#and I’m tired that all the gay characters are just there to shock and excite the audience rather than develop organically

[ratatattouille]

I miss when romances had pining and longing and uncertainty and friendship and nuance instead of instalove scenes with two scenes of characters staring across the room from each other in slow motion while dramatic music plays and then kissing maniacally and having sex in the next two seconds

I miss when characterization used to matter in how romances developed instead of making your characters make out as soon and passionately as possible so that a bunch of people could make gifsets of it

romance in stories today feels like how pop love songs are written nowadays, rehashed, impersonal, angsty, remixed, sweetened, surface, self-destructive, toxic, immature, brief, marketable and consumable

emotional manipulation that relies on overwhelm to make you feel something instead of sincerity. it is marked by falseness, thinking that’s what fantasy is, that’s what the escape is, when the true escape in any fantasy is silent, excruciating hope

[nicherayyy]

hi so can i request the la squadra with teen/child reader (whichever) coming out of the closet and being part of the lgbtqia (whether you want them to be coming out as gay/trans/lesbian/etc. i do not. are!) please and thank you!

La Squadra x GN Teen Reader coming out as gay

Well, I’m pretty sure they already knew. They’re assassins after all. Also this was just obvious. Although they were waiting for you to want to talk about it yourself, they won’t push you. And it really didn’t take long. So here you are, sitting in the living room with all your mafia family. You don’t even know how to start while everyone just staring at you intrigued.

“So..you want to talk about something?”, Risotto started, tired of this uncomfortable silence. You try not to look at him as you fidget your fingers. You even began to doubt whether it was a good idea. But there’s no way back. 

Taking a deep breath you replied “I’m gay”.

You mentally slapped yourself on the cheek. Who on earth starts a conversation like that. What would they-

“That’s fine tesoro, but we know”, Prosciutto interrupts you from your thoughts, looking at you gently. 

What? WAIT WHAT?!

You look at your whole team with pure shock on you face. How did they..

“Don’t make that face dear, you’ll get wrinkles”, Melone pats you on the back like nothing happened. At least your confession went more smoothly than you expected.

Risotto is just happy for you. You’re still a kid so he wants you to have something normal in your life. I mean, he just glad that you trust the whole team enough to tell that, it makes him really proud. Proud dad Risotto TM.

Prosciutto is really chill about it. Like.. okay kid, have fun. Pesci would buy him and his fra an ally t-shirts. Prosciutto complaints but he WILL wear it when you guys go for groceries or some other things. In general, this two are very supportive (even if Pros sometimes won’t show that)

Melone is excited. Finally his baby found enough strength to tell this. Prepare for a lot of questions.How did you found out? Do you like someone? These questions will continue until someone stops him. 

Illuso is fine whatever you are. You’ll always be his lil’ buddy so.. yeah. (he will also buy an ally t-shirt).

Formaggio is like “yeah you go buddy”. This dude will support you in your every step in this life. You’re his partner in crime after all. 

And Ghiaccio.. he’s happy for you, sure. But he’s actually a little protective of you. If someone out of the team will decide to make fun of you, well, please god let this poor souls rest in peace. 

And if you already got a s/o all of them will just be like:

A/N: I'm still taking requests so if you have something on your mind *wink* *wink* and it also can be any other jjba part/character (except 7 and 8, sorry)

[just-rogi]

I’m thissss close to snapping and making a full on Sarah Z style hour long YouTube video on the fall of superwholock and why doctor who holds up when SPN and Sherlock did not. Spoilers: you could tell from the in universe representation of the fans with SPN and Sherlock adding fangirl insert characters shown to be stupid obsessive queer and crazy whereas the doctor who fan insert -osgood- was a hero who represented what it means to be human. Supernatural made fun of destiel shippers IN THE SHOW Sherlock called fans who speculated about Reichenbach Fall stupid and crazy (both shows making fun of the fans for being queer as well) where as osgood is nerdy, excitable, socially awkward and above all else, kind. Osgood is offered a position as a full time companion and she says she wants to go more than anything but she has to stay here, defend the earth, to which the doctor replies “by the way, I’m a huge fan” THIS SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THE TREATMENT OF FANS BY THE SHOW!! Doctor who the show and the doctor the character love the curious unique individuals who are interested in the adventures of a madman with a box who choses to help people and believes all life is special. Between Johnlock, Reichenbach, Destiel, Charlie, the musical episode, and the destiel confession supernatural and Sherlock have showed time and time again that they actively hate their audience (if you were around for the final episode of Sherlock you remember how bad it was for fans and i don’t need to remind anyone of “all gays go to hell all cars go to heaven” )

Something also has to be said for the fact that doctor who is the only show of the three without a huge decade long queer baiting (ok the whole Clara thing is on thin ice I’ll be honest but they fixed that with bill in season 10) scandal that ends in blatant homophobia (note it’s not homophobic BECAUSE destiel or johnlock didn’t end up together, it’s homophobic because of the years of intentional queer baiting that predates the end of each program) when your fan base is predominantly queer this is not advisable.

And of course this doesnt take into account the massive change that happened after dashcon, doctor who had an established 50 year history by that point and solid writing so while it fell from its godlike position on tumblr it was still relatively popular after that cultural shift. Also- and this may be controversial - the writing in doctor who is better. I’m sorry but it is. Rewatching some of the 2010-2015 episodes I’m reminded that when doctor who is good, it’s GOOD. The oncoming storm speech. The 9th doctor and the dalek prisoner, “I would never” , a good man goes to war, “the laws of time obey me” , the fucking 50th war doctor speeches, the zygon inversion speech, “the one thing you never put in a trap… me”, all of hell bent, and of course the Van Gogh episode. Honestly on writing alone doctor who absolutely bodies Sherlock and supernatural which is shocking because moffat wrote for Sherlock as well but it never felt as powerful it always felt very clever but once you knew the answer to whatever mystery Sherlock was solving the intrigue just faded. Whereas the more you watch episodes like Vincent and the Doctor, the Day of the Doctor, or Hell Bent, the more you fall in love with the writing.

I could go on and on and on for ages about writing, character relatability , overarching themes and morals, the unique mechanic of regeneration, the doctor companion dynamic, and the question of “are humans inherently good or evil” and so many more nuanced reasons as to why doctor who stands the test of time (pun only slightly intended) but I will not that is too long and I am tired but know that I could if I wanted because the evidence is there

Tldr: doctor who isn’t bad you guys are just mean

[theoreticslut]

“Do you feel the same?” // d.m.

derek morgan x reader

 requested: for @anxiousblanketqueen ’s bday writing challenge!

word count: 1.7k

warnings: slightly angsty, but overall just fluff & flirting

A/N: okay, first ever derek morgan fic & I’m not sure how I feel about it. I like it, but at the same time I feel like it’s just not as good as it could be, you know? in all fairness, i am still trying to get through the series so I don’t have a total grasp at his character yet, but I tried. let me know what you think? It’d be so deeply appreciated 💗 anyways, I have another fic for Jill’s writing challenge that I’m thinking I’ll put out either thursday or friday?! It’s a spicier one so that’s exciting. keep an eye out for it! Xx

taglist: tagging my general taglist once again - if you don’t read for criminal minds, just ignore this. Also, if you still havent filled out my new taglist form, please do! Xx

general taglist - @accioalix @captaincactusjuice @inglourious-imagines @keepawaythenargles @lemongrasshoney @onyourgoddamleft  @valiantobservationkitty @concepcion @eternallyvenus @fandomwhoress @fleurho @fredweasleyzwh0re @harleigh110 @hufflepuffflowers @hufflrpuffforfred @i-miei-amori @littlemisswitt @sammy-the-gay @sightiff @starstruckgranger @teenwolfbitches2 @watermelonsugar2810 @harrypotterwifey @ioverslane99 @darthwheezely @callmelilone @teawiththeweasleys @softlyqoos @justmesadgirl @xuckduck @filipi-yes @aestheticwh0r3 @siredkai @matsuno-nadeshiko @msmarklee1213 @immajustreadwritereblog @msmimimerton @perfectlysane24 @mischievous-queen @bunnyboo7 @grandeoptimist @daddystevee @slytherinxhunter @streetfighterrichie @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @isthereanymorejello @karushinekomiya @p0gue420 @hogwartslut @sebby-staan @fredshmeasley

General CM  - @anxiousblanketqueen @your-hispanichufflepuff @yikesyikesyikes95 @livvysnaps

It’s unusually quiet as everyone boards the jet. While the case had ended as good as one can, it had been a long and extremely tiring ordeal. You’re pretty sure that everyone is in agreement that you all need a day off to rest.

However, the best you can get at the moment is to try to get some peace on the flight back, and maybe if your lucky, get an hour or so of sleep.

Unfortunately, you are not one of the lucky ones.

“How’re you doing?” Derek asks as he settles himself into the seat across from you.

“Fine. Tired, but I think we all are.” You smile, drawing a chuckle from the man.

“You got that right, y/n.”

You nod lazily as you take in his appearance. He tries to hide it, but you can see how tired he is in his eyes and in how his shoulders sag.

“Enjoying the view, sweet girl?”

“Sure,” you scoff with a smile, eyes automatically rolling in their sockets.

Ever since you started at the BAU, you and Derek have had a flirtatious relationship with each other. It started with him throwing flirty comments your way to see you get all flustered and annoyed, but as soon as you started throwing them back, it’s become more of a game to see who could be more flirtatious. So far neither of you have yet to win.

“You know, you scoff and roll your eyes, but I think - no, I know - that you secretly do like me.” He smirks, loving as you shake your head and try to bite back a smile.

“Yeah right, Morgan. If that’s what helps you sleep at night.”

At that, he lets out a hearty laugh which you hate to admit sends butterflies to your stomach.  In an attempt to hide just how much he gets to you still, you pull out a book and flip to the page you left off on.

~.~

It’s been nearly an hour and a half since you’ve started reading and Derek hasn’t been able to stop admiring you. He tries not to make it obvious, but he can only pull his attention from you for a few minutes at most.

In all honesty, he didn’t want to stop admiring you. If he could, he be more than happy to just watch you all day, every day.

You’ve only become more sleepy since boarding the plane and reading. Curling yourself up into a small ball, and yawning continuously for the last half hour, It’s impossible for Derek to not find you adorable.

“Derek, I can feel you looking at me.”

He can’t help but smirk as you don’t even look up from your book. You don’t even try and yet you’re stunning.

He’s adored you since the moment you first walked through the BAU doors four years ago. He didn’t realize then that the beautiful woman walking through the doors was going to be his teammate, but it’s been an enjoyable four years ever since.

While the nature of this job may be dark at times, he only needs to look at you to find light. Not only are you unbelievably attractive, kind, and empathetic, but your so brilliant and skilled at so many things - the job in particular. Out of all the reasons he could hate the job, he would always say how great it is as long as he got to work with you.

“Yeah? And?”

“Can you stop?” You question, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“I can, but I’m not sure I want to.”

“And why’s that?”

He smiles, a little chuckle leaving his lips as you finally look up at him.

“You’re really nice to look at. Wouldn’t want to deprive myself of such a beauty,” he winks.

“Oh good god, Derek. You sure are laying it on thick tonight.” You groan, wondering how you found yourself here.

It’s not that you didn’t like his flirting and sweet comments, but you just worried what it all meant at times. He obviously was flirty with Penelope, but it was obvious that they were the best of friends. With you, you couldn’t tell. Maybe it’s because you couldn’t tell what you wanted it to be. Either way, it scared you.

“I’m just telling you the truth, darling.”

You shake your head, trying to hide a smile as he watches you. You don’t need to fall for him. You don’t need to fall for your teammate more than you already have.

It’s easy to find yourself swooning to Derek’s words, and even easier to find yourself falling for him, but you needed to stop it. Being in love with a teammate will only make things difficult, if not ruin things completely.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” You ask, not able to ignore his almost love-sick stare.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re in love or something.”

“Maybe I am.” He shoots back, thoroughly shocking you. It’s hard to keep quiet when you had nearly choked on air.

You try to keep a calm façade, but you’re certain he can read the panic in your eyes.

“Derek...”

“No, I know. I know it’s hard being in love with someone doing this job, even harder when it’s someone on the team, but I can’t help it, y/n.”

You look around the jet to find everyone either sleeping or preoccupied with their own entertainment. You sigh, glad that no one is overhearing this.

“Derek...what do you want me to do?” You sigh, heart sinking as your mind runs a mile a minute.

“Like you said, it’s hard enough being in love with someone while doing this job, let alone that person being someone on the team.”

He sighs, frowning as he falls back into his chair, not really sure what to say. He knew to never share his true feelings with you, but he got so caught up in the back and forth that he couldn’t stop himself from spilling.

“Do you feel the same?”

You look at him, making contact with his beautifully dark eyes. You sigh softly, reading the emotions swirling behind his irises.

“I think so.”

“You think so?”

“Derek, it’s easy to fall for you when you’re you. You’re so physically and mentally strong, you’re unbelievably knowledgeable, you’re talented in so many ways...” You start, watching as he watches you with his full attention.

“You’re funny, and sweet, and so much fun to be around. You’re a natural leader with the charisma to match, and I swear you know how to light up a room without trying. You make people around you feel comforted, and you never break your promises. You’re undeniably amazing...”

“But?” He asks, still watching you.

“But I’ve tried so hard to not let myself fall for you because of the risk it would be, and if you know anything about me, I know awfully well how to put up walls...especially when it comes to my heart.”

“God, I know. You take on everyone else’s pain and sell yourself out to the very last string, but god forbid if anyone try to do the same for you.”  He chuckles, shaking his head at the situation.

“I’ve seen you, y/n. I know you’re friends with everyone on this jet right now, but I’ve seen how you don’t let a single one of them help you when you really need it. I suppose that’s one of the things that I came to like about you.”

“What do you mean?”

You watch as he chuckles, shaking his head, before meeting your gaze.

“I love how you’re willing to help everyone else, but I want to be the one to get through to you that you need someone to help you. I want to be that person who helps you when you won’t let anyone else.”

You bite back a smile as you take in his words. Out of everyone, you have always felt the most comfortable asking Derek for help. That doesn’t mean you ever have though.

You have to admit though that it’d be nice knowing someone is on your side and willing to comfort you like you comfort others.

“You’re making me fall for you again, Derek Morgan.” You huff playfully.

“Sweet girl, I’ve already completely fallen. The least I can do now is to catch you.”

You shake your head, trying your hardest not to let that smile break, but it’s impossible when it’s derek.

He smiles himself as he watches you, biting your lip although the smile has already taken over your face. God what he would give to see that smile directed at him every day. Just knowing that he can cause you to smile that sincerely, and that big, has his heart melting.

“I’d love to be with you, Derek, but I think we both know neither of us can step away from the job. We’d have to be able to put our relationship on pause whenever we’re on a case...”

“I know. Trust me I know. I’m more than willing to try it though if you are.”

“Okay then.”

He smiles, watching as a small blush heats up your cheeks, smirking when he gets an idea.

“Y/n y/l/n, when this jet lands, would you give me the honor of taking your pretty face on a date?”

You can’t help but chuckle as you nod. Only Derek would ask you out on a date in the goofiest of tones, but you can't say you mind it. You’ve always liked just how happy he makes you.

“I suppose I will.” You smile, chuckling as he punches the air in excitement before leaning over to kiss your cheek.

“This will be the best decision of your life, I swear it. I love you so much, y/n.”

“I love you too, Derek. More than you probably realize.”

He smiles, placing a kiss to your forehead before scooting into the seat beside you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders. You chuckle but can’t stop the smile from gracing your features as you pull your book back up to your face to read, already feeling so much safer - and happier - in derek’s arms.

[kraiyan]

i made my own little headcannons to fit in if michael and jeremy were dating and a bunch of other stuff that i don’t want to spoil so take my headcannons and please don’t pay attention to my overuse of the words ‘so’ and ‘like’

i wrote this headcannons for me in my notes so there are mentions of panic/anxiety attacks, light mentions of an eating disorder, nightmares, and self harm but i’ll just put a trigger warning for when those parts show up and if i missed anything that is triggering please let me know

- michael is trans and gay and jeremy is bisexual

- i think they would’ve been friends since kindergarten so they grew up telling each other EVERYTHING

- i feel like michael was really girly as a kid but in like 6th grade he just completely switched to like tomboy but he didn’t do on purpose it just happened

- then in seventh grade michael told jeremy he wanted to be a boy then after that with help from jeremy he came out to his moms

- michael had a crush in jeremy since 7th grade but i don’t think jeremy was his first crush

- i think since michael was straight when he was a girl he just assumed he was straight as a boy and his sexual awakening was captain sparklez

- michael has two moms and jeremys mom would’ve died in a car accident so it’s just him and his dad

- i imagine they confessed to each other in their second year of high school

- (TW: mentions of abuse) jeremy realized he liked michael in freshman year and it was really bad he could not stop thinking about him so when he got squip squip l would not stop punishing him for it

- so jeremy definitely has some problems with his bisexuality

- after years of pining for each other when they finally kissed jeremy could not stop panicking about it

- like they went to sleep fine but he was internally panicking and he tried to keep it together but the next day he absolutely broke just started sobbing saying over and over again “is this okay, are we okay”

- michael is the type to listen to a vulgar music to help his dysphoria

- so him and jeremy are in his car michael plugs in his phone and just starts singings “hoes want to be seen with me and i like their big thick titties”

- and jeremy can do nothing else but be like michael what the fuck

- they decided to keep their relationship a secret and not tell anyone bc of jeremy still coming to terms with himself and he didn’t think his dad would understand

- but i feel like michael moms had already pieced together that they were dating and jeremy didn’t mind that they knew bc they’re literally lesbians but every time jeremy came over from that point forward they had to keep their door open

-(TW: mention of an eating disorder) in a different angstier au jeremy would struggle with eating as a control thing after squip

- (TW: mention of an eating disorder) in an angstier au michael would have an eating disorder cause dysphoria

- i feel like once he realized he was trans he had really bad dysphoria but like with therapy and stuff he got over it

- so i think michael really liked afycso and had it on a vinyl and now jeremy knows all the words

- they don’t do anything at school because jeremy is still uncomfortable so they just pursuit their relationship between closed doors and michaels car in an empty parking lot

- i feel like they both got really excited when michael got referred to as sir for the first time

- jeremy and michael grew up together but ironically when puberty hit michael started to wear baggy clothes than he wore a binder than he wore super baggy clothes to hide his tits after coming out but during squip he had time to self reflect and work on his dysphoria so when jeremy saw michael outside of school he kinda said TITS and was so caught off guard by them

-(TW: mentions of self harm scars) i think michael has sh scars due to losing his childhood best friend and the whole panic attack in the bathroom thing and jeremys seen them but didn’t bring it up to michael because they’re fading so he obviously doesn’t do it anymore but it was a huge shock for jeremy to find out

- they never brought it up tho and it was never discussed bc who cares it was in the past

- michael pants his nails black and i think on some very rare occasion jeremy would paint his nails too (like the way karl paint his) and michael has lots of nail polish cuz on the rare occasion he paints his nails different colors and he repainted his nails every two weeks

- no matter how many times michael has changed in the same room as jeremy even let jeremy help take off his binder jeremy will never not get shy when he changes and will always ask to go into another room

- jeremy is a coffee person but not hot coffe because he always drinks it too early and burns his tongue

- he originally bought his hoodie™️ in really huge size to battle dysphoria but that just made the hoodie last for years

- jeremys name in michaels phone is something very gay and lovey and shit and michaels name on jeremys phone is just michael :)

- jeremy would come home all suspicious and and red faced after him and michael came from an empty parking lot that his dad would not stop begging him to meet this girlfriend of his

- i don’t think jeremy told his dad him and michael were playing a game or something and they kiss jeremys dad comes in and is like what 😦

-and his dad is shocked that he has been pushing girlfriend but he has a boyfriend and is just soooooo awkward about it and never sees michael the same but never makes any rules about them bc he doesn’t want to be homophobic 😭

- i don’t think he was really not supportive but it took him a bit to get used to it but it was so new to him and he was just so phased he just kinda talked to jeremy about his sexuality then left it at that

- they are like gendebend bubbline (marshal lee and the other one yk)

- michael has a queen vinyl the listen to a lot

- so i think michael would still smoke a bit and one time he convinced jeremy to do it with him and jeremy mainly coughed a lot then they just made out the rest of the time but they didn’t tell their parents they would be staying out after school and they both got in trouble

- michael gets blue raspberry and jeremy gets cherry but he also gets coke sometimes too (slushy flavors)

- at the beginning of their relationship they had to take it really slow so that jeremy would feel coqmfortable

- (TW: mentions of panic attacks) so jeremy has nightmares of squip and he wakes up having panic attacks and it’s really tiring bc he only gets 2 hours of sleep if he has these nightmares

- (TW: mentions of panic attacks) i feel like along with his nightmares he also had panic attacks that squip would punish him for pursuing a relationship with a guy let alone michael

- so after he got over his nightmares he just struggled with sleeping and nighttime in general like just fear around going to sleep

- so he often stayed up alll night to avoid sleeping and would like go to bed at 6 or on a good day 4 or 5

- so i think to get over his fear he had to make a routine first he would make some sort of hot drink or just water (mostly sleepy time tea) then he would text michael that he was going to sleep he also wears the same pajamas every time he goes to sleep just to make sure the routine really works then lastly he reads a comic book then he goes to bed

- i think the reason jeremy couldn’t sleep well after getting over the nightmares is because even if squip doesn’t haunt him enough to show up in his dreams anymore it still haunts him enough to stress him out constantly so he doesn’t sleep well

- to conclude the nightmare and sleeping saga jeremy basically has a night routine and sleeps with a night light

