#because the designer he assigned it to needed more time which is like. no problem at all

[pollen]

i have that calendar today........ please not this

[lexosaurus]

Ghost Boy? In my college class? It's More Likely Than You Think

[ao3 link]

Warnings: None Words: 6,031

****

College was crazy. 

Okay?

There was absolutely no reason why college had to be as insane as it was.

Alright, maybe there was a reason. A reason called, "We have four years to make these students professionals in their chosen field, and some even less time than that."

Danny understood. He really, truly did. He knew that to work in his dream job at NASA, he needed to learn not just how to locate the constellations in the night sky, but also about subjects like chemistry, biology, calculus, physics—a lot of physics.

But seriously, when the hell was a guy supposed to sleep?

Last night's problem set only had five questions, theoretically. But it was run by a completely sadistic site that Vlad himself must have designed—that bastard—because while submitting a correct answer seemed to mark one of the five outlined stars in gold, the site also seemed to be more than happy to remove the gold star if he got a problem incorrect. 

Which meant that the theoretical five-questioned assignment ended up taking Danny many, many more questions than that. 

Just when he had thought the hell was over, he realized he still hadn't begun his paper for his mandatory freshman writing class. So then, he got the absolute pleasure of writing an essay about a stupid, Victorian-era play he didn't read regarding the symbolism of a hat as it related to...foreshadowing, or something. 

He didn't read it. He only signed up for this dumb writing seminar because the timing worked better on his schedule. He'd much rather be taking the writing class about horror novels. But unfortunately, that one happened during his mandatory physics course.

When it was all over and he finally caught sight of his pillow, he was pretty sure he’d shed a single tear. Did he remember sinking into the mattress? Closing his eyes, and drifting off?

No. He didn't. 

He was fucking tired.

But apparently, the universe did actually hate him because instead of being roused by his alarm the next morning, he was shaken by his ghost sense.

Oh yeah, apparently Skulker found his dorm.

Joy!

No seriously, fuck that guy. 

What the hell kind of sick weirdo wants to make a rug out of someone else's skin, anyway? Not to mention that Skulker had no conception of what a good time to hunt was, considering he seriously was trying to start chaos at five in the fucking morning.

Again, fuck that guy.

He only just barely had enough time to fly home, shower, hastily read over and submit his essay (he'd long since learned from high school that he couldn't trust himself that late at night to be coherent), and make a mad dash to his favorite bagel spot on the way to class.

However, the bagel guy—he had a name, Danny was almost sure—must have been under the weather today because, for some reason, he could not stop staring at Danny.

The instinct to run his hand over his face to check for post-fight ectoplasm splatters was a learned reaction at this point. But this time, he couldn't feel anything off. His skin was dry. Cold, like usual, but dry.

"Uh..." The bagel guy continued staring at him slack-jawed.

"Do I have something on my face?" 

That seemed to shake the bagel guy out of his stupor. He blinked, his eyes darting around to catch the eye of a few other customers who, for some reason, were giving Danny a really wide berth.

Did he smell or something? Had he forgotten to put his deodorant on?

Oh god, did his parents do something to make national news again? Did the news use a family photo when reporting the story or something? Why was everyone looking at him? Seriously, what the hell was going on today?

The bagel guy locked eyes with Danny once more, briefly, before darting back down to the register and handing Danny his change. "One everything bagel with cream cheese for the, uh—for—coming right up."

"Thanks," Danny said, trying to be as friendly as possible. Jazz always said that he shouldn't judge people for acting strange. That they could be going through something personal.

So, Danny shook it off. Maybe he missed a chunk of ectoplasm on his hair when he was showering. Skulker had nailed his shoulder pretty well. The green, ecto-infused smoothie he'd sipped that morning was working its magic to mend his skin, but who knew? Maybe a little bit of blood was leaking through his shirt. It wouldn't be the first time that happened, anyway.

Or the last.

Amazingly, he did get his bagel. But when the man handed it to Danny, his eyes were almost popping out of his skull. His heavily accented, "Ah, here is one—ah, your—your bagel," sounded especially halted today. 

But no. The big, gruff bagel guy wouldn't have stuttered. He wouldn't have been nervous to pass a bagel to a tired-looking college student either.

Danny must have misheard. 

He darted down the sidewalk. He was going to be late for class. And it was because of his internal panic that he didn't notice the girl with her nose buried in her cell phone at first. Not until she almost crashed into him, looked up, and nearly jumped out of her skin.

"HOLY SHIT!" she yelled, her hands flailing beside her. Her phone flew out from her fingers and clattered on the pavement.

"Sorry!" Danny scooped up her phone from the ground and handed it to her.

She stared at him as if he were completely insane, making no move to take the phone until Danny leaned forward a little closer and pointedly said, "Here."

Whether or not this girl was hungover or still drunk from whatever party she'd been at the night before, Danny did not have time to work around her brain. He was going to be late for class!

"Fuck," she said, eyes still glued on Danny. She did, however, finally reach out and gently take the offered cell phone.

Which was all he needed.

Mission accomplished, he whirled back around intending on continuing his fast-walk-nearly-run pace to the science building, but caught the eye of a biker who seemed to go into a similar trance as the bagel guy and ended up crashing straight into a parked car.

"Oh my god!" Danny darted over to the strewn biker. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! Stay back!" the man yelled, struggling up and holding his hand out to block Danny from seeing his face.

Was this guy...cowering at him? Like he was some sort of ghost?

No, no. This was silly. Now Danny was just being paranoid.

"Just stay back!"

An oddly phrased demand, and a little biting at that, but the biker did just crash into a parked car because of Danny and that other girl—who was currently holding her phone up at Danny—so he guessed he could forgive this random dude for being a little snappish.

Danny didn't have time to dwell on this stranger anyway, because holy shit his class was starting in ten minutes and if Danny didn't get his ass to the room right now he was going to be screwed.

So with one more apology to the biker, and one more glance to the strange phone-obsessed girl, Danny adjusted the strap of his bag back over his shoulder and took off down the road.

Not literally took off. Though, he really wanted to jet through the air today. He'd had these urges to duck out of sight and fly to class before, but it never felt so compelling as right now. 

Unfortunately, the street was crowded as shit, and in between classes as it was, the building would likely be crowded too. Finding a discreet place to transform would probably take just as long as running to the classroom like his half-life depended on it. And so, the latter option it was.

Somehow, he managed to make it to class with five minutes to spare. Okay, maybe not somehow. Maybe he did risk using his flight to propel him forward a little bit. Could anyone blame him? 

College was crazy. And anyone who thought they saw a guy not quite touching the ground when he walked could have just as easily been sleep-deprived and were almost certainly hallucinating. Humans couldn't fly! Only ghosts could fly, and Danny Fenton was clearly a human college student just running to class.

Gaslight, gatekeep, ghostboss—or whatever the saying was.

Energy was buzzing in Danny’s veins, and he found it a little difficult to stay in his seat. An aftereffect of only barely using his flight powers, he was sure. His body got a taste of being airborne, and now it didn't want to return to the laws of gravity.

Danny could forgive his ghost core for that. Gravity could be very exhausting sometimes. Especially when he was in the middle of a ghost fight and his enemy was hurling him to the ground.

But he was in a lecture, and it would look weird if this random college student was hovering over his seat, so Danny forced his butt onto the chair as he dropped his bag beside him.

Whispers fluttered around him, which wasn't too unusual. People often talked in pleading freak-out whispers to their friends after an especially grueling night of homework.

Danny was about to turn to his chemistry lecture buddy and do the same—because seriously, he was going to have nightmares over that damn assignment for weeks—when he realized that his chemistry buddy was not in his usual seat.

And then, a whisper caught the attention of his enhanced eardrum.

"...ghost..."

"...Phantom..."

Ah, that explained it. 

Oh yeah, it was all coming together now.

They must have been talking about the ghost fight from this morning, the one with Skulker. This city wasn't Amity Park, so the students here weren't exactly used to ghost attacks. Of course, the initial fight was probably very exciting for them.

And, well, his parents probably were on the news that morning, but likely only to be interviewed about the attack. Maybe they ended up rambling about ghostly habits and migration patterns or whatever other bullshit theories they’d been churning with recently.

So then, the bagel guy must have recognized Danny as a Fenton, a child of Jack and Maddie, the infamous, kooky ghost experts.

The effects of that realization were delayed, but when they finally hit, he felt like his brain was hit by a semi-truck. Because, shit. He didn't know if he could deal with his bagel guy knowing who he was. He was going to have to find a new bagel spot, wasn't he? 

Danny craned his neck over to the door. The lecture was supposed to be starting, but his chemistry buddy was nowhere to be found.

But then, to his immense relief that he wouldn't have to suffer through this lecture by himself, the door opened to reveal the tall, lanky form of Cameron, his chemistry buddy.

Danny eagerly moved his bag out of the way of Cam's seat, his woes of that fucking assignment hot on his lips, but before he could begin his trauma-dumping session, something strange happened.

Really, really strange.

As Cam began habitually walking over to his seat, he looked up, caught Danny's eye, and froze.

His mouth parted into a perfect 'o,' his eyes widened, and his eyebrows disappeared under his hairline. Then, he backed up, caught the bewildered expression of another student near him, and moved to another aisle.

Danny sat there too stunned to call out to Cam, though the intent was at the precipice of his being. Hurt stabbed his gut, and the social anxiety the A-List had trained his brain for in high school started creeping up his spine.

Did Danny do something wrong? 

Why had Cam moved away?

What did that look to the other kid mean?

He tried to think of a reason why Cam might have suddenly decided that Danny was a weirdo freak that should be avoided, but the only thing he remembered doing between yesterday and today was the two texts he'd sent at eleven last night complaining about the assignment. But surely, everyone had complained, right?

Or was the assignment genuinely effortless for everyone? And Danny was just an idiot who didn't understand some really simple concept, and now Cam had suddenly realized that he'd picked the wrong chemistry buddy to sit next to in class?

That must have been it.

Why else had he moved away?

Danny turned around, looking to the back of the lecture hall. But all he could see was a sea of faces all looking at him.

Okay, honestly, what the fuck was wrong with everyone today?

He whipped out his phone, paranoia striking through his gut like a spear. Maybe he'd accidentally revealed himself during the fight? But he checked Google, searching for Phantom's human identity, but all he got at the top of the search were old Reddit threads theorizing about which historical figure he could have been, and celebrity news sites spouting completely absurd clickbait-type theories about his past.

Is Danny Phantom Napoleon's son?

Could Danny Phantom be Related to George Washington?

New Theory Suggests Danny Phantom is Alexander the Great!

Yeah, like Danny was leading legions of ghosts around Europe anytime soon.

As Danny wracked his brain for what the hell he'd done to deserve the wrath of having his classmates stare at him like he was some sort of weird alien species and everyone was plotting on how to initiate first contact, the side door opened and the professor came darting in the hall with a stack of folders all but falling out of his hands and a muttering of breathy, "sorry, sorry," light on his lips.

The muttering broke out into jilted, uncomfortable laughter, and Danny still couldn't help the feeling that they were laughing at him. 

He tried to brush that off as just the remnants of his high school on him and keep his attention focused on his short, salt-and-pepper-haired professor who looked like he couldn't remember if he was going to a beach party or Burning Man today, and decided to dress for both. 

Yang put the manila folders down on the front table, miraculously without spilling any of the contents inside, set his bag down on the rolling chair beside him, and picked up a piece of chalk to face the board.

He held a hand up and began writing Chemistry 101 — Stoichiometry on the board.

Behind Danny, the snickers grew louder. 

Was there some inside joke that he just wasn't getting? Had his classmates prepared some sort of prank for the teacher today and Danny hadn't read the email? Was it April Fool's Day, even though logic and reasoning told Danny that it was only October?

"Sorry I was late, everyone," Yang began. "Now if you don't mind, I want to begin by going over a few problems from last night's assignment. I noticed a pattern in the problems everyone was getting wrong..."

Someone coughed rather obnoxiously behind him.

Danny felt ice begin to build in his stomach. 

"...so as you can see here, I noticed a lot of people forgot to calculate the used excess of iron to find the amount of excess reactants. Remember, guys, you can't just subtract the bigger and smaller masses in the problem..."

Another obnoxious cough. 

Yang didn't break stride. "...you have to actually convert it to moles and set up your mole ratio, and then convert back to grams. I mentioned this in class but it seemed like too many of you—"

"Professor Yang?" the impatient voice of Brittany, one of his classmates, said from behind.

The class broke out in a fit of whispers and giggles, this time not even trying to hide their restlessness.

"What is it?" Yang turned around, his chalk still hovering on the board.

And then he looked at Danny. His eyes bugged out like a cartoon, sticking out beyond the rims of his glasses. His jaw opened and closed like a fish, and he dropped the chalk on the floor.

Now, the class was roaring with noise.

Danny stared eye-to-eye with the professor for ten seconds or ten minutes. He didn't know which, and it didn't matter anyway, because then Yang's thin lips opened to exclaim a word that may as well have electrocuted him all over again:

"Phantom?" 

Confusion and panic hit Danny like a sledgehammer.

How did Yang know he was Phantom? Had he been revealed? Did everyone know he was Phantom?

And then he heard the whispers. 

"It's really him! It's Phantom!"

"Why is he here?"

"It's Phantom!"

No!

No!

How did everyone know his secret?

Danny had to stop this.

He had over four years of hiding his ghost half from his parents, the world, and most impressively, his parents. Over the years, he'd honed his ability at lying and using his silver tongue to smooth over situations with such practiced ease, he was expecting his Oscar in the mail any day now.

Which is why, like an utter pro, he jumped up from his seat and shouted, "It's a lie, I'm not a ghost!"

The room went silent, and then was launched into a frenzy.

"Phantom!"

"Is he delusional?"

"It's really him! It's Phantom!"

His panic was bordering on hysteria as it stampeded over him, beating his core so furiously that Danny thought it was going to jump through his ribcage.

He stood, his gloved hands held out in front of him as he began his best at pleading with the masses, but before he could grovel too much, Professor Yang's voice sliced through him like a knife, calling out, "Phantom! What are you doing in my class?"

Wait...

Gloved hand?

Danny looked at his hands again. They were gloved.

And glowing.

The relief was so heavy on his shoulders, his back, and every inch of his skin. It was also mortifying.

Because here he was, in his Chemistry 101 class not as Fenton, but as Phantom. 

"Holy shit," Danny muttered. 

What. The. Hell.

No, really.

What the hell?

How was this happening?

Had he really been so tired that he'd forgotten to change out of his Phantom form after Skulker's fight?

No, hang on—had he been walking around in his Phantom form all morning?

How had he not noticed?

Then all the memories came flying back to him at once. The bagel guy acting weird, staring at him like he wasn't sure if he should seriously give a ghost a bagel because "Do ghosts need to eat? Is human food poison?"

And then the girl. She hadn't screamed because she nearly crashed into a stranger, she screamed and threw her phone in the air because she'd nearly crashed into Phantom. And that's why she was recording him after, too. She was recording Phantom, a ghost that wasn't native to this college town.

Danny thought he'd die of cringe-fail right there because that meant she also recorded the biker crashing into a parked car and was probably uploading it to TikTok later. He was sure it would be trending in minutes.

That was, if she hadn't already uploaded it to Tiktok, and it wasn't already trending. His phone suddenly felt heavy in his pocket. 

He looked around at the faces of intrigue and excitement, feebly attempting to squash the anxiety that was currently tap dancing over his skin.  Okay, so his initial attempt at acting hadn't gone so well. That was okay; nobody could be perfect all the time. If he just channeled the inner cool and suave hero that he was, he could totally save the situation.

