, you all shall be the first to taste the despair I-

The Group: SHUT THE HECK UP!! (Gu-gugu-GU!)

Genie: …Heh?

Witch: How dare you deceive me! You sure have nerve!

Rulue: I’ll teach you to play with the dreams of a maiden in love!

Schezo: I have no use for the magic of a being as repulsive as you!

Arle:  You’ve REALLY gone and made us mad at you now, you know!?

Carbuncle:  Gugu-gugu-GU!

[Everybody is incomprehensibly yelling at the genie without waiting their turn.]

Genie:  W-Wait! Were you even listening to what I said!? *deep breath* I am an INCREDIBLY powerful Genie of Despair, who is going to-

Arle: EAT THIS CHAIN! Here I go!! Diacute!

SFX: *Puyo popping sounds*

Witch: I’ll take over! Twinkle Dust!

Rulue: Very well! Concentration!

Schezo:  Oh, dark power… Tear Apart!

Genie:  *shrieking* What is this comet my eyes see before me!? W-Wait! Just a moment ago you were quarreling and snarling amongst each other! Why can you suddenly work together so perfectly!?

Arle: Take this! This is a special chain, full of all our anger! BAYO~EN!!

SFX: *BIIIG IMPACT*

Genie: WAAAAAAAHHH! *blasts off like Team Rocket*

Arle: *pants and sighs* Haaah… Now I feel a little better, I guess.

Witch: We managed to unite our powers wonderfully!

Schezo: Not by choice, of course, but I am also not surprised.

Rulue: Who would’ve thought that a party as prone to quarreling as us could work together so well?

Arle: Yeah, it’s scary how well we all synchronize when it comes down to it, huh?

SFX: *someone comes running*

Satan: Ah! Arle! What happened here? I heard a loud noise…

Arle: Oh! Satan! You only just got here? Your eyes aren’t hurting still, are they…?

Satan: Hmpf… I still find myself blinking a bit more than I should. But, much more importantly! I just saw a rather evil-looking genie come soaring my way. Before I knew it I’d caught it in my hands and sealed it away in a bottle suitable for the job, but where did it come from, I wonder? 

Genie(muffled again): No! NO! I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS!!

Rulue: *squee* Oh, my darling Satan! As expected of you, you saved the day!

Schezo: Just throw the bottle out with the recyclables. Nobody wants that trash.

Satan: What has gotten into you…?

Rulue: That all aside… *sigh* What a waste. I came all this way hoping for a gorgeous wedding with my Satan, and now this!

Satan: R-Rulue… I think you just gave me the chills…

Schezo: *sigh* I too came here looking to increase my power, but it seems all the walking was for naught…

Witch: It’s mortifying! I thought I’d be able to use this as a pretext to finally become a fully-fledged witch!

Arle: Yeah, same here! Just when I thought I’d be able to finally get my hands on some good curry again!

Carbuncle: Gugu!

Schezo: Wait…

Schezo, Rulue & Witch:  You were going to wish for CURRY!?

-END

[cohenatwood]

Clexa Fanfic Series: something wicked (this way comes)

Synopsis: After the death of coven leader Thelonius Jaha, Gustus Woods' banishment from Polis, Massachusetts is lifted and he moves back with his two daughters, Anya and Alexandria Woods, who have no idea of their family lineage or the prophecy that had been foretold long before either were born.

Chapter 3: the dinner party (words: 11,984)

Aurora and Abby begin sifting through the boxes of Jake’s life, looking for anything he may have discovered before Gustus and Caroline’s banishment. So far only finding more Griffin journals and grimoires but nothing else of substance. Clarke and Octavia are situated in the living room, also going through some boxes, still confused on why they were having to go through her dad’s boxes. Her mother, still keeping things from her.

“We could always ask Gus. I mean, he hinted he did something, that they did something, and he took the fall.” Aurora suggests, Abby shakes her head.

“Whatever they did together clearly didn’t work. I know Jake. If he and Gustus had been involved at the beginning I know he secretly was still finding a way, something Gustus may not even know about.” Abby states, Aurora sighs, nodding and continuing to look through the boxes. Abby grabs another box and sets it in between Clarke and Octavia in the living room. Both girls groaning.

“How many more do we need to look through? Also, it would help if you told us what the hell we’re even looking for.” Clarke tries.

“To be honest Clarke, I don’t even know what I’m looking for.” Abby says, and she is telling the truth, she’s looking for anything that may suggest Jake had been able to research the prophecy. “I promise a few more boxes and then I’ll buy us all dinner.” Abby looks at both girls and Aurora, who nods. Abby goes back to where Aurora is in the kitchen, and Clarke and Octavia resume the sifting.

“Is it weird?” Octavia speaks low, posing the question to Clarke.

“What? Going through my dead dad’s private things looking for something we don’t even know what we’re looking for? My mom being cagey and secretive? No, not at all.” Clarke deadpans. Octavia chuckles.

“Yeah, that was a stupid question.” Clarke’s phone vibrates and she sees a text from Lexa, not able to contain the grin that spread across her face. “Lexa?” Octavia smirks. Clarke nods, reading the text.

Lexa Woods: I think I found something. Can we meet?

Clarke texts Lexa back, letting her know it might be a little hard for her to get away, but wants to know what Lexa found. They had been investigating Jaha’s death together, along with Wells, since Lexa’s dad has access to everything regarding the official police investigation, and Lexa suspected maybe other things not related to the official investigation.

“How’s that going? I know you’ve been waiting to divulge any details until both Rae and I are together, but I’m kind of dying here.” Octavia says dramatically. Clarke rolls her eyes at her best friend but can’t help the smile that also plays at her lips.

“I mean, it’s new. We kissed. We talked. We kissed some more.”

Continue reading here!

[obsidiancreates]

One Undead To Another (Chapter 16)

(Trigger warnings for graphic depictions of injury/dying, blood, nightmares)

Gus tips the delivery person and walks back into the main room of the office with two still-steaming burritos in a bag. Shawn feels the memory of salivating at that same smell– god, not even a week ago. Somehow it feels like it’s been years since he woke up cold and starving, but at the same time it’s been seconds. Is that a vampire thing, an ADHD thing, or a trauma thing? Is it worth figuring out? Not right now.

His mouth is bone-dry as he accepts the burrito. It smells good, great, and the way the warmth of it seeps through the tinfoil into his hands is heavenly. He feels no excitement to bite into it. 

“Alright.” Gus sits down at his desk. “Test number one– garlic.”

“I dunno about this, man. I told you I get hungry after I get hurt.”

“Shawn, we need to figure out your supernatural weaknesses before going back to taking cases.”

“I think we can consider garlic a lock!”

“Sunlight isn’t.”

“... Fair. … Fine. But only if you make some posters to hang around so we get some more private cases.”

“Why? Are you hungry again already?”

“...”

“Do I need to pull out the pencil rosary again?”

“Maybe? It’s not… bad. It’s just kind of… there. Can we just– I’m taking a bite, if I burst into flames or turn into a pile of ash just know my text about my Tears for Fears vinyls still applies.”

“Shawn.”

“Just making sure.” Shawn unwraps the burrito. It’s weird, to know something smells so delicious and know it should be making your mouth water and know you should be excited to eat it, but none of that matters. It’s like the whole experience is hitting a glass wall, clearly there, just barely out of reach to him. 

He takes a bite. Shredded pork, salsa, guac, there’s even roasted corn in this one. It’s loaded, incredible, and he can’t really enjoy it because even though it all tastes exactly like it did when he was human it doesn’t mean anything. Nothing is satisfied by it. In fact, the pang of hunger sharpens as the taste of the pork specifically floods his mouth.

It’s meat, and it’s wrong. Close, so close to what he needs, but not right.

“So?”

Shawn swallows. “Didn’t even burn.”

“Alright, garlic is a no.” Gus crosses it off his list. “We’ve gotta find some garlic flowers next and see if those do anything.”

“Garlic flowers? Don’t be silly, Gus.”

“Garlic flowers are another classic vampire ward, Shawn! They’re used in the original Dracula novel!”

“It’s a novel?” 

“We had to read it in the seventh grade, remember?!”

“Not really. I do remember watching one of those old uh, black-and-white movies with Count Dookie.”

“Count Dooku, Shawn.”

“Gus, he was one of the bad guys, let’s not sweat over his name.”

“You’re trying to distract me.”

“Am not.”

“You are! You’re deflecting again!”

“Deflecting? Please.”

“We agreed, last night, that if you got uncomfortable with focusing on the vampire stuff or the psychic stuff you’d say it outright and we’d switch gears.”

“... Alright. Alright, yes, I’m… wanting to change the subject for a while.”

“Fine. Psychic stuff still fine, or no supernatural stuff at all?”

“None at all, man, I just… let’s watch a movie or something. Least that won’t be different.”

“Alright. Hey, I think American Duos is on.”

“Really? … Wow. Their ratings must be terrible, it’s the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.”

“The guy they replaced Zappato with is kind of lacking, and they had to replace Emilina last season and she’s not great either. I think it’s only still on because the producers are afraid of telling Nigel St Nigel he’s off the air.”

“Really? It sounds awful. Let’s watch the entire season.”

“You know that’s right.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Nice of you to join us today, detectives.”

They both freeze in their tracks. Lassiter turns around first, adjusting his tie nervously. “Ready to get back to work, Chief. It was just a 24 hour thing, and I’m firing on cylinders today.”

“We both are,” Jules jumps in.

“Good, because your homicide case wrapped up the other night and we need a few closing details from you both. You’ll find the paperwork on your desks–”

“Chief!” Buzz jogs over. “We just got a report on the wire, body pulled out of a lake. Looks like drowning.”

Jules makes eye contact with Lassiter. Shawn’s abilities really have evolved. 

“Oh, detectives!” Buzz grins at them both. “I’m glad you guys are feeling better today! Oh, um, Detective Lassiter, I put any remains of journals or anything we found from the mansion in a box and left it by your desk.”

The Chief turns to Lassiter with a disbelieving, you-better-explain threatening smile. “Uh, detective, when did you ask Officer McNab to do this?”

Crap. “Uh, over the phone yesterday, Chief.”

“And you heard about the mansion burning down… how?”

“... Well, uh… Spencer! Yes, Spencer called me in the middle of the night, said he had a vision. Normally I would’ve told him to screw off but I… humored, him, when he asked me to tell McNab… that.”

“You… humored… Mr. Spencer?”

“I blame the fever, Chief.”

“Well, then… I’ll blame it as well. If Mr. Spencer thinks something additionally important is in those journals, I’ll let you hold onto them for the moment, but it’s looking like this case is pretty much completely shut, at this point in time. Right now I want this drowning case to be your top priority.”

“You got it, Chief,” Jules says, giving a too-wide smile and overly enthusiastic thumbs-up. The Chief eyes her oddly for a moment, and then walks back to her office.

“Keep it together, O’Hara, you’re the one who convinced me to play along with this crap,” Lassiter whispers as they quickly walk to his desk.

“I’m trying! The bigger the secret, the harder time I have keeping it!”

“Then why in god’s name are we doing this?!”

“Because Shawn doesn’t deserve to go to jail or a mental facility for something he had no control over!”

“You do realize–”

“As soon as I said it. But Shawn’s not one of the the bad guys, Carlton. It’s different. He’s one of us.”

“... Yeah, alright.” Lassiter tries to sound unconvinced as he agrees. They reach his desk and he takes the lid off the box, frowning as he looks inside. “This is what McNab considers salvageable? He’s more off than I was before the divorce.”

“Oh, Carlton.”

“... My therapist says turning the situation into humor could help me move past it.”

“Alright… well, if you think it’s helping.”

Lassiter looks back into the box, slightly flushed with embarrassment now, and carefully looks through. “I don’t know that we’ll get anything helpful from this.”

“Well, maybe they’ll trigger some kind of… psychic revelation for Shawn.”

“We’re bringing him evidence now?”

“He’ll probably steal it out of evidence if we don’t.”

“You finally caught him doing that?”

“No, but, we both know he does.”

“... Fine. At least this way we can ask for it back. … Let’s focus on this drowning thing instead. You were lying when you said you’d call him, right?”

“No, I was not.”

“O’hara, you saw him this morning. He’s not even close to ready to work on a serious case.”

“... Fine. I’ll wait until we have evidence of foul play. If nothing suggests that, I’ll just tell him it was an accidental drowning case tomorrow.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Henry closes the door to the security room and gives himself a moment to chuckle, tossing his badge up once and tucking it back into his suit pocket. He forgot how much he enjoyed flashing the badge to get into places.

