#buddy stories being animated would be so sweet....

[meownotgood]

praying that one day they animate buddy stories solely so we get shirtless aki in swim trunks in that one beach scene... or at least an illustration.

I went mad reading it knowing aki was shirtless and we couldn't see.

I need aki in swim trunks I need aki shirtless with a little bit of tan I need aki with his hair all wet and sunglasses relaxing on a beach floatie PLEAAAASSEEEE

[maychorian]

Found Family Anime Recs

I recently reblogged a list of found family anime recs and was a bit surprised by how many reblogs and likes it got. I had really reblogged it just so I can find it later to watch the shows I hadn't already seen on the list, but apparently I have a lot of followers who are interested in this topic! Well, I've watched a lot of anime, so here are ten found family anime shows that I absolutely love. These are in no particular order.

Buddy Daddies

This show is similar enough to Spy X Family that you might be tempted to call it a rip-off. It's really quite different though. There's a lot less comedy (though there's still SOME comedy) and a lot more healing from past trauma. The animation is gorgeous, and the relationships really tug at my heart. It's more realistic than Spy X Family, in some ways, though it's still pretty ridiculous. The melodrama in the last couple of episodes did annoy me a bit, but it's still a very satisfying show. It's like a fanfiction I would write, which is really the highest recommendation I can give, haha, because that means it's exactly the kind of story I would like. 

2. Samurai Champloo

This show was made by much of the same team that created Cowboy Bebop, but for some reason it never got the same cult status, which is really too bad. I love Cowboy Bebop, but I love Samurai Champloo more. It's about two ronin and a teenage girl traveling through Edo-era Japan to find someone the girl is looking for. Throughout the series, the three form a very strong bond, despite all of their communication difficulties and past traumas. I've rewatched this show probably more than any other anime. It's brutal at times, but so very satisfying.

3. Natsume Yuujin-cho

Natsume lost his parents as a young child and was passed around from relative to relative, most of whom couldn't deal with him because his ability to see yokai (Japanese folk spirits) made him a freak in their eyes. As the series starts, he's finally taken in by an older couple in a rural village who actually want him, and he's finally able to start forming connections with other people and find a support system with his new caretakers, his peers, and the yokai he tries to help. It's a very sweet, sad series, much more sentimental than the first two entries on this list, but a very soothing and lovely watch when you are in need of some relaxation. Warning, though, the flashbacks to Natsume's past families can be truly gutwrenching. He was not treated well for a very long time, and it's hard to stomach.

4. Barakamon

Handa is a calligrapher who gets essentially exiled to a remote island after causing problems on purpose. He has a hard time connecting with people and is struggling with his art. Over the course of the story, he forms relationships with his neighbors, especially an adorable child with possibly the best child voice-acting I've ever heard, and slowly rediscovers his joy in creation again. It's cute and funny and beautiful, and it makes me want to live on a remote Japanese island.

5. My Roommate Is a Cat

Subaru is a young novelist who recently lost his parents, who were pretty much his only connection to humanity. While trying to recover from this massive loss, he adopts a stray cat who quickly becomes the most important creature in his life. Through the cat, he begins to form relationships with other people, as well. The show is unique in that the first half of each episode is from the human's POV and the second half is from the cat's POV. It's a very lovely and soothing show. Pets are family, too!

6. Haikyuu

Haikyuu was the show that opened my eyes to the aspect of found family in sports anime. I know a lot of tumblr enjoys Haikyuu for the shipping, but to me it's more satisfying to view it through the lens of found family. Each team is essentially their own found family, in their own unique way, and the relationships are particularly realistic and well-depicted by this mangaka. I love Tanaka being a big brother to the first years, Kuroo and Kenma's mutual protectiveness and support, all of it. 

7. Kuroko no Basuke

This is the silly basketball show, and in my opinion it's not as good as Haikyuu, but I love the relationships here as well. Especially between Kuroko and Kagami, of course. Their mutual protectiveness is just chef's kiss. But the whole Seirin team is really great. I love them so much. The teamy goodness is what makes the silliness watchable for me.

8. One Piece

What is there to say about One Piece? This is, like, the ultimate found family show. All of the pirate crews with any kind of goodness at their core are found families, but especially the Strawhats. Luffy is just going around looking at people and declaring, "Okay, you're in my family (on my crew) now." If you've never watched One Piece before, I'm going to make an unorthodox recommendation and suggest you watch the live action Netflix adaption first. It does a really good job of capturing the feel and aesthetic and just pure loveliness of this story in a much more compact and approachable way than the anime. However, if you like it, I do recommend that you watch the anime from the beginning, because there is a lot of expansion on the themes there, and the characterization is slightly different. Usopp in particular kinda got shorted in the live action, so you'll understand him a lot more if you watch his introduction arc in the anime. But honestly both versions are great. I'm on my third rewatch of the live action version already, and I will watch and rewatch the anime until I die, probably. One of my favorite stories of all time.

9. The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash

I found this one slightly annoying in how it was obviously carefully designed to tug at my heartstrings, but it's working, so I don't have much right to complain. It's about a little kid driven out of her home who gradually gathers a found family of both monsters she tames and adult adventurers and guardsmen who take one look at this lonely child and go, "Well, guess I have a baby now." The isekai element is very lowkey, in that she basically just has a voice in her head giving her advice, and I like that it's about fighting local corruption instead of a demon army or what have you. I want more shows like this and less shows like every other generic isekai, haha.

10. Dungeon Meshi

This show is blowing up tumblr right now, so you've probably already seen it a billion times, but I'm going to make one more appeal for you to watch/read this story. It is so, so so good. And in my opinion, it is much MUCH more about family, both born and found, than it is about shipping. I could write a whole essay about Marcille and Falin's relationship that has nothing to do with romance, as I could for any other two (or three or four) characters in the main party, plus those outside. There is a LOT going on. I've been playing RPGs and LARPs for twenty years, and one reason I love the hobby so much is for the joy of creating found families with my best friends in new and different worlds, over and over again. This is the first piece of fiction I've found that really captures that particular aspect of party-based fantasy stories, the relationships that form and grow, the tight-knit bonds that keep everyone moving forward despite the monsters you must face (and consume). 

[sincere1ystar]

Seashore Sweetheart

sailor finnick x mermaid reader au (fluff)

Growing up by the sea Finnick’s heard stories about all sorts of creatures who live down in the abyss called the ocean. He’s heard of fishes, sea monsters and of course mermaids. The mythical creatures that some fear and others are fascinated by never struck much interest with Finnick.

With him being a sailor one would except that Finnick would be familiar with all sorts of creatures that reside within the sea. And he is, he could rant about the different fishes and dolphins he sees on a day to day basis. Maybe a bit about sea monsters too from the stories he’s heard as a young child. But mermaids? He knows everything there is to know about them, who doesn’t? To him, mermaids are just like humans except they have tails instead of legs. They’re simple creatures aren’t they?

Atleast that’s what he thinks before a typical day in the summer where he comes to the docks later than he usually does and all the sailors are already gone for the day.

With everyone already gone leaving him with no work to do, Finnick sits by the shore .The sounds of the waves fill his ears and he can’t help but close his eyes and smile. A feeling of solace washes over him near as the tide comes to shore and washes away all of his worries.

His eyes open suddenly when he hears a splashing noise. With the others gone until evening who could have caused that noise?

“Surely not the fish”, Finnick thinks to himself, “Those little creatures can’t come this close to the shore. No sea animal could. But then what could it be?”

He plays it off as one of the guys playing a prank on him until he catches the sight of a tail. Not just any tail, a mermaid tail.

“It must be the heat getting to me. Mermaids don’t come this close to the surface.. No no it’s just the summer heat making me see things”, he thinks to himself.

The mermaid slowly comes up to shore and her eyes meets Finnick’s. When your eyes meet his, it’s then when Finnick realizes he doesn’t know a single thing about mermaids at all. Yes he’s heard stories about their lucious hair and shiny tails, but he never knew how beautiful one could be.

The other sailors usually describe Finnick as the “charmer” of the group, yet here is in front of the prettiest being he’s ever seen, with his words stuck in his throat.

You on the other hand seem too curious for your own good as you see the tall sailor with tanned skin and with eyes that reminded you of the shells you used to collect when you were a little mermaid.

You’ve heard about humans. You’ve even went as far as to spot a few walking on the sandy beaches, but the way you were looking at him made you realize you’ve never truly took the time to really look at a human before, let alone a man.

Before he can say anything, you cut him right to it as you ask, “Are you really human?”

Usually he would scoff at a silly question like that, but instead he was occupied by the sound of her sweet voice running like honey through his ears. Him and his buddies would laughs about fools who spent their days being captivated by the melodic voices of mermaids, but now it seems like it wasn’t so foolish after all or maybe. Or maybe he too is now a fool, he decides.

“A mermaid… A real mermaid. You are real aren’t you?”, he babbled as he watches you in awe.

“Depends. You’re a real human aren’t you?”, you replied as you study his form.

“Well yes what else would I be? A turtle?”, he remarked.

This causes a laugh from you as you add, “Well I guess that means I’m a real mermaid then”.

After that encounter Finnick finds himself purposefully coming to the docks late to catch a sight of you all while you found yourself just conveniently wanting to get some sun the same time he’s around.

He shows you all sorts of objects that aren’t common in your home in the ocean, or “human inventions” as you would call them. Finnick adores how you treat the mundane things he uses in his everyday life as the most interesting treasures.

You swim down to the deepest parts of the ocean and bring back pearls that are the same shape as his eyes. Other times you bring him objects you’ve found in sunken ships and ask him to identity them for you.

Finnick never would have imagined that he would would fall in love with a mermaid, let alone be friends with one. Yet it seemed to work with you. You would help him open his eyes under water so you could show him little things in the sea he never noticed before and he would carry you in his arms around town giving you a little tour at night when everyone else was sleeping.

On days where you’re apart, you can’t help but think about him. You think to yourself that it would never work out since you’re a mermaid and he’s a human, yet that doesn’t stop you from falling asleep on the chest of a statue you’ve found that reminds you of Finnick.

Sometimes you see him on his ship with the other sailors. You don’t approach him though, just quietly watch as you hide behind a rock. He can’t help but smile as he sees those gorgeous eyes of yours that he dreams about every night.

One night when the two of you are sitting by the shore watching the stars like you always do, Finnick can’t help but admire you in the moonlight.

“You ever wish you had legs instead of a tail?”, he asks softly.

“Sometimes. Only to be closer to you, to relate to you more. Maybe then we would have made an ideal match”, you whisper back in response.

“You’re already perfect. In fact I think you’re it for me, mermaid or human doesn’t matter”, Finnick objected.

Your mind can’t comprehend his words. “He can’t be serious”, you think to yourself. Him, a human sailor who probably already has many girls who would be eager to be with him wants to be with… a mermaid?

“You must be out of your mind”, you chuckle, “My mother was right sometimes humans are a bit mindless”.

“Maybe I am”, he responds simply not leaving any room for argument.

You’re about to give another one of your witty responses like you always do, but then your eyes meet his. Just like when you first met, you can’t help but be mesmerized. It’s then when you realize that you don’t want, no you can’t just let him go. You can’t just have him as some human you occasionally visit, you want to have him in a. different way.

The way Finnick looks at you makes you think he can read your thoughts. “Maybe humans aren’t so stupid after all”, you think as your eyes meet his lips and he takes initiative.

He never thought he would be kissing a mermaid, but when he finally did, he knew your lips were going to haunt him forever. Not like he’d complain though, it’s a small price to pay to spend his days listening to your honeyed laugh at dawn and looking into your dreamy eyes at dusk.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Anime Expo Final Day: Q & A and Live Draw with Witch Hat Atelier's Kamome Shirahama

Sunday was not as bad as Saturday crowd wise, but still a bit hard to deal with.

I got into the second Witch Hat Atelier panel, which was a live draw with Kamome Shirahama! We weren't allowed to take pics of her of course, and she came in the Iguin cosplay and somehow managed to draw in it, but I did get to take a pic of the brush buddy:

And here's the live drawing she did (Quifrey by audience demand) which we were allowed to photograph.

I was taking notes throughout the panel but then the notes app just decided to stop working and I lost it all. But I did write down everything I remembered immediately after, so here we go:

When asked, Shirahama said her influences were American and French comics in addition to manga. She mentioned Akira and the French comic Mobius, as well as a French comic with "cities" in the title I couldn't catch.

EDIT: (According to gaston26 in the comments: "I think she talked about French comics artist Moebius and the french comics with cities in the title is most likely 'Les Cités obscures'. ;)" That sounds right!)

She says she was inspired by the art style and diversity of American comics. She was also inspired by children’s literature like The Neverending Story.

When asked about the diversity in her story, she quickly said that the diversity was intentional and the fact that its even a question shows that we need more diversity. She said, "Nobody would ask this if it was just a romance between a boy and a girl or something like that, so it shows there needs to be more".

When asked how she feels about Quifrey being so popular, she mentioned that Quifrey was going to be a villain but his design was so good she promoted him to a main character.

She stated that she tries to write a story her younger self would read, but she says she was a “twisted kid” so as a child she’d be saying things like “a Pegasus with those feathers wouldn’t be able to fly!”

When asked about the magic system she said she was still actually trying to learn the magic system herself.

She talked about magic as a metaphor for creativity and said her audience is very creative so she feels they could relate. She always wanted to write a fantasy. She mentioned again that she had a mangaka friend early on and that it really made her appreciate what goes into making art and got her thinking in that direction.

She stated that there are no real villains in her story, just people.

When asked about how she comes up with names, she said she “asks Google”. She wanted names where her character would be the only one that comes up in the google search. Early on, with names like Coco and Agott, she didn’t do this, but it made her mad when other things would come up in the google search. When asked if she was inspired by any sort of ethnicity/culture for characters, she asked to pick one, and was asked about Kustas. She said that was a tough question and eventually said she took inspiration from Rome and also indigenous Japanese cultures for him.

She said she doesn’t use screentone because she’s "lazy" and prefers to work with her ink pen. When asked about her assistants she said they are the best ones at doing speed lines, which she’s "bad" at.

She said Quifrey and Olruggio were partly inspired by people she knows- not in looks, but in personality. She said traits like being strict on the outside and sweet on the inside (I imagine she's referring to Olruggio there) were inspired by those people she used as models.

She also mentioned that she draws very fast!

And that's about all I got down.

