#and dig a little deeper into the bits and pieces of lore

[kcrabb88]

I got some excitement when I posted that little Blood Makes Noise snippet, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about it! Don't always do that before I post a fic but I'm really really excited about this so here's some of the fic lore to tide over until I get deeper into writing it since it'll take a bit with my other projects :D

It's set from 1988-95/96 in New York City during the height of the AIDS crisis

Qui-Gon, an ACLU attorney and anti-war protestor, adopted Obi-Wan when he was four after his single mom, a client of Qui-Gon’s, was killed by the police

Qui-Gon is Dooku's son, and they're Jewish. Dooku is a former US Rep and is cantor at the synagogue they all attend and things are ... complicated

Tholme, a PI, adopted Quinlan at age 8 (and later on Aayla). Quin's birth parents immigrated from Haiti and died when he was five

Qui-Gon and Tholme, who are close friends, move in across the hall from each other and Quin and Obi-Wan become the best of friends from age 8 on

Quin's a violin prodigy and composer who later starts a punk/rock band and teaches music in an NYC public school

Obi-Wan is a political science professor who also writes political and investigative pieces for The Village Voice and tutors low-income kids at his local JCC (Bail is his editor)

Both of them are in ACT UP and also did crisis line work for the Gay Men's Health Crisis group that was the pre-cursor to ACT UP

They've been stupid in love forever and keep sleeping together but don't become a couple until right after Obi-Wan's HIV diagnosis (for various reasons that will be explained in the fic)

Eventually Anakin and Shmi move into the same building as Obi-Wan and Quinlan and become super close

Obi-Wan writes hit pieces on Palpatine, a former US. Rep who now works for the pharma company that's responsible for jacking up AZT prices (and Palpatine just so happens to be Anakin's estranged grandfather)

Little Padme will also be in this! Her dad is a city councilor

Obi-Wan IS one of the lucky earlier on HIV/AIDS survivors (it's just a very hard road)

I won't spoil it all but! Some lore. Really excited to dig into this!

[faresong]

I haven't played YTTS yet, is it okay to ask what those lines from YTTS are and the implications?

(in regard to this piece)

of course! however, I will preface this with the fact that 1) nankidai is homophobic, or is at least playing into a homophobic stereotype with little other gay representation to off-set it; and 2) I tend to overthink things. while this may not have been something he intended to be taken seriously, considering this is one of the only pieces we have on kugie's lore/character (& you only discover it when playing as mishima) I am inclined to incorporate it as a part of their histories when I am digging into their characters!

additionally, I understand why most people are reluctant to include this in their own interpretations and instead discard this information. it is a very serious topic that should be handled carefully, and I honestly wouldn't want people to handle it at all if they find it uncomfortable or intend to make light of it as nankidai has.

cw: discussion of pedophilia/grooming, and the abuse that comes with that.

Mishima's events with Kanna are primarily focused on what it means to become an adult, wherein you can finally make your own choices. Part of this, as the professor cites, is independence — but not just anything... it is to handle your independence with maturity, which can only be gained through experience (inevitably, meaning there must be "wrong paths" made along the way).

MISHIMA: Of course, that includes mental independence. The ability to decide the right course for oneself... That's what makes one an adult. KANNA: Umm... That's hard... MISHIMA: Experience is necessary. For common sense depends on the time and place. KANNA: Then... Kanna can't become an adult yet... MISHIMA: Don't think of that as such a bad thing.

Kanna's primary motivator to mature quickly is to help the adults around her, instead of having to be cared for, and particularly to not be overshadowed by Kugie's new partner. When she asks for advice, this is what Mishima provides her:

KANNA: Kanna wants to keep walking home with her sister! She doesn't want to spend every day just watching a stranger walk home with her! Kanna's such a kid... She can't wish for her own sister's happiness... MISHIMA: I understand how you'd feel lonely. That goes to show how much you love your sister... KANNA: But... I know it would probably be better if I told her it's fine... MISHIMA: Perhaps so. As long as you don't feel that she's getting involved with a bad person, then... Yes, I'd think you should respect your sister's decision. KANNA: Yes... Yeah, you're right. As far as I could see... She was a kind, mature woman. Yeah, I should respect my sister's decision... I've made up my mind! Thank you so much, Professor Mishima! MISHIMA: ...I-I suppose that went well. I'm sure gender is no great issue these days... Still... it may have been wise to question her a bit more before giving advice.

Calling Kugie's partner "mature" in English is a... generous translation. As other people have pointed out, it was meant to be a two-hit joke—whiplash of Kugie not only pursuing a woman, but an adult woman.

While you see that Mishima is attempting to assure himself there's nothing more to be done, he hesitates in doing so & gets after himself for not digging deeper before letting Kanna resolve herself on this answer. Now this is enough on its own, but I'd like to draw attention to a few of his later lines specifically meant to discourage baseless trust in adults.

MISHIMA: Children can bring about something adults can't. KANNA: Huh?! What's that...?! MISHIMA: Harmony. In a world of only adults... People are prone to thinking of their own gain. But when there are children, even the adults will work harder than usual to be virtuous.

(Selfishness.)

KANNA: Then... Kanna can't become an adult yet... MISHIMA: Don't think of that as such a bad thing.

(& reiterating this line ^)

KANNA: Eheheh... But... even still, Kanna wants to grow up at least a little bit sooner. MISHIMA: Hrm... How troubling. KANNA: She at least wants to know more about adults! Things like… adult love…!

(& Mishima sees here that Kanna may pursue the same path she saw her sister take (along with being a bit of a romantic herself, much more openly loving than her sister is shown to be), which is clearly unsettling for him as he goes on to deflect her questioning. Unfortunately, this is given no real resolution because Nankidai favors humor in his work (not terrible in itself, but for serious subjects...). But, textually, there's something to be said about Kugie herself not taking it seriously, such that Kanna doesn't fully understand why Mishima's trying to dissuade her from taking this to heart. It'd be a jarring event to have, sure, but in my opinion it'd be very necessary to follow this through with proper acknowledgement.)

In any case, with Kanna, you see the implications of Mishima's own path toward adulthood throughout.

We're already aware that Mishima had gone through a rough period of his life after having initially failed college exams, during which he was a delinquent (as he admits to Gin) and was generally a harsh person (in the same scene with Nao). His perception of "mature independence" including knowledge of the right course to take is something that many younger people will simply not know. On the path to adulthood, they will make mistakes in "a world of only adults" that they aren't yet well-versed in.

Alongside [(petty) crime that Kazumi was briefly involved in], this of course applies for Kugie's situation. Even if she's aware she's being used, she likely won't pay it much mind as long as it gives her a platform where she feels validated for it. The mature woman in question would only have selfish intentions to initiate something with Kugie, but as long as it feels as if Kugie's actually being considered, and it's not impairing Kanna (who relies on her), she will allow it. We've seen her previous conflicts with her parents when they'd brought in Kanna, and there's presumably something deeper there about them not trusting her judgement; however, she trusts Kanna now that they understand each other (& Kugie saw she was treating Kanna with the same flippancy her parents did, which she realizes and regrets), hence why she seeks Kanna's validation instead of her parents before committing to this relationship fully.

Considering the majority of advice Mishima gives tends to be from his own experience... I am inclined to seeing this strike closer than Mishima lets on, especially with how he describes himself as 'conceited' in hindsight, as though he was too vain to see he had judged [someone who supported him] wrongly. It could just be a lesson learned in regard to his "hoodlum days," but regardless... it's just an interesting tidbit to me. They've both had an elevated sense of self, and I just wonder if it's through having someone of higher power give them a taste of what they could have if they play along with their terrible game; feigning adulthood before they were ready under flattery of their maturity, when it was in fact their inexperience that led them blindly down this path.

[rebel-warcraft]

take this with a heaping grain of salt.

I felt this when watching the alleria animation, and saw someone else felt that way too and it prompted me to dig a little deeper.

Did they use generative AI for this animation?

TLDR: Some background shots look have weird choices. Nothing concrete.

I went frame by frame to see if there were any design choices that seemed a bit weird. As far as I could tell, all the animated characters - including the background mooks - were hand-drawn, or else traced over a model.

The short in general makes clever use of 3D models for cityscapes and swarms of demons, letting them consistently show them from multiple angles.

I suspect they used 3D models for much of their background sets where characters are the main focus and ran these models through some kind of filter that applies a comic-book-like stark lighting. This may also explain why many shots feel "processed" in a way that tingles our suspicion.

This early shot of Silvermoon shows a bit of what I mean with the filter but also something wonky going on with the lighting of the hills. I thought those light patches could be snow, but nothing else about the shot or story suggests winter time. They also don't appear in a later shot when the horde is approaching:

Could just be the time of day. Sure.

This axe tho.

Just weird, kinda off symmetry with the scratches and borders of the blade... Such a weapon or anything like it isn't seen anywhere else in the short. Could be a reach.

The parapets are inconsistent in one shot and fine in a closer shot, and they also look different..

The Blasted Lands scenery has weird stones, not consistent with what it's trying to tell us about it. If I didn't know the lore, I wouldn't know this was Nethergarde.

piece de resistance...

wtf is going on with this arch. This did it for me, of everything else.

I dunno what it means. Dunno if I'm right, maybe not! But... MMM I don't like it.

[walnutcookie]

please write a ramble abt how fucked up roguefort is /nf

Ong . On it boss. Salutes

i love playing around with the concept that they have two faces: phantom bleu and their secret identity (who i just call roquefort). we know that phantom bleu is all an act because 1) i mean it makes sense nobody can just Live like that 24/7 but MRE IMPROTTNTLU 2) we see little bits and pieces of them through their little Urk! s and the time where waljut is like HEY REVEAL YOUR TRUE IDENTITY like Girl. tthe little hints to their lore and. Oua

none of this is confirmed its more just my fanon interpretation of them but Girl they are so fucked up . I have a whole timeline built for them of like how phantom bleu came to be and stuff but i dont wanna talk about it here because i wanna turn it into a comic/animation and let people theorize before i talk abt it HZBZKSB BUT LIKE. Girl. Theyve always had shit self confidence (probably their shitty parents are to blame for that) but after phantom bleu came along it got so much worse. probably the only reason why theyre Actually in a decent state of physical health is because they need to be able to do their heists . cause otherwise theyd probably neglect themself (either because they dont want to care for themself or they forget to do things). theyve put phantom bleu on such a pedestal, the only way that people will actually love them, that they think their own life is Meaningless

like. god. This fake character theyve created, this one big play theyve put on, people actually love them for it. and girl theyre dying to have that attention. as time passes they love roguefort cookie more and more, at the same time despising themself. what good are they? theyre useless. they take up space in their cousin cheesecakes mansion. they dont even pay rent (well not through actual money) they just take up space. they dont have an actual job. they dont have friends, cheesecake is their only real family (their other family being a grumpy cat and a sentient cape L)

they hate themself soo much its insane . they avoid getting too close to people for the pure reason that if someone finds out what theyre really like then everything is over. the mystery is all gone, theyre revealed to be a lazy good for nothing waste of space whos only good at playing pretend and watching lala land. thats what scares them the most, out of everything else. thats what keeps them up at night. so they close themself off ! avoid giving out personal information, hide every emotion with a mischievous smirk.

during phantom raven theyre at their highest (and at the same time close to their lowest.) they love roguefort cookie because everyone else loves them, and hating roquefort because nobody loves them. and then eventually realize . this is not love! nobody really loves them. theyre getting attention for the character they play, and that will never change. theyll forever be a nobody, recognized only for their talent, never for who they are.

then after their watch is auctioned off, they snap. they cant crawl out of this hole theyve dug, but maybe if they dig deeper theyll reach the other side? their only goal is to turn back time, back to before their family died, so maybe they can please them this time and theyll have someone to love them (Their parents are assholes btw theyll nevr be satisfied with roque)

roquefort is a puppet. theyve created a monster thats come to life, and its taken over their body. they could stop at any time, of course, but that means theyd be losing their only source of attention. so they keep doing it, even if it feels more like a chore at this point because They just dont know what else to do theyve lost control and phantom bleu is too big of a name to stop now

but i give them a happy ending in my fanon becquse i would Cry every time i think about them otherwise HZVZKHWF

[radioves]

revisions on my warden post because someone pointed out the fact that the bossfight thing is kinda redundant because the warden was Specifically designed to not be killed i just kinda forgot because i think i wrote that when my brain didnt realize it existed

i still thing the boss arena thing would be cool, or at least shrink the deep dark down into its own biome or atleast a procedurally generated structure like an oversized village so players actually have to look for it instead of accidentally mining too far down and stumbling across it involuntarily

give the deep dark some layers. make the top layer of the structure look ‘safe’ and unassuming, maybe with a little bit of skulk so you know where you are. the main structure with the frame already has a motion-activated door, keep that so the players can find it and prompt them to explore it. or they can do the jungle temple route and just dig a hole through but thats fine because thats not where it all begins. metaphorically

and then, as they get lower down, make the skulk slowly engulf the structure. make it obvious that your Not where your supposed to be. have chests and lore scattered around that make players want to go in further. the structures already have what look like redstone tests, thats cool. maybe add some other pieces of lore to describe what it was like before the skulk. or, if thats not the case, what it was like living a life without sound

make the loot get progressively better as you go further down; gapples, end city [or better] gear, echo shards, skulk catalyst, scatter the shards of the disc around so players are forced to look for them

now, why is all of this underground? its because when the warden spawns, there will be nowhere to go. and when theres no where to go, theres no where to flee too and take potshots at it from. or divebomb the chests before flying away. or, idk, take a fishing rod and treat it like this is a family outing at the lake or something im just hypothesizing yknow

there will be nowhere to go, so your forced to fight it. or try to run through the twisting corridors. either way your most likely going to die, unless you just really want to kill it for no specific reason. maybe give the darkness effect some form of mining fatigue so you cant just mine under it to trap it. or just make the floor out of something hard to break, that works too

now im going to reference another game because we all love essay / rant posts who reference other pieces of media, but im thinking the warden can be a mob with a purpose similar to the reaper leviathan from subnautica. minor spoilers but im pretty much just describing the progression of pretty much every survival game

the reaper is literally designed to be unkillable. its a massive deathsnake with godawful amounts of health and a bite with massive damage that can destroy seamoths in two bites and players in one. you arent supposed to kill it- in fact, ive seen some players who are actually against it because the reaper doesnt drop anything on death. no exp, no item. nothing. its literally just a flex but all the while completely unnecessary. ntm reapers dont respawn so you kinda just ruined an entire part of the map But thats not my point

the reaper isnt there for no reason, either. the majority of the time, its there to protect the fragments for the cyclops, aka a key component to finish the game, as it has depth modules that let you go deeper into the caves than the seamoth, which is required since the later game materials are further down

my point is with this is the warden doesnt have to be killed to progress. it can be- as its name states- a warden. something put there to protect something else. something it doesnt want you near. something your going to have to put effort into getting to, more effort than just smacking it a bunch of times and going ‘i did it, im the best’

the warden can be very dangerous, and very useful, if it was just put it the right place. the deep dark doesnt even need to be shrunken into a structure or biome, just add chests to the underbelly of the city, and make the loot tables for the upper and lower chests different, with the lower chests holding the more valuable items

and hell, maybe if you get far enough down avoiding the wardens and their sonic shrieks, maybe there can be something down there that makes this all worthwhile. as where one journey ends… another begins…. [COUGH COUGH] li gh ter [COUGH]

tl;dr nah man scrap reworking the warden just rework the deep dark itself. force players to actually explore the entirety of it to find its loot and in return force them to deal the warden trying to kill them and make it so they cant kill it anymore by cheesing it via subjecting them to the Catacombs™️

also to the person who pointed out that they removed fireflies because they were poisonous to frogs. ik. just dont let the frogs eat them its So Simple ITS SO SIMPLE JUST HAVE THEM BE AMBIENCE MOBS AMBIENT PARTICLES EVEN GOD DAMNIT GOD DAMNIT GO- [i am dragged away kicking and screaming before being thrown into the back of an animal control van and am sent off to the pound]

[nukacola-cowboy]

I’m going through Father’s storyline again for lore on a project in doing and. it’s so sad, now that I dig deeper into it

It’s really easy to read Father as a cold and emotionless person and I get why people do, but deep down I really believe he’s longing for something, and the game seems to point to that to. Despite his brain washing, he seems to realize somethings missing.

