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nothingunrealistic · 1 year

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review roundup: billions 7x05 “the gulag archipelago”

at long last! another episode of The Taylor Mason Show! i thought we might never see it again! what did reviewers think?

New York Times: ‘Billions’ Season 7, Episode 5 Recap: A Plan Starts to Form

Let’s do a little narrative reverse engineering, shall we?

first sentence, and first paragraph, of the recap. absolutely yes. i am so ready to go on this journey with you.

Imagine, if you will, that you are a both a trader and a traitor — a high-powered executive at a major investment fund, looking to fatally undermine your own boss in order to stop him from becoming the president of the United States. Your Plan A, recruiting your even more dangerous old boss to stop him, has failed. You’re tired of waiting around for your performance-coach colleague, the ringleader of your band of mutineers, to generate a Plan B. It becomes clear that coming up with Plan C is up to you. So you generate some short-term, medium-term and long-term goals for this plan. In the short term, you need something that will cost your hated boss enough money to rattle his cage. In the medium term, you’d like to generate doubt and dissension among his key employees, as well as elsewhere on the Street. In the long term, you want to increase the power available to a member of your own inner circle to make mischief — enough power, you hope, to engineer the fatal mistake that will take your boss down for good. It isn’t revealed until the closing moments of this week’s episode of “Billions,” but this is precisely the action driving most of this week’s financial activity on the Prince Cap side of the story.

god what an excellent sequence of paragraphs.

It all looks innocent enough: Pivoting off a birthday balloon-inspired brainstorm by Dollar Bill, Taylor uncovers the opportunity to invest big in a helium processing start-up. The price of admission, however, exceeds that which Taylor and Philip are authorized to spend in the absence of their target — ahem, boss — Mike Prince, and his lieutenant, Scooter.

hmm quick clarification / correction: the absence of taylor’s target. philip was almost certainly not in on this scheme. (it’s possible that’s what sean meant, but the way that sentence is constructed, “taylor and philip” is the more natural antecedent of “their.”)

Indeed, the episode’s funniest moment comes when Scooter and Prince stroll happily out of that church, grab their phones and watch as dozens of notifications fill their home screens.

maybe not the funniest, but it’s up there. lots of contenders.

Mike’s response to all this strikes me as the worst one possible. He admits that the structure he put in place isn’t tenable while he is out running for office, then grants Wags — a member of the conspiracy against him — the same sign-off power previously reserved for himself and Scooter. Beyond that, though, he refuses to accept any responsibility whatsoever, telling his crestfallen employees that if he had been in their shoes, he would have found a workaround — so why didn’t they? He even condescendingly tells them to treat this as a chance to learn from what it feels like to lose, as if he weren’t a loser right along with them, as if he weren’t the reason they lost.

hey, it wouldn’t be prince if he didn’t respond as condescendingly as possible with no fucks given about how it might embitter people against him!

Even though Wags and Wendy were kept out of the loop, they figured out what was going on — again, Taylor anticipated this — and kept quiet, allowing the plan to come to fruition.

wendy figured it out; i don’t think wags knew what was going on before she pointed out that it was a scheme against prince.

In the past, Chuck has showed little compunction when it comes to messing with Ira’s life when there’s some greater good to be achieved. Why change now? “Because you’re my friend,” Chuck says, “and that’s my big picture now.” The two men then eat sweet potato pie together — a grace note, I hope, for their entire relationship, as “Billions” begins tying off its plot threads one by one.

it would be nice if that’s the note their relationship leaves off on ultimately. i don’t know that we’ll be so lucky, but it would be nice!

I don’t know if it was the actor Comfort Clinton, the writer Amadou Diallo or some other party, but whoever decided to turn Taiga’s hug goodbye for Chuck into a borderline collapse onto his shoulders out of pure relief deserves serious kudos. That one little moment took a minor character who could be seen as the butt of one of the episode’s running jokes and turned her into a real person, experiencing real, relatable emotions.

indeed.

As far as depictions of the moral bankruptcy of power go, showing the incoming police commissioner screening someone’s private sex tapes for the amusement of his cop buddies at a soiree in honor of his swearing-in is going to be tough for “Billions” to top.

again: indeed.

I’m not sure how I feel about the composer Brendan Angelides’s decision to score the revelation of Ira’s sex tapes with boom-chikka-bowwow porn music, but I’m leaning toward “It’s funny, so it’s allowed.”

i didn’t remember hearing this, so i rewatched that scene with the volume up, and… yeah, that’s pretty much what it sounded like.

I’m all for the episode’s tertiary plotline, the budding romance between Wendy and Bradford,

terrible taste!

but it reminds me that Wendy and Chuck’s sadomasochistic relationship is, at this point, the show’s biggest dropped ball. Other than using Chuck’s kink to write off Juliana Margulies’s character post-pandemic, this once-central aspect of the series — the show’s opening shot showed us Chuck in flagrante, remember — has completely fallen by the wayside.

i mean, it hasn’t fallen by the wayside so much as been deliberately set aside as a sign that chuck’s Grown As A Person (whether or not that actually makes sense), and also because he’s no longer married to someone who will dom him. but hey, troy the dominatrix is coming back in 7x06, so i’m sure you’ll have fun with that!

For having Dollar Bill, Victor, and Taylor talk with Chipmunk-esque helium voices, I salute this episode. That’s a bit that always works, or at least so I tell myself at parties.

the helium voices being played as “what cool people do to sound even cooler” rather than “what loser nerds do when they’re being especially loser-y” means the writers are with you on this one.

Vulture: Billions Recap: I’ll Wait

Unfortunately, “The Gulag Archipelago,” like most of the episodes in this final season of Billions, offered very little payoff. The only significant developments came in the form of Taylor officially joining Wendy and Wags in their fledgling Rebel Alliance/Fifth Column, Wags obtaining investment sign-off privileges — and Dave Mahar wresting the Mike Prince investigation from Chuck’s firm grip.

“this episode offered very little payoff other than these multiple significant plot developments.” what??

The Chuck story line was by far the most disappointing, as it just felt weak. Chuck Rhoades, the man who succeeded in shifting the Overton window regarding his BDSM proclivities, is now spending his time helping his deputy avoid, to quote Ira Schirmer directly, a “vanilla” sex scandal. SNOOZE.

if anything, that shows chuck learned a valuable lesson from the overton window incident: just because he’s willing to shout the details of his sex life to the world doesn’t mean other people, even the people he’s close to, want their own details shouted about, and that matters more than his own ambitions.

I don’t know. Something feels off about how easily Chuck let Dave take over the Prince investigation. It’s not just because Ira is his friend. Maybe he needs Ira to stick around should he need an even bigger sacrifice down the line? Who knows.

i’m conflicted about this myself. it could be that chuck genuinely has changed enough as a person that he’d make a major sacrifice simply for the sake of his best friend… but it could also be that he sees some crucial value in keeping ira around and/or in having dave involved with investigating prince that we can’t yet see.

There was also a half-baked subplot in “The Gulag Archipelago” that briefly caught us up with Chuck and Kate Sacker’s former colleague, Bryan Connerty.

that plotline did feel somewhat underdone. and it’s not like there wasn’t time in the episode to flesh it out!

What I don’t understand, though, is why does Kate keep putting off her own congressional run? Does she really think getting Mike Prince into the White House will be the leg up she needs? I do not like what’s become of this character at all, someone who once proudly referred to herself as a “political animal.” Billions has never spent enough time on Kate Sacker, and it shows.

well, she can’t start just any old time, since house elections only happen every other year. though at this point i am kind of surprised she’s planning to run for congress simultaneous with prince’s presidential run rather than just focusing on his campaign and/or expecting to get into his cabinet. perhaps the fact that she’s still seeking her own elected office is all the proof we’ll get, or need, that she hasn’t permanently hitched her wagon to prince.

Later that night, Wendy meets with Wags and Taylor at the MPC offices, where Taylor reveals they engineered the firm’s latest investment loss. Wendy refrains from giving Taylor a dressing-down like the one she gave Wags last week, but it’s obvious that these solo shenanigans aren’t wise in the long term.

well, unlike wags’s plan, taylor’s plan didn’t suck ass or put them in danger of being fired. (or endanger the lives of thousands of other people. presumably.)

That and, as I said earlier, you have to admit that all Billions line readings are a lot funnier when said with a mouthful of helium, which was the case here.

raising what is, to me, the most important lingering question of this episode: did the actors really inhale helium for that, or was that effect achieved some other way?

I am not sure I like the idea of a Wendy–Bradford Luke romance.

bringing back an old classic: SO TRUE VULTURE.

Millennials Taylor and Philip pretending they’ve never seen The Hunt for Red October by citing Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery cancelations was adorable.

i don’t know that “adorable” is the word i’d use, but it was entertaining. (though it does make me wonder about which other media they do or don’t refuse to engage with on similar grounds…)

Best line reading of the episode: Asia Kate Dillon’s calm and measured “Don’t call him that,” when Ari Spyros makes a “President Prince” reference.

again, it’s up there, but i wouldn’t even declare that the best line reading of that scene.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Damianista): Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 5: The Gulag Archipelago

Yet the problem solves itself when MP Cappers live a version of this story which ends up with a $1.6B potential gain gone for the company. Yikes!

1.4 billion, not 1.6 billion.

As the helium deal is “sitting as pretty as Jennifer Beals holding the blowtorch” (Flashdance was one of my favorites growing up)…

when i first watched that scene, i thought that was a sixteen candles reference based solely on the phrase “sitting as pretty,” re: the scene of sitting on the table. who among us hasn’t lit their birthday candles with a blowtorch?

As I am thinking about how someone can keep sensitive documents on his phone, Chuck nods Karl to leave the office so Ira can spill the actual beans: What is on the phone is Ira and Taiga’s homemade sex videos. I mean, it is nobody’s business if a couple takes pleasure in filming themselves but, again, why would you keep such sensitive material on your phone?

simple: 1) it was probably filmed with that phone 2) some people don’t protect sensitive information very well. remember the married couple from season 1 that chuck & wendy had dinner with once who claimed they used all the same passwords for everything? and how that prompted chuck & wendy to share their passwords with one another, which enabled chuck to steal confidential information from wendy’s laptop?

By the way, who is this Karl really? From his regular visits to the Gambler Anonymous meetings to catch a good case to knowing every single detail about every step of ID theft, he is such an enigma!

don’t forget how he used to roll on covert hostile actors! (with waterboarding. he waterboarded them.)

And we find out what kind of man keeps such videos on his phone: the kind that has his birthday as his password! OH. MY. GOD.

precisely!

Ira is extremely grateful and tells Chuck that he owes him one. Whaaaaat? The Ice Juice incident alone is enough for Chuck to owe Ira for a lifetime of favors.

hence chuck reassuring him that the ledger is probably even.

So cheers to the Chuck who has done the right thing for his friend. I know I am repeating myself but THAT Chuck can even get his girl back!

why are you talking about wendy like this? (and why do you even want that???)

Prince is surrounded by very smart people who he thinks are loyal to him. And tonight when he says “If it was me in your shoes, I would find a way” at his team, he is missing the fact that there is someone at the table who would always find a way but chose not to: Taylor.

yes… ha ha ha… yes!

Entertainment Weekly: Billions recap: Prince starts to lose control

So, Chuck leaps into action to help his friend out, and honestly the storyline is a nice change of pace from the usual Prince-focused stuff.

it’s a lateral move for me.

It's a fine power play, but the real work of this storyline is to show a shift in Chuck. The idea is that he's trying to be true to himself at this point in his life, starting by coming back to his roots at the SDNY. Here, he gets to step up for his friend, no matter the professional cost.

so one hopes!

Elsewhere, we see that Michael Prince's political ambitions might be affecting his business.

“might,” lol.

While Billions once again shoehorns a stilted cameo into an episode, Prince and Scooter give up their phones in order to be allowed inside the studio, where Killer Mike previews his new album and ends up offering Prince an endorsement for his campaign.

it made more sense than the kareem abdul-jabbar cameo, honestly.

When Prince returns to the office and learns that the company has missed out on $1.6 billion in revenue,

again: 1.4 billion, not 1.6 billion. i was so baffled by this recap and damianista’s both giving the same wrong number that i went back and rewatched the scene to make sure philip really did say 1.4. keep your eyes on your own paper, kyle!

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Gingersnap): The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 5, “The Gulag Archipelago”

Gingersnap […] Best Pop Culture Reference in a Song – Taylor Mason. They told Victor to “pass the dutchie” somewhere else, rejecting the offer to suck helium from his balloon and join in on the funny voices shenanigans. Pass the Dutchie is a song by reggae group Musical Youth and was a popular, catchy tune in the 80’s. While debated today, “pass the dutchie” originally meant passing a joint (marijuana) around a smoking circle. So Taylor wasn’t partaking in the helium circle. Taylor does end up sucking helium from a balloon and speaking in a squeaky voice, but only to Wags and Wendy afterhours.

i’d figured out that “dutchie” was weed slang, but did not know it was a reference beyond that. til!