He pulls up the security feed from outside the store on the night in question. He scrubs through, trying to pick out any suspicious details.

There. 

Just before 3 AM, a motorcycle is caught speeding by. It’s too blurry an image to tell if it’s Shawn’s bike, but Henry’s always considered ‘confirmation bias’ to be something that applies to other people. His investigations have never suffered from such a thing.

He scrubs through some more. Cars, cars, it’s too dark and blurry on the camera to tell them apart by make or model, much less license plates. The motorcycle is all he’s getting from this. 

He stands up, straightens his suit, and leaves. Maybe he’ll get something better from a more expensive store’s security feed. 

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shawn scoots a little further away as Gus lets out a snore and mumbles something flirtatious in his sleep. He thinks he’s getting an okay handle on the hunger thing– his throat is shot to hell again already, the temptation of Gus’s blood a little bit like that time his dad put a marshmallow on a plate and told him if he didn’t touch it for fifteen minutes he could have two. Comparisons keep drifting through his head, all the different things he can taste from having Gus so close, even when he does his best to stop breathing it in. 

Again, the movie snacks aren’t helping whatsoever. He keeps eating them anyway.

His mouth aches again. Pulses with pain in time with Gus’s heartbeat. He should really stop setting up situations where he’s alone with one or more of them.

He leans his head back on the couch and closes his eyes. The sound of the movie is sharp against his ears, just adding to the headache, getting less and less comprehensible as he slowly drifts off to sleep.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Juliet doesn’t have Thornburg.

Juliet doesn’t have Thornburg.

So why is she dying?

Shawn is holding her hand, trying to confess, but the words are stuck in his throat. Jules is wheezing, her eyes bleeding, looking into his with a fear dulled by a thick glaze of illness. Jules is dying. Jules is dying.

Lassie doesn’t get shot in the graveyard.

Lassie doesn’t get shot in the graveyard.

So why is he dying?

Shawn is holding Lassie as he bleeds out– no, he’s holding Mary Light, no, he’s holding Lassie, no, he’s–

Lassie’s blood is spilling out of his chest. He’s looking at Shawn with a level of terror that Shawn never ever wants to see from the detective, never should see from him.

He’s holding Mary again. “Wake up, Shawn.”

Lassie is dying in Shawn’s arms.

Lassie is dying in Shawn’s arms.

Gus doesn’t fall off a cliff when he grabs onto the extreme sports murderer.

Gus doesn’t fall off a cliff when he grabs onto the extreme sports murderer. 

So why is he dying?

Shawn holds Gus at the bottom of the cliff. Gus’s blood coats the rock beneath them. His eyes are completely sightless, his mouth trying to form words that will never come, not with a head injury like this. Gus’s hand grips Shawn’s so tight it hurts, a silent plea to save him.

Gus is dying and Shawn can’t save him.

Gus is dying and Shawn can’t save him.

Henry is not the victim of a plane crash.

Henry is not the victim of a plane crash.

So why is he dying?

Shawn struggles to keep his father’s head straight with one hand as he tries to get the radio working with the other. Henry is barely awake, wheezing, mumbling incoherently. Shawn can’t make the radio work. He can’t call for help.

He looks at his dad and sees regret shining in his bloodshot eyes. Henry reaches out with one bloodied arm and grabs Shawn’s bicep. There’s a tree branch impaled through his abdomen. He looks Shawn in the eye and opens his mouth–

“Wake up!”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shawn sits up with a gasp! His grandmother’s voice screaming through his father’s mouth echoes in his head as he pushes off the couch and runs to the bathroom, splashing cold–

No, no, he’s colder than it is, he switches the tap and splashes warm water on his face. It’s unnatural, it’s wrong, it’s not something his skin should be anymore– the warmth shocks him into full wakefulness.

“Shawn?!” Gus’s footsteps are like hammers against his skull, his quickened heartbeat like a jackhammer. Shawn presses his hands over his ears.

“Shawn!” Gus’s hands are so warm, so warm, warm warm warm blood spilling into Shawn’s jeans from Gus’s skull at the bottom of a cliff–

“WHAT THE–!”

Shawn finds himself presses against the bathroom wall, Gus standing in the doorway with the makeshift rosary held up, wet handprints on his shirt. Gus is shaking. Shawn realizes he feels fangs poking his lip.

He gulps in a breath, pressing his hands to his torso, then his face, holding them out– he repeats until he feels like he’s in his own body again. Gus watches, poised to run.

Shawn shakes his head, trying to knock the last echoes of the nightmare out. They won’t ever go away. They won’t ever go away.

Something clicks. He looks up. “Oh, god. I didn’t–”

“You lunged right for my neck.”

“I- Gus, I’m so– I didn’t–”

“I could tell.” Gus relaxes a little. His heart is still pounding. Shawn realizes belatedly that his voice has gone raspy again. Gus keeps the rosary held up. “What was that?”

“I-I… don’t…” Shawn swallows. They agreed he’d be honest. They agree he had to be honest, at least between the two of them. “I had a nightmare.”

“... About?”

“I don’t… want to talk about it.” If he talks about it he’ll relive it, he’ll have the images take over the real world again and if that happens he’s not sure he won’t try to–

“... Okay. Okay, but– Shawn, that was terrifying.”

“Yeah.”

“And your voice is all messed up again.”

“Noticed that too.”

“... You know, when I went out with Willow–”

“You guys actually went out?”

“Yes! A couple times! Anyway, she told me about this vampire bar place for people who pretend to be vampires.”

“So?”

“So… do you think you could handle just having a little from someone, uh… consenting for their own reasons?”

Flash of white, film grain, stalking up behind the burglar, covering his mouth, sinking his aching fangs into warm soft flesh and drinking–

Shawn shudders– he wishes it was because he disliked the feeling of the memory– vision? … Memory. God, he wishes he disliked it.

“Not doing that, Gus. First of all that’s not my kind of kinky business–”

“Eugh! I was trying not to say it outright, Shawn!”

“I know you were, that’s why I did. Anyway, second, that’s… too, vampire. Way too vampire.”

“... I could see if someone there is willing to donate blood.”

“Gus. You’ll pass out just trying to get the bag here.”

“I can handle it.”

“You don’t want to.”

“It’s that or you drinking me!”

“I won’t drink you!” Shawn doesn’t mean for it to come out panicked– but the way Gus tenses and raises the cross a bit more shows it did, in a bad way. Shawn shakes his head again, looking down and trying to regain some composure. “You– you just shouldn’t have to do that, buddy.”

“You shouldn’t have to be undead. It’s not a fair situation to any of us, Shawn.”

Jules, Lassie, Gus, Henry, bleeding bleeding bleeding dying dying dying Dying And Leaving Shawn Along FOREVER–

“I’m going.” Shawn is snapped out of it by Gus digging his car keys out of his pocket. “You just zoned out again and started shaking. If you don’t get blood, one of us is going to be in big trouble, and either way it goes it’ll be bad.”

“Gus–”

“I’ll just close my eyes or something! I’m putting this in front of the door on my way out, I’ll be back as soon as I can. And I’m letting Lassie and Jules know what I’m doing.”

“... Could you uh, leave out the–”

“Don’t even have to ask. Just… try to relax a little while I’m gone, okay?”

Shawn doesn’t agree or disagree. Gus leaves, and Shawn splashes his face a few more times before going back to the couch. He sits in the spot Gus had fallen asleep in. Maybe he’s imagining it because he’s so cold, but the spot still feels a little warm.

His cell rings a moment later. Crap. He lets it go to voicemail.

“Shawn, call me back, would you? What’s the point of these damn things if you just ignore it all the time? Look, I got a letter about your bike insurance and they’re raising the monthly payments. You put the damn bike on my card so I think I’m entitled to know how well you’re taking care of the thing if I’m going to keep paying for it.”

Shawn groans. He tosses his phone to the other side of the couch. He’ll reply later– or maybe never. 

Henry wheezing, staring with dull bloodshot eyes, reaching out–

…

He’ll reply later.

[icabrth]

Hello! I really love your stories, especially the ones about breaking bad 🤍. I would like to ask, do you write nsfw content?

Thanks for the answer! As for my request, it's about Gus Fring (I can't, I love him too much 😭😭). I've always headcanoned him as a rather jealous and possibly even overprotective partner. I mean, after everything that's happened to Max, he must be pretty caring about his partner. What do you think about this?

I don't have a very detailed plot, but lately I've been thinking about how he would come to the realization that he likes the reader? I don't think Gus is the kind of person who tends to lie to himself; he is a serious person, as are his intentions. How does he confess his feelings to the reader?

I would prefer a female reader, please? I don't think she related to crime either. Maybe she met Gus when she was working for him? The manager at his restaurant? His housekeeper? I don't know, haha.

Oh, and if you don't mind, I imagine her as a rather shy and soft person. I think that's what Gus liked about her: she's not like anyone else he knows, so spending time with her allows him to... distract and relax. Like a breath of fresh air.

Thank you so much for your stories again! I'm in love with them 🤍🤍🤍

quiet realization

pairings: gustavo fring x fem!reader

summary: the story of you and gus

warnings: slight mention of crime

masterlist

a/n: I should really be studying rn but I couldn’t get this request out of my head lol.. also tysm for requesting ur acc so sweet ♡

You met Gustavo Fring through work; being his housekeeper and nanny for his children, the two of you spent a lot more time together than either had anticipated.

“How are you liking the food, sir?” You asked your employer. A nervous smile grazing your face as sugarcoating laced your voice. You didn’t know wether it’d be best to keep eye contact, or to avoid it. He didn’t seem bothered by the thick tension (which was swallowing you whole) as he kept his eyes on you, searching for yours.

“Please, call me Gus. We are more than acquainted by now, don’t you think?” He straightened up as he flashed you a playful, yet somehow professional grin.

Gus confused you to no end; every move he made seemed so calculated, so thought out that it scared you. Your obvious attraction to him didn’t do much to relief your anxiety.

You weren’t like him. He could read you like a book, as you were. Your actions were pure hearted and executed with good intentions. This is why no one would’ve expected the two of you to match to perfectly. It seemed you were both exactly what the other needed.

As he awaited your answer, he secretly struggled keeping up his exterior wall. You were right about him – he did have a motive, and his every move was calculated. Right now, he was trying to gain your trust. Get on some reliance level in order to get closer to you.

Gus wasn’t sure about his feelings toward you and he struggled to put a label on his developing crush. Romantic relations came rare to him, and he wasn’t sure if what he’d felt for any of his past lovers could be classified as love. What he did know though, was that you made his heart flutter in a way so unfamiliar and great – it made him think he was dying.

One of his more significant memories of you as a housekeeper was one night when he’d arrived home late to see you tucking his youngest as you put them to sleep with your gentle, loving voice.

Seeing how close you’d gotten with his children just made him more and more impatient with figuring out his feelings for you. There you were – the perfect girl, right in front of him –and he was doing nothing to keep you.

You were so sweet, so genuine – it made him want to protect you. Keep you hidden and ignorant to his life of crime. So, this is around the time when he officially decided to himself that he was, indeed, in love with you.

It was a quiet realization, and he couldn’t just confess his undying love to you right then and there, without no preparation whatsoever. So, he decided he needed to get closer to you instead of just knowing you through small interactions and watching from afar.

So, he began treating you with personalized gifts once in a while, telling you how grateful he was for your patience and understanding with his children. He began insistent on helping you with your cooking, and would practically force you to eat with him. Although you did appreciate his acts of kindness, you didn’t understand where they were coming from. Your obviousness to his feelings lead you to believe he had some kind of bad intention. It wouldn’t be fair to blame you, though, as his terribly attempts at flirting were hard to read.

These little dinner dates all let up to this moment, this time he was going to make some progress with you. No, scratch that – this time he was going to confess to you.

“The food is quite tasty, ___! You are an except cook as well as an excellent company,” he praised you. Your cheeks began to heat up, and you felt your mouth twitch in unknowing response. “As are you, Gus. Thank you.” Your interactions would’ve been short and awkward to the eye, but neither of you seemed too bothered by the silence. In fact, what you had learned over the months of working for him, was that his actions said a lot more about his character than his words.

“___,” he stated as he put his larger hand on top of yours and your eyes met for the first time that day. “___, I am in love with you.” The words uttering from his mouth didn’t feel read, neither did the butterflies in your stomach as your breath hitched. You realized this had to be real, because you couldn’t physically feel a movie the same way you felt his warm fingers intertwine with yours. Or the soft, yet firm feel of his lips as he pulled you closer to him.