It doesn’t help the institute to unfreeze you, but he does it. He admits he just wanted to see what would happen but honestly I feel like he wanted more than anything for you to find him. To show you would have moved heaven and earth to get to him, like any good father.

There’s a different between being raised by people and having a family, and Shaun clearly didn’t have that. He admits to never having felt love, so he almost views Sole’s affection for him as a scientific marvel. Despite everything, you still love him. And he barely comprehends why.

And it kills me!! Because I wish we explored that more!! He’s a terrible person of course, but I want to know more about him !! Who raised him, who told him about his real parents. What happened to the boy we left behind in time. That is my son and I wanted to know everything and what lead to this longing inside of him, because clearly he is unfulfilled despite claiming the Institute gave him everything he needed.

It’s clear by him giving us Synth Shaun and asking us to take care of him and give him a life in the commonwealth even if we destroy the institute, that we changed Shaun just a little bit. Even if he doesn’t want to admit it. You can argue that maybe it was just a selfish final wish of his and I can agree to an extreme but I truly believe it was Shaun’s final shot at having a life with you, and he believed enough in that Synth child’s humanity to do it

I just wish we had more personal time with Shaun. More story with him to find out who he was. We kill him in 3 of the stories, and lose him in all 4, and I guess I just want to know at his core who he was. What his dreams were. What he thought we would be like. There’s just so much to Shaun that we didn’t see and it sucks because he is such a heartbreaking villain and it’s only given to us in small incomplete pieces

[fandom-hoarder]

Baby Brother

[companion piece to Feeling Small; Dean’s POV, fluff + slight angst; don’t come at me for the gimme title]

At first, Dean has no idea why he’s suddenly conscious and not reaching for his gun. His fingers just graze the butt of it, but he doesn’t have the urge to close the distance. After a split-second of concentration, though, the reason is obvious: Sam. Namely, the soft but ragged breaths Dean hears coming from the bed behind him, growing more labored by the second; a sound Dean is, unfortunately, used to identifying. Though, it’s been awhile. Almost a year, he thinks. Longer than the last time Sam woke up with growing pains, and Dean can tell Sam’s current anxious breathing apart from the pained groans that have been more frequent lately. Dean had started to settle into the idea that Sam was finally growing out of his nightmares.

Too much to hope for, apparently.

There’s a fleeting thought, a vague hint of annoyance, at the fact that this is Sam’s first nightmare since separate beds became their default rather than a rarity and a luxury. Calming Sam down is so much easier when they’re sharing space. But it had been Sam’s decision in the first place; yet another push for independence and his own (literal) space; and Dean hadn’t argued, despite the urge that nagged at him sometimes. When your sixteen-year-old little brother insists he needs his own personal space, it looks weak and clingy to try to argue about it. So, naturally, Dean had pulled away like the ultimate specimen of machismo that he was, making sure Sam knew that Dean had only been putting up with the arrangement for Sam’s sake in the first place, and to make things easier on Dad. Making sure to gripe about it at least as much as Sam any time they had no other option but to share since then. 

Even so, Sam was usually much more pliable in the middle of the night; accepting more help with things when he was sleepy; when their world was blurry around the edges, dwindled down to the bubble that encompassed the two of them in that space between wakefulness and sleep.

He calls out to Sam sleepily, refusing to open his eyes and hoping to quickly nip this in the bud so he can go back to sleep. So they both can. It comes out more grumpy than inviting, and he inwardly winces, but he doesn’t worry long. 

He hears Sam gasp sharply and then there’s a flurry of movement as his little brother flings his covers away and clambers over. Dean braces for the chill of air on his warm skin as Sam squirms in behind him, but his little brother comes with his own furnace-like aura, especially when he’s worked up from some kind of night terror. He feels the heat of the air between them close in as Sam settles, and Dean holds still, taking his cues from Sam for how much contact he wants. 

Sam’s bony elbows press against Dean’s lower back, and he feels the barest hint of contact between the backs of his thighs and Sam’s legs. Sam’s slightly clammy forehead coming to rest between his shoulder blades, however, is enough to raise faint goosebumps along Dean’s skin. He wonders how Sam can possibly be comfortable, with the way he must be contorted. Sam’s body is way too long now for this position to feel natural.

Sometimes it kinda pisses him off that Sam is going to be taller than him any day now. It also makes him proud, though. Somehow, despite all the odds against him, he managed to raise this kid up big and healthy. But right now, it just makes him kind of heartsick for the days when his little brother was, well, actually little. He guesses he should just be grateful that Sam isn’t actually treating him like the little spoon here, but it still rankles. Dean’s still bigger than him, dammit; at least for now.

Dean keeps his eyes closed and tries to hold still; relax; resist the urge to take control and switch their positions, and just breathe. Be the type of solid comfort Sam needs right now—no matter how dissatisfying it feels for Dean, or how much he knows Sam will end up with a crick in his neck and back if he stays like this—and let both of them fall back to sleep. For a minute or two, it seems to work, but soon he feels Sam’s breathing getting worked up again; shuddering the way it does when tears are in the not too distant future. 

Dean reaches back awkwardly to run his hand through Sam’s hair, hoping the contact will ground him. Somehow, though, it only seems to make things worse as Sam lets out a sort of wounded sob.

‘Yeah, okay, that’s it,’ Dean thinks with a sigh, finally opening his eyes as he accepts his fate. He twists himself around under the covers and wraps his arms around Sam, ankle looping around Sam’s and trapping that leg between his thighs. Dean’s left hand finds Sam’s right and wraps around his bony wrist, pulling it to his chest as he re-settles Sam against him more comfortably. And there’s something intensely satisfying about how he executed this maneuver; how easily he’s still able to manhandle his little brother, despite Sam’s recent increase in size. Dean’s momentary smirk presses his cheek against Sam’s head as he reaches up to card through Sam’s hair again.

It’s full; soft and fluffy on top, but still damp on the bottom layers from the shower Sam took after Dean last night. His hair is so long and thick, past his chin in the front and curling out around the nape of his neck; it always takes hours to dry naturally, and Sam refuses to use a hair dryer. Dad’s probably going to make Sam cut it any day now for practical reasons. Dean rags on Sam all the time about his girly hair, but secretly he loves it. The kid’s always had a lot of hair, but it’s gotten thicker in the last couple of years. And Dean grew up petting his brother’s hair—it’s the only thing that could get little Sammy back to sleep most of the time, or calm him down if he was fussy; although sometimes it’d only worked if it was accompanied by Dean’s careful croon of ‘Hey Jude’—and at this point he can admit, at least to himself, that it soothes him also.

And Dean definitely needs that calming action now as he prepares himself for what he needs to do. He takes a deep breath as he comes to terms with it, and the familiar, sweet scent of Sam’s special shampoo keeps his heart calm under Sam’s hand. Good.

“Nightmare?” he whispers.

Sam nods against Dean’s shoulder and cheek, and Dean’s fingers still until the movement is over so they don’t snarl in his hair.

“Wanna talk about it?” he barely wants to give the question breath, but he knows he has to. His heartbeat stays steady as he waits for the reply, but his dread of the answer seems to make the question echo around him.

When Sam shakes his head ‘no,’ Dean doesn’t hold back from tugging at his hair a bit in retaliation. Dean hadn’t even wanted to ask in the first place, but Sam is for damn sure gonna answer him now that he’s ignored his first impulse and asked anyway.

“Can’t remember it,” Sam mumbles, and the graze of his lips over Dean’s clavicle threatens goosebumps across Dean’s chest.

Dean frowns at the reply. On the one hand, he knows Sam’s telling the truth, but that Sam could probably remember it if he tried; he’s done it before, more than once. On the other hand, Dean has never liked the outcomes of those times--the subject matter or how remembering affected Sam. After the last one, Sam didn’t--maybe couldn’t--sleep again until… well, Dean’s not even going to let his thoughts go there right now. It was all just coincidence, anyway. Sam’s subconscious taking his worries and lore knowledge and coming up with unfortunately realistic scenarios in his dreams. Side effect of being the brainy, research geek, Dean had told him, and Sam clearly hadn’t believed him but only gave a patented bitchface in reply.  

Point being: every time it happens, Dean gets closer and closer to having zero excuses left for why he hasn’t told their father yet. But, hey, if Sam can’t remember then… who’s to say what he dreamed about? Probably just a normal, stupid, run of the mill nightmare about clowns or something… He digs his fingers a little deeper into Sam’s hair, massaging into his scalp a bit to ease any tension left there from his dreams, the way he has since Sam was little. 

When Sam was about four or five, he’d woken from a nightmare inspired by a monster movie Dean had been watching on late night TV. They’d been sharing a pull-out couch in the living room of a tiny, one-bedroom apartment Dad had rented, and Dean had gotten in the habit of falling asleep to the TV in the living room when Dad was gone; he didn’t want to say it made him feel safer, but that was the truth. When Sam had woken up with a cry, covered with sweat and face sticky with tears, the TV screen had long since stopped showing the blocky colors that signaled the end of the broadcast day and was now just the staticky non-picture that Dean called ‘snow.’

Dean had woken immediately at Sam’s cries, and pulled him over into his arms, doing his best to shield his little brother’s eyes from the light of the TV screen as he shushed him and dried his tears, asking if he had a bad dream. When Dean realized it was the monster movie that caused Sam’s nightmare, he’d felt bad, and promised not to watch scary stuff before bed anymore. Then he’d tucked Sammy against him and started combing his fingers through his sweat-damp, baby-soft hair, rubbing the pads of his fingers against Sam’s head as Dean whispered to him that he had a magic trick that would let him pull the bad thoughts out of Sam’s head. For a while, Sam wholly believed it was magic, and it worked so well that Dean almost did, too. 

The dread in Dean’s gut eases slightly with the memory, but not completely. He’s too aware of the thoughts he’s avoiding.

Just when he starts to think Sam’s drifted off, the pattern of air moving across Dean’s collarbone stutters as Sam breathes, “I miss this.”

“Miss what?” Dean asks, feeling an inexplicable eagerness as he anticipates Sam’s reply.

“Feeling small.”

Immediately, Dean’s thoughts cycle back to where they’d been earlier: Sam’s impending status as tallest Winchester boy, and Dean’s continued status as big brother no matter what. This time, the ache in his heart is more for Sam than himself. There’s a happiness, too, though; he’s glad for the darkness and the creeping slumber that loosened Sam’s tongue enough to say it. 

After he’s squeezed Sam close—feeling the incredible thinness of him, the ridges of bone under newly-stretched skin a little uncomfortable at spots but all the more a comfort because of how it adds to Sam’s overall delicate feel right now—Dean splays his hand over Sam’s back, testing how much area the spread from his thumb to pinky still covers. It feels like a lot, and Dean finds himself thinking proudly that he’s still able to be Sam’s protector.

Dean rubs his thumb soothingly over the edge of skin it can just reach, and presses his cheek against Sam’s head to promise, “You’ll always be my baby brother.”

When Sam’s fingers clumsily grab Dean’s amulet, the goosebumps that have been threatening this whole time finally make their appearance. The pull of Sam’s hand on the cord is a nostalgic weight that gives his heart a little lurch. Dean feels Sam’s breathing finally even out, and allows a long, slow exhale of relief.

But Dean knows he’s not going back to sleep himself any time soon. He’s going to stay awake and hold his baby brother tight; keep the nightmares away—real and imagined; soak in the memory of Sammy still small in his arms and needing comfort neither of them will admit to in the light of day.

And he knows this will be one of the few times he doesn’t tease Sam about it in the morning, whether or not Dad comes home safe.

[astrologista]

Gavin Bros. Analysis

here be spoilers for apollo justice (aa4)

There are already a bunch of posts all about AA:AJ and just what the heck was behind Kristoph Gavin’s Psychelocks. What were his motivations? Why did he do what he did? As fragmented as the story is surrounding the Gavin brothers, and as much as I wish the source material had rounded out their characters a little more, I believe the game actually tells you pretty much everything there is to know about this case rather succinctly. Don’t worry as I will use evidence to back up my claims...

It is notably interesting that Kristoph’s Psychelocks only come up when Phoenix asks him point blank why he killed Zak Gramarye. This is the one question that Kristoph consistently refuses to answer directly, both in Solitary Cell 13 and in his testimony at his trial. Coincidentally, this is also the main question that he ever gets asked that speaks to his emotions or state of mind. Kristoph has a really good logical answer for basically all of the evidence-based questions. But, it’s also not a coincidence that Apollo has the presence of mind to note - “why not bring up the motive from the start? unless it was a battle he thought he might lose...”