Bradford Luke and Kate Sacker have more chemistry and flirtatious behavior over a manila folder than Bradford and Wendy have over anything.

i said the same thing the first time i watched that scene between them. luker >>> wukey for sure.

Damianista […] Most Cruel – Kate Bryan was Kate’s colleague, friend (and fling for a short time) and equal just until a few years ago. What he’s accomplished by getting a law degree is way more impressive than that Kate has because Bryan grew up with a single mom who had to take multiple jobs to make ends meet whereas Kate grew up as a trust fund baby! Both had dreams as young assistant US attorneys at the SDNY and now look at them. Kate is now running for Congress, while I do not think being a Teppenyaki chef at Hibachi Shogun was Bryan’s dream. And as though this is not enough, Kate comes to Bryan’s workplace to threaten him to behave otherwise she can send him or his brother or maybe both back to prison. This is not only Kate but any character at their most cruel in Billions.

i disagree that this is the cruelest any character in billions has ever been. (this isn’t even the cruelest anyone in billions has been this season.) and in sacker’s defense re: connerty, his downfall was entirely on him getting caught tampering with evidence after she told him DON’T TAMPER WITH EVIDENCE, I KNOW YOU WANT TO BUT SERIOUSLY, DON’T DO IT OR YOU WILL REGRET IT twenty times.

Unexpected Literary Geek – Victor I am in awe of Victor of all people talking about Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago” in the episode. He is not name-dropping, he knows what he is talking about. Bravo. As the great John Waters said: “If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.”

apparently victor translates french literature in his spare time, so this isn’t too out of the blue.

TheTailThatWagsTheDog [] Most Classless – Soon-to-be Chief of NYPD Raul Gomez – showing Ira’s sex videos around to people at his swearing-in party? Completely classless, and borderline illegal? Certainly unethical. And this is the chief of police? Not cool.

yeah, man, can you imagine if the police took advantage of their power to exploit people like that? that would be crazy!

Least Believable Spark – Wendy and Bradford. Isn’t she old enough to be his mother? Yuck.

no? babak tafti, who plays luke, is about 37-38 to maggie siff’s 48. i’d guess luke is also in his thirties at minimum, making him at least twice the age of wendy’s actual children, who are teenagers. wukey sucks, but whatever age gap is between them isn’t why.

More of this please! -The Double crosses – first Taylor outflanking Prince (and everyone else) and then Dave besting Chuck – this is the stuff I watch it for. A plot twist that I didn’t see coming. Both of these were great, and just help build up the excitement. I am all in for this final season. Can’t wait for Friday!

agreed!

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Lady Trader): “From the Trader’s Desk”: Man the Torpedoes! Billions S7E5 “The Gulag Archipelago”

posted on a thursday! before the release of a new episode that would render it significantly less relevant! let’s keep that up!

I really want to focus on Taylor and their brilliant move in dinging the good ship Prince, so just a few thoughts first.

for once i completely agree with your priorities.

I do not think for one second that Chuck helped Ira get his phone back purely out of friendship. Chuck never does anything for anyone unless it advances his own agenda. There may have been 5% friendship in his motivation, but I’m being generous. We know when he sets his site on whichever white whale he is after, he doesn’t care who he harms in the process. He threw Ira and his Dad under the bus in the Ice Juice caper, and in his focus to get Jock Jeffcoat, he abandoned Wendy to the point where that was the straw that cause their divorce.

i get this perspective, but i don’t completely agree that chuck has never done anything for anyone that wasn’t self-interested. for instance, one reason ira and chuck were reconciled at all after the ice juice incident was that chuck helped him find out that taiga and an associate of hers were stealing from him and put a stop to it. he did that purely out of concern for ira, even though it did end up giving him insight into how to go after jock.

Prince trusts she’s all in on the “Prince POTUS” train, which I guess is the reason why he throws a computer through her glass wall when he finds out she really isn’t.

nope! it was a printer!

I think this shows that Prince doesn’t either trust Taylor and Philp, is a serious control freak, or a bit of both. When Taylor and Philip try to explain how this approval structure could hurt MPC, which would in turn hurt Prince, he basically dismisses them. There should be no issue because Prince says he is always reachable and if not, Scooter has sign off approval (oh the foreshadowing!). Taylor and Philip must be like the great Mike Prince and make it work somehow. We get another eye-rolling yarn about how Prince started his first business with two cans and some string (that’s not exactly what he said, but you get the picture). If he could be successful with nothing, they should have no issues with a $500M cap.

get his ass!

Axe tried to do this to Taylor back in Season 4, and it didn’t work out well for him. We know this is not going to work out well for Prince either.

i think you mean season 3, since you linked to your recap of 3x08 all the wilburys. also applies to season 5, honestly.

Time runs out before Prince and Scooter get their phones back (I still don’t understand why they had to give up their phones in the first place, and why they would agree to it) and see about a billion missed calls, texts, and voicemails.

it was a listening party for / in advance of a well-known artist’s first solo album in over a decade. they don’t want people using their phones to record and leak it. and there was no way prince was going to hang onto his phone against the wishes of the guy he was trying to secure a presidential endorsement from.

When Heckle and Jeckle finally get back to the office, instead of taking responsibility for their error, they throw it back on Taylor and Philip. They should have made it work somehow because the amazing Mike Prince would have! What an idiot! He set the parameters for something exactly like this to happen and instead of saying “my bad” he throws his employees under the bus? After the day they had? He truly does not deserve any of this staff.

and a great illustration of why he certainly shouldn’t be president!

Taylor needed to do this alone. They are the stealthy assassin! I don’t think Taylor expected Wags to get full sign-off, but it’s a big plus and will most likely come in hand down the road. This plan was a win-win because even if Prince had given approval, the firm would have made $1.4B. There was little downside in this magnificent plan. Taylor has been one of my favorite characters since they first set foot at Axe Cap, and nothing has changed. Always seeing the bigger picture is their specialty.

that’s right!!!

#billions #7x05 #review roundup

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aaronoflive12 · 1 year

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072123

[Clean language post]

Yes, and I know it has been a long while since I posted stuff on either here, or Telegram pages, or even YT since releasing the last of the Aaron of Live 12 tracks (and has used a new handle for music since then).

Do not get the wrong idea okay. These sites still do mean a lot, and the handle still matters, but just because I am not active on many SN sites does not mean I do not care about it or whatnot... I am very busy in pursuing both a DJ career and, expanding on this recently created Doujin project I’m creating from scratch. Also, this said project will contain among the heaviest and most intense music that I have ever created and produced and plan further productions to where I will create both clean and explicit tracks when this project launches properly, sometime in 2024, no fixed date as of yet.

No need to lie, but the main sport I’m still following this season is in AFL league matches, among other levels, of Australian Rules Football I mean. In truth, for the last 5 or so rounds of the season, it has been a very intense struggle in the midfield. And just like many others who follow with deep interest, this season has had an even higher stakes game of Snakes and Ladders, compared to last season. Also contrary to previous seasons, where I followed 2 or 3 particular teams per season, I’ve took a backseat with barracking this time, and if I’m going to be honest, at a personal level, I frankly don’t care to place deep support to any team anymore, as much of the experience of the sport recently in my mind, harbors a ‘wild rollacoaster’ ride, at greater frequencies than in recent seasons, and thus, exhibits more pleasure, pain, and unpredictability on the competitive side. More in relation to Sports events before I end the post. Poor standards have been shown so far in the Women’s FIFA WC, but I think that’s expected since all the sides who have competed in day 1, are all rather poor teams, including the host nations in my personal opinion. No interest in this season’s F1. Sennastappen, come Bahrain in 2024. Virtually no-one, be it drivers, or constructors, can stop the RBR powerhouse, even if occasionally the other driver is not in the same league as Sennastappen is. ------ In the following other Sports I found more positivity in it than in past years. Yes, Cricket for one, has improved in some essential aspects, but crowds I think are more derogatory and less honest than in previous years, which not only do I not approve of that, but also runs parallel to potential anarchy and straight-up war against the opposition, never mind about how high the quality of the actual Cricket that was playing then. Indeed, this also includes in the USA, where many elite cricketers are at competing in Cricket’s MLC, and in parts of England, for both the Men’s and Women’s Ashes matches. I hated the way the Mens Ashes in particular ended... the rainy weather interfering the great series that may have been, and personally I’m livid with it. Also privileged too to witness on TV, the IPL finale, delayed a day, but was still worth waiting for, as well as the way the match finished off, high-class, straight-up theater. And perhaps the best match of all, when Rinku scored five 6′s in the final over to inexplicably steal the match from what never should have been their victory. And I never, ever saw anything of that extreme in cricket, ever, including teams making, or agonizingly not making, that last run in the last ball of the chasing team’s inning. Enough there on that subject. The NHL, in Ice Hockey. Wrestling, both in the WWE and AEW, but not so, the MMA or Boxing ones. I must add, it has been over 6 years since last actively following any live developments of any Professional Wrestling events on TV, but at least the workaround I’ve found recently was just not to listen to it at all. The dog-gone profanity on virtually all the walls, as it has been in practically the entire history of such combat-based events, . But nevertheless I do still like watching the competitors, regardless of gender, battle, even if occasionally it ends under unfair circumstances. Yes, I am also going to add in the events of the PDC darts tournaments in, but only just, because I’ve seen the events in it this year as fractionally better than in last year overall. At the first main tournament, in the Grand Final match of it, both players in one of the legs, 9-dart attempts, where the first player missed by a thread, and somehow the other hits his/it’s ‘9th’ dart home, to what virtually all the folks have stated it as the best leg that they ever seen/watched, and if not, one of the greatest moments in Professional Darts history, period. But since that match, it’s been peaks and valleys, and I must say, it has been lower, more so than higher. In both main forms of Rugby League and Union, minor stuff which was changed up, and still feels very similar to the previous few years, for which I interpret as a small, yet important positive.

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mashiraostail · 4 years

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Hiiii, i was wondering if i could request some vlad king and gang orca taking care of their s/o pets. Like if the reader was out of town and asked them to take care of their dogs👉👈 i feel like vlad is such a good doggy dad that the dogs play together and i feel like gang orca would be lost but doing his best and if he was taking care of a cat i like to think it would love being around him because cats love fish and he would just always have his s/o cat cuddling on his lap. Im sorry for ranting lol i love your work you're doing great💕

awwehehe this is so cute since you mentioned dogs for vlad and cats for kugo that's what i went with! also indulged myself and included kugo/ jiro/shoji content bc that seems like such a GOOD FUNNY AND WHOLESOME trio and i wanted more content than we got smh