- i feel like they both go to therapy but we’re to scared to tell each other (and they both started going to therapy before they started dating)

- so fast forward they’re dating and are trying to plan a date and jeremys like i’m busy on monday at 1 and my dad needs me to help him with something on tuesday so how about wednesday at 3 and michaels like i have somewhere to be like at 3:30 and jeremys like where do you have to be and michaels like where do YOU have to be and so they count to three and say where they’re going to be and they both say therapy and then they’re like you go to therapy i think that would be so cute

- so michael has really thick glasses like his vision is awful so if jeremy is mad at michael he would wake up early and move his glasses over so michael would have to struggle to get out of bed and look for them with his poor ass vision

- he can see things right in front of his face but as soon as it moves a bit too far it’s blurry

- and speaking of his galsses if they’re really kissing along the way jeremy would take of his glasses so they could get closer to each other’s faces (like how elle and tao do in heartstopper )

- michael and jeremy have been friends way too long to not have practiced kissing with each other

- i think christine was a long time crush for jeremy so he definitely practiced kissing michael a lot since they were in 6th grade and michael was just soaking that shit up

- he’d be like what if she wants to make out we should practice that and jeremys like oh yeah you’re right and michael would be so freaking happy

- but they definitely got caught by jeremys dad and he laughed it off cause what else are you meant to when your 11 year old son and his 12 year old best friend are kissing each other

- they didn’t do it anymore after that cause they were soooooooooo embarrassed

- so i don’t talk about the rest of the characters but i’m about to make a headcannon including them so i’m gonna say my headcannons

- so chole is demisexual and panromantic

- brooke is a lesbian

- rich is bisexual and trans

- jake is pan

- jenna is questioning or straight

- and christine is aro/ace

- so i think jeremy and christine dated for a bit then christine broke up with him cause she was all like i can see the way you look at michael and also because she realized she was feeling intense platonic attraction not romantic

- and also i think they’re all friends so they have a group chat where they send homework answers and stuff

- so i think one time jeremy is doing his nighttime routine but this particular night he’s really tired so he texts michael goodnight bby <3 love u then skips the comic book reading and goes to bed but he sent it to their group chat so as soon as he got situated into bed all he hears is his phone going off so he has to check and it’s just everyone freaking out

- so he like fully sits up is looking at his phone in complete shock then realizes he never said a name so they are like who’s this mystery girl

- so he calls michael tells him about the situation then decides he’s ready to come out

- so the next day they’re more handsy then usual like jeremy wiped something off his face michael saw that he was cold and pulled him real close and their friends are like okayyyyy

- but mind you christine knew that jeremy liked michael so she knew exactly what was happening

- so at the end of the day their friend group is making plans to hang out but everyone was busy so jeremy goes well i’ll see you guys tomorrow waves at everyone kisses michael then starts walking to his house then michaels like yea i’m gonna head home to and like drives away and from that day forward their friends would not stop teasing them and were impressed they could keep there secret for so long

- so i feel like michaels moms both have jobs that run late so mom #1 is an er nurse and mom #2 is an account so this leaves michael a lot of time of being alone in his house so naturally you need to take advantage

- so one time mom #2 gets home and walks in just to see jeremy fully on the counter making out with her son

- i don’t think they got in trouble but his mom was like please not on the counter

- and then there was another time where mom #1 came home on her break cause she doesn’t live far from the er so she like yells to michael that she’s home

- and so naturally you come down to hug your mom so he comes down to greet his mom with a red faced jeremy behind him and his mom thought this was so fucking funny but as soon as she’s done laughing she immediately goes anytime jeremys over the doors open and that was the end of it

- everyone has this one thing that someone does that make them all blushy and stuff

- for jeremy it’s when michael wears fitting clothes cause michael is known to wear hoodies or just baggy clothes in general so when michael does get hot and needs to like put something on he puts on one of those body fitting v necks and jeremy losses his shit like he’s fully blushing and avoiding eye contact and since michael changed cause he was hot he’s sure that jeremy is so hot that his face is turning red and he’s embarrassed to say to take off his cardigan so the entire time jeremy is being full homo for his boyfriend michael is thinking he’s about to pass out from a heat stroke

- so i think jeremy enjoys this so much that for the first week of spring michael will only wear fitted clothes because jeremy loves it

- for michael it’s when he’s kissing jeremys neck and jeremy runs his hand thru his hair and pulls it a little when this happens michael loses all common sense one because jeremys enjoying himself so much that he has to kinda tug on michaels hair and two he’s enjoying it so much he doesn’t have time to think that squip is going to punish him and that makes michael just lose his mind so by the time they’ve pulled apart jeremy as sooooo many hickies and they both look at each other like what the fuck did we just do

- moving right along i feel like when jeremy wakes up at night and is terrified to go back to sleep if him and michael are sleeping together he will like hug him until he gets back to sleep and it works every time

- when they were like 7 jeremy got really sick with the flu and michael was so scared that he was going to die so he kissed him while he was sleeping because if his best friend was gonna die so was he and the next day he got really sick with the flu and jeremy would not stop crying because he thought that since michael refused to leave his side he got him sick…they’re idiots

- jeremy is the type to go to school with the worst fever ever he could throw up in the middle of the school day and still not go to the nurse and if he got sick during junior year forget it you had to strap him down to his bed if you wanted him to take a day off like michael had to sedecue him into staying in bed and taking medication so that he could feel better

[cdt12345]

We've been friends many years but I've never thought to ask; Top 10 gay OTPs?

1.) Ian & Mickey (Gallavich) - Shameless us

What can I say about these two that we haven’t already said about them?! They are my absolute all-time favorite couple ever! Gay or straight. They perfectly complement each other, they love each other on a level I feel like I’ve never seen before (and I have watched a lot of tv/movies), they’re like a comedy duo, they support each other, understand each other better than anyone else ever will, they fell in love as kids, they bring out the best in each other, and they’re each other's best friend. I’m a sucker for opposites attract, who are also best friends. Gallavich really fits that bill. I wish they didn’t have to struggle so much to get their happiness, but I’m happy they finally got it. When they got married, it felt like the biggest victory ever! We went through those years of struggle with them, rooted for them, mourned for them when John Wells let Noel go after season 5. So much has tried to keep these two apart, even real-life circumstances tried to keep them apart. The chemistry between these two characters and between Cameron and Noel was so powerful, they were brought back to the show. That kind of thing doesn’t happen very often. When an actor leaves a show, they don’t usually come back as a series regular, let alone two actors who have already left the show. It felt like a miracle! I will never forget getting the news that Noel was coming back from you @luckyshazmrsmonaghansblog I was crying with happiness bc we wanted this for so long and I never believed we would get to see both Cameron and Noel back on the show. Or that they would get their happy ending outside of a jail cell. Especially after Cameron left the show in season 9. With their return we got a wedding, an entire season of them as a married couple, we got to see them dance with each other twice, we got them singing together, we got to see them start a lucrative business together, we got to see them free and happier than we’ve ever seen them before, and we got to see Terry get what he deserved after putting them through hell. We are only halfway through season 11, but I already feel so fulfilled with this extra time with gallavich that we were never supposed to have. JW tried to take that away from us. I will never understand why, but he failed. I am not surprised this is the one I wrote the most about. I can go on and on about gallavich!

2.) David and Patrick - Schitt’s Creek

This was everything I ever wanted to see onscreen, where there was zero homophobia. The pansexual character didn’t need to have a big coming out or tell everyone in the town of his sexual orientation, except his best friend. The gay character had a coming out with parents who loved and accepted him for who he is and was only upset that he felt he couldn’t tell them sooner. I dreamt of a day where I could see this kind of representation onscreen. The casual treatment of their sexuality was so refreshing and something I’ve been waiting for. There is no darkness or huge struggle they had to overcome to be together or a sad ending for them. They were allowed to be together without the major conflicts most LGBTQ characters have to go through. Once David made the first move Patrick was comfortable allowing himself to fall for David and start a relationship with him. He was so sure of his feelings for David after that first kiss, he never looked back and I loved that. They had such an adorable love story. Truly one I have been waiting to see for so long between two LGBTQ characters. They made me smile every time they were on screen. They are another of my OTPs that are exact opposites who complement each other perfectly. Patrick was welcomed into David’s family and blended in with them so well, even when he and David had very different upbringings. Patrick serenading David with Tina Turner and then Mariah Carey at their wedding is one of the most romantic things I have ever seen!

3.) Holt and Kevin - Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Captain Holt and Kevin are strange men on their own but together they are the perfect pair. They get each other in a way no one else does. The best part is their adorable fur baby, Cheddar! They seriously make the cutest family! I was so nervous when they went through a rough patch for a while because I didn’t want them to split up. Thankfully, they made it through and are still going strong!

4.) Will and Vince - Will & Grace

On the show's first run, Will and Vince were in a serious relationship and Vince was Will’s longest relationship on the show. They broke up a few times but were together by the series finale. The two reunite during the funeral of Will's father. There was a time jump on the series finale. Though I didn’t love everything about the last episode, I did love the fact that Will and Vince had been together for 20 years and raised a son together, who was conceived through in vitro fertilization with a surrogate. After the time jump, nearly twenty years later, their son goes to college and meets Grace's daughter, whom he would eventually marry. Though I wasn’t happy with the fact that Will and Grace didn’t stay close over the years, it did allow for their kids to one day meet, fall in love, and get married. I did like that outcome out of the finale. My family and I used to watch the original show, but we refused to accept or watch the 2017 revival because they completely changed everything from the original series finale. The second I found out they were changing everything; I knew I couldn’t watch it. They even wiped the existence of their kids from the first series finale. The revival was an attempt to cash in on the reboot craze and I wasn’t happy about that already, but even more so when they were going to break up one of my OTPs for easy money. Bobby Cannavale, who played Vince, has become even more famous since starring in Will & Grace. So, I already figured he wouldn’t be back for the show as a regular, but I know he did guest star. I won’t accept the revival and to me, Will and Vince stayed together, and their son married Grace’s daughter. THE END!

5.) Albert and Armand - The Birdcage

Miss Albert and Armand were the earliest gay couple I remember ever watching onscreen when I was eight years old. I have watched this movie more than I can count over the years. It is a family favorite that we quote often. Their son is planning to marry a girl whose father is in politics and is very conservative. They have to hide the fact that he has two gay fathers for one night, but everything goes awry, and comedy ensues. Nathan Lane and Robin Williams give a wonderful performance without resorting to using the stereotypes that are often used on gay characters, especially back then. It’s a classic!

6.) Stefon and Seth - Saturday Night Live

Okay, hear me out on this one! They’re not the most conventional OTPs on my list, but I really do love them so much! Stefon started doing a correspondent segment on Weekend Update on SNL. The first time Stefon came on, he flirted with Seth Meyers. The second he did I was like ooh they would make a cute couple! Stefon the wild party guy and Seth the serious news anchor. It was a match made in heaven for me. Before Seth Meyers left SNL to do Late Night with Seth Meyers, Bill Hader came back to play Stefon for Seth’s last episode. I didn’t expect what happened next to happen at all! They gave Seth and Stefon the ending that I haven’t even gotten from some actual scripted shows. I never expected Stefon and Seth to have this big ending, but I could not be happier that they did. I’m posting the link to the six-minute skit/ending and I hope it works. It’s worth watching. Though the video says it’s Stefon’s farewell it was really Seth’s farewell episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj-wYWMdWNk

7.) Mr. Simmons and Peter - Hey Arnold!

Anyone who grew up watching this show already knew that Mr. Simmons, Arnold’s teacher, was probably gay. It was hinted at in the Thanksgiving episode. Arnold and Helga visit Mr. Simmons on Thanksgiving at his house and his family and “friend” Peter are there. Mr. Simmons mother says she didn’t know Peter was coming to dinner and Peter responds with the infamous line “There’s a lot of things you don’t know.” When Mr. Simmons mom tries to get him to take a woman friend to the ballet, he says he loves the ballet and Peter gives him a disapproving look and Mr. Simmons immediately declines. Those were enough hints for us fans to decide Peter was his boyfriend. Years later, the show's creator Craig Bartlett finally confirmed Mr. Simmons is gay and had them together in the 2017 Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie. It was so exciting to finally get the confirmation years later, even though I was already certain of it for many years. I was happy that the cartoon no longer had to settle with vague hints about it.

8.) Callie and Arizona - Grey’s Anatomy

I was very happy to see a lesbian couple on prime time tv and I really liked both characters. I was excited to root for them but sadly as most couples on this show, their relationship took a turn, and I wasn’t thrilled about it. I was disappointed that it came to an end. By then I was already getting tired of watching the show. It was starting to feel like a chore to watch it every week. I tried to stick it out because I don’t like to give up on shows in the middle of it, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. I’m glad I did though because the shocking events with Derek Shepard, is something I’m glad I wasn’t around for. Anyway, I heard things between Callie and Arizona got even worse, so I was even happier I left when I did.

9.) Sherwin and Jonathan - In a Heartbeat

This was one of the cutest things I have ever seen! I wish this got the full-length movie treatment instead of a short film. But it was still a step in the right direction for the LGBTQ community. Gay characters in cartoons always bring me such joy and that was the focus of this short. A boy with a crush on another boy with a cute ending. What is not to love?!

10.) Mitch and Cam - Modern Family

Another show I had to give up on in the middle of the series. The show began to be less funny and more annoying to me. Another reason, that really has nothing to do with the show itself, that used to annoy me was that this show repeatedly beat out Parks and Recreation during award season. Parks and Recreation is a superior show when compared to Modern Family. This show won almost every year for years and it got really annoying especially when the quality of the show started slipping and they kept winning. After a few years, they finally stopped winning all the time. But before all that, I was a fan of Cam and Mitch. They were a great couple who I loved watching on the show. They were the best part of the show most of the time. But sadly, my annoyance of the show no longer being as funny as it used to be, was enough for me to stop watching.

[thominho-incorrectquotes]

Three nights and I’m in love with you

This is my entry for Thominho Week 2021, Day 6 “ One bed Au ”

Characters: Thomas x Minho

1279 words

Tags: Modern Au, friends to lovers, there was one be, fluff, humor

Summary:  Newt invites his boyfriend, Alby, and his friends, Minho and Thomas to his family cabin for a sky trip. He however didn't mention that there was only two bed and that his two "straight" friends would have to share one together.

Note: I'm sorry I'm late! This was supposed to be posted two days ago!

You can also read it on AO3 and ff.net

_________________________________

"And here we are!"

Newt stopped the car in front of a small cabin in the middle of the mountains. The blond young man had invited Alby, his boyfriend, along with Minho and Thomas, to a small sky trip during the holidays season. The cabin belonged to his parents, but that year, they had decided to go back to London, while Newt wanted to spend time with his lover and friends.

And Thomas was quite excited for this trip with his friends. Especially, his best friend, Minho. Despite being roommates in college and being best friends since childhood, last semester had been hard on both of them resulting in not being able to be around each other a lot during the past few months. This trip was a nice way to catch up with his best friend. He missed doing things with him.

"Wow, it's pretty cute" Thomas said, opening the car door to go outside in the snow.

"Yeah, it is" Minho agreed.

The cabin was surrounded by snow and trees, and behind it, they could see the sky track. It was late in the afternoon so the sky station was closed, but it made Thomas even more excited. He couldn't wait for tomorrow.

The four boys then went inside, taking their luggage's and groceries inside. The interior was everything you could expect from a Canadian cabin. Wood everywhere, old curtains hanging in front of the windows. A small living room with typical couches and armchairs along with a fireplace. The kitchen next to it was even smaller, but Thomas immediately fell in love with this little home. It was just so cute.

Putting the groceries bags on the kitchen counter, Newt said "Alby and I are going to sleep in my parents' room" glancing at his boyfriend, an amused glint in his eyes, he added "and you two are going to sleep in my room. I'm sorry shanks, there's only two beds here so you guys are gonna have to share."

Okay, that took an unexpected turn.

"You didn't tell us that" Minho immediately said.

"I forgot" Newt replied, but besides him, Alby was trying to hold back a laughter, which didn't make the whole think convincing. "Unless you wanna sleep on the couches?"

Both Minho and Thomas looked at said couches. They were way too small for any of them.

They were going to have to sleep together. The brunet couldn't remember the last time they had to do that. They must have been 8 years old back then.

"Oh no, two straight boys having to sleep together, they'll turn gay!" Alby joked.

But Minho only smirked "Oh, you think that you two having sex in your step-parents' bed is any better?"

The blond blushed as his boyfriend widened eyes in shock "You shuck-face –"

"What? You mean you're not gonna fuck?" the young man teased further, encouraged by his best friend laughter.

"You're an asshole Minho."

"I know" he winked.

…

After eating dinner all together, and playing some game, Minho and Thomas were now face with reality. They really would have to sleep together. The double bed seemed to be taunting them.

Despite having acted like it didn't bothered him in front of Newt and Alby, the Korean young man now seemed shy and embarrassed. But as typical Minho, he brushed it off.

"Well, let's get this over with. I'm tired."

"Yeah…"

They got in bed quickly, not wanting to dwell on everything that it implied. And they felt asleep in silence, both as far from each other as possible.

…

Thomas woke up with a start few hours later. He was breathing fast, blood pumping into his ears. It was another nightmare. Ever since his dad passed away few years ago, those frightening dreams often occurred.

Sitting in the bed, he tried to make his heartbeat take a normal pace again by breathing deeply and erasing the images from his mind.

"Thomas? You okay?" a tired voice asked.

"Yeah… yeah…" he tried to say. "Just a bad dream… sorry for waking you up dude."

"Slinthead…" he mumbled before getting out of bed, leaving the room as Thomas stared at him in confusion.

He came back shortly after, a glass of water in hand. "Here, drink it, shank."

Thomas obliged. His throat indeed felt dry. Setting the glass on the nightstand, Minho got back into bed, satisfied.

"It's about your dad?" he asked, pulling the covers on himself. The boy only nodded. "Come here."

Before he could protest, he was pulled into a warm chest, arms gently wrapped around him. He looked at his friends in confusion, trying to ignore the warm feeling that was spreading in his body.

"Just sleep, shank" Minho said. "I'm just trying to comfort you."

Thomas blushed, but in the darkness, he hoped his best friend didn't see it. "Thanks."

…

The next day was one of the coldest days this winter. While they were skiing, adrenaline had kept them warm and the fireplace after had been a big help.

But now, in the cold bed, Thomas was freezing cold. It was horrible and it kept him from falling asleep.

"Shuck, it's so damn cold" he whined, knowing the man in bed with him wasn't sleeping either. "I wonder if Newt and Alby are suffering too…"

Minho scuffed at that "Nah, they must be having sex to keep warm."

Ah, yeah, probably.

"They're lucky…"

"What? Are you implying we should fuck to get warm?" the young Asian man laughed, which earned him a kick on the leg.

"Dumbass" Thomas said, kicking him once again. And then added after few moments of thinking "well, we could, you know, hum, maybe, get closer? Body warmth and all that…"

Even in the dark, Minho's smirk could be seen "I knew you were the cuddle type."

"Slim it, do you wanna get warm or not?"

"Okay, yeah, come here."

And once again, Thomas was into his best friend's arms. And that was the best decision he ever made. Warmth immediately filled him and he soon felt asleep.

…

This trip was really the best.

The boys had spent their days skiing and joking around, playing in the snow like little kids. That was perfect. It was late in the night as the four young man enjoying their evening drinking beer and talking. It had been a while since Thomas had felt so at peace and happy.

And now, he was just tired. He put on a big shirt he used as pajama and got in bed, joining Minho, snuggling up to him. His best friend, already half asleep, welcomed him in his arms like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Head resting against the young man's muscular chest, he didn't realize the position he was in.

It was only when a warm hand started caressing his back that he stiffed in shock, getting Minho out of his haze at the same time.

Oh shit.

They turned to stare at each other as realization hit them.

They didn't want to move. They wanted to stay close to each other. All this time, it had been in front of them. This affection and closeness they had over all those years was more than platonic and they just had ignored it for so long.

"Damn, Alby was right, we did turn gay" Minho joked, making Thomas laugh.

"Slinthead" he said, slapping the boy's chest.

Pressing a soft kiss on Thomas's forehead, the young man whispered "Go to sleep babe, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

…

They were on the couch, cuddling, when Newt entered the living room. Eyeing them, he yelled towards the bedrooms "ALBY! I WON THE BET!"

__________________________

Hope you liked it!

[bittywitches]

A random Dialogue I came up with in my head while trying to fall asleep the night before. // G.D

Been having trouble writing lately and ended up just daydreaming (night dreaming?) abt Grayson one night, so I thought I’d try and just get it out and write something. Enjoy :)

You’re sitting in your bedroom, laying on your back with your laptop sitting on your stomach. You’re cuddled up with your jumbo-oversized teddy bear, your head resting on it’s furry stomach and your elbows lazily resting against it’s fat squishy legs. A google doc is opened on your screen, and you’re trying to half-assedly write a response for your final project on why Duke Orsino actually was gay in Twelfth Night, along with many of the other supporting characters, despite what most old white bardolators may tell you. 

You feel a vibration near your leg, and you tilt your head to the side to see someone calling your phone. You pick it up, and your eyes widen when you see that it's a facetime call from Grayson Dolan. This was, of course, a shock, considering you and Grayson weren’t even that close friends, you only occasionally texted each other anymore, barely ever called, and literally NEVER facetimed. You guys had barely spoken to each other since quarantine had started, so it was definitely a surprise. 

Your eyes flicker to your laptop screen, seeing that it’s around 9pm. Not too late that it’s sketchy or anything, but still pretty late for it to be strange.