This establishes pretty clearly that Kristoph is going to have a vested interest in keeping all questioning solidly focused on the material evidence at hand such as the postage stamp, the nail polish, and reasons why he cannot be directly connected to those objects. The law provides plenty of escape hatches and loopholes for Kristoph to exploit, which he does, providing him with the legal basis to be able to escape punishment due to the inability for anyone to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This is not surprising as being a very successful defense attorney is literally his job and he happens to be extremely competent at it.

This kind of person is scary if you meet them in real life because they can always seem to wriggle out of anything you try to pin on them. Kristoph is a grand master at doing this, quite possibly as good as they come in the AA universe.

Here’s the rub. Apollo brings up that Kristoph wants to avoid bringing the conversation into motives and state of mind questions, why? Because “it’s a battle he thinks he might lose”. Every single time this topic comes up, Kristoph deflects the question. This also is indicated by the five black Psychelocks that come up when Phoenix asks him point blank why he killed Zak. So from this we can gather that the game is drilling it in pretty well that Kristoph’s motivations are a sore spot for him and possibly the one chink in his armor.

Because the material evidence cannot prove anything for or against Kristoph’s guilt, in a typical case like this the police would hope for the holy grail - a full confession and admission of guilt. Kristoph is much too cool of a customer to fall into any traps, no doubt he was questioned very rigorously after being arrested, but all he even had to do was invoke his right to remain silent regarding his motives or simply claim that he killed Zak just ‘cause y’know, being evil is fun. Once he confessed to killing Zak, though, the police probably didn’t care all that much to probe into his thoughts and motivations really, if he did it, he did it and he’s going to spend a stint in jail either way.

Phoenix sees through this, however. In Solitary Cell 13 he does NOT allow Kristoph to drop or evade the question. That is why we get as far as even seeing the black Psychelocks at all. If we can’t know the motive, why bother to have this scene in the game?

Quite simply we can now understand that Kristoph’s motive for killing is something emotional. It is not something that he’s going to divulge casually, but it is also probably something that he is worried about divulging UNCONSCIOUSLY which is why he constantly tries to steer conversations away from it, instead deflecting to discuss the evidence or the emotional state of other people in the room. Consider that Kristoph’s reputation is PREDICATED on him being “the Coolest Defense in the West”. His identity is based on his successful suppression of emotions in court. This is not to say he shows no emotion or is some kind of monotone emotionless husk. He has a rather dry sense of humor. He banters with Apollo. He banters with Phoenix. He isn’t as uptight as some portrayals would have you believe (”life is to be taken easy”). When it comes to surface topics, Kristoph is an open book. He’s not as terse as you would believe, but rather kind of poetic and loquacious and conversational (to his downfall in 4-1). You get the feeling that he would be a very good conversationalist. But only for surface topics. Try to dig a little deeper and he will very neatly deflect your efforts. 

How can we hope to understand a character who by definition does not have any interest in talking about his innermost neuroses? The reason why people still discuss the Gavin brothers and Turnabout Succession so much is that, while a very satisfying and intense case, it is unlike a lot of other AA cases in that you come away from it with a LOT of open ended questions. You don’t feel the same feeling of closure as you would get from the DL-6 case, where it feels like you finally understand all the facts of the case and all of the character motivations come to light making you go “oh! THAT MAKES SENSE!” you understand why von karma killed gregory, and everything comes together nicely in the end. Turnabout Succession is kind of a rarity in that it does not do that. By the end, you feel like you clearly understand the case, but you do not have a crystal clear view of the root cause of the motivations behind it.

In Kristoph’s final testimony he does shed a little bit of light on his motivations for his crimes. The issue that he has is mainly centered around his dismissal by Zak Gramarye as his representation. And, his subsequent replacement with Phoenix Wright, an attorney he perceives to be low-class and sub-par. Kristoph then states “these men shamed me, and I could not forgive that.” This is as close to an answer as to why he went to such lengths to get Phoenix disbarred as we are likely to get. Disproportionate retribution is the name of the game. It seems as if, if there’s one thing Kristoph cannot tolerate, it’s being looked down upon by someone that he perceives as inferior to him. Kristoph has extremely polarized notions of who should get to practice law, who is acceptable and who is categorized under “ignorant swine soiling the courts”. He makes very, very clear that he has nothing but disdain for common people, common wisdom, and any use of emotion or feelings in deciding verdicts.

So the particular manner in which Phoenix sought to bring him down with the jury system was a very deliberate masterstroke to Kristoph’s pride. That much we can establish. But again, motive. The game goes out of its way to tell you that whomever defended Zak would be “famous beyond belief” and, presumably also, rich. They would get a lot of very high-profile clients and cases sent their way after successfully defending the uber-famous magician Zak Gramarye. 

Taking all of this into account, right. Is it possible that everything Kristoph did has its roots in one very simple source, the root of all evil?

Money.

Taking a step back for a moment, consider Klavier. Why does Klavier perform in a rock band? “Because I want Frauleins to look at me when I walk down the street.” I feel like people really want to believe that both Kristoph and Klavier are super deep characters and have all this deep lore and hidden backstory. Maybe they do. Most AA characters do. But consider this. What if they’re both so deep, they’re actually just shallow? Yes, that shallow?

Given how much AA:AJ focuses on the Gavins, which is really not that much, this concept seems difficult to swallow. Is there really more to the story based on what the game gives us? If there is, how would we piece it together?

One major hint the game gives you about Kristoph (and, if this is insignificant, then you have to really wonder why they bother to bring it up at all) takes place directly after seeing Kristoph’s black Psychelocks in Solitary Cell 13. He starts doing his nails. Phoenix says “I know appearances are a big thing with you”. Kristoph says “You know what I say? One cannot live a beautiful life without beautiful nails.”

I feel that this statement is important because it is probably about as deep of a look as we are ever going to get at how shallow Kristoph Gavin really is. He hopes you will believe that he’s playing 12-dimensional chess with some kind of fucked up backstory and motive going, but the truth is, he’s no chessmaster. Based on what the game gives you, there’s really only one motivation for everything that makes sense.

Kristoph killed Zak, Drew and attempted to kill Vera to cover his tracks. He had to do everything he could to make sure no one talked about the forgery. He had to stalk people like Spark and keep Phoenix very close (the epitome of keep your friends close keep your enemies closer). There’s nothing really debatable about those facts because they are all discussed in the game.

What about the root cause? Revenge, of course, for Phoenix stealing away the chance for Kristoph to defend Zak.

Why was defending Zak so important to Kristoph? To become rich and famous.

So wait. Why does Kristoph need to be rich and famous?

As it is, Kristoph appears to be very affluent and well off. There is no real reason directly given in the game as to why he would need such prestige and fame other than that it feeds his massive ego and superiority complex. So that’s a big part of it, no debate there.

But why would the excessive monetary gains that would be secured off of the Gramarye case be so appealing to Kristoph? We’ll re-examine this in a little bit.

In Daryan Crescend’s case, Phoenix tells Apollo “every man has an igniter. find his and set it off”. 

What is Kristoph’s igniter?

I mean some people would say Phoenix Wright is Kristoph’s igniter based on his breakdown. But, I think more of that trial was contrived by Phoenix than we tend to notice.

I think Klavier is Kristoph’s igniter.

The final trial in Turnabout Succession would not have been able to succeed without Lamiroir, without the jury system, without Phoenix pulling the strings, without Trucy, without Apollo, and most especially without Klavier. Removing any of these elements from the scenario would immediately give Kristoph a massive advantage in allowing him to manipulate the courtroom. Can you imagine Payne trying to prosecute Kristoph?

No. Klavier was the only one who could confront Kristoph successfully.

The final trial had to be contrived in such a way as to put maximal pressure on Kristoph to increase the chances that he would slip up or, more likely, that an element of randomness and/or emotion would become introduced. Phoenix sets up Klavier as the prosecutor for this trial for a good reason - remember, Phoenix tells Apollo point blank that he (Phoenix) is pulling all of the strings for the Misham trial, so whatever happens is entirely his responsibility.

It must have been difficult for Phoenix to entrust Klavier, the person who sealed his fate, with such an important task. But realistically, he didn’t really have a choice. Klavier’s disclosure of Kristoph’s visit to the prosecutor’s office is the glue that holds together the entire case against Kristoph Gavin. Notice that Kristoph never really does anything to keep Klavier out of the public eye or otherwise silence him (up until the very end at least). If I knew there was someone walking around giving press interviews and practicing as a prosecutor who knew something really incriminating about me, I would want them swept away or snuffed out asap - I mean, Kristoph has already poisoned Drew and Vera who were unlikely to tattle on him at best; Drew couldn’t even identify him! What Klavier has on him is much, much more damning dirt. Either Kristoph really loves and trusts his brother or is convinced that he can control Klavier to the point where Klavier would never dare tell anyone about that visit or wouldn’t want to. Probably both are true.

The interesting thing about this dynamic is that this is really the only time where we see both Gavin brothers together in one room, as well. Something about being in proximity changes both of their behaviors. Klavier becomes hyper-alert and nervous in Kristoph’s presence, a marked change from his usually easy demeanor. Klavier’s presence causes Kristoph to make several mistakes, which end up costing him the case.

So all of these things needed to happen, and they needed to happen simultaneously for Phoenix to succeed. Getting back to my theory on Kristoph, we can see from what’s said in the game a few things - he really, REALLY wanted to be the one to benefit from defending Zak Gramarye (a trial he knew he would win against his brother using forged evidence), the presence of Klavier is his undoing in court, and his appearances are very, very important to him. 

I honestly think the real reason Kristoph was so salty about losing out on the Gramarye trial fame and money is that he didn’t just want to be affluent or well-to-do. He wanted to be excessively, filthy rich.

If you look at Solitary Cell 13 you will see that Kristoph likes very much to surround himself with many nice things. He likes tasteful decorations and furniture. He enjoys literature, music, art, that weird rose he keeps in a vase, and he has a dog named Vongole. “First rate in all things, accept nothing less.”

To have such top of the line items, Kristoph must not only be rich, he must be like top 1% rich. He has to have the absolute best of everything. This is why he needs money. Without these things, what separates him from the ignorant swine he so despises? This is why Kristoph needed money.

Nowhere is this highlighted more than with the Ariadoney nail polish. I think it’s mentioned a couple of times that the Ariadoney is absolutely the best possible nail polish that you can buy. It’s very, very expensive and is manufactured in extremely limited quantities (this is discussed during Kristoph’s testimony). If Kristoph is this fixated on something as simple as a bottle of nail polish, you can almost imagine the absolutely ludicrous costs of every other item that he uses or owns, not limited to his home, his car, fine foods and wine, his expensive hobbies, possibly traveling etc etc etc etc. I just know this fool shops at Whole Foods, because I can’t see him buying groceries at the Costco. It makes a lot of sense as to why he is single as well. Kristoph Gavin would end up being an expensive habit to any partner who would have him - I wouldn’t want to share a bank account or credit line with him. He needs Gucci to keep him happy. No bootlegs here.

Point is, Kristoph Gavin has an addiction to the finer things in life and he will NOT settle for second rate products. He will have what he wants and he will do basically anything to maintain his lifestyle at its current elite level at the expense of his own morality and soul. Sadly enough I feel like that might be as deep as it gets with him. That’s a really pathetic motive to have and makes me hate him a lot more, but it’s so fucked up I can’t look away.

Consider also the most important thing to Kristoph of all - his appearance. It costs money to keep yourself up and this seems to be the one area that Kristoph might end up pouring the most money into. The top of the line suit, the white shoes, the perfect tan, the platinum blonde hair so immaculately coiffed, the fact that his skin is virtually perfect and the fact that his face is near-identical to Klavier’s despite being some 8 or 9 years older. Most normal people would have some kind of facial imperfection pop up at some point, a wrinkle, a pock mark, something. And that’s when you realize... that Kristoph Gavin has most likely had work done. Like, on his face to make it stay youthful. He’s just that vain and probably also despises watching Klavier stay young and pretty while he’s just aging. Fillers? Botox? Collagen treaments? Something more invasive? No one knows, but all I’m saying is that Klavier’s character description goes out of its way to describe Klavier as “the spitting image of Kristoph Gavin”. Vera notices the extreme resemblance right away. There can certainly be genetic basis for two brothers looking alike, but compare that to how Mia and Maya look “alike”, or Lana and Ema, both of whom have a similar age gap to Kristoph and Klavier. You would realize that Kristoph and Klavier seem to have somewhat of a more obvious resemblance despite the age difference. So this isn’t just possible anymore, this is actually likely. I don’t think the game implies that Kristoph has undergone plastic surgery or anything, so I’m keeping this in the realms of headcanon for now. But it would make perfect sense as yet another reason as to why Kristoph Gavin needs cold cash. He needs to look flawless and he needs access to the absolutely most top of the line treatments and practitioners, continually. And as he continues to age, he needs to get more and more aggressive, more and more products, more and more retouching with those age reversal creams and foundations and stabilizers. That adds up, cost-wise, very very fast, especially if you want top of the line EVERYTHING, and Kristoph does indeed. It is very clear that settling for any less would be completely unacceptable to him.

All of this money, it has to come from somewhere. Being a posh defense lawyer will bring in some money, sure, but nothing near what Kristoph is going to need to live his beautiful life. Winning the Gramarye trial would have probably bought him enough prestige, clients and monetary gains to support himself off of law for the rest of his life. It does make a lot of sense that he would be incensed after losing that chance.

There is one more unexplored possibility as to why Kristoph had to be the one to win the Gramarye trial, though, and it ties into the money issue as well. This was supposed to be a fair match, after all, brother to brother. Klavier’s first case, in fact. It was supposed to be Kristoph vs. Klavier, and Kristoph wanted to make sure that he would be the one to win. Only Zak and Phoenix ruined that chance - a once in a lifetime chance, actually, for Kristoph to go up against his brother on Klavier’s very first day.

Klavier was the prosecutor of the Gramarye trial. It was his very first case. What could Kristoph have to gain by being the one to trounce 17-year-old Klavier in court on his first day on the job?