For sure.

He floated a few feet in the air. His legs felt awkward sprawled out, and he tried to form a ghost-tail, but somehow his sense of self was too strong for that today. No matter, to balance it out, he splayed his arms out wide and began doing jazz hands, saying, "It's me! Danny Phantom! Just here checking your classroom for ghosts!" 

There was a moment of collective pause before his brain caught up with what his mouth said, and then he scrambled, making a big show of ducking around the room to search for...ghosts, or something. He lowered to the floor to check under the auditorium chairs, flew to the front of the room to peek around the tables, and finally went up to the ceiling to glance around the four corners of the room.

Once he felt embarrassed enough, he stopped in the center of the room, puffed out his chest, and said, "Good news, citizens! There are no ghosts in this room!"

Whispers and mutters once again broke out from his classmates, along with a few giggles. In the front of the classroom, Yang's head was craned up to look at him, his expression showing pure bafflement. 

Okay, Danny was bombing this set. He was catching onto the vibe of the room, and had come to this very astute conclusion: there was no saving this. 

Time to abort the mission.

"Well, that will be all! Have a fun class learning about chemistry!" 

And then, without another word, he jetted through the wall and into the hallway of the building, turning invisible immediately. Fortunately, with classes having started several minutes ago, the corridors were mostly empty. Only a few stragglers remained, booking it down the halls and trying to duck inconspicuously into their classrooms. 

Danny cut around a corner of the hall where, thankfully, no one was standing. That didn't stop him from triple-checking over his shoulder (it was just the water fountain, Danny) before he let his ring wash over him.

Then, when he was sure he was human again this time, he ran down the hall and pushed open the auditorium door to his class which, by the looks of things, hadn't calmed down from their encounter yet.

The door hit the wall with a bang—oops, he thought he hadn't pushed so hard—and then every head was turned to him.

"Sorry!" Danny rubbed the back of his neck and gestured vaguely to the clock on the wall. "I lost track of time."

The room was...silent. Incredibly, confoundingly silent. 

That wasn't good.

On instinct, Danny glanced down again to make sure that he was wearing his red hoodie and blue jeans and not his Phantom black and white jumpsuit. He was, in fact, wearing the right clothes. And out of the corners of his eyes, he saw the glint of his black bangs.

So then, what the fuck?

Alright, there was no need to panic. He was human, his classmates were human, they'd just met Phantom, and now Danny was busting in the classroom late. It wouldn't be the first time he was late to class, anyway. Lots of students were late for chemistry! 

With his brain sufficiently pep-talked, he pointed as inconspicuously to his seat as he could and said, "I'll just...take my seat." 

No one responded, so he took that as his cue to begin his walk of shame up the steps of the auditorium aisles to his usual seat near the front, which was still amazingly void of students anywhere near it.

"Phantom?" a voice rang out from the spattering of students around the room.

Danny missed the next step and ate shit on the floor. His bag hit his back heavily, and he could have sworn his shoe nearly flew off his feet. He scrambled to stand, his hand missing the railing only once, before he managed to stand back proud and tall. Sort of. His backpack had slid off one shoulder, and his body was hunched forward and he tried to regain his breath because holy shit, it actually really hurt for his torso to land on the corner of the step.

He rubbed his sternum, sure it was going to bruise, and coughed out, "Uh—what?"

"Phantom!" the voice, now too familiar, repeated. "You're him. Phantom."

Danny glanced up, and dread not only slammed into him with the force of a semi, but also backed up and floored it into his soul again. And again.

Because that voice was none other than his Chem 101 buddy, Cam.

No, Danny was a magnificent actor. He surely could save this one.

What did people always say? Something about the third try being a charm?

He could really use a charm right now. Unfortunately, Murphy seemed keen on watching him suffer instead.

"No—no way! I'm not a ghost! I'm totally human, guys! See?" Danny said with quite a lot of conviction, waving his hands beside his body like some sort of circus display.

It was so conclusive of a performance, that Cam simply laughed. 

Shit. This was not how he wanted today to go at all.

"I can't believe I never put it together before! Did people really buy that in your hometown?" 

"What act? I'm not acting!" Danny insisted.

But his classmates, it seemed, were even less convinced. 

"Seriously, it's so obvious."

"How did no one notice?"

"They're literally the same person it's crazy."

"What? No! No we're not the same person!" Danny insisted, trying not to sound desperate and hopelessly failing. "He's my—uh—twin? Yeah, that. He's my twin."

"He's obviously not," a classmate said.

"He is. He died in the womb," Danny refuted.

"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous."

"Does it sound better or worse if I say that my mother drank ectoplasmic smoothies while she was pregnant and that's why he turned into a ghost?"

"Fenton!" Professor Yang called out.

Danny felt his blood turn so cold they started forming frost in his veins. 

And then, he refused to look down because he was pretty sure ice crystals were glueing his feet to the floor.

In his panic, he'd totally forgotten that this was, in fact, a classroom. With a professor. And not just any professor, his chemistry professor. As in, the guy that had the sole power of crushing all of Danny's dreams of working for NASA via the power of the curve.

Yang took a step back, colliding with the chalkboard behind him and smearing white dust all over his brightly-colored shirt. But he ignored this, instead finding it more pertinent to fold his arms and regard Danny with a look of pure incredulation. "Are you really Phantom?"

"What? No!" Danny said. However, as luck would have it, that gasping answer caused him to inhale the wrong way, and coughs shot up his throat to overtake his body.

And then like the valiant superhero he was, he began having a coughing fit. In front of his classmates.

He knew Sam and Tucker always called him a dork, but this was really unfair.

"You okay, Phantom?" one student asked.

Danny tried to argue, "I'm not Phantom," but unfortunately for him, he hadn't stopped coughing yet.

Taking his silence for a confirmation that he was in fact the elusive ghost known as Phantom, another classmate commented, "I didn't know Phantom breathed."

Not-so-quiet whispers and mutters broke out around the class at once discussing theories of his cardiovascular system.

All while Danny was doubled over, trying desperately to reclaim what little of his dignity was still left. As well as reclaim some of the oxygen that his body seemed more than willing to push away for some reason.

Seriously, was he out of karma yet? 

Okay, Universe, if this is your way getting back at me for reading the Cliffnotes of that book for the essay last night, I get it. Cheating is bad, blah blah blah. I'm very sorry in a deeply remorseful way, so can we please stop ruining my life now?

"...so he wouldn't need to breathe!" A classmate's voice had stepped above the rest.

"That's what I said!"

"Dude, he's literally fallen asleep on my floor once. I'm telling you he needs to breathe."

That voice must have been Cam's.

Danny took a deep breath, regaining control of his lungs. "Wait, guys!"

But it was too late. And, oh god, why were people now giggling over their phones? Had someone taken a video of him earlier? Was he trending online right now?

If this got back to Sam and Tucker, he was never going to live this down. 

"Okay, okay!" Yang's voice rose in volume. "Class, settle down!"

The class went silent.

"Alright, I know we are all curious to know about Fenton's secret double life—"

"I don't have a secret double life!"

"Sure you don't, Phantom," Cam said.

"—But please, we do actually have quite a bit of material to cover today, judging by the very impressive homework scores from last night. And, by the way, class, might I remind you all that my office hours are on Mondays and Wednesdays from two to four. I won't name names, but I'll just say that if you need to make it a point to come for some review, you know who you are."

Was Yang looking at him?

"Regardless, if Fenton is done screwing around with his ghost powers, we do need to get through the material sometime this year."

"But I'm not a ghost!" Danny protested.

"Dude, you're standing in a block of ice," a classmate argued. 

"Holy shit, he froze his legs to the floor!"

Danny felt frost on his cheeks. "The A/C system is broken! Everyone knows that!"

"The ice is glowing." 

"So? A lot of ice glows."

"Fenton, please." Yang had never sounded so disappointed in his life. "I'd expect anyone in this class to know that ice is made of which elements?"

Danny hated where this was going. "Hydrogen and oxygen."

"And please describe the bonds to me."

"The hydrogens have a double bond with the oxygen, and then there's two pairs of electrons leftover."

"What shape?" Yang pressed, pushing his wiry glasses up his nose.

"Bent."

"Good, thank you. So we have two hydrogen and one oxygen in an H20 molecule, yes? And so tell me, would that configuration with those two elements cause anything to glow?"

"Um, no." Danny had the sudden urge to die. "Water does not glow." 

"But, interestingly, ectoplasmic water does glow, correct? Because....?"

They'd touched over ecton science earlier in the semester. "Because ectons are larger and can sit closer to the nucleus which results in atoms fusing and due to the greater amounts of energy they emit, some this excess energy can be seen in our visible spectrum."

Yang smiled and then gestured to the seat devoid of any humans near it that Danny, previously Phantom, had been sitting in at the start of class. "Thank you, Mr. Phantom. Now, if we're all done dillydallying, we have some stoichiometry to go over."

It took Danny more than a second of the awkward silence that followed to realize that oh yeah, his feet were literally frozen in place.

"So..." He glanced around the room, meeting the expectant gazes of his classmates. "Just to be clear, none of you care that I might potentially be..."

A ghost?

Phantom?

Some sort of weird mutant hybrid thing?

"Danny, you're the only one making a big deal out of this," a classmate answered.

Danny guffawed.

"Yeah, it's whatever. You're dead, so what? We're all dead in college. You're not special."

"I have a biology lecture later right after this for my weed-out course and going to that is basically the same thing as dying, I'm pretty sure," Cam joined in.

Danny resisted the urge to smack his forehead with his open palm.

He turned back to Yang. "And if I were maybe the—uh—being that kind of has saved humanity from being invaded by ghosts give or take one or two times, would that maybe get me extra credit on the next test?"

"No."

Well, that was a brutally quick response.

Danny shrugged. "It was worth a shot." He reigned in on his core's fluttering, and the ice began to melt around his feet. 

He tried to ignore the obvious phone flipped his way as he did.

Shit, this was going to be all over social media later. How embarrassing. He could only hope that Tucker wouldn't find it. But who was he kidding? If he checked his phone, he bet he already had about sixteen messages from Tucker laughing at his misfortune.

Once he finished freeing himself from his ecto-ice like some ghost toddler, he began a very graceful and humiliating trek to his seat, complete with multiple instances of him bumping into chairs as he trudged down the row. When he finally reached his seat, it was just his luck that the rusty hinges let out an obnoxious creaking wail as he lowered himself down. He winced, hissing out apologies, but in the silent hall, the sounds of the withered metal were almost too much to bear.

It was for that reason that his entire body refused to unclench until the professor was well underway with his lecture about excess reactants and whatever else they were going to be quizzed on next week.

He tried his best to pay attention and not check his phone for the no doubt endless notifications. He'd already made his presence too obvious in this hall, anyway. Professor Yang would have been thoroughly annoyed if, after everything, Danny decided to spend the remainder of the class on his phone.

Miraculous as it was, he did manage to survive the lecture.  

After class when he finally was able to check his phone, he saw that the world was too focused on the viral posts about Phantom being spotted outside of Amity Park to give any attention to the little itty bitty post of Danny, in human form, frozen to his lecture hall floor.

As it turned out, that post only had two likes—one of them was Tucker—and one comment from a random user reading, "lol why phantom freeze that dweeby kid to the ground???"

Danny didn't resist the urge to facepalm this time, and in fact did it so hard he was surprised he didn't give himself a concussion.

Well.

At least his secret was safe.

****

"You really don't care that I'm Phantom, do you?" Danny asked, looking up from the barely clean dorm room floor that his back was currently stretched out against.

"No?" Cam glanced from his notebook. "Why?"

"Uh, I figured the whole part where I'm a part ghost would have been a little weird?"

Cam's thin brows shot up to his hairline. "You're only a part ghost?"

"Yeah? Why, what did you think?"

"Oh, I just figured you were legit dead or something."

Cam uttered those words with such nonchalance that Danny reacted immediately, shooting up from the floor so hard he accidentally switched into his Phantom form.

"You thought I was dead?" His voice echoed when he spoke, and his ghostly tail wiggled underneath him. 

Cam's pointed look and handwave were explanation enough.

"Okay, you know what? That's fair." Danny swiped his notebook off the floor and forced his adrenaline-spiked body back into human form. "That's actually super fair."

"Yeah I mean, being a ghost is sort of Phantom's whole shtick, anyway."

"Right but like...wait, you didn't even care that you thought I was a fully dead and deceased ghost taking college classes? And you still wanted to do homework with me tonight?"

Cam, once again, only gave a very lazy shrug. "Well, yeah. I just want to pass this class, dude, and we've already established that we should tag-team team this class instead of trying to rawdog it by ourselves."

"I mean...I guess?" Danny blinked at his friend, his mind reeling with astonishment. "You're weird, you know that?"

"Says the ghost-human person or whatever. Now, are we gonna finish this prelab assignment, or are you gonna keep having an existential crisis about your place in the Universe?" 

Danny slid back on the floor, propping his knees up to lay his notebook against. "No, you're right. We need to finish this prelab."

"Thank fucking god."

****

[read more of my stuff here]

[stringsbasement]

Your art of peri and your Villain AU of him? perfection. I read your twt thread and I'm greedy for more, im so serious like If there was a 100k word fanfic of your au I would read it in a heartbeat!! THATS how much im obsessed with the concept

thank you so much! i didn't expect there to be so much interest in my thoughtless doodles and rambles. luckily, i already have a draft for a rant i formulated about this version of peri's possible motivations, and now i have an excuse to share it!!

also, as a bonus, have this silly doodle :)

[his hairstyle is his attempt to separate himself from his parents, but no matter what he does with it, he can never get it to sit without that stray tuft and curl at the very end.

also, his bowtie is in reference to chloe and my initial art of irep before his design was revealed. the latter almost makes it seem like they "swapped roles."]

the thing is, it's hard to imagine peri as someone purposefully wanting to harm others for his own pleasure. for a "bad" au of peri to occur, he'd have to take after timmy, and seek chaos the same way he did

now, timmy is a good person at heart. his fairies love him, and he loved them in turn. that's undeniable. however, timmy was so stressful he affected cosmo and wandas marriage, and they had to retire right after him to rekindle their love and stop being so awful towards each other. timmy was simultaneously one of the best and worst things to ever happen to them

so it's not that much of a stretch to think he'd affected peri during his development, to the point he unknowingly influenced peri's core beliefs, which he'll carry over later in life

timmy used his fairies to escape from his regular life. he was incredibly reckless, and shirked responsibilities till the consequences got him back tenfold. a dangerous, but fulfilling way of living. he might've mellowed out in the later years, but considering he chose to keep vicky around to purposefully make himself miserable and keep his fairies instead of facing reality, maturity wouldn't be a straight or easy path

peri, adopting this way of thinking, believes the best way to live life is taking risks. ignoring your present problems in favor of escapism. he would insist this upon his godchild, and be blind to the complex nuance of dev's situation

dev's parental neglect differs from timmy's, and thus requires different treatment. but peri doesn't realize that, and dev is a child who cannot comprehend how awful he really has it, let alone communicate it in a way that isn't just lashing out and throwing tantrums

for classic peri, this is an annoyance. for this peri though? he'll enable it, because he thinks dev needs to get it out of his system. like timmy. which is in some way correct, but it's a flawed, only temporary solution

and it's in this way a path of deeper exploration opens up about characters similar to cookie, highlighting how flawed the godparent system can be when a child is assigned a godparent who cannot fulfill what they truly need

starting a ghost apocalypse is nothing compared to the wishes that has been granted before. and, honestly, dev taking viozalia's staff to use against her is a clever move. this peri wouldn't be downtrodden like he was in the original scene, but impressed. he would say as such, and dev, being the emotionally starved 10 year old he is, will soak those words up like a dry sponge