You place your laptop down beside you and situp, leaning back against your headboard, quickly tying your hair up into a quick messy bun to make yourself look somewhat presentable. You slide the green phone icon across your screen.

Grayson’s face appears on your phone. He’s wearing a cute oversized fuzzy hoodie. His short hair is a bit frizzy, and it still takes you by surprise because you’re so used to seeing his long flowy locks.

“Heyy,” Grayson says, smiling at you. From behind his screen, Grayson sets himself down onto the living room couch, laying back on the arm.

“Hey.” You respond.

“What’re you up to?”

“Uhh, not much. Just working on final assignments and whatnot.”

“Oh, yea, school’s almost over for you, right?”

“Yep, just a few more weeks.”

“Bet you’re excited to finally get time off.”

You chuckle. “Yeah, tired of being stressed all the time.”

“Makes sense.”

An awkward silence fills both your rooms.

“Soo…” Grayson lays his head on the side of his couch.

“What’s up? Why’d you call?” You ask him.

“Oh, no reason. Just bored and felt like talking to someone.”

“Ethan not home?”

“Nah, he went out skateboarding with some friends.”

“This late?”

“It’s not that late. Just went to the park nearby.”

“Sounds fun. You know, I’ve always wanted to learn how to skateboard.”

“Yea?”

“Mhm. Maybe E can teach me sometime.”

“Hey, I know how to skateboard too. And I’d definitely be a much better teacher.”

You laugh. “Alright, next time we meet up you can teach me how to skateboard.”

“It’s a date.”

You both give a lighthearted chuckle, but then things turn quiet again.

“Erm, hold on.” You place your phone down on your bed. 

“Where’re you goin’?”

“Gonna put my phone on a pillow so I don’t have to keep holding it,” You say, grabbing your nearest one and doing your best to balance your phone on top of it.

“Is that a giant teddy bear?” From the angle of your phone, Grayson can see your big stuffed animal sitting behind you. 

“Haha, yea.” You lean back down on it briefly to give him a better idea of the size. “He’s my cuddle buddy.”

“That’s cute.”

“Our relationship has gotten a lot stronger since quarantine started.” You peck the bear on the nose. Grayson laughs.

“I’m happy for you guys.” You giggle, sitting back up. 

“Why thank you.” You turn your attention back to your laptop quickly, and Grayson follows your line of vision.

“So what subject is this final for?”

“English.” You sigh. “Which sucks, because I’m shit at it.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Oh but it is. I always do incredibly bad, I’m literally the worst.”

“Well you’re definitely not the worst, because I exist.”

“Well yeah but it’s not your fault that you can’t read.”

“Hey, I can read!”

“Sorry, It’s not your fault that you’re ass at reading. It is however my fault that I can’t write for shit.” 

He laughs. “Fine, sure.”

You giggle. “Sorry. Just a bit stressed.”

“No big deal.”

Silence again. Usually now would be the time you’d make some excuse and cut the call. But for some reason unknown to you, you didn’t want to do that. You want to fill it.

“Oh, I watched your guys’ last video.” You raise an eyebrow at him. “Tell me you guys weren’t just trying to look like douchebags with your literal 100 grand.”

“Aughhh,” He groans, rubbing his face with the hand not holding his phone. “I swear we really weren’t.”

“Uhuh.”

“I realize that it may not look like that,”

“Oh really?”

“Considering we actually had wads of cash,”

“Mhmmm.”

“But we weren't, I swear. We just thought it’d be funny for a stupid little video.” 

“Okay then.”

“Hey!”

“Not judging.” 

“Since when do you watch our videos anyways?”

You gave him a side-look. “What do you mean? You think I don’t?”

He shrugs. “Dunno. Just assumed…”

“You’re my friend. ‘Course I do.”

He smiles.

“Plus they are pretty fun. Like to have them on in the background when I work sometimes..”

“No way, really?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“I mean, all the ones since quarantine we’ve had to be pretty creative with. Since we’re stuck at home and all.”

“You guys don’t give yourselves enough credit. I love what you come up with. It’s cool to just listen to you both ramble about stuff.”

“...Are you saying you also listen to the podcast?”

Your eyes shoot back to him. He was actually joking, but seeing your guilty expression lead to the smug sort of look on his face.

“You guys have very satisfying voices, okay?”

“Uhuh.”

“Shut the fuck up!” You laugh, and he does as well.

“Either way, thanks. It means a lot that you do. I never really know if people we’re friends with like our stuff, so it’s good to know that at least someone does.”

You smile, and he returns it. 

You suddenly hear a ding coming from his side.

“Oh shit almost forgot about my toast-” You see Grayson’s phone wobble as he gets up to head for the kitchen.

“Avocado?”

“You know it.” “Dang, I don’t think I’ve had avocado toast since…” You pause. “Huh. I guess since I accidentally ran into you at that one restaurant and we happened to get food together.”

“What-” He rights the phone so it’s facing him again. “That was ages ago!”

“Yea, I know.”

“That’s unacceptable.”

“You may think so.”

“Alright, so after I teach you how to skateboard, I’m gonna have to take you out for food.”

You laugh. “Is that a set in stone thing?”

“Oh definitely.”

He sets his food down on a table, and you watch as he tries to balance his phone up against something. He sits down, then takes a bit before looking back up at you.

“So when’s this due?”

“Uhh, tomorrow night.”

“You almost done?”

“Er..” You look at your half written page. “...sort of.”

“So no,” he chuckles, and you do too. 

“I’ll finish it, don’t worry.”

“Didn’t say I was.”

“Well that’s ru-”

“Because I know you’ll finish it,” He interrupts you, and you roll your eyes. “You always do.”

You sigh, setting your elbow down on your knee and resting your face on your hand. You watch him silently for a bit, and he takes a few more bites before realizing your eyes on him. 

“What?” He says, food still in his mouth.

“Nothin’,”

“Yea?”

“Yea, just… kinda just miss you.” You finally blurt out.

He stops chewing suddenly, and looks at his phone with a very intent look. He expects you to say more, but you don’t, looking back at your laptop screen.

He swallows, then sets his toast down. “Kinda just miss you too.”

You smile, trying to hide it by squishing the palm of your hand into your face, not taking your eyes off of the illuminated laptop.

“Why don’t we hang out anymore?”

“Because we’re legally not allowed to.” You finally look back at your phone, grabbing it from it’s pillow stand and then flopping down onto your bear’s belly.

He rolls his eyes. “No, smartass. Before that.”

You shrug. “Dunno. We never really did to begin with.”

“Sure we did, there was the restaurant, and…” He trails off, looking far away at some corner of the room.

“I mean we hung out with other friends. And we talked sometimes.” You shrug again. “Not really much else though.”

He runs a hand through his short hair. “Why not?”

You laugh. “Bro, I don’t know! You never asked!”

“Well I fuckin wanted to!” He rubs his face with both his hands as he chuckles. 

“Really?” Your laughter dies down now, a softer tone taking on your voice.

“Duh, of course.” He tilts his head as his soft eyes look at you. “You’re really fucking cool, and I really wanted to get to know you better, but it felt weird to just randomly come out of no where and be like ‘hey, wanna hang out?’ like that shit usually comes naturally, yknow?”

“Well, we don’t really hang out in the same circles, so I don’t know how it would.”

“Yeah, but I thought maybe…” He sighs. “I don’t know. I didn’t even know if you wanted to be friends or anything, so..”

“Well that’s frustrating.” You slump your shoulders down, relaxing more into your bed. “I really wanted to be friends. Just didn’t wanna seem fucking… annoying or anything.”

“Oh my god why are we like this.”

“I don’t fucking know!!” You both burst out laughing, and you momentarily drop your phone to rub the tears out of your eyes.

“Okay, it’s settled then.” You hear his voice and pick your phone up off your stomach to face it towards your face again, now sitting up. 

“What is?”

“After quarantine and everything is over I’m definitely taking you out for food and skateboarding.”

You grin. “Okay. Sounds amazing.”

“Great.” There’s quiet again, but it’s not awkward anymore, both of your gleeful grins speak volumes over it.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

You giggle. “Okay, I should go. Should probably actually try and get this thing done.”

“Right. I’ll… call you tomorrow?”

You bite your tongue. “Yeah.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

You cut the call, and let your arms fall down to your sides as you fall back on your bed and grin up at the ceiling. You squeeze your eyes shut, just breathing in and out to calm yourself down from the little rush. Though the buzz of your phone once again catches your attention. 

You get up and look at it, seeing it’s a text from Grayson. 

Grayson D.: Just realized you probably don’t have a skateboard…

You bit your lip, and flopped down onto your belly now, your legs up in the air as you text him back.

Y/N: You’d be right 😅

Your eyes eagerly watch the three dots bouncing on the screen.

Grayson D.: Would you wanna borrow one of mine?

Y/N: I’m totally good with getting my own, but idk where

Grayson D.: Well there’s this shop near my house…

Assignment long forgotten, you and Grayson end up talking well into the night.

[marvel-wlw]

Coming Out

Alex Danvers x Maggie Sawyer x Reader

Requested by @nctxrejects​

Request: Hey, do you write birthday request fics? I was asking because my birthday is next month, and it's also out of curiosity

Okay. What about, birthday party where female ready comes out as gay to her friends? With Sanvers, Lorna, or Natasha and Wanda

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters, they belong to DC.

Tag list: @casey-anne-j​​​​​​ @softgamerking​​​ @morbid-gaymer​​​​​​@geekycatlover​​​​​​ @rainydaysrnevergrey​​​​​​ @natalia-helena-alianova-romanov @alphalesbianwolf​​​​​​ @dykse​​ @autumnjackson4​​​​​​ @1-danid​

Supergirl tag list: @yanginginthere

A/N: Happy Early Birthday! I really hope you have a great Birthday and I hope you like this! :) 

None of your friends knew about your sexuality, they didn’t even know you were dating both Alex and Maggie for the past year. For some time now you’ve been thinking about finally telling your friends about your sexuality and about your relationship. You just didn’t know when the right time would be.

Alex and Maggie were very supportive, they told you that you didn’t have to tell anyone until you were ready. After a year of dating them in secret you were getting tired of hiding your relationship.

You walked towards the training room in the DEO when you saw Kara. She had a huge smile on her face. You could tell she was excited about something. Then it clicked. 

“Kara what did you do?” You whispered to the blonde. “Please tell me you aren’t going to throw a party for my birthday.” You ran a hand through your hair nervously.

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about (Y/N).” Kara tried to act like what you said wasn’t true. You gave her a look that said you weren’t buying it. She sighed. “Okay, I told all of our friends about your birthday. I was going to have a party at my place and everyone was going to be there. But if you don’t want a party that’s okay.”

Seeing the sad look on her face caused you to give in. This is Kara we’re talking about. “A party sounds great Kara.” You smiled at her. Once you said that she perked right up. She pulled you into a hug before leaving but not before telling you the time to be at her place.

You couldn’t help but laugh and shake your head as you watched her walk off. But once she was out of your view you frowned and looked down.

xxxxx

“You’re sure about this baby?” Maggie sat down next to you on the bed, she wrapped an arm around you. Alex came over and sat down on your other side, she placed a kiss on the top of your head.

You had told Alex and Maggie about how you wanted to tell your friends about your relationship and your sexuality. They both wanted to make sure this was what you wanted to do and to make sure you were ready. They wanted to make sure you didn’t feel pressured to do this.

You nod. “I’m sure.” You look at your girlfriends lovingly. “I’ve been thinking about this for some time now, but having Kara throw a party for me seems like the right time.” 

Alex takes one of your hands in hers and Maggie takes your other hand, they both linked their fingers with yours. “We’ll be by your side the whole way babe.” Alex said before she kissed your cheek, Maggie kissed your other cheek which caused you to blush like crazy.

xxxxx

At your Birthday party everyone was having a good time. Lena came over to you, she smiled and pulled you into a hug. “Happy Birthday (Y/N).”

You smiled and hugged her back. “Thanks Lena.”

After Lena walked back over to Kara you were alone for a moment. You looked at all of your friends before looking over at your girlfriends, they look over at you and give you a loving smile. You smiled back at them before taking a deep breath. It was now or never.

“Can I have everyone’s attention for just a moment?” You say loud enough so everyone could hear you. When everyone was looking at you, you cleared your throat. “First I wanted to say thank you to Kara for throwing me this amazing party.” You smiled over at Kara, who is smiling back at you. “Secondly I have something I’ve been meaning to tell you all for some time now.”

You close your eyes and take another deep breath. When you open your eyes again you see your girlfriends looking at you with concern written all over their faces. They so badly wanted to go over to you and wrap their arms around you and tell you that everything was going to be okay.

“I’m gay.” After the shock wore off all of your friends smile at you. “There is something else I wanted to tell you.” You look over at Alex and Maggie, you smile and give them a nod.

They both come over to you, Alex wraps an arm around your waist and Maggie takes one of your hands in hers. “I’m also dating Alex and Maggie.” Your friends all smiled and tell you that they’re happy for the three of you. You let out a sigh of relief. 

Maggie leans over a gives you a loving kiss. “I’m so proud of you baby.” 

Alex nods and gives you a kiss as well. “We love you (Y/N).”

“I love you both too, so much.” You smiled before giving them both another kiss. 

Suddenly you all hear a squeal. You look over to find Kara making her way over to the three of you. She pulls you, Alex, and Maggie into a tight hug. “I totally called it!”

[thewhizzyhead]

you very much Should Keep going (if you’d like) I’m reading your tags like 👀👀👀 I wanna know More!!!

dude believe me i only just thought up 90% 9f this while doing my math homework last night so yea this is very barebones and this is very very new have very little to offer but um imma try to explain a bit more fjdjdc SO ANYWAYS GRADE 11

Warning: this is very long and I am very sorry aaAAAA also i only just thought of this last night and a while ago while attending class so um yea it's chaotic.

the songs i've mentioned so far in the tag ramble aren't um consecutive so yeah there are a lot of blank spaces in between fjsjsj and yea I haven't figured out the other leads and their arcs yet (probably 5-6 leads). for now um the planned songs feature 3 of the leads:

Kate - basically answers the question of What If Eva Sanchez Was The Protagonist and What If Eva Sanchez Saw The Hell That Is Don't Even (in this show, this song is called "Anakpota?" or "The Fuck?"); she's a transferee and is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new school environment; her reasons for transferring run a bit deeper than just "humanities is a lot more interesting than stem or business shits"; i guess her main character themes are burnout, the want for childlike wonder again and overcoming the fear that comes with chasing what you really want and no i am definitely not self projecting what are you guys talking about smh rhhdhs /hj (altho i admit that this is loosely based on my own experience with deciding to transfer schools) and yea she's a very closeted lesbian that slowly starts to comes out to others and to herself more throughout the course of the show. and also she gets a girlfriend YAY

Noel - rn i don't have that much planned out for him cause u know barebones plot but so far um i guess he's the chill dude, overall good guy, rantaro amami from danganronpa v3 vibes, and he's initially framed as the "love interest" for Kate esp in the song "Ikaw Ba Ay..." or "Are You..." (i wanted that to be a play on the typical Filipino Teen Hetero Romance CAUSE THAT SHIT IS IN EVERYWHERE JFJSJD I AM GONNA MAKE A WHOLEASS RANT ON THAT SOON AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME) but surprise motherfucker BOTH OF THEM ARE GAY AND BOTH BOND OVER IT AND BECOME BEST FRIENDS YAY WOOOO i kinda want him to be like the typical "Filipino Teen Heartthrob" star student with the twist being that he's gay and not make that a throwaway joke cause um yea that's a throwaway joke here that someone who is real catch for the heteros but is actually gay is "sayang" or "worthless" here.

Ella - ngl she is probably gonna end up as the main lead here fjdjd i'd say she has riley+chess vibes aka The School's Hotshot Achiever and Student Leader That Is Very Intimidating But Is Actually Really Freaking Kind and i guess with a dash of Kate Dalton-ish snark. Like i said the plot is barebones rn so i dunno anything but i do imagine them being the one that drives the plot forward due to her outspokenness. I also imagine her to be the one (along with Noel) that makes Kate a lil bit more comfortable with her sexuality and yup you guessed it Ella is gay too (bi to be specific oh and she uses she/they pronouns) and altho still a bit closeted, they're a bit more comfy with it. also they become Kate's gf yay!

those are the leads that i have kinda planned out so far but yea i still gotta expound kna lot of atuff and make up more leads for this but then again i just started conceptualizing this last night so ANYWAYS HERE ARE THE OTHERS SONGS THAT I LITERALLY JUST THOUGHT UP LAST NIGHT (aside from the ones already mentioned)

+ "Nakakapanibago" or "Well This Is New" - Ella and Kate work together on a school project aaand gay panic ensues. both of them take turns in addressing the audience and panicking over each other in um er an "Oh My God She's Very Fucking Cute What The Fuck" way. it kinda has What Is This Feeling from Wicked vibes if you remove the aggression and antagonization jdjsd and i kinda emphasize on how overwhelmed they are cause for Kate, everything - from the school to the subjects to the people - is new and her attraction to Ella is like a cherry bomb on top of a chaos cake while for Ella, who has studied in the school since kindergarten which is why nothing about the school fazes her anymore, Kate is a literal breath of fresh air and the spontaneity scares them and excites them at the same time. The number is comedic (and is chance for me to add a shit ton of wordplay cause yAY WORDPLAY) but i guess also hints at their fears which will definitely come into play later.

+ "Mabuting Laban" or "Good Fight" - a group number led by Ella, this is the first song in the musical that isn't mostly comedic. like um the musical so far (before this song) is mostly somewhat of a parody-just-for-laughs-don't-take-this-seriously piece but with this, the show finally hints to something a lot more serious and insightful. so basically ella tells kate (this scene comes right after the Nakakapanibago sequence) that they have noticed that the latter is um very very shocked at the blatant show of LGBTQ+ stuff. Kate mentions that altho many students have since then spoke up for LGBTQ+ acceptance, things were a lot more conservative back in her former school (once again wooo definitely not self projection /hj) so like seeing all this is very new to her. Ella then mentions that things weren't always like that - a lot of fighting had to be done in order to get to that point. and because most of the students already were branded with a rebellious reputation (for a lot of delinquent behavior), they really didn't give a fuck anymore if they were being controversial or not. What mattered was that they would make the school environment a lot more welcoming for themselves and for others. That sentiment is also shared by other leads singing along as they go out of their way to ensure a much better environment for everyone (in terms of lgbtq+ rights, undoing the stigmatization of mental health matters, student activism yadda yadda)

(oh and also this kinda serves as something that bridges the prejudices between the two schools since Ella's school is famous for a lot of student delinquency while Kate's former school is famous for being known as the "Best School In The Region With The Best Students" (which is why Ella understands why the students in Kate's school are a bit more hesitant to speak up because Kate's former schoolmates got way too much to lose) and the rivalry those schools have with each other cause students from ella's school think those from kate's school are pompous little shits while those from kate's school think that ella's schoolmates are delinquents and yes this is commentary on the dynamic my former school'scstudents and my current school's students share) (i should probably give this its own song)

+ "Ayoko" or " I Don't Want It" - (this does not come right after Mabuting Laban fjsjd i honestly dunno where to put this) this comes right after a conversation regarding her reputation in her former school and yea this is Kate poking fun at the "I Want" song musical trope. Like um she addresses the audience saying something along the lines of "oooohh wow complicated backstory exposition! you are probably expecting a song rn ala "How Far I'll Go" from Moana but guess what bitches fuck you all cause i'm gonna sing a song about the things I don't want just to fucking annoy you." it starts off as incredibly satirical and um Kate Dalton-vibes all throughout the scene with lots of pettiness which will then gradually transition to her singing about how she threw all the opportunities presented to her by the former school just because she really didn't want to do them and was tired of saying "yes" just to be enough for them. She then starts singing about her taking control of her own narrative by finally leaving the school. She still laments about those lost opportunities and admits that she still kinda wants to pursue those, but if she has to sacrifice rest for greatness, then she doesn't want it. The song ends with a verse akin to most I Want songs as she finally admits what she really wants the most: rest and wonder.

also here's a verse i made up just a while ago

Diyos ko, sabihin mo, ano pa ang kailangan kong gawin/upang mabawi ang mga ninakaw sa akin/upang maibalik ang pag-asang nawala/upang sa wakas ako'y makakapagpahinga/sapagkat hindi na ako nagnanais ng kadakilaan/ang hinihingi ko lamang ay ang aking kabataan

translation (i'll try my best to make it rhyme): My God, tell me, what else do i have to do/so I can take back all that they have taken from me/so that I can bring back the hope I've long so been deprived of/so that for once in my life, I'll be able to breathe/ cause I no longer want all the greatness that you say I could've had/ I only want to wonder, I only want my childhood back

+ "Halos Lagi Nalang"or "Almost Always The Same" - if this sounds familiar yes i rambled about this before gjdjdjd I started conceptualizing this song even before i even started conceptualizing the musical. So yea this is in Act 2 the song starts with mentioning the exhaustion that comes with being an LGBTQ+ teen in the philippines cause yup same old conservative religious bullshit same old same old shit and despite many a lot of people advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, nothing ever changes around here because well conservative religious bullshit. so yea this is kind of an extension of "Good Fight" but make it more about the burnout felt by a lot of teens that want something better than whatever we have right now. Then it will also apply to the other causes that the leads fight for (activism,destigmatization of mental health stuffs, etc). I'd say it's a combination of Before the Breakdown + Move On musically speaking (yea PMA has influenced me by a LOT). eventually this becomes one of the star numbers fo the show cause yea all the leads will do a shit ton of singing and harmonizing (but for here i'd say Noel and Kate have a tiny bit more of the spotlight since for now they are the ones with the very LGBTQ+ based plotlines). I really REEAAALLY want this song to work aaaa i've been playing around with the melody a lot recently and if i can't write the whole musical, then i'll be content with at the very least writing this song

+ "Try Lang Natin" or "Let's Try It Out" - this is a very barebones sequence atm but basically it's a scene where both Kate and Ella come to terms with their fears related to uncertainty and go "fuck it we don't know jackshit about the future anyway so why not ondulge a bit and ejoy what we have today" and decide to start going out with each other YAYYYYY and also this is like one of the few scenes here were Ella is much more visibly nervous compared to everyone else in the scene so yay for helping each other come to terms with their own vulnerabilities WOOOOO (also paige i remember you saying once that kate and eva could've had a Forever reprise duet right? And correct me if i'm wrong but i think u said it could be about eva assuring kate that she won't go anywhere? WELP I'M STEALING THAT JFJSJJDF /lh /hj AND YUP KATE AND ELLA ARE BASICALLY UM KINDA KATEVA IF YOU SQUINT SO THANK YOU PAIGE FOR THAT IDEAAAA)

AND THAT'S IT SO FAR WOO THIS TOOK ME 5 HOURS TO TYPE IT ALL OUT FJDJSJFF i'm kinda impressed with this ngl considering that i literally started making this up last night and i hope that i can make something out of it woo

And if you guys somehow reached the end of the post and have read every single thing, I'm sending you a lot of hugs and a lot of milkshakes

[a-fallensoul]

 Supernatural Ending

The ending was so fucking sad and bad that it got me in tears and angry, it's a half of my life show, I never stopped watching it in 15y and i'm never gonna forget how they helped me during bad times...