Sekijiro Kan/Vlad King: "Hey Sek, I need a huge favor.” You look up from your phone at the taller man who is currently scrunched into the corner of his couch scrutinizing a piece of paper with really terrible handwriting on it. “Sounds dangerous.” He replies without looking up and you snort dropping to the cushion beside him. “Only a little, but I think you’re good for it.” “Alright then, so what’s the favor?” His eyes flick up to you. “I need to go visit a friend out of town.” You sigh, “she had a baby last month, I used to work with her husband and she asked if I wanted to spend some time back home with her for her birthday next week, I should be about five days.” You rest your hands on his knees, “so while I’m out there..would you mind watching Kilo for me? I hate to leave him behind but It’d be a pain to travel so far with him I know he hates trains.” “That’s a huge favor?” He raises an eyebrow at you, “sure I can watch him. I bet they’ll get along fine.” He glances at his own dog curled up under a chair. “But only If you can figure out what the hell Monoma tried to write here.” For all intents and purposes, Kilo was a good dog, a little stupid, but a good dog nonetheless. To be honest, he’s really honored you trust him with the task, you’re the only person he’s met that seems to love your own dog as much as he loves his. Plus it also meant that Kilo had to like him a fair bit which was also a relief, as a dog owner he knew any potential partner was only as compatible with him as they were with his dog, and his dog loved you, he was sure you felt the same way, any partner that Kilo didn’t get along with would be impossible for you to get along with, he found it more than a little reassuring that Kilo seemed to enjoy his company. Past all that, and maybe even most important this was a perfect opportunity to introduce the two dogs. He was sure it was no secret to you but this wasn’t exactly a casual fling, with the way things were going it felt pretty inevitable that he’d ask if you wanted to move in together; but if the two didn’t get along well then..that’d be an issue. Though he was sure if things got tested out now you’d have some time to at least try to get the dogs to be comfortable with each other or hopefully think of some sort of workaround. In his eyes, this was a blessing for him as much as it was a favor to you. “Are you sure you don’t mind keeping Kilo at your place?” Sekijiro is slightly embarrassed to say how early he arrived at this park, he wanted to tire his own dog out before introducing the pair, he’d advised you to do the same so you were walking to the park, you'd called him on your way. “Of course I don’t mind babe.” He tosses a ball from his seat on the bench and watches his pudgy bulldog trot over to it, “it’ll be easier this way, right?” “Yeah that’s true, I just don’t want Kilo wrecking any of your stuff, he always means well but he gets into trouble sometimes-” “Don’t worry about it, he’ll be a model student by the time you get back.” He hears you laugh into the receiver at that. “I don’t doubt that, I’m almost there, I’ll see you in a few okay?” “Yeah sure thing, can’t wait.” You huff out another laugh at him before hanging up. “Sekijiro!” You chirp brightly at the sight of the man, he’s too busy taking you in to respond. Kilo’s trotting a foot or so in front of you on his leash, that old joke about dogs looking reminiscent of their owners was certainly true in your case, you both looked delighted to see him and beyond that, you were practically glowing... Maybe he just had a thing for people who were good with animals. “Hey Sek?” You lean down in front of him. “Hey! He welcomes Kilo between his knees, the mixed breed was a bit larger than his dog who was currently bounding back to him with a ball and sufficient slobber hanging from his mouth, the size difference in mind though Kilo was a hell of a lot less bulky, he was practically streamlined, Sekijiro had seen how fast the dog could run with his own eyes. He could see why you took so much pride in the dog, he was definitely beautiful his coat was long, wavy, and shiny and he had big blue eyes and admittedly the cutest pink nose and spotted tongue Sekijiro had ever seen. “Thanks so much again for doing this I really-” An excited bark pulls your attention downwards, “look who it is!” You sing, crouching down to pet the panting dog, “you sure look tired. Sekijiro is working you too hard.” You frown at him as he hops up to rest his front paws on your thighs. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Sekijiro laughs, “but he is worn out, I guess Kilo is too though.” Kilo’s head is on his knee, the larger dog is panting too. They seem to notice each other, and approach with a lazy curiosity. They sniff around each other for a bit but after that return to their respective activities, seemingly unbothered by each other and the proximity of the other dog to their owner. Kilo didn’t mind your cooing at Vlad’s dog who didn’t seem to mind Kilo’s head in his owner's lap. With that little bit of reassurance, you hand him Kilo’s leash and a bag of his stuff; food dish, some toys and treats and the like, and then you part ways after promising to call him when you get to your home town safely. All in all the coming days are pretty uneventful, Kilo joins them on their daily walks, eats at the same time with no trouble, finds a comfortable place to sleep each night. “Is Kilo alright?” Your voice is nervous in the receiver. “He’s better than babe, seriously they’re getting along great.” “God that’s such a relief.” You sigh, “the pictures you’ve sent are cute..gosh I miss him.” You pout a little. “Gee I miss you too babe.” He mutters it with a playful edge to his voice and you gasp, “I was going to say I miss you too but forget it!” “don’t be mean!” He complains back, “I was kidding! And anyway I miss you. How’s it been out there?” You go off on your usual tangents before ending up back at square one. “Oh! I called you for a reason actually!” You remember, “I’ll be a little bit late getting back on Sunday, one of the trains is going to be down so I’m taking a later one, I should be back around midnight now would you mind-” “Of course not babe, I’ll get you from the station so-” “No no! It’s okay you’ve already done so much that’s not what I was going to ask! I just wanted to be sure you wouldn’t mind keeping Kilo around for the extra time...I can get a taxi, seriously don’t wait up for me!” “Well just come to my place when you get back right?” “I wouldn’t wanna wake you up-” “It’s been way too long since I saw you last, so I don’t mind, if you won’t let me pick you up from the station at least come right here.” “You’re convincing.” You laugh a little, embarrassment heating up your face, “I guess that’s fine with me then...” A distant sounding voice pulls you away from the receiver, “Sek I have to go, I’ll call you again soon though!” “Don’t worry about anything babe.” He reassures you as you hang up. There is one minor spat over a rope toy but it’s resolved easily enough and the pair seem to get on swimmingly after that, even sharing a couch cushion and occasionally resting their heads on each other, they become incredibly fast friends, which is probably the biggest relief on the planet to Sekijiro. Watching the two of them play tug of war in his living room or witnessing their schemes to get leftovers off the counter on Thursday night essentially cement his vision of a future with you. If you were being totally honest it was embarrassing how attractive you found Sekijiro getting along with your dog to be, you’d never got the obsession of handsome guys holding cute babies but seeing some of the photos he’d sent to you over the almost 6 days you were gone made butterflies crop up in your stomach the likes of which you’d only felt when he was actively trying to fluster you...but this seemed totally unintentional. To say you were incredibly eager to go home and see him (jump his bones) felt like an understatement. It’s past midnight when you get back and the place is mostly dark, you see a vaguely bulldog shaped blob partially under a blanket on the couch, but the snoring it emits gives away it’s identity easily. You leave your bag at the door and venture into the apartment, poking your nose into the bedroom. Of course, Sekijiro is there, dead asleep on his back, and who’s with him but Kilo, his head resting on the blood hero’s chest one of his hands resting on top of it. “Oh Vlad-” You coo, you practically sing it at him. “Wha-whatsitwhat-” He rubs his face as he picks his head up, “oh, hey welcome back ‘s good to see you, missed you-” “You’re so sweet-” You’re already at the side of his bed, leaning down and kissing him. “What’s-” Sekijiro takes a minute to process everything before he realizes it’s Kilo’s head on his chest making you act like this. “Oh no way, he’s been a total angel-” “I’m so glad he likes you so much-” You murmur it between kisses, to his lips and various other spots on his cheeks and jaw, “you guys are adorable together.” “I’m glad you think so-” He cuts himself off with a yawn and turns into your lips, kissing you again before speaking, “you weren’t kidding about that late train huh? It’s almost 1 AM, you must be exhausted, there’s plenty of room for you in here so come on.”

Kugo Sakamata/Gang Orca: “Hey, Kugo...” You approach him from behind and wrap your arms around his shoulders, leaning against the back of the chair he’s sat in. “Yes?” One hand comes up to cover your forearm the other stays dutifully at work. “You love me, right?” You rest your head against his and he pricks up at the inquisition. “Of course I do, why would you ask a question like that? Is something wrong?” The way his hand subtly squeezes your arm isn’t lost on you. “Hmm..no nothing's wrong.” You lean into him and close your eyes as he sighs good-naturedly. “Then what? Did you just want to hear me say it?” He leans back into you, “I guess I could entertain that...” His thumb swipes a long stroke over the skin of your forearm, “I love you, dear.” He can feel you prickle up at that behind him. “I love you too Kugo.” You squeeze him tighter and he huffs out a quiet laugh. “I’m glad to hear it. Now is that all you needed?” He puts his pen down to bring his other hand up to your arms, “I’m a bit busy. You’re welcome to stay there if you like though I just need to finish some paperwork and make a few phone calls. After that, we can do whatever you like for the night.” “Well, now that you mention it there was just one more thing. I’ll be fast I promise.” Your hand slides underneath his lapel and into his jacket. “Don’t worry I can make a bit of time for you then, what’s the matter?” You make eye contact with him through his darkened computer screen. “My boss invited me to this big conference next week, it’s a pretty great opportunity and I could meet some important people..” You explain, biting your lip, “it could be really good for me to branch out even she thinks so, and getting some more experience will be great, and it’s pretty close to my hometown so I figured I'd stop in and see some old friends after I got done..It’d be about 5 or so days and I’d really like to go.” You sigh and he seems more than a little confused based on his reflection. “That does sound like a great opportunity for you, you’re right..what’s the problem then? Do you need advice about something?” His confusion doesn’t quell even as you kiss his temple. “I probably will later but for now the problem is Luna.” “Your cat?” Kugo piques, “why is she a problem?” You sigh, “if I’m not around no one will be there to feed her and make sure she stays out of trouble.” “Oh is that it? That’s no problem at all dear, I can look after her for you. Is that what you were going to ask me?” “You don’t mind?” You perk up, “I don’t want to trouble you...and I know I could just as easily leave a key under my mat and have a neighbor do it but I trust you so much more and-” “It’s no trouble, really.” Kugo laughs a little, "I pass by your apartment all the time on patrols, I’m sure the interns won't mind if I make a stop and head up to check on her every now and again.” “Oh! You can totally bring them up if they like cats!” He laughs at that too. “Was that all?” “Mhm.” You nod and use the motion to nestle into him a bit, “Thank you Kugo.” ”It’s really my pleasure. Leave it to me, alright?” All things considered, Kugo’s also pretty honored to be trusted with the task of watching your pet cat, he knows how much you love and worry about her, you dote on her all the time, and if the copious amount of photos you send him of her say anything she’s definitely your pride and joy. For the most part, you spent the bulk of your time with Kugo at his own home, due largely to the fact that he was larger than average and he existed a fair bit more comfortably there, but he paid you visits in your apartment from time to time and had met the cat, she seemed to like him plenty which was a relief as well. You stop at Kugo’s before you leave and give him a list of things to double-check when he stops in, though you reassure him that there shouldn’t be any problems, Luna was pretty independent and mellow she didn’t like going outside so he didn’t have to worry about her escaping or anything like that. He tries to stop in at least 3 times a day, before, during, and after patrols, he knows that’s probably overkill, you spend all day at work and have never had an issue but he hates the idea of something happening to the feline on his watch. Plus even if he wouldn’t readily admit it he saw this as a perfect time to get on the cat's good side, you said she already loved him but he wasn’t convinced. He knew how much you loved her and any vision of your future that he had always featured the mellow feline so in his mind it was imperative they got on well. On top of that, he was glad you trusted him with something as small and delicate as Luna, she fits pretty comfortably in his hand and was as fragile as she was petit, but you never seemed off-put by the idea of him holding her or petting her, in fact, you encouraged it. The way you even wanted him near her when you weren’t around to supervise put him at ease about his strength and size, he always worried about breaking delicate things, but that wasn’t a worry you seemed to echo. “Is something going on in that building?” Shoji looks up at your complex as he pauses by it, “you’re stopping here a lot since yesterday.” “Huh? Oh. Actually no... well nothing of importance to you. I’m...catsitting.” Jiro holds her breath the hold in the laugh, “Catsitting?” “Yes...my partner is away at a work conference, the cat in question is theirs.” Kugo nods, “if you like cats you can come up and meet her, she’s actually quite friendly.” Kugo was pretty used to Luna at this juncture, but whenever other people met her it was easy to see why you were so proud of her, she was quite the stunning cat, a long dark grey and black coat with big green eyes and a swishing tail, her paws were colored as if she was wearing boots. “Wow...she’s really pretty, I’ve never seen a cat like this.” Jiro was crouched on the ground, stroking her neck. “I was surprised too.” Kugo confesses, “they found her in a box on the side of the road about a year before we met. She was only a kitten then. Her name’s Luna.” She seemed to like the pair equally alternating between them, rubbing against their legs and shuffling her head into their palms. “She is very friendly.” Shoji remarks as she purrs at him, attempting to climb into his lap. “She’s good at getting into trouble, but she usually means well. You can stay with her for a minute.” He sets off to double-check the usual; food, water, litterbox, the loose window that she’s always wiggling open despite having no desire to climb out of it, he waters a few plants and straightens up anything she knocked over as well. When he returns she's overturned on Shoji’s lap. “You’re getting along well.” He swipes a pillow she’d knocked over up and replaces it on the couch. “She’s really sweet!” Jiro is scratching her stomach. “I’m glad to hear it.” “Hey..sorry if this is too personal or whatever but I didn’t know you were.. dating someone... We didn’t snoop or anything though!” She swears, holding both hands up, the cat looks disgruntled at the loss of attention. “It’s alright I trust you.” Kugo waves her off, “Luna looks too comfortable anyways, you’ve clearly been petting her this whole time.” He adds with a small chuckle. At the sound of her name, she rolls over and winds around his feet, circling through his ankles and pawing at his pants until he lifts her up. “To answer you though yes I am seeing someone.” He holds Luna with one hand, his ring and middle finger scratching the patch of grey fur on her chest. “Are they a hero too?” She wonders, straightening up. “No...no they’re not, I’m not very public about this sort of thing.” Shoji contemplates that, “they have a nice apartment.” “That is true, it’s a good job, and they do have a pretty keen eye for decorating” He agrees, looking around amicably. “Have you guys been together for a long time?” Jiro blurts out before feeling color float up to her cheeks, “sorry I don’t mean to be rude... I just never pictured you like this I guess I’m curious-” “It’s okay, most people don’t, and yes, we’ve been together a while now.” Kugo raises a hand to calm her, “but like I said before I’m not very public about things like this which is why you wouldn’t have heard..though either way, even when we do go out together... most people don’t assume I do that sort of thing, and to be frank, we aren’t the most...visually compatible pair..” He says that with a distinct fondness in his voice and then continues, “like you said, you don’t really picture me in this sort of light, most people don’t so hero gossip tabloids tend to leave me alone for the most part, I get a fair bit of freedom when it comes to this sort of thing because of that. There are probably plenty of photos of us together out there, though people usually assume they’re my manager or a secretary or just a friend.” Luna is purring loudly in his hand, her body largely slack against his chest. He walks her over to the couch and sets her down, which she warbles angrily at, “to be honest though I prefer it this way. I’m a private person.” “That makes sense...well, their cat sure likes you.” Shoji points and Kugo chuckles. “I’m fond of her myself.” Kugo admits, “everything is as it should be here so we can head out again, sorry for the tangent.” He scratches Luna’s neck and sighs, “as for you I’ll be back tonight. So try to behave until then, for my sake alright?” Jiro tries not to laugh at the sight. “I didn’t think you’d actually bring them up! Did they like her?” You sound delighted about it over the phone that night. “I may have knocked a few intimidation points off of myself, but yes they thought she was cute.” He was sitting with her, contemplating staying the night here. He was embarrassed to say it but this was the longest you’d spent apart in a while and despite any appearances, he had gone soft and was starting to miss you, being around your stuff was nice even if he didn’t fit too well in your bed. “I don’t think you’re very intimidating at all.” You peep back thoughtlessly. “Well, I’d sure hope not.” He chuckles and leans against the couch, “she’s been good too I was,..expecting her to break more.” Truthfully Kugo wasn’t sure what he was expecting, he never had pets growing up and hero work didn’t give much free time to consider one, it took a day to get comfortable with her, and even now he was watching his every step for her. “I’m glad to hear that!” You laugh, “she’s a pretty great cat isn't she?” “I have to agree..” Kugo wouldn’t mind having her around all the time, the longer he sat on your couch and contemplated it the more he realized he wouldn't mind having the both of you around all the time. Was this some sort of emotional sign to ask you to stay with him? He’d give that more thought at a later date. “Kugo are you listening?” “Of course I am.” He was not. You don’t seem perturbed though, chuckling and then sighing fondly, “I’m gonna go shower then call it a night, I miss you two though.” Kugo looks down at the cat on his lap and he nods, “we miss you too. I’ll be up for a bit longer so call or text me if you need anything.” “You shouldn’t stay up so late Kugo it’s bad for you-” “I know, I know, I’ll turn over a new leaf when you get back.” “Sure you will.” You snort, “I love you Kugo.” “I love you too, I’ll see you soon.” You wanted to see Kugo first thing when you got back but you were so exhausted that you can’t help sulking to your own place, things had gone well enough but all the commotion and travel really drained you. You were sure it wasn’t anything spending some time or even a night with Kugo couldn’t fix though. When you shoulder your door open though there’s Kugo, sitting on your couch. “Kugo, you’re here?” He’s holding some papers in one hand, the other is holding Luna’s back, keeping her against his chest. “I was just checking in on her but every time I tried to leave she started..making a weird noise.” “Weird like how?” You chuckle, suddenly feeling much better. “Sort of like screaming. But cat-like. I sat down and she clawed her way up here, then fell asleep and almost fell off, but I caught her and she hasn’t moved since.” “And... how long ago was that?” “What time is it?” “Half-past 6.” “2 hours ago. I didn’t want to wake her.” “Kugo.” You laugh and sit beside him, “you’re so sweet.” You wrap both of your arms around one of his and lean into his shoulder, “I missed you so much.” “I missed you too.” Kugo sets the papers down on the pile by the arm of the couch, “It's sort of embarrassing but I even stayed here a few nights because of it. I can’t remember the last time I went even 2 days without seeing you.” He appreciates the way you seem to melt into him at that. “That’s not embarrassing it’s sweet, you’re so cute Kugo...” You lean up and kiss him, “such a big softie aren’t you?” A soft hum is his reply as you pull away, “was she any trouble? Be honest.” “I was worried at first that I’d screw it up somehow but it went fine.” He confesses as he lifts the cat off his chest and she’s sleepy and limp in his big hand, purring contentedly. “She was acting up the 2nd day but I think she was just confused about not seeing you. Then she got used to me and was alright.” “That’s cute..” You yawn and clamber onto his lap, “god all that traveling tired me out...you’ve been stuck here for 2 hours but I might have to trap you a little longer to take a catnap of my own. I think Luna’s onto something...” You nestle into his shoulder, grateful to feel his arms come around you. “Don’t worry about me.” He hums as Luna curls up in the sliver of space between your bodies, “I just want to finish reading over some things. Then I'll bring you both to bed.” “You’ll stay tonight?” You yawn again and he hums, you can tell he’s smiling even though you can’t see him. “Would you like me to?” You nod into his shoulder, “yeah, I would...” “Alright then I will. Now go to sleep, you need it.”

