#but I feel like at some point it Will be Here And Now and I'll be lost from not paying attention to the earlier details

[ao3commentoftheday]

Hi, sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm in a bit of a pickle? I've always enjoyed reading multiple stories with the same kind of premise or exploring the same au in a different way. And quite often I'll come across a concept in another story that I like or inspires me, but want to write it in a different way. But in recent years I've had fandom friends that find people doing that to be basically 'copying' or even bordering on art theft? And now I'm almost petrified to write any of these stories because I'm concerned the author of a similiar story might come and claim I'm copying them. I love the 'yay two cakes!' idea, but some other writers are (understandably) protective of their ideas and aus and I don't want to push anyone's buttons. Is there a strict etiquette to these things?

So here's the thing, anon. I'm gonna be straight* with you. I do not understand fanfiction authors who have a problem with people writing a similar premise to theirs. The whole point of fanfic is to take someone's idea and then do your own twist on it.

To me, copying a fic is taking the exact same story and switching the names or something similarly egregious. I once wrote a story at the same time as another author that included all of these elements in common: College AU, Sex Because Science, Friends to Lovers, researching orgasms, measuring arousal with a watch-like device, classmates being too nosey, pranks, and probably other things that I'm not remembering because this was like 10 years ago. Neither one of us was copying the other. We just had a really similar idea that we both happened to write.

It was that kinda ship, what can I say?

Authors who have that reaction have probably had poor experiences in the past and are being overly vigilant (or even aggressive) as a result. Either that, or they are in a social group with an author who is acting like that, and they've been influenced by them to feel the same way.

At least some of the time, the protective instinct is based on comparing the two stories and seeing who has more comments and kudos and hits. Or believing that the fact that there are 2 similar stories means that fewer people will end up reading both of them. That's a common type of insecurity and/or anxiety amongst creators as a whole, and it's just manifest in this case around inspired by works.

We're all playing with dolls here, but if that doll belongs to a fellow fan (like an OC or an entirely new world, for example) then you really should ask if you can borrow it first.

When it comes to plots and headcanons, though, the polite thing to do is to reach out to the author if you're worried your idea is too similar to theirs, or just use the "inspired by" link if you feel like your story stands on its own. And remember, you can shout people out in the author's notes and even link to a tumblr post if that's where your idea came from.

I'm 10000% in favour of crediting where an idea came from. I'm more wary of claiming sole ownership. That's kind of an Anne Rice move.

[ronearoundblindly]

Drabble Birthday Ask!

Reader finally 'catches' the thing Steve's been hiding... it's that he's tired. He's tired, and he thinks it's non-inspiring or embarrassing or a burden, and he has been acting weird to cover for that.

Steeeeeeb!!!! Yes of course some TLC for Stevie. Excellent. Would recommend. 11 out of 10. Always give him the peace and safety! (Don't hate me though; it's just a bit of established relationship fluff!)

I am uncharacteristically skipping the part where you confront Steve about this. Yes, that's right. Remain calm. Ro has passed up the opportunity to write an argument. Hold your applause. WC idk but probably 2k or less (bit of a surprise at the end, too 🤭)

It's so easy.

It's just so damn easy to lose track, to keep going, to repeat. One more conversation. One more chore. One more hour. One more day. One more.

More. Constantly more.

Steve is very good at giving more. He is consistent, constant, incessant, but you can see now that despite his unending strength, your husband can't hide that drawn, fragile look behind his eyes any longer.

Sometimes, that's life.

"Actually, scratch that shit," Tony says with a flagrant point to your face as you chat. "Life is always like that. I know what Big Guy needs, don't you worry. Consider it sorted."

This speed-date style convo tumbles through a ten-second-savoring of tea. You got one cryptic sentence about 'how you're doing' in before Tony perfectly translates your meaning.

For once, more is unnecessary. He knows.

Stark, however, doesn't even have a moment to finish the turn up of his lips in a smile before his watch is pinged.

His eyes focus to the inside of his glasses. "Go for the World's Most Fashionable Hero," he deadpans, wandering off with his mug clasped like a lifeline in his hands.

Yeah, you know that feeling. Wit's End must be as contagious as pinkeye 'round these parts.

Steve's been silent for the last hour of the car ride. He checks the address. He checks the map. He checks the road. That's it.

Music he usually hates has been playing for fifty-one minutes and counting. No reaction.

Clearly, you were right to ask Stark for help.

The gravel drive up to the cabin is bumpy, and Steve apologizes for having to go so slowly.

"Almost there. I think it's--yeah, there. Okay, we're here." Your husband flips the key back and out of the ignition, a stunted sigh forcing it's way past his tight shoulders, immediately opening the door and heading for the trunk. "I'll get the bags. You get the--"

"Steve? Will you come with me for a sec?"

He looks at you--really sets his eyes on you--for the first time since loading the car.

"What's wrong?"

You crunch up to the short staircase to the long porch. "Just come up here, please."

It takes another wave of your hand in encouragement before Steve abandons the small duffels and totes. He's not used to leaving a man behind. He's got a mission. He's supposed to finish the job. Always one more thing.

More. Constantly more. That's Steve's life, and he does it without complaint. Never, ever complaining, even when he should.

His heavy, tired feet fall hollowly on the wood.

"We're starting now," you chirp, excited to surprise him.

Steve tips his bodyweight to lean on the banister, crossing his ankles before crossing his arms, his head down while sneaking a squint-and-blink to try and bounce his energy back.

"Sure, what's first on the list?"

"Oh, no," you correct. "The list is mine. Those are my activities for the weekend. You are here."

His brow furrows. "What? You're gonna--"

"Steve." You gently hold onto his arms. "I mean, you have nothing to do. Not a single thing. And I don't care where you do it, but you will be doing nothing all weekend. Sleep in the bed, on the couch, on the dingy over there, hell, right here on the porch swing. It doesn't matter. It's your rest, but you must rest."

"What about--"

"Nope."

"Or if--"

"Uh-uh, definitely not."

Steve looks slightly panicked. "Dinner?" he tries in a last-ditch effort to be useful every minute of every day.

"There is a bag of stuff that I will be dumping into a crockpot and walking away from, so, no, you can't do that either."

He's still not sure, eyes glassy and flickering about.

"There's fruit for breakfast, veggies and dip for snacks, and we don't have to even turn on the stove unless we want to. Now--" you release him "--I'm putting stuff away and--"

Steve opens his mouth to argue.

"--and not one word out of you. Not one, sweets. Go. Be free. Sleep. Stare at the water, or a wall, or the ceiling for all I care, but you have nothing else to do today. Okay?"

His eye twitches, a half-hearted glare melting into a challenge in his tight jaw.

"Okay???" you prod.

His hands fling out in defeat. "You told me not to say a word," he whines, automatically making his way back down the stairs.

"No bags," you scold.

He whips around, almost muttering.

"No bags." You rush down and past him toward the car. "And I will bring you looser clothes to sleep in."

"You--"

"AH!"

"But--"

"What did I just say, Rogers?"

Now he just looks petulant, a familiar mood in your household.

You stubbornly point to the cabin. "Go on. Git!"

He watches you bring in the mindfully-light bags you packed up for the trip, pouting and scowling in equal measure.

Steve has to show off at least once by snatching up a bit of potato that rolled across the counter in the transfer of dinner.

Instead of thanking him, you shove a t-shirt and thin sweats at his chest.

He fakes an oof of surprise and traps you for a quick kiss before going to change. He does leave you alone for the rest of setting up.

Steve is dead asleep on the deep, two-seater porch swing when you head to the little work shed, his knees bent so he faces in, his forehead buried in cushion to block out daylight, already snoring softly.

You have to hold your hands to your chest so as not to touch him. Tears of joy prick your eyes seeing him relax so quickly.

Steve can follow orders when he wants to, you think with a smile.

In the garden shed, Pepper has all the cool crafting things, and you putz around with some wood pieces and paints for a couple of hours. You walk the perimeter of the cabin to find some nice wildflowers for a table centerpiece, mixing delicate stems of blue buds with expansive wisps of white and little pops of yellow. You attempt to figure out the dingy but decide against going on the water alone yet. Maybe tomorrow.

At no point does Steve move.

When you walk up to the house, fist full of flowers, he's out cold, softly swaying in the breeze as the gusts pick up in the afternoon.

You snack and listen to music in your headphones, doze in the bed after the sun warmed you a little too much, and then wake to the smell of stew.

The beep of the crockpot wakes him.

Bedhead and pillow mishmarks on his cheek look great on Steve Rogers.

Without argument, he washes his hands and sits at the reclaimed wood table.

Steve says only two things:

"Thank you" when you set a large bowl in front of him, and "can you pass the salt?" after he taste-tests the meal.

He reads a book until falling asleep for the night with you, curled with his knees bent again.

He does well.

He keeps resting, multiple times with his book open on his chest, barely to halfway after hours and hours of holding on to the browning paperback pages.

He rests in the bed. He rests on the couch. He rests (again) on the porch swing. Finally, he rests in your lap while you both float on the lake in the dingy.

He rests with you by his side. He rests with you in his arms. He rests even when you leave to do something else. It's exactly what you wanted, what he needed, and how it should be.

Steve mumbles a fair few things, but the most important thing is that none of it is important enough to articulate. He doesn't have to talk. He doesn't have to be heard. He doesn't have to be understood.

He only has to rest, and he's following orders well. He's completing his mission.

It is truly fascinating how close you can feel without words--okay, so you two aren't completely non-verbal for the weekend, but there are no long conversations. After being married for a while, those are not entirely necessary. You know each other too well for all that; Steve simply feels the stigma of being weak and tired from his youth.

He holds himself to a different, impossible standard. He thinks of it as pushing the limits of his serum, as offering everything he has to others, as respecting those he cares for by shouldering burdens. You think it's stupid.

It is the only stupid thing Steve Rogers does.

Now, after days of resting, you're pretty sure Steve knows he was being stupid.

You hope he knows he can ask for help or a break whenever he wants, before he needs it this badly.

To your great delight, Steve gathers up his things that were left around the house, but he leaves the actual packing to you. This is very helpful in keeping the final surprise.

He's watching the water, sitting up in the porch swing for once with an arm thrown over the back, an easy, calm smile stretched across his face, the first you've seen in months if you're being honest.

Steve gestures for you to join him, but you bite your lip and check the gravel drive.

Exactly on schedule, an engine revs and wheels crackle over the gravel.

You wink at your husband just as excited shouts ring out from Tony's fancy car.

"Papa! Papa! Look what Morgan and I found at the beach!"

"I made you a seashell necklace, Momma. You, too, Pops."

Your children race up the porch steps and jump into the space below Steve's arm.

His smile is still easy, but perhaps a little more excited than calm.

More. Constantly more.

But it's not all tiring...