You realized that this was just as real as his hot breath against your ear, whispering: “you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that”

[quaranmine]

The Incandescence of a Dying Light (Chapter Two)

Grian learns about fires, and the harsh reality of the wilderness.

Chapter Two: 4,695 words

<< Chapter One | Masterpost | Chapter Three >>

hello! I never mentioned it in the last post's notes, but the title is taken from one of the lines from the song Post Humerous by Gus Dapperton ("i confess the incandescence of a dying light") that I always liked the sound of. No content warnings for this chapter except....well, this is a story about loss, so be prepared for that.

June 29, 1988

Grian wakes up in his campsite at dawn, and the air is heavy and smoky. The smell burns his nostrils, and he turns over to cough. It seems worse today than other days, and he knows it’s going to be a tough hike.

He goes through his routine quickly, packing up his things. He’ll snack on a granola bar while he searches, in lieu of any actual food this morning. 

The vibes in camp are a little weird this morning. The ranger he’s with keeps glancing at him from the side, assuming he can’t see it. Finally, Grian breaks and snaps, “What is it?”

“Uh, I’m sorry,” the ranger starts, and that’s never a good sign, “I was going to let you pack up first before I told you this, but I have to take you back this morning.”

Grian drops the sleeping bag he’s in the middle of rolling up, and it unfurls back out onto the ground. “Huh?” he says. “What do you mean?”

The woman smiles gently. “They’re closing this trail now, so we’re not allowed to have any civilians on here, whether they’re hiking or part of a search party. My boss radioed in this morning before you woke up and told me to escort you back.”

“No,” Grian says. “I’m staying.”

“I’m afraid you can’t.”

“Why?” Grian cries, suddenly feeling a bit like his chest might fold in on itself. “My friend is still out there! I’m not leaving without him. You don’t need to coddle me or anything, I can keep up with the rest of you just fine.”

“It isn’t that,” the ranger says. “I’m sorry, I really am. But–” she gestures vaguely around. “I know you’ve seen it the past few days, but there’s wildfires in the area right now. They started in Yellowstone. It’s a really bad year and it’s so early in the season still that it’s going to get worse.”

Grian looks through the trees at the edge of the trail, catching the faintest glimpse of the horizon beyond. It’s hazier than before. He can’t even see the most distant mountains. 

The ranger continues her spiel. “Unfortunately, one of the fires seems to be heading this direction now, so we’re closing down all trails in this section.” She sighs, not in any sort of dismissive or impatient way, but in commiseration. “It’s not just you, you know. A lot of rangers are leaving as well, so we can leave the area to the wildland crews. This whole section of the park is now closed.”

And that’s just–

This can’t be.

Because Mumbo’s out here. And if it isn’t safe for Grian to even be out here to look for him, how could he possibly be okay? And he might not be okay even now, because if he hasn’t been found or turned up at a trail yet, then he’s probably needing help, and Grian is here to help, and now Grian can’t even do that.

“No,” he says softly. “Because–I told you this, my friend is still here. And he needs me.”

“We’ll find him,” she says, and–he’s heard that assurance many times by now. It doesn’t mean much anymore. 

“How can you?!” he shouts. “You’re leaving too!”

She stands her ground. “Everybody working these trails knows his description. If he’s here, he’ll be found, or he’ll try to leave. The firefighters are very thorough when documenting the area.”

“And if he can’t run?” Grian persists. “If he needs our help to be rescued from wherever he is? If he needs to evacuate from the fire, what happens then? If he can’t run? Does he just burn?”

The ranger just looks at him sadly. “Do you want to know the answer to that?” she says. “Because I don’t think it’ll help you.”

Her candidness stops Grian in his tracks. He doesn’t even know what to say, so he just finishes packing up the camp, tension in his every move.

It’s three weeks today since the last time he saw Mumbo, on the day he’d left for his trip. Four weeks since Grian had talked him into going alone. Thirteen days since he reported him missing.

The hike back out to civilization is lonely and quiet, despite the ranger at his heels. The smoke in the air burns Grian’s throat every breath he takes, and his eyes are drawn to every dark patch of forest just off trail. He’ll never know how close Mumbo could actually be.

No, he doesn’t want the answer to that question. 

»»———-　　———-««

May 1989

He likes to wander on his days off. 

He shouldn’t wander. He should be searching methodically, drawing grids on maps and thoroughly walking them. Every minute counts in a situation like this. 

It’s sort of hard to feel like every minute counts when it’s been hundreds of thousands of minutes.

Today Grian’s feet have taken him to a spot that’s somehow familiar. He’s never been in this area, but he recognizes it immediately just the same. There’s been a fire here. 

The forest thins out at the edges, with lush green underbrush filling in the gaps. The larger trees are still standing at the edge, but their trunks are charred and black around the base. Grian steps into the clearing, beyond the edge of the forest. 

It’s green, almost startlingly so, with new grasses and small shrubs and dotted with light purple wildflowers. Amidst it all, the tall and broken and burned trunks of trees stretch up from the ground. This probably used to be a stand of lodgepole pines. It’s almost grim, the way the sooty black trunks still stretch up into a sky they’ll never grow toward again, the tops jagged and snapped. Other dead trees that lost their fight with gravity lay across the ground, scattered and stacked over each other like burnt out matchsticks. 

And still, the burned trunks only make the vivid greens pop more. New life sprouting from the old.

Grian reaches into the side pocket of his bag and pulls his radio out, flicking it back on. If anyone ever asked, he kept it turned off to save batteries, but really he just wanted a little peace. 

“Hey Scar,” he says. “You there?”

The response, while not instantaneous, is rather quick. “G-man!” he says. “What a lovely evening it is right now, huh? What have you been up to?”

“I was exploring,” Grian says. “Came upon a burned spot.”

“Oh, that,” Scar says. “That’s probably from last year. Man, that was a bad year, I’m telling you. One of the worst ones in the books. Most of the fires were in Yellowstone, but some like this one burned into the national forest as well. The one you’re looking at is probably of the edges of the Mink Fire.”

Mink Fire, or Mink Creek Fire. He knew the name. He might not have been here in this specific clearing before, but maybe he’d been on that hill over there, or the other hill, before he was forced to leave. They’d closed all the trails in this area last year for it and sent him home–without Mumbo.

“It doesn’t look very large,” he comments critically. “This area isn’t very big, I can still see trees at the other end of the clearing.”

“That’s sort of one of people’s misconceptions, actually,” Scar says on the other end of the line. “The fires often burn in a mosaic, or in patches, instead of taking the whole mountain with it. They’ll burn really strongly in one spot but not another. You’re at one of those edges, I remember it came not too far from the Two Forks tower.”

“I guess I’m happy I wasn’t working here last year,” Grian says. “It’s very green here, though.”

“Really? Neat!” Scar replies. “They’re good for the forest, you know. Things grow back fast. Back in the day lookouts used to spot fires and it was policy to try and have them contained by 10 a.m. the next day–that was before me. These days we might spot a fire and just keep an eye on it and let it burn naturally. Last year was just…a lot at once. Really shook people up, especially the public.”

“It’s sort of pretty,” Grian says suddenly. “All this grass and these wildflowers. It’s like–like the forest is moving on. Making a new life for itself.”

“Honestly, that’s one of the cool things about this job,” Scar says. “You know, there was a big fire my first year working here, and I called it in and watched it ‘til the end of the summer. Over the next few years I got to see how everything grew back. It’d be just a little at a time, but right now it looks–hey! Don’t put your paw in that, it’s still wet! Jell–!”

The radio cuts suddenly, preceding the sound of crash on the other end of the line, as Scar presumably drops the radio in favor of handling whatever incident has happened in his tower. 

“Are you alright in there?” Grian says, bemused. “What happened?”

After several long moments, Scar responds again over the radio. “Oh, that, that’s nothing to worry about.”

“It sounded like you knocked something off the table.”

“I’m clumsy–Jellie! Off the table!”

“Uh-huh,” Grian says. “And what, or perhaps who, is this Jellie?”

“Nothing!” Scar scrambles to say. Unfortunately for him, this is punctuated by a very clear and distinct meow.

Grian puts a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter. “Scar,” he says, word half-muffled, “do you have a cat in your lookout tower?”

“And what if I did?”

“I’d say you were insane.”

“Jellie is more than a cat,” Scar says defensively. “She’s my best friend, and yes she lives here in my lookout tower.”

“Are…are you even allowed to do that?” Grian asks. “Like, how do you feed her and stuff?”

“If Rob, the cranky old lookout on the southern end of the Forest and every other camper who walks in here is allowed a dog, then I don’t see why I can’t have a cat,” Scar huffs. “I bring stuff for her and get food for her in my supply drop–paid for by me of course, not the Service.”

Grian is baffled. “How do you get her here? Does she hike? Do you carry her? Does she have a little leash? Wait, do they make those cat sized? I’ve never seen a cat on a leash.”

“An artist never reveals his secrets,” is all Scar is willing to stay. 

“Oh, but I want to know all of them,” Grian says. “Will you please please tell me?”

Scar is silent on the other end of the line for a moment. “She sometimes rides in the top of my pack when I hike.”

“That is literally the cutest thing I have ever heard,” Grian says. 

“Yeah, well, she knows that,” Scar says. 

Grian looks around the clearing, making note about how the burned area does indeed skip a section and then are burned again on the top of the hill. There’s a lot of open space here, but for some reason it makes him feel uneasy, like maybe he shouldn’t keep his back turned to the more closed-off forest behind him. He’s been out here several days already, but for some reason this is the first time he’s really contemplated being alone-alone out here. 

“Hey,” Grian says. “What if I were to run into one of Jellie’s big cousins out here? A meaner kitty? Could I get eaten doing this job?”

Scar laughs on the other end. “There’s a couple of Jellie’s big cousins wandering about. We do have mountain lions out here. But they’re pretty shy. I’ve only seen one since working here. You might see a bobcat, though it’s more scared of you than you are of it.”

“Okay, uh, good to know,” Grian says. “Anything else out here that could eat me? You know, they didn’t really cover that in my orientation.”

“Didn’t you know?” Scar asks. “That’s part of land management in the Forest Service: providing wildlife a steady stream of innocent fire lookouts to feed on every year. You’d never apply for the job if you knew the truth. I’ve only survived this long ‘cause I’m so smart and handsome.”

Grian rolls his eyes. “So I’m not going to get eaten by a pack of wolves by stepping outside my tower?”

“Of course not, silly,” Scar laughs. “We don’t have wolves here! We do have grizzlies, though.”

“That’s not better!” Grian hisses. 

He’d seen a black bear once, a mother and a baby, in the car with Mumbo while driving on a winding road in the mountains to the west of Denver. It had just crossed the road slowly with its cub, causing a minor traffic jam to form. Grian was impressed with her beauty and strength, but had felt pretty strongly at the time that he was happy to be in the safety of a vehicle.

He also knows that black bears are, in fact, quite a bit smaller than grizzly bears. 

Now, he’s standing alone in the wilderness with just a radio and a mostly empty pack containing just a notepad, water bottle, and a half-eaten granola bar, and he’s beginning to wonder if he should leave the granola bar as tribute for the bears. 

“We don’t have any of these things in England, you know,” he says into the radio. 

“Maybe they don’t get a lot of Englishman to eat either,” Scar says. “That just makes you a delicacy. But if you’re really worried, there might be bear spray in your tower somewhere.”

“Shut up!” At the same moment, something moves at the edge of Grian’s peripheral vision and he freezes, feeling his heart skip a beat. “Scar! Something at the edge of the forest just moved, something is here!”

“It was nice knowing you,” Scar says mildly. 

“That’s not funny,” Grian whines, eyes glued to the dark edges of the trees on the other side of the clearing. “I could die, you know. Wouldn’t that reflect badly on you if the brand new lookout you’re supervising dies a week in?”

“Nah,” Scar says. “I’ve heard that jumping up and down and making a bunch of silly noises is the best way to scare an animal off, though. You should keep your radio button pressed while doing it so I can help you improve your technique.”

“Shut up,” Grian repeats, and then gasps. “I see movement again.”

The creature, or creatures since there are three of them, finally step fully out of the forest and into the open area. Grian takes a step back instinctively before his eyes catch up to his brain and…

Yeah, he’s not going to live this one down. It’s just deer. One hears the crunch of a leaf when he steps back and it freezes in place, staring at him. Grian stares back, and doesn’t dare move. It flicks one of its large ears and begins grazing again. 

The radio crackles to life again, but the deer all seem to have disregarded him as a threat for now, and do not seem bothered. “Earth to G-man,” Scar says. “Have you been eaten?”