After that, the day was kind of rough, as I temporarily lost my wallet but fortunately someone eventually turned it in to lost and found. I went to Little Tokyo and attended the pop up Akiba Maid War café there. I got a Ranko cookie! The maid who served us mentioned the cafe's rivals like the poison the drinks and did the spell thing. We got a singing performance where both our maid and the woman playing Manager danced, with Manager intentionally doing it very badly. It was fun!

And that's all for my con report! Hope there was some interesting info! I'll be posting cosplay I saw and art and merch I got later.

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

Life Is Short So Make It Sweet

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Caught In The Rain

Summary- 6.2k Curtis Everett x Plus!Sized Reader. Spring showers have taken over life and everyone is trying to escape the rain. Curtis stumbles upon a little stowaway while he is trying to get to his dry home where his Honey is waiting for him.

Warnings- Mentions of asshole Jake.

A/N- Hey everyone! Been a hot minute but thanks for sticking around to read their story! Special shout out to @mumbles411 and @what-is-your-plan-today for the time you all have spent editing my messes. Dividers made by the talented @firefly-graphics. Happy Reading! and remember reblogs and comments are so appreciated.

Chapter Twenty-Seven / Masterlist

“Fucking hell.” Curtis cursed out while the rain splattered around him, the month of April certainly proving to be wet with spring showers. He was trying to get an engine moved into the overhead shelter out of the rain with Grey and Edgar so they could at least switch out the parts without being waterlogged. The mud sloughed around them while the broken machine sluggishly made its way to the overhead. All three of them pausing from their work to look out from under the shelter’s roof. The grey skies showed no sign of the much needed sunshine. 

“What was it about April showers?” Edgar asked and Curtis, thoroughly grumpy with feeling soaked through all his layers, growled out. 

“Pissing me off is what it’s about. It could let up for at least a couple hours to get those parts changed.” 

Grey handed over a towel to Curtis, letting him dry his face off. “I guess we could hold off till tomorrow? Maybe the weather will break.” 

“Tomorrow is too late, Gilliam told us to finish this today so it can leave the yard.” Curtis sighed as he handed the towel off to Edgar, who ran it over his hair, spiking it up as he dried himself off. “So unless we wanna be here all night, let's get this done.” 

Several hours and several parts later, Curtis was finally clocking out. Already he texted you that he was going to be late and that if you wanted to head back to your apartment, he understood. 

You were sure to send a photo back of you lounging in his living room with a book in your lap and cup of tea in hand, saying not a chance was he getting rid of you that easily. As if he would ever want that, Curtis thought to himself. 

He flicked off lights as he made his way out of the main office, the last one to leave for the day. Curtis double checked that it was all locked up before he made the run for his truck across the parking section, trying to avoid the rain although it was a losing battle. The drops were streaking down almost sideways, the wind picking up the more the storm raged on. He dug for his keys in his coat, willing them to unlock his door. 

Grasping them, he yanked them out of his pocket but fumbled, making his keys drop into the mud at his feet. “Damn it.” He groaned, sweeping down to grasp them when a pair of small green eyes stared at him from under his truck. 

They blinked at one another for a second before Curtis lowered down more into a squat, trying to peer under his truck at the little stowaway. “Hey little fella, you can’t stay under there.” Curtis softened his voice, reaching out a finger enough to encourage the pair of eyes forward. “Come on out, I won't hurt you.” 

The green eyes blinked at him and then a pitiful squeal was given, making Curtis laugh a bit. “You and me both buddy, how about you come here, let me take a look at you.” Curtis clicked his tongue encouraging, really hoping that it was a kitten or puppy taking refuge under his truck and not some wild animal trying to get out of the rain. 

Finally, the little black shadow started coming into the light. A very scrawny, barely able to walk properly black kitten came out, big green eyes almost too big for its face and water droplets rolling off its whiskers. “Well, damn kid…” Curtis’s palm swept around the little body, scooping him easily into his palm to bring him in against his chest and tuck him into his jacket. “You’re no bigger than a flea, what are you doing under there?” 

Pulling up to a stand, he was quick to unlock his truck and get them both out of the rain. Once inside, he opened his coat again to see the black kitten huddling into the warmth of his sweater, fur all matted and mud streaked. “Guess you’re coming home with me kid.” He sighed, knowing that now he had this kitten, there was no way he could just leave him all alone in the parking lot. “Wait till Honey gets a look at you.” 

You liked being at Curtis’s home alone. It was cozy with the big picture window in the livingroom facing the street, you could curl up and watch the rain drizzle beyond his front porch while being warm and dry. You had spent the better part of the afternoon browsing the wall of books behind the couch, plucking out one you assumed was Lillian’s at one point. A harlequin cowboy romance- the storyline about a lonely schoolteacher and her new beau, the newest cowboy in town. 

It was a silly over the top romance with lots of drama and turned into a vivid page turner for you as the afternoon slowly melded into the evening. Curtis had already messaged you that he was going to be late and should just go back to your apartment if you didn’t feel like waiting. But you weren’t ready to leave your little happy place for the lonely apartment. It just felt like a different kind of empty at Curtis’s house, one that made you feel at peace. 

So you made yourself right at home, around dinner time you did clean up the few dishes he must have used that morning and pulled dinner together for the both of you. Putting your casserole into the oven, the sound of a truck pulling into the driveway let you know that Curtis finally made it back home. 

Quick to set a timer, you clicked open the garage door to see him step out, soaked to the bone from the look of him. “Long day?” You asked while leaning into the doorway. 

“Days like today never seem to end.” He grumbled, his hand cupping a part of his jacket near his chest. “Umm, you're not allergic to cats are you?” 

“No, why?” You straightened up, curious now and a tinge of wonder and excitement dipped into your voice. “Is that what is in your coat?” 

Curtis unzipped part of it and reached in to pull out a little ball of black fur. Now there was no holding you back as you skipped down the couple steps into the garage and tentatively brushed your fingers against the kitten in his palm, cooing softly. “Oh baby, you are so cute.” You scritched behind one little ear and couldn't stop the way you were grinning as the little kitten started to purr. “Where did he come from Curtis? Are you keeping him? Does he have a name? Is it a him or her?” You scooped the kitten into your palms, cuddling the little baby to your chest and started to bring it inside. “You must be starving. Let’s see what Curtis has for you.” Curtis was left behind without getting any answers to the questions you bombarded him with. 

He followed you, pausing to shed off his boots and wet outer clothes to hang up and dry. “Found him under the truck trying to get out of the rain. I have no clue where he came from.” Once he had his jacket hung up and boots tilted near the heater vent to help dry them out, he followed you into the kitchen while you were searching his cupboards. “I have no idea if it’s a boy or girl, I have just been calling it him.” Curtis moved in behind you, going through his upper part of the cupboards while you searched through the bottom. 

“Tuna? Or anything soft? He doesn't look all that old, can he even eat solids?” You fretted while the kitten clung to your sweater, staring wide eyed at all the surroundings. 

“If I don’t have something to use, I will run out to the corner store and get him something.” Curtis pushed aside jars of salsa and canned veggies, scowling at his lack of acceptable food for the kitten. Then a little lonely can of tuna was found, and he grabbed it to hold it up in victory. “But this should work for tonight at least.” 

“Perfect, I will get this baby all cleaned up and some food in that belly.” You peeled the kitten off your sweater and cupped him in your hands, finally getting a good look at Curtis. “You’re soaked.” Your free hand went to grab his shirt, squeezing it a bit to feel how damp it was. “I got this, how about you go dry out and get changed.” 

“You sure you don’t want help?” Curtis questioned, although grateful for the chance to get out of his work clothes finally. 

“Handsome I got this, please before you get chilled and sick.” You glanced at the oven to look at the timer. “That casserole still has a good forty-five minutes at least. 

“Damn Pretty Girl, you're really taking care of me… us.” He added the kitten in your hold after a second thought, clasping onto your chin to tilt your face up a bit and place a kiss on your mouth, taking his time to draw out a soft whimper and sure your toes were curling at the affection. “Thank you.” He whispered before splitting away, making for the stairs, the upstairs shower and his bedroom calling his attention now. 

His girl making herself right at home in his house, and damn he liked that just fine. 

While Curtis went upstairs to clean up, you assessed the kitten in your hold. Big eyes blinked up at you before the loudest squeak came from his little pink mouth, protesting the lack of action you were doing. “Okay! Okay… how about a quick rinse in the sink? Get some of this mud off.” 

The kitten didn't like that, protested the whole time you had him in the sink, the running water warm while you worked your fingers through his fur and holding onto his scruff. But you were quick, soon wrapping him into a hand towel and carefully fluffing him up till he looked like an little angry furball. 

Setting him onto the floor, the kitten scampered to under the table, flicking each little paw one at a time as if being wet was his biggest worry. You rolled your eyes at him while a little pink tongue defiantly started licking at his chest. With a can opener in hand, you started to peel the tuna’s top open. “You know being clean and wet is much better then muddy and wet.” You squeezed some of the juice onto a saucer while also scooping out some of the meat. You were answered with a little cackle of a mew. “Oh? You agreeing with me?” You set the saucer well away from the table, knowing Curtis would be back down soon and not wanting the kitten underfoot. “Come on lil guy.” You coaxed for him, hoping the smell would bring him out. 

It didn’t though, the kitten blinked at you from the shadows under the table and then resorted to cleaning himself once again. “Alright, suit yourself.” Your hands slapped on your knees and with a slight moan, you pushed yourself back to a stand. 

“Hey, you okay?” Curtis asked as he came back into the kitchen, out of his wet clothes, freshly showered and looking more like himself. A black tee and his grey sweats were his current comfy clothes of choice, ones which you appreciated on many levels. Taking an appraising look, you let yourself sink into his arms finally, cuddling up to his chest for a moment to bury your face into the soft tee, his soap still strong smelling as you inhaled deeply. “Mmh, very. Just a bit sore from my workout today. I got him all washed, and some food out but he hasn’t come out from under the table.” You shrugged while leaning down enough to peek and see where the kitten was now. 

“He will when he gets a whiff of it.” Curtis rubbed at your back, soothing his hand where he figured you might be a bit sore. “Me on the other hand, I'm starving. What’s cooking?” 

“Cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole…” You pulled away to look in the oven. “And it's just about done.” When you turned back around, you found Curtis kneeling under the table with the little saucer of tuna, encouraging the kitten to eat. 

Without saying anything, you turned the oven off and moved to the floor next to Curtis, both of you now feeding the little stray. He started voraciously eating the tuna off both of your fingers. After a few moments, you softly nudge Curtis’s shoulder. “What are we going to do with him tonight?” 

It was such a soft sight for you to witness. Curtis holding out his large fingers for the kitten to nibble tuna off of, everything in him was about being as gentle as possible. “I can put him in the upstairs bathroom for now, make a bed for him in the tub in case he has an accident.” 

“And then?” Your mouth twists at the thought of having to find him a new home. 

“Then maybe contact the local ASPCA… see where to go from there.” 

You nod in understanding, Curtis had never mentioned wanting pets in his home before. “I used to have a cat a long time ago. Her name was Friskey, although I called her Friskababes.” You finally stretched out to lay on your belly, Curtis doing the same next to you while you took turns feeding the kitten. 

It didn't matter that dinner was cooling above you on the stove or if anyone walked into Curtis's house, they would find you two lying on the kitchen floor, heads under the table. You both were in your own little world, taking care of the kitten who was starting to slow down his feasting. Pink tongue wiping over his whiskers as he waddled now to Curtis, purring as he head-butted against his bearded chin affectionately. “I never had a cat before. I had an ex that did, every time I would go visit her place, the cat didn’t like me.” 

You smirked while watching the scene before you, your arms folded and your head resting on them. The kitten was working on wedging himself into the neck of Curtis’s shirt, batting at his gold chain. “Yeah well, I think this one likes you, a lot. Guess it’s a good thing you're not with that ex anymore.” 

“Well I like this one a lot more too.” Curtis admitted while the kitten curled up against the crook of his neck and shoulder, his little claws kneading into his tee shirt. “Both the cat and the partner.” He winked at you with a brilliant blue teasing glance, making you huff in a soft laugh. 

“Smooth move Stud. You know…” You inched over closer to him, lifting enough to whisper into his ear. “Seeing you taking care of this helpless kitten… it is sexy as hell. Too bad you are too busy taking care of him to do anything about it.” You nipped at his ear lobe, giggling as you slipped out from under the table before Curtis could react. 

“It is?” He couldn’t move out, not like you were able to with the now snoozing black bundle of fur cuddled up against his neck. But he wriggled out, cupping the little protesting kitten, scooping him up while he moved to stand, catching sight of you up the stairs. “Listen kid… You are gonna chill for a while? I got a sweet little Honey to tend to.” He lectured the kitten while making his way up the stairs. The kitten meowed loudly, either in protest for being bothered while napping or in understanding. 

Curtis didn’t really care, he was just paying attention to you teasing from the door, peeking around it to watch him stalking down the upstairs hallway for you. You gave a bit of a pout. “You were supposed to take your time, you know, not wake the baby.” 

“He is fine.” Curtis assured you, holding up the yawning little black mass that made up the kitten. In the corner of the room was a laundry basket full of his clean clothes, and he deposited the kitten into it before twisting to catch you, knowing you were getting ready to bolt out of reach. You laughed as he pulled you back into his chest, his mouth teasing against a sweet spot behind your ear. “Now tell me more about this sexy as hell business.” 

His hands slid up the front of your shirt, cupping your breasts and teasing at your nipples through your bra. You wriggled against him, sure to push your ass against his groin. “You know what those sweatpants do to me.” You whined as your head tilted to the side, “My big giant of a boyfriend going all gentle and taking care of a kitten? That’s like right out of a book.” 

His big hands squeezed your breasts, pulling just enough to make the tingles shoot through you, arching yourself into him for more of his touch. “Fuck Honey I love when you say shit like that.” He twisted you to face him and walk backwards to the bed, pulling up the shirt you wore right over your head and making you fall with a bounce onto his bed. 

You wriggled up to give him room to follow, grinning at him while you worked your bra off. “Like what?” 