[Main Masterlist; Light Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

@supraveng @1950schick @patzammit @whiskeytangofoxtrot555

@yiiiikesmish @ashesofblackroses @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory

@brandycranby @buckysprettybaby @ellethespaceunicorn

@late-to-the-party-81 @bigtreefest @mistressmkay

@rogersbarber @bucky-fricking-barnes-reads @fallinallinmendes

[thefirstknife]

Let's chat

So, the Winnower. Right?

Today, they finally released the lore on one of the ships that you got if you purchased (pre-ordered?) the annual pass. The ship is called Nacre. As usual with names of things in Destiny, this means something, though I'm currently unsure about the significance of this name in relation to the text of the lore tab.

But the text of this lore tab will cause a billion discussions and people will fervently believe in one side or the other. You'll understand why the moment you start reading the lore tab (I'll go through it a bit later in the text) if you remember the style of Unveiling. It's written in the same style with many references to Unveiling and the author speaks to us post-Witness' defeat (most likely).

I think it's intended to make us discuss and argue, given the inherent unreliability and religiosity of the subject.

But let's go back a little bit. Why the Winnower? Well, the word "Winnower" was finally mentioned in-game by the Witness. When you finish the second encounter in the Salvation's Edge raid, you proceed towards the third, and at one point the Witness will speak (it speaks a lot during the raid):

The rest of the post below:

Many people, upon hearing this, have jumped to the conclusion that the "Winnower" is now confirmed as a real thing; including Byf who made a video about it and now everyone and their grandma believes this fully and is already constructing fanfics about the next big bad.

And it could be true! But to claim that this line specifically confirms the Winnower makes me question people's media literacy. This line is spoken by the Witness. The Witness has both the reason to lie to us, but also the reason to believe in the Winnower. This is unreliable narration 101: the Witness could believe that it serves something else, that the reason it destroyed its own and many other civilisations is because it is following something greater. Obviously the Witness would believe that it's "the first knife" of some godly entity. It's religion. The word of a religious person who believes in a deity is not the proof that the deity exists.

This does not mean that the Winnower is NOT real. We don't know if it is. This only means that we can't use this specific source as proof.

But this line is very interesting to me because of how it's phrased. Initially, I believed that the Witness spoke to us, the Guardians, because that's what it does throughout the raid. But after a few reads, this feels like it's at least partially aimed at the Traveler as well. The third line in particular is interesting: "Each child we save from the game, you again force to play." This feels like it's talking about the Traveler's growing/resurrecting powers, especially about how it resurrected Guardians. We were dead, but then we were forced to play again. It's also speaking about it like the "game" which can be a sort of 4th wall-breaking, but also it could clearly be referring to Unveiling which also calls it playing a game.

The last line is also interesting in this context: "Gods forged us both." Who is "us"? Obviously the Witness considers itself here, but which "gods" forged what else? Does the Witness consider the Traveler to be a god, forging the Guardians? The next line is also weird in this context, telling us that despite gods forging us, "they cannot tell the knife what shape to carve." Either the Witness still doesn't understand the Traveler or the Traveler is not considered as the god because that's the Traveler's whole philosophy: it creates things, but it doesn't tell those things what to do. It would never tell us what shape to carve. So if this is not referring to the Traveler forging Guardians, it might be referring to something else forging the Traveler. Possibly! I am very intrigued by these lines and the line of thinking the Witness uses here.

But let's go back to the Winnower. As I already said, this doesn't prove anything, it only proves that the Witness believes in it. We also know that the Witness believes in this because in the final mission it also told us that it is "the first knife, the edge that carved purpose into being." Later, after its defeat, Mara and Ikora discussed this phrase, which I covered in this post. This discussion also entertained the possibility that there's something else beyond the Witness, something that wielded it as a "knife." Mara and Ikora don't make any conclusions; they discuss the possibility, but they end it with "we don't know."

They discuss it in the context of Unveiling; this lore book is canonically available to read to characters in the game, which is neat! It's been discussed several times now in the lore, and it's discussed here as well. Mara and Ikora have read Unveiling, it's where they've read about "the first knife" concept and are wondering what it all means and if there's a way to figure out the truth in the allegories. Again, they don't know the answer. And neither do we!

However, we as players have more information than the characters. I'm pretty sure the delay on the lore for Nacre was on purpose, because it would've been confusing to read that before defeating the Witness. The lore tab itself has no clear author; the only way to tell is to speculate based on the style and phrases used. The style will immediately be reminiscent of Unveiling (and the one page in Books of Sorrow when something speaks to Oryx). It's casual and friendly, but persuasive.

Let's read it piece by piece:

Let's chat, shall we? One more nice sit-down for the books. Did you think you wouldn't hear from me again, after all this? You'd have missed me, I hope—and I would certainly have missed you. Have no fear. I'm not so easy to be rid of. Now, let me show you: my beloved. Oh, no, not my sedimentary necrolite, fossilized in time. You've seen that. I speak of that dear and distant expanse of the universe, miraculous in its fullness and its emptiness all at once. Are you surprised to hear of it? Yes, I never much cared for the change of rules, but here we are, and there's no use in crying over spilled radiolaria. Besides, at the heart of it all, there was a gift. To me. That gift is the chance to speak with you. You, and a billion like you.

A few points right away. It's telling us that we should chat and that it hopes we didn't think we'd never hear from it again. If this is truthful and can be trusted, then it would be alluding to it speaking to us before, in Unveiling. But we've gone over the debate about Unveiling and who wrote it; most recent information was that it has to have been the Witness and the characters in-game believe so as well. So what's the truth now? I don't know! That's a full sentence. We simply don't know. There are far too many variables, allegories, metaphors and unreliable (and completely unknown) narrators.

Both options could also be true at the same time; if the Witness somehow managed to get a glimpse of the Winnower (in whatever form this entity exists), perhaps the Witness was given a speech of this nature which it could've adopted on purpose to further spread propaganda to others and to convince itself (and others) that it is a part of something greater. Again, we simply don't know.

The author continues telling us that it wants to show us its "beloved." It then goes into a bizarre description of something as "sedimentary necrolite, fossilised in time." I am not sure what this refers to, but it could be referring to the Witness? Because we've "seen that." A "necrolite" is an old term for a type of stinky minerals that form rocks which might be referring to the Witness' obsession to calcify and preserve things as they are; therefore, "fossilised in time." It could also mean something else. Really strange!

Either way, the author does not refer to that, whatever it is, it refers to the universe as a whole. The universe is its beloved. Then it continues and draws back from Unveiling directly. It tells us that it "never much cared for the change of the rules," the rules being the rules of the flower game and the change being the one the Gardener put in the game. It even jokes with "no use in crying over spilled radiolaria," a reference to the fact that previously, the winners of the game were always the Vex.

The interesting bit here is that, if the author was indeed talking about its disregard for the Witness, then the Witness claiming to be "the first knife" the Winnower wielded is not true. If this author is the Winnower, it does not really care about the Witness or its view of the final shape. Hell, the line about Winnower discovering the first knife in Unveiling would then not refer to the Witness at all, but despite that, the Witness believed itself to be that knife. This is why we can't use the Witness' words as any sort of proof, but also we can't use this narrator's words either.

To go back to the change in the rules, another intriguing thing is, in Unveiling, the Winnower appeared to be angry about the change. It's what made it "discover the first knife" and begin the fight with the Gardener. But here, it claims it didn't care about it after all.

I believe this is important to understand that what we're dealing here is not a clear cut truthful chat with a friend. The author of this text, and the author of Unveiling, does not have to tell us the truth and we simply have no clue which one of these statements is truth, if any. Or, it simply changed its mind; perhaps it was angry back then, but now it no longer is, because it realised that the change in rules gave it the ability to speak to us, something it appears to value greatly. And "us" does not just refer to us as Guardians or even humanity, it appears to be referring to all living creatures in the universe. It continues:

I am making this offer over and over again, in every tiniest cell and the vastest of civilizations. Let me in. Take what you need. Be at ease. You have no say in the degradation of your telomeres, but in all the interim, the whole world is your sweet silicate shellfish. You exist because you have been more suited to it than all the others. Steal what you require from another rather than spend the hours to build it yourself. Break foolish rules—why would you love regulation? It serves you to cross lines, and if others needed rules to protect them, then they were not after all worthy of that existence.

This also seems to be a continuation of its philosophy in Unveiling. About taking and breaking and destroying and whether or not someone is worthy of existence.

Caricatures of villainy are out of style, I hear. Yes. I am no cackling mastermind: I am serious when I say this. It was not the trick of standing upright that lifted you from the dust: it was the mastery of fire, the cooking of cold corpse-meat. That is not any unique faction's province, neither good nor evil. It is simply truth.

And this as well, continues with its claims that it is, essentially, neutral. It is not a villain, it's merely stating the truth that sometimes destructive forces can be good. This can also have a second meaning, telling us that it will not be our villain in the game. As in, we will not be fighting against this entity because it's not something that can be fought in the first place, nor does it care to fight. The final paragraph adds:

This great, beloved cosmos. Always decaying, always finding that same old lovely pattern, despite every candle-flame burning amid the flowers. A billion electrons taking the path of least resistance. In Darkness or in Light, someone is always making my choice. Be seeing you.

Some more references to Unveiling with "same old lovely pattern" and stuff about flowers. And then it ends with telling us that Darkness and Light don't really matter because either way "someone is always making my choice." We can assume this means the choice to violence. And that's true; Darkness and Light, as we've learned, are not moral forces. Many atrocities were committed by Lightbearers, and Darkness users have, throughout the universe, been benevolent.

The author concludes telling us that it will be seeing us.

What does it all mean? We don't know!

I think a lot of people will take this literally; this is the proof of the Winnower, this is the proof that it is preparing to be the next big bad, that we will see it eventually, etc.

I'm personally not sure if the literal reading makes sense, primarily because we have no way to verify anything it said or who sent it and how. But also, if we accept that it is written in the style of Unveiling (which seems fairly obvious), then we also have to accept that it's not entirely reliable or fully truthful. As in, there's a lot of metaphors and philosophy here, rather than facts. Some of it could be facts, but we can't tell which those are.

I also think a lot of people will immediately conclude that this proves the Winnower as a real entity that exists somewhere that will be relevant going forward. Personally, I don't know. I'm not inclined to believe either option just yet. If we knew more about the source of this (and I'm not taking into account the Witness' beliefs), then it would be easier to discuss it, but for me this is just something that remains a mystery for now, in the same way a religion would be. This is what makes it interesting to me.

A reading I'm partial to is that this is a really neat conclusion on that chapter of the story without telling us too many details and facts about a text that, genuinely, reads better if it remains unexplained. There's... something... out there. We can call it the Winnower for simplicity. But this entity is not some sort of big bad physical being that's scheming behind the scenes and directing its pieces around; it does not care. It did not care about the Witness and its final shape, despite the Witness believing, potentialy, that it is enacting exactly what the Winnower wanted, calling itself its "first knife."