“No, I’m…I’m fine,” Grian says. “It’s just…ugh, it’s just a deer, don’t laugh.”

Scar does, in fact, laugh, and makes a purposeful point to do so while pressing his radio’s call button, so that Grian gets to hear all of it. 

“It’s not just a deer,” Scar says, and he’s clearly got a joke ready but he’s nearly giggling too hard to say it, “it’s a mankiller deer!”

“I hate you,” Grian says. “I’m never speaking to you again.”

“Fine, fine,” Scar says. “But you’re missing a great opportunity to relay your last words to me before you go. You could pick a really good phrase to go out on, you know.”

Grian doesn’t even respond to that one. Instead, he observes, “They really seem to like this grass.”

“Deer love it!” Scar says. “The fire always burns up the old stuff so that new stuff can grow. Right afterward there’s always a lot of grasses and flowers first, before anything else grows. The deer like the fresh grass. It’s one of the reasons the fires are beneficial for the ecosystem, actually.”

“Oh,” Grian says. “Not a total disaster then.”

“Not at all,” Scar says. “It’s how it’s supposed to work! Seems like a disaster to us but it’s necessary for life to go on. Did you know some plants actually need fire in order to spread their seeds? It’s fascinating!”

“I didn’t,” Grian says. “You seem to know a lot about this.”

“It’s part of the job,” Scar says. “I’ve worked here for 8 years now. Sometimes the ranger office lets me borrow some of their reports and research papers at the beginning of the season to read. They have a lot of stuff on succession and fire ecology. It’s…well it’s a bit tough to get through, sometimes, but I have plenty of time up here.”

Grian puts his hand on the trunk of a burnt tree next to him, broken off just above his head. The movement startles the deer on the other side of the meadow, who retreat several steps closer to the edge of the burned area. Grian’s hand comes away black and sooty.

“I wonder how old some of these trees are, before they died,” he muses. 

“Lodgepole pines can get pretty old,” Scar says. “But that’s just how nature cycles, I guess.”

“Change always comes,” Grian says. 

“And ecosystems must adapt,” Scar says. 

And people have to learn to adapt, too.

»»———-　　———-««

Grian’s hands are frozen on the metal lid of the cache box he’s opened. He was out exploring again, and Scar had told him to look in the cache boxes for extra map information. Or for fun. Scar had told him with great amusement about the time he found someone’s car keys, one shoe, and a six pack of beer in one of them and all the stories he’d managed to extrapolate out of those three items. 

So Grian had taken to opening them whenever he found them. Most of the time they were filled with ancient granola bars, torn paperbacks, and dusty pinecones. Maybe a case of extra water or two with someone’s name sharpied on it. But this one…

He’s frozen. His heart beats loud in his ears. 

There’s a missing persons flyer taped to the underside of the lid. 

It isn’t Mumbo, either. Why is this guy here and not Mumbo? Where are all of Mumbo’s flyers, taped on the inside of every cache box in the forest, screamed from the mountaintops? And why is this guy’s flyer…still here? 

Grian scans over the information quickly. The man’s name is Mitch Michaels, he’s 31 years old, and he’s fairly tall. He has brown hair and a beard. He’s smiling in his photo. 

He was last seen in 1981. Eight years ago. 

Grian slowly uncurls his fingers from around the cache box’s lid, letting it rest open naturally. He pulls his radio from his pocket. 

“Hey Scar,” he says, voice detached from body, “do people ever go missing out here?”

They do. June 16th, 1988 was the second worst day of his life. The worst day of his life was June 17th, 1988, when the whole thing hadn’t been resolved by then. 

Scar is a minute or two late answering his radio, and in that time Grian just pores over the missing person flyer. He’s got one for Mumbo folded up neatly in his bag, and in a streak of meanness he almost wants to tape it over the top of this guy’s for visibility. But it’s the only copy he’s got, worn at the creases, so he keeps it close instead. 

The radio crackles to life again, and Scar responds, “Uh, hello to you too G-man. Did you find a missing person?”

“No,” Grain says. Soon, he leaves off. “Just a flyer–Mitch Michaels, 1981.”

“Oh, poor guy,” Scar says. “I remember that, it was my first year working here. He wasn’t even reported missing until some folks with the Forest Service caught on. Such a shame, nobody noticed when he didn’t come home.”

“Yeah,” Grian says, because it’s the only thing he can say through the stranglehold around his neck.

“They asked me if I’d seen him,” Scar continues, “but Jonesy Lake is out of my district. I can see it from the tower just like I can see Two Forks, but the angle isn’t so great since it’s partially obscured by the mountains. I doubt he made it over to Thorofare.”

“How,” Grian says, and then stops to repeat himself again, “How many people do you say go missing?”

“Hmmm,” Scar says. “In a year? Maybe one or two dozen–but those are mostly people who just missed their check in and came back too late. Most of them turn up at the trailhead a couple hours later without even realizing they’ve caused a fuss and the rangers don’t have to do anything at all. Not sure if I’d count them as actual missing people in those cases, but that’s what gets reported to us.”

Grian remembers driving down empty roads at 4 am. He remembers driving for hours, unreachable by phone, not knowing if everything would be fine when he arrived. It’s good that most people turn up a few hours late. Grian’s happy for them. 

It just didn’t happen to him, though. 

Scar keeps going. “A couple people genuinely do go missing here and there, though. Mostly people who are unprepared. Or maybe they were caught out in bad weather, or maybe fell and broke their ankle. Most of those people are found by the rangers or someone else, though.”

“What if someone did everything right?” Grian asks sharply. He still hasn’t taken his eyes off the poster, but the words blur in and out of focus in front of his eyes. “What if someone was prepared? What if they knew what they were doing? What if they did it all right?”

“Uh,” Scar says. “Stuff happens to anybody, G.”

“It shouldn’t.”

“Well, it does. Oh man, you should hear about some of the stuff that happened to me. Did you know that once, I don’t know, maybe three years into the job, I was trying to hike some place and there was a rock slide across the trail? And I thought to myself that I didn’t feel like scrambling over those rocks, I knew where I was going, so I’d just go around!” Scar chuckles to himself. “Yeah, I got very lost that day. Wandered around in those woods until it was dark out and I couldn’t see a thing except the circle of ground my flashlight lit up.”

“I guess you didn’t get eaten by a mountain lion,” Grian says. “Shame.”

“If a mountain lion saw my abs, it would run away screaming,” Scar replies, completely matter of factly in a way that derails Grian’s spiral for just a moment. He finally drags his eyes away from the poster and huffs a small laugh. 

“That’s a bold tactic,” Grian says. 

“Hey,” Scar cries defensively, “don’t knock it ‘til you try it!”

“I will not be trying that,” Grian says. “I will be keeping my shirt on in crisis situations.”

“Fine, I guess you’ll just wander around forever and die,” Scar says. “I tried to give you advice! Anyway, I only eventually found my way back to the path ‘cause I left the light on in my lookout tower and I spotted it over a ridge. You know, we’re not really supposed to leave those on when we leave in order to save propane, but it definitely saved me then.”

“Do you think Mitch is still alive?” Grian says. 

Scar laughs a little on the line, a sad chuckle. “Nah. I keep hoping someone will find his body one of these days so we can send him back to his family, but it hasn’t happened yet. Poor guy. Poor family too, without that closure.”

Grian’s heart speeds up. “You think he’s dead?”

“Uh, yeah?” Scar says. He says it’s like it’s a given. Like everyone knows. “It’s been eight years without a trace. Nobody goes missing that long and turns up just fine.”

Grian pushes forward, startled at his own intensity. His stomach twists. “But how can you be sure?” he presses. “What if he turns up tomorrow?”

“I…I’d be happy for him,” Scar says slowly. “It’d be a miracle. G, it’s harsh out here, even without thinking about how cold the winters get around here. It would be hard for someone to survive.”

“But surely it’s happened before.”

Scar sighs. “I guess I did hear a story on the radio once about a guy who went missing and turned up a few years later. Went by a different name and everything. It turns out he’d just gotten amnesia or something and forgotten his old life. But he wasn’t in the wilderness and was living in like…a house for that time.”

Grian tries to picture a version of Mumbo’s life without him in it, a version where Mumbo doesn’t remember him at all and moves on unbothered under a new name and amnesia. He can’t, because it paints an incomplete picture of Mumbo. 

It occurs to him that he’s just as incomplete, now. 

They’re always part of each other’s lives, that’s why Grian moved across an ocean to join him when he’d received that job offer straight out of college. A Mumbo without Grian isn’t a Mumbo at all, and a Grian without Mumbo is…he sighs. A Grian without Mumbo is this.

“I hope they find that man soon,” Grian says quietly. “In any way.”

“I do too,” Scar says. “It’s sad that the case has been open the entire time I have worked here.”

Grian takes a shaky breath, trying to fill every corner of his lungs. He depresses the radio button and speaks again: “I heard another man went missing here last year,” he says. “I saw it on the news.”

He’d spoken to the news. 

“That was so awful,” Scar says. “I hope they find him soon too. Young guy, hiking alone. He was British just like you, you know.  I don’t think we ever found any of his stuff. I never saw him in my sector of the park but there were a few searches done over here.”

“Didn’t they have to close some of the search due to the fires?” Grian says. He remembers smoke stinging his eyes so viscerally that he blinks against it instinctively even now. “I saw it all over the news last year.”

“Yeah, a lot of sections of trails and backcountry were closed then. I had a lot of work trying to keep an eye out for fires here since a lot of the existing ones were jumping to new locations, but all that smoke made it hard to tell between old and new fires.”

“I hope they find him,” Grian says slowly. He’s got topo maps taped together and marked up folded in his bag, and it suddenly feels like it’s burning a hole in the canvas. 

“I wonder if we’ll ever know what happened,” Scar says. 

“You can’t say it like that,” Grian insists. “They’ll know. They’ll figure it out when they find him, right?” 

When Scar doesn’t instantly reply, Grian presses onward. “He’ll be okay, that was only a year ago. It’s not like with Mitch, he’s been missing for eight years, but this is just one year, you know. It’ll be okay.”

Scar apparently doesn’t know what to say to that, because the only thing he says in return, perfectly vague, is: “I hope they find him.”

“They will,” Grian says forcefully. “Scar? Do you think he’s still alive too?”

There’s a longer pause on the line. 

Grian speaks again, before Scar can find the words. “Nevermind. Just don’t answer that one.”

He pulls the cache box’s lid shut and locks it behind him.

<< Chapter One | Masterpost | Chapter Three >>

[sergeantsporks]

Writing Request: The culture shock that the witches are going through by being in the human realm. Particularly dealing with the fact that the Boiling Isles being free of homophobia and transphobia while the human realm isn't like that. Maybe Luz trying to figure out the best way to explain that horrible aspect of the human realm to her friends so that they stay careful. Or she started by explaining the bi flag in the house that Camila got to support her when she came out before going to the demon realm.

Combo attack. @bee-bee-loves-things, one of them is yours :D

Warning beforehand about. The most mildest of suggestiveness. I probably don't even actually need a warning. Anyway.

Luz paced back and forth across the room. “Guys, I need to come out to my mom in the coolest, most creative, and rad way possible. Any ideas?”

Amity raised a hand. “What’s ‘coming out’?”

“Coming out of what?” Gus asked, “Your skin? Oh my titan, are you molting?”

“Do humans molt?” Willow asked him. He shrugged.

“No! Come out! As in, tell her I’m bi?”

Hunter raised a hand.

“Yes! Hunter! Idea?”

“What’s ‘bi’? Is… are you sick or something? Are you dying? Is that why you haven’t told her yet? You should tell your family if there’s something wrong, she can help you!”

Amity grabbed her girlfriend’s face in her hands. “You don’t feel feverish. Is it interna bleeding? Are your organs bursting?! Ohhhhh I KNEW catching the common mold might have been really bad for humans!”

“No, no, I’m okay, Amity. I’m not sick. Hunter, bi is short for bisexual.”

“Which is…?”

“You know,” Gus interrupted, “she can reproduce in two different ways!” He squinted at Luz. “What’s the second way?”

“No. Gus, just… no. Bisexual. I’m attracted to multiple genders? You know, like some people are attracted to guys, and other people are attracted to girls, and then I’m attracted to both.”

There was a collective “ohhhhhhh” from her friends.

Right. Sure. Probably the boiling isles had different words or something. “Sooooo… any ideas for the most spectacular coming out of all time?”

Amity clasped her hands together, pressing her index fingers to lips. “Riiiiiiight, there’s that. So, that’s like… telling your mom that we’re dating?”