#kugo sakamata x reader #gang orca x reader #vlad king x reader #kan sekijiro x reader #bnha x reader #bnha requests

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I Thought About "Escaping Expulsion" From The Owl House

Salutations random people on the internet who most likely won’t read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Do you wanna know what I love the most about The Owl House? The writers waste no time getting to the good stuff.

Things like Willow working things out with Amity, Lumity, Lilith's redemption, and Luz's fight with Belos are stuff that most shows would drag out and wait upon using until several seasons down the line. Most of them for the final season. And yet, it all happens in the first! The writers somehow knew what the fans exactly wanted and gave them just that before they even had to ask.

Take "Escaping Expulsion," for example, as it has some great plot points and ideas I thought would happen later in the season and maybe even near the end. But it's only episode TWO of the new season, and I'm appreciative of it for that reason alone.

But explaining the good stuff this episode delivers requires spoilers, so if you haven't watched the episode yet (even though you definitely have at this point), I recommend that you do so. Now let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Blight Industries: Huh. I'll be the first to admit: I would have never expected that the main reason why the Blights are rich is because of their technological advancements. Large in part of how the Boiling Isles is a fantasy world, and rarely do you see technology taking place in a setting such as that. Still, points for total expectation subversion added with some pretty cool tech, I might add.

Odalia Blight: It's nice to put a face to the name I've grown to hate with a fiery passion. Now I can update my dartboard!

But to tell you the truth, it feels weird saying I like someone so vile. I mean, the woman is a manipulative, smarmy b-word who nearly killed Luz. Anybody who does that last part deserves to go on my s**t list! I despise her with the same fiery passion I've had since "Understanding Willow" premiered...and it's that reason why I like her.

Because here's the thing: Characters and people are two different things. If Odalia existed in real life, she better hope that I never meet her. But as a character whose purpose is to have the audience hate her, she succeeds with flying colors. It's the same reason why I consider it unfair to hate an episode like "Something Ventured and Someone Framed" because Mattholomule exists. I get it but understand that hating him is his purpose. It's the same with Odalia. I love her, but only because I love to hate her.

Alador Blight: Wow. I guess Alador really is the lesser of two evils.

By the way, keep in mind that I said "lesser of two evils" and not "the nice one." I don't care how adorable it is to see him get distracted by a butterfly. He's still an abusive figure who stood aside as Luz fought for her life against the Abomitron and still goes along with Odalia's plans despite how heinous they are. And whenever I remember how he treated Amity in "Understanding Willow" as well--

Also, don't make him neurodivergent so he can seem redeemable. It is painfully obvious that he is just exhausted after hours of toiling away in his lab working on his inventions to the point that his brain is beyond fried.

Now, seeing that I've dismissed the argument about how Alador is the nice one, let's actually talk about his character. Because I can see what Dana Terrace meant when she said that he's interesting. He's not explicitly as awful as Odalia, as he mostly seems to be in his own little world half the time. Despite that, Alador still shows signs of being just as dismissive of Amity in general. You see this as he focuses on how her strength shows signs of Amity being a potential coven leader instead of noticing how his daughter nearly died to his own invention. Alador doesn't manipulate, but he doesn't love his daughter in a way a father should either. I'm very intrigued by this route for his character, and I can't wait to see what is done next with him.

Amity’s Amulet: My heart sank when I realized the true purpose behind Amity's amulet. The thought that Odalia found a way to literally be in Amity's head at all times...I hate that. I mean, I love it because it's A+ storytelling and symbolism, BUT I F**KING HATE IT!

Amity in General: And seeing how we're already talking about Amity, let's dive into the fact that "Escaping Expulsion" is easily her best outing so far in the series. I say this because it really puts to the test Amity's dedication to being a part of the group. You can tell by her expressions and Mae Whitman's performance that Amity so desperately wants to help her friends, but she can't due to being afraid of her mother's wrath. Which doesn't surprise me, given what we know about Odalia so far. But what does surprise me is that Amity stands up to Odalia in this very same episode. I expected it for sure, but most likely at the end of the season, due to most shows dragging out a similar concept for drama's sake. However, as I said, the writers don't waste time giving the fans what they want. So, yeah, Amity defies her mother in the very same episode we're officially introduced to her. And it's totally believable, as Amity has been fighting her parent's control ever since Luz literally showed her the light after "Covention" (click here if you don't believe me). It's yet another impressive showcase of Amity's character development and how she's leagues ahead of other redeemable characters who would go through five more episodes like this before getting to the point.

Luz in General: But enough about Amity. For now, let's talk about the actual best character of the series!

Just like Amity, Luz is on top form in "Escaping Expulsion." She is quick to call 'applesauce' about Odalia and Alador expelling the Hex-Squad and is smart enough to figure out the deal Odalia is worming her way into making. Several people classify Luz as stupid, and while she definitely leaps before she looks at times, this episode proves that Luz isn't going to fall for the sweet talk that someone like Odalia offers. As reckless as she can be, Luz is still intelligent enough to know what someone like Odalia wants and cuts to the chase despite knowing the woman can't be trusted. Still, Luz going through with the deal anyways is fantastic character work for her as it shows her dedication to the people she cares about. It hurts my heart to see Luz get all beat up from Alador's inventions, but her willingness to put up with it for her friends is an act of service I wouldn't have expected from anyone else. "Escaping Expulsion" may be more centered around Amity, but it still proves why Luz earns her spot for one of my favorite characters.

Learning How Glyphs Work: Another solid aspect of The Owl House is that the writers find brilliant ways for world-building and explaining the rules of the Boiling Isles. Take this episode's b-plot, for instance. Eda and Lilith need to learn how to do Luz's version of magic, so having an entire section of the episode dedicated to them figuring it out is a perfect outlet to explain how glyphs work in the first place. Although, I have some tribulations with this subplot that I'll get into with the dislikes. But I still consider this a brilliant workaround to explain glyphs, even if specific executions could be handled better.

The Fairy Pie: Not only is this well-crafted dark humor, and not only is it adorable as hell, but it also shows how Amity has calmed down with her feelings toward Luz. She still blushes when handing over the fairy pie, but it is certainly more subdued in comparison to "Wing it Like Witches." I like to think the time off from her (and our) favorite weirdo helped cool down those emotions a bit, but that doesn't mean she won't get slightly flustered every now and again. Because as much as I adore seeing cool and collective, I'm still very much a fan of Disaster Amity due to how cute it is.

Principle Bump: "This character is underappreciated!"

"That character doesn't get enough love!"

YOU WANNA KNOW WHO'S UNDERAPPRECIATED AND DOESN'T GET ENOUGH LOVE?! PRINCIPAL GOSH DANG BUMP, THAT'S WHO!

So many kids' shows focus on how educators are the bad guy who treats students poorly because they love seeing children suffer. But that's not Bump! Sure, he made a misstep in "The First Day," but for the most part, he really cares for his students and hopes that they work hard to be their better selves. So when he's forced to send Luz, Gus, and Willow away, he's genuinely saddened by it to the point where he breaks down crying! On top of being wholesome, Bump missing his students is another example that a character shouldn't be written as evil just because they run a school. Sure, there are scumbag teachers and principals out there, but for others, they're a lot like Bump: People who show admiration and respect to their students rather than ridicule because a principle "just doesn't get it." And I appreciate Bump all the more for it.

Gus and Willow: It feels weird that these two basically got sidelined, especially since they have a stake in the plot as well, but it's understandable. "Escaping Expulsion" is clearly more Amity-centered, and with Luz being the main character, it would also be odd if she didn't get more of the focus than her friends. Having them do more would have been great, but what they've already accomplished is pretty decent anyway. They show how much they're on the same page as Luz when trying to figure out a way to sneak back into Hexide, Willow is still the best voice of reason when saying no one will be killed through their plans, and Gus wins the comedic highlights in the episode. While I would have loved that they did more, I'm perfectly fine with what we got. Besides, this is only episode two of Season Two. We got nineteen more episodes to go to focus on these two.

King: Ok, now, this is the version of King I like to see. A character that mocks Eda as if they're equals and acts as a reluctant voice of reason. This episode shows King more at his best and is a major step above what we've seen in "Separate Tides."

Lilith: ...Yeah, f**k it. I like Lilith.

Personally, I would have preferred seeing her dragged through the coals at least a few episodes, but that's judging the show for what I want. Not what it is. And as is...It's fine. Lilith has a great dynamic with the rest of the Owl House, it's honestly adorable seeing her refer to Luz as a teacher, and that scene where she makes presents out of ice for Hooty is all kinds of wholesome. I'd say your enjoyment of Lilith highly depends on how forgiving you are, and if you think her splitting the curse is enough of a gesture, you probably won't mind her as much. The execution of her redemption really could have used more time in the oven, but Lilith is still a decent character regardless, so what's to complain about.

Luz Making the Abomination Have a Cat Face: ...Luz...I f**king missed you.

DON'T EVER LEAVE FOR THAT LONG AGAIN!

