#anyways now i can finally order these and render them so I can finally move the footage off my recording/editing drive

[semi-sketchy]

This won't be useful to anyone except me but here's when each batch of side stories unlock in The Final Horizon as well as their location.

[danibee33]

Don't mind me, just thinking about Johnny keeping a secret...

(render cr: @ave661)

word count: 1k

—> heads up: smut warning, unprotected p in v, gently edited, *parts in italics are flashbacks*

— Thinking about how it’s nearly sunset when the team finally lands back at base. The mission had been easy comparatively speaking, as always, recon took the longest- and, like always, it was Johnny’s least favorite part. See, he hated the waiting, hated the twiddling his thumbs, hated the boredom of it all. Johnny liked to be moving, always, in whatever way he could be. 

Idle hands lead to evil thoughts, or however the saying goes-

Sure, he had Ghost there, but he could only do so much with the dry humor and witty banter, not that the Lieutenant wasn’t good at it- in fact, Johnny really didn’t mind working with the broody man one bit.

Slowly, but surely, and certainly never to be admitted by Ghost, Johnny thinks he’s managed to break him down a bit. He was good like that though-

Never one to back down from a challenge.. Never.

"What can I get for you?”

Johnny had noticed the cute little bartender right away.

The bar itself was always the same when they were home, a local place overwhelmingly patronized by military folk due to its proximity to base, but she was an undoubtedly new face.

And he would know, but that’s neither here, nor there.

She was a sweet thing, with long, dark chocolatey hair that hung in perfect waves down her back, and the biggest brown eyes he thinks he’s ever seen- 

“Scotch.” He says, a lopsided grin on his lips, “and bourbon, for the big guy.”

Without missing a beat, she huffs out a laugh, meeting Ghost’s eye for only a moment before returning her gaze to Johnny, “What? Big Guy can’t order his own drink?” 

Oh, isn’t she trouble..

“Actually, I believe he prefers to be called-”

“That’ll do.” Simon barks out, rolling his eyes at the way the bartender giggles, her hands moving at the same time to pour to perfectly measured drinks-

“Would you like to open a tab?” 

“Yeah,” Ghost speaks again, the crystal glass comically small in his hand, “Lover boy here will cover it, won’t ya, Johnny?”

He walks away before the Scot can give an answer, leaving the two behind to continue on with whatever this was. But, Johnny doesn’t have a problem with that- he’s almost grateful, as he digs in his back pocket, eyes never leaving hers. And even though he could blatantly see other people patiently waiting to have their orders, she doesn’t move, 

“What’s your name?” Sweet Thing takes the card from between his fingers, and he doesn’t miss how her fingertips linger over his for just a moment longer than what would be necessary-

Such fucking trouble..

But, to his surprise, as soon as she has the card in the system, he watches her give almost the same exact treatment to the man standing to his left, and then the man next to him- though, her little giggle wasn’t nearly as warm with them. Or maybe that’s just his own hubris coming out. Either way, he turns on his heel, heading to the table where Simon and Gaz are already sat, chatting idly and sipping on drinks, 

“Surprised you’re back already.” Ghost deadpans, casting Johnny a lazy side-eye.

And he hates to think that he’s a bit surprised, too, but- it’s not the first time he’s been knocked down a notch or two, and it won’t be the last, 

“Ach- You’re real funny, LT. Y’know that?”

“Drinks, tonight?” Gaz asks with a cheery lilt, looking between the other three.

Ghost gives a noncommittal grunt, maybe a yes or maybe a no, maybe a something in between- they never know with him anyway. And Johnny isn’t sure how to answer, he doesn't exactly want to give away who he has waiting for him- doesn't want say what has his leg bouncing with anticipation, or a barely held back grin every time he looks at his phone now that they’re close enough to the ground to get a signal.

He's spoken of his bonnie lass as sparingly as possible, something deep down in him just needing to keep her to himself for as long as he can. Keep her away from this part of his life-

It’s their Captain that speaks up first, 

“Not tonight, boys. Havin' dinner at home.”

"Say that again, Bonnie..”

It’s hard to form a coherent sentence, but she manages to moan out his name again, “Oh, fuck, Johnny.. Right there, baby.”

The back seat of Johnny’s truck had to be good enough tonight, he couldn’t wait a second fucking longer- which is how they ended up here, him stretched out on the seat as far as he could get, watching her bounce and grind on his cock, riding him like it’s the last thing she might ever do, 

“That’s it.. ” Johnny groans, his fingers digging into the fatty flesh of her hips, hard enough he’s sure there might be bruises left behind for him to kiss tomorrow, “Y’re so fuckin’ perfect- y’know that?”

God, her smile could be enough to send him over the edge right then, her pretty pink lips pulling up, just for him, teeth biting into the plump of her bottom lip, just for him, before parting in the most mouth watering moan- all of it, just for him.

He was hooked, addicted, hopelessly, and irrevocably- he wanted her in every way, and it had only been a handful of months since she finally gave him the time of day.

So, when she buries her face in his neck, letting him thrust into her deeply, wildly, letting him all but throw her headfirst into the blinding pleasure of an orgasm- her silky walls clench around him so tightly he can’t help but to let go, painting her insides white with a low, guttural growl- his voice deep as he guides them both through the high, 

“That’s my girl.. My good fuckin’ girl, huh? God, ya feel just divine.. Can never get enough-” He coos, over and over, lavishing her neck and jaw with kisses, wanting to taste the sheen of sweat on her skin. 

And every time, he wonders how he could’ve gotten so lucky- to have a woman like her want anything to do with a guy like him.

“There’s my sweet girl, how are ya, honey?” Price greets his only daughter with a kiss to the cheek and a warm hug, the type of hug he always and only ever saved for his little girl. He can’t help it, she just seemed too grown now, too tall, too mature with her mother’s calming brown eyes and her dad’s cheeky smile, 

“Hi, daddy-” She says, a beaming smile on her lips, “I’m glad you’re home.”

a/n: i’ve had this one in my drafts for a while 😬 & for the request I recently got for the zombie!au, i promise i’m working on it!!

*whole inspo was this song, because johnny fucking would*

[hearts4youz]

The Captains Daughter -Chapter 6-

A/N: This chapter is a bit longer, finally writing some real action!! Expect chapters to be a lot less... boring from here on out. The first couple chapters were slow for the purpose of developing the plot and characters and yada yada yada. But anyways- I hope yall enjoy this chapter!!

Word count: 2k

Reader pov:

You flopped on your bed after dinner. Anticipation for the mission tomorrow morning rendering you unable to sleep. Your eyes flicked to the open duffle bag on the floor, clothes spilling out of it. Sighing you got up from your bed and moved towards the bag, picking up discarded clothes as you did. You opened the plain wooden drawers in your bedroom and placed your clothes in them, organizing them by shirts, pants, socks and whatnot. At the bottom of the bag was the one personal item you were allowed to bring, your photo album. Smiling, you reached down and picked up the binder. It was decorated with pink glitter, paint, and other craft materials. You made it with your friends in middle school, it was almost full now. Inside were pictures in as close to chronological order as you could get. You flipped open the binder, the glossy cover protected each of the pages, gliding past your fingers as you turned each page.

At the beginning of the book was pictures from your first birthday, your parents were still together. Your father's eyes squinted shut from his wide grin, you had cake all over your face and sported a huge smile of your own to match his. Your mother however, smiled less enthusiastically than your dad, a faraway look in your eyes. You frown as you focused on her. You didn't remember her much, one of the only memories you had of her being the night she left.

You were three years old, your father had finished your bedtime routine over an hour ago, but you remained wide awake.

"I can't do this anymore John," you heard your mom yell from the kitchen.

"Emilia. please, for Y/N," "please," you heard your fathers pleas.

"John," your mother said quieter, voice breaking.

"I was never meant to be a mother, I love you, so, so much but.." her voice was breaking as her sentance trailed off.

"You can't just leave me, you can't just leave your daughter because parenting isn't for you." "We're supposed to be in this together"

Your father sounded more upset now

"John I-" "You know how I feel about throwing my life away for a kid,"

"Throwing away your life? can you hear yourself right now?" he raised his voice.

"Yes, I can't even go out anymore cause I have to watch her"

"Y/N is the best thing that has ever happened to us, she is our life now." your dad yelled.

"Maybe she's yours, but she sure as hell will never be mine," your mom screamed.

You didn't understand the severity of the situation. You didn't understand why your dad stomped up the stairs, quiet sniffles leaving his nose.

You didn't understand why your dad hugged you tighter then usual before he dropped you off at preschool the next morning, or why he was always sad and drinking.

You didn't understand why mom wasn't coming home.

You closed the book. You didn't have any emotion at the thought of that night, you hardly knew your mother, never saw her again. Your dad explained it to you once you were old enough, once he was over it. The two of you did just fine alone.

Besides, there's a mission tomorrow, which deserves your focus. No need to reminisce on old memories. You laid down on the subpar mattress, falling asleep shortly after.

The next morning you awoke to your alarm blaring once again. Following your normal routine, you got dressed, splashed your face with cold water, brushed your teeth, and made sure your gear was set for the mission. You made sure your pack had everything you needed as well, forgetting something on your first mission wouldn't be very impressive.

You need to prove yourself, you thought. For your team, especially your father and Ghost. Your dad believed in you, you needed to make sure you lived up to his expectations. The harder task, proving to Ghost that you belonged in the 141.

Slinging your bag over your shoulder, you took one last look at your room, scanning for something you could have possibly forgot, and left.

The 141 gets to skip breakfast in order to get the mission done, you were grateful you were missing out on rock hard "pancakes," if you could even call them that.

You were told to meet in the bay, where they kept the vehicles. The plan was to take a Humvee to the drop location, hopefully the area would be clear of infadels, and you could be back by mid afternoon.

You took the stairwell down to the bay, which was basically a glorified parking garage, meeting up with Gaz along the way.

"You ready kid?" he grinned, looking intimidating in full gear. You on the other hand, looked like a kid in grown-ups clothes. Your boots were a size too large, tripping you up occasionally. Your tactical vest hung loose off your stomach. You really did look like a kid compared to the burly men in your squad.

"Ready as i'll ever be," you cringed at the corny reply you let slip out of your mouth. Gaz chuckled.

Gaz briefed you on what to expect as you descended the stairs, missions like these were routine, easy. He had told you.

You felt butterflies in your stomach, slight nervousness setting in as you entered the bay, which Gaz assured you was normal.

You reached the spot where the vehicle was parked, Ghost was already there, having a smoke. He nodded towards the two of you as you neared. You muttered a hello as he offered Gaz a cigarette. He held the packet out to you, offering you one.

"No thanks, I don't smoke," you stated.

Ghost scoffed, "You will eventually."

You furrowed your brows, wondering what he meant.

The three of you stood in silence waiting for the rest of the group. Price was next to arrive, then Soap and Alejandro. Once you were gathered, Your father went over the mission once more, then climbed into the drivers seat. Ghost entered the passenger side, Gaz and soap jumped into the middle row, leaving you and Alejandro with the very back seats.

The drive was mostly silent, until about halfway through when your dad kicked on the radio. It was set to some country station, your father hummed the tune, a few of the men nodded along to the song. After around three hours the vehicle slowed, merging onto a dirt road, after a few miles you came upon a small town, few people milled around the streets. Startled when they saw the armored military vehicle turning up the dusty path.