This entity is not the way the Witness imagined it or believed in it. This entity does not need to involve itself or even be physical; its adherents are everywhere in the universe, all the time, because "someone is always making my choice." No matter where we go in the universe and how much we explore it, we will eventually find those that choose this. It cannot be removed or defeated. We defeated the Witness, yes, but someone else can always rise up to do something similar. The fight is never done and it's not tied to simply Light and Dark. Our choice is not over because we won here; we could always choose differently in the future.

It honestly feels like a setup for us going forward, but not for us meeting the Winnower or fighting it; instead, to tell us that if we plan on exploring more of the "beloved" universe, we will always find those we disagree with, those to fight, those who made the other choice. And if we're not careful, we may end up making that choice too. Whatever that entity is, the universe is making its argument for it and it will never truly be defeated. It can't be!

The Witness wanted to end the game. This entity states that the game has to play itself out.

Or it could mean something completely different. I'm not going to claim anything one way or the other and I think it's genuinely really baffling that anyone would try to do so. We all have our preferences for the story, but I don't think any of them are sufficiently backed up and I'm not going to hype myself up for a scenario that will probably never happen. Or we'll be hearing about "bad writing" and "retcons" in a few years time when the Winnower never shows up (or if it does).

The point is that this is a very intriguing piece of lore that fits perfectly with the mystery and religiosity of Unveiling. It's not some huge epic reveal, though it could always be something more in the future. However, we would have to get a lot more information to be able to make that conclusion. Something spoke to us in this lore tab, but we have no way of knowing who or how or why exactly now. We have no way to verify it either; is the author legitimate or is this a scheme from someone else pretending to be it? And even if the author is legitimately some other entity, is it truthful? Can we trust it? Should we? Does it even matter? Is this information important for us to understand our enemies or is this just insight into the philosophy and metaphysics of the setting?

Is the Winnower real? We don't know.

Is Unveiling still an allegorical mystery with some truths that we can't really tell apart from the metaphors? Pretty much yeah.

Is there going to be a lot to discuss about this going forward? Absolutely. It's why I wanted to write about it immediately because it's fascinating and I can't wait to see all the ways people will interpret it. I highly recommend that everyone reads it themselves and compare to Unveiling (and the last two pages of Inspiral).

I just don't want people to subscribe too hard to a single narrative and then get incredibly disappointed if it doesn't happen. There is not a single narrative being promised by this lore tab and we have no confirmed facts. But I'm super excited to see where this goes in the following years. Even if it goes "nowhere" as in this does not end up being setup for some big antagonist 5 years from now, I find it incredible that this was part of the setting. Weird space religions and bizarre entities from beyond the universe are some of my favourite parts of scifi so this whole thing, no matter how it ends, is a 10/10 story for me.

[tokutaiseichan]

I’ve pointed this out before but so far, Hotarubi is the only chapter where a Like Dove never made any appearances. Thanks to Taiga, we know that Like Dove is probably some kind of a spying device and everything points to the possibility that its duty is to monitor missions involving ghouls.

Yet it never made an appearance during the course of Hotarubi’s mission. Why is that? At first, I thought it’s perhaps because Taiga had killed and eaten the one that appeared during the Sinostra chapter. In the first place, we never found out if there are more than one Like Dove. It’s an anomaly—and a rare one at that. It might be the only one or maybe not.

But then I started thinking: what if the reason a Like Dove didn’t appear to monitor the ghouls’ mission this time is because they already have an “Insider” involved in the mission?

Zenji is automatically out. My man’s dead and Darkwick doesn't even know his ghost is still wandering around. Subaru? Makes sense since he has already lied to everyone before. What’s another secret? But after all that happened at the Ultio prison and considering his personality, I feel like what he confessed that time was everything he was involved with. Subaru’s awful at lying and hiding things, if he’s the spy he’d be a bit more obvious and feel even more guilty. So hmm… I wonder who we’re left with……

Remember how during that one time MC was trying to escape again, Haku was the one who just conveniently showed up and successfully convinced her to not defy Darkwick anymore?

Sure, we can see it as simply a considerate gesture of a senior looking after his anxious junior. Especially when it's so blatantly implied later that he had experienced the consequences of going against the rules. Still, the timing is just… too perfect…

MC trying to escape → Bumped into Rui who's about to head to a mission → Haku suddenly appeared (Rui: “But Moby said no one usually rides around this time of the day~”) → Haku scolded both MC & Rui一brought up the clause of disciplinary actions if one were to do anything funny during missions and reminded Rui of his standing (Haku: “You know it's even worse if you're the one she's with, right?”) → Haku got MC away from Rui → Haku reassured MC and convinced her to stay at Darkwick to break her curse first instead of running away (like what he did before?)

It's almost as if he was purposely sent there for damage control.

“I'll keep this incident a secret from the Academy,” when the reason MC can't even escape in the first place is because Darkwick already knows what she's trying to do? Yeah, right. If you have tried to run away before, you'd know Darkwick has eyes everywhere.

I also found his responses from chapter 2 of his Personal Story rather interesting.

If MC thanked him → “…You shouldn't put too much stock in what I said, you know.” (He acts like the ever dependable and reassuring senior to MC but when she expressed genuine gratitude, he immediately backed off. Does he feel guilty because of how MC seems to always trust his words now? Because he’s keeping something from her?)

If MC shook her head → “Looking at you trying so hard made me realize how underhanded I am.” (Now he just sounds so bitter here…)

There's also the bait and switch with Hotarubi.

During Sinostra, MC found out the existence of a spy among the ghouls. And immediately at Hotarubi early chapters, Moby told her that the Hotarubi ghouls are hiding something. This planted seeds of doubt in MC一she thought one of them might be related to the spy. But at the end of the book, it was… in a way, disproven.

The secret they kept was Zenji's existence一for Haku & Zenji一and Subaru's mission regarding Lyca and his true stigma. This, ironically, leads up to MC being much more determined to trust the ghouls and be more wary about the Academy and Institute一even more than she originally did.

The reason I brought this up? Because the narrative has now painted Hotarubi as the “innocent” house. They made us (both MC & the readers) think how the ghouls over there are just trying their damn best to protect their friends… so that you'd suspect it the least for housing any spy (whom, in Taiga's words, is supposedly trying to screw other ghouls over). They made it seem like Hotarubi must've shown all their cards by now and gave us a sense of… relief? In a way.

(Obviously, there's still the mystery of Haku's dorm transfer. But that's for another day…)

Last but not the least, I'll bring you Haku's last words he told MC before jumping into the fire:

EN: Sorry, I guess I couldn't be the guy you wanted me to be. Ha ha… Don't look like that. Never lost faith in me, did you?

JP: ……すまんね。おまえさんの期待に、応えられんかったわ。はは……そんな顔しなさんな。最後におれを信じてくれて、ありがとね (Direct, almost word-to-word tl: ……Sorry. Looks like I couldn't meet your expectations. Haha…… Don't make that face. Thanks, for trusting me even at the bitter end.)

“Thanks for trusting me to the end,” are you Implying MC has reasons to lose her faith in you, Mister Haku Kusanagi? 🤔🤨

This is probably just me reaching but, has anyone noticed how “trust” seems to be a recurring theme with MC and Haku in particular? “Trust me. You'll be fine here,” and “If you need any help, I'm always happy to lend you a hand,” but also, “Don’t take what I said too seriously.” Which is it???

Anway, since Obscuary is just around the corner, I just wanna say that: 

1) If a Love Dove doesn't appear then it means I'm just looking too much into things and that the reason it doesn't appear is simply because Taiga has killed the one during Sinostra. And everything I wrote up to this point are hogwash.

2) If a Love Dove does appear again, I'll add +1 sus point to Haku.

“Why are you so suspicious of Haku anyway?” Years of watching anime and reading manga/visual novels/etc has taught me that you should always be wary of the sawayaka oniisan type. =w=)b

If you read until this point then thank you for giving my 2 a.m. rambles a chance! But please keep in mind that they don't call me Detective Reaching #2 for nothing. 🤧 For now, I'm going to log off so 🫡 Ciao!

[i-heart-hxh]

I was rewatching HxH recently and I’m kind of confused about Killua’s doubt about Gon’s friendship in the CA arc. Gon has told Killua multiple times that he is his best friend and even stated that Killua was part of his current life goal (meeting Ging but specifically introducing Killua to Ging). So why is Killua wondering if he’s a teammate or a friend during the palace invasion? Nothing actually happened up until that point to make it seem like Gon no longer considered him a friend so where is this doubt even coming from? I just don’t get where this “which is it” crisis even came from. Gon never suggested Killua was no longer a friend but now he has to pay the consequences of not knowing what’s going on in Killua’s head.

And on that note, I think it was unfair of Killua to part from Gon letting him think that his actions caused the separation. Especially when he is clearly contrite and was in the middle of a psychotic break when he snapped at Killua.

Hi! This is a great question, and something that confused me my first time through the series as well.

I actually talked about this topic here as an addition/extension to @tjlnn22's awesome post about how the aftermath of Gon's date with Palm and Gon's concern about Palm during the palace invasion played a role in Killua feeling uncertain about his role in Gon's life. I highly recommend reading the whole post because it makes the series of events more clear and understandable and lays it out with actual manga pages, but I'll talk about it a bit here as well. (Apologies if I end up repeating myself some--I sometimes I like to restate things in case it's helpful to someone!)

It is strange that Killua fixates on this friend/tomodachi vs comrade/nakama topic during Chimera Ant Arc, after Gon declared Killua his best friend in the whole world not long ago at all. As the audience, I think we're supposed to question this as well--after all, that declaration from Gon at the end of Greed Island was a major moment in the series, we haven't seen the two of them have any major falling out, and Gon hasn't directly said anything to Killua that might contradict them still being best friends. So, why this crisis all the sudden?

Killua's insecurity boils down to two major factors:

Gon wants to fight Pitou alone, and Killua defines himself in relation to Gon via acts of service--his self-esteem hinges on how useful he can be to Gon. (Remember when he nearly died and the last thing he said was apologizing to Gon for not being of more use?) Gon denying Killua the ability to fight alongside him in such an important mission likely feels to like a rejection to Killua, to a degree. Think of how much it meant to Killua to be relied upon by Gon in the dodgeball match. This is in conjunction with Killua feeling like he failed Gon when he fled from Pitou and left Kite to die, and also the needle's effects in general (causing him to flee when up against strong opponents) make Killua feel like a failure, someone unworthy of being at Gon's side.