Curtis hovered over you, his gaze now on your breasts, like he couldn't look away while a hand fondled one, pulling up over you enough so he could get his mouth on you. Dragging a nipple into his mouth, sensitive from his earlier teasing, it tightened against his tongue; the feeling of his hot wet mouth made you keen at the sensation, pulling and sucking on it until you scratched at the bed to grab the sheets. “When you call me your boyfriend. It’s like I’m yours and I love you for it.” He said after he popped your peak from his mouth, looking at you now, his gaze an intense sliver of blue and blown pupils, making your breath catch for a moment.

“You are mine and I am yours.” You took a moment to sink back onto the bed, catching your breath with a few deep gasps.

He rumbled from between your cleavage now, his tongue lavishing against your skin as he shifted down to kiss and nibble over your belly. “Well it’s a turn-on for me when you just call me yours, you know?” His fingers weren’t far, rubbing along your sides and down to your hips, shifting you more under him and sinking down over you while he stretched out to lay over your body. 

You caught his chain to drag him closer, arching up to meet him and kiss him. Your tongue slipped to meet his and tangle till it turned lust-filled and frenzied. Curtis groaned against your mouth, hooking an arm around you and lifting the both of you till he was sitting back on his heels and you were wrapping your legs around his trim waist, in his lap to grind against him. “You are mine Curtis and I see all of you.” Your hands swept up his back and grasped the back of his neck to hold on while your hips rocked in his lap, pushing your sensitive center against him, moaning softly whenever he pressed up against you, making excited tingles race up your spine. “Not just the man who is ridiculously handsome with his rugged good looks and blue eyes that can melt the panties off anyone.” You felt him scoff a bit, but his lips pulled in a grin while he dipped back to your collarbone now, retrailing back to your breasts. Red crept up the back of his neck, a clear sign that he was affected by you. 

He once again eased you onto the bed, looming over you before dropping his weight to push you into the mattress and trap you underneath him. Scratches of his beard against your sensitive skin made you wriggle underneath him while his weight continued to pin you in place. “But the side that loves his friends like family, treats me like a fucking goddess, stargazes, reads, takes in little stray kittens found under trucks.” Your voice went a bit higher with emotion while he mapped your body, not leaving an inch of your chest or belly unexplored. 

It’s like the kitten knew he was being mentioned cause all of a sudden the little black ball poked his head up over the edge of the bed, meowing loudly in that cackle sound that made you both pause a second, then burst out laughing at how ridiculous it sounded in the middle of you two making out. 

“Kid, you are busting in at the wrong time.” Curtis pulled himself off of you while the kitten kept scrambling up the side of the bed till it was tumbling across the mattress towards you both, his little tail straight up like an exclamation point. Before he could reach you two, Curtis got a hold of him and moved back. “Don’t go anywhere Pretty Girl. I’m not done with you.” Stiff legged, he moved his way across the bedroom and disappeared into the bathroom. You stretched a bit, patiently waiting till you heard Curtis lecturing the kitten. “Stay here, just go to sleep or something. Look a nice fluffy towel, courtesy of Honey.” He flickered on a nightlight and then eased out of the bathroom, using his foot to keep the kitten back till the door shut. 

You pushed yourself up to your elbows, watching him as he turned on the balls of his feet, grabbing his shirt to pull it over his head. “Our guest is away for the moment.” 

“Uh huh… that's why I can see little paws scratching under the door?” You pointed towards the floor, where sure enough black paws were stretching through that little space, and another little pitiful squeal pierced out. 

“Shit…” Curtis used his toes to nudge at them. “Come on dude… just an hour, that's all we need.” 

That had you laughing again, rolling in the bed till you could push yourself to the edge to find one of Curtis’s nearby shirts. “I know we were busy but…” You tugged it over your head, making Curtis scowl at the sight of you covering back up. “Let’s pick this up later? It’s obvious he doesn’t want to be in there and he is not at all tired.” 

“Cock blocked by a cat…” He grumbled a bit as he opened the door and the kitten shot right out, landing at your feet in a tangle of limbs. 

“Didn’t you say you were starving?” You pointed out as you reached Curtis, running your hands up his chest and hooking your hands around the back of his neck. “Cause I do gotta take care of that casserole downstairs still.” 

It was the most opportune moment that his stomach protested, making you arch a brow that you were indeed correct. “Fine! Fine, this is on pause. Just for now.” His hands cupped your face and kissed you, a quick fast one, no lingering, no turning into something more. “But I’m certainly not finished with you.” 

“I don’t ever expect you to be.” You winked at him, before reaching to take one of his hands and lead him back downstairs. Behind the two of you the kitten followed, bouncing down each step till he bypassed both of them and trotted into the downstairs living room like it was all his. 

A couple of days turned into a couple of weeks and the kitten was still at Curtis’s house. Slowly food bowls, a cat box and some toys appeared. You took the little black kitten to the vet, whom he hissed and swiped his little sharp claws at. The vet confirmed that he was a male kitten and just barely old enough to have been separated from his mother. 

You explained how Curtis found him and that Curtis had gone back the next day searching for more, but he only found him. You lined up for the appropriate shots and left with the understanding to the staff that you weren’t sure if you or Curtis would be keeping him. It made your heart ache though, thinking about bringing him to a shelter to be adopted by someone else. 

Even though as a kitten, he had the best chance at someone taking him. You just didn't want to let the little kitten go, even when he was yowling in the car the whole ride back to Curtis’s after the appointment. 

Curtis was sure to meet you outside when you arrived back, grabbing the cat carrier before you were able to and carrying it inside. “What did they say about him?” 

“He is definitely a boy, so we're correct in calling the little fluffer a boy. He is about ten weeks old… just barely able to leave his mom and he is a bit malnourished but to just keep him on the food we are using and he will be just fine.” You shrugged out of your jacket once inside and Curtis sprang the door open, the kitten dashing out and glaring at both of you over his shoulder for being trapped in the carrier, flicking his tail at you two. “And… the vet wanted to know what name they should put on the file and if we're going to keep him.” 

It was out there now, were you guys going to keep this kitten? Curtis’s brow came together in thought, glancing back at the kitten who now was checking out the stainless steel food bowls Curtis bought last week along with the rather expensive bag of kitten food that he insisted on, claiming it would help the ‘Kid’ get some meat on his bones. “What did you say?” 

“I said that I had to talk to you, considering if we kept him, he has to stay here. My little apartment doesn't allow pets of any kind. I’m almost shocked they haven't bitched about Peter my spider plant.” You said jokingly. 

“Well… I guess that leaves just one thing to do about him, then doesn't it.” Curtis stated so solemnly that your heart sank. He didn’t want a kitten here, you were sure of it. What if it destroyed his stuff or became a problem? You could almost hear your ex’s disgusted voice when you once mentioned that you missed having a pet. What would you want an animal in the house for? They just make messes and cost money. Jake had made up for his callous remark by buying you a goldfish, stuffing it in a goldfish bowl that you immediately got rid of, and bringing the fish to your parent's house with a proper tank since you knew that the tank would just be another issue for Jake to press on. Your goldfish was still happily living there, having gotten big and beautiful in the few years they have had him. 

A cat was a bigger responsibility than a goldfish and you were preparing yourself for Curtis to say he was going to take him to the adoption center. 

“What do we name him?” He asked, his arms folding over his chest as he stared at the kitten, studying him. “I know I have been calling him Kid, but he needs something better than that.” 

“You- you mean it? You want to keep him?” 

“Honey, he was ours from that first night I brought him home. He is family now, the little punk. Besides, I would be worrying myself over who took him home if we didn’t.” 

You felt such a rush of relief that you flung yourself at Curtis, who caught you with a surprised grunt, your hug around him turning fierce. “I love you so damn much, thank you for wanting to keep him.” 

His arms wrapped around you, pulling you in against him just as tightly and pressing his mouth to your forehead affectionately. “I would be such an asshole if I just tossed him away, this house is plenty big enough for him to terrorize.” He eased you back a bit to look down at you. “And you know once Sophia sees him, that he would have to stay anyways, as if she is ever gonna let him leave. So… names?” 

“Damn, I don’t know… I tried not to think of names, so I wouldn’t get attached. Um, Midnight?” 

“Same… although calling him Kid kinda ruined that. Hmm, Onyx?” Curtis threw out there. 

“Nah, makes me think of Pokémon too much.” 

“Coal?” He shrugged a bit, throwing another black cat name out.

“Cinders?” 

“What about Salem? He acts like that sassy cat on Sabrina.” 

“You watched Sabrina, the nineties version?” You asked, having loved that show yourself. 

“Sure, Ella loved it and I would watch it on TGIF night. Hey Salem, come here.” Curtis called but the kitten curled up in a window, sunbathing and ignoring the two of them.”Guess not.” 

You two just kept throwing out names that seemed fitting for black cats, but none of them seemed to fit the little bundle of terror. 

You both went on with the day, as you went to meet up with Claude at the school to help her with a quick project and Curtis went over to Paulie’s to do some late afternoon bartending. 

It was later when you finally got to Paulies,  patrons already getting rowdy at a baseball game Paulie had on the overhead tv. 

You scanned quickly, but their was no Curtis in sight. “Hey Paulie, where’s Curtis hiding?” 

“Out back Y/N.” He pulled the bar section up enough for you to duck through. “Make sure he swings back out for his tips before you guys leave for the night. You know, if you ever want a part time job, I can easily hook you up. You’re a lot nicer then Curtis, you'll make way more tips.” 

You rolled your eyes at Paulie as you hip checked through the door out back. “I doubt I would make more tips.” 

Paulie shook his head as he watched you walk away, tsking to himself. “That girl doesn’t even know that everyone loves her.” He sighed as he went back to refill mugs and take food requests. 

You worked your way towards the rear of the building where the backstock was kept, catching sight of Curtis and Edgar lining up to throw axes in the indoor designated area. You could see Yona standing back, watching their form. Edgar went first, his lean body flexing with strength as he leaned into his throw, making his axe spin rapidly with a heavy thunk into the target, almost at the bullseye. Yona gave a victory whoop and you had to add in your own claps of approval, making him spin in surprise at the extra praise. “Throw those last two, if you keep throwing like that, you should be captain of the team.” 

Edgar gave a shrug, finally turning back to set himself back up. “I wouldn’t know first thing about being a team captain.” He went again, able to accurately eyeball it, this time the axe embedded on the opposite side, leaving inches between the two and the bullseye right in the middle. 

Curtis swung his own, close to the middle, but not with the accuracy of Edgar’s throw. He scoffed at Edgar’s words, sure to cross his arms over his chest and study both the targets. “Man, why the hell not? You are obviously good at this, you are doing better then any of us and the whole team was your idea. Why not be the captain of it when we start competing this summer.” 

Edgar let go of his last one, both the men watching as it landed right in the middle with a heavy thud, all three almost perfectly lined up. You and Yona cheering and clapping, making Edgar blush wildly. “I don’t, I never…” He stammered a bit, unsure of how to answer. 

Curtis was blunt with him while he started preparing for his next throw. “Man, you gotta stop thinking the worst of yourself. Look at where you are now compared to months ago.” His arm curled over his head and he gave a powerful thrust, leaning into the move. The axe landed heavily into the board, making it wobble slightly and then straighten back out. “Don’t sit there and think you can’t before you even try. All of us think you can. Look.” Curtis motioned behind him back towards Yona and you who were now pouring drinks from a pitcher, lost in conversation. “They clearly think you're hot stuff, cheering at that last throw? Grey and I think you’re the man for the job. Now the question is, do you wanna be captain?” 

Edgar was looking for an answer, but with an impatient arch of Curtis’s brow he stammered out “Yes, yeah… yeah I can do it.” 

Curtis gave a nod of agreement. “Good man.” Then twisted to toss his remaining axe, sinking it into the target. 

You and Yona were watching the guys in what looked like a heated conversation, but weren’t making out much of what they were saying. Yona furrowed her brow worried. “You think everything is okay?” 

You glanced up at them while filling the mugs. “Sure, no one is being dragged out and no one is yelling. They are fine. Tell me about your date last night?” You really weren't sure, but if no one was looking like they were about to throw a punch, you figured it was probably fine. Curtis was pretty relaxed looking for the most part, his attention divided between talking to Edgar and focusing on the targets. 

Those were your favorite moments, because damn he just looked so masculine in his throws. The way his body would flex and tense the muscles in his shoulders and back, leading down to his ass. You started to let yourself imagine what that would all look naked? Wide shoulders that tapered down to a slimmer waist, he had a stunning back, you knew cause you'd admired it whenever he took his shirt off. 

“Then he surprised me with one of those midnight openings at this bookstore in the city.” Your attention turned back to Yona, who had a faraway dreamy look recalling her night before. 

“Sounds pretty incredible, the bookstore especially.��� You were quick to take a sip of your beer, trying to cover for the fact that you were daydreaming instead of listening to your friend, but now you were making sure to pay attention. “I would have loved that myself.” 

“I know they do it every couple of months.” She yanked out her phone and started typing on it. “Let me send you the link. What were you and Curtis up to?” 

You let your gaze drift back to the guys, now they were both laughing while wandering to the targets to grab the axes. “Well I took that black kitten this morning to the vet for a checkup, see if he needed anything. That opened up a convo about are we keeping him.” 

“And? I know you have fallen for him.” Yona inquired while she put her phone back away. “He would be a nice addition if you are ready for a pet.” 

“I wanted to, but my apartment is no pets allowed. I had myself all set for Curtis to say no… but he said absolutely he wanted to keep him.” Your grin spread, the way he had shocked you was still making your heart clench in excitement. “Now we need a name!” 

“Oh the best part.” Yona pressed on, waving a hand for you to continue. “What’s his name gonna be?” 

“Don’t know yet, every name we thought of that seemed to fit neither of us agreed on.” It was like a light bulb went off in your head and suddenly you were kicking yourself for not thinking of it earlier. “But! I think I have it. Give me a second.” Before Yona could question you, you headed over to where Curtis was set his axes down, ready to take a break. 

“Hey Pretty Girl.” His blue eyes shifted over you and a sultry grin crossed his lips. 

“I got it!” You bypassed your typical flirty answer, too excited at the moment. 

Curtis’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Got what Honey?” 

“The name, our kitten’s name. What about Thackery Binx? Or just one of the names, doesn’t have to be the whole thing. From Hocus Pocus.” 

He looked thoughtful while considering it. “Why the hell didn’t we think of that before? It’s perfect.” His arms scooped around you, tugging you in close. “How about just Binx if you're okay with that? I like it more for him.” 

You nodded with enthusiasm. “I like it too, so I think he will.  He looks like a Binx.”