Well, not much, other than it would have been a huge crushing blow to Klavier psychologically.

There’s a comic floating around by someone, I think zarla-s, where Kristoph wins the Gramarye trial and is discussing his win with Klavier afterwards. Kristoph is smug and hopes Klavier will be humbled by his impressive win, but Klavier is unperturbed by his loss, happy for his brother and insists he’ll win next time.

As cute as this is, somehow I don’t think that’s exactly how it would go down.

Klavier has actively shown how nervous / anxious / upset Kristoph’s mere presence makes him in a courtroom setting. Based on this, it’s not unfair to say that losing to Kristoph IN PARTICULAR on Klavier’s very first case would have been a devastating psychological blow that could technically end Klavier’s prosecutor career before it even began. There is a lot on the line with the Gramarye trial, don’t forget the praise and adulation that Klavier gained by winning it. So other than all of the fame, adulation, money and pride Kristoph would have gained by rigging and winning the Gramarye trial, there is another dimension that he was also robbed of - the ability to ruin his brother’s law career. Losing to another attorney like Phoenix or anyone else would not be enough to do the job. It would have to and could only be Kristoph’s doing.

What reason could Kristoph have for wanting Klavier’s law career to come to an end?

Well, Klavier does have another job. As a rock star.

Wildly popular rock stars make a lot of money, many many many times more than even a celebrity defense attorney could dream to make.

The Gavinners had multiple albums go platinum. They sold out shows all over the country, I believe, possibly all over the world. They are a brand. They are profitable. Klavier is profitable.

With how much Kristoph depends on and uses Klavier, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Kristoph gets to take a big cut of Klavier’s earnings from his music career. For all we know, Kristoph could have been responsible for assembling and filing many of the Gavinners’ early contracts and legal paperwork. The rights to songs, record deals, merchandising - this is a lot of stuff. I’d say it’d be pretty hard to believe that Kristoph did not have his hooks into the Gavinners from day one. If he handled contracts, he could have written in loopholes that would give him a huge cut of any earnings resulting from Klavier’s band, the Gavinners.

Now I know what you’re thinking, Klavier himself is a legal prodigy. He could have easily read through anything Kristoph prepared and refused to sign on the dotted line if he found anything amiss or hidden in the fine print. What if Kristoph’s legal control of Klavier started much earlier than that? Depending on when Klavier started in the entertainment business, which could have been a very early age, Kristoph could have had plenty of time and opportunity to secure access to any of Klavier’s future earnings, especially if their parents were out of the picture.

 If you think Kristoph has nothing to do with the Gavinners, think about it. One of their songs is literally called “Atroquinine, My Love”. They are a brand. They are marketed specifically to teeny boppers. They’re not squeaky clean mainstream pop like the Jonas Brothers or anything, but they are marketable. The advertising, the way they dress, the way Klavier says he’s tired of the youthful angst scene, the fact that Klavier only gives Apollo and Trucy a 20% discount on concert tickets. I’m just saying a lot of it could end up being contrived, perhaps by a certain someone with an ulterior motive. It seems really, really weird and coincidental that the band broke up right after AA4 too. Klavier seems like he’s really dedicated to his art, and to music. This much is clear in the way he reverently talks about Lamiroir, how he teared up at her song, even the Guitars’ Serenade seems like a very different song than what the Gavinners would typically do, and it only debuts after Kristoph is already in jail.

It makes you wonder if there might be a little something more going on here. If Kristoph had it set up to where he could get access to Klavier’s assets, which almost certainly dwarf his own by several times, then he had every reason to want to crush Klavier in court. He had to be the one to face Klavier in the Gramarye trial and win, causing Klavier to end his prosecutor dreams - and do what?

Go back on the road, put everything into his music career and become a workhorse for Kristoph’s ambitions.

Putting Klavier full time on the Gavinners would have solved all of Kristoph’s monetary worries for good. He could skim everything off the top and finally live the beautiful life of his dreams, the life he needed to have and couldn’t do without. Most importantly, he could keep up appearances and always look continually young and attractive.

Until we learn otherwise, I think that that is really all that was behind Kristoph’s black Psychelocks. Just a narcissistic, vain, preening loser masquerading as some mastermind villain when, in the end, that’s not really what he cared about being. He cared about painting his nails in a luxurious mansion surrounded by piles of money in a big Scrooge McDuck money vault, and laughing maniacally at anyone who ever thought that there was anything more to it.

[sehunniepot]

i like me better (when i’m with you) / 2 ✎

the fluffy strangers to lovers college!au in which your friends are tired of you complaining about being single and find your perfect match in the one and only campus dj, jeong jaehyun. 

author’s note: 4 pictures - written blurb - 6 pictures!! please leave a comment, i would love to hear what y’all think so far uwu)

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“Jae, open the hell up! I have to pee!” Sejeong banged on the door impatiently, the loud noise startling the people on the other side. You heard a bit of scrambling before someone came to let you in. 

“Hi, sorry,” Jaehyun greeted you once the door swung open, sounding a little out of breath. His beautiful face was already flushed, cheeks and ears aglow. You took a moment to give him a once over—you couldn’t understand how someone could possibly look that good in unstyled hair, a loose shirt, and sweatpants. It was almost insulting how handsome he looked; you weren’t sure whether you wanted to slap him or kiss him. 

Not that you actually would. You weren’t close to him after all. But you were starting to think that you wanted to be. 

Acting as if she owned the place, Sejeong hastily dropped her overnight bag, the sound of the heavyweight snapping you out of your thoughts. You watched as she pushed her way through the entrance before heading to the bathroom.

“Sorry about her,” you awkwardly apologized on your roommate’s behalf. Feeling a bit reserved since it was only your second time meeting, you couldn’t really bring yourself to look him in the eye.

“Hi,” he laughed, running his fingers through his thick hair. “Don’t worry about her, she does this all the time when everyone’s over. But, uh, yeah, welcome to my place? The others are here already.”

Shifting a bit to keep your duffle bag strap from falling off your shoulder, you  juggled your large container of freshly baked goods in your arms. Noticing your struggle, the male ushered you in and grabbed both the container and your bag from your hold.

“I brought some snickerdoodles,” you blurted out, gesturing to the container in his hands. You cringed at how awkward you were—god, how did you even have friends? From the corner of your eye, you saw Mark hold back a laugh and Mina slap him at his reaction. She gave you a reassuring smile, knowing how you were around new people...especially when they were good-looking strangers.

“Ah, yes. The famous snickerdoodles I keep hearing about. These happen to be my favorite cookie, you know?”

“Really now?” Your eyes twinkled just a bit and Jaehyun caught sight of it, his nose scrunching up with joy at your positive reaction.

“Yup, can’t wait to try them,” he winked, catching you off guard before dropping them off at the kitchen counter. You were surprised your knees didn’t buckle at the sight. The group of people gathered around Jaehyun’s table all snickered at your obvious reaction to his flirting. Glaring at them all didn’t stop the laughter, it only doubled it.

“Everything good?” Jaehyun asked as he came back to your side. He stood close to you, mouth curved into a polite smile that only made you flush with heat even more. 

Why was he looking at you like that?

Why did he look like that? 

God, you hated how easily flustered you were. You honestly thought it was one of your worst traits. Your best friends, on the other hand, thought it was your best one judging by the way they cackled at your reactions.

“Did I miss something?” Jaehyun’s head tilted to the side, his thick strands of hair following along with the movement. 

“Oh no, nothing! Nothing at all!” you squeaked out, voice reaching a higher level. The laughter only grew.

“Okay, I clearly missed something.”

‘Yeah, the only thing you missed was how easily affected I am by handsome boys,’ you thought to yourself. This was going to be a long night for you. 

Shortly after arriving at Jaehyun’s apartment, the group of friends dug into their dinner and poured endless amounts of soju shots. 

An hour after fooling around the dinner table, everyone made their way into the living room a bit sluggishly. The ever-so-affectionate Mina and Mark cuddled up on one corner of the couch while Sejeong claimed the other side, leaving a bowl of popcorn and an assortment of candy in the middle seat. Johnny took up the solo beanie bag with his long legs outstretched, leaving you to sit on the blanket-covered floor. You ended up covering yourself with one of Jaehyun’s extra comforters, immediately snuggling into its warmth. 

“We’re watching A New Hope first!” Johnny announced to the group as Jaehyun began to set up the movie and projector. Everyone but you and Jaehyun groaned. They weren’t into science fiction like the three of you; in fact, they could barely understand the lore and that’s what made it unbearable to watch. For you, however, watching these movies brought you a sense of comfort. Lines memorized by heart, you loved this movie for the genius it was.

Jaehyun turned off the lights and the epic opening soundtrack blasted through his Bluetooth speakers, signaling the start of the film. It never failed to send shivers down your spine.

“Ah, no complaining. This is the best Star Wars movie!” you scolded the others playfully, turning back to glare at your friends seated on the couch. Mark threw a piece of popcorn at you in retaliation.

“Agreed,” your new friend smiled at you as he sat down next to you. He gently slipped under the same blanket you were using, causing your body to freeze for just a second. Feeling a bit shy, you tugged your hood on and grabbed a pillow to hug. Digging your chin into the pillow’s softness, your eyes glued themselves into the screen. 

“Glad to see someone has taste,” you muttered into the pillow. 

“Cute,” you heard someone say beside you and you turned your head to see Jaehyun grinning at you, causing his dimples to make an appearance.

“Hey, stop shaming us and watch the movie. I’m gonna need someone to explain everything to me,” Sejeong threw another pillow at you. You stuck your tongue out at your roommate in reply before fully focusing on the sci-fi film playing. 

It wasn’t until halfway through the movie that you felt someone looking at you. You glanced to your side only to see Jaehyun giving you a soft look, a small smile in tow. The boy seemed to be a lot closer to you than he was at the start of the movie—there was only a pillow in between to separate the two of you. You buried yourself deeper into the blanket you were tucked under and clutched your pillow a little tighter out of nervousness. Touching your cold hands to your cheeks, you attempted to reduce the heat rushing to your face.

It didn’t work. You could still feel the warmth of the boy next to you, which made you burn even more.

All the while, Jaehyun did his best to hold back a chuckle at your nervous antics, finding your reactions absolutely adorable. He quite liked you and watching you from the corner of his eye, the boy made up his mind—he couldn’t wait to get to know you.

taglist: @hannie-dul-set ❣️

© sehunniepot / sehunniepotwrites, 2020-2021

[opbackgrounds]

So I read the Ace Novel (Part 2)

I’m going to be level with you, if I hadn’t said I was going to do a write up for the novel, I don’t think I would have finished this one. The first fifty or so pages are terribly boring, and while it picks up considerably toward the end, I don’t think I can recommend it, for one reason and one reason only:

It reads like a freaking wikipedia article. And I hate it. 

I described Part 1 of the Ace novel like three separate one shots with the barest hint of continuity between them. That’s not the case this time around, as most of what it covers are events mentioned in the manga: The fight with Jinbe, Ace’s 100 battles with Whitebeard, Ace formally joining the Whitebeard Pirates. Comparatively speaking, that’s a lot of canon material to get through. Consequently, it’s also quite a bit longer than Part 1, about 200 pages. 

(some of those pages happen to be longer than others)

(yes this made me literally laugh out loud)

The problem is there is a metic ton of manga recap that has nothing to do with this novel, especially in chapters 1 and 2. This was baffling to me, as it seems unlikely that someone would pick up a One Piece magazine (where the novel was originally published) or a One Piece side story without bing familiar with the manga. Yet concepts like the Four Emperors, Celestial Dragons, and even the Grand Line were laid out in meticulous detail.

I am going to be unfair for a moment and compare the Ace novels to my favorite spin-off series of all time, the Kyoshi duology that takes place in the Avatar universe. 

Unlike the Ace novels, they take place several centuries before the main series, so there aren’t a lot of plot details that overlap with the animated series in the way the Ace novels do to the main manga. What is in common, however, isn’t repeated. Nowhere in the two Kyoshi books does she learn the story about Avatar Wan or any of the same lore details that are important to Aang and Korra’s stories. Instead it expands on the world building details laid out in the main series and deepens them. 

For example, do you want to know how the Fire Nation royalty got so good at lightning bending, or how the greater Earth Kingdom political landscape works? Read book 1. Do you want to know how the Fire Nation went from a fractured clan system to a strong centralized government or how advanced water bending healing techniques work? Read book 2. It’s exposition that fleshes out the system already in place, rather than retreading what’s already been established. 

Part 2 of the Ace novel does this a little bit when it develops the Pirate Code, something that has never mentioned in the manga, and even if it was Luffy’s not the sort of character that’s going to care to adhere to it. The strongest portion of the novel shows Ace going out on a mission on Whitebeard’s behalf, showing some of what it’s like to maintain the vast territories that he keeps under his flag.

But mostly...mostly it’s just recap. Literally the entire Fishman Island backstory is written out in some of the blandest narration I’ve ever read, paragraphs upon paragraphs talking about Queen Otohime and Fisher Tiger and the civil unrest of the Ryugu Kingdom, including but not limited to Vander Decken stalking Shirahoshi and her subsequent imprisonment in the royal tower. 

There’s also the wholesale recycling of gags straight from the manga that 1) don’t necessarily work as well in written format, and 2) show no originality or creativity on the part of the author. In my opinion, recurring gags are funniest when a writer can contrive different variations and circumstances around the base joke. Instead we get scenes like this beat-for-beat copy of Ace’s narcolepsy gag in Alabasta, down to using the waitress’s skirt as a napkin

I noticed in Part 1 that the author had snuck some canon elements in, such as Deuce and Ace building Striker—the one man, fire-powered boat he showed off in Alabasta—when I personally didn’t think either of them were smart enough to think up, let alone construct, anything that sophisticated. I didn’t mention it in my previous write up because there are a lot of fans that enjoy those kind of Easter eggs, and it’s a novel that runs on manga logic so it’s not exactly breaking my suspension of disbelief either. It was a minor quibble that didn’t really detract from my overall enjoyment. 

But the story of Fishman Island is at best tangentially related to the events of the novel. The only reason Fishman Island is important at all is because Ace decides to burn down Whitebeard’s flag on his way into the New World. 

Which brings me to perhaps the most interesting aspect of the novel: Ace himself. 