Luz gave her a thumbs up. Finally, some progress. “Yeah, that’s part of it! But also just letting her know that I like both in general.”

“…Why? I mean, why’s it such a big deal? We’re dating. We tell her we’re dating, right? Why’s it matter if you’re… bi-sechs-ual?”

Luz hissed in. Thing had been so much more relaxed in the demon realm, she’d forgotten until now that it wasn’t always so simple. “Welllllllllll… it’s… not a huge deal in the demon realm, but here, in the human realm… people can get really weird about you liking the same gender as yourself. Or about you expressing your gender in different ways.”

“What?!” Gus yelped, “Why?!”

“Lots of reasons. Religion. It’s how they were raised. Someone in power told them to. I don’t know how it all started, but… that’s how things are here. So telling people who you are, who you like, it can… well, it can be dangerous. A lot of people have to hide who they are from the people around him. And ‘coming out,’ or telling people about it, can kind of be a big deal!”

Luz shrugged. “My mom’s not one of those people who would be weird about it, at least I don’t think so, but… this is really important to me, and I want to do something amazing about it so that my mom will know just how much it means to me.”

“I can help with some illusions!” Gus suggested, “What’s some stuff about being bisexual? I can make them appear!”

Luz opened her computer. “I’ve got a couple of pictures of Amity and I on my phone. I could do a little presentation. Then Gus’ illusions… maybe I could get her an ally pin? But what if she doesn’t want to wear it?”

“Let’s just stick with the presentation and the illusions for now,” Amity suggested, “Afterwards, maybe the pin?”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Luz pulled up a picture of a pink, purple, and blue flag. “Okay, Gus, listen super close, here’s what I think we should do…”

Xxx

“Luz?”

Luz twisted her new bi pin around on her hat with a small smile. “Hm?”

Hunter tapped his index fingers together. “Do you think… you could explain it again?”

“Explain what?”

“Being bi.”

Luz blinked. Weird request. Maybe it was different, but it was hardly the strangest thing she’d ever had to explain. Had she been unclear about something earlier? Maybe she’d been too vague? “Uhhhh okay, so, I’m attracted to more than one gender, right? Guys, gals, nonbinary pals—”

“Right, right, what does that mean?”

“What?”

“Being attracted to someone? Like, literally? You’re being pulled towards them?”

“Oh.” Luz hummed. “In a way, I guess? But not literally. More emotionally.”

“So… like how people were drawn towards Belos?”

Luz’s spine straightened. “No! Well, maybe, I don’t know what went on in anyone’s heads, but no, not like that, it’s… mmmm… okay, well, it’s like… you like them. Like a LOT. And you want to spend a lot of time with them, and be near them all the time.”

Hunter frowned. “So, more like how I want to hang out with you and Gus?”

“Uhhh I doubt it.” Luz let out a short hiss. “Wow. Okay. You know what, romantic attraction is weird to explain, let’s do something easier. Hunter, do you, uhhhhhh… do you know how babies get made? Not, like, however grimwalkers get made, the normalish way?”

He flushed bright red. “Of course I do. I’ve taken anatomy lessons.”

“Okay, well… attraction is… wanting to do that with someone.”

Hunter frowned. “Attraction is… wanting a baby with someone? That’s… weird.”

“No? I mean, yes, but you don’t have to… actually have a baby.”

“Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy would you do that if you didn’t want to make a kid? What would be the point?”

Luz’s cheeks burned, and she yanked her beanie down over her face. “Uuuuuuughhhhhh forget I said anything. Just… mmmmmmmmmm… yeah, forget it.”

“Wait—no—Luz—sorry, I’m sorry, I just…” Hunter took a deep breath. “I don’t think I understand it? And… I’m just… I don’t know if it’s just one of those things that I never got exposed to in the coven, like having friends, or if it’s… you said it yourself, grimwalkers don’t get made the same way, so maybe… maybe that’s why?” Hunter tugged her hat up, looking her in the eye. “Basically, is this something I’m going to figure out eventually? Or is it something I’ll have to pretend I feel so that they don’t realize I’m a grimwalker?”

Luz perked up. “Oh! Well, actually, good news on that, I don’t think it’s a grimwalker thing. Hang on.” She grabbed her computer, typing “asexual” into the search engine and clicking on the wiki. She handed the computer to Hunter. “Here.”

Hunter scanned the page, his eyes widening. He looked at the page, then back at Luz. “You want to make babies with Amity all the time? And that’s normal?!”

Luz choked, coughing and flushing red. She dropped down into her desk chair, burying her head in her arms. “Not all the time,” she whispered hoarsely.

“Does Amity know that? Have you told her?”

Luz clutched at her beanie, thumping her head against the desk. “Hunter! You can’t ask people that! Quit talking about me, talk about you. Obviously you don’t want to…”

“Nope. Not even a little. Gross, Luz.”

“It is not,” she protested.

“Very gross.”

“Hunter, that’s how 99% of people are!”

“99% of people are very gross,” Hunter insisted.

“Okay, okay. Whatever.” Luz spun around in her chair. “You want to make a powerpoint?”

“What? No, I don’t think it matters that much.” Hunter pointed at the computer screen. “I like this. I’m keeping the word. You know, technically, grimwalkers do reproduce asexually! So I’m asexual in all respects, yeah?”

Luz burst out laughing, gasping for air. “Yeah,” she wheezed, “Guess so.”

Hunter marched down to the basement with the computer, and Luz followed. Hunter plunked the computer down on an old card table and cleared his throat. Willow and Gus looked up from the earth book on plants they were looking at, and Hunter pointed at the computer screen.

“This is me,” he announced, “It is a totally normal thing for humans—and presumably witches as well—to be. There are no strange or hidden reasons for me to be this way.”

He beamed and gave Luz a thumbs-up over Willow and Gus’ heads as they examined the computer screen. Luz put her face in her hands.

Very smooth, Hunter. Not suspicious at all.

“Aw, cool!” Willow cheered, “Hey, maybe we could get you a pin like Luz’s! But with this flag instead!”

Gus drew a circle, and an illusion pin appeared on Hunter’s shirt. “It suits you.”

Hunter pulled his shirt out, going cross-eyed as he looked at the illusion. “You think so?”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed, “That looks good!”

“Yeah,” Hunter said softly, smiling at the fake pin, “Yeah, I like it.” He looked back up at Luz, a big grin splitting his face. “I like it a lot.”

[disregardcanon]

okay so i don’t WANT a locked tomb au for the owl house, but hoo boy does my brain try to lump all my most recent fixations together. so, a few details

1. hunter and belos are from the eighth house. you know, the one that sucks the life force out of cavaliers just cuz. you’ll never guess who’s the cavalier here.

2. lilith is one of the first lyctors. her cav killed herself so that lilith would HAVE to ascend, and while it eats lilith up inside, she knows it was for the best. (all of the rest of the necros have gone through with it and ascended now). except, of course, eda. who’s still clutching raine’s living hand like a lifeline, and who lilith has heard whispering about... packing up with raine and fleeing the houses entirely.

so lilith kills raine, and offers eda the choice to either lose them entirely or ascend. and it’s.... it’s fucking awful. but what other choice is there now? there’s just ways to numb the pain and to try to cling to the sister that she loves so dearly, even after everything that lily did to her.

3. gus is the necro from the fourth, which is why he and mattholomule are so incomprehensibly young. neither of them were really supposed to be there. gus had older cousins; his dad wasn’t even in charge of the fourth until he was five or so! but his dad’s older siblings died and then his cousins died and suddenly, gus is the necromatic heir and he’s not a kid anymore he’s a necro with a cav and battle experience and he doesn’t know how to deal with any of it. matt’s older brother, steve, was the cav to gus’s last older, necromatic cousin.

it’s supposed to be an honor, serving with the heir to the house, but with how many of them have dropped dead in the past year, it’s hard for matty to think of it as anything but a death sentence. (steve thought he’d be the first cav of this generation to see an heir through to proper adulthood... but he wasn’t. he barely saw matt through cav training before he was blown up trying to protect the necro that didn’t make it out anyway)

but gus is... nice. and they share the same interests, and he isn’t mean to matt about not being tough or strong or old enough. gus keeps promising him that he’s not going to get treated like bria, the absolutely AWFUL necro he trained with before gus came of age and they met up and meshed instead.

and they both uphold that as well as they can as thirteen year old boys. but they’re still a necro and cav, and that dynamic is doomed from the start.

4. ed and em are coronabeth and ianthe from the third. they are the richest and most influential house. ed isn’t a necromancer, just like coronabeth. amity is the younger, cavless necro sister who their mother forces to tag along because “the emperor requested our heir and our cavalier primary! there’s NO reason that amity couldn’t learn a thing or two to bring back, directly, to the third house. right, amity dear?”

amity is tired of living in her siblings’ shadows and is going to learn what she can and sabotage them.

5. willow is something approximating ACTUAL dulcinea from the seventh house, and in true seventh fashion, she’s dying. she’s been dying since she was born, basically. she’s very strong but tries to restrain herself from overuse of her powers to preserve her own life and that of others. she thinks that thalergy is a better source than thanergy and is running experiments to see if she positively affect plants.

boscha is her cav because boscha is The Best In Their Age Cohort TM but they do not, on any level, get along. boscha thinks that she’s weak and that she can bully willow into being a “better” necro or at least just fucking dying already. it’s... ugly. willow has the social power in the relationship and is VERY powerful at necromancy, but with her kind disposition and lack of inclination to use those powers... oof.

6.  luz isn’t a necro, and she isn’t a cav... she’s a dav’s caughter when her mom gets called away with her necro, the current master warden of the sixth house.

“luz, this is my job.”

“but you could get hurt!”

her mother sighs. “which is my job, mija.”

“you’re a sixth cav!” luz protests, “you weren’t even supposed to see combat! ever!” camilla noceda learned everything that she possibly could so that she could fight her way into the program and offered Outside Knowledge TM to the scholars, which combined with her abilities and ties to the warden are the only things keeping her position stable. 

(luz’s mother hates that she’s taken it up as well, but she can’t really blame her. luz is SO clever and so creative, but so much of the sixth house is dedicated to the parts of academia that are difficult for her. maintaining her position requires something like this... which doesn’t make it less painful to her mother.)

“you can’t leave me here,” luz begs. her mother is the only person who has ever been kind to her. as a teenage refugee from the world outside the houses, THIS camilla was basically only able to get clearance to stay by becoming a cavalier. and she did, but luz is strange and impulsive and silly and only HALF house, and it makes it so that even though her life should be easier than her mother’s... it isn’t.

so luz stows away on the ship to try to protect her mom from Whatever the Fuck Lyctorhood Looks Like, and if not at least go to live with her. the emperor is in charge of everything. he can make some room for a lyctor’s DAUGHTER

her mother doesn’t find out about her stowing away until they’re already at caanan house, and by that point, it’s too late to send someone back.

her mother tries to misdirect her and keep her out of whatever’s happening, luz ends up doing research with a group of friends who come very close to lyctorhood... and figuring out that it’s not something anyone... ANYONE... should actually want.

the gang who decide LyctorHood Is Bad DON’T DO IT PLEASE: hunter who would like not to get literally eaten on top of the things that his uncle already puts him through, willow who thinks that’s an awful thing to do to a person and has never wanted the relationship she has to have with bosha, amity who at this point is more invested in making sure that her siblings don’t Become Saints more than any issue of morality, luz who is doing her research and trying to talk her mom into Not Doing That WHAT THE FUCK, and then gus and matt who are thirteen and just don’t want to die, dear god.

willow and hunter keep sneaking away from their partners who keep trying to Do More Of This Nonsense and then end up... accidentally doing More Of This Nonsense. but like. together and consensually. (hunter: i’m already a battery! i don’t mind being one for you instead <3 willow: oh god oh no oh SHIT)

luz and amity Accidentally a cavnecro bond, but they refuse to do any of the tests because luz has seen how much it’s been taking out of her mom and amity wants to beat her siblings, but god she’s not THAT desperate. she kinda likes this perky little swordwielding weirdo, and they both have a very specific fantasy series of books that they like in addition to studying necrocav things. (yes, there is a good witch azura in the nine houses. because i say so!)

the people cytherea kills: both of the early twenties girls from the second, em’s cav from third, matt while he and gus are separated, the real grownups from the fifth, camilla and the warden from the sixth (rip but this is not a story with parents). cytherea and her cav stand ins are from the ninth here. I PRAY THE TOMB STAYS LOCKED FOREVER BITCH (i had my fingers crossed)

when we get to the end and know what’s going on, kinda, we get one full lyctor. this combo comes from... belos and boscha. they each realized their partner was avoiding them to work together. and NEITHER of them were giving up on this dream. so. uh. in the end belos kills boscha for lyctorhood and to join cytherea’s Whatever She Was Doing. and boscha was happier with that solution than she EVER was with willow’s “please stop trying to die for me”.

with em’s cav dead already, even if she wanted to go full ianthe, she couldn’t.... except ed offers, and em goes WHAT THE FUCK and then. they do not do that. (hunter does though. he throws himself on a sword to give his life force to willow full griddlehark style).

willow ends up lobotomizing herself enough to keep hunter from getting destroyed, but it puts her at a serious disadvantage. while she doesn’t owe belos any favors because he didn’t help, he still hates her for “stealing” hunter and also completing his feat and diluting the credit that he gets and the attention. 

while belos and willow are carted off by OG lyctors and jod himself, the rest of the gang are captured by the blood of eden. ed decides to do a corona and join up, as is his right as the non-necromatic twin forced to pretend about it. gus isn’t either old enough or patriotic enough to be judith deuteros wholesale, but he IS a deeply powerful necromancer who’s traumatized by the loss of his cav, his new friends, imprisonment and *gestures to everything*. plus, his mind, necromancy, and maybe a resurrection beast are all attacking him. so. that’s FUN

luz and amity at least get off easier than cam and pal do in canon because they are in their own bodies and luz doesn’t have to go on a Skull Hunt TM, but it’s still not great for them being POWs.

while ed is mainly Being Corona, he isn’t fully on that side. he’s continuing to play along that amity is a fellow cav and that em and gus are the only necromancers that the blood of eden has in its possession. they want a LYCTOR to study, but they aren’t getting one.

probably. at least not now.