[quitealotofsodapop]

I can see in the event of an au where Wukong and Luzhen had hat he's together being interesting.

Wukong would probably still be the older twin and the one to become the Monkey King, I imagine it'd be a difference of Wukong hatching and his lazer eyes, instead of hitting the Jade Palace, accidentally opens a hole in the ground where Luzhen's egg was and Shitougushi recognizing the petrified monkey as the Consort and therefore the egg is Shihou's sibling.

I can see Wukong still becoming the Monkey King and eventually the Great Sage, but with a bit of a difference personality since he has his twin there won't feel as much pressure to be perfect. Meaning his quieter and more wallflower tendencies are easier to see. People misunderstand that for aloofness or arrogance.

He still ends up under the mountain eventually tho, Luzhen hadn't been a part of the Brotherhood and had been on his own Journey of Self Discovery when he learns his big brother was imprisoned. He will never let his sweet, shy older twin forget it. It's too funny for him to think of since they all had thought Luzhen would be the one to end up in a bad crowd, not Wukong!

Adult Luzhen, to me, feels a bit like Porty. A bit of a party animal, bit of a playboy, all Rockstar energy. The difference is that he isn't so over the top. This is only in the hypothetical au where he grew up as the Great Sage's twin brother and not where he hatches later and is adopted by his brother as another child. Again, this is because they didn't have much of a proper parental figure outside of the Elder, who died when they were both young.

Since Luzhen is there, you can BET Macaque had to go through HURDLES to get his blessing to court Wukong. Don't get them wrong, Luzhen had been teasing his twin for centuries about his crush on the Lotus Ear, but he sure as heck isn't gonna let that stop him from exercising his sibling rights. When he learns about the fight under the mountain he outright banished Macaque from the island until Wukong is allowed to return home (so not until after the Journey since every time he returned home he had to leave again). The Brotherhood recieve similar treatment, which may contribute to their belief that Wukong is a traitor. He doesn't play play games, especially when it comes to his considerably stronger but more shy twin and the people who put him in that position to begin with.

Zu Baije, who had not known Wukong was a twin since Luzhen was gone throughout the entire time Wukong was dealing with Heaven, was outraged to discover there were TWO of them and the one they got was actually the SHY one!

Prev.

The Super Monkey Bros.

I love the mental imagery of Luzhen being like Wukong's version of Porty MK - the blue-eyed monkey being so much more active and bombastic than his older brother.

I feel like Luzhen's personality is a lot like Netflix's Monkey King in a way; far more immature and reckless, but ultimately just seeking purpose and affection.

(Which now is making me think of a Wukongverse au where All the monkeys are brothers/surviving Stone Eggs who got mistaken for the same figure over time)

And poor Macaque XD he thought the Stalwarts, DBK, and Guanyin aere bad enough, wait till he reaches the final boss that is Wukong's Protective Little Brother.

I like the idea of Luzhen going on his own Journey during the 500 years Wukong is imprisoned. Perhaps occassionally coming home to FFM to govern and beat up hunters threatening their people. And the make sure Macaque knows he's still banned from speaking to his big brother for hurting his feelings so badly.

Luzhen spreads the story of Sun Wukong in his own way through song, strumming on a Qinqin or tapping on a drum about his big brother's exploits.

And of course even in trying to keep hinself out of trouble, Luzhen still causes trademark monkey mischief, causing people to wonder if Sun Wukong has already been released.

Zhu Bajie, learning that the Monkey King is a travel buddy: "Oh hell yeah! This is gonna be fun!" Only to learn to his horror and disappointment that there's two monkeys considered king, and he's stuck with the studious lightweight nerd one. XD

Dont think Tripitaka would be able to put a circlet on Luzhen if the little brother monkey was there for the Journey, but Wukong would be able to keep him on good behavior.

Its an interesting au to consider

[silvermoonphantom]

Zenitsu, Kaigaku, and the cut-tongue Sparrow

Zenitsu's sparrow had my heart from the first lil flutter on his head. So, I was wondering about his little buddy - why would he get a sparrow, and not a crow like everyone else?

In a word; Foreshadowing.

Shita-kiri Suzume, the cut-tongue sparrow, is a Japanese fable.

There's many versions of the fable.

Basically, an old man and his wife live atop a mountain. The man keeps a sparrow as a pet. His wife dislikes the sparrow, seeing it as dirty, and not wanting to waste what precious little food they had, on an animal.

When the man went out and put the sparrow in her care, the woman didn't feed it, and later finds the sparrow eating rice paste (cheap to make, barely food) she'd left out. Enraged, she cuts the sparrow's tongue out and throws the bird from their home.

When the man comes back, he finds out what she did and he goes hunting for the bird. Eventually he finds the sparrow in a bamboo grove and is glad to see it is safe with its family. The sparrows welcome him into their home, feed him, and when it's time for him to leave they offer him a choice.

He's offered a large basket and a small basket to take with him. Some versions say he was feeling old and feeble and took the small one because it would be lighter, while others say he was being humble when he refused the larger basket, taking only the smaller one as to not take advantage of the sparrow's generosity.

When he returned to his home and opened the small basket, it was full of many treasures that made their household wealthy.

His wife was angry that he turned down the larger gift - surely it was full of even better treasure!

So she went out to find the sparrows and tried to cajole them with sweet words in the hope of getting treasure for herself.

When offered the large and small basket, she chose the larger. The sparrows warned her not to open it before she got home. But the woman struggled to carry such a huge and heavy basket and her greed had her stop to open the basket before she reached her home.

From the basket poured terrible things like venomous snakes and monsters, which scared her to tumble off the mountain (presumably to her death.)

--

Since it is a folk tale, there's loads of variations out there. For instance, it's a neighbor who cuts the bird's tongue, or that the bird has the ability to talk and apologizes about eating the rice starch/glue, but the woman doesn't listen. In some versions, the roles are reversed and its the husband who cuts the sparrow's tongue. Sometimes the wife is only scared by the monsters and runs home to repent and become a better person - while other times, the man is deeply grieved at what happened to his wife, and dies despite his new riches.

--

Foreshadowing? (Manga spoilers ahead!)

It's not a one-to-one comparison - only the beats of the story are similar.

Jigoro took both boys into his home. Kaigaku worked hard, while Zenitsu fluttered and complained and tried to run away.

Kaigaku was jealous and angry that Jigoro would take in such a useless disciple, and tried to drive Zenitsu away.

Zenitsu left, and over time was able to hone the small ability (first form of the Thunder Breathing style) into something powerful.

Kaigaku stayed behind, but resented Jigoro for his decisions regarding Zenitsu. When given the choice, Kaigaku chose to become a demon - going down a path of monstrosity and eventual death.

The story of the cut-tongue sparrow is said to be about kindness and friendship, but also about greed and jealousy leading to one's own demise.

--

As an aside:

While people say Zenitsu's hair looks like a bowl cut, I posit that it looks like someone modeled it after an edo-period sparrow.

Round, cute, with stubby squared-off feathers.

[shantechni]

I'm Glad Miri is Annoying

Minor spoilers for Spy x Family and Buddy Daddies I guess idk

I don't know if people legitimately forgot this or what, but Anya is not your average child. And believe it or not, the majority of children who classify as "your average child" have more flaws than simply getting a big head when things are going their way. They're stubborn to a fault at times, they tend to be selfish at the benefit of no one other than themselves, and you feel the frustration radiating off of whoever is their guardian.

I'm glad that Buddy Daddies pulls no punches when depicting how chaotic life becomes once a 4 year old girl with a clear lack of disciplinary figures or actual parents comes waltzing in like a hurricane. I also loved when Sweetness and Lightning didn't paint Tsumugi as a child that was any easier to care for after the death of her mom, and that Kouhei (her dad) genuinely struggled to handle her on his own.

Beyond that though, the biggest problem I see floating around is that people for some reason expect a story about childrearing to not actually be about childrearing?? And that's not me saying that's the case with everyone, but it certainly seems like a lot of people have solidified Spy x Family as a standard of the sorts in their mind when it comes to depictions of found family dynamics, childcare, and adoption. That would be fine if people kept in mind that not every standard set by Spy x Family is realistic, both in the plot of a different series and irl. And that's not entirely the fault of the readers/watchers, it simply became one of the recently most popular titles to explore those themes in a way that balances out with other aspects of the story.

But that's just it: Spy x Family is not solely about a man, woman, little girl, and dog slowly developing into a family. It's about their impact on a war torn world and them realizing that this fake family they put together for the sole purpose of continuing their roles in preventing another war is becoming real. This was a situation that everyone (aside from Bond) initially saw as a way of escaping unlikely situations or reaching their goals. The focal point of the story from day 1 has been about these oblivious adults coming to understand that they're already a family, even though they don't exactly see it as such yet.

Meanwhile, Buddy Daddies is not about any of that, they're in a modernized world that one could easily imagine existing right now. These two hitmen are not in an unfavorable situation, they did not swipe Miri off the streets for personal gain, and they weren't really ever denying how quickly they grew attached to her. Kazuki took Miri under his wing the moment they locked eyes and she started talking about cake and her "papa," the guy is literally enamoured by her just from that. And Rei constantly asked Kazuki in the beginning if he was sure about sending Miri back to her mom, because he may not know everything about his partner, but it's clear as day to him that he really doesn't want to let her go. And as I said earlier, it hardly takes any time for Miri to wrap Rei around her little fingers either. The anime is 4 episodes in and they easily settled into the idea of being a family, heck, she already has her own room.

This is getting long and I'm starting to lose my point here because I'm not in a good area to focus in right now, so I'll end with this: Do not go into Buddy Daddies expecting an idealized version of a fake family turned real, because that's not what PA Works is doing here at all.

[justasecretflower]

~🪻𝐒𝐃𝐕 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐝𝐬~

Incl: alex, Shane, Elliot, Harvey, Wizard, Willy, Gunther, Sam, Sebastian.

‼️Do not reblog‼️

_____________________________________

𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘹－ he’s such a boy dad. He’d be the type to want a lot of boys but end up with a little boy and then a girl right after.

- he’s REALLY disconnected during the pregnancy with the girl. When you finally get it out of him of why he says he just doesn’t think he can relate to her as much as he can with a boy.

- you convinced him to read some parenting books. He did, while doing his daily crunches.

-slowly warmed up to the idea..

-he was her favourite parent. 100%.

-he let his nails get painted, face masks, little rainbow beaded bracelets.

-Loves doing family hikes, runs, gridball games, all that physical activity stuff.

- his kids love him so much.

Shane- girl dad. I really can’t see him having a boy.

- he’s very loving and doting. All of her drawings are on the fridge and honestly they’re completely covering it to the point you can’t even see the silver anymore

-Had a problem with sending her to school.

- “just one more year.” Kinda dad

- he loves his little buddy. She helps with his chickens and they have fun. Why would he ever want her away for hours every day?

- when she finally got to her first day of kindergarten. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and realised that it wasn’t that bad and stopped worrying.

𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 - boy dad. And he’s the shyest, sweetest, most polite little boy ever.

- the little boy would be decked out in either Ralph Lauren or knitted sweaters with little animals or insects on them

-I have a feeling Harvey’s son is either obsessed with bugs or dinosaurs..idk

- Harvey stays away from insects but definitely acts like he isn’t scared of them.

- the kid has a bug watch where he can put them in a little watch and carry them around.

- such a health nut with his son. No extra sweets, or more juice. Bundles him up during winter. Maybe a little overboard he just loves his little boy so much:(.

Elliot - i see him being a parent to both? He has very polite kids and they speak fresh out of the 1800s. Thanks to him. But they’re very picky towards everything.

- his daughter wears those frilly white socks and cute little ribbons in her hair all the time (which is Elliot’s hair colour.)

- his son wears his hair slicked back and those black shoes.

- Elliot picks his kids outfits out. Does his daughter’s hair while she eats breakfast and kicks her feet.

-Elliot reads his kids to sleep, has a designated reading nook in each of their rooms. Has little notebooks that they write about their day in.

- Mentions his kids in his book. In the dedication before the story, in the “about the author” section, little side characters like his kids, everywhere.

Wizard- he’s really awkward as a dad. But he tries!

- a boy and girl dad, he has no preference.

- teaches his kids magic.

- can’t punish his kids for the life of him, he just can’t, y/n, you do it.

- his kids aren’t allowed to use magic to clean their rooms / do chores but if they do he isn’t gonna tell 😭.

- “Wanna hear how I met your mother?” He tells your kids stories from your youth ALL. THE. TIME!!

Willy- tears, tears, tears, when he holds his newborn for the first time and tells people all the time he doesn’t care.

- neither a boy or girl dad. He just loves his kids.

- “grab it d/n!!” *his daughter, in literal tears* “I CANT DADDY😰😭”

- both of his kids are fishing, they both have their own mini poles. His daughters has her name in pink sparkles and princesses on it.

- his sons has little dinosaurs on it with his name in bold green print.

- I’m leaning more towards Willy’s daughter loving animals, fish included, so she breaks down whenever a fish dies or gets hurt. At a point Willy has to lie about the fish they have for dinner.

- “this fish? Oh no baby this fish was already dead! It’s not one of the ones I caught today!” Daughter - :)

- hates sending his kids off to school. “Why do they need it? They can learn how to fish and own the store?” Is his line 24/7 every morning before school.

- Willy and ur kids will gang up on you and they’ll fake sick if they promise Willy they’ll go fishing (🙄).

Sam- he’s the fun parent. Again, not a girl or boy dad.

- his daughter match nail polish.

- his kids have mini skateboards (my dad got me a mini skateboard when I was younger as well:) )

- always nagging them about a helmet or kneepads when he himself doesn’t even wear them?

- writes songs for them, and lullabies to go to sleep.

- he can’t dress his kids to save his life, especially his daughter.

- she has baggy jeans on, a pink tutu, baggy hot pink princess shirt, and mismatched white and pink converse.

- “Sam what is my daughter wearing.” “..clothes..”

- tries to teach ur son how to swoon girls. I heard a story about a little boy telling a cute older woman that he has big building blocks at home and made motorcycle noises for 10 minutes.

-that’d be his son.

- also, he can’t cook. Don’t leave him alone with the kids it’s cereal/ McDonald’s for dinner and Ice cream for breakfast.

Sebastian- stops smoking when he finds out you’re pregnant/ adopting.

GIRL DAD!!!

- his daughter is really introverted like him. They take little cat naps together.