(slightly off topic: i like to think a little quirk this peri would have is, instead of looking to da book of rules for guidance, (cosmo, wanda, and his classic self do this multiple times in the show when in unique situations,) he'd be searching for anything that states what can't he do. "what to do when your god kid tries to start a ghost apocalypse... nothing? sweet!")

this would naturally allow him and dev to bond a little more. even if it's just shit talking other people and how they're totally better than everyone else

it doesn't mean they get along splendidly. dev is still pissed that he can't make the wishes he wants, and peri overcompensates by allowing him to throw himself into situations that just narrowly avoids sanction. because, oh yeah, peri would not appreciate being forced to follow the rules which includes wiping the godchild's memories after the godparent's term has passed

(if anything, he'll find a loophole out of it. he learned from the best, after all)

this is also where peri's spoiled nature would shine through. being offered everything just because he was a baby would make anyone entitled

he and dev are too similar for their own good. they have have access to anything they could ask for, but are unable to get love from one person they want it from. it's almost pitiful

to keep those thoughts out of dev's (and his own) mind, peri resorts to pushing dev out of his comfort zone, which would ordinarily be a good thing, only, he goes way too far to the point of regression

you know, it really doesn't help that dev looks a lot like timmy. i mean, look at them...

that's timmy with slicked back hair and a white jacket. c'mon

but even with all of this, peri doesn't really become a villain. he's antagonistic at most, with his strained relationship with his parents and his help in making things harder for hazel. luckily, the latest episode has given me a few ideas

when peri inevitably comes to care for dev, he'll obviously has to do something about his constant unhappiness. dev has a point in complaining about the fact hazel has two godparents and he only has one, even when his life is "worse" (another unhealthy way of thinking,)

hmmmm. so how can dev have two fairy godparents, and how can peri break da rules without putting himself at risk?

who other than a mirror of peri's own self?

a shift inevitably took place, one where peri became more intense and irep more soft. it's so subtle it goes unnoticed until thousands of years have passed

irep has become timid, soft, and well-meaning. if peri either quits his position or gives way for another slot and puts dev under a sort of split-custody, dev will be able to use anti-fairy magic, which can completely bypass any of the rules regular fairy magic is withholden to

irep will get what he wants as well. in this post, i answered an ask in which i speculate that irep genuinely does want a godchild, and the love and appreciation that comes with it. that much would stay the same for this au

and, well, unlike irep, peri has always been willing to share

this would make way for a bunch of whacky hijinks, potential plots, and new threats. consequences piling up until they become too huge to ignore. not to mention the full implications of a fairy and anti-fairy switching roles. of course, this is just a fun idea i came up with on the spot, and i haven't thought it out too much, so pointing out any plot holes that would come from this is appreciated!

i have more to say, mainly about peri and his parents' initial separation, as well as the parallels that can be found with this version of peri and hazel, but i feel it would be best to end it here :)

thank you for making me write all of this!

[charmedbystars]

Hey darling! Do you think you could write about e-42 miles realising his girlfriend needs glasses and having to force her to the opticians,please?

pairing: e-42 miles x stubborn reader

summary: miles realizes you need glasses, but you're adamant of not needing them.

content: no warnings!

a/n: i absolutely loved this request and i FEEL this because i hate glasses and live off of contacts only. i hope this is close to what you wanted:))))

miles and y/n had been dating for a couple of months now. it wasn’t a recent relationship where they both needed to be hesitant around each other, you guys were wayyy past that stage as shown by each other’s constant teasing and messing around. of course, miles was a bit closed off and reserved, but you were breaking down his walls surely and you were positive you guys had no boundaries at this point. 

everyone at brooklyn visions academy was shocked when they found out you two were dating. you were pretty known around school and were nice to everyone, being the opposite of miles, who had a small group of guys that he didn’t even hang with outside of school.

now, you guys didn’t announce it and it was more of a “private but not secret” relationship, so you nor miles paid attention to the chatter. 

which brings everything to you sitting in math class, the only class you have with your boyfriend. thankfully there was no assigned seating in that class so you sat next to miles. as much fun as it was sitting with miles, there was a problem… being that all you wanted to do was talk to him all class period. 

“i was thinking we go to that new bakery that opened and drop some off at your mom’s wor-”

“y/n l/n, would you please tell me what’s the answer to the equation on the board?” the teacher cut you off, obviously annoyed by your chatter.

standing up, you walked to the board and looked at the equation before telling her the answer, there was no way you got into visions and didn’t know how to answer this question. “mmm teacher think she slick trying to embarrass me,” you thought. the teacher raised an eyebrow, confused as to why you stood up and walked all the way to the board when you could’ve told her the answer from your desk. honestly, you didn’t even notice what you did. you just walked back to your desk peacefully and sat down again. 

“ma, you know you could’ve just told her, no need for all that walking up and down like this is a fashion show.” rolling your eyes at miles, “the school is my runway,” you responded.

the rest of that class zoomed by and it was time for lunch. you and miles had your own little schedule for lunch, some days you guys would sit together and other days you would sit with your respective friends. today was one of those days that you guys would sit together though. walking together to the lunch line, there was a menu posted up on a board. usually, you just look at the board and go tell the lunch ladies what you wanted. looking at the menu, you squinted and looked at the menu for a couple of seconds before rubbing your eyes and going to the lunch ladies. normally, anyone would’ve ignored that small gesture, but miles being very observant of everything, noticed your action. 

getting your lunches and walking over to a bench to eat lunch outside, miles gave you a nudge, “you good, ma? no headache or somethin’?” 

“huh? no, i’ve been good all day, how come?” you asked. 

“nuthin’ just askin’ amor.”

and that was the end of that. the rest of the school day went by pretty quick too, which then came up your idea of going to the bakery that you were talking about in math class. walking to the bakery was pretty peaceful and it wasn’t far from the school, only a couple blocks down. the bakery was cute and it’s design being very minimalistic, other than the glass case full of different pastries. 

immediately walking up to the glass case to take in all of its beauty, miles walked up behind you, “get whatever you want, mama. let’s pick up something for my mom too, just like you said,” you looked over your shoulder and grinned. there was so much to choose from that you didn’t even know what you wanted. deciding to get something to eat there and getting a box to go, you ordered a strawberry cupcake, miles just went with a classic cheesecake. 

“they have milkshakes and smoothies. do you want something to drink with your cupcake?” 

glancing over at the overhead menu, you squinted and squinted, but nothing helped. “uhm, do you mind reading out the flavors for me please?” you asked miles politely.

“can you not see the board?”

“i can, i just want to hear your voice,” you tried defending yourself, but miles already seemed suspicious of you. deciding not to point it out in that moment, miles read out the menu and you made your choice. 

wrapping everything up and going back to miles’ place, walking in you both greeted rio. miles let her know about the pastries you guys brought back before heading to his room (door has to be cracked open, according to rio). in miles’ slightly tidy room, you sat yourself on the ground and proceeded to pull out all notebooks to work on all the homework you were assigned. while looking over your notes to get started on your homework, miles suddenly interrupted your train of thoughts. 

“hey ma, i was thinking you should get your eyes checked,” he said. 

“miles what did you just say?” 

“not in that way, but like go to those doctors and get glasses. i’ve been noticing you squinting or not being able to read boards and stuff.”

you glanced over at him and shook your head, “i think i’m fine, i don’t need no doctors or anything.”

miles just shrugged, deciding not to argue with you at that moment. it definitely wasn’t the end there especially when miles cares about your well-being dearly, but he just put it on the back of his head for now. 

skipping to the next day, you were in class with miles when the teacher decided to do powerpoint notes. you groaned in your mind at the fact. you didn’t want to admit you needed glasses, plus it’s completely normal for people not being able to see far away. there’s literally nothing wrong, is what you continued to tell yourself. trying to jot down the notes as best as you can, you snuck a look over at miles’ paper, deciding to copy his notes since you couldn’t really see the board. suddenly, miles shifted his position causing you to not be able to see his paper. 

“psst, miles can you please let me copy your notes?” you whispered. he shifted his paper back to you so you can copy his notes, before saying, “what did i tell you yesterday, y/n?” you chose not to reply, pretending that you didn’t hear him, continuing to copy his notes. “i know you hear me, babe,” he kept on trying to tell you until you asked the teacher if you could use the bathroom. your thought process being that leaving might get him to drop it. miles just huffed knowing that you wouldn’t listen to him, when an idea popped in his head. 

you returned from the bathroom around seven minutes later. knowing that you had even more notes to catch up on, you picked up your pencil and quickly dropped it when you looked down at your notebook. 

your notebook was flipped to random page and the words, “GET UR EYES CHECKED” was written across the page. you sent a glare over at the only person that could be the culprit. 

“if i make an appointment, will you get off my back?” you asked.

“of course, baby,” miles gave you the purest smile as if he has done no wrong. you rolled your eyes at him before bringing at hand to sit over your mouth, trying to hide the smile growing on your face. you knew your boyfriend meant well, so there was no way that you were actually mad or annoyed at him. 

the rest of the class went by fast now that you had miles cooperating with you and willing to share notes quickly. by the end of class, miles pulled you out of class quickly with a tug of your wrist to the cafeteria. getting your lunch and going to your bench, miles pulled out his phone, shuffling through apps and the internet looking for the nearest optometrist. finding one and pulling up their phone number, before he called them to book you an appointment, he told you, “sabes que lo hago porque te quiero mucho? i love you.” you simply looked away, hiding your face and mumbling the three precious words back. 

miles booked you an appointment about three days later from when he called. there was no doubt that miles was going to the appointment with you. you would've asked to come with you if he hadn't anyways.

you've never been to an optometrist before so naturally you were nervous. you thought you would be able to have miles with you the whole time, but your lifeline was broken when you were pulled into a room in the back and miles couldn't go with you. frowning when you had to let go of your boyfriend’s hand, miles gave you a reassuring squeeze.

the whole process was weird for you, the drying eye drops, looking into a little hole and seeing a hot air balloon, and the constant asking of "which is better? one to two?" but finally everything was over. you went back to sit in the waiting room with miles, telling him about the weird experience. a couple minutes of waiting around when the optometrist called you back and miles was allowed with you this time.

"well, you do need glasses and here's the prescription. we have a couple options of glasses out on display that you can try on or order some elsewhere simply with proof of your prescription."

you took the paper and thanked the doctor. leaving hand in hand in miles, you didn't even wanna look at his face knowing that he would have a smug "i told you so" look on his face. you walked in the direction of the display glasses, looking at each one by one. grabbing a simple one with your favorite color as the frames, you tried them on and looked in the mirror before looking over at miles.

"sooo, what do you think?"

"i think you look like a cute nerd."

"shut up because both of us know who the actual nerd is here," you crossed your arms.

"i'm just joking, mami. i like those on you."

you hummed before going to the front desk and asked for those frames. the lady at the counter put in an order for you and told you that it would take about a week and a half for them to be ready. you nodded and proceeded to pay when miles grabbed your hand and moved it so he could pay.

"i'm paying babe. you look cute in them so it's on me," he said and tapped his phone on the card reader before you could protest. you were thankful that the optometrist here didn't charge you a whole kidney for them because you knew glasses could be expensive.

walking out the optometrist, you wanted to hold your tongue but you knew miles had a point in it all, "thank you for taking care of me, amor," you mumbled. miles stopped on the sidewalk and pulled you into a hug.

"i would say i told you so after everything, but i'm always here to you, mama." giving you a peck, you both continued to stroll down the sidewalk, holding each other's hands on the way to the dorms.

"miles?" he gave a hum in response. "can we get ice cream before we go back to the dorms?" you asked.

[eunseoksimp]

Golden Boy ; Osaki Shotaro

Pairings: Bestie!Shotaro x Fem!Reader

Genre: Smut, Angst

Description: Shotaro is everyone’s favourite person. Extremely lovable and kind to those around him, but there’s only so much he can take, especially when you keep pushing his limits.

Warnings: swearing, alcohol consumption, smut, minors dni.

a/n: shotaro’s been heavy on the brain recently, so this is extremely self indulgent.

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

‘can someone remind me why we decided to put sohee in charge of the booking?’ chaewon’s irritated tone rang through the room, and anton who was nearby snickered.

‘don’t go laughing like that isn’t your best friend.’

it was finally summer break, bleak winters and stressing in libraries far behind you. so naturally it was right for you and your friend group to plan a getaway for the week.

only, things weren’t going quite to plan. at the start of the month, everyone was assigned with different tasks and unfortunately, sohee was left to book the place you were meant to stay.

but in typical boy fashion, he had chosen something far away from the activities you wanted to do, and the rooms weren’t looking the best either.

‘i told you to leave it up to shotaro, we were doomed from the start,’ you quipped in, the aforementioned boy not too far behind you as he broke into a wide smile.

osaki shotaro was the glue of the friendship. the dependable friend who always planned ahead, and got along well with everyone. you could never catch him without a smile on his face, and everyone else’s comfort was always a priority.

‘i booked us another place, just in case something like this happened. lucky us,’ he basked in everyone’s praises, paying particular attention to the way you patted him on the top of his head.

‘you’re a star taro.’

‘shotaro to the rescue.’

‘what’s wrong with the place i got us,’ sohee grumbled, phone in his hand pitifully as he pretended not to notice that it was in fact better.

‘stop whining and get in the car.’

wonbin and shotaro were the designated drivers, given that sungchan complained about a wrist problem, which he may or may not have been lying about just to get out of being the one behind the wheel.

so it left those two, and the friendship group decided the cars they were getting into based on an alarmingly competitive game of rock paper scissors.

‘yes, i got shotaro,’ you pumped your first in the air after being the second one to win, no longer caring as you hopped into the front seat, barely catching sight of seunghan dramatically dropping to his knees after losing to sungchan.

the journey felt longer than necessary, mainly because wonbin kept getting lost on the way. but your group of you, chaewon, shotaro and sungchan were more than okay because shotaro was the one behind the wheel.

his speed never faltered, skilfully maneuvering the car so that speed bumps were barely felt, and his playlist left you decently entertained, a couple songs that each individual could enjoy in there.

‘remind me to never get into a car with wonbin again,’ anton dramatically hopped out of the car, headphones now around his neck as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘oh come on, it wasn’t that bad,’ wonbin was the last to get out, keys in hand.

he had only gotten his license last month, but you had witnessed him almost reverse into the metal pole in front of your house, and instantly knew you were in no rush to be riding with him any time soon.

‘my poor baby, did the big bad diva scare you?’ you cooed, and anton played into it, jokingly sniffling as he dropped his head to your shoulder.

‘at least i have a license. not all of us can rely on shotaro to drive you places,’ he fires back, narrowing his eyes at the both of you.

‘don’t be jealous because i’m treated like the princess you so badly want to be.’

but he was right. your parents had nagged for months, wondering why you weren’t even trying to study for a drivers test. but why would you need to when shotaro would be there at a drop of a pen.

‘i’ll take you wherever you want to go,’ he told you last year when he first got his license, and he stuck to his word, picking you up and dropping you off whenever you needed. if he wasn’t available he would ask eunseok, who would complain about gas prices and leaving his warm home, but still come and get you anyway.

you were spoiled.

‘i’ve got your bags, let’s go in,’ shotaro passes by, your luggage juggled between two hands as he already makes his way through the now opened door, courtesy of sungchan.

the villa was beautiful, a dream vacation home, equipped with marble tiles and panoramic views. the kitchen was as wide as your living room, the appliances new and countertop squeaky clean.