You came upon a run down building at the edge of the town, you were exposed to anything. If enemies were here, they surely saw you rolling into town. You didn't move a muscle when the car stopped, awaiting orders.

The fear really set in now, the severity of what could happen if there were in fact enemies hiding out in this building.

Your monologue was cut short by the sound of Soap slamming his door shut. You jumped up, startled.

"Relax," Alejandro chuckled.

You sighed, relieved that it wasn't gunshots.

The six of you piled out of the car, grouping up in front of the building. You all stared at Price, waiting for his input.

"Let's get in and get out, If anyone is inside they surely know we have arrived. I would have preferred a stealthier entrance, but I was given close to no information about the area to go off of." He said, any trace of your soft, caring father gone. Replaced by the stone faced military man he reserved for work.

You took in your surroundings, the building was old and weathered. Part of the roof was caved in, moss crawled across the damaged siding. Cracked windows decorated the outside, allowing for a look into the unfurnished building.

The group carried out protocol wordlessly, peering into windows to check for danger, planning entrance and exit routes, and assessing the situation. Everyone seemed to have a job, you were lost in the middle of it. Your father was too focused on the task at hand to help you.

Ghost noticed your slight distress and beckoned you over. He was crouched by a ground level window, pointing at something inside. You stood directly in front of the window, trying to make out what Ghost was pointing at, when you were taken to the ground by a large mass.

The wind was knocked out of you as you looked up at Ghost who was now on top of you.

"Stupid, Rookie mistake." he uttered.

"Is there anything inside that lump three feet above your fucking ass?" He spat.

"My what?" your voice trembled.

"Your head you twat."

"He probably saw you, you fucking imbecile," his words bit into your heart, tugging on the strings.

"He?" you gasped.

"Yes, you twat. There's a soldier in there with our supplies," he said, getting off of you, pushing his boot into your stomach after he stood, for good measure. As if you weren't humiliated enough, there was now a dusty footprint across your body.

Gathering yourself, you stood. Crouching behind the Lieutenant as he steadied his gun, taking aim at the man through the broken glass. A moment later you heard the crack of gunfire and the thump of a body hitting the ground. Ghost had hit his target and moved away from the window, flattening himself and you against the siding before anyone inside could return fire.

Your radio crackled as Ghost briefed the others on the events. Price gave instructions in return.

"Stay close," Ghost murmured in your ear, grasping your arm and leading you around the back of the building. With your free hand, you unholstered your own gun.

You followed Ghost as he rounded the corner. You heard the shouts in the distance as the fighting ensued.

Your radios crackled, "Entering the premises," said Gaz.

Ghost responded, "We're around the back, entering on that side."

Another voice chimed in, "Y/N how copy?"- your dad.

"With Ghost,"

"Copy" The back door was slightly ajar, Ghost kicked it open then stepped to the side for cover, nothing happened and he stepped inside.

The room you entered smelled of mildew and soot. It clearly hasn't been used for its original purpose in years. Pieces of drywall lay on the ground, pieces of broken glass mixed into the mess. Old, torn, and stained furniture was scattered throughout.

You scanned the seemingly empty area. Ghost did the same. Concluding that the coast was clear, the two of you walked further into the building. You suddenly heard the sounds of a skirmish above you. Grunting and banging, sounds of someone hitting the floor.

Gunshots

You and Ghost exchanged a glance before frantically searching for a way upstairs, hoping that the slain wasn't one of your teammates.

Ghost pressed a button on his radio. Once the two of you were officially lost. "Anyone caught in the fight upstairs?"

"Negative," multiple voices said.

Price took over the comms to give more orders.

"We've taken out about five so far. An unknown number remain. Stay cautious. Our supplies are supposed to be at the top floor. Lets meet up there. Once we have as much as we can carry we leave. If you meet an... infidel, you have permission to kill."

"Copy"

To be continued...

Taglist: @abbiesxox

[mara-tevith-solo]

It Takes Two

Part 4 and final part, promise. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Pairing: Miguel O’Hara x enhanced ex-Avenger reader

Warnings: None? None that I can think of anyway. Domestic bliss, family, second chances at life and happiness, fluff, OC character, birthday party, surprise pregnancy, kids being kids, use of Spanish as a non-native speaker and did my best research for proper words, sappy!Miguel, dad!Miguel

Rated: E for everyone

Words: 2.3k+

There was something about coming home after any length of time away from it, that feeling of missing your bed, missing your loved ones, instantly soothed as soon as you stepped over the threshold every time. There was music playing from the kitchen, not loud, but still welcoming, familiar. "Mommy!" That voice, wavering with excitement, made you drop your pack as the owner of it charged out of the kitchen, her small frame speckled with flour, a new gap in her front teeth.

"Oh there's my little Natalie!" She leapt into your arms, hers tight around your neck as she hugged you as hard as she could, giggling as you lifted her off the ground as your stood up straight again. "Why are you all covered in flour, Mija? Are you spying on the neighbor's cat again?" You hummed as you began taking exaggerated steps further into your home, swinging your legs out wide to the side with every step so that your big little bundle of joy swung and shrieked little giggles as she clung to you as hard as you were clinging to her.

"No, mommy!" She giggled, movement over her head pulling your attention up to Miguel as he exited the kitchen, the very definition of self satisfied as he leaned against the doorframe, splattered head to toe with flour.

You couldn't stop the bubbling laughter as you pressed a kiss to her adorable head "Oh I think I understand now! You waged culinary war on Daddy, didn't you?"

He pushed off of the doorframe as she nodded with devious laughter, letting her grip on you loose as you began to set her back down on her own feet "Welcome home, mi reina." His hand was warm and comforting as it cupped your cheek, pulling you into a tender kiss as he leaned over Natalie, the child making a sound of disgust before racing off back the way she came "I missed you, Mrs. O'Hara." He murmured against your lips as he quickly took the vacated space, holding you close like he hadn't seen you in months. It'd only been two weeks, but he'd always greeted you with the same intense enthusiasm, even if you had been apart for an afternoon.

"I missed you too, Mr. O'Hara." You hummed, stealing a chaste little peck from him, your palm against his chest, refamiliarizing yourself with his heartbeat. "I have a surprise for you tonight."

You smiled up at him through your lashes, easily rendered breathless as he smiled so prettily down at you "Oh?" He rumbled, beginning to sway with you to the music that was still filling the apartment.

You nodded with a soft giggle, falling into step with him easily "Mhmm, I'm positive you're going to love it." You closed your eyes with a contented sigh, letting your latest adventure melt off your frame as you relaxed with your love "Some peace and quiet with my loves is just what the doctor ordered tonight."

He stopped moving, a guilty cast to his eyes as he smiled awkwardly down at you, his mouth opening to release words he didn't get the chance to utter. There was a firm knock at the door, Natalie practically a blur as she rushed past excitedly, beelining for the door as you both just watched "Uncle Bucky! Uncle Sam!" She yelled excitedly, throwing herself at the two men as she opened the door for them, her missing tooth making her whistle Sam's name.

"Hey sweet pea! What have you been up to little miss?" Sam was quick and enthusiastic with his greeting as he picked her up with his free arm, holding her close as he and Bucky entered the apartment, both carrying bags of things. "Glad to see you home, Y/n." He greeted you next, putting down his single bag to give you a quick side hug, Buck setting down the six bags he was carrying to collect you in a proper hug of his own.

"Daddy taught me how to make empanadas like abuela!" Natalie answered enthusiastically, thoroughly proud of herself.

"He did?! That's pretty cool!"

"Glad to be back." You hummed as you hugged Buck tightly, pulling away with a confused glance back at your partner "I love you both, but what's the occasion?"

"Don't tell me you forgot your own one hundred and sixth birthday! Ya old lady!" Peter B announced his presence with a well humored scoff, carrying a small stack of pizza boxes, Mayday on his heels with a bouquet of flowers.

"These are for you, Auntie Y/n!" She announced proudly, thrusting them towards you.

You accepted with a warm smile, immediately smelling them "Aww thank you May! These are my favorite!" Before you could mention anything about finding a vase, both she and Natalie were racing off to go play, giggling between each other.

Without a word and a soft peck on your head, Miguel took the flowers to go hunt down one of the ever moving vases in the kitchen, leaving you with the guests who were conversing with each other "Hope I'm not too late! Parking was a nightmare." Jess announced her presence with a tired smile, pulling you into a hug that you gladly returned "Happy birthday, Y/n."

"Thanks, Jess, you're just as on time as always. Feel free to relax, there should be a fresh bottle of Riesling in the fridge if you'd like some."

Your birthday passed in a blur, fatigue taking all but the major details from your memory as you made conversations with guests. If Miguel noticed your waning energy, he didn't say a thing, instead stayed close to your side and created a sort of buffer so that you weren't constantly talking. "Speech!" You could clearly hear B's voice call from somewhere in the gathering, drawing a cheering of agreement. You could only imagine what the neighbors were thinking.

Jess pulled Miguel from your side with a teasing smile to you both, handing him an empanada in place of a microphone "Yay! Speech! Speech, Daddy!" Natalie cheered loudly, clapping her hands as May cheered along with her.

He looked to you for help but you just laughed and shook your head, sticking your tongue out at him as he playfully waved you off and gave in. He cleared his throat nervously as he looked around the gathering, at all the familiar and expectant faces "Thank you all for coming and celebrating Y/n's birthday with us." He turned to look at you again, his face scrunched with emotion, his eyes brimming with love and adoration "Happy birthday to the most wonderful wife and mother Natalie and I could have asked for, and I can't wait to spend many more with you. Salud a ti mi amor." He held up the empanada as though he was toasting before taking a small bite out of it.

Your eyes misted over with the barest amount of tears as you smiled up at him, closing the distance to press a kiss to his cheek and recollect yourself "I also want to thank everyone for coming and making this one of the best birthdays that I can remember. And, I'd like to thank Miguel for planning this, because I know, if he'd asked, I would have been resistant to such a fuss." Everyone laughed, knowing you all too well, Miguel pressing into you again, his arm solid and centering around your waist.

"Daddy, I'm tired." Natalie mumbled between the two of you, holding one hand up to him as the other rubbed her eyes. His smile was tender as he scooped her up, holding her as she rested against his shoulder, her fingers threading through her hair for comfort. It was one of your favorite views of your family, the relaxed contentedness that radiated from Miguel as Natalie fell asleep on his shoulder. You knew that one day you'd never see the view again, that she'd be too big and not want to be held like that, that she'd insist she was too old for her parents' comfort and love. So you always soaked it up when you had the chance.

"Daddy, I'm tired too." May's voice brought your focus back to the present, back to the party, smile firmly on your face as you watched the ten year old reach for her own father's embrace.

B was all too happy to oblige with a chuckle, holding his bundle close like he used to. "I think it's time to get a certain someone home and tucked in." He chuckled, tone soft and soothing as he ran a hand up and down her back lovingly. "Thanks for the invite, have a wonderful night you three."

"You too, B, thank you for coming." Everyone trickled out after that, though Buck and, consequently Sam, stuck around to help you clean as Miguel sent Natalie to bed, his soft voice floating through the apartment as he read her a story, her little snores following him when he finally joined you all in the living room "Thanks again for coming, guys. It means a lot." You were trying to keep the trash bag from Buck, but he was even more stubborn than you and Miguel combined, taking it from you gently with a teasing smile.