- speaking of cats, you have one.

- she finds her dads work so interesting; sits there and watches her daddy work.

- you have to force now both of them out of the house.

- your daughter is the definition of dressing down EVERYWHERE.

- she has little pink sweat sets galore. Doesn’t like dressing up.

- he can’t really express his love for his girl, so he does it with tiny things like randomly reading to her, or sometimes giving her a lil forehead kiss just cuz.

Gunther- I CAN’T DECIDE IF HE’S A GIRL OR BOY DAD..😟

- teaches his kids history

- takes them out digging.

- I feel like..his son would be the lazy one when it comes to digging up bones with dad💀

- “can we stop now?..” - son “NEVER!!” - daughter

- your son definitely likes to be more of a hermit, your daughter likes to go out digging, watch video essays about the 16-1800s and stuff.

- she’s obsessed with those huge puffy dresses from the Rocco era. She has a whole clothing rack just for those type of styled dresses.

- Gunther likes slow dancing with his little girl.

- tries his absolute best to engage in whatever your son likes.

————————————-_________________———————

Hope you liked this!! Please request some more stardew HCS with the “🪻” emoji! This tells me you want more of Stardew Valley

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[the-gateway-to-madness]

Jack Frost Headcanons

Jack likes strong flavors, be they spicy, sweet, or savory. He likes mild stuff too- point is he'll try any food, pretty much.

Jack has good coordination and steady hands, and as such is very gentle when he handles most objects (and animals, and people).

Jack is a Ravenclaw with ADHD: he's not ambitious or trying to join the Guardians, who are powerful and well-known. His fighting style is more about maneuvering and strategizing than guts or power (unless you really upset him like when Sandy died). The being-easily-bored and good sense of humor would indicate intelligence as well.

Jack has a great sense of rhythm but dances like a dork on purpose.

Jack is a night owl.

Jack creates a proper hideaway for himself in Burgess after the movie. Something about the forming and confirmation of his identity in the movie makes me think he'd be ready to make a nice little home or even just a safe spot afterwards.

Jack's main love language is quality time, North's is words of affirmation, Bunny's is acts of service, Tooth's is gifts, and Sandy's is physical touch. Yes, I know North seems like he should be the gifts type, and he definitely does gifts like no one else- but he comforts Jack by talking with him, and Tooth tries to comfort Sophie with a (horrendous) gift.

Jack never yells during arguments. He's seen what it does to people who've been abused, watched kids and lovers be hurt and tried to stop it- so he refuses to even risk scaring anyone that way. Even before becoming a Guardian, Jack would never raise his voice in a fight- at the very least, never face-to-face.

Jack has a handful of scars, mostly from dumb accidents or crash-landings. He refuses to tell the stories. Everyone assumes they're horrible and traumatic, but in reality, Jack was just terrible at paying attention to stuff when he first started out as a spirit.

Emotions like anger, embarrassment, or attraction raise Jack's body temperature just enough for his blood to thaw and his heartbeat to get going. It startles him every single time.

Jack is fascinated by folklore and mythology and studied them extensively to try to track down other spirits to befriend, with little success.

Jack played at least one instrument in his past life (his hands would be suited to violin or piano, especially) and instrumental music still calms and focuses him.

Jack was a farmer in his past life and still has lean, strong muscle hidden under his hoodie. He could absolutely win an arm wrestle with Bunny.

Jack is a little insecure about his Adam's apple.

Jack's powers are stronger at night due to the lack of apricity.

Unlike the animosity that a lot of the fandom portrays Jack having with other potential seasonal spirits, I think he's buddies with the other seasons, they just don't see each other much due to minimal domain overlap. The spirit of autumn is his favorite, but he's very protective of spring (mirroring the fact spring relies on winter to nourish the earth). The other seasons all treat him like their baby brother.

Jack dips french fries in Wendy's frosties unironically. He probably dips their chicken nuggets in the frosties too.

Sophie made Jack watch gen 4 My Little Pony with her and he didn't think the songs were half bad. He would never admit this to Jamie or anybody else in a thousand years.

Jack thinks birds are cool.

Cats see Jack more often than dogs. He doesn't know why, but he's willing to pet most things that move.

Stay tuned for what will probably be a lot more of these-

[wanderinginksplot]

Commander Stone + "Let's hear your side of the story"

Commander Stone x gn!reader (no use of 'y/n' and no pronouns). Romantic.

Word Count: 2,700

Warnings: an overexcited massiff and some minor awkwardness.

---

Your arm was starting to go numb. 

It wasn’t unusual for this type of situation, but it did mean that you would have to wrap things up soon. There was only so long your muscles could withstand that level of strain before you would end up feeling the effect. 

“Mo, down!” you ordered, putting as much authority into the command as you could muster. Your massiff - still young enough to have the energy level of a puppy with the muscle mass of a fully-grown adult - fell back on his haunches and retreated to your side. He panted up at you, displaying every ivory tooth he possessed. 

“No use in acting sweet now,” you informed him. “Not after you tried to get in that waste bin. There’s nothing in there for you.”

Mo tipped his head to the side and you had to fight against the urge to pat his giant, dumb head. He was cute, but you didn’t want to reward bad behavior.

Besides, that head - and the rest of him - really wasn’t dumb at all. Massiffs were notoriously smart, and Mo was no exception. He liked to pretend he had no idea what was going on, but there was always a reason behind what he did. 

In any case, your sternness hadn’t been stern enough, because Mo leaned his head against your thigh and stared adoringly up at you. You lasted until his purple tongue lolled out from his jaw, but then it was just too cute.

You sighed and scratched Mo’s head while his hindquarters wiggled in pleasure. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?” 

As if to reinforce your theory that he was smarter than he let on, Mo gave a little whine and panted up at you. 

“I know, buddy,” you soothed. “We’re on our way home, I promise.”

Mo followed eagerly when you started back toward your small apartment. Massiffs were on the larger end of apartment-dwelling animals, solidly built with more muscle than most humanoids. 

That was helpful in situations such as this, because there was simply no way you would be able to force Mo in a direction he didn’t like. 

Mo - apparently deciding to display psychic abilities previously unknown among massiffs - must have read your mind, because he bolted in a direction that was definitely not the one in which you wanted to go. And since you had looped the leash around your hand and all the way up your forearm, you were along for the ride.

Sprinting behind your massiff wasn’t a dignified way to travel through Coruscant, but you couldn’t deny that it was effective. Passers-by mostly dove out of your way, though a few did try to snag Mo’s collar and help you. You could have told them there was no use - catching his collar would only lead to two people being towed behind the excited massiff. As you ran, you worked at the length of leash that held you captive.

After you rounded a corner toward the government sector of Coronet City, you had just a moment to recognize that there was a Coruscant Guard trooper on the sidewalk ahead of you. He had stopped, crimson-painted helmet aimed at you and Mo in apparent curiosity.

“Watch out!” you called as you approached at full speed. 

The trooper backed toward the building he was standing beside, but Mo altered course and continued directly toward him. You recognized what was going to happen and continued working to detangle the leash that locked you to the massiff. It was no use. When Mo hit the plastoid-armored figure, you fell with both of them. 

“I’m sorry, really,” you apologized frantically. “He’s harmless, just excited. Give me a second and I’ll get him under control. Sorry, please-”

“It’s okay,” the man told you, the pleasant rumble of his voice augmented by the speakers of his helmet. It was a good thing, too, since Mo’s rough tongue was rasping over the plastoid of the trooper’s chest and it made hearing him difficult.

You relaxed slightly at the Guardsman’s assurance. When someone saw an overexcited massiff, they tended to assume the worst. You were hyper-aware of the blaster at the man’s waist. Shooting an animal would be an overreaction, but one moment of panic…

With the buzz of fear receding from your chest, you managed to get your feet under you. When that was accomplished, you pulled sharply at Mo’s lead and coupled it with a command: “Mo, back.”

The massiff pulled a final time with a beseeching look at you, but gave up at your implacable face. He gave a dissatisfied huff and sat back on his haunches, planting his weight on your right foot. 

You swiveled around him, offering your free hand to the trooper. That helmet was aimed at you once more, though he didn’t say anything. “Let me help you up.”

“I’m too heavy,” he eventually told you. 

“I’m well anchored,” you countered, gesturing to Mo and his place on your foot. With a wiggle of your fingers, you said, “Come on.”

The trooper wrapped a gloved hand around yours and pulled. Admittedly, he was pretty heavy, but not impossible - especially when compared to an excitable massiff. 

When the poor man was on his feet, you apologized again. “I really am sorry about that. I don’t know why he was being so bad.”

Mo whined, settling more heavily on your foot. “Yes, Mo, I’m talking about you. You were very bad.”

“Hang on a minute,” the trooper said, reaching up to remove his helmet. When you could see him clearly, you were struck by tanned skin and a strong nose. His hair was cut short, but not short enough to hide the way it would curl if given the opportunity to grow long enough. Most importantly, his eyes were kind and his mouth told of a man who liked to smile more than frown. 

Those kind eyes slid to study Mo. “Everyone should get a chance to give an explanation.”

You hesitated, trying to understand. “Even massiffs?”

“Especially massiffs,” he told you. He knelt to fix Mo with a stern look. “Okay, let’s hear your side of the story.”

Mo parted his jaws to pant at the man, giving a loud grumble as his tongue curled. 

The Guardsman nodded gravely, glancing up at you. “He makes a convincing argument.”

“He is studying to be a lawyer,” you joked. 

“Huh, a massiff of many talents.” The trooper looked back down just in time for Mo to press his muzzle against the man’s chestplate. “Mo, is it? Great name.”

“Nickname,” you corrected automatically, exasperated with yourself a moment later. This man didn’t need to know that.

“Yeah?” he asked anyway. “What’s Mo short for?”

“Motivator Drive,” you answered, voice sheepish. The feeling only intensified when the man gave you a confused look. “He had a lot of energy as a puppy. Like most puppies, actually, but more intense. The vet and I had a joke that he could power a hyperdrive, so I named him Motivator Drive. Mo.”

The trooper chuckled at the shrug that accompanied your explanation. He stood up once more. “I’ve heard worse. Way worse, actually. Some of my brothers would probably be jealous of Mo’s name.”

“Speaking of names,” you started, hoping you weren’t about to cross some kind of line. “What’s yours?”

“Stone,” the man told you. “Commander Stone, Coruscant Guard. And you?”

You gave him your name and he smiled. “Nice to meet you. Here, let me help with this.” 

He drew your arm closer and started picking at the hopeless tangle of Mo’s leash. You watched in silence, impressed. Stone had made more progress in ten seconds than you had in a much longer time. Of course, it probably helped that you weren’t running behind Mo anymore. 

The moment you were free, Mo jumped up, planting his forepaws on Stone’s torso. 

“Mo!” you chided, though it was undermined by the way Stone laughed and scratched under the massiff’s chin. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what is up with him today. He doesn’t normally approach strangers, and he’s never this physical with them.”

“It’s my own fault,” Stone brushed off. “I stopped by the Guard’s massiff training area today. I’m probably covered with all kinds of interesting smells. In fact…”

As you and Mo watched - you with fascination and Mo with a sharp eagerness - Stone reached into a small pouch at the waist of his armor. He pulled out a treat and you tightened your grip on Mo’s lead. 

Stone held it up. “Is it okay if Mo has this?”

“Well, he has been very bad today…” you said loudly. Mo whined even louder and you relented. “Fine, I suppose he can have one treat.”

Stone tossed the treat toward Mo, who leapt up to snap it out of the air in his powerful jaws. He was already crunching happily when his paws met the ground once more.

“Were you going that way?” Stone asked, gesturing in the direction Mo had been dragging you. 

“No, actually,” you said. “Mo dragged me off course. We’re actually heading the opposite direction. Service sector.”

“Long walk,” Stone commented. “Want some company?” 

“If you have the time.” You congratulated yourself on how casual that sounded. You liked what you knew about Stone so far. Walking together would give you some time to decide whether you wanted to push your acquaintanceship further. 

“Of course,” he told you. “Besides, I have to be able to step in if Mo decides to get a little wild again.”

“I do pass a few restaurants on my way home,” you admitted. “He’s hungry, and there’s always a chance he’ll decide to try his luck at begging.”

“Well, if Mo is hungry, there’s no time to waste,” Stone decreed. He gestured in the direction of the distant service sector. “Lead on.”

You did so, retracing your steps to where you had been when Mo decided to take you on an adventure. “By any chance, is this the way you walked?”

Stone looked sheepish, but nodded. “Just a few minutes before you caught up with me. Mo has a remarkably good nose.”

“For F-O-O-D?” you asked, chuckling as you spelled out the word. “Absolutely. Anything to do with it, he’s interested in.”

“Even the word?”

“Especially the word,” you confirmed.

“The smartest massiff and he isn’t even part of the ARF department,” Stone shook his head in consternation. “And his full name is Motivator Drive.”

Mo craned his head to look back at Stone, letting out a sharp bark as if in answer.

You laughed. “That was massiff for, ‘Don’t make fun of my name’. You know, in case you aren’t fluent.”

“Apologies, Motivator Drive,” Stone said, pressing a hand to his chestplate. “No disrespect meant. Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t been recruited by the GAR yet.”

“Yet?” you echoed, lifting a brow. “I figured this was going to turn into a job offer.”

Stone just laughed, and the two of you fell into a comfortable silence as you walked.

“So you’re part of the ARF department?” you asked eventually. 

“No, I’m not,” Stone told you and you unintentionally did a double-take at him. You had asked the question to make conversation, never expecting to get a negative answer. Stone seemed amused by your confusion, adding, “I’m a commander.”

“I- I guess I don’t know much about how the Coruscant Guard is organized,” you admitted, wincing at your own ignorance. Admittedly, it didn’t come up very often, but it was still something you felt you should have known. 

“Oh, that’s easy!” Stone assured you. He then launched into a detailed explanation so full of titles and military slang that you could even begin to understand it. But Stone looked so earnest that you couldn’t help but try to look interested. 

In the meantime, you checked in with yourself. You liked Stone, but did you like him? Coruscant was the most densely populated planet in the known galaxy and Coronet City was incomprehensibly massive. Even if you were looking for each other, there were good odds that you and Stone wouldn’t run into each other again unless you planned to do so. 

Yes, you decided, you did like him. More than that, you trusted him. When was the last time you met someone you trusted? It had been far too long. And yet you hadn’t hesitated a moment when agreeing to - among other things - let Stone see where you lived. 