His sense of his place at Gon's side is also disrupted by Gon's date with Palm and Gon being worried about Palm during the mission. There is very strong evidence (again, here) that the date and aftermath of it seriously impacts Killua, including over the longer term, and makes him wonder who he is to Gon, anyway. This idea gets brought up again and again, and when Killua has his sobbing breakdown in front of Palm, it's because he's thinking about the possibility that Palm means more to Gon than him.

It's both of these factors, not just one or the other.

Chimera Ant arc keeps circling back to questions around Killua's relationship to Gon and what the meaning of it is, specifically bringing up the concept of romantic love directly around it repeatedly. As the audience, many of us find it confusing that Killua is wondering if he's still Gon's friend when their status as friends has been so clear throughout the series and never seemed to fall into question. Even Gon choosing to fight Pitou alone doesn't explain the crisis Killua is having over this.

I personally think this crisis is really about Killua's romantic feelings for Gon, with the language somewhat obfuscated because ultimately this is a Jump manga and I believe Togashi knows people who understand the subtext will get it (keep in mind just how much subtext there is in this arc overall), and those who don't will just puzzle over it a bit and maybe consider the context the rest of the arc provides. Killua himself also might not have full awareness of or be unwilling to admit to himself fully why he's so upset about this situation and therefore mentally frame it as "friends or comrades," too. It's basically about how much he means to Gon, regardless.

If you remove Killua's romantic feelings for Gon from the puzzle, the conflict he's having doesn't entirely make sense, but when you do consider it, it suddenly makes a lot more sense. He's worried about whether Gon sees him the same way he sees Gon, and because he believes Gon is "dating" Palm and has feelings for her, he's struggling with what he sees as a mismatch in their feelings for each other. Is he Gon's beloved #1 person and partner, or is he just someone Gon works with to reach goals? Does Gon love Killua the way Killua loves Gon, or not? It's a common trope in romance, something you'd see in a shoujo manga. Taken in conjunction with all the other romantic subtext in the series, it's a conclusion that works for me. I think it's just lightly "coded" to keep it somewhat below the surface and have some plausible deniability.

On your final point, we actually don't know what Killua said to Gon about the parting because we never saw the full conversations between them on the subject. During the separation, Killua teases Gon about what happened during Chimera Ant Arc, but he doesn't blame Gon or say that Gon is why they're splitting up. If anything, he emphasizes it's because he decided he needs to be with Alluka and protect her. So, I don't think it's fair to blame Killua for something he didn't actually do, as far as we know.

[nekomiras]

Alhaitham in an Art Nouveau inspired style Here's a thread I wrote about this concept on Twitter, below the cut will be a copy of the text, sorry if it takes a weird format on tumblr since it was initially written as a twt thread

This might not make a lot of sense to some of you but before i talk about Alhaitham and Art Nouveau i'd like to talk about Kaveh and Romanticism The connection between Kaveh and Romanticism can be more easily done, specially with characters such as Faruzan calling him a romantic

The Romantic movement, as the name suggest, is very emotionally driven. Its a movement that values individualism ane subjectvism, it's objective is on evoking an emotional response, most comonly being feelings of sympathy, awe, fear, dread and wonder in relation to the world

Basically the artistic view of the Romantic is to represent the world while trying to say "we are hopeless in the grand scheme of things, little can we do to change the world yet the world is always changing us"

In Romantic pieces the man is always small compared to the setting they find themselves in, see the painting Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich as an example, the human figure is central but relativelly insignificant to the world

Another thing about Romanticism is the importance of beauty, it's through it that the Romantic seeks to get in touch with their emotions and ituition and its through these lenses that they see the world. The Kaveh comparison should be easy to make with these descriptions

Kaveh's idle chat "The ability to ability to appreciat beauty is an important virtue" just cements to me the idea that his romanticism is closely connected to the artistic movement. He does have an argument agaisnt this connection but I'll bring it up later on the thread

Now that I used the opportunity to talk about my favorite character in a thread that wasn't supposed to be about him let's go back to Alhaitham and how to connect him to the Art Nouveau movement

But seriously, I brought up Kaveh's more obvious connection to Romanticism because the Nouveau movement was created as a direct mirrored response to the Romantic movement, and we all know how we feel about mirrored themes between these two characters

Art Nouveau is about rationality and logic, the movement was used more comonly on mass produced interior design pieces or architectural buildings, it's a movement much more focused on functionality than on art appreciation

They also had a big focus on the natural world but in a very different way, while Romantics saw nature as a power they couldnt contend with, artists from the Nouveau used the natural as an universal symbolical theme for broad mass appeal

Flowers, leaves, branches, complexes and organic shapes are the basis of this style, the logical side of it coming from the mathematics needed to create these shapes and themes in ways that were appealing and also structurally sound

To appreciate the Art Nouveau style is to understand it is a calculated artistic movement (another reason to be salty about an AI generated image trying to emulate it) In short, this style is less about the art and more about the rationality in the mathematics to make it

Another note I'd like to point out is that I love how both Alhaitham and Kaveh have dendro visions while both movements are so nature centric in different ways, Romanticism seeing it as a subjective power and Art Nouveau seeing it as recognizeable symbols

I mentioned an argument against the Kaveh comparison before: the one thing that bothers me about Romanticism is how negative it is in relation to humanity's position in the world and how that related back to Kaveh

In the Parade of Providence it was explicitely showed how much Kaveh dislikes the idea of people seeing themselves as helpless in relation to the problems of the world

People may suffer but there is something he can do to help them and he will do it

It doesn't feel right for me to say that Kaveh fits the Romantic themes because of his suffering, in a similar sense it also doesn't feel right to me to say Alhaitham fits Art Nouveau because of his rational behaviour while he as a character is a lot more complex than that

This thread was done all in fun and love for an artistic discussion, it's not a perfect argument to connect these characters and movements

+ I haven't studied art history in a year, if anyone knows more about these movements please tell me I love learning new things

++ Really sorry if my english is bad or I sound repetitive, it's not my first language and im trying my best here

Thanks for reading

I love you, have a nice day/evening/night

[sturnrry]

Wasted Time - C.S

summary: chris and y/n have been arguing. however one fight triggers her final straw and she breaks up with him.

not proofread sorryyy :((

cw: angst, cursing

word count: 1.8k

masterlist

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

Y/n and Chris have been arguing more than usual these past few weeks. Although Chris has been initiating all of them. And truth be told, Y/n is sick of it. One moment he's lovey dovey, and the next he's screaming at her.

She's nearing her breaking point.

To add on, they live with both Matt and Nick. The couple have talked about getting their own place together since they've been together for almost 2 years, but they never have gotten to it. Besides the point, whenever they argue and Y/n walks up to the living room the boys always ask about it. "Chris again?" They say in unison. "Yup." She sighs, doing her routine of grabbing her keys off of the table to go clear her mind on a nice drive. "I'll be back." She whispers and lets out a faint smile to them.

That's how it always is.

This particular fight was different.

"Y/n back off! Fuck." Chris huffs as he shrugs her arms off. Y/n walked into their room, and wrapped her arms around Chris' shoulders as he waited for his game to start. "What's up with you?" She says. "You don't let me kiss you, hug you, let alone fucking talk to you." She scoffs, plopping herself on the bed. "Shut up." He shakes his head.

"Fuck you." She gets up off the bed and heads towards the door. But before she can reach the knob he speaks. "Where the hell are you going?" He burns his eyes into hers. "Upstairs? You clearly don't want me here." She opens the door. Out of nowhere the door slams in front of her. "Chris." She lets out a frustrated sigh. "You stay here." Chris stands in front of her.

"Oh! So now I can't go anywhere in my own home?" She goes back on to the bed. "Your home? Whose name is on the lease? Last time I checked, it's mine." He spits. "I pay ren- what the actual fuck is up with you." He tries to reply but she cuts him off. "I'm tired of this, genuinely. I hate how you've been acting lately. And you know I hate when people walk over me. And I've been letting you do that to me lately. But it's unacceptable at this point." She's close to his face.

The tension can be cut with a fucking knife. "You. I'm tired of you." He points his finger to her chest. His touch feeling cold. Something she hasn't felt in a week.

A week. It's been a week since she's had any kind of physical touch of his. "You're so annoying, clingy, bossy, and a fucking brat. And I'm sick. I'm sick of you." He breathes hard. She feels like he's suffocating in her hoodie. Her eyes sting. Tears start of fall down. "Fuck you, Chris. I'm- You should've told me this as soon as you started to feel like this towards me. Can't believe I wasted my time on you these past few weeks." His eyes slightly soften at her words. His eyes filling up with tears but he pushes them back.

"Cant believe I wasted almost two years with you." That. That was her breaking point. His words felt like a knife to her heart. "We're done." She says. Pointing to herself and him. Y/n steps away from Chris. She goes to the closet with a blurry vision and starts packing her light purple duffel bag. She grabs some clothes from their shared closet. Some of her belonging from her nightstand, and her skincare from their shared bathroom.

Lastly, she grabs her phone off of their shared king sized bed. During this time, Chris hasn't said a peep. Just staring at her as she packs her stuff in her bag. He's still trying to wrap his head around her words. We're done. But, he's interrupted when she speaks. "I'll be back for the rest of my stuff tomorrow morning. And I'll give you my month's rent since this is your house."

And with that she walks out their once shared room, and closes the door behind. Running up the stairs she sees both Matt and Nick sitting at the table eating Taco Bell.

They both heard their muffled arguing and thought it was just like the others. Y/n comes up, grabs her keys, smiles at them, and reassures them she'll be back. Although she did come up, she came with a bag on her shoulder and tears streaming down her eyes. "Hey, what happened. You okay?" Matt looks at her, then to her bag. "I broke up with him. I just can't handle him anymore. I love you both so much, but he's gotten too much for me." She grabs her keys and begins to walk away. But she turns around to tell them one more thing.

"I'll see you guys around, hopefully." She walks down the stairs to the garage and gets in her car. As she gets down the street. She parks on the side and cries as she dials her best friends number. "Hey, Y/n!" Ruby says as she pick up. "Can I stay the night?" She cries. Ruby knows what happened. Y/n told her what has been going on for the past few weeks. She reassured her she's allowed in her house for as long as she wants. "Of course, drive safe."

Back at the house, Nick and Matt just stared at each other. Hoping Y/n would change her mind and come back in. Or yet, both Chris and Y/n walk in together and tell them it's a prank. They both loved Y/n, they thought of her as a sister. All three of the brother have known her since high school. Matt soon realizes that none of that isn't going to happen. And soon Nick realizes the same thing. He's the first to get up and head towards Chris' room.

Matt follows.

"What the fuck happened." Nick barges in his room. "Ever learned how to knock?" Chris mumbles. He sits on his bed looking at the floor. "Christopher. Why did Y/n walk out saying you two are done?" Matt yells. "She's coming for her stuff tomorrow, you can ask her then." He looks up at them. His eyes are red and his voice cracks a bit. "No. we want to hear it from you."