Even in the manga, you can make the case that there are two Aces, the happy-go-lucky, cool, and mysterious older brother of Luffy seen at Alabasta/post-Enies Lobby, and the angsty, existentially depressed young man with daddy issues that shows up during Impel Down/Marineford. 

The novel leans much closer to the latter. More than I expected it to. The Ace of Part 2 is hotheaded and a bit of a jackass. Whereas Luffy tends to go after people he has a personal beef with, Ace specifically targets Whitebeard because he was the closest to Roger, and he thinks that defeating Whitebeard will somehow bring him fame greater than his father. He ignores the concerns of his crew and the repeated warnings about how Emperors control vast armies...because of daddy issues. The novel goes out of his way that Ace’s dreams made him better suited to be a Revolutionary than a pirate, and it’s only because of his childhood promise that he became a pirate at all. It wasn’t something born out of true conviction or desire.

Laying it out like that, it might seem like this is a negative, but to me it’s one of the most interesting things the novel has to offer. I thought Part 1 worked best when it acted as a character study for Deuce, Ace, and the marine girl whose name I have already forgotten, focusing on how Ace brought together degenerates unwanted by even other degenerates. The same is true here: Once the exposition dumps are over and the focus returns to the titular character, the author is able to dig a little bit deeper into into Ace’s psyche, and he takes it in a direction I didn’t expect, but was consistent with his manga portrayal. 

I just wish I could have seen a little bit more of it. 

And speaking of characters I wish I had seen more of, after focusing so much on Deuce and Marine Girl in Part 1, they have a much reduced role in Part 2. In fact, Marine Girl isn’t seen or mentioned even once, which I thought was kind of strange. I guess I don’t see the point in putting so much effort was put into her only for her to be thrown away without even a cameo. Likewise, after spending Part 1 as the principal POV character, Deuce is set aside for Thatch and Teach. Whether that’s a good or bad thing will depend largely on how much you enjoy those individual characters. 

I don’t say this often, but these are books that can be judged by their covers. Part 1, Ace is more jovial—the burning flame that attracts others to his greatness—while introducing two major new characters to his journey. Part 2, Ace is grim and angry—the dark, smoldering flame burning with the desire to destroy the system that would have killed him for being the wrong man’s son—while focusing much more on the Whitebeard Pirates and what makes them great. 

It’s an interesting contrast, the two sides of Ace’s character as seen in the manga given a little bit of limelight. But damn if it wasn’t tedious to get through. 

[revengeworld]

Meat I

Werewolf! Flip x Reader - Medieval AU

Word Count: +2.800

Warnings: A bit of Blood and slight description of Rituals, I guess

AN: This will be a six Part series. It has nothing to do with the movie and is a complete medieval AU with it’s own lore about werewolfs. I thought it might be an interesting turn on it :>

MY MASTERLIST ♥

-

Flip let out a long yawn until a small yelp escaped his throat and he let his tongue graze over his long fangs.

This Full Moon gathering would be as boring as the last and he still hated the thought that his turn would at least be two more years away.

Resting his head into his big clawed hand, his eyes were fixated on the Alpha wolves that we’re sitting near the sacrificial stone where the chosen prey would be laid out.

Flip let out a low snicker when he thought about his chosen one being displayed in front of everyone before he would sink his teeth and claws in her soft flesh before he would devour her. 

At least he would see his little meat in just mere hours when he would go down the mountain to visit her village as soon as this was all over.

Already drifting off and thinking of his chosen one, Flip’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a screaming and sobbing voice which made the fur in his neck stand up.

Opening his eyes he saw the young human woman being thrown onto the sacrificial stone.

Before he could even think his massive body was already moving. His claws were digging into the dirt while he sprinted down the hill and rushed in front of the person that had been laid and chained onto the stone plate.

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY MEAT!” he growled at the younger new werewolf that was now huddled on the ground, terrified of what Flip might do to him. 

Flip was standing on his hind legs, in his full height, he was terrifying even for his own kind. 

“Flip, do you want to claim this human as yours?” one of the elders asked the raging werewolf.

“You know what that would mean, you would need to fight one of your own for it.”

“She is mine!” he growled back, drool dripping from his fangs while his eyes had not left the trembling younger wolf.

Everyone knew that he had picked her for his next turn. And normally the other wolves respected someone’s choice and left the chosen human alone, but this rookie had no ideas of their traditions and rules yet.

“I will rip him apart if I have to!” he warned but before the elder could even reply to that the young wolf was already yelping.

“I didn’t know! You can have her! I don’t want a fight!” it whimpered, his tail hiding between his legs.

Letting out a furious huff, Flip landed with his front paws back on the ground with a rumble, to scare the rookie just a bit more so they ran back into the crowd of wolves who snickered and howled, but he didn’t care about their mocking.

With a deep growl, he looked over his shoulder where the young woman was still sobbing and whimpering in fear of what might happen to her.

Taking the heavy chains into his mouth he bit with ease through them to free his scared human.

“Come, little meat.” he whispered and carefully wrapped his strong arms around her body, highly aware not to hurt her with his sharp claws, while she held onto his furry shoulders for support.

“Your turn will be given to the one you … defeated.”

“So be it. I have what I wanted.” he growled back at the elders while he pushed his way through the crowd of wolves who had expected a glorious blood bath while Flip would devour her, but instead, he vanished with her in his arms into the dark cold forest.

Ignoring the taunting calls behind his back he continued along the path towards the caves. Flip could feel her trembling hands dig into his fur while her sobbing echoed against the cold stone walls of the cave entrance.

Slowly lowering his gaze his eyes met hers even though she wasn’t able to look at him. Thanks to the curse she would now be blind, especially since another wolf had cursed her and he couldn’t have done it himself. Now, her normal gorgeous eyes were just completely white.

Nuzzling with his snout against her cold cheek, she flinched slightly and let out a scared whimper.

“Don’t worry, little meat. I would never harm you.” gently nibbling on her ear, Flip barely could hold back his excitement.

Yes, he had desperately waited over a year to eat and devour her until now. But finally being able to see her this up close and admire every little thing about her complexion, this thought seemed ridiculous! He wanted to keep her, just for himself. His little meat, now and forever.

Carefully squeezing through a tighter gap, they had finally made it underground, to the city of the wolves.

For hundreds of years, they had lived down here, hidden away from the humans that tried to hunt them down until the wolves knew how to fight back with the curse that they were now controlling them with. Thinning them out overtime to get the upper hand.

Suddenly feeling her little fingers dig deeper into his fur he looked down at her curious face that had turned to the light of the city.

Y/N could barely make out the light glimmer in the constant darkness that she had to endure now.

Listening closer to the heavy footsteps, she could tell that he was still walking on a stony path, but the rustling wind through the leaves was missing in the background and she could hear no other animals or the river that was so close before.

“Wh...where are you bringing me?” her voice just a whisper, but still strong.

“Home, Meat. Our home.” pushing the wooden door of his house open with his broad shoulder, he looked around his simple home.

It was not really suited for a human, but he would make due in time to provide a better place for her, but now he needed to concentrate. There was not much time left and he needed to act fast.

The full moon was rising and he could feel his powers weaken already.

Gently letting her down on her feet, Flip laid one of his big paws under her chin before he let his soft tongue graze over her face.

“Don’t cry, meat. We’re home now.” she just whimpered at his words while scrunching up her face since he kept licking over her warm cheeks.

Turning her head with one hand, Flip lifted his other to rip open the collar of her dress to expose her chest and let his claw run over her collarbone. She screamed in pain while he carved his sigil into her feverish warm skin before he gently licked over the fresh wound, tasting her sweet sweet blood while she tried to push him away from her.

“What did you do to me?!”

“Marked you as mine, of course.” he answered as if it was the most obvious thing in this world while he looked satisfied down at his sign on her that had instantly healed, but for Y/N nothing was clear. Just this morning when she was about to start her work, out of the corner of her eyes she had seen a red streak smeared across their front door before everything around her suddenly went dark and she could hear her Father screaming, even sobbing while he repeatedly mumbled an apology.

She had known what that meant, but not that it really happened to her after all these stories of the sacrifices to the deities in the forest, it seemed so surreal.

When she was brought into the forest to be left behind, she could hear the little river nearby while they had carried her. Could listen to the leaves crunching under their feet than she had nothing else to trust any more than her ears since her sight was stolen from her.

Barely being able to make out two glimmers from the torches the man had pierced into the ground, she was just waiting in her darkness, listening to anything, the rustling of the leaves when the wind was moving them, the cry of a deer before she could hear it run through a puddle until…. There right in front of her, Y/N could hear multiple footsteps coming quickly closer to her.

The next thing she knew was that something was laid around each of her wrists and ankles before she was grabbed and dragged away until they threw her on something hard and a loud howl rumbled in her ears while she tried to fight whoever was trying to chain her down.

And now she was blind and helpless with a monster claiming her as his own.

Monsters … not spirits of the forest that they worshipped, monsters that ate them instead of allowing them to bring them into a better world. She wanted to cry and scream, furious at herself that she had believed the lies of her village, now it made so much more sense that her Father had cried and apologized. He hadn’t cried out of happiness that she had been chosen. He had cried because he would lose her forever.

“What exactly are you … no God that is for sure...” running with her hands over her ripped clothes she noticed that he had at least left her undergarment in one piece until her fingers brushed over the new scar that he had created. His ‘mark’ as he had stated.

Suddenly feeling his gigantic hand cup her own Y/N suddenly felt his soft tongue graze over her palm before he placed it onto his own snout.

“You can find out, my little meat.”

“I have a name!” she huffed angrily and still her hands were gently wandering over his face. Flip wanted to close his eyes and enjoy every little bit of her soft touch but he just couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Her brows had furrowed in concentration while her hands wandered over his face. A long snout like that of a dog… no like that of a wolf, just much bigger.

“Careful around the teeth, Meat.” Flip growled with a snicker and opened his mouth a little.

She could feel his slobber drip onto her wrist while she felt the gigantic teeth in his mouth. Swallowing hard, even though she knew that he could just bite her hands off right now, she couldn’t stop her fascination and kept exploring and Flip could see that curiosity.

But time was cut short for him, he nuzzled his head closer against hers until her back was pushed against the wall and she was caught in a warm hug, feeling his hot breath fan against her skin.

The Fullmoon was up and he couldn’t fight it any longer. When his heavy body slumped slightly down onto Y/N, she started to whimper again shortly before crying again while he started to grunt and growl into her ear.

Being pressed between this gigantic beast and the cold wall in her back, Y/N started to panic. Would he eat her now? Would this be the end of her life?

Trying to push him away, she suddenly grabbed both of his ears which made him yelp while they seemed to change in her hands.

The heavyweight on top of her body seemed to get lighter while his growling turned into heavy strained breathing, even the deep rumbling tone in his voice got softer. 

Suddenly instead of the fluffy ears, Y/N had felt earlier, she could now feel that they had slowly shifted in a mix of pointy fluffy ears and when she slowly let her fingers brush down she could feel the almost human ears until she suddenly felt plum lips kiss over her neck while she heard an excited snicker in her ear.

“Finally you’re mine, little meat.”

Hearing that voice again, without the deep distorted undertone, Y/N suddenly could see a dark-haired man in front of her inner eye … a wanderer who came once a month to buy her meat pastries at the butchery from her Father.

Immediately she pushed the man away and let her hands run through the long black locks before she brushed gentle but hectically over his face. The big crooked nose and those plum lips her friends had admired from afar and had so often teased her that the stranger only came here for her and not really the pastries he purchased.

Anger was bubbling up in her chest before she pushed the other away while accidentally scratching his cheek.

He growled in surprise and instinctively grabbed her wrist to pull her closer again to just staring into her furious but beautiful face.

“Feisty aren’t we, Meat?” he snickered again and she just glared in his direction since she couldn’t look at him directly.

“I have a name, you godforsaken monster!” she hissed back at him, but Flip only smiled. He loved this fire inside of her, she had never backed down from a confrontation, even once as long as he had watched her. The boys in her village who tried to tease her for being the butcher’s daughter and got a good whack with a broom.

“A Monster, huh? You wouldn’t be wrong with that, Meat.”

“My names Y/N!” shoving him away a second time, she grabbed her ripped dress tightly, trying to stay covered.

“A wonderful name… but I like my nickname more, Meat.” pressing a gentle kiss against her cheek, she quickly flinched away from him.

“Wait here, I got something for you.” turning away for a moment he quickly turned back to Y/N who was stretching her arms out to search for a point she could orient herself on.

With his big hand, Flip softly cupped one of hers and led her towards a table and small chair that he had in his bare house. Since he only transformed into a human once a month he didn’t need much to live like one, but now that he would have Y/N in his care, much earlier than he had expected he needed to think of a way to provide for her.

When she was sitting on the chair, still trying to cover herself while her blind eyes were staring into the emptiness, he made his way to the bed of hay that he used to sleep on and searched through the pile of clothes next to it. First, he clothed himself, knowing that humans didn’t like it when others were running around naked before he pulled out a small box that he had carefully put away.

Opening the lid, he looked down on the red soft fabric of a cloak.

Flip pushed himself off the ground before returning to Y/N who was quietly sitting on the chair he had left her on.

“Here, this is for you.” he whispered into her ear, before she could feel his lips against her temple again before she could pull her head away and suddenly felt something warm and soft laying on her legs.

She loosened one hand from the ripped collar of her dress before she carefully let her palm brush over the red cloak.

“W… what is it?”

“A cloak! The red cloak you wanted!” Flip immediately stated excited while kneeling down next to her, knowing how often she had talked about it with her friends but how it was always too expensive for her.

With an excited smile, he looked up into her face but there was not the happy expression he had expected.

The cloak was thrown back at him and he quickly pulled it away from his face.

“What is wrong with you?!” she screamed at him.

“You wanted to eat me and suddenly you even have a present? What were you even thinking?!”

“I …. I thought it would’ve comforted you … before-”

“Before I would’ve got eaten by a monster!? You must’ve lost your mind!” standing back on her feet, she wanted to leave, Y/N just wanted to get away from this maniac.

But immediately when she took her first step, she stumbled against the table in front of her before she tried to evade it but only stumbled over the hem of her own dress and landed back into the big and strong arms of this monster that she couldn’t even see.

“Do you think leaving is such a smart idea right now? You would get lost as soon as you would set foot back into the forest and either starve or freeze to death, my little meat.”

It was true, she was helpless now that she was blind, but staying here? What life would that even be. Being the pet of this … this thing?