(Also, I just love that this is all Amity needed to know Luz was in trouble)

Hop Pop Cameo: He's on the cover of one of the books Willow's dad lifts up. Which is extra cute given how Dana Terrace and Matt Braley (creator of Amphibia) are close friends in real life.

Willow’s Dad Pretending Not to See Anything: One single action defines the type of man this guy is. He's the fun and understanding dad!

Gus, Willow, and Amity Arguing How to Break In: This little quarrel just shows how much these three need Luz. Without someone to keep the peace and bring up compromises, these idiots would have just kept arguing all night.

In addition to that, this clash over ideas acts as a showcase for who these characters are. Willow is careful and smart, so she's going for the option more unlikely to get them caught. Amity is brash and to the point, so she's going for the route that gets them inside as soon as possible. And then there's Gus, who's young and naive, so his plan sounds like something out of a cartoon. The odds of any of these plans working are highly debatable, but seeing these characters with clashing personalities and ideas is a ton of fun to watch regardless.

Edric and Emira Helping: There's not much to add here. It's just another sweet scene that makes me so glad that the writers decided to make Ed and Em more like supporting characters than minor antagonists like "Lost in Language" made fans think they would be.

(Amity throwing the "Hex me" signs back at Edric is just the cherry on top).

“Stay away from my Luz!”: ...What the f**k do you want me to say that? It's f**king perfect!

Luz Catching Feelings for Amity: ...Huh. Neat.

...

...Alright, let's move on.

Luz Wanting to Take a Nap After--Yeah, I can't do it. Not even for the joke.

WAH-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO! MU! TU! AL! PINING! AH-HAHAHA!

THIS! This is more of that good s**t I'm talking about! Due to being so used to other shows going for the slow burn when writing the endgame romance, I was expecting Luz to catch feelings halfway through the season, even at the end of it. But near the beginning?! That is something I am more than ok with!

And much like Amity standing up to her parents in this episode, Luz catching feelings this early on is totally believable. Many fans have already analyzed how Luz's love language is "Acts of Service," which I'm somewhat sure is romantic gestures. Meaning that I f**king challenge you to find a grander gesture than holding back a literal killing machine while swooping down like a knight in shining armor! Oh, wait, you can't. BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANY!

But by far, the best--the BEST--thing that can come from this is the dramatic irony! We, the audience, know that Luz and Amity like each other, but they don't. So the constant failings as these two fools try to work out their romantic feelings for one another is something I cannot wait to see in all its glory.

This is one of the best things that could have come out of the episode, and while it doesn't mean Lumity is canon, it is definitely closer than ever before. And I'm excited about all of it!

Luz Wanting to Take a Nap After Getting Home: I adore this because there's no one way that this can be interpreted. Either it's because Luz is exhausted after nearly getting killed for the fifteenth time that month, or it's because Luz is overwhelmed about having a crush on Amity...or both. Most likely both.

Belos Wanting The Abomatrons: Wow, what an ominous ending to the episode! I'm sure it won't come into play at all in the future...The season finale is going to hurt, isn't it?

WHAT I DISLIKED

Gus’ Growth Spurt: I mean...that's just weird. Gus suddenly being almost as tall as the others is a change so jarring that I feel like an explanation other than "witch puberty" is required. I get that they wanted to explain away why Issac Ryan Brown's voice got deep this season, 'cause puberty's a b**ch. But sometimes I feel like it's best to just ignore it, like with how Phineas and Ferb or Steven Universe just goes along with the fact that VAs tend to grow up when the characters themselves remain ageless.

Eda is Kinda Stupid in this One: It's not just me, right? Because I feel like Eda is more careful in the past than she is in this episode. She's been as reckless as Luz is at times, sure, but carelessly screwing around with magic when she has no idea how it works? I can maybe see King doing that, but not Eda. Just seeing her act dumber than usual is something that doesn't sit right with me.

Lilith Explaining Her Glyph Magic: I don't mind this. Glyph magic is pretty confusing, so having Lilith explain how it works to Eda and the audience is something I can understand. My issue, however, lies in how they did this.

Why, in the name of all that is holy, would Lilith explain her theory after the fact. It would be much more natural if she explained while saving King, but doing it after comes across as more forced than it should. Which is a shame because this series is usually on point when explaining how things work in the Boiling Isles.

And...That's about all the complaints I have with this episode. Which are nothing but nitpicks and possibly personal preferences.

IN CONCLUSION

If I'm willing to forgive and forget, I would give "Escaping Expulsion" a well-earned A+. But I'm not, so it's going to be another solid A. And, I mean, if you complain about that...there's something wrong with you.

"Escaping Expulsion" delivers on quite a bit of what fans want to see on top of giving these great character moments that show why we love these casts of oddballs and weirdos. I wouldn't say it reached perfection, but it still carries the winning streak that this new season has so far. Meaning there's no escaping the fact that Season Two is off to a better start than the first.

(Although, the fact that we got two solid As in a row means that we're in for a stinker real soon, doesn't it?)

#the owl house #the owl house season two #the owl house review #what i thought about #odalia blight #alador blight #amity blight #luz noceda #principal bump #willow park #gus porter #king of demons #lilith clawthorne #edalyn clawthorne #lumity

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drkineildwicks · 3 years

Text

So I had a BH6 dream last night/this morning

Good things

Basically I dreamed that BH6 got a new TV show that wasn’t Baymax!

It’s nice to have a dream

Anyway more under the cut, cut included because some of the sketchy-sketches are a bit creepy (such as that one with the severed arm ew):

Dream opened with me and Mom in the living room, her flipping through channels as she does, flipped past this show and I went “wait go back I don’t remember that episode”

TURNS OUT IT WAS BECAUSE IT WAS A NEW SHOW

Done in the same vein and art style as BH6: the Series with the same music

Only it also acted as a soft reboot because it was ignoring the show past City of Monsters

But basically it was a workaround of the “3 season rule” and in the vein of HTTYD with “Riders of Berk” and then “Defenders of Berk”

One of the Amaras (probably Di) was back and trying to get her monsters working again but this time with no preexisting revenue

It was going…questionably

Also everything was green-tinged in this show

Hiro and the gang, meantime, were working in this sort of…like repair shop in/near Good Luck Alley

I think as an undercover thing over the summer

I know Barb from High Voltage was there

(Baymax and Mochi were in the dream too but I forgot where or why)

Fred brought his Gameboy Advance SP and copy of Pokémon Ruby in so Wasabi could fix them X’D

(which, for the record, mood)

And there was a raid and some guy who looked like Finch from Person of Interest got arrested?

Also there were a lot of OCs and I could not tell you anything about any of them because, and I quote my thought process at the time, I don’t care about these guys where are the BH6 characters are they trying to phase them out and use them as legacy characters???

Although I would like to know what this guy’s damage was

I felt like there was a parade of OCs but this is the guy that stuck out IDK why

But there were definitely more than a few undercover monsters scurrying around that could shift to something bigger

And I don’t know if it was because in the dream we caught it after it started or if it started in media res, but Tadashi??? Was there??? Alive???

The team was interacting with him, no one—Hiro included—was freaking out, and yet this was post-CoM???

Which reminds me, I need to work on Safe In Brother’s Wings

Which is worth mentioning because I TOLD MYSELF THAT IN THE DREAM

My work ethic haunts me

I do recall—or maybe it was waking self trying to sort this out—that they weren’t telling Aunt Cass about him yet, hence working at this shady place

But there was also a sus element

Especially when he went to take the trash out and one of the little incognito monsters interacted with him and he had this expression

So I’m left thinking that maybe he’s a clone or a robot or some other explanation and ???

Like yeah Di’s back and making monsters but I could sense that this was the big hook for the show

And then when the show block ended and a new episode started (or maybe it was a commercial??? The dream had commercials) the logo for the show popped up

It was called Big Hero 6 2: Legacies

And let me tell you I was VERY UPSET when I woke up and realized my mind had made this whole thing up because DANGIT I WAS EXCITED FOR A BH6TS SEQUEL AIRING ON DISNEY XD

I hate it when my dreams make up new shows because it formats it like something I find while scrolling through the TV

Because I am always salty when I wake up to find no, it’s not on the TiVo

But this time it had to go the extra mile and get dream-Mom involved

I mean yeah I could tell it was a dream halfway through because perspective shifted from my living room to into the show but dangit I was INVESTED

So hopefully my very unhelpful brain will give me more on this soon but in the meantime share in my disappointment when I woke up and found that I had been given a glimpse into a universe where this existed but my TiVo had not :(

(also anyone wants cleaned-up versions of the sketches I might add that to my to-do list)

#bh6 #big hero 6 #big hero 6 the series #big hero six #big hero six the series #big hero 6 2: legacies #dream au #I was very upset with myself when I woke up and realized it didn't exist :(

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stitch1830 · 3 years

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hahahah and it continues. prompt number 12 pretty please

#12 - “Despite what you think, I am completely capable of taking care of myself”

“Twinkletoes, I beg of you, please stop hovering.”

“No can do, T.”

Toph groaned. The airhead never left her side normally, but now she felt like she was being suffocated. She knew it was all out of love and devotion or whatever people said, but still. Aang had been glued to her side for months and the earthbender needed some space. She tried to ask as calmly as she could, “May I ask why?”

She could feel Aang shrug his shoulders and the smile on his face as he replied, “Can I not hang out with my beautiful, awesome wife all the time?”

Toph raised an eyebrow at him, and he continued, “I just want to help in any way I can, Toph! You’re doing all the hard work here, so I will be here by your side until the baby comes.”

The earthbender huffed. “Whatever! I’m pregnant, I’m not dying or immobile. I can go to the store for groceries and shit!”

“Well, I’m a better grocery shopper anyway, so I think even after the baby comes I’ll take care of that.”

Toph frowned. She didn’t care for grocery shopping, so if Aang did that from now on she wouldn’t hate that. But she countered, “But you certainly don’t have to follow me into work and walk me home! Don’t you have other responsibilities to take care of?”

“I was actually thinking that maybe we could do that after, too! I’ve had a lot of fun walking to and from work with you. Helps plan out the day.”

The earthbender opened her mouth to give a retort, but then closed it. Toph actually liked the walks too.

But this couldn’t be the end of the argument! She needed a bit of space from Aang, even if it was only temporary. Toph loved the airhead, but she sometimes found his love to be just too much (in a very endearing way, of course).

So, she pulled out all the stops for her last arguing point. “Okay, fine, Twinkletoes. But please! Just a bit of space. I know you’re worried about me and shit and you want to help out, but I’m just pregnant. I’m not completely bedridden or anything. I’m only moving a bit slower and am carrying a couple extra kilos for the next few months.”

Aang was silent for a moment, but she knew that wouldn’t be enough if she wanted a piece of freedom.

“And despite what you think, I am completely capable of taking care of myself.”

There. She got him there with that comment. Aang knew how much she hated being handled by anyone. He knew to back off.

But instead of sounds of defeat, Toph heard her husband chuckle.

He slowly inched his way to Toph, then gently placed a hand on her protruding belly. “What if I said I’m staying close to help around for the baby, not you? You’re certainly capable, but I’m not sure the baby is quite yet. I’m just practicing for when she arrives.”

Well. That was certainly a workaround for her argument.

He got her there…

Fucking pregnancy negotiation loophole.

Toph let out a defeated sigh and hung her head low. Aang just laughed and hugged her. He lifted her chin and left a small kiss on her lips.

“Okay okay, I see that I’m hovering too much. I’ll back off just a little.”

A breath of relief left Toph’s lips. Finally, the start of a compromise.

Toph smiled and pulled Aang back for another kiss.

...

Ask me to write based on a quote. I typically only write for Taang but can attempt Zutara and Sukka lol (just might not be good).

#taang #atla #toph #aang #quote writing prompt #thanks for the ask comfy #smh havent made a dent in your asks tho lol #slow and steady wins the race #my asks

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antagonistchan · 4 years

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in the past month i've rapidly found myself becoming a serious video tech person initially to make my own videos work better but now i'm finding myself helping other people do this shit too

i'd definitely been dabbling in this sort of thing since i graduated high school (like, almost exactly since i graduated high school, i started using Adobe Premiere like the same week i graduated) in 2016, and i did a little more last year, but not to this extent

i like it! this sort of thing is really fun for me (i never understand when youtubers complain about how much editing their videos sucks, editing's fun yo) and it's super easy to hyperfocus on and i like being The Tech Gal

and it doesn't even cost money. anymore at least. i used to use Adobe Premiere and that cost me like $100 but i don't use it anymore lol. but like i've always heard people on the internet SWEAR by Sony Vegas as the only really viable option out there, like "oh if you want to get into content creation you NEED Sony Vegas" and Sony Vegas is like $600 so that always discouraged me

but the video editor i use nowadays, Shotcut, is open-source and i fucking love it

the only two problems i have with it are -i hate how it handles text outlines (and there are workarounds for this) -and it crashes a lot when working with really big files (and this isn't as bad as it sounds because it boots up super quickly and it autosaves a lot so it never takes long for me to get right back into things)

and like, i also started using OBS for some personal shit last year and i was never really that actually *good* at using OBS, i bumbled my way around a LOT of shit

but in the past month i've REALLY figured out how to work my way around OBS just a few hours ago in particular, i helped a friend record a stream he was doing, and i learned a shit ton about how to mess around with my sources while i was actively helping with the stream

#antagonist originals #i've also gotten pretty good at organizing shit

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asklyra · 4 years

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2020 AskLyra Something Something Video Game Talk-about

I haven’t done this in like 3 years. I usually don’t play very many different vidjas (instead playing only a few for months at a time). This year I did play many different vidjas. I’ma talk into the void about ‘em. Maybe you’ll hear me and comment (also another thank you to all the people that have gifted me games)!