‘maybe shotaro was on to something,’ sohee accepted defeat, that once again shotaro was the best man for the job and you all agreed.

excited to be away from the loud bustle of the city, you were the first one to slide the doors open and step into the patio, a huge pool greeting you.

this was going to be fun.

you felt another presence beside you, the familiar tufts of blonde hair coming in to view.

‘i put your stuff in your room, you’re sharing with chaewon,’ you grinned, drawing nearer to press a kiss on his cheek.

‘thanks taro, you’re the best,’ the blush on his cheeks only made you smile wider. he was too cute.

‘just doing my job.’

and that was what he continued to do. he was there when you spoke about craving pancakes the night before, waking up early to drive to the grocery store just to get you what was needed.

when you got out of the shower, lazily walking though the house and flopping onto the couch, he held your head in his lap as he dried your hair.

opening car doors, doing your seatbelt, holding your hand as you walked through the rocky beach. but not just you.

‘shotaro you should drive to the grocery store.’

‘shotaro can you call the guide and tell him we’re going to be late.’

‘shotaro i’m hungry can you make me some food?’

shotaro, shotaro, shotaro.

his smiley disposition made it harder for his friends to notice just how far they were pushing him. he didn’t mind helping others, but it was beginning to take a toll on him.

his energy slowly depletes, and on the last night of the trip he plops onto the couch, sighing as he tilts his head back.

how long could he keep his act up?

it wasn’t like he was a sociopath or anything, he did truly like his friends and loved that they relied on him, only showing off just how dependable he was.

but it all added up to the image that everyone had of him. the cute golden retriever, who needed to be babied and coddled, because he was too ‘innocent for this world.’

conversations about sex were often paused, with jokes about him not being able to handle it being thrown left and right.

he was always being hounded about the fact that not many girls seemed to linger around him.

‘you know how shotaro is, he’s probably just shy.’

the first time seunghan saw a girl leave your room one morning it became the topic of conversation for the next week.

‘how did you manage to do that? did you start crying half way through? my bet is you only lasted one minute.’

the friendship group was very oddly sexually charged. of course you never made advances towards each other, but your closeness permitted each other to talk about everything. in great detail.

and when shotaro wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing what happened, they just believed their assumptions were correct, cooing and teasing him.

he didn’t mind as much, after all he was sure that a lot of it were just jokes. it wasn’t like he wanted to stop hiding his desires anytime soon anyways.

‘we’re playing a game, courtesy of our little friend,’ your voice snapped him out of his thoughts, soju bottles in both of your hands as you sank down into the seat next to him.

thus started an alcohol fuelled session of truth or dare. for the most part the asks and dares were fairly tame; text the last person you messaged that you missed them, down 5 shots in under a minute.

quickly it was your turn again, and it was clear that the effects of the sweet liquor was seeping into your behaviour.

‘if you had to fuck one person in this room, who would it be?,’ chaewon slurred her words, eyes barely open as she points right at you.

you tap your chin, as if you’re actually giving great consideration to the question, before going through everyone in the circle.

‘hmm let’s see. eunseok has too much of a god complex, he’d probably moan his own name. respectfully sungchan has a girlfriend so pass. i think anton might call me mommy unironically, probably cry too. wonbin loves himself too much, same as eunseok. i only see sohee and seunghan like my little brothers.’

everyone laughed along, some protests thrown your way from eunseok and wonbin, but only one person sat waiting eagerly, the only persons name you didn’t mention. did that mean he was the one?

‘wait you skipped shotaro,’ anton called out, holding up six fingers.

‘did i?’

‘yeah you spoke about everyone else here but him.’

‘probably just a subconscious thing. my mind knew he wasn’t an option,’ you shrugged.

ouch.

‘why not?’ everyone waited expectantly as they watched you. it was no secret that the both of you were extremely close, so it wouldn’t be strange if you had thought about it before.

‘too boring,’ your answer was short, like it was something so obvious, not even worthy of debate. chaewon snorts, soju shooting out of her nose but she covers her mouth, because she knows exactly what you’re talking about.

‘what do you mean,’ shotaro speaks up finally, and for a split second the air feels tense. everyone thought he would just laugh it off, like he usually would, but he was the only one that looked serious.

‘you’re just too vanilla for me babe, no hard feelings.’

his jaw ticks, eyebrows furrowed as he processes what you said.

‘are you sure? you haven’t been- laid in a long time. i personally think shotaro would be a great fuck,’ sungchan vouches for his best friend, although the weight of his judgement was seriously downplayed by the fact that he couldn’t even keep his head up.

‘osaki shotaro? the most vanilla guy on this planet? i’ll pass,’ you’re doubling down on your statement, and it only emphasises the way you view him.

‘i’m not vanilla, stop saying that’ shotaro retorts, the laughter of everyone else in the room causing

his head to spin.

‘sure you aren’t babe. and i’m not the hottest bitch in this friend group,’ you pat his thigh.

your words linger in his mind. vanilla? he was far from it. if only you knew the dirty thoughts that circled his mind.

he was so sick of everyone coddling him, treating him like a little virgin boy, a novice at the act.

just because he wasn’t as vocal about his experiences as the rest of you guys were, doesn’t mean they didn’t happen at all.

he allows it to eat at his mind for the rest of

the night, and you continued to only make it worse for him.

‘stop touching each other, gross. poor shotaro doesn’t even know what to do.’

strike one.

someone could literally run over his dog and he would probably apologise. biggest pushover in the universe.

strike two.

he’s definitely got golden retriever energy. i just pity the girl who tries to start anything sexual with him, he’ll probably freak the fuck out.

strike three.

his blood was boiling, a dull thump ringing in his ears. his hands were turning white, the way he had continuously clenched and unclenched his fists.

what was so wrong with being a good guy? must everyone display on their foreheads the freaky shit they like to get up to in their free time.

‘tell them- tell the guys what you said to me yesterday,’ chaewon sat on wonbin’s lap, practically screaming in his ear as he winced, slapping a hand over her mouth.

‘about what? that shotaro has a small dick?’

you’re out.

the alcohol had clearly gotten to you, your mouth a lot more sharp as it lacked the ability to filter the things you were saying. it was obviously a joke to you, you couldn’t care less if it was big or not, it wasn’t like you were ever going to fuck him.

‘come find out if it’s really small,’ he glares, the words sharp on his tongue, but you couldn’t take him seriously.

‘who let shotaro loose.’

all the teasing does nothing to quell his anger. is this the image everyone had of him? a small dicked pushover? if only they knew.

the mind of shotaro osaki was dark. riddled with lust and mean thoughts, but he kept them all at bay. ever since he was in high school he figured he would scare people away if they knew how he truly felt, what truly kept him up at night?

one by one everyone reached their limits, retreating to their beds for the night, a stumbling mess.

but you sat there, empty bottle in hand, head pounding as you tried to sober up a little. you hadn’t even realised you had dozed off, not until you woke up and were met with a semi dark room, completely silent.

shotaro’s jumper was draped over you, and a glass of water and some tablets were placed on the table in front of you. appreciative, you guzzle the cool water down, loving the way it soothes your throat.

you would have thought you were alone if it wasn’t for shotaro’s hunched over figure in the corner of the room, almost scaring you shitless.

‘taro, are you okay?’ you call out.

he lifts his head, seeing that you’re awake and rises to his feet, completely ignoring your question.

‘my room. now’

he left no time for you to protest, already walking towards the room he had to himself, as you trailed behind nervously.

this was the first time you’d ever seen him so angry, and you feared that you might have taken it too far this time.

you racked your brain, thinking of the right things to say, anything to bring back your friends usual self.

he waited for you to come inside before closing the door behind you, and you heard a click.

‘shotaro i-‘

‘i didn’t ask you to speak.’

you froze in shock, not used to his tone of voice, and you almost craned your neck around to see if he was talking to someone else.

he stalked closer to you, stopping right in front, only inches apart.

‘is this what you would call small,’ in an instant he has your small hand in his, guiding it towards the print in his trousers and you gasp in shock, jumping back.

it was huge, enough to make you swallow your words and bite your lip as your mind runs rampant.

‘you know, everyone expects me to be some type of angel sent from heaven or something. i’m at everyone beck and call, innocent little shotaro who will do anything you ask. he’s too nice to know anything, he’s probably a virgin.’

‘it pisses me off. especially hearing you do it.’

‘it was-‘

‘stop.fucking.talking,’ he’s livid, enunciating each word and he’s soon got you backed up, edging closer and closer to the edge of his bed.

‘you’re a fucking brat, you know that. i do all these things for you and this is how you repay me? brats like you need a good fuck to get their minds straight. don’t you?’

you’re at a loss of words, trying to figure out how the sweet, lovable shotaro that you know is now looking down at you with a twist of malice and lust. but more importantly, why was it sending a shiver down your spine, squeezing your legs together as you gulp.

he notices, and he chuckles, running a hand over his face, ‘i fucking knew it.’

in one swift movement you were on your back, back hitting the mattress hard, but you have no opportunity to adjust as shotaro settles over you.

‘no hard feelings babe, i’ve got a lot of anger built up inside of me. you’ll let me take it out on you, yeah?’

you nod dumbly, thinking nothing of his words, expecting nothing too crazy. but boy were you wrong.

that’s how you found yourself in your current position shaking with pleasure and pain. twitching, sniffling, and trying to get away but he won’t let you escape so you resort to begging and pleading.

‘please im sorry, im sorry please just-‘ you can’t even finish your sentence, another moan ripping through your throat and you blink rapidly, the tears sticking to your eyelashes, that had been building up for the past couple of minutes, began to fall.

you hope that he’d see your current state, take mercy on you and eventually ease himself out of you. but the tears only encourage him to see how messy you could really get.

‘don’t cry now- fucking take it,’ he’s ruthless, your legs are pushed back, further and further till they’re almost reaching your ears, and the new angle makes you feel him even more.

‘take it, take it, take it,’ his hips snap viciously into yours, practically splitting you open as you use all the strength you can muster to push away, your palm flat against his pelvis as you shake your head.

‘move your fucking hand,’ he doesn’t slow down, looking down at your weak attempt to get him to stop.

‘taro-taro please- i-‘

‘i didn’t ask you to fucking speak did i? just shut the fuck up and take it,’ he delivers a harsh slap to your cheek, and although it stings, it makes you start to cream around him.

‘look at you, like a dumb fucking slut. cant even use your words, just panting like a bitch in heat.’

‘stupid slut, you like when i call you names and throw you around. such a fuck-fucking whore,’ you’re squeezing him, tighter and tighter as you feel your third orgasm of the night approaching you.

shotaro had spent the majority of your friendship lending his ears to all your sex stories, slightly jealous when he heard all about how much you loved it rough.

but now he didn’t have to fuck other girls and pretend they were you, he had the real thing right in front of him.

‘fuck-fuck-fuck,’ you chant, practically floating as you feel so close. he’s fucking you so good, so deep that you’re sure his dick will leave a permanent imprint in your pussy.

‘look me in the eye, there you go. look at me while you- shit. while you make a mess all over my cock,’ he’s dipping his head lower, till your noses are practically bumping against each other, wanting to see for himself how he destroys you.

you don’t last much longer, a couple of rubs to your clit and you feel the coil in your stomach snap as your head hangs back, lips parted as you convulse under him.

you expected that to be the end, for him to at least slow down, but he does nothing of the sort, overstimulating you till you’re practically wrestling out of his grip, legs giving out as a string of curses escape your lips.

‘n-n-no more. please taro,’ it’s getting harder for you to breathe, the grip he has on your throat and hip simultaneously giving you no chance of escaping.

‘aww but i thought this was what you wanted? getting fucked stupid, that’s why you said isn’t it,’ the smile that used to bring you comfort was now making you shiver, something so sinister about the way he looked down at you.

‘i can’t anymore. p-please taro let me go.’

‘i’m not done with you yet,’ you see the evil glint in his eye, as he flips you over, forcibly pushing down onto your spine until you arch perfectly for him.

you find yourself crying once again, overwhelmed as you scrunch the sheets between your hand, needing something to ground you.

‘you say you don’t want it but look how that pussy’s squeezing for me,’ it’s hard to believe such filthy words are leaving shotaro’s lips.

‘who’s got you so wet?’

‘fuck baby, do you feel that?’

digging his nails now into the skin of your hips. your eyes roll back as you feel the head of his cock now pressing up against your cervix with each brutal, angry thrust.

‘who’s fucking you this good? let the whole house hear it.’

you shake your head, biting your bottom lip so hard it draws blood as you desperately try not to scream but shotaro has other plans.

‘what did i just fucking say? huh?’ he wraps his hand around your hair, yanking you up until his lips are right by your ears.

your senses are overwhelmed as you try oh so hard to contain yourself, clenching around him even harder.

‘shit, you taro. fucking me so good’ you whine so loudly, you’re sure that the neighbours would be able to hear.

it’s all becoming too much for you, your eyes unfocusing, rolling behind your head. head buried in the pillows, throat sore as you shake your head from side to side

your hands snake out from underneath your head in an attempt to slow him down but it’s no use. it makes him go even faster, even deeper as he holds your wrists between his hands.

“tsk, i thought i taught you better than that, princess,” shotaro quips, the condescending tone sending waves of heat up your spine.

the squelching noises gradually increasing, the sounds you were making were filthy and it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on.

but other people walking in on you two was the least of your concerns. it was hard to conjure up a single thought, the way shotaro is pummelling into you overtaking ever single sense.

you could barely hold yourself up anymore, leaning all of your weight into shotaro, legs and mind numb, as you let him degrade you even more, leading you to yet another orgasm.

only this one feels a little different. he was hitting the spot, over and over again, practically drilling into you and you felt an immense amount of tingling in your bottom half.

‘taro- oh fuck- you have to-have to stop. i think-shit i think i need to pee.’

you’re embarrassed, scared that if he doesn’t listen to you that you might end up urinating all over him. but he doesn’t care, nor does he stop.

you hit his thigh repeatedly, shaking your head as you desperately try to get away from him, but he’s much stronger than you, his arms wrapping around your waist, holding you there as he continues.

you felt so full, the pressure only increasing with each thrust as you practically grow limp in his arms. a squeal leaves your lips, followed by a large volume of clear liquid, soaking both you and shotaro, all over his thighs and seeping into the sheets underneath you both.

‘there we go, knew you could do it,’ he groans, unable to take his eyes away from the pool of cum, obsessed with how you were both covered in it.

he wants to make you do it again, to tease you and draw another orgasm out of you, but you’re well spent, twitching in his arms as you mumble.

‘no more- no more.’

although he knew he could go for two more rounds if he really wanted to, he respected the way your body was telling him that you were done.

‘shhh it’s alright. i’ve got you baby,’ he lifts you off of him, sweat coating your body as you cling onto him.

and then you pass out, unable to carry on anymore, letting shotaro take care of you as he cleans you up, then tucks you in your own bed, whispering some excuse to chaewon about finding you asleep on the couch by yourself when she stirs from her sleep.

then he’s back to his normal self, smiling widely as he watches everyone take their seat at the table, busying himself by the stove.

you were the last one to arrive, barely able to walk, legs practically jelly as you take small steps.

‘what happened to you?’ sungchan quipped, but you were too busy trying to relearn how to work with the newfound ache in your legs to give him a suitable comeback.

if it wasn’t for the effects you were feeling from last night, you would chalk it all down to being an extremely vivid wet dream.

but there was no mistake, shotaro osaki fucked you within an inch of your life yesterday night. and judging by the smirk on his lips, his eyes following your every moment, something tells you it wouldn’t be the last time.

guess he wasn’t such a golden boy after all.