Shaking her head, another tear rolled down her heated face.

“Don’t worry, meat. I will take the best care of you.” nuzzling his head against her, she let out another devastated sob.

[somepinkthing]

as someone who has been following u since b4 u entered ur fe3houses obsession and has slowly become interested- if i got the game, which order of houses would you recommend for ultimate plot-twist/storyline purpose?

Tbh? Depends. I played CF first and was like ok I know all the lore and then played VW and was like ok all the lore I knew was apparently from a biased source. It really does depend on what plot twists u wanna explore.

Ultimate lore and story based route? Verdant wind. Crimson flower and azure moon both are more single-character focused and are really meant to dig deeper into edelgard and dimitri as individual characters. Verdant wind's got more of that classic found family on an adventure feel so that the writers could shove basically all the lore they couldn't in the other two routes. So if u wanna find out the most secrets, that's the one

On the other hand, it's fun to play AM or CF first because then we get into the perspective play. In VW, you and claude aren't as personally affected by some of the events and you get the story from multiple sources so it's a broader view of what's happening. CF and AM are very much edelgard and dimitri's stories so you kind of get the story in bits and pieces, melded together to look one way or another depending on the lord and what their focuses are. And I'm told Silver Snow is also very lore heavy, but I haven't played it.

My suggestion? AM -> CF -> VW or VW -> CF -> AM. Get all the little pieces and then slam the whole thing together in the end for max effect or join claude for The Most Confusing five years on this incredibly cursed continent and then get the more personal character details after getting the general plot

Tbh whatever route you play, there will be details you miss out on. That's why people play through all of them. I went CF -> VW->AM and thoroughly enjoyed it. You followed me for MDZS right? Think of it as the difference between following a character mashup of NHS/WWX, a mashup of LXC/JC, or a mashup of NMJ/WQ. You can't lose.

((SIDE NOTE: Also! If you start it and want a suggestion? Don't recruit more than like. 2 other ppl per house. Really drives that drama home AND gives u a reason to keep playing. Also very easy to get overwhelmed with so many characters to train and upkeep relationships with. Then again, it can be hard to resist so just do you))

[darkpoisonouslove]

Fave Personal Fics

So thanks to an ask I got, I realized how many of my fics I love dearly which brings to you this selection of my favorite fics I’ve written (and maybe a little note saying what exactly gets them on the list):

Heartless - Griffin & Faragonda; G rated; 1245 words

This was my first Griffin and Faragonda fic and back when I wrote it, it was effortless. Every word seemed to fit in the right place. And it was great to explore how Griffin would feel after being rescued by Winx in 3x14.

No Battlefield Between Us - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 1335 words

This was a total accident. I was trying to do a super short prompt and then it spiraled out of control but I loved the side of the characters it let me explore. It was the first time I wrote Griffin as more openly scared AND desperate and Valtor as softer (when you exclude the end) and admitting he wanted her back. And of course, the end was an experience on its own (but I think I teased it enough already XD.)

Broken - Trix & Griffin/Trix & Valtor/mentions of Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 3473 words

I just love the Trix interaction with each other and with Griffin (even if that’s not too direct for most of the fic). It was definitely challenging to pull off because I hadn’t written them before and I was trying to nail Darcy’s PoV but it was also super fun and I am proud of the way it turned out. And of course, it developed into a series so now there is more to write for it.

Long Live the Queen - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 826 words

This one has an interesting origin story which I’ve told already so I’ll condense it - a randomly picked lyric ended up into a pretty compelling if short emotional arc for Griffin in a devious canon divergence. I also came up with a sequel that has been laid out in another post because it became too long for me to write. Not because it was also pure evil.

Does the Sky Burn Like the Ground Does? - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 1235 words

This is the Angel AU I never expected to write but love to bits. It got pretty emotional and I had some amazing details that made me fall in love with the tiny universe I created so now I am working on proper lore in order to expand it. It works super well as a standalone as well (although it would be great to dig deeper into the inner workings of that world and the characters’ psyches) and remains one of my absolute favorites.

Kiss, Then Bite (Past Chapters + Present Chapters) - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 12, 616 words; (31/31) chapters

My first actual multichapter project. It was ambitious despite the shortness that I tried to keep the chapters to. I had to complicate things for myself, of course, and make all chapters connected to form one big story. The chapters switch between past and present. The present chapters are actually one big conversation (which is why I’ve compiled them in the same post) divided into fifteen parts to go thematically with the past chapters that capture separate events.

The Heart’s Magic - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 3243 words + Trivia

This one was supposed to be an entry about Kinktober but I went a little overboard with the worldbuilding and loved it so much that I decided to post it as its own thing. After all, filing an entire magical system you’ve created under PWP somehow didn’t sound right. I just had to give it the opportunity to shine because I loved what I did with the magic in it as well as actually weaving the story pieces together.

What Is the One Thing That Can Never Break? - Company of Light Dynamics; mentions of Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 7984 words

This one deserves a special shoutout mainly because I nearly forgot the idea. I was ecstatic when I remembered it because I knew it would be epic if I could pull it off. I am happy to announce that the mission was successful even if it skyrocketed my levels of frustration and I am pleased with the final result. It was awesome to explore the Company days and the guilt Griffin must have carried around after her affiliations with the Coven even if it wasn’t done in the healthiest way possible. I also have a special place in my heart for the structure of this piece and the theme that the title is also part of. All I can say is that this is some of my finest work as far as composition goes.

When Was the Last Time You Heard Your Name? - Griffin x Valtor; G rated; 2350 words

This spawned from an image. I was again having the delusions that it would be much shorter than it turned out to be but it was totally worth it because I am proud of the way I handled the element of mystery as well as the memory loss in this. And it was a fun experiment to try as it was very different from anything I’d done with those two before.

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 2536 words

My brain was insisting on writing a dream sequence and this was born. Despite being so gore and guilt heavy, it remains one of my favorite pieces because I think I really managed to capture that dream symbolism vibe at least the way that my dreams do it. It was harsh to write it and I remember that I actually managed to psychologically inflict on myself the feeling of cold because I was trying to capture it in the fic. I also feel some nausea at some parts when I reread them so that was definitely an experience.

Defend Your Heart - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 2096 words

The lawyer AU I wanted from the start. Seriously, the outline for this sat in my notes for 8 months because I couldn’t finish it before I saw a one-word prompt that suddenly cleared it all up and I got the outline done and wrote the fic all in two and a half hours tops. It was a bit frustrating but the fic was worth the wait. It might have gotten a little more sexy than intended but I regret nothing.

Falling for You (to Catch Me) (Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3) - Griffin x Faragonda; T rated; 14, 924 words; (3/3) chapters

This was meant to be a short prompt fill and it was... at least chapter one was. Then I don’t know what possessed me but I wrote two more chapters to the result of nearly 15k words. I have to say that I love the aesthetic components of ch 1 (aka the descriptions), the shenanigans in ch 2, and the softness of ch 3. Chapter 3 is the one thing I have written in my entire life that has left me with the most peaceful feeling possible and it was absolutely glorious.

Gold and Purple - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 3125 words

I read this Bulgarian folk tale and I absolutely had to have the plot with Griffin and Valtor... except I changed about 95% of the plot. What I loved most about this was the way details would come out of nowhere to me only to settle in the perfect places by the end and I was left with a solid story fairytale by the time I was done that had tons of components. It was really fun putting it all together and extremely satisfying to feel all the pieces click together. (Valtor and the Trix were my favorite parts of this and something that had no basis in the original tale that inspired this AU but I just had to put it all in.)

Do You Want to Melt in My Flames? - Marion x Oritel; E rated; 3397 words

First Oritel and Marion fic and it was smut. For some reason my brain refused to work with those two outside the context of sex for a long, long time but it was fun regardless. Besides, there is a lot of emotion and thoughts packed into this to help explore Marion’s character despite the steamier parts... Or rather to give them substance. I definitely loved it even if the process was a bit frustrating at first.

A (Plot) Bunny Is Never Lonely - Marion x Oritel + Kiko; G rated; 2048 words

This was so meant to be a joke about Oritel being jealous of Kiko. Then it was supposed to be a ficlet. Then somehow it morphed into a fic hinged on the encompassing idea of how each member of the Domino royal family relates to loneliness... and all of that expressed through Kiko. I still have no idea how my brain made this happen but I am just as in love with this fic as I was back when it was born.

Ice Is Stronger with Some Lightning and Darkness Mixed in - Trix; G rated; 2709 words

It just had to be done. Besides, Icy’s inner monologue was extremely fun to write. I was giddy with evil glee by the time I was halfway done with this fic. It was so gratifying to write her inner (and outer) bitch and get out all MY rage over the stupid plot point that this fic deals with and fixes. And figuring out how to make her care about Darcy and Stormy without making her OOC was a bit challenging but so worth it. This fic was a labor of rage to end up an object of admiration and I am proud of it.

Seventeen Years Are Nothing When Hopelessness Is Forever + Seventeen Years Are Nothing When Love Is Forever (Alternate Ending) - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 4901 + 2457 words

This was another case of incomplete outline sitting in my notes for months. The curious thing here is that I had to forget where I was trying to force the story to go in order for it to develop naturally. It spiraled a bit out of control (both original version and alternate ending) but it was so worth it. I was so invested in this that I slammed my hands over the keyboard at one point thanks to the agony. It just had to be done, though, because I’d been dreaming of Griffin and Valtor having an actual conversation before he took over CT ever since I watched 3x10. It’s definitely something.

Pain - Griffin x Valtor; M rated; 2537 words

This was supposed to be part of my dark fic collection but I took it out of there because it didn’t seem like it belonged. It starts out harsh and is rough towards the end in terms of the emotions it deals with but I wouldn’t call it dark fic. It’s just serious angst that I love to bits. I love that Griffin starts off as a heartless bitch only to turn out to be a frightened romantic and I also love that Valtor is the one who first gives love a chance in this scenario. It is so different from the way I usually write them and it was both refreshing and touching.

Show the World (Inside of You) + Valtor’s PoV - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 16,215 + 2,840 words

This one takes the cake. The fic was never supposed to exist, never mind be that long. Especially considering the fact that it is a fashion designer AU... and not even the one I already had. Fashion is not my best thing so I was stunned when this idea developed so insistently. What I had when I sat down to write it was the first and last sentences (10 words together) to form the circular composition and the idea for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th paragraphs. I could have never imagined how much this would grow. I had to add more scenes than I’d thought this would ultimately have on the last day of writing it (which was also the most productive day of writing it). It just spun on its own in this beautiful way for the two of them to fall into each other and I was enticed. So much so that I had to get ideas for more and turn it into a series, of course. I am not complaining because I love the romance so much (and boy, have I got the agony to come for Valtor).

A Demon’s Lover - Griffin x Valtor; M rated; 4950 words

Hate sex. Or should I say hate-love sex? Because that is truly what this is - the best example of my specialty. I love the dissonance of anger/hate coupled with sex so, naturally, that is one of my best tropes. And it helps how great an environment Griffin and Valtor’s relationship is for that kind of thing. This is just Griffin at her most desperate who manages to bring Valtor down with that very thing even if she’s already fallen apart. In other words - everything I want from my characters.

Undying - Marion x Oritel; T rated; 965 words

This one is definitely one of the harshest fics I’ve written (so fair warning for that) but I love the way it really dug into Marion’s psyche and the way she was raised even if it is Oritel’s PoV. That is exactly what I love about it as it was my first (and only) time actually writing Oritel’s side of things and it was an interesting challenge. Not to mention all the feels.

Every Lie Is a Crack on Your Heart so Why Is It Breaking Under the Truth? - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 1111 words

This is what you get when I set out with the intention of writing something truly heartbreaking. I am evilly proud of the blow that the last paragraph of this delivers. It’s another way to twist their situation and make it even more vicious and I grabbed at the opportunity with enthusiasm, of course. What can I say? I love torturing them and exploiting the tragedy of their romance.

Life at The Ancestral Manor + Trivia - Griffin x Valtor/Griffin & Ancestral Witches/Griffin & Ediltrude & Zarathustra; T rated; 13,871 words

This one I had sworn would be short. That didn’t work out but I love the way the fic turned out. Granted, I realized it’d become much darker than I intended once I actually started tagging for stuff (read those warnings) but I love the result. It makes me nauseous at places which was pretty much the idea. Imagine if the Ancestral Witches were your mothers-in-law. Nauseating is a pretty mild descriptor for that situation. Anyway, the emotional torture in this is deliciously (or maliciously) twisted which is one of my favorite things to write and I am proud of the actual prose. I have some really cool metaphors in this. Plus, I have created a really plush world for a one-shot... which of course, demanded me to write more and I have now changed the status of this fic to a “series in planning”. So expect more focus on Griffin’s struggle with her position in the Manor as well as more of her relationship with Valtor plus a few other characters that have been mentioned in the fic but not given the opportunity to shine.

Let Me Mirror Your Love for Me Back at You - Griffin x Faragonda; E rated; 8820 words

I have no idea how this even happened. One minute it’s barely an idea and the next it is almost 9k words. It was certainly an interesting and steamy idea and I had a lot of fun and some projecting with it. This one has one or two of the most romantic lines I’ve written which is a definite testament to the softness that is prevalent despite the erotic element and slightly aggressive, or at the very least underhanded, approach Faragonda demonstrates.

Witches - Griffin & Faragonda (& Griselda & Ediltrude & Zarathustra); T rated; 6050 words

This one really brought in the angst but I love it for the glimpse it gives into one of the most important moments of both Griffin and Faragonda’s lives. The beauty of their friendship just shines in it despite all the dark circumstances and the poor choices made (mostly by Griffin). A big plus here is the presence of the twins and Griselda as well as the banter in the end that I almost cut but decided against it to balance out all the angst I not so accidentally wrote into this.

A Taste of Clouds Doesn’t Have to Chase Away Your Smile - Griffin x Valtor; G rated; 4656 words

The bakery AU I never expected to write. That was a shocker on its own but the surprises didn’t stop there as the fic is significantly lighter than my usual stories and it was a refreshing change of pace. I also find this one my funniest stories because it is mostly focused on the banter and manages to curb the angst enough to keep to a more lighthearted atmosphere and give them a chance to have a normal interaction for once.