Dauntless

Fun game for a good while. It’s like a F2P version of Monster Hunter. The end-game threw me off, but I had a good time getting there.

Earth Defense Force 5

Not as good as EDF 4.1. I don’t think that’s a fair to say, but I said it. EDF 5 is the superior title, but it lacks the progression and sense of dread that would slowly come over you in EDF 4.1′s campaign as you played this silly, campy game. EDF 5 is good, and if you played 4.1 you should play 5. But once it’s over, it won’t hold you for as long as 4.1 did.

Portal Knights

It received (what is presumably) it’s final update this year. And it’s good! I had got kind of tired of it by the time the final update released (I’ve played it for over 600 hours), but it’s good! Just make sure you get it on Steam. Other versions of the game are missing features.

Risk of Rain 2

Very fun game. Wholly different than the original RoR; the third dimension completely changes things. Gameplay is much more frantic and the game is overall much harder. The environments are cool. The characters all play different. AND! AND! They brought back my favorite, Acrid! That was awesome!

XCOM: Chimera Squad

This was an interesting one. What if XCOM played and progressed more like a typical SRPG, with designated characters that have unique abilities (with room for customization, of course). The answer was... pretty good! I was disappointed that in my playthrough I didn’t get snek (it’s RNG which characters you get), but I had a great time and I’d like to play through it again!

Phantasy Star Online 2

Decent game. Varied gameplay per class. Fun boss fights. What you actually do in the game is extremely repetitive. The story (and its pacing), was the worst I’ve ever seen in any video game ever, and it treats you like you’re an absolute moron. As bad as FF14′s story was up until like level 40, this is so much worse. And it somehow gets worse.

Genshin Impact

Okay, follow me here. Nier: Automata’s gameplay meets Breath of the Wild’s environments, with a heavier focus on story and world building than either of those games. There are lots of characters to play, lots of environments and puzzles. There is more content in this game now (which is still updating, they just released a new sub-area days ago) than there was in BotW period. And it’s free. I have over a dozen different characters and I’ve never paid anything.

I need to make sure this is understood. This game... should not exist. Have you seen the gaming landscape in the last decade? It’s dire. But the environments here are gorgeous. The characters are charming. Even NPCs have identity. It’s got humor. It’s got drama. It’s got mystic. And it’s free? This is insane. Forget what you may have heard, this is the game of the year.

Satellite Reign

While a little buggy (and not well optimized), I was surprised to find a very enjoyable game here. Which is especially impressive since I went in thinking this was an SRPG- but no. This is Stealth-Action RTS. So yeah. Cool game, but absolutely vital that you seek and read as many data caches as possible or the ending won’t make any sense.

2064 Read Only Memories

Mmm... This is why I tell people I don’t like adventure games. I loved the setting. I loved the characters. I loved the music. I loved the voice acting (at least for all the main characters). I really loved the humor. I hated playing this game. Oh my God, it’s so boring. This game is between 10-20 hours long, but it’s gameplay is not varied enough for that. And it’s not like there weren’t mini-games or puzzles, but they’re so few and spread out.

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die

On the other end of the spectrum, this is an incomplete game that was overall, a much more enjoyable experience. There’s less work involved to find the funny stuff and while I don’t like QUEs, at least those made the experience engaging. And that’s the difference between games like D4 and Night in the Woods, and games like ROM. You are a video game. Engage your player!

Fallout Tactics

I was gonna play this. After Satellite Reign turned out to not be an SRPG, I was in the mindset and everything. But it wouldn’t start. Found out the Steam version is garbage, and even if you use a workaround to get it to boot, it can corrupt your save data! So...

Yakuza 0

Wow. I haven’t played a game polished like this since Automata. When I started the game I thought it was just the one combat style. Then I got another. And another. And then I switched characters. And they had 3 fighting styles too. Plus there’s weapons. Plus the second character has alternate weapon styles. There’s so many side quests and activities. It’s like Shunmue meets GTA, but with heart.

I haven’t finished it yet, but with how the story’s been so far, I can’t imagine them dropping the ball. And that scene with Kiryu and Nishiki after the car ride? That was powerful. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a scene like that in cinematography.

This is a track in a menu for a system you can completely ignore.

This game is amazing!

#games #games games games #dear celestia so many games #oh god do i really gotta tag all of this?#okay here we go #Dauntless #EDF 5 #Portal Knights #RoR2 #XCOM Chimera Squad #PSO2 #Genshin Impact #Satellite Reign #2064 ROM #D4 #Fallout Tactics i guess #Yakuza 0

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stilwaterskeeter · 5 years

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Rewriting Saints Row IV

Hi this is my absolute least favorite game of the series and I kind of hate it! But here I am regardless putting my time and efforts into making an entire post dedicated to what I like and (in my opinions) how to fix the parts I don’t like...

This is also written to match by SRTT post rather than the base canon for the games! Which literally changes nothing but Johnny is already known to be alive before this game, so yknow...

This is also a HUGE post whoops

And again, this is just for fun. Don’t like it? Don’t interact with it. I’m not forcing you to read this. That being said, I do like discussing this kind of stuff so I totally up if you wanna just talk about alternatives or how you think things would play out and stuff

Plot/Story Specific Changes:

President’s Cabinet:

Fuck Keith David! Get him out of here! Leave sir! Go back to your movies!

Johnny Gat is our new Vice President because we know regardless of his skill at the matter, The Boss would make him his VP

This also gives Ben King a lot more reason to hold it against The Boss that he isn’t the VP, because at least before Keith David was a likable actor and had his own skillset for the role. Now it’s Johnny fucking Gat who has all the diplomatic and political tact of a shoe

The Boss’ dream isn’t some stupid 50s sitcom, that was so dumb, hardehar 50s is so nice and polite my ass

I think shit like meeting Julius, the boat explosion, Dex’s attempt to kill them, Magarac Statue blowing up even if they tried to go there, Johnny bleeding out after the fight with Jyunichi, and probably much more are better suited pieces to a much larger much more intimidating and genuine nightmare sim that would have broken The Boss inevitably

All the times they almost died because they weren’t quick enough, all the times they just barely saved their friends? A lot scarier than “oh noes I cawn’t kiww anybodwy uwu” crap

Zinyak doesn't really destroy the Earth

First of all: I don’t think he’d waste so many potential assets over the folly of one idiot

Second of all: The man’s supposed to be like a genius of sorts? So I find it ridiculous that he doesn’t have the ability to hide the fact that Earth is Actually Totally Fine from an idiot like The Boss

Third of all: To avoid Kinzie being oh so smart and debunking Zinyak’s scheme- She’s absolutely distraught when the Earth blew up and surprisingly caught up in her emotions, a pretty new thing for her. So I think it’s plausible she would bee too caught up in the moment to do much and afterwards is too caught up trying to help The Boss find and rescue what they believe is the last hopes for humanity

Kinzie doesn’t save anyone before The Boss, she goes straight for The Boss and before trying to go to Earth, they rescue Johnny Gat

Kinzie was prepared prior to saving The Boss with a few locations already in mind that she found as she was looking for them

One of which obvs ended up being Johnny

Another of which is a Surprise Prison that will help us later

All she knows is that it’s definitely based from Stilwater in ye olden days (first game, not actually ye olden days lmao) so she was assuming it was definitely either The Boss or Johnny

(Spoiler it’s Lin)

Additionally: The sim we do activities and hang out in isn’t Steelport. It should have been Stilwater and you know it.

After the Earth is “destroyed” and The Boss needs to go back into the sim and start recruiting people, Johnny steps in a lot when discussing who to save next

Sorry Matt, your rescue is getting pushed back a little

Johnny’s very adamant about not saving Matt first, “We are not saving that little goth punk whatever kid before we save our girl and Pierce. I don’t give a fuck that you’re president, I’m impeaching you, we’re saving Shaundi next. Not Matt.”

Shaundi’s nightmare sim stays relatively the same, but maybe polish up the writing better

I like her nightmare and the angle, but the writing just felt very,,,awkward to me?

She was supposed to be hung up on feeling helpless and the fact that she felt that because she was always “the damsel” and in need of protection, that Johnny was gone

But the writing kind of just skimmed over that

Then they save Pierce because, yeah, they give him a lot of shit, but he’s one of Johnny and The Boss and Shaundi’s closest friends and Johnny’s already made it clear they’re not saving anyone else until they got both Shaundi and Pierce back

Then you have the 3 rescues that you pick the order for

Asha

Ben

Matt

Then comes the replacement for Johnny’s canon rescue; It’s Lin’s Rescue Now

Kinzie isn’t sure who it really could be because they already have The Boss and Johnny, and they’ve already identified which sim is Ben’s

She asks Pierce and Shaundi for help trying to identify the sim while Johnny and The Boss are fuckin around in the sim

Neither of them have a clue who it could be

But both of them recognize the invading gang members in the sim as Westside Rollerz members so they recommend asking Johnny and The Boss about it

Johnny and The Boss have a moment of “Holy fucking shit, there’s no way” “It couldn’t be her, could it?” all the while the rest of the crew is just like “Any day now, who couldn’t it be?”

Lin’s nightmare sim is the events following up to her kidnapping and then the moments before Zinyak got her when she was in the process of drowing

A street race where some shithead Roller sabotaged Lin’s car so she had to forfeit midrace and then some guys kidnap her

I was figuring you’d be racing to catch up to her and then the race ends for you when she has to pullover

And then a brief cutscene of her trying to fight of some Rollerz goons while The Boss is locked in their car and can’t get out no matter how hard they try to break the window or bust it open

Then a followup cutscene Lin and Sharp arguing about The Playa not arriving to her rescue

“It appears to me like your little friend won’t be joining us. Oh well, we’ll take care of them soon enough. For now, just you will have to do.”

“Could your head be any further up your ass? Get on with it already, I’m getting bored here.”

And a short line from The Boss like, “What an asshole, jokes on him I wasted that son of a bitch years ago. And I’m not leaving without Lin this time.”

The last part is a timed boss battle with Sharp

Kinzie’s trying to do her tech thing and find a workaround to save Lin from drowning while The Boss fends off Sharp and miscellaneous goons

After Lin’s rescued and Sharp is dead, she steals the gun from The Boss in a cutscene and empties it into Sharp

“I have been waiting too fucking long to do that.”

There’s a brief reunion scene between her and The Boss

“Man, you don’t know how glad I am to see you.”

“Oh. My. God. You can fucking talk, that’s almost as crazy as the fact I’ve been living in this hellhole for years....You look good, did you do something to your hair?”

“You have no idea, Lin. You’ve missed a lot.”

“Nothing we can’t talk about over a beer after we get out of here. Speaking of, you got a plan for that or-?”

Kinzie chimes in, “I do.”

Kinzie isn’t the one who defends Matt when he says the mission is a bad idea because that was dumb and out of character, agree with him maybe, but not defend him

Instead of Keith’s betrayal/loyalty mission/whatever; We get Lin going into the simulation on her own to try and save Donnie after having Matt find his sim for her when The Boss pushes off saving Donnie as something to do later since Donnie’s not exactly useful in a mission like saving the universe and destroying Zinyak

“How do you even know he’s not dead? What makes you think Zinyak even abducted him?”

“Because I know he’s still alive, and Matt found him.”

“Look, we’ll take care of this after we end Zinyak. There’s no cars for him to rig or information to leak to us with these guys.”

“There’s gotta be a fucking reason he got abducted, playa. He’s worth saving.”

Johnny chimes in, “We’re not saving your stupid boyfriend right now, Lin. We have bigger fucking problems to deal with.”

It just progresses into a whole fight and the others are kind of just like....”Holy shit....there’s three of them now.” until Ben King steps in and tells them to all shut the fuck up

“Listen, Lin. We’re going to get your boy, but we aren’t doing it now. It’ll be the first thing after we kick Zinyak’s ass.”

The Boss chimes in, “Who said anything about the f-”

“I said...it’ll be the first thing we do, got it?”

Donnie’s nightmare sim is The Boss attacking his garage but Lin never shows up and instead he gets “killed” and then it’s The Boss harassing him and attacking him to get him to rig the Brotherhood vehicles and for the location of Carlos and Maero threatening him and ultimately “killing” him as well and then repeat

Bet The Boss kind of feels a little bad about always picking on him now, huh

Lin is at least, she feels guilty about setting up the raid on Donnie’s garage in SR1 and then just feels really pissed off about The Boss going after him more in SR2

Eventually The Boss shows up to help and with some hacking skills(TM) is given their superpowers and Lin is given powers as well to save Donnie

Obviously he can’t believe Lin is fucking ALIVE let alone just SAVED his ass

“Y-You’re alive? But Mr.Sharp killed you! A-And I let him! They found your body in the river and-....where the hell have you been for so long?”