This is going to be long...

But, My Jack... That was the ending?... Seriously...? They betrayed us, they didn't give us the boys ending, they give us Chuck's ending (15.04 pay attention to Becky, they even show us parts of those endings in 15.09, No Cass, No Eileen, one or both dies), so nothing of what the boys did in 15y, the sacrifice, all the pain, suffering, hopelessness, the lost ones, nothing of that really matter because in 15.20 they (the writers) let Chuck win, they destroyed 15y of storytelling, erasing Castiel and Eileen from the life of the winchesters and killing one of them... that was just unacceptable...

I love monsters and scary stuff, thats why I started watching Supernatural but somehow the show manage to become something more than that, the narrative change, evolved, and i ended up loving and caring way too much about Dean Winchester, the guy with this huge tragic story arc, i mean I love Sam too, but, the writers made me care too much about Dean and then Castiel appears in the picture and Jack dammit, it was just PERFECT... 

They give us a simple show about a journey of two brothers on the road "saving people, hunting things, the family business" that later expanded to more than just two brothers, more than blood family, more than just hunting things...

Dean

Throughout his entire life Dean Winchester saw himself like -destructive, angry and driven by hate- like Cass told him in 15.18, and we saw it too... Since season 01 (01.06) that was a background story, Dean saying that on several occasions and thinking he doesn't deserve good things, the inner struggles, abandonment issues, hopelessness... And no matter what happened, he always saw himself like that ( he even vocalized those words on a few occasions )... other Hunters, friends/family that he truly cares about tried to talk him out of those ideas and he didn't listen. Cass confront him telling him why he's worth saving 04.01 but nothing, Amara (The Darkness) told him and try to help (15.15 they talk about this) failing, even Sam, his brother that he cares too much to even bring the apocalypse just to save him, told him throughout the entire series that he's way more than that, and nothing... no one could make him think otherwise... 

Damaged and Broken Dean, a hopeless guy playing with girls and trying to find death in what he does, he is too tired of the job, that life, everything, and this was on 02.09...

Castiel

In S04 an Angel of the lord appears in the show, you know, the one who gripped Dean tight and raised him from perdition, Castiel (and the first to say to Dean what he thinks of himself in his own words 04.01), so with Cass understanding Dean in a personal deep way with just one look of him, showing him that he's worthy to be saved, that he's important, that he matters (a personal issue that both of them shares and I will talk later) created the famous "profound bond" that  they share, and that was the beginning of their relationship (in subtext, context, queerbaiting or not), and this relationship made Cass change to even defy God's orders and the other Angels... for them but mostly for Dean, Castiel the “Self-hating Angel of Thursday” - “The one off the line with a crack in his chassis” and  the only Castiel of all the other version to do so (exact words in 05.18 and 15.17).

Cass plays a crucial part in the show and in Dean's life, you can see how Cass becomes Dean's rock and vice versa ... But in 15.18 we all saw something way too beautiful and perfect but heartbreaking at the same time...

Destiel going canon

For 12y we saw Dean and Cass becoming more than just friends, their characters grow to support and find each other when they needed the most. This “profound bond” between them was what both needed... the personal issues that both have:

Dean is afraid of being left behind by his loved ones, to be alone, so he pushes people away when he gets scared, because if he shuts them out it hurts less...

Cass loves too much and he's afraid of being unvalued, unloved, that no one would want him to stay so he leaves before he's unwanted...

But Dean needs people to stay by his side no matter what and Cass, he needs to be asked to stay before he believes there's nothing left for him there...

So no matter how much they fight they always end up together and this game that they have show us a lot of hints of their relationship.

There are many declarations between them, sometimes are vocalized others are with less words and more driven by actions but neither are completely direct until...

15.18 the last episode with Cass and the most emotional one, he said to Dean “The good and the bad, you have done it's because of love... you're the most caring man on Earth, you're the most selfless, loving human being I would ever know... I cared about the whole world because of you... You changed me, Dean...” (...)  “Why does this sounds like a goodbye?” ask Dean, knowing that something is wrong, and Cass says “Because it is (...) I Love You” to which Dean answers “Don't do this, Cass” trying to stop the goodbye, not wanting for him to leave, not again, not in this moment (that's how I interpreted his words and performance by the atmosphere of the moment, the words, feelings, tears and physical pain on Dean), Cass says “Goodbye Dean” and pushes Dean to a side, making the ultimate sacrifice for the one he love... leaving a bloody handprint on Dean's shoulder (a callback from the first time they meet 04.01 and part of the speech was a answer to Dean's prayer in 15.09) and he's left both touched and stunned over Cass's confession but this soon shifts into pure sadness leaving him in the floor crying not knowing what to do, say or think... Dean doesn't answer to the love confession, he is too shocked, but at least we had one with a reaction...

There's something important to notice here, the line “Daddy's blunt instrument” in that confession was used once in 03.10 from Dean to Dean in a dream, he never spoke of that with anyone, not even Sam for obvious reasons... how Cass knew about that...? In 09.03 we hear Cass saying to Dean how he appreciates their talks and time together... So for Dean, the guy who never opens his heart to anyone, to get Cass as his confidant, is just not nothing... it means something... 

Jensen/Dean was scripted to say “I Love You” in 08.17 first and that changed to “I Need You”, they thought it wasn't a good time for Dean or the moment, and we respect it, actually i loved the “I need you” more, because it gave a lot of meaning to the next seasons dialogues between Cass and Dean, even the fights... 

Still, this is one of the most beautiful declarations of love that I've ever watched on small or big screen between two men... (or one...) but, Becky was right (15.04), we all knew...

Dean and Cass ending (2 of the 4 main character in the end of the show) left me with a massive hole in my chest, queerbaiting or not, they did share this "profound bond" since they met, the writers play with that throughout 12y and 12 season, they even made Cass a "Last minute Gay" (personally I don't think he is homosexual, He is an angel, therefore, not Human genders are attached, I think he's just Deansexual), they pushed all those feelings and history of 12 seasons to a side in the last episode, like they didn't matter, but they did! for Them and Us... And it was a beautiful but incomplete story to see, Dean and Castiel deserved a chance to be happy.. 

We saw them, and they are worthy of being seen. At the end, that's what we all want, to be seen by the ones we love and be loved in return...

Cass's Dean

Those last words from Cass, his love for him, meant so much to Dean that finally, at the end, he changed too, Cass changed the way Dean sees himself... Cass's love made Dean overcome what he thought he was, his love made him feel everything he ever wanted...

Since Cass appearance in the show, we saw Dean, a problematic, man-whore, jerk, with no meaningful relationship whatsoever that thought he didn't deserve good things and with a death wish, become something more and way past that, queerbaiting or not he overcame all that at the core of himself, because of Cass... and that's a fact.

Then in 15.19 we got glances on how broken Dean was... the pain of what he just lost... now there's no Cass next to him again, just Sam and Jack, the rest of the world is lone gone and Chuck won... This episode was so good, full of sadness but again Dean being who he is we kinda see him mourning Cass in his own way, just some hints... Dean always turns to drinking when something like this happens, when Lucifer calls Dean posing as Cass he runs to Cass with excitement only to find out it wasn't Cass. Near to the end and after the fight against Chuck, they exchange some word, but one of those stood out from the rest, when Chuck (now former God) asked to them if they're gonna kill him, calling Dean the Ultimate Killer, answering  -That's not who I am- implying a massive change in his core self.

Those words right there show us how Dean changed... those words from Cass... Was all that Dean truly needed to believe what he was, what he always has been, The old Dean would have killed Chuck in a heartbeat but not this Dean... not Cass’s Dean...

Dean and Castiel changed each other, they changed the world, and they changed us too... 

Sam and Eileen

Sam and Dean share the pain of almost everything that happens in the show but he was emotionally stronger/stable than Dean, so he was fine even when he wasn't... And so it will be...

At S15 and after a few encounters with Eileen in S11 and S12 Sam develops a deep relationship with her until Chuck appears in the picture with his "control over her" thing... and they separated because she thinks she can't be trusted, in 15.18 she's killed by Chuck... Sam is in pain, his new love has died but he manages to stay calm, he's sad but still fighting... in 15.19 he's sad for Eileen, Cass and everyone, they feel defeated but by the end of the episode he completely forgets her... In 15.20 he doesn't even know who she is, so the deep relationship they had is like if it never existed...

The Writers Fuckup

E19 ended and there was no Cass or Eileen, actually in the last minutes of the episode we saw how the narrative made Dean and Sam forget about Cass and Eileen completely by not asking Jack to bring them back too...

E20 the last episode of the show there's like zero recognition of Cass or Eileen, they barely name Cass 2 times, no feelings or reaction attached... Nothing to Cass's love confession or sacrifice, we do not even see them mourning their “best friend” of 12y the one who sacrificed for them and Dean after the confession does nothing (they make Dean completely forget about him, until at the end when he was like, Cass, yes i remember that guy... in heaven with a beautiful side smile)... 

We all know Dean and how he is with this type of things and feelings, he's just not good with them, but everytime that Cass has died in the past Dean just loses control, he ends up exploding when it's about Bubu, but not this time and this time was the most personal and important of all. So no reaction from Dean is a completely out of character move and the same for Sam with Eileen...

Season 15 is full of feelings and too much heart, is the final season and we can feel it... in 15.03 Cass break up with Dean with very sad words, and Dean made him feel like that, but we can see the pain of this goodbye on Dean's face and he's just too stubborn to say something... 15.04 we see a glance of what’s to come thanks to Becky, she tried to warn us and we didn't listen... in 15.06-07 Eileen is back with Sam like together Together, 15.08 Dean and Cass got a moment alone with Rowena in Hell while she gives them a couples therapy session, pretty hilarious to see but with a lot of weight for them, in 15.09 they have to go to purgatory, Dean finds himself alone, time is running out and he's on his knees praying to Cass, crying, apologising for everything he did and said, he's desperate to find Cass NOW!. Sam's fighting against God and showing us those possible futures, Eileen saying goodbye, 'cause she doesn't trust herself around the boys... And so much more.

The End came and it felt weird in general, even empty in some parts like, the Winchesters not doing anything to save Cas from the Empty like they have done in the past, the stupid dead of Dean, they took everything from him, they remove the possibility to try a different life like he was trying to (the CV in Dean's desk, he was trying to do more than just hunting, he wanted more from life), Since season 02 after something big happens we see how Dean doesn't want the hunter life, he is tired but he keeps fighting no matter what... They're free of Chucks control and yes, maybe that means that as they're no longer the protagonist of Chucks story, they are gonna have a -normal life with normal people problems- like Garth tells them in 15.10, and probably a normal hunters death, but they are still the last of their kind, -Heroes, like in the old days- words from Fortuna, (Goddess of Luck in 15.11) while she give them The Luck of the Old Heroes something that was completely forgotten in the narrative of the next episode, Jack not bringing Cass back with the rest of the world, Eileen disappearance of Sam's “happy ending”, with Eileen being allegedly alive, Sam does nothing to go and find her... In heaven Baby's plate are KAZ, like WTF with that change, what is the purpose of putting those plate from S01/02 now... and something more weird from this episode is that Dean is almost always the main character but in this episode it's Sam, it was all about Sam's ending, the Roadhouse was from Ellie not Bobby's, what is he doing there and why Dean goes there and not to other place more meaningful for him like to his house with mom, the Bunker, the Barn (i wish)? and last but not least Vampires didn't exist in John's journal/Bestiary he thought they were extinct in 01.20 they talk about that...

A few things weren't so bad, callbacks of the first episodes, the words that Dean and Sam shared, the promise of not resurrecting him back even when neither of them wants for this to happen, the unconditional love between the brothers... Sam having a normal life doing what his brother told him to. Jack fixing heaven creating a special type of Heaven just for Dean, -The Heaven that you DESERVE- Bobby's words in 15.20, Bobby with the eyebrow thing and long pause after saying Cass name to Dean -Well (...) Cass Helped- Dean smiling when he hears Cass name (even in the end they keep throwing us this type of scenes)...

A few good things don't change a bad episode from being bad... overall the episode didn't feel like a Supernatural episode it was hollow out of character and a complete disappointment...

The Queerbaiting

The queerbaiting in this show was in another level, all those continues references about stuff that only LGBT+ people would understand, the inspiration behind Dean Winchester character, other characters recognizing the “boyfriends tag” between Dean and Cass, hints and specific reaction of Dean with other male characters and with Cass pushed in the show too vigorously since 01.04, the long stares between Dean and Cass (i love those), Dean opening his heart mostly to Cass and Cass to Dean, the writers keep throwing girls to Dean and he keeps like.. Hot, she's really hot, okay bye... the famous 08.07 scene, all this and more was deliberately put there...

Remember, these are fictional characters created and directed to say and act in a specific way in the show, so nothing of what we saw in 15y was a mistake or us imagining things where there's nothing to imagine.

After all the character development Dean and Cass had, He was ready to say it in 15.09 and maybe, just maybe, Cass didn't let him talk because of the Empty deal that he had, can you imagine that... Dean was ready...

The signs of Dean being Bi were all over the show, in season 08 Dean developed PTSD for Cass and That scene in 08.07... Dean's confession in 10.16 where he said he -wants to experience things, people, and feelings differently or even for the first time-, Remember when Cass died and Dean was pissed all the time but Cass came back and Dean was so happy and hipeted about it 13.06... and what happened in purgatory 15.09 when he opens his heart to Cass, Dr. Sexy... and there are more of this in 12 seasons... 

The Perfect Ending

“The Perfect Ending” just doesn't exist... it would be for it to never end, we just care too much... but if they have to die, well, they can die of old age after helping the new generation and living their lives or something like that... I'm glad that I even got to see what we saw, the boys journey against evil and all the love in between (15.20 wasn't a good episode it didn't feel right i'm gonna salt and burn it most of it...). Supernatural is not a perfect show but the beautiful thing about perfection is that it's imperfect too...

I do Choose to believe in a different ending one with Cass and Eileen in it, why?... Because the boys deserve to enjoy the world and people that they helped to saved, they deserve to be loved... and i refuse to think otherwise... THIS IS FOR MY PEACE OF MIND

[eddiescouch]

I am so exhausted by Lovecraft that any time someone mentions Lovecraft or Lovecraftian I go feral, emerge out of my skin so the barest essentials of me can tear their throat out and hopefully never hear the name again. 

I am tired. Why are we still fellating the work of a man who was antisemitic, misogynistic, racist, and possibly one of the greasiest shit-heels on Earth? Sure, if we pretend for a moment that you can examine a work in a vacuum, and that his racism and misogyny didn’t show through into his work- which it did-, for the time period his work contributed to horror and gave a lot to the genre but it’s stopped giving.  I dedicate that run-on sentence to him. It’s all he’s worth. 

I think of Lovecraft as a genre parallel to Tolkien. Both of them made works that essentially set the stage of how horror and fantasy novels would be written into the modern era. Both were also white men who were racist and it showed in their work. Since passing the torch, I think Tolkien sword and sorcery has grown more than Lovecraftian horror has. I don’t know if it’s just due to DnD making it accessible, but I’ve read a breadth of novels under the banner that always manage to feel new and exciting even though it’s the same general layout. I’ve seen more of a push to make the genre take responsibility for its racism and misogyny both from authors and readers. I haven’t seen that with Lovecraftian horror. 

 Lovecraft was a man so damn scared of everything that he’s centered fear of the other into his work and it only works if you’re not the other.  Cosmic horror only works if you’ve been told you matter from the start. Being powerless is only a shock if you’ve had power. You want me to be scared of a village who’s inhabitants are part of a secret cult worshiping an old god that will turn us all into fish people? Then turns out- You are a fish person! There’s a reason Cthulhu the movie was about a gay character. 

I am bored. If this was just ‘Hey this antiquated author who never amounted to much is a mud-man made of horse shit’ i wouldn’t care so much, but the man had to start a cultural movement so practically any time you do something in horror ‘Lovecraftian’ or ‘Cosmic’ gets spackled onto it with no real thought or meaning. I feel like it’s nearly a safe bet at this point that if someone is calling something Lovecraftian it’s either mislabeling the contents, or it’s just a bad rehash of some old god bullshit. Most of the people in the latter category don’t even know why this brand of horror was so appealing in the first place and they sure as shit can’t adapt it for the modern age without shallowly going through the tentacle motions. The result is none of this is scary any more. It’s tiring. You can’t just tell me that I’m going insane by looking at something. 

None of the Lovecraft inspired works I’ve seen in a while feel like they have any thought to them. There’s no goal or real underlying message. Cosmic horror isn’t supposed to be the shrill pitch of slasher horror that has adrenaline screaming in your veins, it’s supposed to be the deep base that shakes you down to your soul. In order to do that you need to sit on the starry beach of existentialism and the black ocean of nihilism for a good long while, and most people don’t want to do that because it, well, scares them. Cosmic horror is supposed to sit you down and look you in the eyes and tell you ‘this is all it is, and this is what you are, the point is not what you thought- if it even exists in the first place’. It breaks the conceptions we have about the grandness of our own lives and that is impossibly refreshing but you have to really make that hit deep. You can’t just come at me with your octopus fursona with wings and expect me to care that he can turn my brain into rice pudding. 

I’ll end this by doing a bit of clarifying. I think where fantasy did a lot of growing inside Tolkien’s framework, there’s been more growth in horror in the genre at large. Lovecraft’s decedents seem to be stuck in this recursive loop where they loose fidelity with each pass, but other facets of the genre are doing very well for themselves. I just think that soon either Lovecraft will finally be left to gather dust or the makers of derivative works will have to do some distinct catching up. 

[neomikey]

Contributing to the #RyukoPrompts this month (albeit belatedly), Final Fantasy 14 with my wife and sister-in-law has been helping us to get through the lockdown!  After all our time spent running through Eorzea, original adventures inspired by our time playing came to mind...and I thought to write one out.

Enjoy~!  :)

The following story’s canon is questionable,

both with the in-game lore and how the characters are presented.

Viewer discretion is advised, void where prohibited,

see store for details, careful of wet floor.

~

Hear...

Her voice was calm and crystalline.

Hear.... Feel....

The air was warm.

Hear.... Feel....  Listen....

There was great weight to her tone and a quiet urgency.

I am Hydaelyn. I know all...see all...I have seen you...and you are needed.

You will be required for a great task.  One of which you must not fail, for to do so would bring great ruin.

The task which you have been given is monumental – you will help to stop a primal where no one else can.

My words...keep them.  Remember them. Heed them.

You must not forget, Muto. You must not forget.

~

Muto blearily opened his eyes.  Outside the world was waking.  Light was coming in through the window, still orange as the sun started its journey above the horizon.  Birds were already in song, announcing to the world that they had survived the dark night.  Windows were beginning to light as the people of Gridania awoke.

As he lied in bed, something urgently tugged at Muto's mind.  Something desperate. Something important.  His eyes shot open.

He was out of toilet tissue.

This was the fourth attempt that Hydaelyn had made to spur the Hrothgar toward his quest.

Stumbling out of bed in his boxers, he rushed for the door and threw it open. Rushing across the small house, he passed by another white-furred Hrothgar and a tired-looking Lalafell who were sitting at a table with mugs.  On the side of the beastman's in large block lettering had originally been “#One Brother,” but the number had been messily scratched out and replaced by “#1st”.  It was a gift Muto had made while still learning to read and write Eorzean.  The Lalafell, meanwhile, had a tankard large enough for a Roegadyn filled to the brim with coffee.

“Just one morning,” Lalinu sighed, “I would like for him to be decent when he comes out of there.”

“Muto is not naked,” Tahro observed.

“A marked improvement,” the Lalafell admitted.

The door to the back was flung open and Muto rushed out.  A minute later, he rushed back and stood before them, eyes wide with excitement.  “No more emergency!” he announced.

“...I'm sorry?” Lalinu asked.  “Wait, no, forget I—”

“Muto thought there was no more toilet tissue, but Muto was wrong!”

“You were wrong about something.”  She went to have a drink of coffee.  “How about that.”