Your Call - T rated; 3710 words

I absolutely adore the mini ecosystem I had to create for this one. And not just the ecosystem inside the cave but everything around the cave as well. It became pretty intense and the adventurous tone of the whole fic was new and exciting to me. Plus, the idea of the siren developed a lot more to leave me with an entire new species of sirens that works to different rules. I love creating things like that!

Eternal Like the Burn of the Ocean - T rated; 3596 words

This is another part to the siren AU that I love for the peaceful tone and the obvious development that Griffin and Valtor’s relationship has gone through. There is so much trust in this and everything is so tender despite the whole thing revolving around the decision on which both their fates are hinging. An easy favorite.

Enough To Be Yours - T rated; 5196 words

This is the marriage proposal in the Sparks of Life verse and I was pretty nervous about it because I’d only written one marriage proposal before that but I absolutely love the way it turned out. It is really sweet while also staying true to the hardships that Griffin and especially Valtor are going through. Not to mention that I was super excited about the way the proposal went down and I think it translated well into the written version.

The First Word I Can Never Say (Not to You Anyway) - Griffin x Valtor; T rated; 5330 words

I just fell in love with the setting of TDC and I had to do this AU when two of the characters really reminded me of Griffin and Valtor. I love the way their relationship is impacting them even if I don’t like the circumstances in which it is developing and I plan on doing a lot more in this AU because the emotional development is really intriguing on top of the strategical maneuvers happening in the background (have to stay at least somewhat true to the original book).

What’s in the Heart of the Sun? - Griffin x Valtor

I have never considered poems my cup of tea but the idea I had (a sun and moon AU) just demanded to be put into a poem and I am happy with how it turned out. It allows for a good grasp on their relationship while lacking any actual plot and relying more on aesthetic and emotional imagery.

[mediaeval-muse]

Video Game Review: Assassin’s Creed Revelations (Ubisoft, 2011)

Genres: action-adventure, third person, open world

Premise: Ezio Auditore travels to Constantinople to unlock the secret of Altaïr's vault in Masyaf, battling Templars who also want the vault’s contents. In the present day, Desmond Miles is trapped in the Animus and must find a "synch nexus", a key memory that links him with Altaïr and Ezio, to reintegrate his splintered subconscious and awaken from his coma.

Platform Played On: PC (Windows)

Rating: 3/5 stars

***Full review under the cut.***

I am evaluating this game based on four key aspects: story, characters, gameplay, and visuals. I will not be evaluating the multiplayer mode because I don’t like playing video games with other people.

Content Warnings: violence, blood

Story: The main premise of Revelations’ story is that, following the end of Brotherhood, Desmond has fallen into a coma. The stress of being controlled by Juno has splintered his subconscious, so in an effort to save his life, Rebecca Crane and a mysterious figure have placed him back in the Animus. In order to repair his mind and escape, Desmond must “play out” the remainder of Ezio’s memories, so he follows his ancestor as he travels to Masyaf in search of Altaïr's vault, which requires five “keys” to open. These keys have been hidden around Constantinople, and Ezio must race against the Templars during the political conflict between Şehzade Ahmet and Selim I.

Desmond’s plot follows a somewhat natural progression. Though I missed his interactions with the Assassin team, it makes sense that his next big adventure would involve being trapped in the Animus and learning more from Subject 16. I liked that gameplay in Ezio’s world unlocked some puzzles in Desmond’s world (even though he’s trapped in the Animus, he inhabits a little island where he can be himself) and that these puzzles told us more about Desmond’s past. I did not think, however, that Desmond’s past was related in a compelling way. Most of it is told to us through Desmond monologuing as the player completes puzzles that are somewhat reminiscent of Portal. I thought Desmond’s past could have been done better, perhaps by having flashback scenes like how Altair’s past is related.

Ezio’s plot felt like it was lacking, and I think the reason is that the past 3 games have focused on finding and controlling the Apple/Piece of Eden, whereas this game is about opening a vault/library.  Ezio’s story also lacks a strong antagonist to tie things together; instead of battling the Borgias, Ezio is competing with general “Templars,” and even though there are some prominent Templar figures, none of them had “stage presence” like Cesare Borgia did. Though I liked the political backdrop, I think Ezio himself was ill-suited for it. It sort of feels like the creators wanted to extend Ezio’s story rather than start something new with a protagonist who was more connected to the setting, and though recovering Altair’s library is a fun goal, I think the story should have revolved around someone who grew up in the region.

I did like that we got to delve a little deeper into Altair’s past and learn more about him. Unless you play the portable Assassin’s Creed games, you don’t get to learn much about what happened to Altair in ACII and Brotherhood, so it was nice to see some exploration of his life in a game that was centered on uncovering his work.

Characters: Ezio, our protagonist and player-controlled character, is a little older in this game, and while he’s still likable, he’s much more serious and down-to-business. I’m a bit torn as to whether his demeanor fits the setting of the game - on the one hand, I loved that the European character wasn’t presented as someone who comes to the Middle East and takes charge. Ezio definitely has much to learn, and his skills are seen as having value without being superior. On the other, I do wish the protagonist had been someone who lived in the area - I got the feeling that Ezio was made the protagonist because of his popularity rather than his suitability for the setting, and while I appreciate that Revelations closed out his arc, I don’t really think it was needed.

The major supporting character in this game is Yusuf Tazim, leader of the Turkish Assassin Order. He shows Ezio around and provides much-needed instructions and lore, and he’s incredibly charismatic and personable. Ezio also encounters historical figures such as Manuel Palaiologos and the future Suleiman the Magnificent, which were fun treats for history enthusiasts, but not extremely commanding personalities. Instead of courtesans appearing throughout the city, there are Romani people seen hanging about, and though I liked that they were included and talked about their oppression, I do think their visual design and function during gameplay were somewhat stereotypical.

Ezio furthermore gets a real love interest in this game in the form of Sofia Sartor, an Italian traveler and book collector who helps him locate the keys. I thought the interactions with her were sweet, but she was a kind of damsel in distress and she didn’t have much personality other than liking books for a large part of the game.

Desmond, for his part, doesn’t get a lot to do, despite this game being about reconstructing his psyche and digging into his past. I liked that we learned more about him, but I do wish the stakes of being trapped in the Animus were higher.

Gameplay: Revelations uses almost all of the same mechanics as Brotherhood. There are armor and weapon upgrades, treasure stashes, upgrades to the city of Constantinople (which stimulates the economy and earns the player more money), etc. Art merchants are replaced with book merchants, so instead of buying paintings, players can purchase codices, but functionally, they were the same. Similarly, instead of freeing areas from Borgia influence, players liberate “Templar dens” and turn them into “Assassin dens,” and while they’re thematically different from the Borgia towers, they’re functionally the same. Players complete assassination missions in which you kill the captain of the guard responsible for overseeing the Templar den, but instead of blowing it up, you trick your enemy by signaling Templar retreat, allowing the Assassins to move in and take over the area. You can also recruit assassins and make use of thieves, mercenaries, and courtesans much the same way as in Brotherhood, though courtesans are replaced by Romani people. There was a moment in Sequence 2 when Ezio had to defend the Assassin safehouse from a Templar attack, and gameplay involved placing barricades, commanders, archers, riflemen, and cannon fire. while balancing morale and damage. I kind of liked the strategy involved and it could have been an interesting mechanic for the rest of the Templar dens/Assassin safehouses, but alas, this moment only occurred the one time unless you’re not paying attention to your infamy meter (which was easy to take care of).

The major weapon upgrade in this game is the introduction of the hook blade and various types of bombs. Bombs ranged from simple noisemakers, to stink bombs, mild explosives, smoke screens, and other useful ranged attacks, while the hook blade enabled faster climbing as well as traveling along zip lines. These weapons were fun, but because so much of the other gameplay was the same as in Brotherhood, they felt like cosmetic patches to an otherwise repetitive gameplay experience.

Visuals: As always, I adored the look of the historical setting. The artists and developers beautifully rendered Constantinople, and I loved seeing more rich colors and details on the buildings and clothing of NPCs than when playing as Altair in the first Assassin’s Creed. I also really loved the look of Ezio’s armor, which forwent the classic white and red palette and opted for a more somber grey. The grey blended with the surroundings a bit better, in my opinion.

What really threw me off was that the facial models for some of the returning characters were altered. Both Ezio’s and Desmond’s face shapes are a little different from how they appear in Brotherhood, and though I do not doubt the change was in service to testing out advancements in graphics, I couldn’t quite shake the uncanny valley vibe.

Animations were up and down; upon starting this game, I encountered a horrible glitch that made the screen flicker and movement impossible, but luckily, I was able to fix it easily using instructions from other players who had the bug. There were some really satisfying combat animations, including finishing moves that upped the level of Ezio’s epic skills, but sometimes they lagged or a bug would make them not connect to an opponent. While not the end of the world, it was noticeable and sometimes took me out of the immersion experience.

Final Verdict: Despite repeating much of the gameplay from Brotherhood and unnecessarily extending Ezio’s story, Revelations presents a beautiful atmosphere and fun adventure to unlock some much-desired background to Altair’s narrative.

[essieeeeeeeee]

Shobbs romcom au part 3, comin’ at ya.

---------

Deckard slips down the hall with an expression that he can only assume projects every ounce of his rage, as the few people lingering in his path quickly side-step out of the way. He doesn’t pay much attention to it, though. His thoughts are otherwise occupied, a whirlwind of emotions that he can’t quite seem to shove down far enough to escape from.

He ends up ducking into the first bathroom he comes across, and slams the door behind him.

A cursory glance at the stalls tells him that it’s mercifully empty. Shaw makes a beeline for the sink, leans both hands up against the porcelain counter until his knuckles whiten from the tightness of his grip, and slowly releases a long, shuddering breath.

Brixton.

How could this have happened? Five years of vigilant avoidance - declining invitations to any functions his ex could show at (all of them, really), ignoring texts and phone calls, changing the channel when Lore was even so much as mentioned - and somehow, fate finds a way to get him stuck with the man all over again. And not just stuck, but having to work with him? To have to acknowledge his presence, to make conversation, to pretend Lore hadn’t ripped his still-beating heart from his chest and stomped on it, in front of millions?

Fate was a fucking cunt.

With a strap-on, apparently, considering how much she enjoyed fucking him over.

A shudder works its way down his spine, and Deckard grinds his teeth together. He grabs the tap and wrenches it on with more force than necessary, cups the cold water in his hands, and splashes it onto his face. The shock of cold doesn’t help as much as he’d hoped; he still feels tense, trembling with anger and other emotions he doesn’t bother to name (because anger is fine - anger is all he needs, and all he’ll let himself feel).

And oh, is he angry. So, so angry, to the point that he’s not quite sure what’ll happen, if they stick him in a room with Brixton in this state. He can’t afford it - not after Toretto.

Hattie would kick his arse, if he had a repeat performance of that shitshow again.

A brief pang of guilt strikes him. He shouldn’t have yelled at Hattie. None of this is his sister’s fault, and logically he knows this, but he can’t help the bit of blame he wants to lay at her feet for strong-arming him into this situation in the first place. Deckard squeezes the sink ledge even tighter.

He really needs to hit something.

He raises his head, and stares at his face in the mirror. Watches the rivulets of water drip down the curves of his cheeks for a few silent, contemplative moments.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” Shaw snarls - and then, abruptly, rears his fist back, and sends it slamming into his own reflection.

The glass shatters instantly. Deckard revels in the sharp jolt of pain radiating up his arm, and watches the broken pieces of mirror rain to the ground with a crash. It’s oddly soothing, he thinks, eyes caught on a drop of bright red on the sharp edge of one sliver, to watch the destruction he could cause from a single strike.

The following silence, after the chime of splintering glass, is almost deafening. Shaw stares listlessly at his fractured reflection in the few fragmented pieces of mirror left behind.

He thinks, briefly, about how appropriate the sight feels.

The sound of a throat clearing over his shoulder jolts him out of his musings.

"I know the sight of your face can be traumatic, but maybe don't take it out on the mirror."

Deckard closes his eyes. Takes a deep breath in.

As if his day couldn’t get any worse.

"Piss off, Hobbs," he hisses, pulling his fist back from the mirror and resting it on the sink ledge. He can feel the wet slide of blood dripping down his wrist, but the numbness that swept in after his initial outburst makes caring about that a difficult task.

Hobbs chuckles behind him, and Shaw can’t quite muster up the amount of irritation he knows he’d usually feel about that.

“Seven years bad luck, you know,” the big man says, closer this time. Deckard raises his eyes to the busted mirror again to see Hobbs stroll into view behind him.

Ten minutes alone, Deckard thinks. Couldn’t even get that, in this miserable shitstain of a day.

“Put it on my fucking tab,” he mutters absently. He raises his hand to take a look at the damage, and Shaw frowns at the sight of his split knuckles. Several small shards of glass are still embedded in the skin.

Those were going to be a bitch to get out.

Movement in the mirror catches his eye again, and he glances back up to see Hobbs coming closer, a frown on his face. The furrow in his brow almost looks concerned.

The expression makes Shaw’s hackles rise. He doesn’t need the man’s pity.

“Why don’t you make yourself useful and go pick up something heavy?” he snaps, and Deckard knows the insult’s weak, but he doesn’t have enough energy to deal with Hobbs’ shit on top of everything else right now.

Hobbs outright ignores it, though. And instead of stopping, he moves closer, and in the next moment he smoothly snatches up Shaw’s wrist before Shaw can even register the movement.

Deckard stiffens; the sudden warmth of a big hand against his cold skin is startling, and freezes him in his tracks. He stares at it in some surprise.

“You should see medical,” Hobbs says, and Deckard half-registers it as he watches the other man’s thumb brush an absent-minded circle over the skin of the Brit’s inner wrist. Shaw can feel a flush start to make itself known around his neck from the action. “Some of these are deep, might need stitches.”

Deckard stares for another moment, caught up in that small, continuous brush of the other man’s thumb - before abruptly gathering his wits about him and snatching his hand back from Hobbs' grasp.

“Deaf as well as dumb?” he barks, taking a step back from the bigger man to recenter himself. “I said leave me the fuck alone."

Hobbs' lips tighten and he rolls his eyes. “No,” he corrects mockingly, crossing his arms, “you said ‘piss off’ like a whiny prepubescent child. And since I am actually a grown ass man, I made the executive decision to ignore it.”

“Pretty sure you’re just a grown arse,” Deckard sneers.