[ghostofskywalker]

After The Mission

Bucky Barnes/Fem!Reader

Fictober Day 20 of 31

Words: 1,041

Summary: You didn't know how much longer you could deal with your growing attraction to Bucky Barnes, and it certainly doesn't help that the two of you had been assigned a mission that included black tie attire.

Bucky Barnes Masterlist

For once, everything seemed to go to plan. The plans were successful, the bad guy was caught, and no one else could do you any harm. There was just one little problem, and that was the rising tension between you and your mission partner.

You knew Bucky Barnes was handsome, most people did at this point. But you had also only seem him in tactical gear and the casual clothes he wore around the compound, so to walk into the living room and see him in a full suit was truly something else. You would like to think that you saw his breath hitch slightly when he first laid eyes on you (and the very expensive designer dress you were wearing), but you didn’t want to get ahead of yourself.

This was a rare assignment, mainly because you didn’t actually have to do any fighting. Your entire job was to keep an eye on one specific patron at this fancy restaurant, and alert the rest of the team when he started to move, and that’s what you did. It almost felt like you were actually just out for a nice dinner with Bucky, and you were certainly not complaining.

But now, as you were setting foot back in the compound, something felt different between you. Before tonight you might have suggested that you meet back in the living room and have a pajama and ice cream movie marathon, but right now that seemed completely impossible. Not because you had argued or anything of that nature, but because things just felt different between you and him after this dinner.

Just as you decided that it was probably time to take this dress off and get ready for bed, you heard a knock at your door. You immediately walked over and opened it, thinking it was probably Natasha on the other side, stopping by to let you know how the rest of the team did when they apprehended the target and if there was anything else that needed to be done in the coming days.

You certainly weren’t expecting Bucky to be standing on the other side. “Hey,” he said. “I just wanted to check in with you.” He had also not yet shed his fancy evening attire, and the fact that his tie was currently undone around his neck was only making him more attractive. Seriously, why did he have to be so attractive? Was he trying to kill you?

“Oh,” was your response, not quite sure what to make of the interaction at this point. “Did Steve send something out to the team that I missed?”

“Not in an official sense,” he said, and your expression changed to one of confusion. “You seemed like something was bothering you on the way home, so I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“Thank you for checking on me,” you said. “I don’t think anything was wrong, I’m sorry if I made you feel that way.” That wasn’t the whole truth and you knew it, but the reality was that you were acting differing because of the ridiculously crazy thoughts running through your head at that moment, all of which involved you and Bucky in much less clothing and several rather compromising positions.

“Are you sure?” he said. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I promise I’m not mad at you,” you said, a small smile crossing your face. “That is absolutely not the reason I was acting like that on the way home.”

You had really hoped that he would just let the conversation go after that and allow you to get ready for bed (and pine for him in peace), but of course that was not what happened. “So there is something,” he said, closing the door behind him as he stepped further into your room. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” you said, trying to think of an excuse to get out of this conversation. “Don’t worry.”

“But I am worried,” was his response, and it was accompanied by a look that almost made your heart melt right then and there. “Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

“Because it’s about you,” you said, and immediately regretted it.

“What? I thought you just-”

Since you would rather he be disgusted by your attraction to him than angry at himself for doing something wrong (which he absolutely hadn’t done), you decided to just tell him the truth. “Because I like you,” you said softly. “And I know that it’s probably a stupid little crush and I’ll get over it, but I saw you in that suit tonight and I’m pretty sure my brain forgot how thoughts work.” You watched as your words sank in, waiting for the inevitable rejection that would break your heart for a few weeks before you would be able to recover.

But much to your surprise, that rejection never came.

Instead, Bucky’s hands found their way to your waist, and he gently pulled you closer to him. Your lips met immediately, and it didn’t really matter who kissed who, because both of you were pouring so much passion into the kiss that you genuinely wondered if you would faint when you pulled apart.

Thankfully, your legs continued to work (even if they did wobble a little), and unfortunately you did have to break for air. “I really hope that it isn’t a little crush,” he said, his eyes searching yours with an expression of pure happiness. “Because seeing you walk out in that dress made me feel pretty much the same way.”

“Really?” This had to be some kind of dream, it was simply too good to be true.

“Really.” He leaned in and placed another soft kiss on your lips. “And I really don’t want this night to end.”

Your breath hitched. “Me neither,” you breathed, voice barely above a whisper.

His lips began to travel down to your neck, and you had to fight hard not to make any embarrassing noises. You could hear the sound of someone’s phone ringing beyond your lovesick haze, and you knew that he had probably heard it too, but neither of you were going to pay attention to it.

Right now, you were just enjoying this perfect moment. 

- the end -

i no longer have a taglist! if you're interested in being notified when i post, you can follow my library blog @ghostofskywalker-library and turn on notifications!

[attyrocious]

cross posting yesterday's rambling thread for posterity and because tumblr lets me edit things. anyway this is a sorta long thing and i might add things i forgot to mention in the twt thread

i tend to draw on-model canon because im a coward + just personal preferences. but the way i convert the canon designs into my artstyle is that i take the distinct features oda gives them and then combine it with personal headcanons to complete what should look like a unique human. Starting with Trafalgar Law, who is unfortunately a bland-ass conventionally pretty boy

someone commented a while ago the law hat drawing tutorial i made a while ago didn't make much sense and i realize its bc of the specific way i draw law's face: heart shaped (ba-dum-tss). That meaning, a narrow chin widening into a mild defined jaw, wide cheekbones, and up to his know-it-all brain dome.

given that, the pudgy guitar pick shape of his head i mentioned here should make a lot more sense.

i don't think this design point is unique to me, as most conventional pretty anime boy gets given jaws like this. a lot of law artists tend to veer into this head shape. just how life be sometimes. other points: flat, thick eyebrows is bc im a hairy gal and i need to feel better about myself.

Killer gets to be more interesting, because he shouldn't be considered conventionally attractive. my idea behind killer's is that those individual features is smth he would be insecure with enough to hide himself in a helmet but i draw him with all the love in the world actually. i'd like to think its how kid sees him or yknow, law, bc he's my kin assigned blorbo and maybe you ship lawkill as a guilty pleasure too i mentioned before (and ruined people's days) when i said whenever i draw killer he looks like griffith before i put on his goatee. the upper half of his face is distinctly feminine, with the lower half kinda over compensating. other than that uhh...idk. stan killer

Kidd is the bane of my existence, i feel like i can never draw his face consistently. yet at the same time he's so damn fun to draw everyone gotta try it.

my problem with kidd is that this mf does have eyelids. most kidd painters out there interpret this as him having deep set eyes (think Matt Smith or jeffrey star) . and yeh skill issue on me i should practice that. other notes, i try to make him younger than canon makes him look. he is my babygirl and he deserves to look cuddly. my band au kidd version has the honor of being allowed some chubs. he's just tries to look older and more menacing with edgy makeup. also i try to give him dimples when i can because, well i can.

Rosinante last bc i lost steam after kidd. the thing abt cora is that aside from not having eyebrows, everything is structured with the generic one piece man template. which means i gotta do everything myself doffy is there bc the way to figure out how to draw these two is to give them minor differences from each other, that being doffy gets slightly sharper features. in canon, these two are also rly wide boys (more of an oda style feat tbh) but i make them long. though bigger brained donquixote artists know that of these two brothers, doffy should be the wiry-er built. anyway that's it. in conclusion, i need to draw more girls actually i feel like im becoming misogynistic by osmosis from oda's style and now i draw girls all looking the same too.

[akystaracer22]

Free the Bird from its Gilded Cage

Synopsis: Lucifer would tell anyone who asked his greatest regret was letting humanity eat the apple. Better than admitting what he really regretted.

Notes

Golly gee good thing affairs didn’t exist back then huh!

In which Lucifer’s tism hurts his best friend, the fic.

I think I can tag this as Edenpoly considering the conversation between Lucifer and Lilith.

I give my greatest thanks to my good friend Hat who uttered the phrase “I raise a glass to the friend you could have been and drink to the monster you became” (Or something of the sort) which has not left my brain 2 years later.

No shade on other people’s depictions of the ancient archangels. I love good archangels as much as you guys but… this is very much bashing.

I’m so sorry Michael. And Azrael, and every single angel who’s characters I butcher in this AU. It’s not you guys I swear.

God on the other hand fuck you I’m not sorry.

I have been told by many people irl that I have religious trauma. I didn’t think I did but fuck it we ball.

I am so sorry this came out late but I had two assignments and I'm moving houses, I'll try not to have a repeat.

Word count: 1957

Fic under cut!

Lucifer felt Lilith before he saw her, the first woman’s aura screaming frustration and hurt louder than the tears in her eyes.

She was sitting under an aspen tree with her legs tucked to her chest.

Lucifer didn’t need to guess why she was upset; it could really only be one thing these days.

“Adam did something again, didn’t he.”

Lilith huffed and lifted her head to meet Lucifer’s gaze, “We fought, again. He still doesn’t get it.”

Lucifer sighed and sat down next to the first woman, not for the first time the little voice in his head bemoaned Adams chronic inability to listen to anyone other than God. It was really starting to cause problems in Eden.

“He’ll regret it.”

“He always does, but he still does it.”

Lucifer nodded, “He needs to learn that God isn’t right about everything,” His siblings would murder him if they knew he was spreading this kind of blasphemy, “But I do agree, it’s a little irritating.”

“It is!” Lucifer jerked as Lilith stood up abruptly and began to pace, “He’s great most of the time don’t get me wrong, but he’s just increasingly growing more and more insufferable! It’s like every time he gets better he just goes straight back to being worse!”

“Truly the trials and tribulations of the first humans.”

“I just wish he would listen to me! Not some stuck up self-important know it all who thinks I’m worthless.”

Lucifer wisely held back the instinctive defence of the Creator, “Especially when you are so much more than that.”

Lilith seemed to finally run out of steam, falling back into Lucifer’s arms and holding him tightly, “I hate this… I hate him.”

“No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t… I hate the man God wants him to be.”

“I hate that man too,” Lucifer admitted, “I hate how he hurts everyone.”

Because it wasn’t just Lilith that was left hurting. Lucifer hated how he was losing track of the near silent breakdowns of Adam’s.

God created humanity different from the grand design, and every day Lucifer loathed that fact more and more.

“He’s going to win, that man.”

“Neither of us will let him.”

“He’ll let himself,” Lilith hissed right by his ear, the sound sending a shiver down Lucifer’s spine, by the choirs that felt good “Adams an idiot.”

“Yep!” Call Lucifer blasphemous, but he was so tempted to-

Lilith opened her mouth to say something, and Lucifer listened to the little voice in his head once again.

He caught her mouth with his own swiftly before pulling back, face flushing as he realised what he just did.

That was something only Adam and Lilith was supposed to do with each other.

Lilith blinked, taking time to process before giving her response, “Do that again.”

Lucifer didn’t need to be told twice.

The bark of the aspen tree was lit up by Lucifer’s wings as he pressed his lips to Lilith’s again.

And again.

And again.

Lucifer had never felt so good. He could see why Lilith and Adam like doing this. This felt so good.

- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -

It was hours until Lucifer disentangled himself from Lilith, still not having quite recovered from the experience. Sadly, he could feel the mental tug attached to his halo signifying his siblings wanting an audience with him. The last thing he wanted was to have them come down and see him with Lilith.

The moment he returned to heaven however, he had the distinct feeling that he might have messed up regardless.

Michael was pacing and muttering angrily under his breath, sharp sounds grating Lucifer’s awareness. When the archangel saw Lucifer, his wings physically bristled as he lunged forward and grabbed the Morningstar by the robe.

“You are so very fortunate that God was already growing tired of Lilith’s rebellion!”

“What?”

“Michael,” Lucifer turned to see Azrael landing nearby, “I highly doubt Lucifer knows what he has done, as impulsive as he is.”

“What? What happened,” Lucifer demanded, mantling his wings to make himself look larger as he stared down the other archangels.

“You don’t know?”

“Know what!”

“God decided to give the first man a new wife,” Michaels words cut through Lucifer’s anger and left only shock, “Made from his rib.”

“… what?”

“Yes, I had to tear it out myself,” Michael huffed, Lucifer noticed the dried red still dusting the angels gloves, “Adam tried to flee.”

“…”

“What Michael means,” Azreal shot the other a look, “Is that Adam didn’t take the information well, and saw it fit to attempt avoiding the situation entirely.”

“He was awake?!” Lucifer screeched “By the choir what is wrong with you two?!”

“It was the Creator’s wishes, none of us knew it would bring pain,” Azrael sighed, “However, it would encourage not repeating the situation…”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Michael scoffed, “The Creator ensured Adam wouldn’t remember.”

“It would taint him.”

“It would motivate him.”

“What?”

“Our Creator has decided to take a more… hands on approach in ensuring the situation does not repeat itself,” Azrael looked uncomfortable, “Xe employed the use of divine power to keep Adam and Eve from straying from the grand design.”

Lucifer took a step back.

Michael opened his mouth to say something, but Lucifer couldn’t hear over the roar of nothing in his ears.

No.

Nononononono.

Lucifer ran.

He broke into a sprint before diving back down to Earth, landing on the soft grass of Eden he looked around desperately.

“Adam!”

“Yes?”

Lucifer turned around as Adam’s figure came into view from behind a tree, “Adam-”

His eyes were gold.

Lucifer stumbled back as he took in the first man’s appearance, Adam’s eyes were no longer the colour of earth. The familiar dark brown orbs that bore the gold of honey and of leaves in the sun were gone. In their place was the brilliant gold of divinity, of heaven, the same gold of the-

The chain attached to his wrist.

Lucifer lunged forward and grabbed his friends arm, pulling him forward and running a hand along the softly glowing cuff on Adams wrist.

It was definitely the Creator’s doing.

“Adam what have they done to you.”

“Ah, apologies, but have we met before?”

Lucifer’s golden ichor froze as he looked back up to meet that accursed golden gaze, “What?”

“It is just that… you seem familiar with me, but I do not recall ever having met you. I apologize.”

Lucifer stepped back from the first man, “What.”

“Were you present for my creation? That day was such a blur I hardly recall all those present.”

“Adam- Adam look at me,” Lucifer grabbed Adam by the shoulder, staring desperately into those too gold, too inhuman, too holy eyes “Adam. You are my best friend. You remember me don’t you?”

Adam’s eyes flickered for a moment, that familiar beautiful earth brown peeking through for a moment before being swamped by heavenly gold.

“You are an angel; how could I ever be friends with someone of a higher status such as you?”

Lucifer wanted to cry.

The Creator truly was cruel.

“Are you alright, sir?”

Lucifer couldn’t do this.

Lucifer shoved Adam away and ran like a coward, stumbling through the bushes and past trees as he ran away from the puppet wearing his best friends face.

He didn’t even talk like Adam.

The Creator just stripped his best friend of everything that made him… him.

Lucifer collapsed under a willow tree as he sobbed into his arms.

He didn’t move for a long time after that.

- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -

Lilith found him in the dim of night, her eyes sharp and he teeth bared in a rueful grimace even as she took him into his arms.

“We’re not letting them get away with this. Not this time.”

A hot flame of righteous anger sparked in Lucifer’s heart as he held onto Lilith. She was right, this crossed a line.

Lucifer wanted to rush in, to steal Adam away and find a way to break that chain.

Lilith told him to wait, to watch and observe as she would.

“Right now, heaven does not know about our rebellion, if we move too quickly we will both be destroyed.”