“Tahro buy,” Tahro informed him.  “Tahro also fill up larder.  Get groceries. Get good deals.”

“While somebody was out playing adventurer.”

“Muto is real adventurer....” Muto insisted.

“If you got sustainably paid, you could be considered a 'professional' adventurer.  Just like how I'm supposed to be a 'professional' accountant.”  She had another drink of coffee.  “Though I currently lack the dignity that comes with such a position.”

“Muto think Lalinu is great!”  He grinned brightly, hoping the smile would affect her mood.  It remained as dark as her coffee.

“Muto need a good job,” Tahro informed him.  “Get good money.  Money not lasting.”

“He's right.  It's not.”  Lalinu swiveled in her chair, then hopped off. She walked across the kitchen to where her desk was set up, which was a little lower than the Hrothgars' knees.  She sifted through the stacks of papers, brought up one, then put on her glasses.  “After your last trip to...hold on....”  She squinted and leaned in, then removed her glasses and sighed.  “I can't even pronounce half these names....  Anyways, your exploits are currently not economically self-sustaining, even cutting back on everything – including feeding that beast in the barn – and your queen's 'adventuring grant' won't last forever.”

“Muto need to do more,” Tahro gently informed Muto.  “Cannot keep doing light duties.”

“Grand company have nothing but light duties for Muto!” Muto protested.  “So many adventurers in Eorzea!  So many legends!” He put a hand to his chest.  “But Muto is legend in heart.”

“We know how great you think you are,” Lalinu said after another drink of coffee, “but until you make that a reality, you're under a ticking clock.”

Muto looked above himself.  “...where is clock?”

Lalinu gave a throaty sigh of frustration, but Tahro spoke up in her stead. “Lalinu mean...get big job...or no more adventuring.”

It looked for a moment like someone had slapped Muto, as his expression went from shock to heart-rending sadness.  His ears drooped, his tail went limp, and he looked like he was about to cry.  However, the moment was brief, as moments later, his ears went back up, he brought his fists near his chest, and he bore a determined expression.

“Muto get help!”

~

The world was warm and comfortable.  She was a ball.  A warm, fluffy, pink ball.  All was well in the world.

And then she woke up.

“Miyu...!”

“Mm....”

“Miyu, hey...!”

“Nuhhhh....”

“Come on, it's time to get up.”

“Nuhhhhh...!”

“Don't 'nuhhhh' me.  You asked me to get you up.”

A pink tail emerged from the blanket ball and began to angrily swish.  “That was before it was morning....”

“I even let you sleep in a little,” Ryuko said, poking Miyu through her hammock.

The blanket ball tightened.  “Then you can let me sleep in more.”

“If you sleep in more, you're going to miss all the good jobs.”

“Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmhh.” The blanket ball loosened and Miyu's head poked out.  Her hair was skewed to one side and only one eye was open.  “You know how unfair this is.”

Ryuko stood before her already clad in her dragoon armor, leaning on her spear.  “Oh, I know, but Eorzea isn't gonna help itself.”

“Why not?”  Miyu tucked herself back into the blanket ball.  “Seriously.  People treat us like their servants sometimes.  Like...picking mushrooms a little outside the city's walls.  'I'll give you 50 gil to get ten for me!' Get them yourself! Seriously, the creatures outside are not bad if you don't bother them.  We have other things to worry about, we're not here to do your chores for you.”

She heard the Au Ra's boots walking away.  “Technically speaking, that's exactly what we're here to do – do whatever people pay us to.”

“Well, some of us have standards....”

Ryuko's boots came back.  “Are you getting up?”

“In a moment....”

There was a pause. “Moment's up!”

The carbuncle was dropped into the hammock and immediately starting rooting through the blanket to find an opening, while Miyu's limbs flailed.  “Ack! Twitchums!  No! Stop!  Off!” His nose found Miyu's face, then eagerly started licking. “TWITCHUMS!!”

The hammock twisted from all the activity, dumping Miyu and Twitchums on the floor, followed by the blanket, which fell and draped over half of Miyu's face.  Ryuko did her best to hide her amusement.  “Glad you're up!”

“That was meeeeaaan...!” Miyu whined, pushing Twitchums away.  He was trying to jump up on her chest to lick her face, both because he loved her and because it was time for breakfast.  He was a bright, shining topaz color, indicating how thrilled he was to see the Miqo'te.

“You asked me to get you up,” said Ryuko as she turned and headed for the door.

“I'm asking you for less next time...” grumbled Miyu.  She stroked Twitchums's head, making his tails twitch in delight.

“Go and get ready soon!”  Ryuko waved from the door.  “I'm sure you're gonna get a great job today!”

~

“It's Declan,” he said, flashing a bright, sly smile, “but you can call me 'Dec.'”

The Viera lady looked to the Miqo'te less than enthused.

“Y'know, I'm kinda big around these parts,” Declan went on.  “I took out some primals singlehandedly, you know.  Like Titan?  Yeah, that was me.  I even took his crystal, just because I felt like it.  I sold it for a million gil, even though I didn't need the money.  Did I mention I was rich?”  He flashed the Viera a bright smile again, who returned a flat stare.

“Declan,” said someone behind him.

“Not now,” he said, waving the person away.  “Okay, okay,” he went on to the Viera, “I've got a secret...but you've gotta promise not to tell anyone.”

She just stared.

“I...am actually one of the original Warriors of Light.  I know!  I know, but it's true!  I was there when Bahamut broke out.  I was actually right by Louisoix's side.  I told everyone, 'Get out of here and I'll protect you!'  I was gonna save everyone, but Louisoix decided to hog the glory.  He totally stole my idea.”

“Declan.”

“Not now.”  He leaned against the wall, still eyeing the Viera.  “So, I wouldn't call myself a 'legendary hero,' but some people do.  I just was trying to do what was right, y'know?  However, I'd love to have lunch with ya.  I know this lovely place near the Steps of Nald.  My treat! You like Lalafell cooking?”

The lady sighed. “I'm gay.”  Then she walked off.

“All right!  All right, that's fine!  Hey, you do you!  Just making polite conversation!”  She wasn't stopping.  Declan sighed, his ears lowering a bit, then looked to a nearby man in a hooded white robe with glasses.  “What do you think, Bo?  You wanna try?”

“No, Declan...” he wearily sighed.  

“Awww, you're no fun....”  Bo hadn't been “fun” ever since he had become a white mage and swore a vow of celibacy.  Declan ran his fingers through his hair, then turned to face the young, dark-skinned man.  He had a metal-clad grimoire hanging from his belt and waiting with his arms crossed.  “Yeah?”

“About time.”

“I was doing important business, thank you.”

Enzo took a hardboiled egg out of his pocket and bit into it through the shell. “Does Kijhon'a know about this 'business?'”

“Hey, I was just being friendly is all!  Just making a lady feel welcome!”

“Sure, whatever.” Enzo tilted his head.  “I've got a lead on a job.  A big one, and I could use your help.”

“Ehh?”  Declan arched a brow.  “Well...maybe.  Maybe.  What's it paying?”

Enzo inwardly cringed.  He knew this might be where things fell apart. “Technically, it doesn't.”

“Not interested,” Declan immediately responded.

“It's a Garlean facility,” Enzo went on.  “It's currently lightly guarded.  I've got a lead on—”

“Ehh....” Declan gave a dismissive wave, then walked off.

“You can have a share of whatever we find inside!” Enzo called after him.  Declan turned a corner, then was gone.  Enzo's ears flattened, while his hand went to the ring on his necklace and rubbed it while in thought.  As much of a blowhard as Declan was, he did have considerable skill, which was exactly what Enzo needed right then.

Enzo popped the rest of the egg into his mouth.  If Declan was out, what other options did Enzo have?  His sister, sure, but he could guarantee she would say “no” straight-out.  This wasn't something that he could entrust to just anyone at the grand company either, as secrecy and decorum would be needed, and the grand companies documented everything.

“Hmm....”

There was an idea.  Not the best one, but it would work...enough.

~

Miyu waded through the crowds.  She was running a little behind, both because she had been tired, plus Twitchums had decided to take his time with “doing his business.”  What made this situation all the worse is that it was Tuesday, meaning that all the week's fresh jobs were just posted. Miyu mused that maybe this week, people were still recovering from the last one and weren't likely to be out there this early.

Seeing the grand company's building, her heart sank.  She was definitely wrong.

A large crowd of adventurers clustered in front of the building.  Some were crowding around the posting boards, while others were waiting in line to talk with representatives.  It was always surprising to her how most of the larger races hardly ever stepped on the smaller ones, particularly the Lalafell.  If she were a giant, she could see herself being lost in her own world, but then again, it was likely taught to them from a young age to be mindful of the small ones.

Getting to the board, she likely wouldn't find too many good postings left. Her best bet would be to wait in line with everyone and to see what someone of her rank could get.  Given her record of...nothing big or impressive...it likely wouldn't be much.  But she had been consistent, at least!

Speaking of which....

Someone who was determined to be an adventurer, even if he just got duties picking mushrooms, was a Hrothgar she was always happy to see.  Regular as ever, she always saw him in line at this time.  While waiting, he was looking to the large postings, reading them and slowly sounding out the words to himself as he did.

“Muto!” Miyu called, jumped, and waved.  Despite her best efforts, it was all for naught.  His full concentration was on trying to sound out “tyrannic coeurl.”

Miyu knit her brows, then knelt down and gave Twitchums a stroke from head to tail.  “Eee!” squeaked the carbuncle.

“Where's Muto?” she asked. Twitchums's tails went up.  “Wheeeeere's Muto?” The carbuncle eagerly looked about, his nose snuffling at a surprising speed.  His tails flicked about wildly as he concentrated, seeking out his quarry, until his eyes locked on the Hrothgar. “There he is!”

Twitchums shot off like a bullet.  He nearly collided with a Lalafell as he went past, snaked through the crowd, and the next thing Muto knew, there was a carbuncle who was so happy it was bordering on gold pawing at his leg.  It took Muto a moment to realize he knew this carbuncle, then broke into a wide smile.

“Oh!! Is Twitchums!!”  He bent down and scooped up Twitchums, who eagerly went to wash Muto's face.  “Are here alone?  Is not good to be alone!  ...wait, is Twitchums here to be adventurer?!” The Hrothgar became incredibly excited.  “Oh!! Muto teach you everything!!”

“Mutooooo!!”

The carbuncle's ears flicked, then wriggled out of Muto's grip and ran back towards Miyu.  The Hrothgar followed his path, then brightened up.

“Is Miyu!! Hello!!”

“Muto!” Miyu called over the din of the crowd.  “Wanna adventure together?”

“Miyu and Muto be party?”

“Yeah!”  She nodded.  “Let's party up!”

“Join Muto!!”

The crowd was thick and unmoving, and prodding a couple Hyur's in fur-trimmed armor to ask to get by only got Miyu dirty looks.  She then eyed a nearby street lamp, shimmied up it, then – at Muto's encouragement – leapt straight for him.  He caught Miyu, and after a bit of shuffling, she crouched perched on his shoulders while holding onto his horn for support.  She could feel the glares of the Hyurs who initially spurned her, and simply playfully swished her tail back and forth at them.

“Next.”

“Hello!” Muto greeted the Elezen representative.

She blinked in surprise at seeing the Miqo'te perched on top of the Hrothgar, but neither of the pair paid it any mind.

“Badges, please.”

Muto passed hers down to Muto, then he placed them onto the counter, smiling brightly to her, hoping his smile could at least pass on to this person.  As it turned out, working customer service did not make the Elezen feel like smiling.

“Okay, two one-stars.  Are you working together?”

“Muto and Miyu make best team!” Muto affirmed.

“Uh huh.  All right, we have plenty of one-star jobs.  If you're interested in working locally, there's a farmer who has had some kobolds spotted near her farm.  It looks like she'd love to have some able-bodied adventurers on hand to scare them off...or permanently deal with them if it comes down to it.  Until they make a move, though, she would love to have some help harvesting her crops.  That will be 200 gil and 50 points towards your next rank.  Sound good?”

Muto perked up, happy to have work at all, completely forgetting what Tahro and Lalinu had said earlier.  “Muto think sounds g—”

“Wait...wait, wait, hold on.” Miyu's tail began to angrily swish.  “You're dealing with two one-stars...and you're giving us farm duty? That should be a zero-star job!  We qualify for at least a two-star.”

The Elezen gave a weary sigh, and in her best customer service voice, she repeated what she had many times before.  “The stars in your rank do not accumulate when doing jobs together.  You can only do jobs at your current rank or below, except in special exceptions.  Those exceptions are when requested specifically by a higher-ranking adventurer or in times of great peril.  Is there a third member to your party who is above you in rank?”  She paused only long enough to see the tell-tale facial expressions that said “no.”  “Then in that case, you'll have to take one of the one- or zero-star jobs, and at the moment, this farm job is the best one I have to offer you. Tuesday jobs are first-come, first-serve.”

“Muto think that sounds gr—”

“Come on!” Miyu pleaded, leaning further down and out, yet somehow keeping her balance.  “Do you know how long we've been working?  How much we've been trying and trying to rank up?  We've been grinding for who knows how long!  Week after week doing these one- and zero-stars, just wanting a chance at a two star!  Just a chance to make an impression, to show how truly amazing we are!  Haven't you ever wanted just a chance?  And here you are, the only person able to give us – us great adventurers with greater promise – that chance we need.  You are the gatekeeper and we are horses, only wanting to get through the doors, wanting to gallop on our way through to the beflowered fields promised to us.  We want to truly spread our wings in the skies of—”

“If I give you a two-star, will you stop the monologue?”

“Yes.”

A paper was shoved towards Muto.

“Next,” she called, looking past the pair.

Muto and Miyu made their way out, looking over the assignment.

“M-mee...” Muto sounded out.  “...meerk...meer-ka-haynt....”

Finally hopping off his shoulders, Miyu leaned into Muto and dragged her finger along the page.  “Merchant seeking protection along road from Gridania to Ul'dah.  See, says here they're departing tonight and are looking for at least two guards.  Well...with you, me, Twitchums, and maybe some friends, I'd say we have this one in the bag!”

A fairy flew by, making tinkling noises and illuminating the page before flying off.

“Muto did not bring bag....” said Muto bashfully, suddenly worried about his bag-less status.

“No, it's...ahh, nevermind.”  Miyu had tried explaining metaphors before, including cracking the joke “I never metaphor I didn't like!”  In response, Muto had given the smile that said he had no idea what Miyu was saying, but he was very happy that she was enjoying herself.  “Either way, we have an actual two-star! Sheesh, trying to give us farm duty, pff, go eat a chode, we're adventurers, not bloody farmers.”

“Muto sometimes get bloody when doing farm work!  Weeds are spiky....”

“That's why you wear gloves, Muto.”

“Muto strong.  What does not kill Muto make three mistakes – not kill Muto, make Muto stronger, make Muto angry!”  He grinned, showing off his teeth, then punched into his palm.  “Muto kill and eat, just to show how tough Muto is! Weeds taste bad, though.  And make tongue bleed.  But Muto show them.”

“Muto, please don't say not killing you is a mistake.”  Miyu rubbed at his arm. “The world would be less without you in it.”

“Oh, Muto not leaving!”  He flexed hard and showed off his bicep.  “Muto too strong for that!  Plus Muto have Miyu!”

“And Enzo?” said another voice.

“Enzo?” Both Muto and Miyu looked over.  The Hrothgar immediately reacted upon seeing the dark-skinned Miqo'te.  “Oh!! Muto have Enzo today!!”

Enzo was leaning against a nearby building with his fairy Eos fluttering near his shoulder.  “Meowdy.”  His cool demeanor was quickly replaced by mild panic as the ground shook and a shadow overtook him. The next moment, he found his feet off the ground and himself in Muto's tight embrace.  “Hrrk!!”

“Enzo, hey!” Miyu greeted him.  “You already go through the line?”

“Hhhhhh...!”

“Muto, let go.”

Muto did.  Enzo took a moment to get air back into his lungs and straightened out his coat.  “Good to see you guys too.  Bit...less tight next time, hey, Muto?”

“Muto sorry.” He grinned brightly, showing off his fangs.  “Just happy to see Enzo!”

“Always mutual.” He flicked an ear, then took a boiled egg out of his pocket.  “Egg?”

“Okay!”  Muto took it and shoved it into his pocket.  “Have later.”

Enzo brought out another.  “You?”

Miyu lowered an ear.  “I'm...fine, thanks.”

Enzo shrugged, then bit into the shell.  “To answer your question, no, I haven't gone through the line.  I don't need to.  Came here to get some help, actually....”

Miyu squinted, suddenly very suspicious.  “You didn't 'need' to go through the line?  What, did you get a job elsewhere?”

“More or less.” He quirked a brow.  “You two interested?”

Muto looked down at the paper in his hands.  His ears went back slightly as he concentrated, trying to decide.

“Well, first off, what kind of job are we looking at here?” asked Miyu.  “This have a ranking?”

“It's...an independent venture.”

That term – sometimes called an IV – was always a bit scary.  Adventurers may come upon a task that needed doing, and instead of going through the paperwork of posting a job and seeking additional adventurers in an officially sanctioned job, they sought to resolve the problems themselves.  Once the IV had finished, it was documented, submitted, and appropriate ranking points were assigned.

While in the past, adventurers had said certain troublesome events were “IVs” to give themselves an excuse, the grand companies quickly put harsh restrictions and punishments into place.  Extremely foolhardy ventures – such as trying to assassinate a foreign dignitary and potentially starting a war – were punished so severely that getting put to death was an option.  Retroactively saying something was an IV as an excuse for causing trouble or damage was severely punished, with it not uncommon to to lose one's adventuring license entirely, or at least a few ranks.  The same punishment went with falsified IVs.

IVs were always a gamble, though.  While the grand companies could at least guarantee payment and ranking points, there was no such guarantee in an IV.  Even if adventurers barely made it out by the skin of their teeth, if they accomplished little or had nothing to show for their time, they would likely get little in regards to advancing their rank.  However, the benefit was that IVs were not limited by rank or the number of adventurers allowed to join, meaning a great amount of money and advancement could be open to anyone.

“Go on...” Miyu said slowly.

“Not just yet. This's a hot job, big reward, and shouldn't be too tough, but I first need to know if you want to join me.”

“Sounds too good to be true.  Where'd you get this?”

“Long story.”

“Shorten it.”

“I've got sources.  Good and reliable ones.”  He reached into his pocket, dug around, then made a face.  He pulled out a white rat, which looked at him with wide, curious eyes, then handed it to Miyu.  “Hold this, would ya?”

“Wh—?”

He then pulled out a rolled-up communique.  “A little chocobo told me about a nearly abandoned facility that's ripe for picking through.”

“'Nearly' abandoned?”  The rat scampered to Miyu's shoulder.

“A couple leftover guards, they're basically just babysitting the place now. Easy pickings.  And you don't have to worry, they're not 'good guys' by any stretch.”

“Mmmmm...”

Enzo motioned with his chin at Muto's paper.  “What rank's that mission?”

“Oh!” Muto held out the paper proudly.  “Is two-star! Miyu is best ne-go-shee-ater!”

Enzo got a lopsided smile, proud of their accomplishment.  “Well look at you!  You're moving up!”

The rat climbed up to Miyu's head, where Eos flitted near to investigate. “We're looking at 700 points for this job.”  Miyu then snorted derisively.  “She was trying to give us something with 50, can you believe that?”

“Yeah.” Enzo shrugged.  “It's kinda unfair to us lowbies like that.”  He took a moment to look between them with a twinkle in his eye. “...but what would you two say to a four-star?”

“...I'm sorry?”

“IS FOUR-STAR?!”

“Shhhh!!” Enzo and Miyu hissed at Muto.

Muto clapped his hands over his mouth, while Miyu recomposed herself. “Okay, this is definitely sounding too good to be true.  How is it a four-star?”

He moved the hand holding the communique, showing the emblem stamped beneath.  “It's Garlean, but don't let that scare you.”

“Don't let that scare me?!  Just the Garlean empire, nothing threatening....” Her sarcasm was interrupted as another thought came to her.  “And what's the pay?”

“A third of whatever we find over there.”

“And what should we expect to find?”

“That's all a bit—”

The unseen hand of Hydaelyn nudged Muto's memory.

Muto gasped and clapped a hand heavily on Miyu's shoulder.  “Oh!! Muto remember!!  Tahro say to get big job!  Or Muto have to stop adventuring!” He shook Miyu, making her head bounce about and dislodged the rat. “Is Muto's big chance!  Show Tahro!  Show Lalinu!  Show queen!  Show the world!”

“M-Muto....”

“Muto help Enzo!”

“But what about our job tonight?”

“Muto know math!” He was excited to share his academics.  “Four is bigger than two!”

“He has a point,” Enzo chimed in.

Miyu looked between the two.  They were both looking at her with wide, expectant faces.  She gave a heavy sigh, then poked a finger into Enzo's chest.  “All right...but we're trusting you!  If this IV is a bust, you're going to be the one to pay the gil, all right?”

“Sure, yeah, that's fine!  Let's say...500 gil if things don't pan out?”

Miyu squinted.  Her shrewdness was kicking in.  She knew she could negotiate for something a great deal higher, but Enzo was a friend...and she was curious exactly what they would find in this Garlean place anyways.

“Deal.”

“And you, Muto?”

“Huh?”  His attention had gone to Eos, hovering above Enzo's head.

“Is 500 gil acceptable?”

“Okay!  Umm....” He held up the paper with the two-star adventure.  “Should Muto share?”

“Oh, that?” Enzo shrugged.  “Yeah, just pass it along to someone else.”  He turned to Miyu.  “So...out in eastern Thanalan, there's this Garlean lab....”