"Of course, doll. Wouldn't miss it for the world, you know that." He assured with a chuckle as you stuck your tongue out at him.

"Couldn't leave our partner out to dry on her birthday, what kind of friends would we be?" Sam scoffed humorously, patting you on the shoulder lightly before making his way to the front door "Which rotation is this? Is it a Here month or a There month?"

"We'll be here for a week and a half more, and then we'll be staying in nine twenty-eight until school starts up." Miguel answered, tucking you neatly into his side. You leaned into the contact, your head resting where his chest met his shoulder as that fatigue began trying to pull you under while you still stood.

Sam nodded understandingly as Buck left the apartment, disappearing with a wave "We'll be seein' ya, Y/n. Have a nice night." With that he was gone too, waving as he closed the door behind him.

You weren't sure how, but the two of you suddenly appeared on the couch, you curled up against Miguel's side, as close as you could be without being on top of him, his fingertips trailing up and down your side soothingly, looking like he was trying to string words together. "So," His voice vibrated through every point of contact you shared, pitched low for privacy and allure "What was that surprise you mentioned earlier?"

You hummed softly as you completely shifted your position, straddling his lap, his hands firm and steady on your hips as he smiled adoringly up at you, his lids slipping closed as you played with his hair a little, brushing it out of his face. You kept him teetering on anticipation as you moved his right hand from your hip and to your lower stomach, thoroughly enjoying the warmth and security it instantly provided. His brows furrowed in confusion as he glanced up at you with half lidded eyes, that shade of garnet that you loved more than any other color "What would you like to name a second child? If we had one?"

He was still watching you with confusion as he mulled it over in his head, taking a moment to actually think about it "Ana, if we had another girl? And Luca if we had a boy? Why, mi corazon?"

Your face lit up like the fourth of July as you beamed down at him, brushing some of his hair behind his ear with a delicate touch "Well, we're going to need a bigger home soon. I don't think it'd be fair for Natalie to have to share her room..."

"Why..." His eyes widened as realization dawned on him, making him grip your hips tightly as he sprang to his feet, holding you high as he spun around with a boisterous laugh "You're pregnant! Oh, mi amor! ¡estás realmente embarazada!" He was careful as he set you down on your feet, pressing his forehead to yours, beaming smile cemented in place "How long have you known?"

One hand threaded with the hair at the nape of his neck, the other pressed over his heart "Only a week. I was feeling weird on the mission and picked up a three pack of tests. They all said the same thing."

His lips on yours were consuming, conveying every emotion that was flowing through him so much better than words could, opening himself up to you so wholly, so intimately "I love you."

"And I love you. More than anything." Without a word he lowered to his knees, his hands circling the back of your thighs as he nuzzled into your lower stomach. You could feel his smile through your shirt, the heat of his relaxed sigh as your fingers massaged his scalp. Your life hadn't been all sunshine and roses, but you were more than happy with how it was going.

"Thank you." He mumbled into your flesh, like he was trying to talk directly to the baby.

You touch migrated to his face, pulling his focus up but not away from where he wanted to be "For what?" You hummed, preening under the earnest, loving gaze of your lover.

His grip tightened, resembling a hug as his thumbs brushed soothing patterns into your thighs "For giving me a second chance."

Your eyes immediately misted with tears as a smile tried to break your face, your fingers carding through his hair again "Thank you for giving me one as well." You hummed past the ball of emotion in your throat.

"Always."

[cosmicjoke]

You know, it always stayed with me, when I first read “The Vampire Lestat”, the end, when Lestat reveals what happened to him in Paris with Armand, and reading it once again, I’m reminded of why it never left me.  It’s maybe the most heartbreaking thing in the whole book, and that’s saying a lot, considering all the tragedies of Lestat’s life up to that point.  Armand’s cruelty to Lestat here is breathtaking, the way he manipulates him, and then imprisons and starves him in order to place him in a desperate enough state to give testimony against Claudia and Louis, when already Lestat was in such horrifyingly dire straits.  Making it all the more heartbreaking is the way Lestat holds no ill will or grudge towards either Claudia or Louis for what was done, how he even feels he deserved what they did to him, and the way he had no intention of revenge, or even knowledge of their presence in Paris, but how Armand uses him to exact his own revenge for Lestat’s rejection, a thing Lestat never even conceived, and a thing even if he had understood, he couldn’t have given to Armand anyway.  It’s just so awful, and sad beyond words, the final blow being when Armand pushes Lestat from the roof of the tower.  God, it’s brutal.

And the sadness of it is really driven home all the more when so many years later, Armand finds Lestat again, and Lestat is rotting away, cut off so completely from life and the world and humanity, with no real will to live, and we see the tragedy doubled in Armand’s own loneliness and despair, the way he’s wrought his own ruin too, deserted by Louis, his duplicity and manipulation and assault of before rendering any kind of genuine reconciliation with Lestat impossible.  The way he tries one last time to win Lestat’s love and companionship, only he uses the same methods of deceit as always, conjuring illusions to win the love he craves.  And it’s far too late, too much bad history between them, too many mistakes made, and Lestat is too far gone at that point for it to have ever worked.

I think what really drives these scenes home in their tragedy too is the kind of juxtaposition of Lestat and Armand, the way their roles have in a way reversed, with Armand decked out in the modern finery of the 20th century, moving among the modern world, while Lestat lies in ruin beneath the foundations of a rotted out relic of a house from the 18th century, clothed in rags and lost in despair and physical degradation.  But both of them are totally alone still, cut off and outcast in their own ways.  Armand’s strange obsession with Lestat, continuing to hang about near to him, and Lestat’s consuming despair at last driving him under the earth.  It’s just such a powerful and poignant and heartbreaking study of loss and aloneness and what it means to be truly outcast.  I felt so deeply for both of them while reading this, even with the horror I felt at Armand’s cruelty. 

I think the paragraph that got me the hardest was this:

“The earth was holding me.  Living things slithered through its thick and moist clods against my dried flesh.  And I thought if I ever do rise again, if I ever see even one small patch of the night sky full of stars, I will never never do terrible things.  I will never slay innocents.  Even when I hunted the weak, it was the hopeless and the dying I took, I swear it was.  I will never never work the Dark Trick again.  I will just... you know, be the “continual awareness” for no purpose, no purpose at all.”

It speaks so hauntingly and with such sadness to Lestat’s true tragedy.  That he feels so lost in the world as this being with no purpose, no use, no point. 

His one and only consolation in life was this idea that he could give his life meaning through doing good in the world, and he’s left now an immortal who can give his eternal life no meaning at all.

Ah, I weep.

How can one not feel for Lestat?  How can one ever accuse him of being a shallow or frivolous person?  I’ll never know.  He’s anything but.

[teecupangel]

kinda late on the weekly schedule but, what do you think about the latest chapter?

My thoughts on Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (one of these days, I should really just make a tag for them like '#teecup analyze and reacts to acft webtoon' or something XD)

Official English translation (the free chapters anyway) here

Hahaha, it’s fine. I was pretty busy with the moving and unpacking anyway so I only got to read to the latest chapter yesterday XD.

Jennifer gets another mention which is nice.

This part is an important one as it does show what the Assassin Brotherhood is fighting for.

Free will and the right for everyone to decide their own fate, not be bound by the plans of dead ‘gods’.

We’ll get back to Edward’s speech later because I have a few things to say about that but, for now, the way this is presented:

The close-up of the Shimazu Clan’s crest would imply that the Shimazu Clan (or ‘Shimazu’ Sei) has a beef with the Assassins personally that ended in destroying their vision of order or something but, while I’m not all that familiar with how rich and powerful the Shimazu clan is today, they seem to still hold some power even if they are no longer a ruling family from what I can read.

I am unsure if she’s talking about the Constitution of Japan which rendered titles meaningless (which would have weakened the Shimazu Clan in general) or the destruction of the order kept by the Shimazu Clan in connection to the ‘results’ of the Battle of Sekigahara because that’s one of the main information that we have on the Japanese Brotherhood. They put their lot with Ieyasu Tokugawa while the Shimazu Clan (and, I suppose in AC lore, the Templars) placed their lot with Ishida Mitsunari. Tokugawa’s forces ended up victorious but Tokugawa didn’t really punish the Shimazu Clan and let them keep their lands and titles so… I won’t be surprised if these Japanese ‘pirates’ supposedly under the Shimazu Clan had gone rogue from the clan itself, disgruntled members of the clan who didn’t want to bow down to Tokugawa although that’s a bit sorta ‘???’ because the Battle of Sekigahara happened in 1600 and Edward’s parts are set in 1725. I mean, grudges can go on for a very long time so not that “???!!!” but still a “???”

(I will have to point out that my JP history is spotty at best and my familiarity with the Shimazu Clan is even spottier and wiki doesn’t even have a separate page for Shigehide Shimazu who should have been the lord of Satsuma and head of the Shimazu Clan during 1725 so, yeah, maybe something big did happen to the Shimazu Clan that would explain why ‘Shimazu’s Sei’s line of ‘destroying order’ is set in a panel showing the Shimazu Clan's crest)

Webtoon is a stealth promotion and prologue to AC Red Theory: The Assassin that we will play in AC Red is a rogue Shimazu shinobi (we already know that AC’s Shimazu Clan employs shinobis thanks to this webtoon) and they’re the Japanese ancestor of Noa Kim. ‘Shimazu’ Sei’s line of ‘destroying order’ is a reference to how this Shimazu assassin had destroyed the Shimazu Clan’s order in some way.

Anyway!

I guess this is confirmation that Edward has already married Tessa by this time.

Sidebar: not important to the plot (maybe) but Edward, if you’re hunting crocs, that means we can finally see you use a rope dart, riiigghhhttt???

With that out of the way...

Alright, let’s talk about Edward’s speech more.

First of all, this line:

Not an analysis but more of a comment. I would have gone with “gold and glory” instead of “glory and treasures” even if “glory and treasure” could have been a more accurate translation of the Korean version because “gold and glory” is a phrase most commonly associated with pirates which could have been used as a reference to Edward’s past as a pirate.

Now for the sadder analysis, there is something tragic about this line:

Edward is talking about this in reference to why he had become and stayed as an Assassin, even going as far as touching his hidden blade.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that he is touching the Assassin’s insignia with two of his fingers while his pinky is touching the pirate symbol. This is most probably to show that he remembers and learned from his past as a pirate and how being an Assassin is both his present and his future. More importantly:

“If you decide for yourself what’s right and do everything in your power to uphold that idea… Even mortals like us can overcome fate and leave behind something meaningful.”

That entire speech is meant to represent Edward’s loyalty to the Creed and believing he is doing the right thing and wishing to leave something meaningful behind.

The tragedy comes when you remember that there is one Kenway who did ‘decide for himself what’s right’ and ‘did everything in his power to uphold that idea’

Edward Kenway's own son and a Grand Master of the Templar Order: Haytham Kenway

Even if he was indoctrinated by the man who ordered the death of his father, he still stayed with the Order after learning the truth and even went as far as trying to kill his own son to keep the hold of the Order in the colonies although, yeah, an argument could be made that Haytham was planning to die by his own son’s hands during that final battle but that does not change the fact that Haytham remained loyal to the Order even after knowing the Order is the reason why his father died.