"We argued, she broke up with me, packed some of her shit and left. Simple as that." Chris shrugs and looks back down to the ground. Nick shoves his shoulder up and starts going off on him. "This was real fucking low of you. Y/n has been telling us how you've been treating her lately. Why are you acting like this, huh? Now you have no girlfriend, she was nothing but good to you!"

"Get your hand off of me! And yes, I know I have no girlfriend now. Why do you guys care so much, this is between me and her. Not you two." Chris yells. "This is unbelievable. I'm out of here." Nick says and walks out of the room. "I thought you were better than this, Chris. Good luck finding your own ride from here until I say so." Matt is next to walk out the room and slam the door behind him.

Once they're out of the room, Chris lets out his sobs. This was all his fault, if only he had told her he'd been feeling stressed, anxious, and not him. This would've all been fine.

THE NEXT DAY

Y/n had been feeling nervous about returning back to the house. She had texted Chris earlier this morning that she would go back to the house and pick up her belongings. He responded with a thumbs up. All she had to get was her clothes, skincare, makeup, and miscellaneous items. Her car was big enough for everything.

Using the garage remote she had in her car she parked her car and left her trunk open so it'd be easier to load her stuff in. It'll be easy considering the fact Chris' room had easy access to the garage. She slowly opened the door seeing Chris' room opened but no Chris inside. She used the opportunity to grab as much as she could.

She put what she grabbed into her car and when she walked back in, she heard Chris coming down the stairs. "Hey." He said softly. "Hi." She said without looking at him. She went back to the closet and grabbed more clothes. Chris didn't know whether or not to help her. He stood around for a bit. But eventually stood up when she was gone and grabbed some of her clothes and took them to her car.

When Y/n saw what he was doing, she gave him a soft smile. "Thanks." She thought to let Chris grab everything she had from the closet, so she grabbed her luggage's and threw in everything she had in the drawers in there. After she filled all two luggage's she rolled them out to her car where she found both Matt and Nick had joined Chris. "Hey, Y/n." They both said. "Hey guys!" She said. Chris couldn't help but feel a pang in his chest as she showed more enthusiasm to them than to him.

"Do you need help?" Nick followed her to her once shared room. "Sure, I just need everything I have in the bathroom." She grabbed her many empty makeup bags and book bags she had and gave some to Nick to help her. "I'm sorry about him, Y/n." Nick said as he carefully put makeup pallets in the pouches. "You don't have nothing to be sorry about, trust me." She laughed slightly, which brought a sense of warmth to him.

"Can we still hangout one on one?" He asked. "Of course, I don't have nothing against you. I hope none of this changes anything between me and you."

After twenty more minutes of gathering her stuff, her car was filled to the brim. She excused herself to grab some last things she had on the main floor. Both Matt and Nick followed her upstairs. "Hey, I hope we can still be friends, with everything that has happened." Matt tells her in the living room. "Of course, I let Nick know the same thing." Y/n puts on the backpack she filled up in the living room. "Well, I guess I'll see you sometime soon?" Matt says, "For sure." She hugs him. "Thank you for everything, guys." She tells Matt and Nick.

Back downstairs, she finds Chris shutting her trunk and sighing. She fishes out her keys from her sweatpants pocket and takes her house keys out from the keychain. "This is for you, and this." She hands both the keys and the garage remote. "Thanks." As she gets in her car, she tells him one last thing.

"I hope you find someone that doesn't waste your time like I did." She shuts her door before he can even speak. Chris' eyes only fill up with tears as he sees her pull out of the garage and drives away.

[starboyee]

My kind of love

rafe cameron x male reader

warnings: smut, fluff (near the end), rough sex, oral sex, arguing (not that much)

a/n: not proofread so if you see any grammatical errors just pretend it's not there

"you know what, fuck you rafe" you yell at the top of your lungs "oh fuck me no how about fuck you y/n" rafe yells back, "then why the fuck are you still here, leave" you scream at rafe "what'd i even do" rafe gets defensive "staying out late as hell even though I told you to come home right away" you say "well how is that all my fault" rafe ask "because you could've at least texted me to tell me you're okay" you yell "well I'm sorry the whole world doesn't revolve around little mister y/n" rafe mocks yelling back at you.

"fuck you rafe" you say angrily "fuck you too" rafe rebuttals "get the fuck out of my house" you say pointing to the door "fine it's not like anything will change" rafe says walking out before slamming the door behind him, you break down in tears after rafe slams the door and rafe gets in his car and begins crying before fixing himself up and driving off, you watching as his car pulls out of your driveway.

rafe drives to a bar and walks in before sitting down a the counter "two tequila shots please" rafe asks the bartender, he thinks about what happened between you to and regrets the things he said, he gets the shots and downs both of them wincing at the taste of both, rafe feels an aching hard on come over him "fuck" he mutters to himself why the fuck does this have to happen to him now.

"I could just handle this in the bathroom" he thinks to himself as he walks over to the bathroom and checks to see if all the stalls are empty, once he's sure he goes into the end stall and pulls out his phone where he goes to a saved audio of you jerking off moaning his name, he begins jerking off but it doesn't feel the same as your hole but he ignores it and tries to get rid of his boner, he jerks off for what feels like forever but he can't get rid of it he texts you.

"I need your help" "what rafe" you respond to the text quickly "I can't get a nut off without you" "and what do you want me to do about it" "be ready when I get home" "and what if I'm not" "y/n please don't play this right now i really need your help" "so you want me to be ready when you get home but when I yell at you for not telling me your out late I'm wrong" "and I'm sorry for that but I really need that hole right now" "no" "when I get home you better be ready" rafe text last as he walks out the bathroom and to his car.

rafe gets home quickly and walks to your room, you sitting there in bed waiting for him "I thought I said be ready" rafe sternly says "and I said no" you sternly say back "y/n please dont start this right now, I have the worst boner ever right now" rafe pleads "how about no" you say with some sass "well then I guess you're not gonna walk by morning" rafe says grabbing you by the waist and kissing you deeply "is that answer still a no" rafe asks smirking "maybe" you say dazed.

rafe bends you over onto the bed and rips your shirt off before taking off your pants and underwear "oh what the fuck rafe that was my favorite shirt" you say mad "shut up, I'll buy you a new one" rafe kisses down your back "whatever" you roll your eyes "keep rolling your eyes and I'll make sure they stay like that" rafe growls in your ear "fuck you" you say "happily" rafe smiles before taking off his clothes flipping you over on your back and putting you on the bed.

rafe strokes his cock over you "you want it" rafe asks smiling cockily "y- yes" you say as drool runs down your chin "then take it" rafe says before shoving his dick in you dry "oh fuck" you yell out "I'm sorry I just need to feel this warmth so badly" rafe says gripping your ass with full force "be a little lighter please" you say "I'll try baby" rafe says leaving hickeys across your neck.

rafe pounds into you hard and harshly as you try to keep going with his pace, but your determination is slowly trickling away "rafe please be lighter" you ask "I can't baby you just feel so good" rafe says incoherently, you feel like your hole is getting absolutely obliterated by rafes cock plowing in and out of it so quickly "rafe I can't take it" you say with a shaky voice "please y/n please just last a little longer I'm so close" rafe moans still thrusting into you like your a flesh light, his long deep strokes but strong and hard thrusts make you feel like your being torn apart.

"oh shit s/w" you yell to rafe who stops his whole body movements, he leans up and sees you fucked out state "I'm so so sorry y/n I didn't mean to hurt you" rafe says hugging you tightly and flooding your face with kisses "no it's not your fault" you say "no it is, I shouldve stop sooner when you said slow down" rafe beats himself up while holding you sweetly "rafe it is not your fault, you just were a little aggressive that's all" you grab his face to look at you and say softly "yeah but I shouldn't be aggressive with you" rafe says gripping the bridge of his nose "eh I like it when you get aggressive" you say kissing him.

you notice his still hard boner hasn't gone down on bit "you need some help with that" you ask pointing down to his dick "yes pretty please" he says "well then you just sit there and look pretty" you say crawling down in between rafes legs and begining to stroke his cock, rafe bites down on his lip to silence a moan that dared to come out "oh no baby let out all those sweet sounding moans for me" you coo making rafe let out a small whimper, you sink your mouth onto his dick and start a rhythm of sucking, licking the tip of his dick and fondling his balls.

"oh fuck I'm close" rafe moans "you like this" you say muffled "mhmmm" he whimpers, you fully sink your mouth onto his cock, the tip hitting the back of your throat as you swirl your tongue around his base and massage his thighs "can I please cum in your mouth" rafe says gripping the bedsheets "mhm" you say still choking on his dick and bobbing your head up and down, rafe wraps a chunk of your hair in his hand and forces your head down "fuckkk" he groans flooding your mouth with his seed.

you lift your head up as the cum drips down your chin "swallow" rafe says looking you deep in the eyes, you swallow it all down with a big gulp "good job" rafe says pulling you into a kiss "we need a bath" you chuckle "then let's take one" rafe says getting up and walking to the bathroom, turning on the faucet and you hear the water fill up the tub, after some time of waiting rafe walks back to the room and picks you up and lays you in the tub before getting in himself, sliding behind you as you lean on his chest.

"I really am sorry for not noticing you were hurtin" rafe says lightly washing you "rafe I'm really fine" you say rubbing down rafes legs "no I should be sorry, you deserve good sex always" rafe says kissing the top of your head "you always give me good sex" you say laying you head on his collarbone "i love you so much y/n" rafe says smiling down at you "I love you too".

[raiderlucy]

Ok, so this has been in my drafts for so long that everything I had originally written out for this feels kinda meaningless to me now so I re-wrote it... I thought I would hit this a lot sooner but in true Tumblr fashion, they kept dicking me over.

But anyway ranting about Tumblr aside, in all seriousness (and yeah I know I say it every time) I'm super grateful to all of my lovely followers, even if at this point a fair amount have probably not been active for years (and i'm like 90% certain there's bots still among them too). You guys have stuck around through all my hyperfixations, both the good and terrible, and I appreciate each and everyone of you both new and old.

So to celebrate this milestone I'm gonna be doing some requests, So, if you wanna take part send me a request or two:

🕹️ Colour Palette Meme - Pick a colour palette + a character/ship/show/whatever. 📼 Make Me Choose - Send me 2 or more things to choose between. 🎞️ Timestamp Roulette - Send me a movie or a show ep and I'll blindly pick scenes from them to gif. 👾 Icons/Headers - Send me a character or whatever and maybe some colour options for some icons and headers. And something for my mutuals only; 📸 Character Photoset or some other gifset of your choice 😘 (I wanted to do a surprise gifset for y'all but despite having been active and mutuals with some of you for years and knowing most of your interests I still don't feel I know y'all well enough to actually do that 😅 and yeah I know it's my own fault for barely talking to anyone while you guys all talk to each...)