While Enzo explained the job, Muto looked down at the two-star adventure, then to the crowd.  He saw a frustrated Au Ra wandering away from the company building.  It was the telltale sign of a poor adventure...and Muto had the solution.  He wandered away, while Enzo continued his explanation.

~

Its breath was thick, and stank of blood and meat.  Its lip were curled back in a permanent snarl,  showing every single dagger-like tooth, while ichor-like saliva dripped from between them.  Its teeth were literally the subject of horror stories, capable of piercing flesh and bone easily.  Its jaws were powerful enough to crunch all manner of alloyed metal, whether it was armor or the side of an airship. Each claw was like a curved saber, able to rend its prey to pieces with a single swipe.  Its muscles were beyond natural, fueled purely by aether and pure menace.  Its kind had killed countless and would kill countless more.  “Nightmare” was not enough of a description for the beast.  To be seen by one was to already be counted as dead.

“Smoo-thie!”

It was an odd stroke of fate that a behemoth had ended up in the care of Muto.  It was a hassle to care for, but nobody wanted to take it for domestic purposes, Muto refused to give it to those who intended it for battle, and him and Tahro seemed to be the only ones to whom Smoothie seemed to listen.

Pupil-less eyes swiveled onto Muto as he approached, carrying a fresh pig carcass behind him.  Smoothie growled, and even in the warm climate, a cloud of breath could be seen.

“Muto got you nummies!”

He tossed the pig over the top of the cage, where it slipped through the bars before falling.  Smoothie caught it in its jaws, and bit down, causing a small spray of blood against the side of its enclosure.  Muto leaned against the outside of the stall, his tail swishing back and forth contentedly as he watched the behemoth feed.

“Are hungry, neh?  No worries!  Muto off to do big job!  Can get even bigger pig next time!”  He reached through a patted one of the behemoth's horns.  “But am sorry, is in Thanalanalan.  Smoothie is too big to go on airship!”

There was a loud crack of bone and spray of viscera.

“Awww, don't be sad!  Muto is sorry, but will definitely try to take Smoothie on next big mission!  Will try to get one in Gridania!  Muto knows Smoothie likes hunting for deer!”

Smoothie shook its head, flicking droplets of blood across Muto's armor.

“There you go! Now you behave!  Muto loves you!”  He kissed his fingers, then put them to Smoothie's horn, before absently wiping away the blood.

He walked to the neighboring stall where his chocobo was caged.  For some reason, it was always wide-eyed and nervous.

“Hello, Legbird! Time for adventure!”

~

The desert sun was high, but it barely reached them.

The storm had been sudden and filled with rage.  The world was roaring.  Wind violently whipped the sand about, shoving them about as their chocobos struggled onward.  Enzo led the pack, all while keeping his grimoire open, its pages emitting a barely visible light.

Each of them wore caps that had been customized to fit over their cat ears, while goggles protected their eyes and scarves covered their lower faces. The chocobos had been given similar head protection, with glass shielding over their eyes and an insulated covering that went over their beaks.

Enzo held up a hand to halt.  With one hand holding the grimoire open, the other reached into his pocket, then withdrew a scope.  He scanned in the distance, tapped a switch a few times, then grinned to himself.

Turning to the others, he gave a thumbs-up and enthusiastic nod.

~

“You'd think there would've been something in the weather report.”

“What?”

“I said, you'd think there would have been something in the weather report!”

The other man gave a helpless shrug.  He only heard half of what was said, but agreed with the sentiment.  Things had been miserable ever since the main arm of the Garlean empire had pulled out.  Insurgent forces had set up a fantastic base there in Thanalan, which was to be a hub of operations.  However, due to a lack of resources – both material and personnel – and with the staff already there, it instead became a self-sufficient laboratory.

It was a risk having a lightly guarded Garlean base so close to Ul'dah, but it was a calculated risk.  They were able to glean bits of intel regarding Ul'dah to occasionally send back to Garlemald, while the handful of scientists continued their research.

All the while, they held onto hope that the Garlean empire would make a push into central Eorzean lands once again, they would have a seat of power in Thanalan already ready for them, and everyone there could finally return to their lives in Garlemald.

Admittedly, life hadn't been too bad.  It could be boring, even.  The guards took shifts in their camouflaged watch box, nestled under an outcrop of rock that disguised the entrance and gave them shade.  Cooled air piped in from the main facility made even the hottest days pleasant. All the while, the scientists continued working on...whatever it was they did.  Something about crystals...of course.  It was always crystals.

This sandstorm had rattled the guards, though, because their schedules depended upon sandstorms.  Every time there was to be one, a cart would either leave or return with supplies hours before a storm hit, which would then hide the tracks leading to the base.  Sure, someone could follow the cart, but they had had training and tools to help them detect when they were being followed or spied upon.  This system had been working for them for years.  However, the sandstorm predictions had been inaccurate before.  This one, though, was particularly harsh.

One of the guards squinted out through his view port, then turned to his comrade.  “I thought I saw movement!” he shouted over the rush of the storm.

“There's a lot of movement!”  The man smiled.  “It's the sand!”

He just got a flat glare in response.

A Miqo'te stumbled through the sand to the shelter of the overhanging rock.  It wasn't much, but it was at least some kind of shelter.  Her face was bare and grimacing, and she held her hands over her ears to prevent sand from getting in.  She drew close against the wall and tightly pulled her knees to her chest with her eyes closed.

The two guards looked to each other.  This was a problem.  They could wait out the storm and hope she left once it had passed.  However, if she stayed there long enough, she might take notice of the disguised doors.  They had done what they could to keep up maintenance, but years with only what scant supplies they could get from Ul'dah without raising suspicion had left some telltale chipping, uneven edges, and a silhouette if you knew what to look for.

The guards pantomimed to each other about what to do.  One was silently saying they should kill her, while the other one was pleading to leave her alone.  Their silent argument was becoming more heated, until they heard her speaking.

“Please...! Please help...!”

Their hands froze mid-conversation.

Was she talking to them or praying?

A large stone punched through the wall of the watch box, hitting the one guard in the face, rocking his head back and into the wall, where he slid to the floor.

“Witch, you're about to—!”

The remaining guard took up his rifle, wrenched open the door, and ran into a wall of armor and muscle.  Muto picked him up by the face, slammed his head into the rock wall, then let him fall.

Twitchums was low the ground, wearing his own pair of custom goggles.  Flecks of energy came off him, fresh from manipulating the earth.  Miyu walked over and eagerly petted him.  “Good boy...!”  He eagerly twitched his tails, then sneezed, sending out sparks.

Within moments, the sandstorm was gone, revealing Enzo in the midst of it.  He brought up the grimoire, blew off the remaining sand, then clapped it shut. “That's always a fun spell...!”

He opened a pouch, allowing Eos to fly out and perch on his shoulder.  Muto, meanwhile, raised up the goggles and lowered his scarf, then looked to the body at his feet.  “Muto hit harder than meant to....”

“They're bad guys,” Miyu said, doing her best to empty out all the sand that had collected in her robes.  “It's okay.”

“Should Muto kill?”

“Yeah, go ahead,” said Enzo disinterestedly.

“No!” Miyu shot him a glare, then looked up to Muto.  “Only kill if you have to.”

Enzo sighed, looking up.  “You know they're gonna wake up eventually....”

“Yeah, but we don't have to be murderers!  We're better than that!”

“And what would you suggest?”

Miyu thought a moment, then snapped her fingers.  Not even a minute later, thanks to Twitchums manipulating the sand, the two unconscious guards were buried up to their necks in the sand, and thanks to a magic marker, each one bore three whisker marks on their cheeks.

“Perfect!”

“Happy?”

“Very.”

Miyu handed the marker back to Enzo, who put it back in his pocket.  Enzo procured an egg from his pocket, did his best to dust off the sand, then bit into it.  “So inside, there'll likely be a small leftover contingent of guards, but they're not on active duty, so we hit them hard...and after that'll just be the scientists.  We should be able to deal with them.”

“'Deal' how?” asked Miyu, squinting at Enzo.

“Just trust me.”

“No killing.”

“Trust me.”

“Muto trust!” offered Muto.

“Muto trusts me,” repeated Enzo.

“Mmmmm....” Miyu stayed squinting for a long moment, pointed to her eyes, then pointed to Enzo.

“Oh, stop that,” he said, carelessly waving her away and stepping past.  “I'm not a monster.”

“Muto is not monster either!”  He seemed eager to share that bit of information. “Am beast.  Is like monster, but with better manners.”

Going inside the wrecked watch box, Enzo found a keypad.  He unrolled the communique, then tapped in the code.

“Anything complicated?” asked Miyu.

“Just an alphanumeric code,” shrugged Enzo.  “It's literally 'G1234.'”

Hitting the final key, there was a heavy “ch-chunk” from the outside wall, a hiss, then the rock face slowly slid open, revealing the way inside. The interior was a mix of rock and metal with bright lights evenly spaced along the ceiling, with occasional signs marking the way to various areas.

“You take point, Muto,” instructed Enzo.

“Huh?”

“You stay in the front and protect us,” Miyu clarified.

“Okay!”

Muto unsheathed his axe, Miyu and Enzo opened their grimoires, and slowly they started down the hall.  They froze as they heard approaching footsteps.

“Nar,” came a sleepy grumble, “I swear, if you're coming in to use the can again—”

She emerged from a side door, where her eyes met Muto's.

Muto smiled.

The lady pulled her head back just in time to avoid the axe swinging down.  Se turned and started to run towards a security alcove.  Muto grabbed a hand axe from his belt and lobbed it at the retreating woman's head.  The axe whirled end over end, before it impacted into her head...with the handle.  She stumbled, which was further exacerbated by rising stones.  Twitchums was at Miyu's feet, hunched down, glowing, and growling.

The guard recovered just in time to see a charging Muto bearing down on her, and the last thing she saw was a fist the size of her head flying right at her face.  She was knocked back into a rack where a number of cards were hung, knocking them all to the floor, then fell to the floor herself.

There was a door next to the rack.  The large squad of guards within and the three adventurers saw each other.

“Uhh....” said everyone.

The guards grabbed their rifles and Muto slammed the metal door.  He pressed himself hard against it, while feeling the guards behind it hammering on and slamming into the door.

“Muto cannot hold forever!”  There was the sound of gunfire and divots appearing on the door.  “Muto does not want to get shot!”

Enzo's eyes went to the pile of cards on the floor.  “Help him with the door!” he ordered Miyu.

“Twitchums, go!” Her command sounded in the carbuncle's mind.  Twitchums turned red, a chunk of the bare rock wall came loose, then flew forward to help pin the door in place.

Sifting through the keycards, Enzo found the one he was looking for, slotted it into a nearby console, and his fingers danced across the keys.

Deet. Click-ck.

“There. You two can stop.”  He looked flatly to Miyu.  “And without killing.”

“Thank you,” she chirped.  Twitchums went from red to a light topaz, twitching his tails gleefully.

Enzo rolled his eyes, then began sifting through the pile of cards.  “You know, trying not to kill anyone is going to make going through here that much harder.  We're here to finish a mission, not make friends with literal villains.” He turned his mouth.  “...and how many bloody duplicate cards are there?!”

“Muto wouldn't mind making friends....”  He crouched near the unconscious lady. “Should Muto take her back?”  He started contemplating if it would be easy to add a new friend to the loot they would be taking back.

“Don't,” Enzo said, distractedly, “she probably has diseases.  There!” He was finding card after card with A, B, and D, but only then did he find C.

There was a lot of yelling behind the locked door.  Muto looked to it, then pointed his thumb to it.  “Should Muto open door and quiet them?”

Enzo groaned and started off.  “Come on,” coaxed Miyu, gently taking his wrist and leading him on.

~

As they walked the halls, it was rather obvious the place was unfinished.  Garlemald had sent what supplies they could, but when the supply route had been disrupted, those who were left there made due with what they could. The base had seemingly been integrated into a cave system, and many walls had been left exposed to the rock surfaces beneath.  A surprising number of halls ended up going to dead ends.

It helped with navigation, as construction had prioritized lighting in areas where people worked or traveled.  There were occasional maps posted, though most had been minorly vandalized, both because many of the places on there had never been built, the staff did get bored, and it wasn't like any Garlean officials were there to stop them.

“We're aiming to go...here.”  Enzo pointed to a large circular room.  “This's where their main project should be.”

“Wait, there's a project?” Miyu guffawed.

“Well, yeah.” Enzo raised an eyebrow.  “What, you thought it was just a no-name lab we were going to loot?  Take some cool science equipment, take the Garlean empire down a beg?”

“You didn't specify!”

“You didn't ask.”  Miyu made a strangled noise of frustration, with her tail shooting up behind her in annoyance, while Enzo went on unabated.  “It's a little bit of navigating, as you can see, but that shouldn't be too bad.  Thanks to my friends—”  He fanned out the key cards.  “—it'll be a straight shot through.   Here, though...we'll be passing by the main lab.  We'll likely be dealing with quite a few scientists then.”

“Muto need to deal with?”  He looked between Enzo and Miyu, unsure how he should define “deal with.”

“I've got this,” Enzo said coolly before confidently walking on.  Miyu squinted judgmentally from behind him while Muto looked about wide-eyed.  He'd never been in a secret base before!

Eventually, there was noise ahead.  Enzo looked around the corner, then sighed in frustration.  There were so many more down there than he had anticipated.

“The scientists?” asked Miyu.

“The scientists,” confirmed Enzo.  Miyu crossed her arms in thought, followed by Muto doing the same, imitating her.

“It would be a bad idea if we were to go in with weapons swinging,” Enzo sighed. “They could trigger an alarm or could fight back.  I'm sure there's plenty of Garlean fighting tactics in their heads....”

“Muto fight them all?” offered the Hrothgar.  “Muto is best at fighting!”

“No,” Enzo and Miyu said at the same time.

They stood there together in silence, thinking on how best to proceed.  As they did, Enzo noted Eos floating past his vision.

“Hmmm....”

Miyu was looking down at her feet and saw Twitchums staring up inquisitively at her.

“Hmmm....”

Muto looked between his companions, confused.

“Hmmm?”

~

It was an average day for the Garlean scientists.  They had several crystals hooked up to various electrodes, screens with graphs, and nearly incalculable amounts of data pouring through their system.  It was entirely normal.  Almost boring.

“WHY IS THAT IN HERE?!”

And then there was a fairy riding a carbuncle through the lab.

Twitchums burst through the door, running as hard as he could, while Eos did her best to steer him.  They specifically darted between and near people's legs, leaving a trail of chaos.  Under chairs, over tables, through carefully calibrated equipment.  One scientist went to bar their way, but Twitchums jumped on his face, then springboarded over a handful of others behind him.

Twitchums was having the time of his life.

Eos looked bored.

While the scientists had been going about their business in labs and walking in the halls, they were now clustering together, trying to capture this wild animal.  People were crowding into the lab, aiming to block the doors or to help catch the carbuncle.

Eos piloted Twitchums for the door, and with a kick of her heels, urged him to ride as hard as he could.

“Ready?” someone asked.  They had a labcoat spread out, ready to use as a makeshift net.  Twitchums and Eos drew closer, and they weren't stopping.

“Now!”

There was a fierce roar behind them.  They stumbled and turned back to see a Hrothgar towering over them, fangs bared, eyes fierce, and axe in hand. Twitchums jumped over the startled scientists onto Muto's shoulder. Looking to the crowd of people, he twitched his tails in satisfaction.

Deet.

The fire shutters slammed down across all windows and doors, trapping all the scientists within the lab.

Enzo shoved the keycard in his pocket, withdrew another hardboiled egg, then popped it entirely in his mouth.  “Tha' wash ee-ee....”

“Twitchums, you were so good!” Miyu cooed, walking over to him perched atop Muto's shoulder.  Eos took flight, dutifully resuming her place by Enzo's side.  Twitchums hopped down from Muto's shoulder to Miyu's awaiting arms, then eagerly licked her face.  Enzo, meanwhile, nodded to Eos and she nodded back.

After that, it was no problem continuing through the facility.  Behind the fire shutters, the trio could hear the trapped scientists banging and shouting.  Twitchums walked alongside Miyu with a proud step, satisfied with the chaos he had caused, while Eos hovered along stoically.  Muto followed along, though occasionally stopping and pressing his ear against one of the shutters.

At one point, he pulled back his fist, about to bang back, but Miyu caught his arm and lead him on.  “Leave them alone for now,” she gently goaded.

Cables and general wiring grew more and more condensed as they continued along the hall. Enzo's pace picked up as they grew closer.

“You never told us about what we're specifically trying to find....”

“It's condensed aether,” Enzo casually said.  “Pooled and experimented on. Basically, a certain crystal.  All I want from here is that, and literally everything else here can be yours.”

“Ohhhhh...!” Muto's eyes were wide.  “Muto get secret base...!”

“Probably...not,” Miyu corrected.  “Ul'dah is more than likely to come down hard on this place.  This is in their jurisdiction and is a matter of national security, so they'll likely have their army take it over and conduct a thorough investigation.”  She quirked a smile.  “However, before they get here, there's nothing saying that if it's not nailed down, you can't take it...!”

“It's mostly rivets here anyways...” Enzo observed.

“Muto get so much stuff...!”

The hallway wound around, until they arrived at a heavy industrial door with a console to the side.  Above the door in large, block letters was “INCUBATION CHAMBER.”

“In...in...innnnkoooo....”

“What...form is your aether?” Miyu asked hesitantly.

Enzo slid the D card through the console, his fingers danced across the keys, and the door hissed open, followed by two more doors.

The chamber within was enormous.  It was a large concrete dome.  The floor of the chamber was almost entirely sand, with raised platforms going around the perimeter and a walkway leading straight into the middle.

“There we are....” Enzo said, smiling to himself, confidently walking in and starting down the central walkway.

“Enzo, what's going on?” Miyu demanded.

“Just here for the aether is all.”

At the end of the walkway in the center of the chamber was something organic.  As they drew closer, they found it was...a creature.  It was short, fat, large, and fleshy.  It was reminiscent of a large brown toad, in that it's head seemed to take up most of its body.  In fact, the party wasn't sure where its arms and legs were.  It had brown skin, four deformed horns that wound about in random directions, and large bulbous eyes that stared in different directions.  It looked incredibly dumb.

“Hack!” it noised.

“What...is that?”

“Hack!”

“A massive repository of experimental aether,” Enzo said matter-of-factly. “Drawing upon the streams deep within the planet, they twisted and gave the energy form, and it's what you see here.”

“They created a creature?” Miyu leaned over, trying not to step on the sand.

“In a sense.”

“Hack!”

Twitchums leaned in and sniffed eagerly at the thing, nose to nose.  One eye briefly looked to the carbuncle, then back to staring at nothing in particular.

“Wait....” Miyu squinted at him.  “You want us to take this thing with us?  It's huge!  And, y'know, alive!”

“Oh, that won't be a problem.”  Enzo motioned to the creature.  “Muto, please kill it.”

“Okay!” Muto eagerly agreed.

“What?!” Miyu protested.  “No, don't!”

“Okay!” Muto eagerly agreed.

Enzo sighed, then turned to Miyu.  “I can tell you for a fact it's in pain.  It's not sentient, it's not a person, it's a thing that would be best for everyone if we were to end it here.”

“How do you know—?”

“You'll do no such thing!” came a voice over the speaker system.

The three immediately readied their weapons and looked around.

“Up here...up here...!”

“Oh!” Muto eagerly pointed to an observation room high up with large windows.  Inside was a tall Roegadyn lady in a lab coat speaking into a wall-mounted microphone.  Muto happily waved to her.

“What you're doing here is wrong,” Enzo shouted at her.

“Who are you to decide what is right and wrong?” the lady snarled.  “We gave PP0 life only technically speaking.  It has no idea what it is, nor does it care.  It knows nothing, feels nothing, except what we tell it to.  Sentient thought is beyond us to create anyways...which works out well for you bleeding heart types, doesn't it.”

“PP0?” Miyu asked Enzo.

“Oh...wait, you don't even know what it is?!”

“Not...exactly,” Miyu responded.

“Well!” The scientist paused, then hit a few keys on the nearby console. The multiple doors at the entrance slammed shut.  “In that case, I need to tell you! It's really exciting!  We haven't had visitors in years, so this is actually pretty nice to get to see somebody new for once!”

Enzo glared flatly at the Roegadyn, then sighed to himself.  He gestured for Miyu and Muto to come with him, then hopped off walkway to the sand and started towards a door at the opposite end of the room, presumably which led up to the Roegadyn.

“See, we were kinda stuck here, since Garlemald kinda got cut off from us, and we're all, 'What do we do?'  But then we found that with our set-up, we could hypothetically infuse aether energy from our reactor into something! Wasn't tough at all! So at that point, it's like, 'What can't we do, y'know?' Well...I mean, not much, we're all stuck here, but then, then we get this super cool idea, right? And we sent out a secret communique back to the empire asking for this one thing, and we didn't think they were going to, but they did!”

They got to the walkway in front of the door, then Enzo swiped a cardkey through the console.  He blinked when the display came up with the error “INCORRECT CLEARANCE.”  Confused, he tried again.  That was supposed to be the maximum clearance card.

“Things...okay?” Miyu asked.

Enzo just furrowed his brow and tried another card.  INCORRECT CLEARANCE.

“I mean, it took awhile, but they delivered it, and we were super excited!  A scale from Bahamut!  Like, who'd have thought, right? But, I mean, doing genetic stuff with Bahamut isn't anything new, but now we get to!”

Miyu's eyes went wide.  “Wait...Bahamut?!”