Not only that but Edward’s death and Haytham’s indoctrination were fated. The Isus needed Ratonhnhaké:ton to take the key from Haytham and hide it for Desmond to find when the time comes so Edward's life and death had been fated to happen so that Haytham may become a Templar and travel to the colonies.

In the end, Edward Kenway didn’t overcome fate, he became just another cog in the machine called the ‘Calculations’.

But…

His vision of what it means to defy fate? His thoughts of upholding the Creed which became what he believed to be ‘right’?

It was inherited by his grandson: Ratonhnhaké:ton.

Even if they never met… Ratonhnhaké:ton embodied what Edward wanted to leave behind. And Ratonhnhaké:ton’s life wasn’t dictated by the fates the moment he had buried the key for Desmond to find.

He wasn’t like Altaïr whose dying breath had been to give a final message to the prophet for Desmond to hear.

He wasn’t like Ezio who only finally stepped out of his role as Desmond's prophet after leaving the Brotherhood and having a family of his own when he was already in his 50s.

Ratonhnhaké:ton built his own future after he buried the key. The past of the American Brotherhood was built upon the choices Ratonhnhaké:ton made of his own free will.

To leave something meaningful behind.

[humansbgone]

(This is content for Humans-B-Gone!, an animated sci-fi series about a giant praying mantis who works in pest control--those pests including humans. Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/c/humansbgone )

As $5+ patrons will have seen, I am in the throes of the new workflow. Doing this sequence out of order, as it's a good one to test with. At the moment it just looks like a sketchy animatic, but I have several ideas on new methods for how I'm going to incorporate it. Currently hesitating as I get ready to throw them all at the wall and see what sticks.

Though they probably don't look all that different (apart from the different shading), the models are now *very* different from how I have been doing them. All modifiers are applied, which means I now have much more flexibility in how I move them. However, both having the new modifiers applied and moving them flexibly (with Shape Keys) are going to incur a cost in render time, and make it more difficult to preview my animation...hopefully, another way the animatic will help. And that's not mentioning the other stuff. Hope to have some fun behind-the-scenes stuff for you all soon!

The weevil...he's so tiny. It's going to be fully apparent just how big Rose and Soph are, even for macrovolutes, as we see them interacting with more characters.

Intending to spend the rest of this week trying to get this sequence done in its entirety as a proof of concept for the new methods I'm using. Sadly, this is going to tack another week onto the schedule. I hope to speed up once I have this done for reference, but it will definitely take extra time.

So, after this...about a month for rough animation, then I can get the music and sound effects together. Then, three weeks to make the remaining character model (one that relies heavily on the animatic approach), props and backgrounds. Finally, another month to finish the animation, and a week on Gregorsa's stuff. With a month of work out of the way already, this episode is looking to be four months total production time. Not the longest I've spent on an episode, anyway! Well, until next time!

[ashwin-the-artless]

a "love" poem

Fairly recently a snippet of an ancient love poem was discovered in the Network of the Sunspot.

It is believed to be a scrap of something a Founding Terra Supremacist had held onto when they infiltrated the construction and population of the ship. Though, it may actually have more alien origins than that.

It's certainly not the kind of poetry that most people of the Sunspot would be moved to write.

I'm examining it here as both a linguistics lesson -- being in ancient Inmararräo, it provides an example of the timelessness of our grammar -- and as a cultural contrast to how people tend to think and feel today.

There is a possessiveness and obsessiveness in this piece of work that is anathema to the ways that love is expressed aboard the Sunspot today. One might even find it repulsive. Though, since my time here on Earth I've certainly encountered many verses with the same sentiments. So, I shouldn't criticize it too thoroughly, as I'm simply unfamiliar with the social pressures that may lead someone to culturally express their affections in this way.

Anyway, I'm not going to provide a pronunciation guide, as this post is already a bit too long with preamble, and I plan to make a whole post about that that you can reference any time once it's up.

And I'm going to keep my analysis somewhat light, just highlighting the details I think are interesting or particularly relevant.

But what I am going to do is provide my step by step translations into English, using the literal translations of the words to show you what Inmararräo word order looks like in comparison to the final English version. This will also show you the kinds of things I do to localize my translations, to render them closer to the true sentiments in which they were original written.

First, the sample script. We only have a stanza and a half of this, but I think it will give you a good taste of these cultural points, and you'll fully understand it by the end of this post:

Of course, we couldn't import the file directly from the Sunspot, but we've recreated the look using a custom font that Goreth is developing using FontForge.

The text is traditionally written vertically, from left to right, though there are some contexts where it might be written for right to left and/or horizontally.

The Latin rendering of it looks like this:

ʔomarrshif neb gunkyäk ʔängnänʔi me Merkäfirr winbaf bem ʔena mog hutyä mem ʔäkya närirr niyeb fetkurrmä ʔen mem Fukya wish rebʔito tegne neb ʔafgärorr mab bem Rrekaritirr kshibe ʔäorirr mem ʔomarrshif fogirr bem mem ʔuu bem rrifärerr ferrurirr

So.

One of the first things you might notice, if you can't speak or read the language, is the repetition and rhythm of the final words of each sentence (except the last one).

Inmararräo is a Verb-Object-Subject language. This means that it is very common for sentences to end in a pronoun. In this case, "me" is first person plural, "mem" is first person singular, and "bem" is second person singular. So this is a poem, presumably about "you" and "me" and how these two people are a "we" (or should be).

Now, it's really common in Inmarräo to drop the subject of the sentence when it is yourself. So, usually, those sentences that end with "mem" wouldn't end that way. The writer has specifically chosen to include the pronoun to create this rhythm, and then to drop it on that last sentence, thus emphasizing that last word.

So, I want to look at that last word, and the whole sentence it is in, and the actual extent to which the writer went to remove the pronoun from the end of the sentence.

"Ferrurirr" is a verb. So, normally it would want a subject or an object, at least, but neither is present.

Now, the word translates most closely to "to understand". So, it is important to this poet that continued active understanding as a verb is the focus here, not just "an understanding" that someone might come to.

On top of that, that's not the main verb of the sentence. It's actually in the object clause of the main verb, "rrifärerr", which means "must force", which is a pretty intense word to use in this case. And that is further emphasized by the ancient Fenekere particle "ʔuu" that has become part of Inmararräo and denotes that the sentence is a critical command.

But there's no subject listed, and the default is "mem" or "I", so it means "I must force understanding".

And, of course, there's that "bem" in there, the "you".

Normally, you'd put it with the verb it belongs to, making it the subject of the verb, but instead it is put before the verbs, in the adverb/predicate clause. This is to avoid confusion. Because if you put it after the last verb, it may be mistaken for the subject of the whole sentence. And if you put it after the main verb, it will become the predicate of the second verb, and mean something different.

In Inmararräo, when you see something like "must you force" in a sentence, what it basically translates to is "must force you to", the "to" being implied by the position of the pronoun.

So, this last sentence means "I must force you to understand."

Understand what?

Well, probably the subject matter of the previous lines. Which bring me to one of my favorite words and another one that I feel contentious about.

In the first line is the word "gunkyäk". It is a word that means "deep connection", "intense concern", "understanding", "visceral affection", and "familiar attachment" all rolled into one thing. And I feel like the sound of it comes from the gut and really conveys the intensity of it.

The English word that sometimes summarizes this is kind of wishy-washy in my opinion, and its sound is kind of reflective of that. Sometimes it can be spoken with the same intensity as "gunkyäk", but a lot of times its thrown around carelessly as if it can just float on the air and land anywhere and not really hurt anybody.

I, of course, speak of the word "love".

Just like in English, Inmararräo has a bunch of synonyms for this word, but this author has chosen "gunkyäk" for its profound connotations (which, in the context of this poem is not necessarily a good thing -- it's just significant to the meaning).

Now, the word following it, "ʔängnänʔi" is another one of many synonyms, each with their own connotations.

In most contemporary Sunspot literature, people have preferred to use the old term "beshakete'i" or just "beshakete", which I then translate into "Outsider", with a capital "O". This is in reference to old poetry in which Outsiders were foreigners to the world who were then eventually embraced, and who brought with them many arts, skills, knowledge, and wisdom.

Where-as "ʔängnänʔi", I would translate into "aliens". But, on our predecessor ship, the word was used not to describe foreigners from afar or even off world, but to refer to non-people. Individuals who were considered so anethema to Feruukepikape itself that they were marked as outcasts and shunned, if not killed. It's a nasty word, and carries with it the stigma of ignorance and obliviousness, the inability to comprehend important things.

I feel that there is another English word that works very well for this one, that I will divulge later in the final translation.

So, what's that sentence saying?

ʔomarrshif neb gunkyäk ʔängnänʔi me

"ʔomarrshif" is a long looking word that basically means "to", and it's in the predicate clause along with "neb" which is a negation.

But, there's no visible verb. "Gunkyäk" isn't a verb. It has no verb suffix.

This is a dropped or omitted copula, such as "is" or "are". You can just sort of imagine it in there. A lot of Earth languages do this kind of thing, too. (look up "zero copula" for more information)

And, "gunyäk" is in the descriptive or adjective clause of the object "ʔängnänʔi". And the first word of the whole sentence tells us how to understand that whole relationship.

So, that sentence literally can be rendered to the clunky, improper English:

"to not [are] love aliens we"

This might give you an idea where this is going, so I'm just going to give you the two stages of translation now, literal and then the localized figurative translation. And I think you can probably examine it yourself to learn a few things about it from there.

Literal:

to not love aliens we know the rules you and so do I of am thinking a full commitment what I from any other guy not would get this you tell how am feeling I wanna you I Gotta make you understand

And now the figurative, more accurate translation:

We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand

[ro-botany]

Bonus Content & Bloopers for the fake marlear screencaps

(I love behind the scenes stuff ok can you really blame me)

Ripping animations to help with some basic expression work was..... it was an adventure.

The first image above is an attempt to blend Marth's "surprise" and "smile" faces together but I uh...... Hit the wrong setting in the dropdown. I nearly died from laughing too hard pff.

The Alears there are what happens when you import the characters face rigs with different settings (still screaming at myself for that one) and then try to use a facial expression from one of them on the other one of them. That was supposed to be an :0 face.

The FEH players among you may have recognized the setting of that piece as the scenery for S supports in FEH! Figured if I'm setting the scene in Askr anyway I may as well go for the cheekiest spot. :P

While it probably would've looked great if I'd modelled all that out, after the effort that went into getting the character models looking good I really just did Not have it in me to do that, so this scenery is... A complete and utter lie made of layered image planes.

This was part of why I opted to crank the depth of field so much in the final piece. Helps hide that everything aside from the guys themselves are crusty PNGs. :P It does a half-decent job of looking like a 3D scene even in motion though, so long as you don't rotate the camera TOO far.

I REALLY liked how these close shots of Marth and Alear for the first pose turned out, but in the end I didn't think they fit with the other two poses. There was a timeline where I modified the expressions a bit and made fake dialogue boxes where they're talking about how surprised and happy they are they can actually touch each other in Askr, but I didn't feel confident enough to write in their voices for that.. So in the final shots that story just gets to be implied in their poses and expressions instead.