Now here's a little list of shows/movies I can gif:

Stranger Things (nothing that involves the zionist actors please!), Yellowjackets, Fallout, Fargo, 911, Marvel (main MCU movies up till Endgame and some other stuff), there's others too like certain movies and stuff but these are the things i can for sure gif, feel free to ask about other things ;)

Tagging some much loved mutuals under the cut (if i don't tag you know it will haunt me forever but i never know who to tag...)

@lengthofropes @nikossasaki @iero @buckysbarnes @buckleydiaz @miwtual @vinmauro @neverevan @softasawhisper @emblazons @corrodedbisexual @sidekick-hero @danesdehaan @avadaniels @mcbride @emziess @deanncastiel @thefreakandthehair @stevesjockstrap @tommykinardbuckley @alivedean @dirtbagdefender @padme-amidala

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog: Wakfu Season 1 (episodes 21-26)

Episode 21 - Igol

This is a big episode because this is where we get the "Adamai knows stasis magic" lore drop that is never elaborated on, or mentioned altogether.

Episode 22 - Rubilax

Someday, someone will complete a translation of the Dofus manga in russian or english and I'll finally learn what's the deal with this man and why he died and got better and how crazy his doomed yaoi with his dead dragon husband gets.

Heartbreakingly, this day is not yet here.

[Kerubim and Goultard crying together over a drink, begin talking at the same time] I miss my dead wife, Goulatrd/Kerubim. I miss her/him a lot.

Big lore: Sleep masks exist in this universe.

Episode 23 - The Quest for the Dofus

He'll get it eventually. I did.

Episode 24 - Reunion

I love their family so much, I wish they could be happy. But every time something changes, it's far too late... It is tragically realistic, I suppose.

I don't know why, but this is such a pretty frame... The soft morning light, the dim room, the plants the glowing mushrooms...

Also, rare moment to take in what the guest rooms look like at the Sadida castle!

This episode (and at least one past episode) has quite a bit of ciphered text that I haven't been translating because I'm evil. Sorry. It's not the same script as the texts in Aux Tresors, despite the similarities, so you'll have to resort to google, or to decoding it yourself. You could start with the fact that this presumably says "Arbe de vie"

Episode 25 - I Am A Legend

Stasis mention 🔥🔥🔥

This whole scene always makes me tear up. I am actually insane and crazed every time I rewatch the last two episodes.

Your insane Joris trivia of the day is that this scene was changed between various airings/versions of Wakfu. For some mysterious reason. Here's a comparison:

I prefer the old version because.... [blushes] [kicks legs] [twiddles with my hair] HES SO PRETTY—- But also besides me being insane and in love with him, it just seems to have better composition and flow, imo.

My theories for why he was late:

He was sent to get reinforcements from other countries, or call for help. Though it is unlikely that many other kingdoms responded, given how little people care about Sadida (the most likely, normal, and realistic explanation)

He went together with the army of Sadida and the king to fight the war and ran all the way here using his insane speed (the second most likely, normal, and realistic explanation)

He overslept

He got lost

He was busy, man...

He was writing a letter to Keke and Atch about how he beat the shit out of some sadida guards and two girls clapped and cheered and lost track of time.

This exchange has always been so funny to me for some reason.

"What is the situation" He says,, while a giant mecha is about to kill what likely amounts to one-twelfth of the world's population.

I have talked about it a lot, but I am so deeply unwell about how cold he is. A girl lost her lover and is crying inconsolably, and he's not really paying that attention. One twelfth of the world population is about to die, and he won't show an ounce of discomfort or horror or grief.

Obviously he doesn't like it, but showing any weakness is out of the question.

More people have died from Ogrest, and she's like, the 60th girl on a battlefield on his memory to be crying after losing someone.

There are no unsolvable issues in this world.

I need to study him like a bug.

Episode 26 - Mount Zinit

Standing so prettily...

I think one of Joris's core "insanity and depression prevention" life philosophies is that, if he is not present at a battle, and can not physically be present, then he's not to blame for any horrible thing that happens.

I think this philosophy works almost never to quell his feelings of unease, and right now he is calculating 132924 ways he could have gotten here faster and just how much it would fix things.

(guy who runs a blog about pointing out obvious things Joris does voice) There's a very subtle expression change here. He starts looking intently as Amalia proposes going to help Yugo and Adamai. He was going to do this. However, the second he hears her yell "no", his expression changes once more.

We don't see whether he rushes to aid Eva in any way after she collapses from grief, but I will be honest — he would never do that.

Even if he has a pre-established good relationship with her. He just can't do that. He probably stands there awkwardly, in that same exact place, and feels very bad the entire time — because he can neither comfort Eva (they're practically strangers, he hesitated far too long, he'll make things worse—), nor go help Yugo (he can't just leave Eva and Ruel alone... What if more enemies appear? Or what if they think he abandoned them amidst grief? And would he even be useful?)

I think standing next to inconsolable people is Joris's personal hell.

I am insane.

I think one of the reasons Wakfu season 1 is so memorable, and so effective, is that there is no glorious pay off.

Yugo has a heroic moment of friendship overpowering everything — and then, after a second of being scared, Nox overtakes him. Nox wins. And that win is a mere 20 minutes. And for what? Pinpin is still dead. Everyone he killed is still dead.

Yugo doesn't get a glorious win, or his friend back. There is no epic swell of music. Just something quiet, foreboding, and truly meaningless.

OMG HI.

Your daily reminder that canonically, Eva is an amazing artist.

💀

Once again, Sadida Kingdom and Bonta have a very good relationship. Besties who hoard magical nukes together stay together.

[giggly-squiggily]

AHHHH SQUIGGLY I LOVE YOUR EVENT :3

Okay okay this is my time to SHINE I have many headcannons floating around right now. So, here’s one :D

Uzui CANNOT Look people in the eye when he’s being tickled. It’s the one thing that flusters him. Teases? He’s fine, he’ll tease back or insult the person. Baby talk? He baby talks right back or just calls the person a giant baby. But making eye contact? This man is blushing instantly, even the tips of his ears flush a light pink.

So may I ask that you use this headcannon for a Lee! Uzui ler! Of your choice? Thank you, take your time and feel free to decline my friend!

*Kicks feet and giggling in hands* Oh how I love Lee!Tengen! A gem that one- I decided to go with something not too new but not too used: Uzusane! Tensane? Big boy and puffer man. Windchimeshipping. Flashy Farts. The pairing @myreygn likes. Tengen and Sanemi :D

“Look at me, Uzui.”

“Mmhmhmhmhmhm! Neheheh-Neheheehohoohoho!” Tengen couldn’t. It was impossible. His number one weakness- being exploited by the person he least expected.

“I’m not gonna ask you again. Look. At. Me.”

Okay- maybe he did expect it from them.

“Nehehehehehever! Aheahhahahha, I cahhahahahn’t!” He choked through laughter, arms half bent as he struggled on lowering them. Sure- they weren’t held that tightly, but this was a battle of wills! He was already losing- no point in adding to his defeat. “I cahhahahn’t! Stahhahap ahahahsking mehehehe toohoohoho!”

“What’s wrong? Big bad hashira can’t look me in the eye?” Sanemi’s voice dripped with amusement, his teasing words bouncing off his tongue like poisoned honey as he carried on drilling his fingers into Tengen’s mid-rib. Was it his most ticklish spot? No. But did it give him a hell of a reaction? Absolutely. “That’s not very flashy of you, Uzui.”

“Gheahhahahahahah!” Oh no- he did not just say that! Tengen grit his teeth as he forced his head forward, eyes squeezed shut in his mirth. He’d do it- just to shut that pretty mouth of his!

He got one eye open. Barely.

“I cahhahahhahn’t!” Tengen cried, giving up near immediately as Sanemi snickered above him. “I chahahhan’t youohhoohur toohohoohoho preehehehheetty!”

“That’s right- huh?” He stammered some, cheeks heating up. “Tch- yeah yeah.” “I meahahhahan iiihihihit! Yohoohoohur tohoohhooho hohohohohot! Iihihihiht’s lihihihike lohooohohohoking into the suhuhuhuhuhn!” Tengen gasped out, furthering Sanemi’s blush and stammering. “Toohohhoohoh blahahahzingly beahahahhhatiful!”

“Wow, you’re so sweet.” Sanemi rolled his eyes, sarcasm replacing his amusement. His touch lighted some, and Tengen was ready to attack.

“If you thought that’d be enough to stop me, you’re as dumb as you are big.” Sanemi doubled his efforts. “Look at me you flashy jerk.”

“Gehahahhahahahahhaha!” Tengen howled with mirth, covering his face with both hands as he kicked a leg. “Yohohohohu gohohohohotta ahahhahdmiihihihit! I wahhahahs clohohohohohose!”

“Sure you were.” Sanemi snickered, the sound of Tengen’s leg beating the ground like a drum behind him reminding him of a dog. “I’m not stopping until you look at me, Uzui. Hope your ready- it looks like we’re gonna be here for awhile.”

Send me a headcanon and I'll write a 300-500 word dabble for it!

[coldgoldlazarus]

Okay, mostly done screeching in excitement, now it's analysis time.

First point: That purple blast of the turret getting taken out looks great.

Looks like we're opening hot, a lot like Corruption's beginning. Hopefully won't be quite as protracted as the Norion battle, though, lol.

Also, I've seen some jokes already about how this section will end with Samus getting depowered like the openings of Prime and Echoes, but given how barebones her arsenal seems to be here, (missiles and morph ball, which sometimes she just starts with and keeps, maybe bombs too) I don't expect that to happen.

The HUD and helmet edges are a lot more dialed back this time, pushed as far into the corners as they can go. Probably better for visibility this way, but I am gonna miss the more wraparound feel of the previous setup, with the missile count and hazard meter along the sides. But this isn't a bad look by any means, and we still have a fair few items here.

A & B: My bet is this is the replacement for the old hazard meter. In addition to keeping it out of the way, putting it right next to the motion tracker is a good move. I may actually remember to use that more this way.

C: Health bar is obvious, of course, but I really like the move of tucking it away into the notch on the top of the Echoes/Corruption/Beyond(!) helmet visor. The lines around it suggest an empty row above, undoubtedly for the energy tank pips once those are picked up.

D & E: Minimap is present as usual, not really much to say there, but I love the addition of a compass direction scroll beneath it, which should be helpful for putting places in context of the broader map. (Tallon IV's elevator label system, anyone?)

F: Missile count has been shunted down from the side to the bottom corner. I'm interested to see if it will grow upward, or just stay in its present spot and scale accordingly, as you collect more expansions.