While Muto didn't entirely understand everything going on, he understood at least that. “Uh oh....”

INCORRECT CLEARANCE.

“So we have some cloning technology, which was kinda-sorta based off the Allagan process, and, c'mon, that stuff is ancient, and we only kinda-sorta understand it, but we were able to modify it and use the modified aether to infuse into Personal Project 0 – or PP0 – and that's where its nickname came from – and I know it's not the best acronym, but Garlemald isn't exactly here watching over our shoulders for the best naming conventions – but I guess he also has those giant peepers – but anyways—”

A small pile was forming at Enzo's feet.  There were a few suspiciously large money pouches, three full-sized books, a collapsible staff, a surprising number of keys, a melon, three cartons of boiled eggs, a light back-up robe, a few squirming malboro hatchlings, several keycards, a unicolt figurine, a wind-up soldier, and a few flowers with attached tags labeled “Corpse.”

“WHERE'S THE BLOODY KEY?!” he snarled.

~

The guards continued banging on the door of their barracks, hollering for help, shouting threats, and making noises of utter frustration.

In front of the door was the pile of keycards.  Towards the bottom was a key labeled “E.”

~

“—but anyways, it was nice to have visitors, but it's kiiiiiinda our policy that intruders aren't allowed to leave, or at least leave alive, and PP0 has never had proper combat testing, so this is probably where you're going to die. I'm sorry, but not really, but also am.”

She tapped a few keys and the entire room began to hum.  Moments later, the sand began to bubble.  Large amounts of air were getting pumped in beneath the sand, causing it to go from being a settled, solid mass to a liquid. Muto had been standing in the stand, quickly began sinking, then jumped up to the walkway.

His axe was immediately readied.  “No worries!” he said with an eager swish of his tail.  “Miyu and Enzo are safe!  Muto protect you all!”

What they thought had been a whole creature ended up being only its head.  It began to raise, attached to a long neck.  Massive claws burst through the sand, struggling to raise up its large body in full.  The tips of the wings were visible next, with one wing much smaller than the other. Thick cables emerged from the sand as well, plugged into the creature's arms and back.  The dragon's proportions were all wrong, with some muscles incredibly large, while others were noticeably underdeveloped.  Once it had climbed to the top and its body was fully visible, the sand stopped bubbling.  The artificial dragon stood nearly as tall as the dome.

The three stood there wide-eyed, ears lowered, and with bushed tails jetting out from behind them.  Twitchums had gone from growling and being a deep red to whimpering and turning white.

“Muto...maybe not able to protect...from that.”

Without the body moving, the head spun around on its neck to look down at the adventurers.  Its body then slowly lumbered around to face them. Energy flowed through the cables and its bulbous eyes went red.

“Behold!” the scientist bellowed into her microphone.  “PEEPO!!”

“HAAAAAAAHCK!!!” it roared, then blinked an eye.

“Mew...!” mewed Miyu.

“This could get messy, so if you'll excuse me.”  A fire shutter slammed in front of the large window.  A few cameras positioned around the room blinked to life.  “Make sure to have good deaths.   This is all getting recorded for our records! PEEPO, KILL!”

“MOVE!!”

Peepo's neck glowed before letting forth a jet of flame.  The group scattered, feeling the white-hot heat on their backs.  The wall where the flames had hit had partially melted the metal and crystallized the scattered sand.

“I can't believe we're about to get killed by something so stupid-looking!” Miyu yelled in aggravation.

“If you had just let Muto kill it, we wouldn't be here!” Enzo snapped.

“Whatever Muto did, Muto sorryyyyyy!” Muto wailed.

They were running across the sand for the exit door.  The exit may have been blocked by several locked doors, but with Enzo's keycards, they could at least escape.

Muto gasped.  “DOWN, NOW!!” He palmed the backs of Miyu and Enzo's heads, then fell forward, making them faceplant into the sand.  Peepo's tail whooshed just over them, then impacted heavily into the wall.  Enzo rubbed the sand out of his eyes, then his ears went limp.  The console in the wall near the door had been destroyed.

“It's him or us right now,” Miyu sighed defeatedly.  She looked back up to Peepo and whined to herself.  She always hated fighting dragons.  Twitchums pressed himself up against Miyu's side, both for comfort and seeking instruction.

“Muto choose us!”

Muto got to his feet, axe in hand, then charged Peepo.

“Muto, wait!” Miyu looked agog to the Hrothgar, then to Enzo.  “Does he seriously think he can beat that thing?!”

“Maybe....” Enzo took in the room.  “...but more importantly, he's keeping its attention off us.”

“HRAAAAAAA!!”

Muto rolled out of the way as Peepo went to smash down with its claws.  Muto swung down, his axe biting in deeply in the back of Peepo's hand.  In return, the artificial dragon's neck glowed again, then spewed down fire at Muto. The Hrothgar knew the creature had limited mobility when using its breath weapon and darted for Peepo's legs.  The stream of fire followed him, until it started to cook Peepo's feet.  Being right by the artifical dragon's backside, Muto swung back and took a couple hacks at Peepo's tail.  In response, the dragon went to heavily sit down, aiming to crush Muto.

Sand was tossed up and hung in the air briefly.  Silence had descended upon the cavern...until a fierce battle cry pierced the din and Peepo bucked. Muto had climbed several cables and was hacking at its back.

Enzo stood with Miyu, Twitchums, and Eos against the wall watching the fight ensue.

“Kinda impressive...” he mused.

“That's what you're thinking during all this?!” Miyu snapped.

Peepo flapped its mismatched wings desperately, trying to dislodge the attacker.  It craned its neck to see and possibly bite Muto, but couldn't quite reach.  It finally settled with launching itself back and slamming its back into the wall of the dome.  The room shook violently, with dust falling from the ceiling.

“Muto!”  Enzo called.  “Are you alive still?”

Peepo did not seem in distress anymore, and was repositioning itself to try and get a better view of what happened to Muto.

“Enzo, Muto hurt!” the Hrothgar called.  “Muto...really hurt!”

“Go.”  Eos flew.

The Hrothgar was lying in the sand, with his leg badly damaged.  His axe was just out of reach and he looked terrified.  Peepo, meanwhile, was waiting for the dust and sand in the air to settle, trying to spy Muto.

Eos found Muto, then flew in front of his face.

“Mmm?”

Eos slapped Muto across the face.  It was a tiny fairy, but she hit hard.

“Ow!”  He rubbed his face.  “Was mean!”

“Are you still hurt bad?” called Enzo.

“Huh?”  He looked down.  Any blood and damage to his leg was now gone.  Eos had channeled her healing energy when she had made contact.  “Ohhhh....”

“Keep fighting him!” Enzo called.

“Okay!”

“And don't die!” Miyu added.

“Okay!”

He grabbed his axe and rolled out of the way as another jet of flame scorched the sands.

“Its aethereal energy is too complex to hold steady on its own,” Enzo said, rubbing his chin.  “So the cables—”

“Attack the cables?” Miyu interrupted.

“Go for the connection ports.”

As Muto and Peepo battled, they could see that when it had rammed itself against the wall, several ports had been damaged and cables had fallen away. They briefly spewed aethereal mist before the emergency shut-offs initiated.  While the cables had been heavily insulated to keep in the aether, the ends were less so to allow for flexibility and movement.

“Get 'im, Twitchums!”

The carbuncle, while still scared, was bolstered by Miyu's command.  It gave a fearsome squeak before launching itself forward.  Sand began to gather in the air, hovering next to him, and coalescing into crude spears.

Muto was flung across the room and hit the wall hard enough to leave a crater in the concrete before falling to the sand.  He lied there groaning, bones shattered, life leaving him.

Eos flew over and kicked him.

Healed, Muto grabbed up his axe and charged again at Peepo.

Twitchums drew upon Peepo.  It was so, so much bigger than expected.  Miyu's voice directing him in his mind steeled his courage and pushed him on. With the artificial dragon's attention on Muto, Twitchums had a clear shot along Peepo's arm.  The sand spears launched forward.  Several missed, impaling into Peepo's arm, but a few hit home.  Cables came lose, briefly spewing aethereal mist, before stopping.

Peepo's head swiveled to look to Twitchums before a thrown hand axe hit it in the face.

“NO!” Muto scolded.  “Fight Muto!”

“HAAAAAAAHCK!!”

“Stop! STOP!!” pleaded the voice over the speaker system.  “You don't know what you're doing!”

“We're winning,” Enzo observed with a smirk.

“No, you don't understand!” The Roegadyn was in a panic.  “This is years' worth of research and experimentation! You'll destroy everything! And if you—”

Muto was airborne and Peepo plunged its hand at him.  The Hrothgar just barely missed it.  The artificial dragon's sword-like claws thrusted deeply into the concrete dome.  Unsure if it had grabbed him, Peepo squeezed, then yanked back, ripping out a huge boulder of concrete and wiring. The room's speakers went immediately silent, all camera lights dimmed, and the lights about the room began to flicker.

“Hit it faster!” Enzo instructed.  “Burn it down!”

Twitchum heard Miyu's command in its mind, and gave a mighty squeak.  Sandstone spears materialized and flew in violent waves at Peepo's back.  The creature's attention was divided between what was happening behind it and the very loud and angry Hrothgar.  Peepo's actions were also becoming more and more sluggish, as less aether was pumped into it.

A jet of flame followed Muto as he charged directly for Peepo.  He was barely staying ahead of it.

“Muto also have flame!” Muto roared.  “Flame is inside!”

Cable after cable was severed from Peepo's back.

“Flame is Muto!”

He jumped.

“Flame is friends!”

The final cable was severed.

“Flame is hotter than dragon's!”

His axe went straight into Peepo's chest.  The artificial dragon stood there stunned and wobbling as the last of its aether had dissipated. Muto's axe was lodged deeply in Peepo and refused to come out.  Muto took the opportunity to push his feet off the creature's chest, pivot off his axe handle, and launch himself upwards.  He reared back his fist and uppercutted Peepo in the chin.

The artificial dragon dissipated into aethereal mist.  A moment later, Muto's axe hit the sand, followed by Muto, landing in a crouch.  He stood to his full height, thumped his chest, then gave a bestial roar of victory.

“MUTO!!” he announced.  “WIN!!”

As the echo died down, Enzo muttered, “It was technically Twitchums who killed the thing....”

“Shhh,” Miyu whispered back.  “Let him have this....”

Enzo's attention went to the aethereal mist.  He squinted, waiting for it to start...and there it was.  It all began to come together to form a crystal.

...and then the lights went out.

“Ehh?”  Miyu looked around.  “Twitchums!  Light!”

The carbuncle's forehead gem lit up.  It was in the middle of the room, looking around confusedly.

“Everyone okay?”

“Muto is fine!” announced Muto, somewhere in the darkness.  “Muto and friends have great victory!  Oh!!  So many stars!!  Muto and friends level up for sure!”

The dome lit up in red.

Enzo was crouched in the middle, holding a crystal.  Miyu was against the back wall. Muto was on his hands and knees, looking in the sand for a trophy from the fight.

“That...can't be good,” muttered Enzo before shoving the crystal into his pocket. Miyu found herself wondering exactly how he had so much space in that pocket.

“AETHEREAL OVERLOAD,” came an announcement outside the room.  “UNABLE TO CONTAIN.  200 SECONDS UNTIL MELTDOWN.”

Something that many of the base's workers had feared was that many basic safety features had never been implemented into the base's hasty construction.  For example, there was the matter of being unable to access overrides for locked doors and fire shutters from within the affected rooms. Another big issue was that of the base's power.  Since the aether was not being pumped into the PP0 project anymore, it was instead getting pumped in massive quantities back into the reactor.  It couldn't handle it...and there was no way to either stop the flow of aether or shut down the reactor.

“Uhhhhhh....”

The exit doors made a noise, then despite being damaged, partially opened.  It was big enough for all of them to get through, if barely.  At least it had been built in the emergency systems that in the event of a catastrophic failure, everything would be automatically opened.

“GO GO GO GO!!” shrieked Enzo, making a mad dash for the exit.

All of them ran across the sand, kicking up clouds behind them.  Enzo, Miyu, Eos, and Twitchums had no problem getting through the gap.  Muto threw his axe through first, then went to squeeze past...and became stuck.  He struggled, but barely budged.  Instead of fear, he looked confused.

“Is Muto getting fat?”

Enzo had been running ahead, but stopped to run back.  He and Miyu grabbed Muto's wrist, and pulling together, got him dislodged.

“120...119...118,” counted the speakers.

Down the halls they ran, with Miyu glaring at Enzo.  “You have so much explaining to do,” she demanded.

“I didn't know this would happen!” Enzo insisted.  “In case you haven't noticed, I'm also fleeing for my life!”

“You're paying us double!” Miyu snapped.  “If I die, it'll be triple!”

“Oh!!” Muto had a revelation.  “Loot!!”

“Please, Muto, now is not the time for—”

He skidded to a halt in front of a computer console.

“No, leave it alo—!”

He grabbed the sides, groaned, and pulled.  Nothing happened...then with a terrible shriek of protest, the metal ripped from the wall.  He held the console over his head and started running again.  “Okay, Muto good!”

“70...69...68....”

Down the halls they ran.  Emergency lights pointed the proper directions to the exit. They passed the labs, which were now empty, as the shutters had retracted and the scientists had escaped.  A few tried to remain behind to rescue their data, but others had pulled them along, telling them their lives were worth more.

The halls wound round, until they could see daylight ahead, blocked partially by the last remnants of fleeing scientists.  “There!  There!” Miyu eagerly pointed forward.  “We're gonna make it!”

“15...14...13....”

“It's them!!”

Some scientists stopped, considering trying to fight them off in revenge for ruining all their research.  However, the prospect of remaining in an exploding base urged them to quickly leave.

Catching up with the scientists, the crowd fanned out into the Thanalan desert.

“4.”

People were running as hard as they could.

“3.”

They couldn't put enough space between themselves and the base.

“2.”

There was no shelter.

“1.”

Sand dunes were the best they could find.

“MELTDOWN COMMENCING.”

There were screams. Some dove for the ground and covered their heads.  This would be huge.

...

And then nothing happened.

What was to be anxiety and fear for their lives turned into confusion, then frustration.  There wasn't going to be an explosion.  The countdown system had been implemented, but must have been faulty.  There was no danger.  And it was a bit too perfect for there to have been a countdown with a round number like 200 seconds.  Everyone was safe.

And then all attention drew focused on the small party of adventurers in the middle of all of them.  Muto was still holding the ripped-out computer console above his head.  Then there came the noise of several rifles cocking.

Miyu nervously laughed, “Eh heh...!” then raised her hands.

Enzo, meanwhile, squinted at everyone.  A dark expression came over his features.

Miyu elbowed him, then hissed, “Do you wanna die today?  Put them up...!”

“No....”

“Muto's hands are up!” declared Muto cheerfully, still not putting down the console.

“Do you have any idea...” said a guard approaching them, gun pointed at them, “...what you have done?”  His cheeks still had the drawn-on whiskers.

“To be fair,” Miyu squeaked, “we were kinda hired to?  I-it was nothing personal?”

“Ready!”

Rifles were raised, safeties were removed.

SHOOM!!

A mushroom of fire erupted from the base, shooting debris and sand into the day sky, blocking out the sun.  A visible shockwave went out, kicking up sand and knocking a number of people over.  There was a climbing roar, which was then followed by an explosion of blue flame that erupted from the base's entrance.

Chaos had taken control of the crowd once again, before everyone had calmed once again.

“Wait...where—?”

“Buh-bye!”  Muto was up on his chocobo, alongside the others on theirs.  The console had been awkwardly shoved into the chocobo's pouch.

Enzo looked over the group and gave a smirk.  Not saying another word, he put on his goggles, pulled the reins, and headed off into the desert.

“You can fake your own deaths here if you want!” Miyu said with a wave.  “Start new lives!”

“Wait!!”

They didn't stop.  The chocobos were running.  Moments later, Enzo began the spell to again create a sandstorm.  Their tracks would be covered and hopefully, they would never see anyone from the base ever again.

Silence descended over the base's staff.

“I forgot my Triple Triad deck in there...” lamented a guard.

~

Standing in Ul'dah at the airship station, they gathered around their pilfered crystal.  The sky was darkening, as the sun was just disappearing behind the horizon.

“So in the end...it wasn't anything special,” lamented Enzo.

“It's just a normal fire crystal?!” groaned Miyu.

“Ehhhhh...yee-eahhhhhhh....”

“Anything special about it?” she demanded.

“I mean...it might have a bit more of aethereal concentration?” shrugged Enzo.  He passed over his scope.  “But if you look at the aethereal mapping on it, there's literally nothing out of the ordinary.  You could find this in anything.”

“But you said—”

“I know what I said,” he grumbled in aggravation, “but despite them altering the aether they were pumping into...that thing...it ended up having absolutely no effect on the crystal it left behind.”  He wiped his face frustratedly, then pushed the crystal away.  “Honestly, you two can keep it and turn it into the grand company, have more 'proof' of this whole misadventure.  Put it right beside that console Muto grabbed.”

“Thank you, Enzo,” Miyu said quietly.  “But you really don't have to.”

“I'm going to,” he insisted, “and I'm going to pay you too. Just as agreed.”  He rolled his eyes.  “Though...that might take a bit.  All my money was kinda left in the base....”

“Take whatever time you need, all right?”  Miyu gave a consoling smile.  “I'm sorry this all happened like it did, but we...made some kind of difference, right?  And this should get us some advancement, at least!  I mean, once we document it all.  Right, Muto?”

They both looked up to the Hrothgar, who was standing with the biggest smile on his face.

“Why're you so happy?” asked Enzo.

“Muto go on adventure with bestest friends!” declared Muto, barely able to contain his glee.  “Muto and friends fight bad guys!  Muto and friends defeat dragon! Muto and friends—”  He made an enthusiastic explosion noise. “—blow up secret base! Muto and friends real adventurers!  Real heroes!”

Enzo, despite his disappointment, smiled.  “Well...I'm glad you guys had such a great time.  Sorry you missed out on your other mission.”

“Is okay!” Muto said with a bright smile.  “Muto helped Au Ra!  Muto help community!  Oh!” He remembered something incredibly important.  “Muto now can have egg!”  The hard-boiled egg Enzo gave him hours ago had been sitting in his pocket the entire adventure...and was likely destroyed, but that didn't stop Muto's enthusiasm.  He reached in, then looked confused.  Grabbing a hold, he pulled out a wadded piece of paper.

~

While Enzo explained the job, Muto looked down at the two-star adventure.  If they were doing something else, then it would be a waste to hold onto it.  He saw a frustrated Au Ra wandering away from the building.  It was the telltale sign of a poor adventure...and Muto had the solution.  He wandered away, while Enzo continued his explanation.

“Are okay?” asked Muto.

“Ehhhh....”  She shrugged.  “My fifth week in a row with a zero-star.”

“What is rank?”

“I'm almost to my first level,” she shrugged, “which kinda is awful, because I was doing adventuring for years before. Just...it never got documented and there's such a backlog with level appeals.”

“Oh!”  Muto held out the paper with the two-star adventure. “Muto have solution!  Au Ra friend can have adventure!  Is two-star!”

She blinked, taken aback.  “Wait...really?”

“Uh huh!”

“You're sure?”

“Uh huh!”

“Because I know how hard it can be to get these kinds of missions if you're not leveled up...a-and if you don't want to, you really don't have to, it's okay!  I mean, of course I want the mission, but it's fine if you'd rather not—”

“Muto!” called Miyu.  “We're leaving!”

“Oh!!  Coming!!”  He absently shoved the mission in his pocket, then ran after the others, leaving a confused Au Ra behind.

“Umm....”

~

“Muto...have mission.”

“I'm sorry?” asked Miyu.

“Muto still have mission.”

“You what?”

“Muto still have two-star mission.”

“You what?”

“Muto not mean to!”  He held out the paper, crumpled up, covered in smashed hard-boiled egg and eggshell shards.  “Was accident!”

“That's—!”

“Muto screw up again?!”  He looked absolutely terrified.

“No, no!” soothed Miyu.  “It's okay!  Just—”

“Where is the mission again?” asked Enzo.

“Ummmm!!”  He opened the paper and did his best to read. “Um...um—”

“Gridania!” cut in Miyu.

“Do you have everything you need?”

“I think so?”

“Are you sure?”

“Um, yeah, sure!  Wh—?”

He shoved the fire crystal towards Miyu, who took it confusedly. Enzo's grimoire was thrown open.  He channeled his magic, then uttered the words, “Oovoo javer!”

Space folded around Miyu and Muto, and not even a moment later, Enzo was there on his own at the table.

They were only a little late.  Not even twenty minutes later, the two adventurers were on the merchant's carriage with Muto blowing a melody into a bone flute, serenading his companions and the darkening sky.  The mission was only beginning.

~

It was utterly still and dark.  There wasn't a single noise in the house.  It wasn't because it was abandoned, but because he chose for his footsteps to be silent.

A light source was approaching, illuminating the neighboring room. Instead of trying to hide from it, Enzo waited and crossed his arms confidently.

A young dark-skinned lady entered the room holding a lit lantern. She saw Enzo, then deeply frowned.

“Thanks for letting me know you're home...” grumbled Emory. “Where were you?”

“Oh, out,” Enzo shrugged.  “Nothing big.”

Emory scowled at him.  “I know that look.  What did you do?”  She sighed with frustration.  “Who did you kill?”

He put up his hands, palms out.  “Nobody this time!”

“Don't you lie to me!  How many was it?”

“Seriously, Em, it's not actually not a lie!”  He gave a wide grin.  His teeth were pointier than they had been earlier.  “You should tell your brother what a good boy he's been!”