For the hug shot, I feel it is important to reveal that Alear's head is clipping halfway into Marth's shoulder and armour there. It's fine though. Animate for the camera, professionals always say! If it isn't gonna be viewed from every angle it doesn't have to look good from every angle. :P

Engage renders their characters' eyelashes and eyebrows ABOVE their hair, no matter what, in order to help the readability of facial expressions. I wanted to stay true to that look, so I had to render their eyebrows and eyelashes separately and then combine them in post. Enjoy eyelash-free Marth and Alear. :P

You can also see some areas there where I had to manually fix some shading and outlines in post, too. Blender has a bug with rigging right now that was affecting the face shading in odd ways, so I painted over that; and the inverse hull method I've been using for most of the outlines is very much imperfect and needed touching up in some areas, lips especially.

Since these character rigs were.......... We'll say not intended for use in Blender, they were fairly tedious to get posed right. No rotation or location constraints. These were joint-only rigs with no connections between bones so you couldn't use the auto-IK feature to, say move the whole arm at once. (Which made hand posing the WORST THING EVER AAAA EVERY FINGER JOINT MOVES INDIVIDUALLY why did i pick TWO poses where hands were a critical component)

Part of my process ended up being doing rough sketches of what the final shots were going to be first, so I could keep in my head what sort of poses and expressions and camera angles I was going for. And by rough I mean ROUGH. I kept laughing looking at these little egg head guys for reference as I worked.

Engage's models also come with some "extraneous" bones; "piv" bones that I can't figure out what they do, spots where weapons and shields can snap to, "vol" bones for changing the thickness of specific body parts as defined in the big XML file of character proportions buried in the game. Unfortunately these bones overlap the actual posing joints in many cases, so until you get fed up enough to find and hide them all, you'll try to move the character around and end up doing shit like this by accident

(Me too Marth, idk what the hell his skeleton is doing either)

And as you may have noticed - no particle effects in these behind the scenes shots so far! That's because I both A) couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do that smoke effect, and B) couldn't render a particle system with anywhere NEAR the number of objects I would need to get a similar look to the game. So, I drew those in post! Shoutouts to the random sparkle and smoke brushes in my collection, you're the real ones.

[monarch-boo]

Side Order Predictions/Theories: Jelletons Act Like Salmonids.

(This post does not include any datamined info for Side Order, I don't know any of that stuff, but it does include datamined info for Salmon Run.)

We've been shown many different shapes and sizes, attacks and defeat methods for the Jelletons now.

I'm thinking many of them may reflect Salmonid mechanics.

The first ones we were shown, the simple small medium large ones that seem to just float towards you, are obviously like the Lessers. If the new renders we've gotten are anything to go by, the tiny ones literally come in threes, just like Smallfries.

But there are lots of others that we can see now.

One I notice strongly resembles a Stinger.

It doesn't *act* like a Stinger in Nintendo's in-game footage, it just acts like a sniper, but that could easily be just because an *actual* Stingray type attack in a solo single-player thing with finite lives and no teammate revives would be hell. I didn't get a good look at the gameplay but I wouldn't be surprised if you're supposed to take it out by knocking out these individual segments till the guy on top falls to the ground.

That being said... there are some unfamiliar ones. There is one that has many bulbs that you have to pop (one seems more detailed than the others though so it's possible you don't have to get every bulb so much as simply find and pop the correct one).

Dataminers know of quite a few Boss Salmonids in the files that go unused as of right now. Three have been in the files for quite some time. Internal names "Ghost" "Balloon" and "Wheel". As of this current Chill Season '24 ('23? I forget), the season patch had added three additional names. "Silo" "Fish" and "Stick".

We know nothing about what these are and can only make guesses based on their internal names, except for one which I will explain in the end.

In the new renders for the Jelletons there are two strong contenders for what "Wheel" could act like, based only on the name anyway. One that literally moves around on a wheel:

And, a bit less likely, this Beybladey guy:

All I'm saying is the Jelletons could tease upcoming Boss Salmonids, which I highly doubt will be added in this coming season but surely must be in the final Sizzle Season, since they are not only keeping these in the files, but also continuing to add on to them.

Now, what I was going to explain: We actually know the mechanics of exactly one of these Boss Salmonids in the files. You know how Bosses are based on subs/specials? Flyfish is Missles, Stinger is Stingray, Steel Eel is Splash Wall, etc.

"Ghost" was found to have parameters for Toxic Mist attached to it.

So I'm just saying, maybe look out for a Jelleton that uses a Toxic Mist like effect (I will scream).

[motheatenscarf]

OH, okay, so Zenos is CRAZY crazy.

A shame they wouldn't let him be just an unhinged weirdo from the start and tried to make him be some like... apathetic manipulator, he was creepy and boring for like 98% of Stormblood and then just went BATSHIT INSANE. Mask off, cackling like a lunatic, started espousing the virtues of violence for violence's sake, turned himself into Shinryu, said, "Thanks for the fight, I finally felt alive before I died, unlike all the rebellions I've been trying to seed to give me an interesting challenge, BYE, BESTIE!" and then killed himself??

And you know what? Good for him. I was at least laughing at how batshit he went. Be weirder and more unhinged! His ethos is stupid, but god, if you're gonna give me NOTHING but bullshit mustache twirling boring fucking villains with no humanity or depth to them, the LEAST you can do is give me memorable scene chewing. If you can't be interesting, at least be FUN.

I will say, taking the story in good faith, I'm deciding he does make a VERY good dark mirror for Talia! I forget the exact quote, but he said something to the effect of, "I can see even now you want to rip my throat out with your teeth," and like, that was VERBATIM something I said Talia would do when she got her hands on him, so like, yeah, he's not... wrong... about specifically Talia being a revenge addled violent murderer at heart. That's why it's important that Talia always has that morality anchor. Her instincts are DARK. (Other people joke if anything ever happened to a character they'd kill everyone and then themselves; Talia means it. It almost happened when she lost her sister!)

I grant you those instincts are born of like, y'know, caring too much about things, and not like... this bizarre violence fetish born of apathy, or desperately trying to pursue the thrill of the hunt or whatever. The Dark Knight story got it right when the Moogles said that the reason you angst and plunge into the depths of despair and rage is because you're scared of losing the ones you love or are hurt from having already lost them. Moogles know what's up.

But like, Talia doesn't NOT find joy in being the best murderer in a room; in her mind, it's all she's good for, so she does take some joy in her strength.

So Zenos rolling up and unlike the good people in her life who inspire her to be better (the twins, Lyse, everyone from Heavensward but mostly Aymeric now), just goes "I see you! We're the same! WE'RE FRIENDS NOW!" and she just... needs to go take a long think while floating in the ocean while it rains. Because she already knew she needed to do better in order to be worthy of the admiration these ACTUALLY good people place in her, but WOOF, that was a blow to the ol' self esteem.

Anyway, CHICKENSHIT move that he took his own life, but I still say I'm the reason he died, so by rights, his dumb spinning golfclub bag of swords belongs to my girl now, those are the rules.

I'm REASONABLY certain he isn't really dead, if only because I've seen his Stormblood model, and I've seen the fanart and gpose shit people post of Zenos, and uh. Either people are really REALLY kind in lovingly re-rendering him, or at some point Zenos is going to come back just to wash his fucking hair.

[secret-sagau-my-beloved]

Is it just me or is the achievement "Der Freischutz", aka "shoot a monster's weak point from very far away", impossible to get playing mobile

I've been pretty exclusively playing mobile because I frankly don't have a computer that can render the game without complete and utter lag, but I've been trying to get this achievement for like two days now in various different locations using various techniques because it was the last one of that set I needed, and it really was impossible

Like I was hitting the weak points from as far as it would render the monsters before they just disappeared and I still wasn't getting it

I tried poking around in the settings to see if it was possible to get them to render the monsters a bit farther away and I couldn't find any setting that made an impact on that, and I hadn't turned my settings down or anything I was still working at default

So anyway, today I finally downloaded it on my computer, went to the exact same location I had been trying, got it in two shots even with the excessive lag

I took pictures for comparison purposes

That's exactly where I was standing when I got the achievement, the red dot was what I was shooting at, and the yellow circle next to the tree was where I'd have to be standing in order to see the exact same monster on mobile

And here's a picture of me standing in that yellow circle area, if I moved even a step back that monster in the red circle would have disappeared completely, the ones on the higher platforms already had

It just doesn't really make sense for a game that kind of markets itself as mobile centered to have an achievement you can't get while playing that version—

[comfortscripts]

Do Your Job, No Matter What ¬ Draco M.

Plot - Following your boss's orders was part of the job but you never realised how far he'd take it.

Genre - Smut ♧ {16+ Only}

Pairing - CEO!Draco Malfoy x Fem!reader

Notes/Warnings - Power play plot with porn, harsh names, Dom/Sub, penetrative, choking, unprotected sex with creampie (dont be stupid like them irl). Astoria is the ex-wife in this as I couldn't bring myself to write about a cheater and I apologise in advance if this is terrible, I haven't written smut in years.

Word Count - 2.3k

The day had bled into night and as the gentle rays of sun disappeared, so did your co-workers. Mutters of goodbyes and heels clacking faded till all that remained was the muffled sound of Mr. Malfoy on his conference call.

You were used to being the last one to leave, often deep into the night. A common requirement for a personal assistant was to be there till the boss leaves but unfortunately, Mr Malfoy wasn't exactly rushing home most nights.

The simple hardwood desk was more familiar to you than your own bed nowadays. Nights got later as business got busier and Mr Malfoy became more involved with potential investors, but you never complained. You were always the best and you were planning on staying that way.

"Y/N, get in here!"

Being so involved in the setup for the next morning, you didn't listen out for the conference call or how it ended but from thunderous and rude tone of your boss, you could imagine.

Shuffling to your feet before straightening out your skirt, you made hastily made your way through the large oak doors that housed the king, as you co-workers often joked. You understood their distaste, a powerful and attractive man was already intimidating but Draco always found a way to rub people up the wrong way, except you. You always had a certain affection towards the man, not that you would ever admit it.

Entering the darkened office, you felt your breath catch in your throat as you faced your boss. His once tamed hair, now wisps of silvery blond streaking across his forehead. Veins prominent on pale arms where he had rolled up his sleeves. He stood behind his desk, with one hand leaning on the dark oak table whilst the other nursed a crystal glass of whiskey. Even in his frustration, he still looked like the most powerful man in the country.

Draco lifted his eyes to yours and you felt yourself squirm under his gaze, you'd be lying to say that the man wasn't gracing the thoughts you had in your more intimate moments. This simple act made you think that this could be more than a fantasy with how his eyes traced over you.

"Well that meeting was a total disaster." The man sighed before manoeuvring to sit on what could almost be described as a leather throne. "I told my father that trying to work with Potter Industries was useless but the stupid git wouldn't listen so I had to deal with them bastards for nothing!"

Whilst you tried to focus on his words, your thoughts were more taken with his hands. Strong, thick fingers graced with three solid silver rings and the way they wrapped around the crystal tumbler was so sinful, you let yourself imagine what they would feel like around your neck.

Snapping yourself out of your sinful thoughts, you notice the silence as if Draco had expected a reply to his rant. Whilst he valued your opinion, you weren't sure what to offer.

"I'm sorry they wasted your time sir. Is there anything I can do?" Whilst it sounded innocent enough, part of you couldn’t help but mean it in a suggestive manner.