She was right, of course she was. Lucifer hated it though.

They had to watch Adam go through the motions of what his life used to be. The way he would no longer wander the garden without reason.

He wouldn’t play with the animals anymore or sit and relax under the sun.

Lucifer almost broke the trunk of a tree when he saw Adam tear out a plant Gabriel considered ‘too imperfect for the garden’ even though Lucifer knew that it was Adams favourite flower.

That flame of anger grew every time that damned shackle glowed and chained Adams will.

It took a little time to figure out, but if there was one thing Lucifer was sure would free Adam and Eve, it was the apples of knowledge.

They had to.

Lucifer and Lilith also watched Eve through everything. She seemed meek through the control of the Creator, but in the few moments the attention of heaven faded and the gold in her eyes let a little bit of reddish brown through, they got to know her.

She was gentle and sweet to the animals but there was a steel in her spine.

She was vibrant and wild as she chased the cheetah’s around the garden or buried her head in a grizzly bears side.

Lucifer grew to love her in a way. As little of her as he could see. But she was the one the Creator paid less attention to, and why would xe? She is supposed to be subservient to Adam.

Lucifer shifted into the form of a snake and curled through the branches of the tree of knowledge as she came into view.

Showtime.

“Eve my dear, may I borrow your attention for but a moment?” Lucifer sing-songed, drawing the girls eye as she stopped at the base of the tree.

“What is it you require of me, snake?” Eve asked, Lucifer watched intently as the telltale hint of red brown filtered into her gaze, this was the shot he needed.

“The fruit of this tree, could you tell me how it tastes to you?”

The woman flinched back as if struck, and Lucifer’s eyes narrowed at her response.

“I couldn’t, God said-”

“And have you not wondered why xe demands such things of you? Have you not questioned why xe forbade this?” Lucifer hissed, snapping off an apple and letting it fall to the ground at Eve’s feet, “I know, and that is why I ask this of you.”

Eve’s will fought with Heaven for a moment as she picked up the apple, but she was not gone yet, “God said that if I ate the fruit, I would die.”

“And the Creator lies to you,” blasphemy dripped off of Lucifers tongue as he all but snarled at Eve, the white-hot flame of fury envenoming his words, “To eat the apple is not to die, but to be freed. To have your eyes opened to the truth around you.”

Eve held the apple in her hands, the reddish brown in her eyes traitorously present.

“How do you know I won’t die?”

“Because my dear, I have had my eyes opened long ago. To open them is a freedom the Creator keeps from you on purpose,” Lucifer hissed, “You will not die, of that I can promise.”

Eve bit into the apple, and the chains snapped under the weight of knowledge granted.

[kkanabel]

caffeine addiction ❃ annoying bakugou ❃ chapter 3 Bakugou Katsuki x Reader / Coffee Shop! AU directory/m.list

⇦ previous chapter - next chapter ⇨

After Bakugou nitpicked at the amount of caffeine you had, he started to give you warning looks when you’re starting to drink too much. It was as if a bartender was watching a patron that tends to drink himself blind-- except you’re drinking coffee and you’re one espresso shot away from a full-blown heart attack. 

Thus, you’re sitting at your usual table with a peach lemonade, tapping your feet on the ground as if you’re waiting for something. It started to become entertaining. When Bakugou looked at you, he saw an angry pomeranian that had its toy taken from them.

When you looked at Bakugou, you saw an evil mother pomeranian that withheld the toy for your own good.

It was strange-- you hardly knew each other. Even then, this rando barista was withholding something that would make him money. All for the sake of your health. It made you want to spend more money at this establishment. You wanted to rain money onto his broad shoulders (that were already covered in designer brands anyway) to show your appreciation for those who care about others.

Or it could just be for legal reasons. You’re pretty sure that you’re liable for your own decisions, but you suppose you could say that his coffee provoked you because it was too delicious…? Likely not. Worth a thought, though. Not really.

You were taking a look at sneak-peek photos of the Masaki show coming up soon. Your aunt was going to be one of the VIPs, and she invited you to come along. She desperately wanted you to be in promotion photos for Masaki, saying “I was telling Masaru about how I have a niece with a face that perfectly suits their brand! I wish you would take the option already! You have such a big opportunity to model for us, but you still insist on doing something else.”

You loved your aunt, but she still pestered you to join the fashion industry with her. While you absolutely loved fashion, the industry was just too much for you. You’ve had your fair share of models gossiping about how you’re a “fashion princess”, having one of the top designers in the world as a relative. Exposure like that is uncomfortable. You didn’t want to get big in the industry just because of the people you’re related to. If you’re going to make it big in the industry, it’s going to be by your own hand–you don’t want to get a big push just because of your aunt. 

You wanted to be fully self-made.

So, you sent an advertisement design to one of your clients, a new dating app called “Kiss, Kiss, Fall in Love”, which “innovated” a way to find love by placing you into a group chat with all of your suitors at once. It sounds extremely stupid. At least your advertisement made it look clean and professional. You pinched yourself for helping out a company with such an idiotic premise, but at least it makes you money. 

Then, you closed your tabs for the graphic design you were doing and then swiped over to your tabs open for a handful of assignments on finance. You have a lot of shit to do today. You also had ideas for your aunt’s new line, and you were going to sketch them out and send them to her by the end of today.

Falling asleep wasn’t a problem, because you had your lemonade, a cup of ice water, and an americano next to you. Going to the bathroom 5 times in one hour may be a problem, but you ignored it in favor of trying to finish your assignment as quickly as possible. You wanted to sketch out those designs now, but you’d be too anxious doing them if you didn’t have your assignment finished. 

Drinking iced liquids during the winter helped you stay awake. You were fucking shivering, but it’s okay. Anything to stay awake. You have to get these things done. This urgency was definitely making your dark circles worse by the day, though. 

It’s fine. You’ll need to put on concealer later, anyway. You needed to hop on a Zoom call with your club members in a couple hours, and you needed to freshen up before then. For now, your hair jutting out in all directions from your messy-ass bun and how crusty you looked was fine. The only person seeing you was an extremely hot guy in the café, but it’s also fine because you’re not going to court him, and this café is basically your second home at this point.

All of this was running through your mind as you worked on your assignment, furiously typing away on your laptop to fill out an extended-response question. 

Seeing you work on your laptop was making Bakugou feel particularly productive today. 

He whipped out his own laptop to sort out details he needed for his father’s upcoming fashion show. His parents wanted him to be there so they could have a photoshoot of their cute baby in nice clothes.

Except their cute little baby was now a 23-year-old man. 

After the show, he was going to be backstage, taking photos with the models so his parents could show him off to their mutual fashion-forward friends. Since Bakugou asked them not to post his photos as promotion, they didn’t. Like you, he didn’t want the attention. But this was a little different–he just didn’t want any fame, in general. He’s already got enough attention on him from the various women (and men) coming into the café to flirt with him. His ego is big enough as it is, and the random people eye-fucking him from across his own coffee shop don’t really help. 

But at some point, he had to ask some of his employees to help him kick out some people that were getting too rowdy, and he wasn’t the biggest fan of doing that. He just wants to live his life without people drooling over him like a piece of meat. Although Bakugou made it seem like he was more proud of his good looks when someone objectified him, it made him uncomfortable at times. 

So, he was glad that you were a new regular of his and not some creep trying to get into his pants. He found himself being a little happier every time he saw you come into the café with hair that looked like a bird’s nest and a face that definitely hadn’t woken up fully.

So, with some typing to give feedback to his parents, he sent them a lengthy paragraph detailing what he thought about the setup for the show. The models’ makeup, the music, and the general vibe of the walkway. 

Next on his to-do list was to experiment with new drinks for the menu. He was getting bored, and he thought that a great way to spice up his life and his customers’ lives was to add a new drink or two to his café menu. Thus, he got to brewing and mixing. In the middle of his work, he saw someone come in from the back. 

“Hey, Bakugou!” came a chipper voice from the girl who was putting on the café apron and bringing the apron’s strings around her waist so that she could see the strings as she was tying them. “Whatcha up to?”

He glanced at Ashido Mina, one of his long-time employees. They’ve been friends since high school, and she helps out at the café from time to time to make some extra cash. Though it was difficult for him to say it to their faces, he was always really grateful for his friends helping him with this coffee shop. 

“Makin’ some new drinks. Figured we should have something new for Christmas–apart from the seasonal drinks we already have.” He looked back down at his work, crushing up a candy cane on a cutting board into smithereens. 

She silently watched him as he sprinkled the crushed candy cane onto the drink next to the cutting board. The drink was in a glass mug and was a creamy brown topped with whipped cream and the candy cane Bakugou just put onto it. Bakugou brought the mug up to his lips and tasted it. Without a word, he gave the cup to Ashido.

As Ashido tasted it, her eyes lit up. “This is good,” she praised, placing it onto the table. 

Bakugou still looked at the drink, putting a hand up to his chin whilst thinking. “It’s not quite right,” he keened, crossing his arms. He didn’t know what to change. He used one of the best chocolates on the market. He didn’t even use the powder shit that tasted like ass! He mixed together a combination of milk and dark chocolate, so it should have added the complexity he was looking for. But for some reason, the drink tasted flat. 

“Mina-san?” From one of the tables at the café, you looked at Ashido with a surprised face. Ashido returned the face, gasping when she saw you. 

She called out your name in realization, walking around the counter to envelop you in a hug.

Bakugou furrowed his brows when he saw that you did makeup and calmed the birds’ nest that was your hair in the short period of time he was talking to Ashido. Witchcraft, he thought. The fact that you even did eye makeup amazed him. Wait– is your hair curled this time? How?!

He watched as you and Ashido made some small talk when she pointed a thumb at him. “Yeah, I work here to help out this dude. Actually, he’s trying to make a new drink for the upcoming holiday season, and he’s kinda struggling. Wanna try the prototype?” Bakugou’s eyes widened a little bit. It wasn’t in surprise, but moreso… fear?

“Sure!” You chirped, making him a little more scared. He couldn’t place his finger on why. Maybe it was because it was unfinished and all you knew about his drinks were perfection? He didn’t want to ruin that idea for you. But before he could say anything, Ashido passed you the mug with the prototype drink, and you sipped it.

He tried to ignore the fact that you drank a drink that a stranger also drank, but the very tiny teenage girl portion of him went, Oh my gosh, an indirect kiss! With me and Racoon Eyes!

“Hm, a peppermint hot chocolate? It’s good, but it could use more complexity.” Out came your response, and you tasted it again. “You should add some coffee to deepen the flavor. Also, maybe flavoring the whipped cream with mint would be a nice touch.”

Bakugou furrowed his brows in confusion. “Coffee? What?”

Your cheeks started to burn a little. It probably seemed you were saying that just because you’re an addict and he knows it. “N-No, I’m not trying to change it into some coffee drink! I’m saying– I normally add a little of some instant coffee to my hot chocolate because it deepens the flavor!”

He thought about it for a moment before grabbing the saucepan with which he previously made the hot chocolate. He tossed in a little bit of instant coffee, then poured it into three paper cups for all of you to try it.

All three of you tasted the prototype beverage at the same time, and while you had a content expression tasting very nice hot cocoa, the expression that Bakugou and Ashido had was one of amazement. “It’s… perfect,” Bakugou said, mystified.

Ashido let in a wide gasp when she finished the rest of the drink in the cup and she turned herself to face you. “...are you a flavor genius?”

You chuckled and said, “No, I’m just a coffee addict."

You were sitting outside on your Zoom meeting while Bakugou and Ashido were lazing around in the café, waiting for people to come in. Bakugou was blankly staring at you. You were laughing while waving your arms around to make a point to the people in the online meeting, and Bakugou was entranced.

When he snapped out of it and turned his head to Ashido, his good mood instantly dissipated when he saw her grinning like a Cheshire cat. A very evil Cheshire cat that is most certainly up to no good.

“Whatever the fuck you’re thinking, the answer is no.” He crossed his arms and glared at her, who was now suggestively wriggling her eyebrows at him. “I don’t have time for that.”

She rolled her eyes at him as she took a sip of her peach green tea on the back counter. “The fact that you knew what I was thinking just affirms my thoughts. Plus! Why not? She’s reeeally pretty, right?” Ashido emphasized her words a little too much, but still kept her voice down in case she was bothering any nearby patrons.

Bakugou sighed and propped himself on the chair in front of the register, nursing a freshly-made latte to his chest. “I’ve got my hands busy with a café and with my parents’ shit. I won’t shoot my shot if I’ve got no bullets.”

Ashido seemed to consider things for a minute, tapping her foot and looking into space. She raised her pointer finger, “But-”

“Racoon Eyes. No.” He glared her down. 

She didn’t back down. “Not even a hi? A meager hello?”

Bakugou really didn’t have time to deal with love. He’s got other shit to do– his parents are still pestering him to join the fashion business, and he’s working himself thin with the café already. 

“You don’t think she’s pretty?” Ashido offered, looking at you sitting outside.

Bakugou scowled. He didn’t want to deal with Ashido right now, either. “I’m not fucking blind. Of course, she’s pretty. I just don’t have time for it.”

Her eyes seemed to start blinging with interest as she squealed, “Bakugou has a cru-” he placed a hand over her mouth. People were looking in their direction, confused. A relationship, never mind pursuing one, is in no way something he wants to deal with. Unless this girl started showing up in every facet of his life or something, it just wouldn’t be possible.  

But the higher powers up there have a funny sense of humor. 

(Ironically, the girl that Bakugou just started pining for had named him a god just a couple days prior.)

a/n: taglist is open! just lmk <3 stay hydrated, cuties! :D

directory/m.list

⇦ previous chapter - next chapter ⇨

[romihearts]

sleep-deprived ! | ft. riddle rosehearts

synopsis. due to a plethora of assignments, you've recently had to work a few nights away. but, that missed sleep caught up to you, especially while you were with riddle.

content. gn reader, intended lowercase, not proofread, slight swearing, platonic or romantic? whatever u wanna view it as :33

her notes. completely self indulgent i mysfeld is on the brink of going insane

you never thought that getting to your classes would be this hard. you're completely slumped over and drained of any energy, not sure if you should even try to attend anymore.

your train of thought was stopped, when a familiar red-head caught notice of you. "ah! [name], i've been looking all over for—" riddle paused when he looked up to you, documents threatening to fall out of his arms. did you come back from the dead?

your brain slowly processed that riddle was there, looking for you and you tried to elicit even a small response. yet, it seemed like nothing was coming out of your mouth.

this alerted riddle, from your slightly messed hair, to the visible eyebags, and now you were having trouble speaking?! he sighed and took your hand, disregarding the primary reason as to why he was even looking for you and focused on nursing you better instead. it'd be quite a problem if you got sick.

the both of you headed to the heartslabyul dorm, without protest from you.

while on the way, riddle kept shooting you with multiple questions, rendering you unable to answer all of them due to him changing the question so quickly. but he caught on and asked one at a time instead. he inquired why you were in such a state.

you had so much words to spill from your mouth, you were extremely sleep-deprived due to the amount of workload! not to mention, the extra responsibility with groupworks since every one of your groupmates wanted to act dead when you were asking them for their contribution.

to add on, crowley was assigning even more irrelevant work to you!

but, all you could say was; "work." leaving little context to riddle. but from the way you were carrying multiple papers, he could guess that you were flooded with assignments and deadlines.

finally reaching the dorm, riddle continued to drag you his room, which made you question why. he opened the door to his room, it was filled intricate designs basing from the queen of hearts.

you were finally able to speak a few words, you asked him why the both of you were in his room.