7.  not entirely sure how it would work because this is a half-baked textpost au but i feel like the collector as jod, a more feral and hurting version of king as alecto and bby normal king as nona would work... very very well. ESPECIALLY with lumity in their own bodies and raine! in eda’s body baby sitting a very confused little king... in willow park’s body.

willow and hunter are holding hands in a river bubble. it’s fine!

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers LOST EDEN ー Kanato Maniac [06]

ー The scene starts on the balcony of the Sakamaki castle

Kanato: ...It’s true...

( The Adler troops are approaching the manor...and they’re high in numbers too... )

Butler: Let us run, Kanato-sama! The Castle has basically fallen in the grasp of the enemy already!

But we can still make it out if we leave now! Come on, hurry!

Kanato: I...to go...

Butler: Eh...?

Kanato: Yui-san...is in danger!

ー Kanato runs away

Butler: K-Kanato-sama!!

ー The scene shifts to the guest room

*Thud* 

Kanato: ーー Yui-san!

...

Monologue

There were countless of footprints,

scattered across the floor of the room she has been using,

and things had been turned upside down here and there.

However, she was nowhere to be found,

as the image which flashed back in my mind,

was one of her covered in blood,

like the one I saw in that dream from earlierーー

I immediately assumed the worst,

leaving me completely frozen on the spot,

unable to move. 

Kanato: ( What if...she was attacked and killed... )

...?

( Why...? Why am I so terrified of her dying...? )

( I thought I wanted her dead, but right now I fear that reality... )

ー Adlers burst into the room

*Woosh woosh woosh*

Kanato: ...!?

Male Adler A: We’ve found you, Sakamaki Kanato!

*Woosh woosh woosh*

*STAB*

Kanato: ーー Guah!?

( ...Red blood... )

( I wonder...if she was also shot by an arrow like this... )

Male Adler B: Heh...I guess his son who can’t even properly control his own powers truly does not compare to that man himself.

Give up and offer your head to us.

Kanato: ...Don’t be ridiculous...

That girl...Where did you take her?

If you are keeping her captive, I demand you release her at once!

Male Adler B: Heh...Are you talking about Eve?

That woman, well...Hehe. I’ve long killed her already. 

Kanato: ...!

Male Adler B: ーー Take a look. These blood-stained clothes prove my point. 

She was sleeping soundly after all. So I slit her throat with my claws. 

Kanato: ...Ah...

( Why...? How come...? )

Male Adler B: ...Hm?

Kanato: ...Haah...Haah...

Male Adler A: Something is up with this guーー

*WOOSH*

Malde Adler A: Uwaaaah!!!

Male Adler B: Kuh...I was hoping to break his fighting spirit but it had the opposite effect, huh? 

You guys! Get in position! We’ll all fire our arrows at once!

ーー My fallen comrade...!! I promise I shall avenge you...!

*Woosh woosh woosh* 

*WOOSH*

Male Adler B: Kuh...Stop struggling in vain!

Kanato: Unforgivable...

I will never...ever forgive you!

ーー To hell with all of you!!

*WOOSH*

ー The scene shifts to the underground waterway

*BOOM*

Yui: ( ...!? The ground’s shaking...!? )

*Crumble crumble*

Subaru: ーー Watch out!

ー Subaru quickly pushes Yui out of the way

*Rustle* 

Yui: Kyaah!?

Subaru: ...Oi, are you alright?

Yui: Y-Yeah. Thanks, Subaru-kun...

Laito: Haah...Where did those tremors just now come from...?

Ayato: An earthquake or somethin’? Che...Talk ‘bout shitty timin’.

Reiji: No...Whilst faint, I could sense Kanato’s magic. I believe his powers might have flurried out of control again.

Yui: ...Kanato-kun...!

ー Yui starts running

Subaru: ーー Oi! Wait!!

*Rustle*

Yui: !?

Shuu: Calm down.

Yui: B-But...Kanato-kun is!

Shuu: You came to seek our help because you couldn’t handle him by yourself, right?

It’s kind of annoying to have you act of your own accord now.

Yui: W-Well...

Selection

→ But... (❦)

Yui: But...! If something happens to Kanato-kun...!

Shuu: ...

I mean, if you insist, be my guest.

...It’s just you better not expect us to help you still then. 

Yui: Eh...?

Shuu: Isn’t that obvious? We don’t want to get dragged any further into this mess because you just do whatever you please.

Yui: ...I-I’m sorry. I promise I’ll behave...

→ You’re right...

Yui: ( Shuu-san’s right... )

I’m sorry...

Shuu: It’s fine. As long as you understand.

Reiji: ...For now, we should wait out the situation.

There’s still the chance that the walls around us could collapse,

but we also cannot proceed any further unless we move the rubble out of the way. 

Yui: ( ...Every second feels like an eternity... )

( Kanato-kun...Please stay safe... )

Monologue

Several more times afterwards,

loud sounds and tremors shook up the underground waterway.

While being eaten alive by anxiety,

my mind wanders off to Kanato-kun. 

The others kept me safe,

from the walls as they come falling down.

But...Who is protecting Kanato-kun? 

There is absolutely no one,

to save him as he’s all by himself (ひとりぼっち).

He must be lonely. I’m sure.

Because I ran away (逃げた),

when I should have always been there for him...

Because I turned away from the issue I needed to face...

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

[mitamicah]

Spoilers for The Owl House 3.03 Watching and Dreaming

Okay so .... I have a lot of words about this episode!

Since I’ve just watched it don’t expect anything here to be cohesive since I am basically just ranting from memory and getting all my thoughts down in writing. No profound meaning behind everything here, just vibes :’D

The Collector - their mini arc in the episode and having them learn to appreciate life, forgiveness and friendship was such a treat - I screamed and actually feared for their life when they ran to Belos then to scream at Luz breaking apart (dying) afterwards - I had no idea this was the way the crew would go with the collector but I loved it

Belos - fucking hell, I am glad he finally died!! I am a little sad that we didn’t get more of his backstory with Caleb but I think what we did get about Belos especially though the words of the titan to Luz in the inbetween fits well with the story and gives closure to Luz and her doubts about being as ‘bad as Belos’. Also him melting in the boiling rain and Luz being over him to the point of not even flinching when Belos tries to manipulate her? Good stuff!! So was the call back to the first episode with the Good Witch Luz pulling Belos off the dying heart of the titan!!

The dream sequences ... I actually thought those and the games would take up more screentime but I am not too sad about it since what we got was pretty much just as angst as I’d thought it would be - and giving time to Raine being badass resisting Belos and Luz meeting the titan was a far trade off for me

I did get some Amphibia the Hardest Thing vibes from the Luz meeting a deity in the in-between after “death” only to get back to life bit but again I don’t mind it since it ended in a pretty badass finale seeing Luz, King and Eda fight side by side 

Seeing the rest of the Hexside squad helping to free the other inhabitants of the Boiling Isles with the help of best mom Camila was pretty fun although a part of me had wanted to see them have a bigger impact on the story: still, it was nice checking in with them once and twice and gosh I adored Amity for being the first to genuinely giving up her hand of friendship to the collector after Luz has just told them about friendship - it was a perfect moment in my mind.

The scenes of people meeting up with their family was so sweet - I enjoyed it a lot especially with Hunter getting his found family in Darius and Ebberwolf :3

Yet to me the real beauty was the epilogue - seeing all the different ways that the peeps on Earth and the boiling Isles have grown up and their new looks! I love Luz’ eyeshadow, and gah, Vee’s piercings look so cool!!! (I wonder if the nose piercing is a nod to the voice actor also being the voice of Amethyst? I believe she had a nosering  (Amethyst?)? I could be wrong, this is literally my unhinged, first thoughts written down unedited) - Willow being a badass sports girlie fits so well and I love the short hair for her, Gus looks incredible with those gold accessories in his dreadlocks, and Amity as a badass air explorer with a sidecut? Hello!!!? Hunter is killing me being this adorable taking up the mantle as apprentice of Dell and aaaaa the blue bird is gorgeous and somehow fits Hunter so well :’D what really killed me about him tho was two fold 1) Flapjack’s grave and 2) the red thing on Hunter’s arm that king of sort of looks like a Flapjack tattoo to cover up his empire coven sigil OVO

And then hello white haired Raine!? Why do they slay with that haircolour and the ‘tear down’ scars!? this look fits them so well, and I am so happy seeing them together with Eda, finally :’3

The ending sequence with the collector sending the fireworks and all the casts saying “Bye” feels like the biggest nod to the fans - thank you so much Dana, the crew, the cast, the animators, everybody for this wonderful show!!

[andthroughthewire]

Can we talk about the insanity of Kim thinking if she knew everything, with the fucking cartel involved, she could control everything? People don’t talk about that side of her enough (and feeling mean but there’s way too many mcwexler fics where it’s just not a factor), that everything has to be planned out and meticulous and even an elaborate scam has post it notes.

Quite a few characters on this show have issues that can be traced back to control or are control-adjacent (Chuck first of all, Gus, if scamming is a form of addiction that definitely comes into play as well) and like you said, with Kim it 'physically manifests' with all the post-it notes she keeps (I recently hit 301 on my rewatch and in the scene where she wants to distract Jimmy when he says 'Chuck didn't hate me for 10 minutes today' or something like that, you can see post-its all over the cabinets behind her).

This comes into play in Jimmy and Kim's relationship, too. The show never explains what exactly went on in the ten years between his arrival in the mailroom and the start of the story, but from what we're shown we can assume they were on and off and she called the shots every single time (I don't mean it as a positive or a negative, that's just the way it is). Jimmy is the kind of guy to jump into things (he's twice divorced at 32, that has to count for something) and was probably head over heels from day one ('gal, singular'), while with Kim we see the drive and focus she has in her career and how she wants to make something of herself, a serious relationship wasn't something she probably even considered before Jimmy came along.

So anyway, from 'you don't save me, I save me' to 'it happens today', there's a lot of internal struggle within herself to keep things the way she wants them how she wants them. Her professional mid-life crisis as a result of the car crash is part of it, too, as she realizes she had been working herself to death for a bank and her moral compass doesn't know what to do with it. Or, later, what happens with Acker. I have to include Howard, too— while the scam itself was born out of desperation to not have Jimmy break up with her in that hotel room, there's no love lost between Howard and Kim, as she associates him with Kevin and all the 'first bank account at 7 years old' types and feeds into the 'us vs them' thing she has with Jimmy and why she almost breaks up with him before she proposes. They're outsiders in a world of insiders. There's an issue of class, too.

Needless to say it all blows back in her face spectacularly as the Howard scam is technically successful but her lie by omission to keep the scam and the relationship going (this is probably a good moment to mention I don't agree with Kim here, but that month and a half between their marriage and Howard's death was a lot to deal with for both of them) indirectly results in his death and it's not like Jimmy and Kim weren't this close to dying that night, either.