Draco debated your offer for a moment. He always knew what you thought of him, how your thighs would clench together during car rides where he was just slightly closer than normal or how you would blush at the simplest praise. You were wrapped around his finger.

He knew you wanted him sexually, he too held this secret but he wondered if you were harbouring more than sinful thoughts towards him. He needed to know, to see if he was just seeing what he wanted to see or if there was something between the two of you. Draco knew that by tonight, he would have his answer.

"Come over here" He beckoned.

Obeying before thought, you carefully manoeuvred so you were standing behind the desk and in front of your boss.

Mr Malfoy patted his right thigh in a non-verbal demand for her to sit on his lap. Once again, you were obeying before thought or reason, you gently placed yourself on his muscular thigh, allowing your skirt to ride up.

Draco rested his hand on your exposed thigh, toying with the edge of your tight skirt. With the other hand he gripped your chin in a gentle but firm manner, turning your face to meet his, only centimetres away.

"You know exactly how you can help me"

"I'm not sure what you mean Mr Malfoy"

"Don't play dumb my dear. I see how you look at me, how you respond to me. Would bet money on the fact that you are getting wetter by the second just from being this close to me." His hand inched up closer and if on instinct, your legs moved apart to allow him. The tips of his fingers graced the edge of your panties before pulling them to the side, allowing his fingers to feel your wetness. "Just as I thought, always knew you were my little slut".

He slowly pushed a digit inside, allowing the warmth to coat his pale finger. The action caused a small whimper to leave your lips involuntarily and as you felt the cold metal of his ring graze your folds, you could barely stop the moan from escaping. Draco kept a slow pace, almost teasingly slow. Your body was begging for more but Draco wanted to hear it, needed to hear it. He could see you getting restless at the gentle pace but he needed more from you so he delicately removed his finger, which was met with an annoyed groan from you. Sliding his digit up your soaking slit, he brought his finger to your sense bud. Rubbing in careful circles, you felt your need for Draco grow even stronger.

"Please, I need more"

"Tell me what you want baby"

"I want your fingers. Want to cum. Please make me cum"

This was what he needed, you falling apart for him. Begging for something as simple as him to finger fuck you, and god the sound of you was better than he imagined. A cocky smirk grace his whiskey coated lips before colliding his lips with yours, a collision of tongues and teeth but it was exactly what you both craved. The messy kiss resembled the messy dynamic you were both about to enter.

Placing his attention back on your weeping hole, he broke away from the kiss. You felt your eyes flutter shut as he entered two of his thick digits into you, this time at a harsh speed. Moans were escaping your body as your orgasm built but Draco was quick to drink them up. The combination of the anticipation and how he was perfectly hitting every spot whilst massaging your clit was getting you there quicker than ever before.

Draco could feel your body getting closer to release, clenching and tensing against his fingers. "Cum for me, show me what a little slut you are."

His words were what pushed you over the edge as you came hard all over your boss's hand. You connected your mouths again in a brief moment of ecstasy. Breaking away from the kiss, you rested your head on his shoulder attempting to catch your breath.

You could feel his harden length through his trousers and the feeling alone was enough to make you need more. Carefully grazing your hand over the evident bulge, you felt the man tense under you.

Before you could do or say anything more, the phone rang.

The sharp sounds were enough to remind both of you that you were still in the office and technically still on the clock. Breaking your stare from the phone, you turned to Draco who simply stated "Better answer it sweetie, it is your job after all".

Rolls of frustration filled your body as you wished he would have simply thrown the phone out the window and taken you on the desk but no, here you were. Standing up from his lap, you picked up the phone.

"Hello, Mr Malfoy's Office. Y/N Speaking."

"Oh, Y/N, hello. I was hoping you would answer" You knew that buttery voice, Astoria Greengrass. Ex-wife of the man who just made you cum, of the man you were hoping to fuck.

"Hi Ms. Greengrass, how are you?" As you said her name, you spotted Draco rise from his chair.

Astoria started on a small rant about how hard dating is as a single mum but you could barely focus on her. The blond haired man had made his way behind your figure, and was slowly undressing you. Button after button until your bra-covered chest was exposed, a quick zip of your skirt left you standing in only your panties and finally, Draco decided to rid you of your panties as well with a quick rip of the fabric.

Whilst Astoria talked your ear off, Draco leaned down towards the other and whispered "Be a good girl and do your job, okay".

You shakily nodded whilst attempting to focus on the words the woman was speaking but you were rendered incapable when you felt his enlarged tip tease your folds. You couldn't help but intake a sharp breath.

"Y/N, are you okay?" Astoria paused, she was always a thoughtful woman who made sure Y/N was leaving enough time for herself between work but now here Y/N was, fucking Astoria's ex-husband whilst on the phone to the woman herself.

"Yep, I'm sorry. I jus-" Her sentence interrupted by Draco fully entering her tight pussy. His cock stretching her out in ways she had never experienced, she couldn't help but whimper in an attempt to hold back a moan. "I stubbed my toe really hard. It's all okay truly."

"Always hurts more than it should." You attempted a chuckle at the woman's remark but it became a strangled moan as Draco picked up the pace. Astoria continued "Anyways, sorry for ranting but I was calling to remind Draco about Scorpius' play on Tuesday, can you please make sure his schedule is clear".

"Yes, of course I will." You manage to respond, trying to focus on being professional rather than focusing on your boss pounding you into oblivion.

"Great, I won't keep you any longer. Thank you dear, have a good night."

You replied a quick 'You too' before slamming the phone down. A plethora of pent up moans rushed from your throat as you felt Draco's full size threaten to split you open, you had never felt this full and god, you loved it.

His slender hand wrapped around your neck, pulling you closer to his chest and gaining more force. "What a good little whore you are! Taking my cock like you were built for me". His words made you clench around him which caused an guttural moan to escape the dominant man.

"Please sir, I need more. I need to cum, please." You were close to seeing stars but you needed more, you craved more.

Draco had never felt more powerful than he did at that moment. Slipping out of you before lifting your body as if you were a ragdoll for his amusement, you were now seated against his desk and face to face with him as he re-entered your soaking pussy dangerously slow. The new angles were enough to make your eyes roll to the back of your head, moaning strings of swears as you approached your peak.

The pale businessman pounded you with such force you thought his desk might break under the pressure, holding your hips so tightly that you were sure to have bruises the following morning. Moans of your name graced the man's lips as he approached his orgasm, as his pace faltered and became uneven.

Grabbing your throat with force, Draco brought his face down to yours. "Cum for me."

His words were all you needed as you felt your climax hit you like a freight train. Moaning his name so loudly that you suspected anyone left in the building would have heard. Your vision darkened as the pleasure rolled over you in waves, feeling the release of all the late nights with your hands between your legs whilst fantasies of Draco fuelled you. The reality was better than the fantasy.

Your climax had left you clenching Draco, milking him dry as he released inside of your warm welcoming pussy. All frustration from work was gone, all the desire he felt for you was enhanced, just everything was right in this moment. He felt his cock soften and carefully slipped himself out, watching as his seed slowly trailed down your plump pussy.

Catching your breath, you slipped off the desk before finding yourself in Draco's arms once again. "That was incredible but I am still mad you fucked me whilst I spoke to your ex-wife"

"Very bold aren't I, kitten?. You have to do your job, no matter what" He chuckled. "What did she want anyways?"

"Wanted me to remind you about Scorpius' play on Tuesday." Answering in a nonchalant tone, which is never how you spoke to him but you were now feeling the repercussions of what just happened and were feeling insecurity, causing you to use attempted nonchalance to hide it. "So I guess I will see you tomorrow?"

"Yes, technically. I will see you tomorrow as well but for now, we are heading to back to my house. Have some dinner and see what happens from there." His gaze was often fierce and stubborn but now it was gentle and almost hopeful, showing that he was also scared of what this meant for your relationship, but hoped that you wouldn't reject his offer of something more romantic.

Even with already flushed cheeks, his words caused light blush to appear "That sounds like a perfect plan to me, Draco."

Draco's fears were put to rest as soon as he heard his name roll of your tongue. You may be wrapped around his finger but he was wholly wrapped around yours. Just took a bold move to release the truth.

[father-time-and-baby-new-year]

Would it be to much to ask for a Eren scenario where both he and the reader are both equally toxic, manipulative and possessive over eachother but both just cannot let the other go to the point where even when they reunite when Eren escapes the survey corps he asks her to tell him if anyone else whether it was the army or the jeagerists, if they had touched her even if it was just to escort her which she just nods and refuses to tell him any names cuz she likes to see him riled up by her having been "corrupted" and seeing how with a single act she can have him on edge and he falls for her even more by her devious and selfish wiles to have him get irritated and angry but only to end up wanting more of her charms.

Just some good dark angtsy feels all around🖤

A/N: just a little drabble. i've never done canon-verse stuff for AOT so this was fun to try. thank you sending this ask. i did deviate from your ending a little bit so im sorry <3

Warning: AoT Season 4 Spoilers, extreme possessive behavior, toxic relationship, anger issues, gaslighting/manipulating

Eren can feel himself getting restless. Hange had been getting on his nerves. He was the literally the only reason they had secured their victory against Marley on multiple fronts. She and the rest of the fucking Survey Corps should be bending over backward in gratitude.

He cracks his knuckles although he had no need to, wanting to focus on a physical sensation. His thoughts eventually circle back to you. He misses you sorely.

In Marley, there was this kind child Falco. Eren could say he felt guilty for manipulating the poor boy. But that's not true. He's shed that part of humanity a long time ago. All's fair in war after all.

The fair-haired boy was worried about his friend, didn't want a certain special someone of his to become titanized.

Is this other candidate a girl?

Eren had asked. Because he could relate to the Marelyan child. There was a girl he was trying to protect too, who he'd raise hell over, who he'd destroy the world for.

The dark-haired boy can feel himself grow restless. There are a million things to do. Coups to start. Militia to gather. A brother to manipulate. A world to ruin.

But first, he needs to see you. It's already been so long. He had barked orders to Floch to make sure you were safe and secure. If any hair off your pretty little head was misplaced-well no one wants to witness the rage of the Founding Titan's holder.

CRASH

The ground shakes. Eren closes his eyes and lets the Warhammer titan's power course through his veins. Foolish to think any prison could ever hold him.

He's walking uphill. The sunset bathes the land in vibrant pinks, oranges, and light violets. There is a crowd of people standing tall and at attention, postures rigid, save for one.

You hurl towards him at the speed of light and twice the fury, wrapping your arms around his neck. If Eren wasn't six feet of hard muscle, he would have been knocked off his feet from the vigor of your crushing embrace.

"Eren!" You cry out.

The attack titan vessel is too shocked to respond. He's been anticipating your presence for the longest but to finally feel you in the flesh and to smell your soft pretty scent was sending him into overdrive. He couldn't believe you were tangible and not some hauntingly beautiful apparition.

He wraps his arms around you, enveloping your body in his warmth, and you rest your head in the crook of his neck. He feels your nimble fingers toying with his hair.

"I like this new look. It suits you." You mummer.

"Like me without a shirt too?" Eren teases.

He forgot how easy it was to be himself around you, to joke and laugh like he wasn't planning a global genocide of epic proportions. No, even that's an understatement. His goal was an omnicide, utter annihilation. Only Paradis will be left after the ashes settle. A Paradis with you.