"this isn't a medical issue, so we can't use the infirmary. rather it's an issue with your sleep schedule, how much hours have you been getting every night?" you attempted to look somewhere else, because there's a chance that riddle might blow up if you answered saying that you weren't getting any sleep at all.

yet, your reluctantly said that for the past few days, you haven't slept. you fully expected riddle to lecture you saying that staying up that much is super unhealthy. but you were surprised when all he said was for you to sleep in his room for the meantime with a sigh.

were you actually experiencing hallucinations? how the fuck were you allowed to sleep in his rooms?

still dumbfounded, riddle reassured that it was fine for him. and with your tired mind, you obliged knowing that you really did need to sleep.

—

it was 4:37 pm, how long did you sleep for? you noticed that riddle was no longer in the room, your messed up stack of papers from before were now neatly arranged and their was a glass of water on his bedside table.

you stood up from the bed, finally regaining energy. looking around riddle's room, you fix yourself up and got your papers before leaving to find him and thank him.

steps were all to be heard within the dormitory's hall. you headed towards the lounge, seeing a few students there but not the one you were looking for.

then, heading to the rose garden, where you finally spotted that familiar red-head.

walking towards him, you observed he was tending to the hedgehogs. you tapped on his shoulder, trying not to startle him.

"oh, it seems you've woken up." riddle stated while you thanked him wholeheartedly for letting you rest. "thank you riddle, do you want anything from sam's shop or the cafeteria? my treat." you smiled at him.

he refused the offer, but offered to help you instead with your work. "your report on harveston's dialect has a few errors i can correct them for you— if you'd like."

"i'll gladly accept." you said with a smile once more.

[asmodeusstahl]

So, I have a lot of problems with the latest (sixth) episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I’m just going to start from the beginning and work my way through the episode to the end.

Firstly, the episode title is “We Take A Zebra to Vegas.” Do we *see* a Zebra? For all of two seconds. That’s it. So much for a plot-relevant episode title. It’s a nitpick, sure, but if you’re going to make something an episode title, it should have SOME relevance to the plot. I understand that that’s the only chapter where we see the Lotus Casino, so it makes sense to use that chapter title as the episode title. But is it *really* that much more effort to add a scene featuring Percy and/or Grover chatting with the Zebra? There’s certainly run time and almost certainly budget for it.

Then we get to the casino itself and, as loathe as I am to admit it, the movie did it better without question. Even the smallest of details — like the look and vibe of the casino are done so much better in the movie. The casino is designed to trap children, so it’s filled with water parks, roller coasters, and all that makes a kid lose their mind. We see that in the movie. In the show, it’s just a regular old casino filled with a bunch of adults of all ages. There’s only like 2 or 3 shots where you really see groups of children. And that’s not even mentioning the exterior architecture of it. It’s a nitpick, but the show version doesn’t even look Greek-inspired. In the movie, it’s basically a knock-off Caesar’s Palace with Greek Columns and everything. It’s great. The giant Lotus Blossom with a roller coaster coming out of the side just… isn’t.

Much like with Medusa, all the suspense was just thrown out the window. Once they enter, Grover does the whole “wait, Percy, did your mom read you the Odyssey?” shtick and the trio figures out it’s the Lotus Eaters that Odysseus faced. Consequently, Percy and Annabeth do not lose themselves in the casino. They stay sane the whole bloody time. What annoys me even more about this is that Percy even says as they enter the casino “what if we just chilled here and played some games for a bit.” It got my hopes up that we’d actually see a competent drug trip scene — I was wrong. Annabeth immediately shuts him down and he’s like “yeah, no, I was joking.”

Anyway, they go to look for Hermes. I’m not sure why the fuck Hermes loves hanging out in this casino. The show’s explanation is that he just likes chilling there and nothing more is said on the matter. It feels weird to be that an Olympian would just be chilling in a casino run by monsters without a care in the world. Whatever.

Once they enter, Annabeth decides Grover should split off so they can cover more ground. Um, hello, if you’re trying to cover more ground why not have EVERYONE split off, not just Grover? So Grover goes off on his own, finds a Satyr that used to know his Uncle Ferdinand and starts talking to him about the Search for Pan. The Satyr is like “oh, yeah, Pan. I think I found him here. Come follow me.” Grover follows and eventually forgets who he is (and ends up playing VR). Sure, great, one of the trio lost it, but that doesn’t account for the other two and we really didn’t need to shoehorn more Pan stuff in just for the sake of getting Grover to split off from Percabeth.

Meanwhile, Percabeth have found Hermes and he takes them aside to chat after they mention they’re friends of Luke’s. There’s a few things here that annoy me. Firstly, Hermes lore dumps all of the trauma that is May Castellan — something which doesn’t appear until the 5th book. We could have — and should have, imo — gotten the backstory behind Luke’s failed quest to the Garden of the Hesperides to steal a Golden Apple. The quest he failed when Landon gave him the scar on his face. The quest *Hermes himself* assigned to him. There’s plenty of resentment for Hermes that comes for that — we didn’t need May Castellan. Not yet.

Turns out, Hermes is just stalling them because he doesn’t want to help. Fucking dick. So, Annabeth goes invisible and steals his car keys — which Hermes absolutely knew about. They rescue Grover after a brief spell of forgetfulness. Annabeth reasons that they didn’t lose it like Grover because they were together and it’s harder to forget when you’re with someone. Sure, great. How do you explain the DiAngelos? I highly doubt that Bianca would willingly let Nico wander off on his own. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

I really hate that the movie casino somehow managed to include Disco Darrin — the kid from the 70s that triggers Percy realizing something is fucked up — and that the show doesn’t. Darrin really helps reinforce the idea that the casino is full of kids out of time, which helps set up the reveal that the DiAngelos were in the casino for 70ish years and didn’t age at all. I hate that the movie did something better, I really do. But it’s just unavoidable when comparing these two scenes.

The trio then “steal” Hermes’ cab, which just so happens to have a letter addressed to the trio that supposedly tells them a back way into the Underworld. We’ll see how that turns out next episode, but I will be UPSET if we don’t get DOA Recording Studious and all that jazz. As soon as Percy (shoddily) drives the trio out of the parking garage, Hermes’ travel magic transports them to the beach in Santa Monica. That’s the one redeeming thing about this episode for me. That’s actually a really cool application of Hermes’ powers as the God of Travelers.

What I do have a problem with, however, is Percy’s experience in the ocean. Instead of meeting Poseidon, as was promised to us, we meet the Nereid from St. Louis. She tells Percy that “surprise, the summer solstice already happened. Poseidon waited for you as long as you could, but now he has to go marshal his forces for war. Go home now, your quest is done.” Um, what? The summer solstice passing makes no sense to me as a creative decision. The solstice is the reason that all the gods were on Olympus when Percy returned the bolt. You can’t expect the gods to just be chilling on Olympus 24/7 especially when war is about to break out.

Plus, you cannot tell me that Zeus wouldn’t have immediately started fucking shit up. His symbol of power was stolen — allegedly — by Poseidon. He’d want that back ASAP. In the book, it’s stated in no uncertain terms that, if Percy+Co. failed, Zeus and Poseidon would be fucking up the weather. Massive storms and natural disasters everywhere. The sky and the sea would be at war with each other. It would be like Armageddon. There’s 0 sign of that. At all.

Then, before Percy leaves, the Nereid gives him *four* pearls. Not three. Four. This takes away Percy having to sacrifice Sally for the sake of the world (even if she comes back eventually). This change just doesn’t make any sense to me. The explanation in the show is that Poseidon cares about Sally. But that makes 0 sense because there’s been an overarching narrative that All Gods Are Bastards. Additionally, even in this episode, Hermes mentioned that it was Poseidon’s advice to stay away from the lives of demigods/their mortal parents. That it’s awful watching them struggle and feel powerless to stop it. Why does Poseidon suddenly have the power to help Sally now? It just… doesn’t make any sense to me.

Another issue I have with this is that if the Nereid is telling Percy to go back to camp, why is she giving him *four* pearls? Assuming a retcon that the pearls transport the user to CHB, there’s no need for four. If Percy is supposed to return to CHB immediately, he doesn’t go to the Underworld to rescue Sally and therefore does not need a fourth pearl. If that isn’t a plot hole, I don’t know what is.

The episode ends with Percy being like “no, I’m seeing this quest through to the end.” Which is great and all, but the teaser for next episode worries me with how much it includes. We’re going to see Crusty’s Water Bed Palace, the Underworld, AND the fight on the beach with Ares. I don’t know how they’re going to fit that all into like 35 minutes of show time (accounting for the “previously on” segment and credits taking up 5 minutes of the 40 minute runtime). Crusty was the obvious cut from this episode so that it doesn’t feel rushed, but it *wasn’t* cut and that worries me.

And, furthermore, I think Crusty is going to have to be heavily modified for the screen. I see no way Disney allows Percy to go full medieval torture and stretch Crusty to death. Which is disappointing, if I’m being honest. It’s really the first indication of how Percy acts when he’s snapped/in the zone. Stuff like summoning hurricanes while fighting or overwhelming the weather barrier at Camp also falls into this category. That’s a nitpick, sure, but whatever.

Look, I didn’t want to be a hater. And I still don’t. I would love to love this show, but the problem with it is the marketing and the writing. It was marketed by Rick and the critics as a “faithful adaptation.” This is not that. This is a rewrite of the book that’s honestly worse than some fanfics I’ve read. Which says a lot because the PJO fanfic community is not known for having well-written works.

And the trio themselves just aren’t clicking as their book counterparts for the most part. Percy, especially, just doesn’t act like Percy. We’re missing his sarcasm and biting humor. It’s not Walker’s fault — anyone who’s watched The Adam Project” knows he can pull it off. Annabeth has lost most of her character development and had that screen time given to Grover. I was alright with it last episode with Ares, but it just did not work with Augustus this episode. The trio just doesn’t feel like the trio and I don’t think it’s the actors’ faults.

Like I said earlier, Walker can absolutely pull off Persass. The script just isn’t letting him do that and that disappoints me. I watched Leah in Beast and absolutely could see the Annabeth in her, but all of her moments and character traits are either being given to Percy and Grover or cut entirely. Taking away our knowledge from the books, we know the least about Annabeth’s character out of the trio. The script just isn’t making her click in my mind as Annabeth like the script in Beast did. I can’t really say much about Aryan, since I haven’t seen him in other works, but I do like that he’s being elevated above comedic relief. So… that’s a good thing, I guess.

Overall, I have a lot of issues with the show. Especially with this episode. I also have a lot of fears with the direction this show is going for the final two episodes and I’m nervous to see where Rick and the writers take this. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[yellowhollyhock]

2003 O’Neil Tech Team

April, the big boss

Donny, also technically the big boss but used to operating from the shadows and prefers to be just be called ‘engineer’ (good luck with that DonDon)

Casey: building maintenance (he has so many sets of keys, some of which may or may not open wormholes directly to other planets or cause time to freeze if used in the right sequence)

Leatherhead: more of a theorist than an engineer. Initially he’s helping where he can with the science, but ultimately the role he will thrive in is office doctor. He knows how to phrase “go take a nap” scientifically enough to get through to April and Don when they’re in the zone.

Fugitoid: he’s the marketing team. Mostly he markets in space, but he also helps run their website to draw earth clients in. He travels a ton. When he is in the office it’s because he’s helping build or maintain transportation (whether it’s a spaceship or a handheld teleporter).

the rest are my 2003 versions of characters from other tmnts. In order of hire:

Irma Langinstein (1987): April’s friend from her college days, business major who ended up doing secretarial work at a big law firm (which she hates). She is the first outside hire; April realizes they badly need help (she’s ending up doing a lot of the administrative work, Donny and Casey are both hard workers but neither one is organized or fiscally responsible), and doesn’t want Don to have to hide from his own employees, so she scours her family albums and yearbooks to make a list of people she might trust enough to tell about the turtles. She ends up contacting Irma, inviting her to lunch to talk about a job opportunity and bringing all four turtles along. They all half-expect Irma to scream and run, which it seems like she’s going to, but April made the food she likes and nothing keeps her from food. So she gets to know them over lunch and ends up fitting in great. Being sworn to secrecy is hard for her, but it helps that she can talk to April.

Harold Lilja (IDW): a physicist who was fired from the university he works at and decided to go into early retirement. He’s spending all his time in his basement designing impractical but extremely cool tech and on online chatrooms when Donny contacts him about some of his published papers. He’s extremely condescending and very difficult to get useful information from. Don contacts the university, but it becomes apparent that nobody there actually understands Lilja’s theories, and all he’s really able to learn is that the guy’s extremely unpleasant to work with. So naturally, he goes to his house. Irma is furious about having to help with this assignment (refuses to be left behind because Donny is clearly being too nice). Lilja turns out to be much nicer in person (is this because of Irma’s glare and Donny’s impossible-to-be-mad-at voice? hard to say), though still not very good at explaining his ideas. Donny hires him to get around the problem.

Oyuki Mashimi (archie): meets Leo and Mikey through the dojo they run. She introduces Mikey to the world of social media and he introduces her to April. She joins the marketing team, filling that earth gap that Fugitoid can’t. Being just two years younger than Donny makes her the youngest employee. Her and Irma work together a lot and are instant besties

Timothy Pulitzer (2012): he just walks in one day and applies at the front desk. He’s been working a cubicle job at a tech company for a decade, and noticing recently the things O’Neil Tech has been doing, and wondered if that would be a better fit and also better for his health. At first he annoys almost everyone because his enthusiasm seems too much to be sincere, but after a while it becomes apparent that he really is just that way. He adores Donny, which people tend to see as just sucking up to his team lead, but actually it’s because he’s never had a boss talk nicely to him before. Also once he catches him doing a cool flip in through the window, he becomes obsessed with ninjas, and always calls Splinter Mr. Ninja Rat and the other turtles Mr. (Name) Ninja Turtle. He also has a crush on Irma, but I haven’t decided if or how that goes forward.

Libby Meitner (IDW): not Harold’s partner in this, maybe in the future idk. But he is the one who contacts her because she has relevant expertise, I think probably specifically about supply chain things? She’s a chemist. She’s going to be filling Leatherhead’s role in that way so he’s able to focus more on being the office doctor. Personality wise she’s fairly aloof, keeps personal and work life very separate, really chill about mutants because why would it be any of her business anyway type of person. Do not play Poker with her.

Kala: An engineer! Very creative thinker, has experience with tech from all over the galaxy. Passionate about marketing as well. uhhh I wrote the blurb today about them meeting her. She and the other Neutrinos are shapeshifters, learning new things is their whole purpose of living. She loves to party and build superconductors. Energy sources will definitely be her expertise. She’s the one who starts calling Donny Boss and it catches on in spite of his protests (once she says it in front of Timothy it’s game over). She’s secretly April’s favorite.

Zak: cars. just. cars. Also has no business being as charismatic as he is, this little neutrino mechanic can talk his way out of anything. Him and Harold working together can either solve whatever problem has been stumping the team and create a new system of government while they’re at it, or burn the place down. It depends on their moods and the weather. Also at some point he will take Timothy under his wing to try to build up his confidence and people skills, and accidentally learn from him instead about being utterly sincere at all times no matter the stakes.

Dask: no interest in science whatsoever but he is a very effective administrator. He takes an interest in LH’s work specifically, the two of them are now the HR department. Figuring our human bureaucracy and how to make it work for their employees well-being is like a fun little puzzle to him. They’ll come up against a wall and Leatherhead’s like I cannot get Libby on the insurance :( And Dask rubs his hands together like he’s just been given a delicious treat. Also he’s able to get Leatherhead access to detailed medical notes about all different kinds of aliens.