“Does that clear things up?” Stone asked. 

After you took a moment to see whether he was joking, you offered a self-deprecating smile. “Uh, not really. But I definitely understand that you’re not an ARF trooper, so that’s something.”

“Not an ARF,” he confirmed, returning your smile. 

“In that case, what were you doing with the GAR’s massiffs?”

“Well, you know better than most people that massiffs are energetic and curious,” Stone started, aiming his smile at Mo for a second before directing it back your way. “They get bored in the kennels, even with all of their toys and the focus on training exercises. We’re encouraged to stop by and spend some time with them if we can.”

“Training, toys, and attention?” You shook your head. “That sounds like massiff heaven. I feel like Mo needs something to focus on or he ends up getting destructive.”

“How does that work when you’re not home?” Stone asked. 

You shrugged. “Most of my furniture has teeth marks on it. When I’m not at my apartment, he’s alone. He does well, all things considered, but if I work late, I know I’m coming home to find at least one thing destroyed.”

“You don’t have a…” Stone hesitated and you tried not to smile. This part of a meeting was always awkward, but it seemed like Stone was at least a little interested in seeing more of you. Eventually, he settled on: “Any friends who can drop by to see him?”

“My friends all work,” you told him. “You know how it is.”

“I do,” he admitted. “But with all of the different shifts, it seems like there’s always someone in the GAR barracks.”

And there was the opening you had been hoping for. “Sounds like a difficult place to sleep. Don’t you have anywhere else to stay?”

“Of course,” Stone told you, and you struggled to keep your expression neutral. “But I doubt it would be any easier to sleep in the Guard headquarters.”

The hope rekindled in your chest. It certainly sounded as if Stone wasn’t seeing anyone. You gave a light hum. “I imagine it wouldn’t. Funny, it seems like we have opposite problems.”

“Isn’t that how it always goes?” Stone joked, nodding at another Coruscant Guard trooper you passed. 

You were getting close to the service sector, and your apartment was on the closer edge. If you were going to propose seeing Stone again, this was probably the best time. Later would make it too rushed, but you were close enough that - if he said no - any awkwardness wouldn’t last long.

“Is there any chance-”

“Do you want to hang out sometime?” 

Stone blinked at you. Dimly, you recognized that he had been in the middle of a sentence when you interrupted. You pushed aside the sheepishness and held eye contact with him as you waited for an answer.

“Would you believe me if I said I was asking the same thing?” Stone asked.

“Really?” 

He nodded. “I mean, I was going to call it a date, but I don’t mind being more casual if that’s what you want.”

“Casual with the option for a real date sounds good to me,” you told him. “Any ideas on what we should do?”

Stone thought for a moment. “Give me a day or two to work out the details, but I think I can sneak us into the massiff kennels. If you’re interested?”

“Interested in being surrounded by massiffs?” you clarified. “Incredibly.”

“Then let’s exchange comlink frequencies and I’ll let you know as soon as I have it figured out.”

Mo wasn’t happy about the delay, but you couldn’t stop smiling. Stone seemed to have the same problem.

---

Author's Note - This one-shot was inspired by the person whose overly excited pit bull slipped his leash and ran at me full speed while she repeated over and over that he was friendly. Luckily, I've been around dogs often enough to know an excited dog from an angry one and caught him. We had a lovely chat and I got to pet an adorable pit bull, so it was a good time!

And I dearly love Stone! This story may have made more sense if it centered on Hound, but I figure no one can work with Hound and not learn to appreciate massiffs at least a little bit. Anyway, thanks for reading!

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[fanfoolishness]

Jedi: Fallen Order musings

Ahhh I finished the game! I suppose I don't really need to put spoiler tags for it, since it's several years old. But it was highly enjoyable and I loved it!

I love how much games are embracing character work these days. I expect it from Bioware, of course, but seeing it from EA and a major property like Star Wars is still really refreshing. I should have guessed that a story set just a few years after Order 66 about a young Jedi would be full of trauma, but I wasn't expecting it to be as in-depth and sensitive as it was. Trauma colors everything in this story, from Cal's wounded connection to the Force, to Cere cutting herself off from it entirely, to Merrin's fear and grief. Even BD-1 grieves his old friend and master and Greez still misses his great-grandmother.

I've seen a few articles about how Cal seemed like a flat or boring character, but I didn't get that at all. He's an 18-year-old young man whose childhood was obliterated by war, who's so afraid of his past and his power that he hasn't tried to leave Bracca in 5 years. He's so guarded at first, because he's had to be. He's slow to trust Cere and Greez, and that trust is broken when he learns what happened to Cere's Padawan. In his youth he reacts like many of us would -- arrogantly and self-righteously -- but it all flows from the deep scars he carries and is so afraid to face from losing his own Master. Fear leads to anger, of course.

He's afraid of trusting again, afraid of being hurt again, so afraid that it isn't until 3/4 of the way through the game that he finally bears to revisit the memories again from Order 66. Facing that loss, and that guilt for not being able to save his master, incapacitates him so badly that a Force vision shatters his lightsaber. (The game remembers it, too, and the animation of Cal reaching out of habit for his lightsaber and realizing it's broken every time you try to use it is heartbreaking.) When he goes to Ilum to try to forge a new lightsaber, he can't help but remember when he came here as a Padawan. BD-1 checks in on him and Cal tells him, no, he's not okay, it's hard for him to be there. The kid is just a massive ball of pain and trauma and watching him slowly unravel that and move forward through the course of the game is a powerful journey. No personality, my ass, LOL.

And Cere's journey! Her grief is far more complex than Cal's because she bears more guilt, and she was a fully fledged Jedi who thought she could keep others safe, and she failed. Fear and anger rule her, too, but despite that she's stubborn as hell, holding onto hope through everything. Her grief and suffering are revealed slowly and carefully through the game, and seeing the way she starts to heal by mentoring Cal is beautiful. When he falls down, she picks him up, even when he distrusts her -- and when she falls, too, he echoes her teaching back to her and helps her rise. Seeing her recovery of her confidence, her skills, her trust in herself -- ahh I'm tearing up again thinking about it. Also, she is fucking badass with a lightsaber!!!

I'm really excited to see what happens with Merrin in Jedi: Survivor (no spoilers, please!). Can't believe a Jedi and a Nightsister could find common ground, but "I'm the last of my kind" is a trauma bond like no other! I love her weird unsettling energy and the fact that she teases Greez and that when she had a choice to stay in the graveyard of her people and the past or strike out into the unknown, she chose to go.

... Reminds me, I still gotta go find all the seeds for Greez's terrarium. How else will he have the best space garden if not for me? Love him too. I'm always a sucker for gruff scoundrel accidentally catches family feels, and he's no exception.

And BD-1. My buddy, my friend, my savior, my companion. I loved Cal able to warm up and be relaxed with BD, and I loved BD's absolute helpfulness and sweet little noises. If anything happens to him I WILL kill everyone and then myself. ... same goes for Cal, in the end...

Note, I am hoping that whatever happens to Cal and BD, that it's hopeful. Jedi have a nasty habit of all dying out by A New Hope, but uh... maybe Cal will be different! We can hope!!! ;_; Well, we're just not gonna think about that.

I liked the ending. The further we kept going I started agreeing with Merrin and thinking "is this holocron such a good thing to have?" Cal's vision of the Padawans being tortured and himself as an Inquisitor, and the wisdom from the Zeffo sages bemoaning their hubris and the extinction they faced, certainly made it seem like trying to rebuild the Order wasn't the right choice, at least for now. As Cordova said, failure is part of the journey. Honestly a hopeful life lesson and one I need to remember when things don't come out as planned or hoped.

Also. How about Darth Vader just DESTROYING you? I had to look up how to get away because I just kept insta-dying with the Force choke XD The ONLY way to have him duel you is to just show instantly that you are NOWHERE NEAR HIS LEVEL! Dude didn't even get a health bar ahahahahah it was hopeless XD

Other scattered thoughts: with the exception of the Wookiees (sorry, hair technology just wasn't far enough along yet for them), the graphics were gorgeous. I loved exploring the different areas, especially as I gained more skills and abilities, and collecting creature logs and Force echoes. Cal's psychometry skill is very, very cool and I loved it. And I adored the Origin Tree! WOW! Did anyone else get a King's Quest vibe from it? I mean, come on!

In the meantime, where's my Fallen Order people to yell at? I haven't played more than 20 minutes of Survivor so all I can say about that is Cal's new beard and TATTOO are pretty great, though I miss my poncho ;_; but if anyone wants to yell about the first game with me, I'm here!

[mari-lair]

Could you do an analysis on what Hanako’s life was like when he was human? And his relationship with the “fake” Tsukasa

As in the time gap between Tsukasa jumping in the hole and until he killed Tsukasa because in the 4pm book stacks, when spider face was cleaning up his wounds I see handprints on his wrists which kind of imply Tsukasa (or someone else) did…things

Also do you feel that the manga implies that sort of thing between Amane and Tsukasa too?

I am not very interested in Hanako’s relationship with Tsukasa, so I can't do a 'proper' analysis. But I’ll share some thoughts.

I personally don’t believe there is a ‘fake’ Tsukasa, he has always been weird, he never told anyone that the ‘god’ under the house copied his speech and he didn't show any hesitation or remorse about sacrificing animals to get his wishes.

Which was all to grant Amane's wishes, a brother he decided he would die for since four. He has been obsessed with Amane since way before learning Amane would kill him.

The only thing the “God” inside Tsukasa seems to have truly done is stunt his growth (he still acts like a child) and give him knowledge a normal human shouldn’t know.

Still, the horror child framing of this change is in the mom's point of view: Amane seems happy.

And Amane’s joy remains for years.

When Nene travels to the past and meets Amane, who appears to be at the very least eight years old, it is heavily implied he didn’t come with his parents, just Tsukasa.

At this point in the story, I don’t think he was being abused, physically or emotionally: He is eager to trust and help Nene, who is a stranger, and he displays a lot of confidence, honesty, and joy. Not being scared even when Nene try to steal his wishing paper.

He doesn’t seem particularly troubled with his family either. He ever implies a member of his family is crazy, or shows intentions of wanting to use his slip to ‘heal’ them, as a kid as sweet as him would likely be inclined to do. He seems a bit lonely cause his bro was focusing on something else that he can't interrupt instead of keeping him company, but that's about it.

And in Shijima's world they are buddies, which would be... weird... if Tsukasa had hurt him.

But I’ll be honest, considering how old this plot point is, Amane’s injuries are extremely vague. It could be anyone.

Maybe something happened, and Tsukasa got violent, and clingy to the point of being hurtful, maybe his parents snapped and Amane couldn't blame family, maybe is a third party, maybe is a curse, I don’t know, I don't plan to re-read the entire manga to get a better feel on it, but since you asked for my opinion, I personally think this turn for the worst in his life is partially the red house fault, and partially Amane’s own actions.

Let’s rewind a bit.

Tsuchigamori, or spider face, said the only person to alter their own fate was Amane. Not Tsukasa, who was influenced by future Kou, or Nene, who is always seeing the past: Just Amane.

Changing the future is such a big deal it became Tsuchi’s yorishiro, the spider can’t get over it. So I would say it is important to consider Amane's ‘normal’ future.

What changed Amane’s wish? What made him give up?

It wasn’t Tsukasa’s disappearance or reappearance. It was his meeting with Nene.

These slips are a big deal.

We are told they are rumored to make your wish come true in a land of supernaturals where every rumor so far was true. And that it is so hard to get all the five colors, that Yako was never able to, and she is an old spirit.

And the wording Amane used is... Concerning.

As the astronomy teacher he was fated to be, Amane would have never met Nene again, and even in the case he was still teaching by the time she was a student, she would have not been an ‘onee-san’ anymore: He needed to die before 14 for her to stay an onee-san when they met again all those decades later.

I do think the red house and Tsukasa and so on plays a big part in Amane’s fucked up life, but it is strange he only got injured and “gave up going anywhere” after meeting Nene and putting his wish on the Tanabata tree.

We have no info on this part of his life though so it’s anyone’s guess.

[rocksandrobots]

PotP Ch 54 - Christmas With The Krampus: Part 3

"Hey, thanks for helping out on such short notice," Tadashi said.

"Oh no problem, buddy." Fred's voice came over the phone. "Minimax and I were getting bored anyway. Christmas is never as big a deal as Hanukkah at my house. The only thing going on is the neighborhood lights display contest."

"Your Mom's in full-blown socialite mode?" Tadashi asked, already knowing the answer.

"Totally. Monster hunting is way more fun than tea and crumpets."

"There's no monster, Fred," Varian yelled over Tadashi's shoulder into the phone.

"Just let us know if you or Minimax see Vigor," Hiro added, ignoring his brother.

"Ten-four!... or is it four-ten... Either way, MiniMax and Fredzillia are on the job!"

Tadashi hung up the phone as the three of them entered the near-empty shopping mall.

Most of the storefronts were closed, only a handful of people roamed the food court, and a sign on the door said that the shopping center was operating at half-hours for the holiday. So they had only about an hour left to look for clues.

They made their way to the top floor, hoping that perhaps Vigor was just hiding inside, maybe wrecking one of the other window displays for the fun of it, only to have that hope dashed once they reached Canardist's emporium.

The door was ripped off its hinges and the inside of the shop was completely trashed.

"Still think there's no monster?" Hiro asked.

"Anyone could have done this," Varian replied, though with slightly less confidence than before.

Tadashi picked up a scroll off the floor and frowned. He couldn't read it.

"Varian, I think we need to keep more of an open mind here." He cautioned. "I mean, you and Canardist come from a world where fairy tale princesses are real and magical curses are a thing. Why can't this Krampus exist too?"

"Because..." Varian huffed but didn't finish his thought as he picked up an amulet hanging from a shelf. This one with Corona's royal seal on it.

"Because you don't wanna admit that you're wrong." Hiro finished for him.

Varian shot a glare at him, but couldn't deny it.

"What do you know about this Krampus? What do the legends actually say?" Tadashi asked.

Varian shrugged. "Not much. He's supposed to be Saint Nicholas's helper. While St Nick rewards good little kids with toys and sweets, the Krampus collects the souls of bad children and tortures them for their misdeeds."

He shook his head. "It's just a story parents tell their kids to get them to behave. Like with the Sandman who brings nightmares or Zhan Tiri and his shadow soldiers. None of it's real."