"What are you thinking about?" You ask, eyes wide with an untouched innocence that Eren doesn't know how you still possess. All of that eager wide-eyed optimism had been snuffed out from all of his friends. From him. But you, you don't change like the seasons or winds. You're you.

And that was going to be his ruin.

After the Yeagerists brief him on what happened with Zackley and Zeke Yeager's possible whereabouts, Eren gives into his overwhelming urges to see you.

He approaches your chambers, trying to conceal his impatience with soft knocks. You don't answer which irritates him, so he knocks louder and louder, the sound of his fist banging against the door sounding like thunderclaps.

Where the fuck are you? Were you with someone right now? He knew you were getting a little too friendly with Floch from the way you guys were talking at dinner. It was so obvious. He's been gone, for what, a few months and you're already whor-

The door opens and exposes a sleepy-looking girl whose rubbing one of her eyes. Admittedly, very adorable.

"Eren" Your voice is saccharine, "Do you need anything?"

He lets himself in, and shuts the door behind him, locking it in place.

"I don't usually lock the door," You pout but there's a playfulness in your expression that Eren would have noticed had he not been consumed by rage.

"What? So you let anyone in?" He asks, nearly snarling out the words. as he stares scandalized at your slip of a nightgown. A pale translucent pink that reached the middle of your thighs. He could even make the outline of your nipples poking through.

"No, silly." You giggle, twirling the hem of your dress, "Floch's security measure." You pretended not to notice how Eren's fist clenches.

"Is that so?" Eren said, words spoken between gritted teeth. As long as Eren was here, there need be no concerns over security measures. But he knew Floch. The ginger worshipped the ground Eren walked on and would never make a move on you if he cared about his limbs staying intact.

You sat down on your bed and Eren couldn't help but watch your skimpy dress ride up your creamy thighs.

He stood over you, his form looming over yours as you sat on your bed, feet swinging above the ground.

"I wanted to ask you something."

You look up with those big childlike eyes, "Okay."

"Did. Anyone. Touch. You?" His voice is low and he punctuates each word slowly.

You blink "What do you mean?” But there’s a coy smile tugging at the corner of your lips.

"Quit playing dumb." He growls, anger evident in the crease between his eyebrows.

You're quiet for a still moment, mouth opening and closing. Eren's anxiety increases more each second and it finally boils over when you softly ask, "What kind of touch?"

Like a chess piece topping over, he shoves you down the bed, pinning your wrists with his strong hands.

Usually, Eren was smarter. Quicker to call you on your tricks. But alas, absence makes the heart fonder. You love making him lose his stoic composure, so lost in his lust and desire for you that all he can see crimson. And if the price for that is to play the fragile maiden, it is what it is.

"Ow." You pitifully whine, lightly shaking your right hand. Eren knew he wasn't holding you too hard so he experimentally thumbs over a certain spot on your right wrist, eliciting another small whimper. He brings your wrist closer to him and finds a purple bruise.

"Who touched you? Was is it any of the yeagerists?" His voice is deadly calm but an ice-cold rage simmers in his eyes. You can feel yourself growing excited, heat pooling in the bottom of your stomach. You’re rubbing your legs together for the friction but Eren assumes it a nervous tic to avoid answering any of his questions.

When you avert your gaze and simply look the side, he delicately cradles your cheek: “Was it the scouts?”

The delicate touch turns harsher when you don't respond, forcing your pretty head to look straight at him. He sees your eyes glistening, and when he looks into your dewy irises, he can see himself.

His voice drops a pitch, "Please tell me."

Your breathing is shallower and you can't help but enjoy this so much.

It's been so long since you've seen him-since you begged him not to go but he went anyway, and having him here right now--the pride and joy of the Eldian empire , the holder of the Founding Titan-unravel in your fingertips, well this was the closest to true power you've ever been.

Eren can feel his patience sleeping, anger seeping into his bones at your silence, and the bruise on your delicate wrist only serves to anger him further. He can't even do what he swore to do and that was to keep you safe.

"Are you not telling me who it is because you're protecting them?"

The words are delivered deadly calm with the tension of a brewing storm behind it. You're nervous, exactly aware of what your beau is capable of, but the excited kind of nervous where butterflies are swarming in your stomach.

Maybe you underestimated his anger because within a second, the telltale red lines start to form under his eyes, lightning bright sparks forming between each breath.

Without thinking, you envelop the back of his head with one arm (the other hand rendered useless bu the force of his hold), trying to bring his head into the softness your breasts.

Understanding your gesture, Eren immediately calms down and lets himself be smothered in your chest like a babe being cradled in his mother's warmth.

"There, there" you coo, words soft and melodious on your tongue.

You can feel wet-spots on your nightie, "Eren...are you-" you begin, not sure when to end.

His voice is tightly controlled as if not let his coiled emotions fuse again, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was about to hurt you." He sounds so broken, and all you can do is stroke his hair.

You press a kiss to his head. You know what the right words to say are. You should be comforting him and assuring him he could never hurt you.

Instead you stay silent, softly exhaling. He can't see the pleased smile on your face.

*

"Your wrist feeling any better?"

You whip up your head to see Floch whose peering down at you in slight concern. You must have looked confused because he elaborated, "The one you accidentally banged against the doorway. Looked like it hurt."

"Oh." You pause, looking down at the fresh set of finger shaper marks overtaking the fading violet.

You laugh airily, "Yeah it's alright."

[reporterleroux]

ooo could you do platonic irl!bench trio reacting to reader, who's a year or two younger than them, who flinches at sudden movements and jumps at sudden/loud noises? nothing bad has to have happened to reader in the past or anything! reader is just really jumpy and skiddish

also may I please be your Anarchy anon? :D

Yes ofc you can! Welcome Anarchy Anon <3

Current anons

Characters: irl!benchtrio x reader (PLATONIC)

Pronouns: They/Them

A/N: I myself honestly aren't a fan of loud noises, so I think this is pretty cool :)

ANY MENTIONS OF "loved" OR VARIANTS ARE PLATONIC.

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

You opened Discord for the first time after getting out the shower, finding out there were messages from possibly your favourite boys and your best friends.

Child 🚼

@Y/N

NUKES ⚠️

HEY @Y/N ANSWER US

Enderboy 🌌

As much as you guys don't needa @Y/N DO IT ANYWAYS @Y/N WE WANT YOUR ATTENTION >:(

Child 🚼

YEAH

NUKES ⚠️ replying to Enderboy 🌌

THIS!

You sighed as you messaged them back.

Y/N (insert your user here if you'd like)

BITCH ASS I WAS SHOWERING

@Child 🚼 @NUKES ⚠️ @Enderboy 🌌

BE PATIENT GOD

WHATS UP ANYWAYS

NUKES ⚠️

COME MEET UP WITH US AT THE PARK

ME AND @Enderboy 🌌 ARE HERE CAUSE HES ORGANISED BUT WERE STILL WAITING FOR YOU AND @Child 🚼

Child 🚼

WAS THERE THE NEED TO TAG ME THEY KNOW IM TOMMY

BUT ANYWAYS IM ALMOST THERE

Enderboy 🌌 replying to @Child 🚼

Well get here quicker smh 🙄✋

You sighed at your friends antics. As much as you loved them they were annoying at times. You messaged them back a quick:

Y/N

alright give me like 20 mins

And put down your phone, letting it ping from probably an angry TommyInnit wanting you to be quicker. You changed into nice but comfortable clothes, and headed out, having already eaten since it was about midday.

When you eventually got to the park, your three best friends were standing there. Well, you assumed the third was there somewhere, he said he arrived but you could only see Ranboo and Tubbo. They waved at you and you waved back. You made a shrugging emote as of to ask "where's Tommy?" And before they could answer, he (for some reason) threw a hand right infront of your face, the sudden and unexpected movement making you flinch slightly, and was pretty much only possible if you squinted.

"You're finally here! Took your fucking time." Tommy said as he moved infront of you. He turned towards the boys, you thinking he was going to walk/run towards them, but he actually crouched down a bit.

"Come on small younger child! I shall piggy back you over concidering that's what small children like to do." You rolled your eyes and sighed loudly.

"Tommy, I'm legit a year younger than you three." You stated, but he wouldn't give it up. You finally caved in.

"Fine, just this once." You said as you began to get on his back, and before you could balance yourself, he started running as fast as he could towards the others. You knew he wouldn't drop you, but you still grasped onto him anyways, listening to him laughing at you. He put you down when you got to Ranboo and Tubbo.

"Hey guys! Tommy insisted I let him give me a piggy back here because it's, and I quote, "what small children like to do"." You stood there with your arms crossed while they all laughed.

"Well, you gonna stand there and laugh all day, or are we gonna do something?" Granted, it was funny, but you would've been standing in the park all day if you didnt egg them along. It took a while, but someone did finally answer, Tubbo, to be precise. He was wiping his eyes from the tears that formed while laughing as he spoke to you.

"We're going to the arcade!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air on the word arcade. The arcade, the main centre of loud and unexpected noises, great. You acted like you were excited, which you were, don't take it the wrong way, it's just you didn't want to be near all the loud noises.

Once you all eventually made it to the arcade, you all went off different ways, but you and Ranboo, since the other two were off like kids in a candy shop. You two hung out and stayed together, you occasionally jumping at the sudden preset messages coming out of the machines. You were watching Ranboo absolutely kill it on Guitar Hero before the sound that pushed you over the edge rendered through the place. It was only loud nearby, but it was loud enough to make you walk out the place. Ranboo watched you walk out, still somehow perfectly playing the end of his round. When he did finish, he went to find Tubbo and Tommy before bringing them outside, them finding you sitting on the floor near the entrance doors. You looked up at them, feeling guilty about being the cause of the look on their faces.

"Before, you ask, I'm fine, loud noises just scare me and make me a bit skiddish, same goes with sudden movements. I'm sorry if I worried you." They all looked at eachother before Tommy walked back inside and Ranboo and Tubbo pulled you up and towards the nearest cafe. You all ordered and sat outside.

"Sorry Y/N, we didn't know, we'll think better next time." Tubbo said, with Ranboo nodding his head to agree. You took one of their hands each in yours and held them there.

"Don't worry about me, alright? I should've said sooner." You reassured them. Just as you let go, Tommy pulled up to the table and sat down, pushing something towards you. You all looked at him confused, he never really gave the gifts.

"Sorry." He mumbled as he pushed the gift towards you. He lifted up his hand to reveal a rubber duck he exchanged with the tickets he won.

"Thank you, Tommy, and there's no need to be. It's happened now, let's just enjoy something at this cafe."

And that's exactly what you all did.

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

A/N: FINALLY DONE :D so sorry the time this took, had school and stuff and was on off writing it. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR 203 FOLLOWERS BTW <3

Taglist: @bozowrites

I KEEP FORGETTING TAGLIST 😃

[prose-for-hire]

Face your demon

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: Could you do A Spike x reader where the reader is in love with him, but doesn't show her emotions (except for getting easily flustered around him), but Spike overhears hears her talking to willow about it and he confronts her, ending in them being together?