[a0wz]

MAWS Thoughts on S2E5

Spoilers Including Pictures Ahead!

TLDR - I wasn't a fan of the way things went. I think there are better ways to execute what happened in the ep.

Relationship Conflicts: Lois and Jimmy

1. I think it's corny to have Clois' "break up" be because of a bachelor's show. Yes, Lois is always questioning her worth and has terrible abandonment issues, but I feel like it could have been approached in a more realistic way.

2. In combination to that, Jimmy shouldn't have to hide from Clark because of the convention when Clark was there seeing how much Jimmy was trying to defend him. Jimmy didn't know they were going to bring out Lex and discus Superman being an problem. He was put on the spot and Clark knows that. Why can't he use the brains he has to hunt down cryptids and make the simple conclusion that Clark wouldn't be upset with him and would even find comfort that his friend was put on the spot and still did his best to defend Superman.

Side note. There are 24 hours in the day, Lois and Clark have phones and know where each other lives yet we are to believe they have found ABSOLUTEYLY NO time to talk to each other???

I make these two main points to propose a different sequence of events that still impacts significant relationships after the attack in S2E4:

After the attack, Jimmy suggests that Superman lays low for a while since so many influential people seem to have been convinced of Superman being an issue. Of course Clark would disagree because he can literally hear and see how bad things can get without him helping out and he needs to be identifiable to his cousin when she shows up. After hearing the assignment being given to Cat, Clark finds out that he is wanted at the Bachelor event and would be happy to attend because it's for charity. The issue is he doesn't tell anyone about it because Jimmy and Lois agreed he should lay low. Lois confides in Jimmy about her job offer in Gotham and he offers to go with her to check out the city because he also is following a story about some mysterious things going on there (this could be a way to hint at some batman related stuff). Jimmy and Lois run into Kara and because they have more than one braincell, they figure out she's Clark's cousin and try to bring her to him. Lois find out from Kara's rambling that Clark set off the beaker without telling her and she's upset with him while trying to understand more about Kara. In looking for Clark they find Superman on the dating show but missed the part where Superman explained he was seeing someone. Lois is even more upset since Clark didn't tell her about it (this would be a genuine asshat move on his part, a real flaw instead of some childish thing) and by how well Superman and Silver are getting along and even how she defends him. All of these things confound into her spiraling and Kara has a bad impression of Clark after seeing how hurt Lois is by him and his actions (the concept of being a bad s/o has to exist on Krypton if they are similar to earth enough to have marriages). Kara flips out on Clark and Lois and Jimmy can't convince her to stop. Clark finds out that Lois is mad and him hurting Lois' feelings is why Kara is fighting him. Kara takes Superman. END OF EP.

Criticisms of Kara + her being set up with Jimmy.

She looks out of place. I get her design is directly inspired by Android 18 from Dragon Ball but her hairstyle specifically is too anime for the more Western based show and MAKES HER LOOK 14 YRS OLD which leads me to my other point.

2. It's weird that she looks 14 and is being set up with Jimmy who's 23 (wiki says he was born in 01'). It's giving the older caretaker of a uneducated child orphan vibes when he was taking her around the city showing her things instead of a first date vibe the show was going for.

3. How is Jimmy in love with her??? Because she's pretty???? He knows nothing about her and why isn't he freaked out by the fact that it obviously seems like she's never experienced extremely common things like hot dogs and ice-cream. His entire deal is sniffing out weird alien and supernatural stuff so how was the way she behaved not a red flag to him??? Also I feel like her being so naive of Earth's culture plays into her being inappropriately young.

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 crew chief explains why the Blackbird never stopped to leak fuel and why SR-71s on public display are still weeping JP-7 today

A problem of flying at Mach 3+ was that at the time when the SR-71 was devised no sealant would withstand the extreme heat that an airplane cruising at that speed would make. Hence the Blackbird leaked fuel.

SR-71 T-Shirts

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

In the 1960’s, the US Air Force (USAF) developed the SR-71 Blackbird, a plane that could travel more than 3 times as fast as the sound produced by its own engines.

Throughout its nearly 24-year career, the SR-71 spy plane remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. Flying at Mach 3+ from 80,000 feet, it could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour. And in the off chance an enemy tried to shoot it down with a missile, all the Blackbird had to do was speed up and outrun it.

Its engineering was so cutting edge that even the tools to build the SR-71 needed to be designed from scratch.

In fact, given that the Blackbird became so hot because it cruised at a speed of Mach 3.2 conventional jet fuel could not be used in it. A jet fuel with a high flash point, and high thermal stability was required. To satisfy this requirement Shell produced a special blend of fuel called JP-7 which has a high flashpoint to prevent it from being ignited by the heat of the airframe.

Another problem of flying at Mach 3+ was that at the time when the SR-71 was devised no sealant would withstand the extreme heat that an airplane cruising at that speed would make.

SR-71 crew chief explains why the Blackbird never stopped to leak fuel and why SR-71s on public display are still weeping JP-7 today

Fuel leakages can be seen under this SR-71 Blackbird.

Hence the Blackbird leaked fuel.

Everyone talks about how the SR-71 leaks fuel. They often snicker about it like they’re insinuating that the Blackbird was flawed in a significant way. But, as we have just explained, this is not true.

I asked Master Sgt. Floyd Jones (ret.) who worked on the Blackbird for nearly 20 years (according to Air Zoo, Jones entered the USAF in 1966. Assigned to Beale AFB in 1967, Jones became an SR-71 Crew Chief/Phase Inspector. After international assignments, he returned to Beale in 1980 where he became an SR-71 Inspection Dock Chief. Later, Jones worked with SR-71 flight testing and scheduled an SR-71 aircraft wash at Beale) if the Blackbird continued to leak fuel, even when it was flying. Here’s his answer.

‘During the PDM [Phase Depot Maintenance], over 10,000 man-hours were expended for fuel tank repair. When the SR was turned over to the Air Force the fuel leaks were mostly fixed. But after flying at speed, the leaks started to return.

‘You need to understand what constitutes a fuel tank on the SR-71.

SR-71 print

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 “Skunkworks”

‘It starts with an aircraft structure that is sealed with a polymer sealant on all edges and seems.

‘After flying at speed and altitude, the sealant starts to crack, thus creating a leak. Since we couldn’t find a sealant that could withstand the extreme temperature changes a plus 500 degrees to a minus 30.’

Jones concludes;

‘So yes, the SR-71 would continue to leak under all conditions. It never stopped even today 30 years after they were put on public display. They are weeping JP-7 fuel.’

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter Page Habubrats SR-71 and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

@Habubrats71 via X

[hsslilly-blog]

hiiiiii. i see your vision. tell us more about the fallout au pls <3

so! i think it should be set on the west coast because 1. i like the desert aesthetic 2. it could crossover with hollywood u at some point and 3. nishan big mt. the vault could be in southern california and numbered 105 (no of main quests in hss prime, minus the tutorial). not all the main characters are vault dwellers (the other ones are already in the wasteland). vault 105 dwellers: the mc, wes, sakura, autumn, julian & ezra. for now. this got really long so the rest is under the cut!!!

okay so i think this vault’s experiment would work like this: three dwellers would be appointed overseers every few years by the vault’s mainframe computer, picked from the overall vault population; each of these overseers would come from different “parts” of the vault though, depending on their assigned jobs. that way, each overseer would have a different personality, which would (eventually) clash as they make choices regarding the vault. this is how we get autumn, julian and sakura as overseers in the au.

the objective here is to see how this would even work. would these people find a way to work together? would they fight?(yes) how does a vault ‘controlled’ by three people even look like? would they listen to the other dwellers? would there be factions/divisions? the biggest ‘test’, then, would be: how would these three people act/react in a high stakes situation that could put the entire vault at risk?

a random person from the vault gets irradiated, somehow. the problem: this vault is missing the P.I.E. (post-irradiation equipment) device (in universe they call it a device like people say atm machines), which is Something vault-tec designed to be used in this exact situation. someone gets irradiated, they use this thing to buy them time until the vault doctors can quarantine this person/give them medicine/external help can arrive. but like i said, this vault doesn’t have one because of the experiment. so this is literally the one situation that couldn’t happen in this vault.

oh also! this person cannot be related to any of the three overseers. this way they don’t Really have a motivation to help this person. just sacrifice them or whatever for the greater good. BUT i think the person wouldn’t be That Random. the person who gets irradiated is actually someone the vault is very dear of/very popular. WHICH! fits the game.

in the pizza day quest you can choose between ezra or shane to go to the storage room. both very popular/well liked in game! and after Reflection. i think it should be ezra who gets irradiated because it would give wes motivation to go out with the mc. in the “best” case scenario, his best friend turns into a ghoul (and they don’t even know wtf is that). in the worst one, he dies and dooms the entire vault with him.

so ezra gets irradiated. the vault doctors can’t get near him to help him bc they don’t have the P.I.E. device. killing him is obviously impopular, but also doesn’t solve the issue of him being radioactive and possibly irradiating the rest of the vault as well. so sakura orders him to get isolated/quarantined in the vault’s prison cells/section. the other vault dwellers ofc love ezra and don’t want him to die, so they try helping him in ways they can (like, ezra still has to eat and stuff). and then it’s kinda like the quest and sakura keeps escalating things and punishing people for trying to help him. the other two overseers start to disagree but they can’t do much because they’re scared of sakura!!! lol. she has ‘alerted’ vault-tec and is certain that help is on the way (it is not) so people need to CHILL (said as she locks up another person).

the mc and wes get in contact with another vault (they get into the overseers’ office somehow. it’s wes) so they can get another P.I.E. device. kinda like the plot to fo1. the difference here is that the two of them are doing this behind sakura’s back and essentially escaping the vault. so they do that. what do they find on the wasteland. errrmn…. things. meanwhile the situation at the vault keeps escalating with sakura + ezra is still at risk of contaminating the entire vault so they’re running against time.

there are a few holes but that’s what i had thought of!!! i haven’t decided in which point of fallouts timeline it’d take place. maybe somewhere between fo2 and new vegas? so the ncr is already a thing in california and many vaults have already opened up.

[fountainpenguin]

“I come to you with all my secrets... And you never, ever judge.” (x)

---

New Dog's Life chapter today!

Chapter 11 - “Phantom Hour (Martyn, Joel, Honey)”

Read on AO3

Start from Chapter 1

End of Session 1

---

Martyn gets called into work, but drops by Scott on the way. Scott's fighting through his own problems that not a single one of his friends can relate to. Meanwhile, Joel invites Grian to Empires to visit Hermes- Y'know, that kid Joel insists is real and Grian claimed was an armor stand last chapter.

Lastly, Grian returns to his wife on their home server. Their marriage may be arranged and awkward, but he's locked in offline status with her for another month straight, so he may as well get cozy...

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

---

InTheLittleWood

- Card-carrying member of the Broken Hearts Club

- Kept hungry on purpose for nights like this

💚  💛  ❤️

If you're not hearing James Turner cry out "Aww, bat too!" every time Pearl swoops down on his head with wings unfurled, or listening to the constant hum of bee wings in your ear, are you even in Simmers' Quarter? Martyn spreads his arms and wings for balance, meandering across the copper rod rail that spans between the rooftop of one building and the next. Oh, sure… Flapping your wings is easy, but that sort of takes away the thrill and the rush of the tightrope, doesn't it?

Funny joke. I've got 24/7 vertigo anyway.

He takes every step with his eyes shut, tongue sticking out from one corner of his lips. Technically this is the Australian Quarter, but literally no one ever calls it that. Not even Pearl, and she's an Australian Minecrafter. It's just that all the Simmers live together down in this corner: not because they have to (or even because their time zones match up), but because they're such good friends.

Simmers' Quarter also happens to be the edge of the perimeter where Scott assigns housing to the accounts played by fairly young creators who are still learning their way around Minecraft. Basically, you'll never find any fewer than a hundred babies running around, and if you ask Martyn, the Simmers always look exhausted, like managing their needs in mere proximity of noisy children leaves them drained. But if they really didn't like it, they could file the paperwork to move, right?

I mean, they're Simmers… Maybe some of them still think we pay for things with consistent currency instead of doodles and build tips.

Martyn wobbles in an imaginary breeze. His vertigo kicks on a little stronger, a little more demanding. It swirls his stomach and guts in circles like he's mixing homemade ice cream. Whoa. Martyn keeps his eyes pinned shut. He doesn't peek. He only breathes.

I am not falling.

He balances on the copper rod, which Scott probably installed here for the many bat hybrids that call this area their home. Besides little rods and decorative bits like these, everything in Simmers' Quarter is built from wood and chiseled stone. The block palettes are pretty simple, but it works… The young, newbie builders don't often care for fancy designs (and setting them up with pretty stone and wood is a good way to guarantee they won't settle for less tasteful blocks like cobblestone or emerald). Most of the Simmers dump a few leaf blocks down for bushes, but largely prefer interiors, so in the end? It's a win-win.

Martyn's not here to talk to any Simmers. Or any of the hundred kids. At the end of the copper rail, he swings down and drops with a thump on the landing pad. The door's not locked. He waltzes right in. Just without a waltzing partner.

Ah, I'd love a waltzing partner. I oughta talk to Skizz.

The hallway's lit with golden lanterns. He's on the top floor. Nobody else is wandering. Martyn strolls along until he finds Room 810. He sifts through his pockets, digs out his spare key, and pushes it in the lock.

"There we are…"

Home bitter home.

The flat's a lot tidier since Scott packed his things and moved out. That's not to say Scott caused a big mess when he lived here. Jimmy just… never redecorated. Martyn can't even blame him. He's not redecorated in, eeeehhhh… Probably getting close to 300 years at this point. Definitely over 250. Dunno, honestly. Math is hard and everyone's brains are scrambled. There's not really much point in decorating, is there? Jimmy's the one who spends the most time in it, and while Jimmy and Scott were dating, Martyn hadn't seen a reason to get in the way. He keeps his stuff and private portal in his room, but so much of his station time is spent at the flock roost or else combing the perimeter. The flat is…

… Martyn only has a flat at all because of the people he came to stay with.

Martyn kicks his crocs at the front door, sliding into his slippers instead. All the lanterns are off. Jimmy's not home yet, still at the first of many late-night parties. All their games are gone too. There's no food here that Martyn's anivore body will get any pleasure from. And Scott took the blankets and throw pillows. He left the printscreens now framed along their walls - even had the decency not to crop his own face out when he left - but Martyn glances at exactly none of them. He'd just… rather not right now.

His room's the left one at the end of the hall. Jimmy's and Scott's (Jimmy's) is the right. The third door, straight ahead, is the one he came here for. As he walks, Martyn reaches into his pocket and withdraws a letter. He wrote it over break while they were killing time, waiting for Grian and Etho to account for Scar's glitch. Martyn swats it several times against his palm and opens the last door. The purple, wooden N hanging on its front clacks as he pushes through. This room never had a bed. The old occupant never saw the point in one, seeing as you can't sleep in the Between dimension.

It's not as quiet in this abandoned room as Martyn would like. He can hear screeching children playing in the road outside. He can hear Gluon's distinctive bee wings humming very, very near the edge of the apartment. Martyn makes a mental note to take him and his fez out first next time he gets the chance.

Ah, well… It's Simmers' Quarter. Whatcha gonna do?

He gives a little love-tap to the sugar glider hoodie hanging abandoned on the hook behind the door. Hasn't been worn in a few hundred years, but it's nice to know it's still there. No matter how hungry Martyn's gotten… he's never been hungry enough to eat that.

[Full chapter on AO3 - Link at top]