Speaking of her need to keep the scam going at all costs, Kim's apartment during S6a tells everything we need to know, as it's shown in varying degrees of darkness and in a growing state of disarray as the episodes go on. Kim's hair, also. They're on a bender. Their days of wine and roses, if you will.

I wonder how things would've gone differently if she had been able to confess everything right away. What ends up happening, instead, is Kim leaving her whole life behind as punishment and becoming this shell of a person that has banished all choices from her life and can't even pick between Miracle Whip and mayonnaise. Considering what I said earlier, her relationship (if we wanna call it that) with Glenn has to be the result of one of her colleagues setting her up and Kim just going along with it because that's the way her life is now.

Her confession isn't an absolution, but it's a way forward. She's able to make choices again and she can trust herself again to help others as she volunteers at the legal aid. Kim visiting Jimmy at the end is a very conscious decision, too. Florida Kim would've never done that.

[swizzee]

Ok ok, I don’t have any art to share cause I’m in the heat of the moment but I need to rave about the new ToH episode for a second

I was bummed about the leaks and made it my mission to go spoiler free until the premiere so I could enjoy it the way Diana intended

AND HOLY FUCK SHE DID NOT DISAPPOINT

I love all the new lore we’ve just got from the new episode cause it really ties everything from season two in. The ancient rival races of collectors and titans killing each other off so one race could prevail but then their endlings become…. Friends? Also the supreme being of the universe is literally a toddler? So silly, so perfect. One thing I’m dying to learn more about is the collector code cause it’s hinted about a tiny bit and also how the Collector just changed it cause he wanted to play hide and seek?? SO SILLY. King literally reads it and doesn’t question anything, he walks down the halls of the palace and ignores the depictions of his ANCESTORS LITERALLY GETTING MURDERED!!? Hello sir your fat head is hiding the lore! I am excited to see King learn the full extent of his powers cause if they’re equally as powerful as the Collector’s, the final show down is gonna kick ass!

One of my biggest regrets was embracing literally every Thanks to Them spoiler I could get my fingers on so the whole story was kinda meh when I actually watched it. One thing that no one even bothered mentioning was all the Star Trek references! The whole season we learn about how Luz’s parents got together over a shared love of Star Trek. Gus and Hunter dress up the whole episode, I mean twist my arm and kiss my soul Diana!! I love Star Trek so much, almost as much as I love crossovers. So Star Trek x any of my other interests? Just steal my heart already!

BEAM ME UP??? Hunter dressed as Data, Gus as maybe Riker or Forge??? I am in love

Willow coping with her emotions and her friends helping her realize she’s more than just the rock of the group was so wonderful and really embraced so much of the Willow character development we never got to see. Her and hunter holding hands at the end was adorable too. Fingers crossed for a tiny cheek kiss by the end of the next special 🤞

Luz and her mom finally being able to understand each other was so adorable and done with so much passion, the whole scene left me in tears. Her mom relating back to Luz of how she was a weird, nerdy kid in high school and just wanted to protect her daughter from relentless bullying honestly hit way to close to home. I’ve always been a weird kid (ie. Sci Fi enthusiast, artsy fartsy, lover of cartoons, hater of sports) and have had the same conversations Luz had with her mom in season one. “You need to calm down, try to relate to other kids more. There’s nothing wrong with you, you might just be a bit… much for some people”. It broke my heart seeing their strained relationship but that just made me even more in awe of them bonding over their weird passion.

“All I ever wanted was to be understood”. She’s just like me fr ☹️💔

Luz’s palesman reveal was so long awaited by everyone and Diana definitely did not disappoint. I saw so many videos on theories about her palesman but I never considered every single theory would be right lmao. Anyway, string bean is so perfect and a great reflection of how Luz is so much more than a silly otter or a sulking sparrow, she embodies everything. I love String Bean, especially all the different forms they offer for her, can’t wait to draw all of them!!!

More girlfriend content! I love them sm, mmmm young love, so yummy, GET IN MY MOUTH EGGEGEGDHJDJKE 🤬💖

I understand that the third season was meant to be more than three specials but tbh, I can’t imagine seeing such a beautiful piece of artistry separated into episodes. The colors, character designs, plot, everything. It was all leaps and bounds ahead of Thanks to Them so my hopes are even higher for Watching and Searching

This is one of my favorite screen caps, enjoy!

The glittery eyes, the flowing tears, the way the light reflects off her face in a way the separates her from the scenery??? PLEASE OH MY GOD IT WILL KILL ME VGFTVGTDVGYDGVHDHUCUDHCUDJ

[igniting-quill]

Hiiiii

So for the fanfic writer ask thing (definitely didn't forget what it was called), i'm asking you about, surprise surprise, your arc 6 fic haha

Her captain, unbelieving, leaned forward until her forehead almost slid up against Beryl’s. Remeny’s electric blue eyes glared at Beryl. The red-head did her best to pull Beryl’s defenses apart. Cute as the captain was, Beryl didn’t break. “Seriously. I didn’t cheat.” Beryl said, her tone taunting, beckoning her captain to make that accusation. She used a hand to push against the captain’s shoulder to give them a bit of distance. Remeny continued to back away, eventually slumping into her chair while Beryl continued, “After all, I’m not as vile as you are. I’m not going to be shoving my playing cards anywhere else… suspicious” “You're making fun of me.” “Yes Remeny, because using your cleavage to hide your playing cards is not as clever as you think. Especially when you’re drunk out of your mind and have terrible sleight-of-hand.” The sky pirate captain, a legendary leader who single handedly led her crew through numerous successful feats of crime, shut her mouth, scrunched her nose, and pouted at the insult. Beryl's smile grew wider. “It’s just the truth, captain.” "Ahhh— you're so smart Beryl!” Remeny said as she swiped the stack of cards from the table and aggressively shuffled them for the next round. “That’s why you're our crew’s quartermaster. Now, if I was quartermaster, we would have all been dead a long time ago.” That was such a Remeny compliment. After all, it was rare to hear something so humbling from someone with such a big ego. Beryl chuckled goodheartedly as Remeny passed out the cards for their next game.

Okay so ... This is just... Impressively in-character, i just... Wow. Like you know that meme that's like "he would not fucking say that"? Yeah, well this is "they WOULD fucking say that".

anyway i guess this is an ask so how did you manage to read these characters' minds and how can i do it /j

Yes! The question I’ve been waiting for! 

Lea is asking about a writing ask which I reblogged here. 

Onto my complementary below the cut, SPOILERS by the way. If you want to read this for yourself first, check it out on ao3 here.

First of all, you’re compliments are so nice haha. I don’t think I can give you the best answer to how I managed to “read these characters' minds” lol, but perhaps you can clean something from what I write down here.

Some background before I get into the scene itself.

I had this structural idea for this fic, which was done sorta well (I had no idea how to do it for Solas). I think we’ve both heard of the “life flashing before your eyes” before death, and here I wanted something like that for Beryl. But her life consists of her pirate crew, and finally in this fic, herself. Each flashback scene consists of a memory of a member from the crew: Remeny, Lottie, Kipp, and Kix (a small one for Salas, if you want to count that). 

I had different “triggers,” some more obvious than others, to initiate a flashback. In the one you chose, the flashback with Remeny, begins with Remeny collapsing in real time. Each other time a flashback occurs, someone is either dying, or in the case with Kipp I just had his flashback sequence come as Beryl was dying herself… I couldn’t find the perfect place hahaha. Additionally, each flashback ended with an ominous reference to death in some sort of way. I mean look: if DM Gus didn't nerf his combat (good choice), Death is what would have happened for everyone in a TPK. 

And well, I like to think of my fanfic of the version in which DM Gus didn’t adjust. The player characters in my fic have trouble speaking, continually take “cold damage” from the water, and Beryl ends up dead.

Alright, let me transition into the section you asked about specifically.

I was thinking of what would fun moment could link Beryl and Remeny together, and I immediately thought of the scene that happened during canon Arc 6. Them playing cards, (I think?) Remeny winning, and Kix doing this preprogrammed Beryl vs Remeny scoreboard. This means that Beryl and Remeny? They have HISTORY with this. They fucking love playing cards against each other, and they’re like rivals about it. So I had to choose that as the backdrop to Beryl’s flashback with Remeny.

But any memory with Remeny would be a moment filled with chatter/teasing/roughhousing/accusations but in the best way possible. Like, in the way that you’ll call your best friend a “Bitch” and roast them, but it’s all in good fun and you don’t actually mean the insults. (We see how this dynamic is bad during Arc 6 Episode 6, but most of the time this is the extent of how far Remeny will go.) So I had to have Beryl and Remeny banter. Of course the first thing Remeny would do if she lost would be to accuse Beryl of cheating.

Now, this next part I’m going to talk about is funny, because it wasn’t until talking with you/ reading your fics (of course other people were part of this too) that I started seeing Remeny/Beryl as a like. Ship ship. Which is stupid, because they literally have all the pieces and parts that would make any large fandom squeal with delight (gay rivals to lovers!). Although this fic is posted without any romantic pairings, I really leaned into that. This scene was meant to be read as possibly romantic. My treat for ya ;)

That’s why Remeny leans forward, and they’re foreheads are touching. It’s tension: are they going to kiss? Her eyes, I nearly settled into the fanfic trope of overembellishing them, but I think electric blue is exactly the vibes I wanted. In my head, I think Remeny wants to kiss and is pushing her luck… that is before Beryl pushes her captain away, and that’s why when Remeny relents she’s slumping in her chair (Like “dammit Beryl, a kiss just this once?” / “No. Kissing me won’t make me get rid of your loss.”)

During this physical moment, they keep up that friendly banter I was talking about earlier (in fact this banter continues throughout this whole section haha). The best thing for Beryl to do is bring up one of Remeny’s past cheating schemes, because let’s be honest Remeny’s definitely cheated before, and is smart about it. Like, Remeny is being hypocritical for calling out Beryl for cheating when the captain has done it before. But of course, I mentioned they’re rivals with inside jokes right? So Beryl’s going to choose the most embarrassing moment she can muster which for the writer (me) I had to ponder a bit. So like. What the fuck would Remeny do? 

Of course it’d be cheating by hiding cards with her boobs.

And like, damn that’s a good roast, so Remeny let’s Beryl have it (captain cannot think of anything else to roast Beryl back and concedes that Beryl won without cheating), and in her lack of a comeback she also admits that Beryl’s smart: that’s why she wins in cards (and wins Remeny’s heart but also this isn’t explicit).

And finally, my odd foreshadowing of death to end the flashback. “Now, if I was quartermaster, we would have all been dead a long time ago.” ← that’s what I mean. 

But it felt too cruel and ominous to end the flashback there. I mean, that’s not what the memory felt like! I didn’t want to warp it like that when the current “present” scene was so tragic, so I ended it off with them continuing onto another game. Past Beryl and Remeny are having a great time. And that’s what makes their deaths feel worse.

Thank you so much for asking! This was incredibly fulfilling and I appreciate your choice of my fic haha. Now, onto my sad irl responsibilities :p take care everyone!

[yeehawbvby]

FAWY Minis | Ch. 2 (Abigail POV)

Rating: Mature/Explicit

Notes: TW for brief description of a suicide attempt.

This one takes place during chapters 2 and 3 of FAWY. There’s also a reference to Sophia, a Stardew Valley Expanded character who’s discussed briefly in chapter 13 of FAWY.

Abby’s a petty brat. But not really. She lies to herself as a defense mechanism or whatever and is clearly Not Okay. Hopefully I did a good job conveying that, if I didn’t do it enough in the main story :’)

Falling Away With You (main story)

Check it out on ao3!

Prev | Next

So, our squad ran into the new bitch on our way to our weekly Stardrop hangout, and it’s going just as poorly as I expected it to. The moment Sam excitedly ran up to her, I knew my night would be ruined.

I eye up the girl as she gets to know my friends, and cling to Sebastian’s arm when she addresses him. Gotta show her what’s mine… can’t let her get any ideas. Her cheeks redden a bit as they talk, and I smirk to myself. She looks so pathetic that it’s almost kinda cute. I wonder if she thinks she has a chance with Sebby…

After Sam teases me a bit for being “overprotective” or whatever, I notice that he seems totally smitten by this lady. That sucks, I suppose, but it would be cool if they become a thing. It’s not that I want her to get cozy with Sam, but he’s the more preferable option if she’s gonna try something with anyone in my friend group.

I ditch them to head to the saloon, using the rain as an excuse. Hoping that the alleged farmer will change her mind about crashing our hang out while I’m gone... I know it won’t work, but, y’know. Out of sight, out of mind. I hoped Sebby would come with, but as I slowly detached myself and walked away, he stayed put. 