Requested by: @wiccanindigo​

Requested tags: @fictionalhoomanofnowhere @artsymaddie​ @shy-ginger-in-the-graveyard​ @cameo-greaves​

​You were pretty neutral in public. Your face rarely shifted other than to a polite smile or perhaps a confused frown should the moment take you by surprise. Other than this human reaction, you would usually maintain a resting face. One that appeared to most as if you didn’t wish to be in their company. Or anywhere at all really.

You felt a lot. You really cared about your friends, the people you loved. It was just near-impossible to express this. At least, in a way that you were comfortable. It was much easier to hold people at a distance. That way, you didn’t risk rejection. Or painful, bitter emotions that you didn’t enjoy.

So, you tended to hide your emotional side completely. Rather than wrestle with articulating the way you felt. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision, just one that you lived with. You struggled expressing your emotions – not only on your face but also verbally. Any way, really. It could be so hard.

Luckily for you though, you had some very caring and empathetic friends. The Scoobies. They understood and gave you the time you needed – between fighting apocalypses of course.

You were sat in the Magic box with all of your friends around you. Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, Tara and Giles. You were characteristically just staring into the centre of the room as the usual antics played out around you.

You contributed now and again although not as passionately as the others, it must be said. You tended to bounce off of someone else’s point and repeat it if you agreed with it with a shrug. As if you would rather be anywhere but there.

You weren’t shy. In fact you came across as the complete opposite. Cool, collected. Near apathetic should your friends not understand how deeply you truly did care – you just didn’t express it as much as most. There was no need to gush in your book. You weren’t one to keep your heart on your sleeve and make the entire room look at it.

Well, that was until him.

Spike ran in, slamming the door shut behind him. It slammed so hard the entire store shook and he sauntered in as if it was nothing. It made the corners of your mouth tug into an almost-smile but you looked down to avoid anyone seeing.

There he was, your weakness. The one that could render you speechless. A flustered mess. A heat would rise in your cheeks and your voice would appear weak and just wholly unlike yourself.

You had it bad. He always did this, walking in with that swagger. Those cheekbones. That look…

His eyes were straight on you. As they always were. You were a mystery to him, one he was so desperate to figure out. You had noticed the way he always made his way to you. The way he dropped his voice and made comments about the others in the room in the hopes of you cracking a smile.

You spoke to him as much as you could, but often your words failed you. You didn’t want to give anything away. Couldn’t. You didn’t want him to tease you, reject you in such a painful way.

He was Spike, after all. He could have anyone he wanted you were sure of it.

The point was, though, that he wanted you. And you were too wrapped up in focusing on how to breath properly when he was around that you didn’t notice.

Spike found your resting face beautifully morbid. He found you to be strong-willed and the very little he sensed or heard from you he found himself clinging to. You would be stamped onto his brain for the rest of his un-life, he was sure of it.

He was in so deep. Thought about you constantly. Wanted to know what you were doing, what you were thinking. Imagined himself by your side. Taking you into his bed… oh, and I won’t even start on the dreams. They left him aching. Such deep, unending desire. For you. God, it could only ever be you.

“Alright, pet? Don’t rush to say you missed me, written on your face already” He smouldered in that way he did. Hoping for any kind of reaction.

You looked up at him before immediately looking away. A ghost of a smile on your face as you shifted in your seat. He took this as an invitation to sit beside you and so he did.

“Hi Spike” You just about managed before your voice wavered. You didn’t like the way he rendered you this flustered mess. But, at the same time you couldn’t help but completely love it.

Your usual cool demeanour gone. Lost in those beautiful eyes of his. You could happily live in his eyes for the rest of your life.

You managed to position yourself in your seat in such a way that meant he made up most of you vision, without it looking glaringly obvious to anyone else. He lived in your peripheral vision. At least this way a little part of him was yours.

You became a little brave and moved your eyes to look at him properly, no longer just from the side. He was beautiful. The way that t-shirt clung perfectly to his torso. The way his leather duster managed to land in such a relaxed way on his shoulders. Effortless cool. Or, that’s what you assumed.

You loved him. His looks. His personality. Just everything. You couldn’t escape it.

Something snapped you out of staring. Everyone’s eyes were suddenly on you. Staring.

“Huh?” You asked, feeling a heat rise in your cheeks as he turned to face you properly too. You had apparently managed to miss the entire meeting. Not one scrap of the plan had entered your head. You were consumed by him instead.

“Y/n? You sure that’s okay?”

“We’ll be fine on patrol, right love?” Spike smirked at the rest of the room and raised an eyebrow which made everyone reconsider.

“We can switch if evil dead makes you uncomfortable” Xander offered kindly which made spike glare. He wanted you to himself.

“No that’s good- uh, fine. It’s fine. I’ll patrol with Spike” you rushed out at a completely different pace than anyone was used to hearing you speak.

What you were supposed to be looking for, you didn’t know. You hadn’t been listening just focusing on regulating your breathing. Wiping the sweat from your palms at the proximity. He was sat so close to you. You wanted to just lean against him. Whisper how you felt.

You and Spike walked out into the cool night air. Mostly in silence, although you could almost hear the cogs in his mind whirring to come up with something to say. You didn’t realise but he was trying to impress you. Trying to get you to smile. He loved it when you smiled. Near melted.

He then finally asked something he had so wanted to say to you. For such a long time.

“We could, uh, blow this off, go for a drink?” He let the proposition hang in the air.

You didn’t even begin to consider this had been something more than a teasing joke because he didn’t want to be stuck patrolling anymore. Just wanted to rebel against Buffy’s sudden authority in his life.

“Yeah, because I’ve always thought you’d look great with a redwood through your chest” You spoke, referring to what Buffy would do to him should he leave you or the demon to run through the streets.

“Pet-”

“It’d make a pretty accessory. Bring out your eyes” You deadpanned and he just stared. Why were you like this? Why did your flirting so quickly descend into just being rude?

It was like a disease. You were riddled with it. Any sense that your mouth would spill the contents of your mind and something took over. Possessed you, began to say the very opposite of what you wished to say.

You wanted him to ask you out for a drink. Tell you that you looked nice, that he felt lucky to have someone like you to take out. Have on his arm. Show off. You wanted to loop your arms around him and embrace him. Kiss his lips. Have him in your bed. His body yours and only yours.

But, instead, you had just told him he would look better dead. Or, well, more dead. He had taken this as a firm no, you didn’t want to go out with him. He looked upwards, trying to stop the stinging at the back of his eyes before he nodded firmly and just shrugged.

“Whatever, let’s find this vamp”

Oh, right. It was a vampire. You were supposed to be looking for a vampire. That at least narrowed it down… kind of.

Both of you took turns in glancing at the person beside them. So desperately wishing to touch them. Have some kind of intimacy. It was hard having the one that you loved so close and yet emotionally so far away.

There was a distance. A canyon between you that you both wished to cross. But it was so hard. There would be no turning back.

You never caught up with the vampire you were meant to find and Spike walked you home instead when it got too late. You tried to thank him for the gesture but he had turned and walked away. Licking his wound at the rejection you had inflicted upon him without realising.

Despite the fact you had hurt him though, he had needed to make sure you got in safe. Protecting you from harm meant everything even if you wouldn’t give him the time of day.

It had been a couple of days since this unwitting rejection and you and Willow had arrived early waiting to meet with the others at the Magic Box. Giles had gone to pick up some order sat the back. Which left just you and your friend. Well, that’s what you thought anyway.

She was the only one that knew how you felt for Spike. She had seen you watching him, a new expression unlocked on your face. As if she had won a quest or something in a video game and been allowed to see it.

Conversation had quickly turned to this man that you were so in love with it managed to fluster even you. You near hid your face from your friend at even the implication you liked him. But you were comfortable that Willow was being supportive.

You discussed that you liked him. Truly admitted it out loud for the first time. Not realising that the man himself was stood around the corner listening. He loved to hear your voice and so had stayed back because you seemed to speak less in his company.

Spike’s jaw tensed as he heard you talking about this mystery man though. He had never heard you gush this way before. Stumbling over your words to describe such longing. You usually appeared so calm, collected. He wished to be the one that sent you weak at the knees in the way that this nameless idiot did. He guessed it was probably Xander.

Stupid bloody Xander. Gormless nit.

“Maybe, uh, you should tell him? You can’t know his feelings unless you try” Willow offered.

Spike guiltily hoped that you would have to face rejection so that he could comfort you instead. Spend more time with you, prove to you that you could trust him with your emotions. He so longed to have your attention. Your trust.

“I can’t… I-it’s too hard” You sighed and his spirits lifted, maybe this would be his chance instead. While you tried to build up your courage, he could show you how much you meant to him. How much he wanted you.

Nothing could have prepared him for what came out of your mouth next. There had been only a slight pause while you sifted through your emotions.

“He’s so- he’s… he’s Spike” You had no other description other than this spike-ness was all that you wanted. You near craved it. But also these words explained how hard it was. How trying to speak to him was near impossible. Willow nodded in understanding and patted your shoulder sympathetically.

“It could be good for you, y’know? Facing your, uh, demon…” Willow’s voice dried up. Turned into a little squeak. You looked up, confused.

There he was, as if your longing had been a magnet to the man himself. Your eyes bulged and your mouth opened in shock. The most your face had ever given away.

Willow stumbled over some excuse that neither Spike nor you heard before she left for the exit. Allowing you to both speak.

“I’m the bloke you’ve been harpin’ on about?” He said slowly. He did this only because he wanted to hear it from your mouth again. As if he wasn’t entirely sure if he had dreamed it or not.

“We don’t have to make it into a big deal… I’m sure I’ll, uh, get over it” You tried, avoiding the rejection you could feel coming.

“Don’t” He said quickly, “God, please bloody don’t get over it. You’d break a poor dead man’s heart if you did”

“What?” You asked, frowning in confusion. He couldn’t possibly feel the same way… could he?

“Don’t be daft, love. Asked you for a drink didn’t I? Trailed after you despite you not even pretending to take an interest. Been there just in the nick of time before somethin’ nasty ate you?” He reeled off things he had pretty much done in the last fourty-eight hours. It made you gasp with surprise. How had you missed this? “Tell me I haven’t bent over bloody backwards for even a shred of your affection,”

“Spike…” You looked away, it was so hard. You didn’t even know how to begin to say what you needed to.

“Please, don’t shy away. Can’t stand it when your eyes wander…”

“Spike, I…” He took your hand, nodding subtly to show that he was there. That he liked you, that he needed to hear it. Whatever it may be, “I love you”

Spike pulled you into him immediately, knowing this must have bee hard for you. He was beginning to understand. You were like him, petrified of the rejection. The idea that the one that held such promise and stirred such feeling could ruin everything. You restored his faith in love. Rekindled his affections for the notion as well as confirming that he loved you too.

He crashed his lips to yours, his reply to your words communicated in this way. And you understood completely. Lips moving against yours, a display of affection only for you. he was firm in his love but so very tender. He embraced you close, a hand along the small of your back that made you shiver and lean further into him. Deepening this perfect kiss.

You parted, somewhat reluctantly and just gazed at the other for a moment before he spoke.

“I’m just glad you don’t have eyes for the whelp” Spike grinned and it made your face brighten. A smile. One that he savoured as you rolled your eyes at him being so pleased you liked him more than Xander.

He took your hand in his and sauntered beside you. Chest puffed out and proud to have you by his side. As if you had just gifted him the entire world.

Now you just had to break it to your friends. There was no way you would be hiding this.