“Listen, Donnie, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Are you sure? Because Earth got invaded by aliens and I’ve been dying repeatedly everyday since.”

“Shit, yeah. That son of a bitch, Zinyak, saved my ass from drowning back in Stilwater. This asshole over her saved me from that.”

“I bet their to blame for all this! It’s always their fault! Ultor, STAG, Gangstas in Space, Cyrus Temple, they’re the fucking president now can you believe that?”

The Boss chimes in, “I’m standing right fucking here! And for your information, I happen to be an excellent president!”

“Now’s really not the time, playa.”

And also that The Boss also SAVED him

“I thought you fucking hated me, I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m only here for Lin.”

“Oh.”

Okay I lied, Zinyak DOES destroy the Earth for realsies

But only towards the end of the game, like following up to the boss battle

He reveals like

“Oh, it seems you haven’t learned your lesson then. I suppose I’ll have to really blow up your pitiful little planet then? Such a shame really, humanity could have been quite useful to the Zin Empire, but one must cut’s one’s losses sometimes. Their certainly not worth the trouble your putting me through here.”

This gives him time however to have abducted more people, including like Oleg, Viola, Donnie, etc etc etc

Fuck the Enter the Dominatrix DLC

Yeah it’s funny and all but like, where’s something actually interesting and additional to the game?

Replace it with DLC where you rescue like Viola and Oleg and stuff instead

Viola’s nightmare obviously would have to do with being stuck working for Killbane and probably have a boss battle where you fight simbane after he tries to kill Viola as well after having killed her sister

Oleg has a few options I think but the most appealing idea to me is a nightmare about him trying (and failing repeatedly) to escape the KGB

Character Specific Changes:

There really isn’t much to be put here shockingly

Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this but I think they should have expanded on the jokey romances more

I’m not talkin’ like full on bioware romances, just yknow maybe a little more than a single repeatable scene that varies from being shockingly indepth (Johnny) to just a fucking joke (Kinzie)

Maybe like add in a decision for a difference between just like casual sex or an actual romance with the characters

If you pick an actual romance then there’s random little banter lines about it when you have homies and maybe a few lines in some cutscenes or smth, nothing huge

Like say, you have Pierce and Shaundi as homies with you:

Romance Shaundi:

P: It’s about damn time someone did something

S: What are you talking about?

P: Uh, you and The Boss? Duh

S: Oh my god, shut up

P: Took ya’ long enough...y'all only been eye fucking each other as long as I can remember

S: Shut up, Pierce!

P: Chill! I’m happy for you, girl! Don’t attack me!

Romance Pierce:

S: So...you and The Boss, huh?

P: I already don’t like where this is going

S: I’m just surprised is all, you’ve been into them since like day one

P: No. I haven’t.

S: [snorts] Yeah, right. You used to get so upset when-

P: Shut up! They’re standing right there!

Or uh Pierce and Johnny:

Romance Pierce:

J: Hey, man, I’m proud of you for finally tellin’ The Boss how you feel

P: Wh- I didn’t- I’m not the one who-

J: But if you ever even think about hurting them [cocks gun] I won’t hesitate to put a cap in your ass

P: Man, calm down. I ain’t gonna do shit, jesus

J: [laughs] I’m just messin’ with you, Pierce. I’m not gonna shoot you.....Unless...

P: This is why I don’t tell you things, Gat! What the hell, man?!

Romance Johnny:

P: I can’t believe you and The Boss weren’t already fucking

J: Me neither

P: Didn’t you ever...yknow...like wonder? You never even thought about it?

J: Oh, no. I thought about it plenty. I wasn’t about to be the one to say somethin’ though

P: Did we finally find something Johnny Gat is scared of?

J: Fuck no, man, just after what happened with Eesh-

P: So...you were scared?”

J: No!

Lin getting to know everyone is a very big thing, like she’s suddenly surrounded by new people and everyone but Johnny and The Boss from before her abduction are dead

She gets along really well with Shaundi, Johnny (duh), Ben King, Asha, and Donnie (duh)

She gets along pretty damn well with Pierce too but it’s a pretty similar teasing relationship as Shaundi and Pierce and she gives him a hard time a lot

He gripes about how he has to deal with 2 Shaundis and Lin now a lot

She and Asha are pretty different but also pretty similar, they’re both really stubborn and dedicated to what they deem their “duties” but Lin still likes to let loose and have fun a lot more than Asha

A lot of their interactions consist of Lin trying to convince Asha to just let loose “a little” and have some fun

Asha for the most part wouldn’t ever really admit that she likes Lin but if pushed she’d definitely say something like “I definitely respect her. Maybe the Saints wouldn’t be as ridiculous and out of control if she was never taken from them before.”

Also because again you can pry wlw Lin from my cold dead hands we get this exchange:

“You know...you remind me a lot of one of my exes.”

“That’s...nice.”

“Stubborn, pretty, law-abiding, all work no play-”

“Is there a point to this?”

“Not really, I just keep thinking about it.”

“I see...and what happened to them?”

“She broke up with me for some prick named Blake...[laughs] So I broke his nose next time I saw him. Detention for a month, but definitely worth it to see her face.”

“No wonder The President likes you...”

She also gets along with Matt pretty well, having gone to him to find Donnie instead of Kinzie, although that was simply because she figured Matt would keep quiet about it and not tell The Boss, as well as Kinzie was already doing 101 things for The Boss at the time

She really doesn’t understand the whole Nyteblade thing but vampires are kind of cool she guesses and also it’s not like there’s a ton of shows or books left to entertain herself with, at least with Nyteblade, Matt’s got the memory of an elephant and probably totally recreates a ton of the episodes and key scenes because he is Absolutely That Guy first of all

She ends up getting pretty into it but if you ask about it she’ll shrug it off as simply because it’s “the only show left to watch”

Lin also remarks with Shaundi how she reminds her a lot of herself

“You know, I used to be some fun loving party girl myself.”

“Really? What happened?”

“Los Carnales and Julius fucking Little. Couldn’t go five feet out of my house without some assholes doing a drive-by or starting gang wars.”

“Oh...”

“Had to step up if I wanted it to stop, we see how well that turned out.”

“...Yeah....”

Alternatively to the nightmare sim swap I listed earlier...Johnny Gat would be The Boss’ husband in the 50s nightmare sim for sure

Kinzie definitely brings that up to Johnny if they’re both homies, especially if you romanced Johnny

Matt Miller and Donnie friendship when-

Turns out Donnie’s also a fan of Nyteblade

And Matt liked the Feed Dogs’ admittedly short lived time of activity

They both geek out of dumb shit and also talk about how fuckin scary The Boss can be and how lucky they are as some of the few remaining living members of gangs that The Boss fucking demolished

CID gets a lil more establishment

aka I mean he gets like a lil hologram of what he used to look like before becoming an AI in the zin system when he’s in the sim so he can hold guns and run around with you as a homie

also cut the whole thing of him trying to bargain with The Boss for “a woman” because that entire segment was weird and uncomfortable

#saints row #saints row 4 #johnny gat #matt miller #pierce washington #asha odekar #shaundi #zinyak #benjamin king #kinzie kensington #saints row lin #saints row donnie #stop talkin playa #rewriting saints row

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sveasauvageon · 4 years

Photo

Ce qu'il a donné Un an, deux ans, cent ans de bonheur Puis la vie te cueille comme une fleur || GW

☾♔; March 5, 2018 ☾♔; sotd: Котик by Alexander Rybak ☾♔; comedian otd: JOHN OLIVER ☾♔; GW To do list ☾♔; {G} https://goo.gl/XSTtMc ☾♔; mod(s): @themadmonarchist @maybones et moi

Title: lyrics from "Requiem" by Alma

--featured not-mine oc's - Eloise Avery | @themadmonarchist - Minah Delacroix | @maybones (see what I did there with the Serena and Blair positioning? -eyebrow wriggle thing-)

- - - x - - -

Updated GW to-do list: - Division of labour (we should really start saying when one of us starts working on something because otherwise we'll end up with redundancies since we think disturbingly alike) - the "chuck" problem: okay, tbh, it's more of an Ed Westwick problem than a chuck one. I don't know how you guys have reacted to the me too and time's up movements, but mine has been to cut all those men out of my sphere of entertainment, I even cut out "witch hunt", "not all men" type dudes, and "only fondled their breasts on tv and apologized for it" men (aka Ben Affleck), because time is up for all of you! Soz, not point, but since last October, Ed Westwick has been caught up in this, and thus far 3 women have accused him of ra.pe and a fourth of sexual misconduct. Now, I know it's not Chuck's fault that his portrayer is a ra.pist (allegedly), but there is still an issue with including his face, etc in aesthetics and gossip girl material because his face is that of a ra.pist's (allegedly). Tbh, I wanna leave him (Ed Westwick) out of material and only discuss Chuck and avoid showing his face or use a dreamcast instead, but like, I dunno what you guys wanna do. Chuck is a great character, although, early on, he was quite rap.ey, the character, and it does not help that his portrayer has since been revealed to be a ra.pist. Allegedly.

- also, going back up to the redundancy issues, I love both of your aesthetic collections and playlists, so for those, I was thinking for playlist, we should make one big playlist on spotify that's collaborative, so that everyone can add their music and it'll kind of be a huge explosion of musical tastes. But also, maybe have a collection that has a link on the group info for individual playlists for characters, and the group made by us and/or others. For aesthetic collections, basically the same idea with one big collaborative collection, and then that collection will have links to other collections (yes, I'm a little ocd).

- also, also, this is completely unrelated, but I was watching trevor noah's show and he made a joke about how much trump's male employees snitch and gossip like sht, but the woman haven't revealed squat. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpmlVWFTW8A) It's really funny, and honestly, stupid people fcking up in trump's circle very publically is basically what's keeping me alive. It's just hilarious how stupid some of these people are. ___________________________ Another Update (I'll leave those up until @maybones weighs in on them)

I was working on a draft of the group description to show you guys, and I was using a template of one of my old groups and rewriting stuff and changing it to suit our purposes and I realized how many freaking rules I have (I'm so picky), anyway, some of this stuff obvs won't be applicable (like, there's one about characters dying and I don't think we were planning on going that dark. although, serena was an accessory and chuck kind of killed his dad, so meh, maybe?) anyway, I wanted your opinions on what rules to keep and/or change:

✠ RULES AND GUIDELINES {GENERAL} ✠

I. Please be kind to each other. Your characters can be total jerks, but let us, the creators and/or writers be kind, polite, and respectful (aka, channel your inner Canadian guys). There will be absolutely ZERO tolerance of discrimination. You will be immediately removed from the group, and your actions will be documented and reported. PM me immediately if someone harasses you or you notice harassment between members. ⠀⠀Ia. If you want to be anonymous, for any reason, you can send in your complaints here {https://goo.gl/kbTXeU}, it's a google form, and it doesn't ask you verify your email, and the username option, is just an option, it's not required. If I need to make further contact/information from you regarding your concern, I'll make a group announcement vaguely describing your issue, and you can send in further information anonymously again. I'll be checking the form at least once a week.

⠀II. I'm not giving this any specific rating, however, I will say, you're free to include whatever "adult" content you want, whether it be swears, gore, or the dirty stuff (I'm totally a mature, grown up adult guys). However, do be careful of polyvore's stupid censors, use workarounds like writing your story in google docs, or accents for swear words.

⠀III. This is a non-elimination group, but characters can die. It may be used for inactive members, or if you wanna kill 'em off or maybe revive as a ghost or something else. Permission will always be asked of the creator first (with the exception of characters belonging to inactive members, whose characters may be killed off as penalty).

⠀IV. If you miss 3 consecutive contests (without informing me), you'll receive an "x", "|" will be used to break up non-consecutively missed contests, anyway, if you miss 3 in a row, that will open your character to be killed by either myself or other group members. You will be notified, but your permission will not be asked. If you wish to rejoin at a later date, and you character has not been killed off, simply pm me and continue with whatever contest is in progress. If your character has been killed off, you can re-audition with a new one, and I will transfer your points to your new character.

⠀V. Always pm me, your vodka aunt mod, if you feel you'll be unable to enter a contest, your reason doesn't matter. Just let me know you can't get your entry in, that way you won't receive an "X".

⠀VI. Plotting will be left open throughout the group, however, please establish a few of these before contests begin, and always ask permission when using someone else's character(s) and be sure to tag them in your sets. Please, PLEASE work with others, I hate when people just do their own thing in oc battle groups, this is a collaborative story, everyone's stories and ideas matter. I will call you out if I notice something that contradicts the connected story, and I will always, ALWAYS incorporate the stories of group members into the overall narrative. ⠀⠀VIa. Narrative precedence will always be given to the person who completely finishes the description of their set first.