G: This is the one everyone's already pointed out, but it seems that we won't have a visor OR beam swap readout.

Scan Visor is still an option as shown in the next bit, but based on the lack of an indicator in the hud, it's probably just going to be a toggle between that and combat, without anything else like X-Ray or Thermal or Echo or what have you. (Or it could be that that would only get added to the HUD after picking up a third visor, but I won't hold my breath for it.) Kinda disappointing to deemphasize one of the cool new mechanics the Prime subseries brought to the table, on one hand, but I'm still grateful to have the Scanner, and the extra ones always did struggle a bit to see much use.

Similarly, a bit disappointed this means we're probably looking at a stacking beam like in Corruption and the 2D games, (unless of course beam swapping is still there and just being left off the HUD until relevant for the sake of cleanliness #copium) but not entirely surprising; I'll live.

But what is interesting is what's there instead. The D-Pad seems to be tied to non-Beam weapons or tools instead, with the missile launcher as the only one available at present. I'm really curious to see what the other items will be; I imagine this is going to be Prime 4's unique spin on things. I saw someone suggest affinity weapons like in Hunters, but given those all function like Beams, it feels weird to me to set them against Missiles instead, ammunition requirements notwithstanding. I'm not going to rule those out, of course, but I could see this being something completely different entirely.

Again, I am very glad to see the Scan Visor is still here at least. Even better is that it uses the full-body highlighting of objects like Echoes and Corruption instead of Prime 1's icons. Pretty minimalistic layout, all told; I like that the scanning bar is a ring now. And it doesn't reflect Samus's face by default like in Corruption, which makes sense since we're not liable to have the same kind of mutation shenaniganry happening here.

I forgot to snag a screencap of this bit on my computer, so forgive the lower quality, but this scene is interesting for a few reasons.

The Pirates' breaching charges letting them into this room just as Samus passes through a gap in the wall overhead is a nice touch, and also remniscent of some sequences from early on in Corruption.

The Federation guys in here seem to be wheeling away someone or something on a stretcher in a hurry. That could be important.

Energy tank up in the rail section, but blocked by a box. Are we just going to bomb through to get it right away, or will we drop down into the room, and have to come back from the other direction to pick it up? (Please be the other direction)

Samus looking spiffy here, even at a distance. And as some have pointed out, looks like she's walking out of a portal instead of a door, pointing to either more dimension-hopping shenanigans like in Echoes, or possibly the time travel elements I recall hearing Tanabe wanted to play with at some point. (This plus the black hole look of the logo makes me think this could be more likely.)

Whatever the nature of the portal, though, the interesting thing to me is the sort of circular structure in the rock around it, suggesting a doorframe almost. A lot of the portals on Aether seemed to actively cut into the environment at random, the rock carved out in perfect spheres with fucked-up edges, and interrupting the pre-existing architecture or geology. In contrast, this looks like it was put here on purpose, implying a more controlled creation. Potentially really fascinating implications in that.

I also kinda wonder if these portals will be replacing elevators as a way to get between regions.

Ignoring the big numbers in the middle, (though they do kinda mess with my prediction that Prime 4 was going to be a 2024 holiday title to avoid getting eaten by Switch 2's inevitable 3D Mario launch title,) a couple things stand out to me here.

Giant tree in the background is giant, and I love it for that. Also looks like it's not the only giant tree here, even if still probably the biggest. I hope we get to go there later.

But in addition, we have a bridge in the middle distance, and a tunnel opening in the foreground. I will eat my hat if we don't get to cross that bridge, and my bet is that they're going to pull a similar trick here as with Skytown, letting low-poly versions of other "rooms" be visible from the current one, but dividing them with interior sections for optimization reasons, allowing for amazing landscapes of all traversible terrain. I loved that there, it looks great here, I can't wait to go explore all this myself next year.

[reimeichan]

I know that when people say that DID has no cure, that those of us with DID will always have a DID brain and may even split again in the future, they're trying to be realistic about recovery goals and maybe even acknowledge that those of us who have reached Final Fusion or Functional Multiplicity are still part of the DID community. However, I've recently been finding those kinds of statements to sound.... defeatist, actually. There's oftentimes an underlying feeling of "what's the point of trying so hard if I'm just going to have DID forever?" or "no matter what I do there will always be the possibility for me to relapse", and as such I've started to see these phrases as being almost anti-recovery.

I agree, there is no cure for DID that we know of. We cannot change the fundamental way our brain works. However, that's not the same as saying there's no way to get better with DID, or saying there's no treatment for DID, or there's no way to live a happy, fulfilling life with DID. It takes a lot of work, yes, but it's absolutely possible to learn how to live with both dissociation and trauma to the point they have very little if any negative impact on your life. That's what expanding your coping toolbox is for. And learning emotional regulation. And trauma processing. I may never live the same life as someone who never developed DID or has the same traumas as me, but that doesn't mean I'll be unhappy and miserable and fighting against my own brain every day of my life. Instead, I've learned to work with my brain and with my disorders, and in the process I've learned how to not just survive day to day but thrive. I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings me. I'm hopeful.

And I think that's really what my feelings on those phrases boils down to. They feel like they lack hope and end up making me feel like working on recovery isn't worth it. But I know that's wrong, for myself at least. It's definitely worth it to keep walking forward one step at a time. Where I am now and where I was before are two very different places, even if some days it's hard for me to see those differences and acknowledge that. And there's so much more for me to look forward to as well.

So, here's to healing and recovery and thriving with DID.

[heartilywrites]

Hiii, how is your day 😊 Can I request a Korra x bookworm!reader? it can be headcanons or a oneshot. Thank you!!

𝓖uide to Love ; Korra

resume: where Korra has a girlfriend and she loves to read.

content warning: fluff ; comfort ; Korra x fem!reader ; mix of headcanons and one shot! ; it isn't stipulated if r is a bender or not as well her nation ; no use of y/n

wc: 1.4k

a/n: hi darling <3 i'm sorry i took too long with your request, but here it is finally :D i saw so many paintings of women reading while looking for one to have as banner here and they were the most beautiful thing HOPE YOU ENJOY:D

،، I feel like we made it pretty far now we're stargazing.

⭑ The day Korra and you met, both of you were in a library.

⭑ Asami had dragged her to the place asking for help in getting a book about thermodynamics she needed for her new project with Varrick.

⭑ Of course, she went, but reluctantly... At least until she saw you sitting at a table reading.

⭑ She wanted to go up to you and talk, but when she saw you so immersed in the book and taking notes, she decided that maybe it wasn’t the best idea.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “She has it.” Asami got her attention, pointing at you... Well at the pile of books by your side. “I'll ask her if I can lend it.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Wait!” the avatar spoke almost in a scream, gaining weird looks her way. “Let me ask her, maybe if I tell her I'm the Avatar she would let us have it.”

Asami was so close to oppose her friend, but she was already walking to you. At first instance you ignored the girl when she cleared her throat and asked if the seat was taken, she took the chair a bit uncomfortable.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Hey, what are you reading?” she asked trying to initiate a conversation again. You just held the book up for her to read the cover. “Oh, wow... I love that book too.”

You froze in place, the book was about analytics, when you looked at her your eyebrows raised. “Oh, OH! You're the avatar!” she smiled crooked at you and you reciprocated the action with a little smile from you. “It's an honor meeting you.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “The honor is mine...” she left the words in the air, you said your name to her. “Listen, uhm, my friend needs the book of thermodynamics you have there, you think it's okay if we take it?”

You looked to your book pile and took from it the one needed. “Sure, take it, I finished with it already.”

Asami, who was watching expectant the whole conversation, made a celebration and Korra smiled taking the book. “Thank you so much, I hope we can meet again so I can compensate for this.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Nonsense,” you moved your hand, before taking again your pen. “It's a pleasure to help.”

⭑ And that was the very moment were Korra started to fall for you.

⭑ The Avatar found herself wondering about you, what you liked to read, what was your favorite book, did you had a favorite author?

⭑ It was killing her, she never asked for any other information besides your name and she thought it was the loveliest name she had ever heard.

⭑ She could asked Asami if she needed any other book, that is correct, but she knew the girl would also tease her and she didn’t want that.

⭑ So Korra did the reasonable thing: she went back to the library without an excuse.

Thanking the spirits when she saw you reading again, she walked to you. A small 'hi' was said from her, you recognized her voice and looked up from your book.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Hey, Avatar.” you said in a fun tone, straightening in your seat. “I don't have any books to lend today, unless you want to ask me for the novel.”

Korra laughed a little bit while shaking her head. “No, don't worry, I just... Uhh, I wanted to come here to take some books, but I don’t really know where to start, can you maybe help me?”

The southerner could swear she saw your eyes glow with excitement at your question and you nodded with the same feeling, putting a divider on the page you were just reading, both of you started to walk on the library's hallways while you talked about some of the best novels you read and she just listened with pleasure.

⭑ After that one interaction, Korra came back out with a set of around seven books and a date with you.

⭑ Her friends teased her when they saw her with the pile of books, as she expected them to do.

⭑ But she was happy, that was all that matter.

⭑ The day for the date arrived fast, she had told you to met at a cafe. She was late for a couple of minutes and found you reading a different novel from the one she saw you read at the library. A smile appeared on her face.

⭑ The date went by swiftly, you both had a great time and Korra asked for a second date. Then a third, a fourth, a fifth and at the sixth date she wanted to ask you out formally.

⭑ And after you accepted, her days and yours were more brighter than before.

⭑ Korra would bring you short stories she found that reminded her of you.

⭑ When she went to visit her parents she brought back a couple of books from her tribe for you to read after you told her you were interested in learning more about her culture.

⭑ You even started a tiny book club between the two of you were you would discuss a book she read recently ans you had already read.

⭑ Sometimes one of her friends would join to the book club for an specific title and that made you happy.

⭑ Two years into dating, Korra had moved in with you into your apartment.

⭑ When she first arrived, she was amazed by the amount of books you had on your bookshelf, in a tiny nightstand type of furniture and a tiny mountain you had on the floor next to the couch that was surely growing.

⭑ She loved coming back home to you always sitting in the couch reading.

⭑ Or at the table with a cup of tea.

⭑ Or laying on the floor.

⭑ Even seated on top of the small furniture with books on it.

After a tough day, Korra came home late that day. You already were in the room, she deduced after not seeing you in your usual spots.

She made her way to the master bedroom and when the door was open, her eyes were met with your figure seated in the bed, a blanket over your legs and halfway done cup of tea on your nightstand. She knocked on the door and your eyes shot back up, a smile of happiness was drawn on your face and your eyes shined at the sight of your girlfriend, after adding the divider on the book and setting it besides the cup you reached out for her with your arms opened.