“Oh, shove it...” she grumbled.  “What did you do?”

“Wanna see something amazing?”

She just raised an eyebrow.

He reached into his pocket, where he had a small portal to the Void, and withdrew a crystal, then set it on the nearby table.  It glowed a dull red and was lined with veins.  Emory looked at it, and moments later, recoiled.  The shadows cast behind her from the lantern twisted for a moment before resuming that of a normal lady.

“What did you do, Enzo?” she snapped.  “What is this?!”

“Aether!”  His grin widened.  “Can't you tell?”

“You know exactly what I'm talking about!” she snarled.

“Oh, come on, Em!”  He nudged the crystal, making it spin in place.  “Just a little crystallized aether!”

He noted the shadows behind her were growing and darkening.  Spiky protrusions were twisting and forming in the dark.

“Fine, fine,” he lamented.  He flicked the crystal to spin it the opposite way.  “So I have to say the people of this plane can be absolutely brilliant and incredibly stupid.  They had no idea what they had.  They were taking aether from the planet and corrupting it.  Corrupted aether is nothing new, sure, but the way they were doing it was...certainly unique.  They absolutely ruined it, depriving it of being aspected, while maintaining the energy and refusing to adapt to any other aspect.  And then they channeled it through a remnant of Bahamut, who was able to amplify it so much more than I thought possible.  Even with just one of his scales.”

“How'd you get it?”

“Ohhhh, you know....”  His tail flicked playfully.

“Do not make me ask again.”  Emory glared.  “Or I will make you tell me.”

“My friends just helped me get into a Garlean base is all!”

“We don't have 'friends,'” she stated flatly.

“I like to think Miyu and Muto are.”  He received a withering glare from Emory.  “Oh, come on, I don't consider them as equals! They're just useful!  Entertaining too.”

He picked up the crystal and turned it about, so that both he and Emory could get a better look at it.

“Anyways, I don't entirely understand everything those mortals did to the crystal, but long story short, they basically created something that is outside the six elements.  And I'm not even talking about unaspected aether.  I'm talking about technically a seventh element....”  His smirk grew wider.  “...which should provide for some interesting possibilities.”

“Do whatever you want with it,” grumbled Emory.  “Just keep that thing away from me.”

“Oh, this thing?”  He held it out just a hair more.

Emory glowered at him, then turned and left in a huff, leaving the room.  It was pitch-black in the room once again...save for a glowing pair of red eyes.

~

Thanalan Desert.

“I have a suspicion...” murmured the gentleman to himself.

“What kind of suspicion?” asked an eager Miqo'te.

“I believe....”  Hildibrand suddenly gave a wide sweep with his arm.  “...that there was an explosion.”

The two of them were standing at the bottom of a crater, surrounded by debris.

“And where there are explosions, there are crimes.”

“What about Bahamut?”

A finger was thrust into the sky.  “He is the greatest criminal of them all!”

Some of the debris moved.  The finger was lowered and pointed to it.

“A clue!” both of them said together.

A hand eventually came forth from under the rubble, followed by a ragged sleeve.

“Nashu!”

“Yes, sir!”

“We must assist!”

They crouched next to the hand and pulled away concrete, stones, and all manner of debris.  A Roegadyn lady in a torn white lab coat lied underneath.

“Who...?” she croaked.  “What...?”

“My lady, you have stumbled into the authorities!”

“We have authority?” asked Nashu.

“Absolutely!  All of Eorzea is ours to patrol and to bring justice to!  And you, my lady!”  He dramatically pointed down to the scientist.

She just stared blankly at him.

He knelt next to her, then reached for her hand.  “...are most obviously the victim of a terrible, terrible crime. Pray, tell me...who did this to you?”

The Roegadyn looked at him blankly as her thoughts started to come together.  What were the names the Hrothgar said?

“Muto,” she finally managed.  “Muto, Miyu, and Enzo.”

Click!

[ghostsofmemories]

Insect Poison Update #2

So, life has been a little wild in recent weeks. I got a new laptop, finally, got a kitten (we named her Nemo), and have been getting ready to go back to school (yikes). This chapter has actually been done for about a week, now, but I’ve been dealing with a lot of self-esteem issues regarding my writing, so it was necessary to let this chapter relax before I passed over it a second time. The chapter is pretty short, just under 1700 words, but I plan to *eventually* go back over it and add some more description or something, because I think the scenes might be lacking in that. Jack is the giant takes place the night of the last chapter. Spoiler alert: we’ve got some gay in here.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about or would like a refresher, feel free to check out my chapter 1 update or the WIP introduction. And with that, let’s get on with it, shall we?

Chapter 2 starts with Jack. the father of the house, coming home from a few long days of his trucking job.

For the Bennett family, they functioned much better without Jack’s presence. He was was always tired, difficult to analyze, and preferred being on the road to being home with his family. There was a very clear, silent awareness that he had several affairs outside of his relationship with his wife, and it was something most everyone ignored in light of Emily’s dependency on narcotics and from time to time, drugs like acid and ecstasy. Those were more of a hobby than an addiction, though, similar to some of Jack’s more frequented mistresses upstate. It seemed that everyone knew their secrets with the exception of each other.

Upon arriving that night, he went straight for the bathroom. He spent a long while there, washing himself with a diligence that was unusual for him, and backed only by the possibility that it had been a long week and the heat relaxed his aching muscles. He was tall enough that his hair brushed up against the top of the shower head, tired enough that he only opened his eyes to grab a bar of soap.

Ramona had never been sure what to make of her father. In her head, there were two portraits of him: the man she knew, and the man she had imagined up while he was away. Usually,  he would arrive home to knock the kinder, softer portrait off the shelf and shock her back into reality. That is, until he went to work again and she began to rebuild him.

So I’ve basically accepted at this point that the plot of this book is... all just familial conflict, intrinsic motivation, and weird psychology. All the external conflict is with each other, and if I’m being honest, the book hardly has a plot at all. However, I have also accepted that I’m okay with that and actually a little excited about it!

When Ramona saw him, a bit of the portrait faded immediately. He was taller than she thought he was, had more muscle than she remembered, was a direct picture of the type of man young girls were told to avoid just in case. 

Still, that didn’t dictate his words. Or actions. He was capable of being a tall, strong man and still being a caring and kind father. If it was a stranger they’d seen in town, Lori would tell her not to judge a book by the cover and then, taking a second look, walk briskly across the street with her.

I just really like exploring familial relationships, so why not do more than one at a time? Anyway, here’s the fun part of the chapter (AKA the gay part). While writing this scene, I decided Lori should probably be aged from 14 up to 16 in order for this scene to really make sense. Not that 14 is too young to understand your sexuality, but I just personally don’t see Lori acting on these feelings before she’s 16.

A house holds many things, but its most important possessions are its secrets. The Bennetts thought they were full of secrets, but they made very little effort to hide them from anyone, with the exception of each other.

However, Lori wasn’t one to wear her secrets where they were visible, or to keep them where her anyone could reach. They were tucked away between the pages of the Nancy Garden novel hiding under her bed, living in the Polaroid that never left the guitar case of a girl Lori found herself loving more every day, despite her all her efforts not to.

I love Lori so much. I’ve written quite a few characters in my time, but she might be my favorite just because she’s so?? Pure?? I love all my evil bastards in this story but she’s such a nice refresher sometimes.

Mercy was sitting on the dew-covered bench, her sweater underneath her. Lori took a minute, before she was spotted, to admire her. Her hair blended itself into the darkness of the night, and the moon turned her brown cheeks a pale blue. She was wearing a deep black shirt with a jean vest, and the shorts she was planning to wear to bed.

After too deep of a breath, Mercy turned sideways. As if on cue, she got up and dried a spot on the bench for Lori, the pale spot where the statue used to sit.

“Hi,” Lori said, making her way over. Her eyes couldn’t decide whether to look at Mercy or avoid contact, so they darted wildly back and forth, unsure of a point of focus. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Come sit,” Mercy said, smiling and shaking her head. “How are you? I haven’t seen you all summer.”

“We talked on the phone yesterday.” She smiled while she said this, did her best not to give into the instinct to make fun of her girlfriend relentlessly.

“But I didn’t see you.”

“I’m good.”

“You’re beautiful,” Mercy said, taking Lori’s hand. They had been doing this long enough that it didn’t feel wrong when it was just the two of them, they’d read Annie on my Mind enough to know that this world was theirs, too.

Not sure if you’re aware yet, but I don’t think I’ll ever write a book without at least three queer people in it (I don’t want to reveal who the third queer character is just yet, he’s still in development (AKA i don’t know his name yet ahaha)).

Did I hear you ask for some flashback? No? Have some anyway.

As they sat there together, Lori couldn’t help but think about their younger childhood, all the things they didn’t understand until they started reading things they weren’t supposed to. Every moment in middle school that made an earthquake of the space between girl and friend.

Lori could remember, better than she could remember yesterday, getting in trouble in 6th grade for braiding Mercy’s hair from the desk behind her. Dark and thick and long, back then, but even before they knew what it meant to love a girl, they were taught it wasn’t allowed. It’s just hair. It’s just a braid in her hair, why does it matter? She had taken her hands away slowly and grabbed her pencil, left it unmoving against the paper. Three quarters of a braid hung unfinished down Mercy’s back, and Lori watched as she sealed the end with the hair tie around her wrist, their math teacher somehow keeping eyes locked on both of them at the same time.

I love my girls. Mercy’s full name is Mercy May Devera, because I thought Mercy May sounded cool.

So yeah. This book has no plot, but that’s cool because I’m just here to have a good time. If you enjoyed this update and want to be added to the tag list, you can send an ask, message, or reply to this post (Tumblr is finally telling me when I get replies!

Insect Poison tag list: @coffeeandcalligraphy​, @alicewestwater​, and @fliiik-art​

[ilovefanfics2019]

Her Own Path

Part 5: A dream and a wish

Warnings: Bad dream, A sort of arguement, lots of fluff, erazermic, cute nicknames, soft Shinsou, soft Aizawa, soft Mic, gay Shinsou, fathers and daughter moments.

Characters: Aizawa, Mic, Shinsou, Eri and mention of Denki.

Description: At dinner Eri has something on her mind and at bedtime she wishes for something and her parents have a talk about it together alone.

Side notes: For Eri Daddy= Aizawa and Papa= Mic. Finally a chapter on the Erazermic family. Sorry having been posting recently I've been dealing with family drama left and right, also have fallen sick over the last couple of weeks but I'm back and hopefully will start to post regularly as I can. Hope you enjoy it 🥰

Third person pov

It was a nice quite evening in the Erasermic family househol-

"Shota I can't wait untill tomorrow" screamed aloud voice though the house startling poor Shota Aizawa who was cooking dinner. Aizawa sighed before turning around to look at his loud blond husband.

"Mic do you have to shout I'm right here" exhausted a tired looking Aizawa.

(And don't forget interrupt me the author/narrator of this story).

"Sorry Shota I didn't mean to shout" replied Mic without shouting.

(Ahem).

(And I'm sorry for inturupting you misses author/narrator).

(Thank you anyway carrying on).

"I know your excited for the festival tomorrow you have told me about a hundred times already" informed Aizawa contining to cook dinner. Mic looked at Aizawa lovingly before going to the cuboard and taking out the plates and helping Aizawa dish up dinner before setting the plates on the table.

"Dinner ready" Mic yelled out before it fell quite. Then the sound of two sets of footsteps heading towards the kitchen could be heard. One rushing and the other walking very slowly. The person of the rushing footsteps appeared in the doorway before stopping and turning around to tell at the other person to hurry up.

"I'm here now okay" a tired male voice belonging to the other set of footsteps replied out before also halting in the doorway as well. Aizawa could help smile at the sight before him whilst Mic bursted out laughing at it.

There before them was their adopted violet hair son Shinsou in a purple princess dress and a face full of make up. Whilst their young 7 year old adopted pale blue-gray hair daughter Eri stood there looking proud of what she had done to her older brother.

"Daddy, Papa do you like what I did to sou-sou?" Announced an enthusiastic Eri.

"I love it" laughted Mic whilst taking a picture so he could remember the scene before him forever.

"Purple suits Shinsou well" answered a smiling Aizawa. Eri's face lit up with a smile at the praise she got from the two adults whilst Shinsou just stood there with red cheeks from embarrassed, or is from the blush? I'll let you decide. After Shinsou came back from cleaning his face and changing out of the dress the family started their dinner.

The family made small talk about their day. Shota and Mic about UA and hero related stuff, Shinsou about how his training was going and Eri about her day with Mirio.

Aizawa's pov

I notice Eri was awfully quiet whilst eating her dinner whilst normally she be talking our ears off about random things. But she is as quiet as she was when she first had dinner with us after we rescue her from Overhaul. She seemed like she had something on her mind, so I gestured with my eyes to Mic and Shinsou to look at Eri and they both caught on to what I was think.

"Hey sis did you have fun playing princess with me?" Shinsou asked Eri with a smile. Eri just look up at Shinsou with a smile nodding her head before her smile fade as she looked back down at her plate poking at the food. Mic then tried talking with Eri.

"Is the food okay hunny-bunch?" Mic questioned Eri whilt motioning to her plate of half eaten food.

"Yeah it fine" Eri muttered not looking up this time but continuing to poke at her food. Me, Mic and Shinso all looked at each other worried.

"Princess are sure your okay, you not sick are you?" I asked worried that she might be really ill and we didn't notice earlier. She set her fork down before looking at us with a distant look.

"It's just I've had a lot on my mind recently" she sighed.

"Like what?" Shinso asked kindly.

"W-w-well I had this werid dr-dr-dream re-recently" she stuttered.

"Like a nightmares" questioned Mic gently.

"I don't know it was a werid sort of dream" she replied.

"What was it about" I asked confused to how a dream could be werid.

"This girl in some sort of pain and it looks like she lives in a dark place but is older than me and I don't know what she looks like as the dream is blurry" answered Eri. Me, Mic and Shisou all look at each other confused to why she may be having that dream as none of the girls in class 1A, who Eri knows live in a dark place and we have had no villain attacks recently so no one should be in pain, so who could it be.

"We don't know anything that may have caused you to have that dream hunny-bunch but let's not think to much about it for now" advise Mic.

"Okay" Eri replied a bit more happily this time.

Third person pov

The family continued to finish their dinner before going off and doing their own nightly routines. Shinsou having a shower before going to his room to play video games for a while, then talking to his pikachu of a boyfriend before bed. Mic also having a shower, then finish marking off some English work before settling down on the couch to watch tv. Aizawa helping Eri in the bath before helping her get ready for bed, then leaving her to settle down on the couch with Mic before having his own shower before joining the two on the couch.

Eri left the two adult to go to her room like she normally did, but didn't pick a book to read this time. Tonight she decided to settled herself in her window seat to look at the dark clear night sky which the bright and silvery stars lit up.

Aizawa and Mic both went up the stairs then started to head towards Eri's room to read to Eri like they normally did before going to bed. But the two were supprise when they got to her room to see a empty bed with no book to read and no excited Eri to read to. Instead they saw the young one horned girl sitting in her window seat looking at the starry night sky. They both came up and sat next to her, all of them were silent for a few minutes before Mic broke it.

"I think it time for bed now hunny-bunch" Mic spoke softly whilst Aizawa just nodded his head gently to signal he agreed with what his husband said.

"Okay" Eri quietly said. Eri was about to turn around so she could get down of the seat, but before she did something shooting across the sky caught her attention as well as the two adults.

"A shooting star" sang Eri excited, the two adult chuckling softly at the excited little girl.

"Do you know what to do when you see one princess?" asked a happy but sleepy Aizawa.

"Yes Mirio taught me about it, when you see a shooting star you meant to wish on it and then the wish may come true one day" answered a happy Eri.

"Are you going to wish for something hunny-bunch?" Mic asked with a smile. Eri nodded her head at him before turning back to face the window, then she took a deep breath before closing her eyes.

"I wish for an older sister but not a old as Shinsou to join our family" wished Eri happily unaware of the shocked glance shared between her two parents, which soon disappeared as Eri opened her eyes to look at the two. Eri turned to climb down before turning to speak to her parents.

"Okay I'm ready for bed now" Eri sighed happily before turning to make her way to bed along with her two parent who keep their shocked feelings to themselves not wanting to upset the small girl. They both kissed her on the head before muttering a quite "goodnight" to her, in which Eri returned the kisses and yawned a "goodnight" back before setting down to go to sleep. Aizawa closed Eri's door quietly before him and Mic made their way down the hall to their room.

Mic entered the room first before Aizawa followed closing the door to the room behind him. They both made their way to their bed before sliding under the sheets, both were quite for a while before Mic spoke out.

"So what are we going to do?" Mic asked Aizawa quietly turning to face him.

"What do you mean?" Aizawa answered confused looking at Mic with confusion.

"You know about our daughter's wish for a older sister" exclaimed Mic.

"What about it, is a just a wish and wish do not always come true" Aizawa announced.

"But we could make it come true" countered Mic with determination in his voice.

"Look I would love to make our daughter's wish come true but it just not possible many adoption shelters these days don't have a lot of older children and plus we are already very busy with raising our two adopted children, also watching over the UA kids who are sort of like our kids as well" argued Aizawa nicely.

Mic sighed a quite "I guess your right". Before Aizawa announced softly with "maybe when we are less busy we can talk about it again and involved Eri and Shinsou in the conversation next time".

Mic replied with a soft "okay".

The Aizawa and Mic exchange their goodnights with a kiss before cuddling up and settling down for the night.

Shinsou who had heard both conversations was now sat on his bed thinking about what had been said. If he was being honest he wouldn't mind having another little sister as that means he didn't have to play princesses with Eri alone anymore and he would have someone else to love and care dearly for. Yeah he wouldn't mind having another sister at all. He sighed before texting his electric blond boyfriend a goodnight as he too settle down for the night.

That night the small family of four (not including the amazing amount of cat that the family have) all fell asleep with the same dream. The dream of having another daughter, another younger sister and a older sister. All wondering if it would ever come true?

But little do they know that it would come true sooner than they think and that the girl from Eri's dream would be the one to make it come true.

[im-not-a-joke]

Niche AU Things part 3

i have no idea what i’m doing at this point, but here you go

[ au co-created by @eraseyourbookofstories with help from @strangerthingsiscool ]

Friendship things!

- max and dustin are soft chaos

- they love each other a lot but go on tangents about the weirdest things

- they get really creative and come up with the weirdest ideas

- they send each other random posts that remind them of each other, it’s wholesome

- max and will also get creative

- but instead of talking about random tangent things, they write an entire musical

- they write together a lot

- they rant to each other about characters they come up with for hours

- steve and will are an iconic duo

- steve gives him all the free things from the bakery he works at

- jonathan is totally not salty about this at all

- “babe i want baguettes too” “i have to bribe him to give me his blessing” “no, you really don’t” “i know, we’re tight”

- they go bowling all the time

- “i have to bond with my brother-in-law”- will

- “why didn’t you invite me to the wedding :(” - el

- ive just now decided that jonathan and mike are also an iconic duo

- jonathan is grumpy because his boyf is ignoring him for his little brother and mike is emo because of course he is

- they wallow in self pity together

- sarcasm boys

- “why is he ignoring me” - they both say at the same time and lock eyes from across the room

- jonathan tries to use his time with mike to his advantage

- “sorry babe, i’m hanging out with mike, wait mike, no you can’t go hang out with- no- whatever”

- mike enjoys hanging out with jonathan but will leave as soon as will becomes available to bother

- jonathan and robin are also buds

- robin likes to write nancy a lot of notes and jonathan is volunteered to sneak them into her car

- nancy know but just doesn’t question it

- one time, jonathan tried to get steve to do it but it did not end well

- “steve, it’s 6 in the fucking morning, why are you trying to steal my car” “good morning to you too, nancy”

- jonathan and robin totally go on long car rides together

- jonathan brings out the calm in robin, so they just kinda chill in quiet the whole time

- that or robin will rant and jonathan will half-listen

- he knows she doesnt want advice, just to get things off her chest

I could go on about friendships but

- other things

- mike rants about this one show he’s in a lot

- so the party all plans to come surprise him and see it

- they show up on opening night and when mike sees them after the show, he gets so excited he just straight up kisses will

- max and dustin lose their shit at this

- lucas and el are a mix of relieved and tired

- so thats how they get together

- at some point, mike the grayaromantic grayasexual tells will that “youre the only person i’ve felt so intensely about” and will is shocked

- so now theyre gay on main all the time

- mike is a theater gay (tm) so he’s good at singing

- he will sing to will sometimes and will is in love

- the wheelers move up to maryland where the byers live because ted has work and nancy and mike are excited!

- hop also saves max from neil by just being like “move in with us kid”

- so now there are 4 in maryland and 2 in virginia

- but that wasnt the point

- mike serenades will at 3 am

- jonathan and el find it hilarious

- will is not having it

- will mike and max all love cotn, a broadway musical

- mike sings songs from it all the time

- mike and max sing together and ft el and will because they literally can’t be away from each other for 2 seconds

- will is in love with their singing, el is confused

- el doesn’t know musicals

- so will makes them watch cotn with him

- it makes them even gayer for max

- lucas teases mike constantly for singing cotn songs

- but dustin drops by unannounced one day and hears him singing infinite in the shower

- he records it and sends it to the discord

- he never lives it down

- dustin is also a talented boy

- but none of them know it

- one day lucas hears him singing infinite under his breath

- lucas forgets how to exist he is so gay

- “my favorite boy,,, can sing,,,, and is singing,,, my favorite song,,,, god is real”

- so max, mike, dustin, and will can sing well

- lucas is ok

- el can not sing

- they stick to clarinet