He has a weird look on his face… 

He’s probably just as disgusted by her as I am. For sure.

When I enter the Stardrop, I wave to Gus over the crowded bar, hang my hooded denim jacket up, and lean against the wall near the coat hanger, people-watching while waiting on Sam and Seb to arrive.

A few old ladies from out of town are mingling in the booths over there with Evelyn. Cute, I guess. Clint is crying over a beer, over Emily, as he does. I wonder if he knows that it’s really not hard to find a quirky vegan yoga enthusiast with dyed hair.

My eyes shift left, and I see Marnie and Lewis pretending to conduct some kinda town business. Psh. The only business they’re doing is… yuck. I’m not even gonna finish that sentence. A bit further, and I catch that girl Leah and her boy toy staring at me. I wonder if they’re doing any “business.” I hate to admit it, but they’d probably be a cute couple.

Not as cute as Seb and I would be, though.

I poke my head out the door, curious what’s taking so long, just as Sam approaches. Nice! “It’s about time,” I snark. 

Noticing that Sebastian and that thing are not only walking here together, but talking, I don’t even hear Sam’s response. So shocked that my ears temporarily stopped working. Since when has he been such a people person? It took me forever to get anything out of him, and now he’s just laughing along to anything she says?

I look up at Sam to see if he’s seeing this shit, and he gives me a look. “Abby.”

“Yes, I am Abby.”

He sighs. “Dude, you’re doing it again.”

“Doing what again?“ I furrow my brows. “You don’t think it’s fuckin’ weird that–”

“Dude!” he quietly snaps. 

My eyes widen. He’s always gotten a bit snippy when I talk shit, but never… so quickly. Who shoved a stick up his ass today?

“Seb and I both hoped you would be done with your weird… thing with him after dating Soph.” Sebby thinks… what? “Just because there's a new girl in town it doesn’t mean you should revert back to being so–”

My heart sinks a bit, and I feel my eyes well up. 

I mean, when I think of Sophia, I can’t remember the happy stuff. I just imagine her lashing out on me and telling me I was “too much.” Our weird, unspoken competition over who was more mentally ill in our relationship. I don’t think I’ll ever not be able to remember her pale face and swollen eyes and bloodied, gauze-wrapped wrists, and seeing her surrounded by glass and pill bottles and then being rolled into the ambulance and– fuck. 

I have to stop. 

I can’t do this here.

When I think of Sebastian… everything feels better. All the noise and intrusive images that constantly raid my thoughts seem to fade away. He was my first real friend. The first person to ever openly like- like me. Plus, he gets me, I think. And I’d like to think that I get him, too.

I poke at the corners of my eyes, trying to prevent any falling tears from fucking with my eyeliner. God, I look so weak. I fucking hate crying around other people. Why did Sam have to bring Sophia up?

Sam puts a hand on my shoulder and softly reassures me. “Sorry, I just… nevermind. I’m sorry I said that.”  I nod. I don’t wanna talk. Too worried that I’ll actually cry. “Let’s just have fun tonight, okay?”

I nod again, and take a few deep breaths. Few seconds in – hold it for a little – then slooowly out. Just like Dr. Haywood taught me. I’m good. We’re fine. This is fine. 

When I hear footsteps outside, I pester Seb like nothing happened, pulling him in so we can get some booze. Yoba knows I need it.

_______________

After we all get situated, I challenge (y/n) – interesting name, I suppose – to a game of 20 questions. What better way to figure out my new nemesis than to probe her? 

I ask her what type of people she’s into, hoping she’s gay or some shit. I feel like a fuckin’ narc trying to get any info out of her. Lady’s stubborn. She keeps dancing around the question, but I keep trying anyway, until suddenly– 

“Are you hitting on me, Abigail?” she purrs through a sip of beer.

Her (e/c) eyes bore into mine. They’re intense. They’re… really fucking pretty actually oh god damnit all.

My face heats up and I start chugging my own drink, knowing that I would never think these things while intoxicated. Drunken words are sober thoughts, yadda yadda… I do not soberly think (y/n) is actually pretty. She’s a stupid slut probably. And I hate her. Yeah. There we go.

Finally she answers, basically giving me as little information as she’s been giving. “They were all taller than me,” she announces. 

I’m like, 5ish feet tall, probably. And she’s practically the same height as me. 

It’s not fucking hard for us to find people who are taller than us to date.

I give up and prompt (y/n) to take her turn. She asks about my hair. How original. I tell her it’s my favorite color, amethysts are delicious, all the obvious… then, I make up some shit about how it just stopped growing in my natural color at some point, because of magic or some shit. I’ve got to liven the conversation up somehow. Plus, it’s not like she’ll ever know that I actually have a cabinet in my closet that’s filled with purple dye for touch-ups. 

If she doesn’t believe me, she doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t even challenge me. She just accepts my words at face-value. Won’t look me in the eyes though, so who knows what’s going through that pretty ol’ head of hers…

“The first thing that came to mind when I first saw you outside,” she tells me, finally looking at my face, “was that your hair reminds me of amethysts.”

“Oh!” I respond, flattered by her reaction.

…Well ain’t SHE JUST A DOLL?

I can’t stop the smile that plasters my big dumb face as I reply to her, “That’s really cool actually. Thanks!” 

Abigail Renée Parrish, get your shit together! You’re not supposed to smile! Have some respect for yourself! 

Snapping back into gear, I move on. “I have more questions for you, lady.” Perfect. Let’s just get back to business.

“Sure,” (y/n) says with a mouthful of pizza. “Hit me.”

Oh, how I’d love to.

_______________

By the time Sebby and Sam are done with their game, I learn the following about (y/n) and take mental notes of it all:

She’s not really a vegetarian, but tries to avoid meat. How nice of her.

She’s, like, bi or something, but doesn’t want a label. Just settled on “queer,” for now. Why does that kind of excite me? Why should I give a crap? 

She’s a gamer. I wonder how good she is at Prairie King…

She studied psych in college. And yet, she’s trying to be a farmer, all of the sudden? Whatever. Weirdo.

All that, amongst other things. Nothing too fun or exciting. She got so tipsy that she eventually stopped asking me questions back, which was fine by me. The less she knows, the better. I’m a little tipsy myself, but at least I can hold my fucking drinks.

“You two having fun?” Sam asks, making himself cozy next to (y/n) while Seb slinks down into the cushion next to mine. (Y/n) looks so small, cozied up next to Sam like that. Is that how small I look? 

Is that how cute me and Sebby look right now?

She nods at Sam, and thanks him for inviting her to hang with us. “I’m not usually social,” she claims. “It feels weird, but I like it!” 

Look at her, being all cute and shit… Wait, no.

I roll my eyes at her response to him, but I smile. 

What the fuck? Why am I doing that?

I gotta get away from this… this wench . Quickly!

“Yo,” I nudge Seb, standing up and tugging at his sleeve. “I wanna dance.”

“No.”

“Why?” I whine.

“You know why.”

I mean, yeah, he hates dancing, but he does it with me every year for the Flower Dance. Why can’t he just, y’know, work with me a little here? I pout out a hmph before turning to face Sam and (y/n). 

“Let’s go, bitch.” I tug at Sam’s hands, trying to pull him out of the seat. 

He glances sideways at (y/n), then at me, and his big, shiny eyes tell me he’d rather hang out with her. Too bad, I think to myself. “I don’t feel like it. I just wanna chill out for now.”

“C’monnn,” I pry. I pull again, raising his arm and spinning under it before continuing to shimmy along to the beat from the jukebox. “You know you wanna!” 

He looks me dead in the eyes, as if he’s trying to seem grumpy. Then, a smile curls onto his lips and he starts shimming too. “Alright, alright.” Perfect. 

I glance at (y/n). Hmm. Asking her defeats the purpose of my plan, but like, I feel as if I can’t not ask her. She seems kinda zooted, though.

…Look, I’m just doing this for Sam, okay? 

“What about you?” She tilts her head. Was she even listening? “Come dance with us.”

“No,” she shakes her head, wide eyed, waving her hands in front of her. Her sleeves look like paws, clutched around her fists like that. “I-I’m not much of a dancer,” she nervously laughs. “It’s not my thing.”

“Boooringgg,” I sing at her, before pulling Sam across the room with me. 

As we groove, Sam and I just have our usual banter about games and the band and shit. Thankfully, he doesn’t say anything about Sebby or the new girl. Every once in a while, though, I can’t help but glance over at the two of them. Her and Seb were on separate couches originally, both just lazily watching the people around the saloon in their natural habitats. Now, they’re practically draped over each other.

I can’t even try to blame her for being a dumb slut or something, because Seb’s the one who went to her couch. What gives? 

Feeling a little cranky about the situation, I don’t notice the stink-eye I’m shooting at (y/n). 

Why does Seb seem to tolerate her so much? Why did it take so long for us to become friends, but they seem to be hitting it off instantly? What does that cretin have that I don’t?

And if she thinks my hair is so pretty, and that I’m so cool, and whatever the fuck else she said earlier to flatter me and woo me and whatever, then why the fuck is she making such googly moogly lovey dovey shitty little eyes at his ass?!

“You good, Abby?” Sam asks, noticing the angry, and probably confused, expression on my profile. I turn his way, nod, and then resume my grumping. He follows my eyes, and gleams at the sight of the emo man and farmer girl getting so… buddy-buddy over there. 

“Holy shit,” he mutters. “You go, dude,” he cheers on Seb from afar.

My eyes widen at Sam and my brows furrow, before I turn back and see Seb glaring at me. He’s gnawing at his lip, which would be totally fucking hot if he didn’t look angry. 

Is he mad at me? Or did she do something to piss him off?

He silently answers my question, standing up and reaching out a hand to help (y/n) up too. Then, they head outside. 

Together. 

Alone.

[rinnysega]

Story - An Elena P and Gus Drabble

(Drabble from the SPLAT Server Pirate AU “Our Flag Means SPLAT”)

Elena Pascual hummed to herself as her feather quill traced along the paper to finish writing down everything Gustavo Pinheiro was saying. As their esteemed guest - or prisoner as he often reminded the crew - Gustavo paced back and forth in his cell, coming up with another scene off the top of his head for her to record as she sat on the outside of the brig with her notebook.

“-and then Sebastian will jump into the ocean and rescue Miss Ruiz before it’s revealed that...I don’t know, he can breathe underwater or something, yeah, he was a royal merman this whole time who got legs when he traded uh something for them - I’ll figure out the logistics later I suppose.”

“Ha! What?” Elena looked up from her book. “That’s not at all realistic.”

“Well what do you want me to do?” Gustavo leaned against the bars, holding onto them as if his feet would crumble beneath him any moment. “Everyone hated my last story last time when I tried to be realistic.”

“Because you wrote Hernando getting stabbed and thrown overboard. Did you see the way he almost cried when you said he didn’t live?”

“It’s realistic!” Gustavo shouted. “They said they wanted to hear stories about themselves, so I did! And they hated it!”

“Sebastian probably would like the idea that he used to be a merman, but perhaps, just a small suggestion, don’t kill anyone off in the story who has authority to lock you up down here?”

“Well when Diego gets back, you guys are going to be in so much trouble, so I’m not really that pressed about it.”

“Well that’s not for another week, so if you want to spend tonight back in his room, then maybe try an angle where Sebastian saves Miss Ruiz from the storm, but comes close to dying himself. Then there’s a twist that it is Miss Ruiz who will rescue her lover. It’s romantic and no one dies!”

“Oh please.” Gustavo rolled his eyes.

“What? Mad that I came up with something better than you?”

“Mad that I was going to pitch that exact same story next week, but it would be about me saving Diego so he’d have a great story to come back to.”

“Like you could save anyone from anything,” Elena laughed, and it only made that aristocrat grow more angry. “You and Miss Ruiz may be cut from the same cloth, but she’s a little more feisty and durable than you, princess. I could see her saving Sebastian. Only thing you’re good at saving is a penny.”

“Oh yeah?” His voice raised. “Well I’m going to write my own story about myself in my head without you! I’m going to be so cool and strong and dangerous-”

-Elena laughed as loud as he ever heard her laugh at that sentence which only made him tense up in offense-

“-and everyone’s going to clap and say ‘good job, well done, Gus! We underestimated you!’”

“Now that's about as unrealistic as a merman Sebastian as I ever heard.” Elena wiped a tear from her eye as she calmed down her chuckles and wrote about merman Sebastian anyway.

@thecrazyashley-blog @prophetic-hijinks @justthepeelings @redcookies-bestcookies