Korra was quick to join you with one of her hands behind her back and greeted you with a small kiss. “Guess what I got you today?”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Mhmmm...” you thought for a second while surrounding her neck with both arms. “Another plastic plant?” you asked giggling.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “That would've been a good idea, but no.” from behind her she let two books lay on your lap, you looked down at them.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “...Korra, is this the last book of my novel!?” you asked with surprise at the first one you saw, she confirmed with a sound from her throat. You looked at her and stole a kiss from her lips. “Thank you so much, I thought I was going to read it a hundred years after everyone else.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “You know, everything for my girlfriend.” she said, shrugging like it was no big deal. “Look at the other one.”

You left the book on top of the one you were reading and looked at the title of the next one. A laugh was hold on your throat, making you pinch the bridge of your nose for a little bit.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “So? You like it?” she asked, you were trying to calm yourself not laugh so hard at her. “I saw you read one the first time we met and brought you another one.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “It's a really thoughtful gift, my love,” you started with a shaky voice. “But that time I was doing a research paper for one of my friends.”

Korra blinked for moments, making you laugh, you couldn’t hold it back anymore. “Well, isn't that awkward.” she laughed with you afterwards. “At least we have one for the memories so we can remember how we met.”

You pouted for a second before leaving that book with the others too and pull her closer to you. “I love you, Korra, it's the best gift I've had.” and once more, you lips met hers in a delightful kiss now.

[chemococktailonthehouse]

Nightly Ritual (Lucifer x F!Reader)

Description: Lucifer tended to stay up far later than he should, and he certainly wasn't easy to convince to come to bed. You, however, had a few tricks up your sleeve.

Warnings: Fluff (that's it. that's the whole post), sleepy sleepy reader, no use of Y/N, no beta we die like men

Author's Note: This one has been sitting in my drafts for a hot minute now. I've got another one I'm working on and may not finish that has similar vibes with a touch of angst (what can I say, I know what I like). I'm not sure how much Hazbin I'll write for, as I'm not super involved with the fandom at this point. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Word Count: 897

This has been cross-posted on my AO3 account which you can find here.

______________________________________________________________

Lucifer spent many a night in his workshop working and you spent many a night trying to pull him away from said work and into bed. Besides, what was the point of a king-sized bed if there wasn’t a king to share it with? At some point you realized that if you could get him to enter the bedroom the battle was practically won. But how could you consistently make that happen? The answer fell into your lap one night when you dozed off watching him work. He gazed at you fondly for a moment before finally scooping you up and carrying you off to bed. As soon as he deposited you beneath the sheets you pulled him along with you as he let out a surprised umph. And so this dance of yours began. You would fall asleep in his office and he would carry you to bed. It didn’t take him long for him to catch on to your little game, but he couldn’t help but play along.

Most nights you’d pull up a chair to his desk, your head moving from resting in your palm to laying across your arm as you began to drift off. Other time’s you’d sit next to him, resting your head on his shoulder as he tinkered away. Once or twice you even sat in his lap with your head buried in the crook of his neck as he hummed softly in your ear. Tonight though, you unintentionally mixed things up.

Luci heard the door creak open not too long after supper as you padded into the room. He was a bit surprised. Usually you wouldn’t start this song and dance until much later in the evening. You wrapped your arms around him and rested your head on his shoulder as you peered at his current project. Maybe you were just here to watch tonight.

“Whatcha working on?” Though, to be honest, you already knew the answer.

“Oh, just the usual.”

You fell into a comfortable silence. Every now and again you’d ask a question about what he was doing or what tool he was using, to which he would happily answer. After one particularly in depth question he turned to you, “so, you trying to pick up the tools of the trade?”

“How do you know I’m not already an expert?”

“Oh ho ho, I think we both remember what happened last time.”

You swatted at his shoulder playfully, “oh hush you.”

“I’m not the one who almost set the office ablaze,” he raised his eyebrows as he challenged you to retort.

”Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. You should be thankful I took such a tremendous responsibility off your hands.”

“Mhmm,” you could feel his quiet laughter reverberate in his chest. He continued working, humming contently whenever you’d pepper kisses on his cheek. Eventually the frequency of your musings began to slow as he noted your breathing deepening, “you sure you don’t want to come sit in my lap?” While he didn’t want you toppling over, he was reveling in the close contact and would be damned if it ended any time soon.

“Can see what you’re doing better from up here,” the way you mumbled made it evident that sleep was soon to follow.

“You sure you’re not gonna fall asleep back there?”

“Mhmm. ‘m not even that tired.”

He turned and placed a kiss on your cheek, “whatever you say, dear.”

You did, in fact, fall asleep back there. Just as the first soft snore left your lips he felt you begin to slide to the side. He unfurled his wings, keeping you upright until he could turn around and lift you into his arms, “alright missy, let’s get you to bed.” You stirred slightly, lazily reaching an arm over his shoulder to stroke the feathers at the base of his wings as he carried you down the hall. The only clue that he had finally made it to the room was the soft click of the door before he laid you down on the bed. Before you had the chance to pull him down with you he had stepped out of your grasp. You turned to face him, worried that your plan had been unsuccessful this evening, “stay, please.”

“I’ll be right there, just need to slip into something more comfortable.” A few minutes later he climbed under the covers and pulled you to him, the warmth of bare chest pulling you in like a duckling to its mother.

You looped an arm around him once more, tracing your fingers across his back in search of those oh-so-soft wings. You huffed, disappointed to find he had tucked them away, “Luci?”

“Yes dear?”

You rubbed small circles until he finally got the hint. “Ohhh, someone sure is needy tonight, hmm?” His tone was playful, though it could be argued that he found much more satisfaction from wrapping you up in his wings than you did. And you loved when he wrapped you up. You began combing your fingers through his feathers again as he practically purred, “you know if you keep that up I may just have to start coming to bed earlier.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” there was that mumbling again as you began to drift off.

He chuckled, a soft, deep tone, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 777: Sohoku's sprinter

Pag 2

1: Houruaaagh

2: Buooraah

3: It's not.... “he's going to attack one more time”!!

Pag 3

1: He's attacked already!!

Pag 4

2: Fifth stage!!

He used the last curve!!

3: Feelings at full throttle!!

He got his “three seconds” in the curve and then accelerated!?

This guy has been tearing apart-

Pag 5

1: Aventador!!

Orange*!!

-road racing common sense over and over again!!

(*NdT.: Issa's attack's name)

Pag 6

4: One guy has jumped ahead as they were turning the curve

Hakogaku and Sohoku are chasing him!!

The guy who's ahead with two strong guys following him.....

Pag 7

1: I've never seen his jersey before!!

Hyaaa!!

Who's that guy!? An unknown cyclist!?

But he's here at the sprint line

Can something like that really happen!?

Pag 8

1: Words things like “of course”, “I already know that”, are like shackles that bind our thoughts

2: There is discovery in “common sense”, yon!!

4: Even so, in road bikes

5: there are two or three ways to hold the handles, so you can change your posture

Pag 9

1: and use various muscles to accelerate, yon!!

2: Three people passed the 300m point, and now it's just a straight road

Pag 10

1: There's still one person running ahead!! The two people behind him can't catch up!!

2: They can see the sprint gate already!!

3: Tch, really, he forced his way through with an ambush like this

4: But

5: My “number one in Japan” plan hasn't wavered one bit!!

Pag 11

1: Lat year's autumn

Woooah cap!!

2: Gap!!

3: Guaagh.... it's always just me saying “gap”!!

Whatcha talking about, Kabu

4: About Doubashi!! I wanna leave him “gaping”!! Me!! Since I lost to him in the summer Inter High!!

You’ve lost the ability to differentiate between the words ‘gap’ and ‘gaping’, haven’t you?

5: Huh? I was able to say this properly when I talked to Aoyagi-san

… which was it again?

6: By the way, Naruko-san, you're supposed to be a good sprinter

Supposed to be!?

Don't you have some secret weapon? Like an ace up your sleeve

7: I'm a genius, so I think if you teach me I'll get it right away!!

I really don't feel like telling you... honestly

8: No, but.... I also thought of myself as a genius, but surely I wasn't that stupid

Pag 12

1: But it's a favour to a kohai, it can't be helped

I've grown too, after all

2: Listen carefully to this “secret weapon”

When you're sprinting

3: The “cog-wheels” you imagine, try imagine them more accurately!! Until the tiniest details!!

4: The....

5: … cog-wheels!?

6: Ah? What does that mean!?

7: Be more specific, please... you're not very reliable, huh

Ugh!! This guy....

I've been thinking this since before, but me and you really don't think alike, Naruko-san...

I'll kill you....

Pag 13

1: As expected from Naruko-san

2: Aoyagi-san was more reliable (even thought he was taciturn)

What does he mean “imagine”?

Hop

3: Ohhh, amazing, Kaburagi

4: Hahaha, I know, right

6: I can do this too

Ohhhh... a blind catch!!

7: How did you do that!?

Hahaha, I'm a genius, so I can do anything just by imagin....

Kaburagi is so cool!

Pag 14

1: Imagining!!

2: Just now I did a blind catch just by imagining it!!

Do it again!

What's wrong, Kaburagi?

3: Oi oi, wait, wait- is this what he meant?

4: Does that mean it'll work? If I apply this to biking!?

6: Imagine

The cog-wheels

7: accurately

8: until the tiniest details

9: Detailed

10: Times and times again

Pag 15

1: I imagined it over and over again!!

And then my “cog-wheels”evolved into “gears”!!

2: Oi, San-na!! Do you have one more special move?

4: Tch

Pag 16

1: Buah!!

Of course!!

I need one more shot to crush you!!

2: It's “Huracan*”, which is stronger than “Aventador”!!

(*NdT.: written as “raging bull” but read as “huracan”)

3: Use it now!!

5: I, too

Pag 17

1: will pull out “golden yellow” now!!

2: If we use them at the same time, it'll make us catch up!!

3: You understand it, San-na

There's no time for complaining about it

4: This guy..... the “golden yellow” that he absolutely wanted to save until the last minute before the sprint line!!

5: We have to close the gap and line up to him now

At this rate, that guy

Pag 18

1: He'll be the first to arrive!!

2: The lead is passing the 200m sign!!

3: Who's that, Gunma!?

I thought the Gunma team was supposed to be Jousui?!

Did the team debut this year!?

There's a guy that strong in Gunma

4: Waaaa

5: That number 181 is debuting now.... but

His career and profile is crazy!!

Pag 19

1: It's Kiji Kyuui!! He's the MTB Inter High two-times champion!!

Huh!?

2: So, the two chasing him won't be able to catch up, at this rate!?

Pag 20

1: Huh!?

What was that just now

For an instant, behind those two

2: I saw blooming golden yellow flowers, and a raging bull

Pag 21

1: This year's may

2: I see

3: Please

Basically

4: Doubashi, you mean you want to race me in a serious sprint battle... now that I've become an university student!!