Hiro and Tadashi shared a look but didn't press for more details about the other horror stories that Varian had mentioned.

"Look, let's just run with the premise that all stories are based on a kernel of truth," Tadashi argued. "Like with Troy and the Iliad... exaggerated no doubt, but based off a real place and presumably a real war... With that being the case here, what would a real Krampus be like, you think?"

Varian gave the proposal some serious consideration. "Well, I guess... if he was real, he'd be some type of creature... just an animal."

"And what would a large wild animal do with a pet monkey?"

"Eat it," Hiro said, almost immediately. It was the most logical conclusion.

The other two boys grimaced.

The Varian shrugged again. "Well, nasty way to go, but what can you do? Who wants to break the bad news to Canardist?"

Tadashi stopped him from walking away. "Hold on. We can't just let a six-foot animal run around the city eating people's pets, and possibly attacking people themselves."

"How did he even get into this world?" Hiro asked.

"That would be a question for Canardist," Tadashi answered. "In the meantime, we have to hunt down this Krampus and capture it."

"And what do we do with it after we've caught it?" Varian asked. "I can't send it back. The portal isn't working the way I need it to."

"We'll figure that out once we find it... the only question is, how do we find it?"

"I have a bio-reading of the creature," Baymax responded.

"Really? How did you get that?" Hiro asked.

"It is shedding." The robot pointed at the floor and indeed there was hair everywhere.

"Great work Baymax.' Tadashi patted his creation on the shoulder. "Let's go suit up."

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

"Behold!" Minimax pointed down below into an alley, "There goes our psychic primate pal!"

Fred followed his faithful sidekick's finger and sure enough, spotted the chimpanzee running frantically down the road.

"Hey guys!" came Fred's voice over the intercom. "We found Vigor!"

"He's still alive?' Varian asked skeptically, as he held onto Baymax's arm tighter. The robot was carrying all three of them as they flew through the air, with Hiro and Tadashi riding on top and Varian cradled in his arms; having lost at rock, paper, scissors.

"Not for long," Hiro replied as he studied the scans through his helmet interface. A red dot was racing across the city map. "Whatever it is that tore up the store is heading straight your way Fred... and it's fast."

"Don't worry. We're on it." Fred assured them and was gone.

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

The superheroes found poor Vigor cowering in the corner of an alley.

"Hey buddy, it's okay." Fred coaxed the frightened animal. "You're safe now."

"Yes, no fiendish foe will do you harm while we're around," Minimax added.

The chimp came out of hiding and cooed in recognition when he realized who the armored men were.

He waddled over and hugged Hiro around his legs. A predicament that Hiro absolutely was not comfortable with.

"Yeah, th-that's right... we're here to take you home." He awkwardly said as he tried to gently pry the monkey off of him.

That's when an ominous shadow fell across them.

Everyone turned as one to see the Krampus snarling at them.

It was a towering nine-foot-tall, from its claws on its hind legs to the tips of the horns on its head. It was covered head to toe in dark fur and its bottom jaw had two protruding tusks. It slobbered drool as it growled like a dog, and Hiro could have sworn that its eyes glowed red.

Vigor howled in fright and quickly scrambled away and up the side of the building before anyone could stop him.

The monster took after him just as quickly.

The boys could feel the wind rush past them as the creature leaped up towards the roof, like how a car whizzing by might blow away the papers in your hand.

"Ok... take note... the Krampus moves very fast," Tadashi said, pointing out the obvious as everyone else stood there stunned.

Hiro shook out of his stupor first.

"Quick Baymax, after them."

He hopped onto the robot's back just as Fred swung himself up onto the roof. Minimax wasn't far behind as they rocketed into the air themselves.

"Do you see where they're heading?" Varian's voice came in over the intercom.

"I've already lost sight of them," Fred replied.

"They've turned down 2nd Market St." Baymax calmly stated.

Hiro followed Baymax's finger and his heart sank as something large and furry ducked into the subway.

"Oh no."

"What's happened?" Tadashi asked.

"They just went into Memento station."

"Don't worry, we'll head them off," Varian answered as he fished the portal magnets from his coat.

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

Varian and Tadashi exited the portal just in time to see everyone rushing towards the nearest exit, screaming and panicking as they went.

In the middle of the waiting platform, now on all fours and sniffing the ground with its pig-like snout, was the Krampus. It seemed totally disinterested in the frightened crowd as it poked about the various discarded presents and groceries.  

"Soooo...what do we do now?" Tadashi asked as they watched the beast get a pair of candy cane-printed boxers caught on its nose. It took a second to shake the offending underwear off before it went to gnawing on the wrapping paper that it had been packaged in.

"Well.... umm..." Varian's mind raced as he tried to rationalize the impossibility before him. "it's... it's an animal, right?

"R-right?" Tadashi agreed, unsure what Varian was getting at.

"So how would you capture a really large animal?"

"No clue," Tadashi replied, never taking his eyes off the monster as it now decided to eat a forgotten Christmas ham.

"Well how would, like, the rangers catch a bear or a lion?"

"Tranquilizers, but we haven't any-"

Varian snapped his fingers. "Sleeping powder!"

He then started to search his pockets and harness... only to slow down as he realized that Tadashi was right. "I'm out of sleeping powder..."

That's when the Krampus finally took notice of them.

Both boys gulped as the creature let out a snarl.

Varian began to scour his pockets even more frantically. "H-hold him off while I try to make a new batch of sleeping potion."

"What am I supposed to do? Wave a red flag at him like a bullfighter?"

Varian didn't answer as he screwed the top off a chimball full of blue liquid.

You could not see his eyes behind his visor, but it was clear that Tadashi was rolling them as he pressed a button on the side of his helmet and disappeared from view.

This was enough of a surprise to slow the Krampus down, as it stopped stalking towards them.

A moment later a roll of sparkly red wrapping paper, discarded by its owner in their flight from the station, lifted itself off the ground and seemingly hung in the air as if by magic.

"Here boy, toro." Tadashi whistled as he waved the paper in front of the creature.

The Krampus howled and rushed towards the sparkly paper. Tadashi barely had time to move out of the way as it grabbed the cardboard tube and bounded away, ripping the paper to shreds in a frenzy.

"Well, there goes that idea."

"How's it going?" Hiro breathlessly asked as he, Fred, and the two robots finally ran inside.

The Krampus stopped immediately and focused its attention on the newcomers.

Heroes and monster eyed each other for only a moment as Hiro realized his mistake. Then the mass of fur and muscle was bounding towards them at top speed before Tadashi could even shout a warning.

Everyone scattered, only for the Krampus' jaws to clamp around Minimax's foot at the last second.

The robot yelled as the monster shook him back and forth before throwing him into the air. Fortunately, being a robot, he was only momentarily disoriented as opposed to being hurt.

While the heroes were busy checking over their friend, Vigor screeched wildly as the monster took chase after the monkey once more. 

"No!" Hiro screamed, too late, as the Krampus overtook the poor animal. 

The creature let out a victorious howl, and then, to everyone's astonishment, it gave Vigor a playful, sloppy lick of its tongue and bounded away barking. Vigor made a chittering sound, like the money equivalent of a laugh, and happily chased after the monster. 

"Awe, how cuuuuteee!" Fred squeed while everyone else stood there dumbfounded. "They've been playing tag this whole time." 

"It kind of acts like a giant dog," Hiro observed as he tilted his head in thought. 

"Wild dogs can still be dangerous though." Tadashi reminded him. "We need to capture him and take him someplace safe." 

"Got it!" Varian shouted triumphantly as he held up a chimball. Before he could throw the sleeping powder, however, the police barged into the station. 

"Chief Cruz!" Hiro rushed toward the lead officer in relief. "We need to find a humane way of cap-"

"We're already on it." Cruz interrupted, shoving him aside. "You kids need to clear out of the way so animal control can take care of this." 

"Kids?" Hiro quietly questioned, but he was ignored as some of the officers whipped out a tranquilizer gun. 

The Krampus let out an inhuman scream as the dart embedded itself into its leg right above its paw. He started to hiss and growl as it tried fruitlessly to shake the painful splinter off. Vigor gave a worried whimper, unsure how to help his friend.

Unsuccessful in removing the dart, the Krampus then turned his attention towards his attackers, lowering on his haunches as if to pounce like a cat. Fortunately, Baymax was able to grab the creature before it could jump upon anyone. 

As the robot and monster wrestled each other Cruz was already ordering his men to shoot again. 

"Be careful of Bay- Red Panda," Hiro advised. 

"I'm not concerned for your pet robot right now." Cruz snapped."If this next tranquilizer doesn't work then we may have to put the poor creature down." 

Hiro frowned, not only at Cruz's dismissal of Baymax's safety nor even that the officer was considering lethal force, but the Chief of Police was no longer talking to them like they were vigilantes underfoot but speaking down to them like they were children... like they were the same kids he would take out to ice cream once a month. 

However, the worrisome thought that they might have been discovered was banished from Hiro's mind when the Krampus broke free of Baymax's grasp, dogged the second dart, and ran down the railway tunnel. 

"Blast," Cruz muttered. 

"Don't worry. We'll track him down for you." Hiro yelled as he ran towards Baymax, happy to have an excuse to get away. He and the rest of the supers were already half way down the tunnel before Chief Cruz could protest.

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

Varian was the one to find the creature first. The Karmpus was huddled in an alley whimpering as it licked its wound. He snarled as Varian approached.

"Easy now...." Varian said softly as he inched his way forward. "Easy... I'm not going to hurt ya."

For a moment he thought the Krampus would run away again but it stumbled as soon as it tried to put weight upon its paw, and then promptly laid back down with a huff.

Varian untied the bandanna from around his neck, poured some sort of substance on it from his chimbag, and cautiously sat down next to the monster.

"Here... let's see what we can do about that paw..."

He pulled the tranquilizer dart out and the creature howled, but before the animal could even think of hurting him, Varian had wrapped the wound up with the bandana.

The Krampus seemed confused by such an action and sniffed curiously at the piece of cloth around his paw.

"It's just some chlorhexidine." he explained, though he did not know if the monster could understand him or not. "It should help ease the pain and sterilize the wound."

All the Krampus did in reply was to sigh and lay his head on Varian's lap, pinning him to the spot.

Varian resigned himself to his fate as a pillow and absentmindedly began to stroke the beast's fur.

"I know... San Fansokoyo is new and exciting and so full of amazing things to see, there's friends to make and wonderful inventions to discover... but it's also sometimes scary and unfamiliar.... with its own dangers... different from Corona's, sure, but they're still there... hiding just under the shining surface.... and you'll need those friends to help you avoid them, and they will cause they really, genuinely care about you... but... but.... it's still not home......"

The Krampus gave a sympathetic whine.

"You're probably missing the snowy pine forest that you grew up in... aren't you boy?"

Another little whimper.

"And maybe even... even your old friends and your own family?"

Suddenly Varian wrapped his arms around the hairy beast and gave him a desperate hug.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, "I'm sorry, I don't know how to get you back. I've tried and I've tried... and no, I don't want to leave everybody, but... but.... but Dad...."

The Krampus nuzzled his arm in comfort.

"Oh, what are we going to do?"

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

"Cantet nunc io, chorus angelorum;

Cantet nunc aula cælestium,

Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo,

Venite adoremus

Venite adoremus

Venite adoremus

Dominum."

The rest of the gang found Varian and the Krampus in the alley and much to their surprise he was singing a Christmas carol while gently petting the ferocious animal's head.

Said creature was contently purring in his lap. Which sounded more like a motorcycle idling than a furry friend expressing contentment.

Vigor cooed with delight and ran to meet them, throwing his arms around his new friend.

"Well, we finally caught him... now what?" Tadashi asked.

Varian only looked up at him at a loss and shrugged.

"We.... we have to try the portal again, I guess," Hiro said hesitantly, rubbing his forehead in thought. "I know it's not ready yet, b-but it's not like we can keep him hidden in the city."

Varian shook his head, and with some effort crawled out from under the huge beast and stood up. "It isn't just that that portal is broken. We don't even know where to send him to. We're talking about the entire world here. We can't just dump in him Corona, or the middle of the ocean, or 17th-century Istanbul... The point is... We need an energy signature to find where he actually lives, and I've no idea where we would get that."

"Well if we can't send him back, what do we do? Turn him over to Cruz and the animal control?" Tadashi asked

"I don't know if they would know what to do with him either," Hiro said.

"Maybe put him in the Zoo?" Fred suggested.

"They wouldn't know how to take care of him. It's not like mythical creatures are their specialty."

"I know!" Minimax shouted. "We can make him our new team mascot!"

"Great idea!" Fred joined in.

"Oh no... nope" Tadashi shook his head. "For starters, we have way too many exotic pets as it is, and secondly we wouldn't know how to take care of him either."

"I think we may have to ask Carnardist." Varian finally admitted. "She knows more than she's telling us."

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

"Oh, Vigor!"  Carnardist cheered with glee as she smothered her long-lost pet with kisses. "Oh, I was so worried. Thank goodness you are unhurt." 

As the happy pair were reunited, Hiro made sure that the blanket they had thrown over the Krampus remained in place. 

They had called the cafe and asked the older woman to meet them back at her shop, and the supers had to think of a creative way to keep the inter-dimensional monster hidden from the rest of the shoppers; as few as there were today. The best they could come up with on such short notice was a shopping cart with a quilt hastily thrown over it. 

Varian awkwardly coughed to gain the lady's attention. 

"Yes, malchick?" 

Varian ignored the unwanted nickname. 

"You were right about the Krampus." 

Making sure that no one was looking into the shop window he pulled the cover off. 

Carnardist screamed. 

"No. No. It's okay. He won't harm anyone." Varian tried to calm the frightened woman down.

It wasn't until Vigor hopped out of her arms and went to hug the creature did she stop panicking. 

"See? He's a nice daemon." Hiro encouraged. 

"The only problem is we don't know how to send him home," Fred explained. 

"And we know you have a portal." Tadashi chimed in. 

Carnardist eyes grew dark and she slowly straightened to her full height, even though she was several inches shorter than the teenage boys before her.   

"Is that so?" 

"Oh stop pretending." Vairan huffed. "You don't want to share your tech with us, then fine. The least you can do is put this guy back where you got him." 

Carnardist folded her arms. "There are other ways to move between worlds than your portals malchick, and they require far more than just flipping a switch. I can not 'send him back'. I can not send anyone anywhere." 