“Pretty sure you’re just a pain in the ass.”

“Tch,” Shaw scoffs, but instead of leaning into the argument as per their usual, he turns his back on the other actor and moves his attention back to his damaged hand instead. He didn’t have the time or energy for this conversation right now; all it was doing was reigniting his earlier fury, and Shaw needed some semblance of calm if he was going to survive the upcoming meeting.

With great effort, he ignores Hobbs' presence completely, and focuses on gently wiggling a small shard of glass from his knuckle. Another dribble of blood wells up as it slides out without much fuss. He dips his hand under the still-running tap to wash it away.

"So, what's got princess Deckard in a snit now?" Hobbs asks calmly beside him, leaning his hip against the adjacent sink.

Deckard fishes out another sliver of glass and sneers.

"Tell me, Hobbs - when exactly did you get the notion that my life was any of your business?"

Hobbs laughs, soft and low. "Wow, someone really did just piss right in your wheaties, didn't they?" He leans closer, and the wide, charming grin the actor's sporting is hard to miss as he moves further into Shaw's personal space. "Come on, now: tell papa Luke all about what's got little Deckard wound up this time."

Deckard bristles. "Here's a thought," he snaps, brusquely grabbing at the last splinter still wedged into his skin, "how about you go and fu-"

Shaw cuts himself off with a hiss of pain; the glass is bigger, and deeper than expected, and sends a sharp bite of agony through his hand as it slides out. Another fount of blood slides sluggishly down his arm.

Hobbs' brows furrow, expression warping from playful to concerned again, and he immediately reaches out a hand towards Shaw's wrist. "Here, let me - "

But suddenly Shaw thinks of Brixton - his hand reaching out, on his shoulder, squeezing, an unwanted, spine-shuddering presence, and he smacks Hobbs' fingers away, stepping back with a withering snarl.

"Get your mitts off'a me!"

Hobbs jerks back, and holds his hands up in surrender. "Sure thing, cupcake," he snaps back, his annoyance obvious.

Deckard doesn’t care, though. He aggressively turns to the sink and washes off the remaining blood before grabbing a paper towel to wrap around the wounds. Hobbs lowers his arms again, then crosses them, and snorts.

“Just saying, though - you might want to start getting used to my mitts on you, if you really want to be a part of this movie.”

Deckard stills. He glances back to Hobbs, and his eyes narrow.

“I'm a goddamn professional, Hobbs,” he says, each word sharp and pointed. “I'll do what needs done in front of the cameras, but outside that? Stay away from me."

With that, Deckard decides it’s time to leave. He turns, and strides to the door, posture tense and bristling.

"Professional, huh?" Hobbs replies, pointedly eyeing the broken mirror as Shaw sweeps by him. "Then maybe you should try dialing it down a few thousand notches. Don't need you punching anything else on set."

Deckard's gait falters, and he stiffens. Toretto. The reference was obvious. And, strangely enough, the dig actually hurts.

He didn’t expect that. Didn’t expect that he’d give enough of a damn about Hobbs’ opinion of him, at this point, considering their history, but -

He guesses his skin isn’t quite as thick as he’d thought.

Something to work on, then.

"Stay out of my fucking way,” Shaw says slowly, not bothering to turn back around to face the other man, “and we won't need to worry about that, will we?"

Deckard slams the bathroom door open, and storms back out into the hall beyond.

Day one, and this was already turning into a fucking nightmare.

[agent-yolk-writes]

Friends Like You and Us - Venom!Reader - Ch. 4

And we’re back! First AO3, then Quotev, now finally Tumblr! Good thing for post resets.

In today’s episode, we jump straight back to the present to meet the last member of the B-Team. Venom has a plan for once, the Reader is Absolutely Done(tm) physically and emotionally, and what Aunt Mary doesn’t know who her nibling is bringing into their apartment while she’s on a business trip won’t kill her...yet. 

(Nibling is the gender-neutral term for niece/nephew, the more you know)

Note: If you’re using this to teleport to the AO3 version I would like to give a heads up that the italics for some reason stop working when the Reader meets Peni. I don’t know how to fix it, so it be like that sometimes. Enjoy!

Previous Chapter | Start from the beginning | AO3 version

...

Indeed, it did get weirder.

You didn’t realize that the hunt for your next meal took so long. The sun just...got ahead of you. The shadows in this creepy part of the city started stretching, covering everything in its path. You thought your eyes were playing tricks when you saw another pair of Spider-man’s white eyes in the darkness behind Ham. The tingling sensation faded as the shadow started moving, revealing that it was an actual goddamn person.

Despite being a self-proclaimed ‘superhero’ for almost a week now, you aren’t getting paid enough for this.

You rubbed your eyes expecting this weird dizzy spell would go away, but upon opening them again they were still standing there staring at you.

“Don’t worry, I get that all the time.” Ham commented. He eyed his taller companion and nudged him on the thigh. “C’mon man, you can’t just stand there menacingly forever.”

“...”

Should I just go or-

“You got some nerve stealing the glory of someone else’s hard work.” Great, he also sounds familiar. Is this some reunion you didn’t get the memo for?

“Well you certainly can’t leave them here to waste!” You rebutted as you stood up. “Someone’s gotta clean up, and it might as well be us.”

“There’s no us in this, missy.” He rebutted.

“That’s not what I-Ugh, whatever!” You shook your head in your heads in frustration before looking back at them. “Look, we’re not going to get anywhere bickering like this.” You motioned your hands to the two. “You guys are out of place, clearly. Let’s discuss this somewhere else before-“ On cue, the sudden wail of police sirens announced their presence as they block off the only ground entrance out of here. Venom instinctually covered your ears to block out the loud sound. “...that.” You sound of your croak almost sounded not human.

The two looked at each other. While you were right that this isn’t the ideal spot for an interrogation, you’re still not in the clear of their suspicions.

“Alright. Let’s skedaddle then, but you’re not out of the hot seat yet, missy.” The brooding spider detective said, shooting a spider web and letting it pull him up. You couldn’t help but groan, he speaks like a dad in a cartoon.

Ham nudged you deeper into the alley. “C’mon kid. It’s quieter up top.” You could feel Venom trying to dig your heels into the dirt, but at this point, it was too dangerous.

~

Spider-Ham, also known as Peter Porker, was in fact not a pig at first. According to him, he was the spider bitten by a radioactive pig that later became his aunt. He told you not to think about it too much. In his world, everyone has been anthropomorphized into an animal. He works at the Daily Beagle where they work him like a dog trying to sniff out the latest scoop. He was just finishing a fight with a mad scientist lobster before he got snatched between dimensions. The more he talks, the more vocal your thoughts are trying to figure out where have you heard his voice before. A thought passed somewhere about what you might look like in his world.

His black and white companion was Spider-Man Noir, also known as Peter Benjamin Parker, who lived in a monochromic version of Earth in the 1930s. He used to investigate stories for the Daily Bugle and during that time a spider that resided in an exotic statue from Africa escaped and bit him. After the betrayal and death of his mentor Ben (“Not to confuse ya with my uncle Ben, who also bit the dust.” He explained.), he decided to become a P.I. and fight Nazis along the way. You liked this guy already, and yet he also sounds so familiar.

To think just half an hour or so, you were about to metaphorically throw hands and eat heads…

And we still didn’t eat them.

Yea, I’m a bit disappointed too. I’ll make it up later.

Those poor criminals, wasted. Handed to the police before you could even nibble on a finger. If Venom starts to act up like a grumpy child, it’s on them. After the small buzzing in your ears died down, all you’re left with is that dull throbbing in your head that you get with migraines and hunger from both you and your companion. It’s not your fault the universe slapped a literal man-eater on you.

Then again, after the whole exposition dump they piled on you, you felt a little guilty sprinkling your truth with little white lies on top. By the way your companion was treated by his not-so-friendly superhero, you could only assume that it’s mutual throughout the alternative universes. Better play it safe and claim you built your suit out of some nanotech that was laying around...somewhere. You even ‘pulled down’ your mask as a sign of trust.

You regained your focus when Venom used your limbs to jump between buildings to catch up with the eccentric duo. You haven’t really kept in touch with the whole lore of superheroes. They didn’t involve you, so you didn’t get involved. It wasn’t going to be the end of the world if you didn’t reblog five different gifsets of the same skit Tony Stark was in on Sunday Night Live. If they’re taking you to some secret spider cave, then it’s news to you.

Speaking of which,

“Sooo,” You decided to break the ice. “Where...exactly are we heading to?”

“Our own little Hooverville.” Noir answered. “It ain’t much, but it’s the best we got at the moment.”

“Plus we already have someone guarding the helm while we searched for more folks like you!” Ham added.

“You’re telling me there’s another one of you guys?” You held your hands up and counted the total number of spider heroes, not including yourself.

“And together, we make quite a ragtag bunch.” Ham continued on. “Who knew you could make a robot shaped like a spider?”

“Don’t forget the fact it’s small enough for that kid to get in and out with ease and her fingers still intact.” Noir added.

“Who...is this…’person’ you’re talking about?” You questioned, trying not to assume to worse.

“Don’t worry, she’s a sweetheart.” The detective added. “She’s got spunk for someone her size.”

Oh god, Venom.

What?

If this is an actual child I swear-

~

“Welcome back!”

You had to give your eyes a good rub to process what you were seeing. In front of you was indeed a small mecha shaped like a spider. The red and blue metal pieces clash together but at the same time was fitting for something like it. The small figure that was tinkering one of the robot’s legs when you arrived. As they stood up and you finally get a good look at her, you wanted to go apeshit over the fact that, indeed, it’s an actual child piloting a robot. You’ve seen like two movies that basically told you why it’s a bad idea for a kid to pilot a destructive machine in the first place.

You can tell by her appearance alone that she too is from another universe. You couldn’t describe it, but her dimensions seem...rather flat? No, that’s not the right word. Whatever it is, Ham has it too. You thought it was just Ham being Ham up until now since, after all, he's a walking, talking, crime-fighting pig you see in cartoons.

“Hey kid, hope there weren’t any scuffles while we were gone.” Noir was the first to greet her as she ran up to him.

“Nope! It was quiet as a mouse.” Was her response. She peered around his brooding form and met your eyes. Her eyes managed to grow even bigger as she approaches you excitedly.

”Hello! You must be the one we were sensing!” She grabbed your hand, giving it a nice shake. “I’m Peni Parker, and that over there is my robot SP//dr!” As if on cue, SP//der’s faceplate lit up and gave a friendly wave. Out of politeness, you waved back while ignoring the spidey-sense going off threefold.

Peni Parker...Peter “Noir” Parker...Peter Porker...Not to alarm anyone, but you think there’s some kind of pattern going here, and you’re the outlier. Well, at least Gwanda is with you for this one.

”H-Hello, Peni…” God, why are you acting so awkward all of the sudden? ”I’m (First Name), hero name TBA.” You shot your arm out awkwardly, letting the small girl take the reins in the art of the first handshake. You wonder if she can sense your weirdness with that firm grip of hers.

“So, now what?” Ham was the first to break the silence before it got weird. “We’re basically sitting ticking time bombs until we figure out a way to get back home! New kid!” He pointed at you, making you jump at the sudden action. “You got anything new to contribute?”

Shit! Shit! No one told me this was a quiz! Vee!

...We have an idea. Cover us.

Huh?! You have a-

Venom assumed control of your body, shrugging off your backpack to find your phone. Your phone? What could there possibly be on your...Oh! You have...some sort of an idea on what he’s doing! Maybe.

“Actually,” You started, bracing yourself like you’re stalling for time on an in-class presentation. “I heard a rumor the other day online…” Subtly, Venom pulled back the tendrils over your thumb so your phone can scan your print. “Somebody on a high-rise took a picture of the area-passwordiscapitalqwerty-where Spider-Man died. Can’t guarantee that-yesallcaps-you’ll see the body with this quality though.” Now if you can only find said photo if the mods of that subreddit didn’t remove it first. Ugh, this public wifi sucks ass. Who's hoarding it at this hour?

It doesn’t help that your hand is visibly shaking as your phone struggles to detect any pressure from your sweaty appendages and three sets of eyes that are on you expectedly aren't making this any easier. To make sure karma knows it's laughing at you, your phone slipped out of your grip at the most inopportune moment. Your case had taken some beatings in the past, but you know for sure by the sound of the landing that it was time for it to be replaced. You just stood there frozen, wondering when the panic attack kicks in.

Instead, your tingling skin is your only warning before your muscles went out of control. It felt like you were being ripped from the inside out and then being ripped outside in twice fold. The pained garble coming out of your mouth was either coming from you or Venom. It was tough to see with your spotty vision, but it looks like your newly befriended companions were going through this too in various states of pain.

After a few seconds, the out of body experience ended. You know immediately that trying to get up quickly will kick you in the ass right after.

You good, buddy?

Peachy.

Figured.

When you patted around and found your phone, you couldn’t help but grimace at the sight of new cracks branching over your screen.

”Son of a bitch…” You couldn't help but swear out. ”You know what? This would be better if I did this at my place, yeah?” Digging your hands into your face you inhale, waited, and exhale slowly. When you looked up, they were still staring at you with concerned eyes. “What? It’s my first week on the job, can you give me some slack?”

~

While you knew your aunt was a few hours away somewhere upstate you couldn’t help but pray that she doesn’t decide to come back home in the darkness of the night. If Penn Station was closer, maybe you could’ve caused some delays on the Amtrak. Didn’t help that you now have guests sheltering in your apartment clearly not built for four heroes of various sizes that had to get inside through the window. You hope no one in the next building over calls the police. You all even put a tarp over SP//dr, much to the dismay of the robot, to make sure it doesn’t end up on your social media timeline later on. At least Mr. Davis wasn’t there when you unlocked the door manually.

“It’s nothing much, but it’s the best I can do. Make yourself at home.” You didn’t need to say that twice. Almost instantly they go around poking and observing whatever they can. “Can I...get any of you something to drink?”

“An egg cream for me.”

“I’ll take some juice, please!”

“Rum and coke. Shaken, not stirred.”

You have no idea what an egg creme is, there’s only vegetable juice in the fridge, and there’s certainly no alcohol in this apartment. You’ll make it work somehow.

Keyword: somehow.

Do pig-spiders even need to get drunk in the first place? According to Google, egg cream is just a fancy way of saying milkshake. How old are these people exactly?