"Then how did you get here?" Tadashi challenged, ignoring Varian's flabbergasted expression. 

Carnardist seemed to relent at this and walked over to a box full of scrolls that had tipped over. She picked one up. "This is the incantation for opening the door." She made to hand the parchment over to Tadashi, before quickly snatching it away. "But! It will not lead you to where you want to go. The window does not open to another world, but a pathway between the worlds." 

"A pathway between worlds?" Varian echoed slowly. 

"A dark place... an eternity of nothingness that is very difficult to traverse. Only populated by the remnants of dead universes, lost to time eons ago."

"The void," Hiro said softly as realization dawned on him.

"Even if you know where you are going," Carnardist continued. "and know the markers to find, making the journey would require much preparation and immense fortitude. Are you sure you can face such dangers?" 

"No problem," Fred said as she finally handed over the scroll to Tadashi. "We're heroes! After battling supervillains, killer robots, and literal monsters, how hard can a little old trip through negative space be?"

"There are things hiding in the dark that are far worse than monsters." She softly warned. 

This gave everyone pause. Yet Carnardist would not allow them time to consider her words fully.

"Now get that hairy brute out of my shop!" she yelled, shooing them out the door.

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

"Arrggh, where is that toothbru-- Ahhhhh!" Krei stopped packing and let out a girly high-pitched scream when he came face-to-face with a towering beast with horns. 

"Sorry to bother you Mr. Keri." Varian waved apologetically as he poked his head around from where he was standing behind the Krampus. 

"But we kind of need to ask you a favor," Hiro added as he stuck his head around the opposite side. 

Tadashi followed suit as his head popped up from behind the monster's shoulders. "Do you think you got room at that animal reserve for a very rare and exotic inter-dimensional demon?"

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

"Baby raccoons!" Honey Lemon squeed when Varian showed off his newest pets.

She giggled and cooed over the tiny creatures as she scooped one up to cuddle. "What are their names?"

"Well there's eight of them, so I thought we could all name one," Varian answered.

"You're seriously not thinking of keeping all of them," Wasabi complained.

"No, Krei is going to keep them on the forest reservation," Tadashi answered.

"But we get to visit them whenever we want." Varian cheered. 

"Them and Mr Krampus," Fred added. 

"Mr. Krampus?" Gogo asked. 

"You had to be there," Hiro answered. 

"I'm going to name mine Ferdinand." Honey Lemon announced. "He just looks like a Ferdie."

Gogo knelt down and gently petted one of the babies that was crawling around. "Jane." was all she said.

"The Pacific Northwest raccoon is also known as Procyon Lotor Pacificus" Baymax stated simply.  

"Ummm... that might be a bit too wordy for a name, Baymax." Varian gently suggested. "Why don't you call him Lotor for short?" 

"'Lotor' it is then." 

"Can I call mine trash panda?" Hiro asked.

Varian made a face. "Come on... at least be original."

"Fine... "He randomly pointed to one of the unnamed critters. "That one is now Garbage Breath."

Varian rolled his eyes in defeat. "Okay, then we'll call her by her initials, GB."

Hiro gave a smug smile in approval, but still wouldn't go near the wild animal.

"I'm calling mine Menace." Wasabi huffed.

"That's a cool name." Fred obliviously agreed as he lifted up another raccoon and nuzzled its nose. "And this one can be The Mega Awesome Raccoon Killer, aka M.A.R.K."

"What about you Tadashi?" Honey Lemon asked. 

Tadashi screwed up his face in thought. "I think I'll call mine... Rei. 

"Did you really just name it that because it starts with an R?" Hiro asked deadpan. 

"Yup," he proudly admitted.

"And I'm naming mine Hypatia!" He picked up the last cub, still ignoring the mother who hissed at him from under the 'den' made of a tarp and cardboard boxes. "Isn't she adorable?" He cooed as he scratched her ear. 

Ruddiger then climbed upon his shoulder and licked his kit on the forehead; pet and owner shared a proud smile.

[dakotakazansky]

A Million Nights • Two

Once again a HUGE thank you to @mayhemmanaged for making this photo for me!

Warnings: Angst, Fluff.

Word Count: 1.1k

This is a part two, so if you've not read the previous part, click here!

It was a perfect day for a ceremony. It was a breezy low 80’s degree day, with bright blue skies that were littered with white puffy clouds. And for as beautiful of a day it was, there was an overwhelming somber feeling that overtook the crowd around Bradley, and his entire squadron. 

“Gunner was an amazing Aviation Machinist’s Mate. You always knew that when she was assigned to your squadron, you were getting nothing less than perfection, every time. Everything was always checked, numerous times in fact, she was very anal about that. She would never put anything less than perfect into a jet.” Nat said, while standing at a podium, next to a portrait of Gunner in her Navy Dress Blues, the same thing currently adorning Nat’s and the rest of the Daggers’ bodies. Nat sniffled sadly, reading the rest of her speech to everyone in attendance, sometimes glancing up to Rooster. 

As Nat stepped away from the podium, Jake took her place at the podium, and Nat took her place beside Bradley. “That was a really sweet speech Nat, thank you.” Rooster whispered to the woman to his left. She nodded back in silence to him. 

“To those of us that knew her best, we called her Gunny, or more embarrassingly, Gunny Bunny. Sometimes just Bunny.” Jake let out a small chuckle, as did the rest of the crowd around him, the somber feeling cut for that brief moment in time. “Or as the Navy knew her best, ‘Party Animal.’ I will never forget the day that I watched Bradshaw over there, spill his beers all over the woman that danced into him. Nat and I razzed him for a while after that. There was just something about Gunny though, no matter where you were, or who you were with, she always brought the party with her. She was always the life of the party with us. She made being up on that flight line more bearable, even if it was only for a few minutes before take off, and after landing.”

The crowd of Daggers’ filled the silence with murmurs of their stories to one another about Gunner’s antics on the flight line. 

“I think my favorite moment though, was one night at the Hard Deck, after a particularly rough mission, Gunner queued up all the best “2000’s gangster rap” and dance songs.That woman single handed pulled each and everyone one of us, out of funk, in just her music choices alone. She had us all dancing and having a great time in no time flat. I don’t think anyone else could ever come close to bringing that same energy.” 

Jake’s speech following Nat’s left almost no dry eyes in the vicinity, except for one, Rooster. He stopped to hug Jake, “Thank you, for everything. From that night, until now, thank you.” Jake hugged Bradley back tightly, before releasing him, Jake taking the spot to the left of Nat, and Bradley approached the podium himself.

He sighed into the mic, and played with his tie clip to ease his nerves. “First off I would love to thank each and everyone of you for showing up. Seeing the amount of people here that wants to share their time and memories of Gunner, is truly astounding. It means a lot.” Bradley quickly glanced over all his buddies in the Dagger squad. “I’m so glad to see the impact that Gunner had on each and everyone of your lives, whether it be her Party Animal days, or her more professional Navy Days. Thank you again and please enjoy the rest of the Ceremony.”

On that note Bradley had made his way back to the spot he originally started in. A small hand took his right hand, “This is such a beautiful way to go.” The female voice to the right of him stated. “I don’t think I could have asked for anything better.” 

Bradley now turned to stand right in front of the female voice, releasing his hand from hers and wrapping them around her waist, and her hands wrapped around his neck. “It sure is honey, although I’m sorry for Jake bringing out the Gunny Bunny, I didn’t know he had planned that.” Bradley stated while pressing his forehead to Gunner’s.

“Hey now, at least he left out the most embarrassing stories, and only went for the embarrassing nickname instead.” She replied back to him. “Oh!” Gunner exclaimed, grabbing Bradley’s hand, and placing it on her ever growing bump. “Is that-” Bradley started to say, but Gunner just nodded her head. “Yeah lil copilot is kicking.” 

“Okay Bradshaw! Enough hogging your fiancee, and my godchild!” Nat exclaimed, coming over to hug Gunner. “How’re you feeling?” Nat asks Gunner. “Oh you know, still sore, and wobbly, finally getting out of that wheelchair has been a blessing though. Glad to be up on my own two feet again, even though I still need Bradley’s help every once in a while. I also am starting to feel like a whale, a very cute pregnant whale though. Wish i could look as spiffy as you guys though.” Gunner and Nat share a laugh together, as Gunner refers to everyone dressed up in their Dress Blues. “I think I’m honestly going to miss those. So sleek and put together.” Gunner mentions.

Everyone enjoys the rest of the retirement ceremony for Gunner. Her Commanding Officer made a speech, and then she turned up the Party Animal to as much as the max as she could given her situation of being pregnant and still recovering from the accident. Some of her favorite songs played, and everyone danced along with her. 

A little while later the retirement orders were read, and Gunner made a very brief speech, quoting being too tired and filled with too much love to drone on for longer. When back in the company of all the Daggers as the ceremony came to close, and Gunner was leaning against Bradley for support, her back pressed against his chest, Fanboy asked excitedly, “Alright Future Mrs. Bradshaw, When’s the wedding?!” Both Gunner and Bradley chuckled, before Gunner spoke up, “I think Bradley and I are going to go for an extended engagement. Give me more time to rest and recover.” Bradley chimes in, while softly rubbing Gunner’s bump,  “And allow this little one to be in the ceremony as well.”

Everyone said their goodbyes, and Gunner made a promise that even though she’s retired now, she’ll still come by often to pay them all a visit, and maybe bring them lunch or snacks, and will bring the baby along too after they’re born. 

Bradley helped Gunner out of his prized Bronco and up towards the threshold of their home. “We’re definitely eloping, right?” Gunner laughed, “We definitely are, I don’t want another day to pass by that I'm not officially a Bradshaw. We’ll still have a massive ceremony later down the line, to include our friends, family and this little one.” She smiled down at her bump. “But for now Rooster you big stud, take me to bed, or lose me forever!”

Tagging some people who might be interested:

@mayhemmanaged @roosterforme @startrekfangirl2233 @desert-fern @roostette @cassiemitchell @sarahsmi13s @lavenderbradshaw @lovinglyeternal @bradleybeachbabe @thedroneranger @cherrycola27 @twsssmlmaa @bobby-r2d2-floyd @that-one-random-writer @horseshoegirl @footprintsinthesxnd @starset21 @emma8895eb @shanimallina87 @mak-32

[emotionaldashtoons]

Here's my poster of my official version of my version for my DisneyElseWorld's Pixar's...

INSIDE OUT 2!

I saw the new Inside Out 2 trailer, and they made Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment, and Envy bad by betraying the old emotions. Lots of crazy stuff is about to happen! We don't know what's going on, lots of details are there too. But what would the ElseWorld version be like?

SO!

For my idea. I have 6 new emotions, the OC emotions like, Courage, Surprise, Pride, Trust, Shame, and Frustration.

MAIN VILLAIN

I am using on of my oc villains, Spite, to be the main villain of the AU second movie.

OTHER CHARACTERS

Characters like Nia, the assistant of Ego, she runs the business with him but she tries to avoid him to help others. Bud, Courage's blood cell buddy, he doesn't speak but he's sweet, nervous, cute and got some attitude. And Brain, the big boss of Riley's mind, and the emotions need his help to stop Ego.

What New Places Would the Emotions Go To?

In this AU, far from HQ and Long Term Memory, instead of the back of the mind being empty, there is a huge mind-filled city called Mindtopia, aka, The City of Riley, where everything in the mind has everybody for Riley's Inner Workings in her mind. That also includes Headquarters. And guess what, they're not the only company, there's also banks, council buildings, restaurants, malls, houses, apartments, and everything for Mind Workers after they work at Long Term Memory. And The Mind Councilman, Chairman, is the Mind Prime Minister.

Returning Cast like...

Amy Poehler as Joy, Bill Hader as Fear (YES! I'm bringing Bill Hader back! He's so much funnier then I expected), Lewis Black as Anger, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Kensington Tallman as Riley, Diane Lane as Mrs. Andersen, and Kyle MacLachlan as Mr. Andersen.

Recast Alert!

I actually like Liza Lapira playing Disgust. After what Mindy Kaling did in Velma, it wasn't enough for me. Because the show and her are piles of shit to me.

With All-Star Cast like...

Jake Johnson (the Spider-Verse films) as the new outside leader emotion known as Courage, Sam Richardson (Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken) as Surprise, Kate McKinnon (Ferdinand & Saturday Night Live) as Frustration,

Andrew Rannells (Trolls 3) as Trust, Randall Park (Paw Patrol: The Movie) as Pride, Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family and The Secret Life of Pets films) as Melancholy, Paula Pell (Saturday Night Live and The Cat In The Hat) as Aunt Feely & Mrs. Andersen's Anger, Henry Winkler (Barry, Monsters At Work) as the mind algorithm/brainiac boss of the mind known as Brain, Nathan Fillion (Monsters University & Cars 3) as the villainous and hilarious, but very evily whiny, yet hateful, Spite,

Zooey Deschanel (Surf's Up and Trolls) as Ego's sarcastic female assistant, Nia, Lucas Neff (Raising Home and Monsters At Work) as Yes Man, Will Forte (the Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs films) as Mind Gate Guard Jimmy, Peter Sohn (Ratatouille, Lightyear, and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse) as the emotions new best blood cell companion buddy named Bud, Stephen Root (Barry, and King of the Hill) as Mind

Natasha Rothwell (the Sonic films) as Riley's middle school P.E. coach, Mrs. Hutch, Thomas Barbusca (Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life) as Jordan, Haley Tju (Amphibia) as Kelli, Beanie Feldstein (Neighbors 2) as Riley's bully, Frances, and Josh Peck (Drake & Josh and Drillbit Taylor) as Frances' friend, Nate.

CREW

Written & Directed by Josh Cooley

Co-Directed by Bob Peterson and Ronnie Del Carmen

Produced by Mark Neilsen, p.g.a.

Executive Produced by Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Jonas Rivera

Story by Josh Cooley and Pete Docter

Edited by Kevin Nolting

Cinematography by Patrick Lin and Kim White

Production Designer Craig Foster

Story Supervisor Peter Sohn

Additional Dialouge by Dan Scanlon, Bill Hader, and Amy Poehler

Visual Effects Supervisor Bob Pauley

Supervising Animators Jerome Ranft

Music by Michael Giacchino

Score Cordinator Andrea Datzman

Casting by Kevin Reher & Natalie Lyon