⠀VII. There is not a list of roles to pick from, you can create whatever roles you want, however, I may ask you to change it if I feel your character may become "villager number 6" and not fit in with the action. Rules, regulations, and suggestions for roles can be found here: [placeholder].

⠀VIII. Always be sure to tag the member's when you use their characters and give credit where credit is due.

⠀IX. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and you will be removed and reported. If you're inspired by someone else's work, credit them, otherwise you're stealing.

⠀X. Sets unrelated to the group will be removed.

⠀XI. You will NOT be required to write out a full story. Story portions can be answered in paragraphs, but full stories are always welcome and appreciated.

⠀XII. Do not use templates for contest entries unless otherwise stated.

⠀XIII. Always feel free to contact me with any and all questions, and/or suggestions. You can also send them through the anonymous complaints form, found here: https://goo.gl/kbTXeU

_________________________________

✠ RULES AND REGULATIONS {FACECLAIMS} ✠

I'm quite picky about these, but I'm not gonna be pedantic about it this time. You do you. Having said that, there are still some rules and regulations, as well as a challenge.

⠀I. All faceclaims must be above the age of majority (that's 18+ nearly universally on the planet), there is an exception for child characters but all main OCs must be at least 18.

⠀II. All faceclaims MUST be professionals. They can be actors, models, even singers. However, they must be singers of some note signed onto a label company, like Taylor Swift, or my beloved Dima Bilan (who's also an actor. a good one. yes, I'm bragging). Your faceclaim CANNOT be someone insta-famous, youtubers, or tumblr tweens.

⠀III. Whilst I'm not going to reject any faceclaim on the pedantic basis of "I don't like them", there are some faceclaims that I will and for one reason, and one reason only. Sexual misconduct of any and all kinds. Hollywood and the media are finally cleaning house, and I don't want those dicks in my nerd sht either. To be clear, I don't care whether the misconduct was simply groping a woman's breasts on camera and apologizing about 10 years later, I am going to reject everyone who's been accused. Examples include; Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Ed Westwick, Jeffrey Tambor, Danny Masterson, Andy Dick, Dustin Hoffman, and fcking Mel Gibson. (Side note, these are just actors, for a wider list of men who have fallen since the Harvey Weinstein story broke in October 2017, I recommend you check out this article {https://goo.gl/Uq65Qv} by the NY Times) ⠀⠀IIIa. If you notice I have accepted someone who has been accused of sexual misconduct/harassment/assault please inform me right away, and ideally with a link to a news source from where you learned about (I will google it myself, but the ready-to-go link would be much appreciated.) ⠀⠀IIIb. Also, Alec Baldwin is on my list of rejected faceclaims. He's not been accused of anything, yet, but I'm not liking his defensive attitude of alleged rapists. Fúck off. Matt Damon also falls under subsection B, for a slightly different reason, but fúck him too. In this watershed moment, I have no time for defensive d i c k s and "not all men" a s s h o l e s.

⠀IV. The Challenge: a lot of us have certain fave fc's we use over and over again (I'm certainly guilty of that), so my challenge is for you to use a faceclaim you have never used before as your primary oc. This is gonna be based on the honour system, some of you guys I may know well, so I'll know if you're using your fave again, but others I may not, and I can't aggressively stalk everyone, so I won't call out anyone for not doing it. It's just a fun little challenge, worth 10 bonus points, if you opt to do it. But again, it's based on the honour system, I'm not gonna stalk anyone, but if I know you and you lie to me on the audition form. First, I'll be hurt, and second, I'll say sorry and tell you you're not getting those bonus points.

(I know, two sets of rules makes me such a di.ck, it's why I need your help guys!)

#polyvore #gw #eloise avery #Svea Sauvageon #minah delacroix #doll set #mine #anna #may

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mattzerella-sticks · 5 years

Text

Poison Apple Pie

The brass knob of the motel room door jiggles, twisting frantically as someone from the other side tries to open it. Finally the lock clicks and Sam bursts through, Dean lolling from his side like a rag doll. He drags his brother further into the room and dumps him on the nearest bed. Then, without closing the door, Sam pulls his phone out and dials. Powering through dial tone Sam tries to gain some sense of calmness. He sits on the edge of the bed only to rise moments later. Sam paces across the room twice with his large strides before getting bored of it. He moves over to his brother and rearranges him with his free hand. Laying him flatter on his back, face forward and not buried in the covers so he couldn’t breathe.

Although with how little Dean’s chest rises and falls Sam can’t tell if he breathes at all. Fingers twitching with the need to check his pulse again, a lilting voice croons her greeting.

“Rowena,” Sam sighs, turning away from Dean, “we need your help-”

“I’m doing fine myself, really,” Rowena says, “Been a lovely day... thought about switching up the colors on my nails so I went for a brilliant shade of emerald. Not sure if I’m loving it though...”

Sam’s face scrunches like a paper ball in confusion. “What? Nails - Rowena, this is serious. I’m calling -”

“For help,” she cuts him off, “I know, I know. You boys never ring me unless the world’s ending or one of you find yourselves in a little situation... usually Dean. Boy attracts hex bags like flies to honey.”

“But there aren’t any hex bags,” Sam growls, tugging at his hair, “I checked him for any and nothing came up in my search. Same with the booth.”

“The booth? Samuel I think you should maybe start from the beginning... what happened?”

Sam sighs, dragging a hand down his face. “We’d just finished a case and were on our way back to the Bunker when I wanted to stop for lunch...”

They pulled over to a roadside diner that was decently packed. Rightfully so since they claimed to make the freshest apple pie in the state of Tennessee. Dean scoffed when he saw the sign. “I’ll be the judge of that,” he said, adding it to his order. Sam rolled his eyes and ordered a chicken wrap.

Lunch was uneventful. The waitress flirted with Dean, and when he wouldn’t look away from his phone, paid Sam more attention. He’d be more offended if he hadn’t already checked her out on the way in. So Sam left Dean to his phone while chatting up the waitress - Linda.

For all the crap Dean put Sam through about being obsessed with technology, his brother would spend hours typing away for no reason he wanted to share with him. So he checked one day when Dean left his phone unattended. Why Dean wanted to keep his texts with Cas private Sam would never know. But he’ll let him have it if it means Sam can pick up girls like Linda along the way.

And then Dean was served the slice of apple pie.

“Looks pretty good,” he said, prodding it with his fork.

Sam rolled his eyes, “Just eat it, man.”

“I’m getting into the right mindset Sammy,” Dean smirked, “when you’re someone as experienced as me you can’t just eat pie...”

“Didn’t know you were a pie connoisseur...”

“Exactly. I’m a pie-noisseur!”

He didn’t respond, leaving his brother with his pie. Instead he searched out Linda to see where she was, his number written sloppily on an unused napkin. Interrupting his search, however, was the sound of a head slamming onto the table.

Sam whirled to see Dean slumped over, face smushed onto his plate with bits of pie and whipped cream splattered about. Instinct taking over, he reached over to check his pulse. When the faintest flutter tapped his fingertips Sam sighed in relief.

Unfortunately everyone in the diner was now staring at them.

“Oh my God!” Linda cried, hovering near their table, “Is he - is he okay?”

His mind revved into overdrive to come up with a good enough excuse. “Yeah,” Sam lied, standing, “my brother he’s - he’s a little bit... narcoleptic?”

“Narcoleptic?”

“Yeah, he just falls asleep randomly sometimes, nothing to worry about.”

“I’ve head but,” she glanced behind him, “so suddenly like that? He was fine moments ago.”

Sam shrugged. “It’s so hard to predict. He’d been doing really well today, too.”

It looked shaky, but he could see the lie taking root in her eyes. “Still,” Linda continued, biting her lip, “do you want us to do anything? Call an ambulance, or...?”

He waved her off. “He’ll be fine, but... but we’re already late enough as it is.” Sam leaned down and wrapped an arm around his body, hefting him up. Carrying enough corpses has given Sam decent core strength and jacked arms, as well as the ability to measure weight in dead bodies. Comparing Dean to them now only drags Sam into memories he wouldn’t want to relive. Especially since he needs all his attention on getting them out of here. “Thank you so much,” Sam said, dragging Dean away, “I can come back and pay -”

“Please, no need,” Linda told him, “Consider it on the house. I hope your brother wakes up soon.”

“You and me both.”

Rowena hums from the other end. “Sounds like our little Disney Princess got hit with a sleeping curse.”

He groans, “You mean those exist?”

“Everything exists at one time or another Samuel,” she lectures, “a bunch of aggrandizing men writing stories couldn’t have come up with the idea on their own. They had to get it from somewhere...”

“But like I said,” Sam says before she dives into the past, “I didn’t find any hex bags!”

“You don’t need a hex bag for a sleeping curse, Samuel.”

“You don’t? Is it, like... something spoken, then? Did a witch cast it?”

She sighed, the breath ghosting as if it puffed against his neck. “No. Most sleeping curses are meant to be ingested. That way the spell works from the inside out freezing the body. First the person falls into a deep sleep and then, over the course of twenty-four hours, the body begins to shut down.”

“Shut down!” Sam yells, facing Dean again. “You mean he can die from this?”

“Well it is a curse, isn’t it? Back in the old days when you didn’t have a bunch of painkillers to crush up and put into your husband’s food this is what you’d do!” Rowena said, “That’s why I’m surprised it’s being used. Most witches prefer to leave that spell in the world of fairy tales...”

Sam brushes all that aside and tells her to focus. “I need a cure, Rowena. How do we end this?”

“It’s a sleeping curse,” she scoffs, “how do they usually get solved?”

He hates to admit how long it takes him to fill in the blank Rowena left for him. When Sam does his face flushes bright red, and he’s lucky Dean isn’t awake to hear him stammer. “A... a kiss?”

“True love’s kiss, more specifically,” Rowena says in a way he can hear the smile in her voice, “you don’t happen to have that lying around for Dean, do you?”

Immediately he curses the hunter’s lifestyle. The nomadic culture that prevented him and Dean from making long-lasting connections. Whether losing them by death or the crushing weight of knowing what exists beyond the veil of ignorance, the Winchester brothers have run the gambit when it comes to love. Never have they landed on the part of the wheel that doesn’t leave them emotionally bankrupt. Unable to scrounge up the luck that people like Jesse and Cesar have in spades.

But there might be some hope. Sam has to try, for Dean. “Do you think if I were to -”

“My, my Samuel,” Rowena coos, “I thought it was all a bunch of hooey on the Internet but if you’re -”

“No!” Sam shouts, blushing harder than earlier. “Not like that. I mean I love Dean, I do. So would the kiss work if it comes from, like, familial feelings and not romantic ones?”

“A cheeky workaround... clever Sam.” A strange sense of pride washes over him, only for it to recede quickly with Rowena’s next words. “Unfortunately, no.”

“What?”

“The kiss can only be from whoever is in the heart of the one was cursed,” Rowena explains, “so while I’m sure Dean loves you... it’s not like that.”

“At least that’s good news,” Sam sighs, “So there’s nothing else I can do?”

Rowena hums a merry tune. “I mean, you could find the witch who cursed him and have her reverse the spell. But you don’t even know how it was cursed in the first place right?”

Sam racks his brain. He tries to think of when Dean was vulnerable to the witch but nothing comes to mind. Linda appears several times in his memory and he only now regrets devoting more of his attention to her than Dean. In fact the only part that sticks out is when his brother acted ridiculously before digging into his pie. “The pie!” Sam gasps.

“Come again?”

“This pie Dean ordered,” Sam continues, pacing once more, “I can’t believe I didn’t think... and it was apple pie, too, for crissakes...” He pauses, connecting even more dots together. “It must have been Linda!”

“Linda?” she asks, “Who’s Linda?”

“Our waitress from the diner. She tried flirting with Dean but he was too distracted.” Sam pulls the car keys from his pocket, ready to leave. He spares one final glance at his brother, silently promising to save him. Locking the door behind him Sam races over to the Impala and readies to leave. “Thanks for the help, Rowena. I’ll call you when Dean’s awake.”

“I look forward to seeing you, Samuel...”

He tosses his phone to the side and peels out of the parking lot and over to the diner. It isn’t far away since Sam chose the first motel he could find after leaving with an unconscious Dean. However, he doesn’t remember there being so much traffic between the motel and the diner.

When he does finally arrive it’s to a mostly deserted diner. Sam searches first for Linda, except his eyes land on a familiar shade of red.

Hackles raised, Sam steps over to the booth. He frowns when he sees Rowena cutting into a slice of her own apple pie. “Rowena!”

“Hello Samuel,” she says, chewing on a bite, “I don’t know why Dean was so skeptical. Their claims are completely founded!”

Sam settles in across from her, a heavy set to his features. From the second he spotted her his mind whirled around trying to find its footing. Seeing past the doubt Sam erases all other possibilities as to what’s going on. “You cursed Dean, didn’t you?”

She frowns, mirroring him. “Just like that you figured it out? Didn’t want to ask me what I was doing here, why I wouldn’t come fix your brother?” Rowena crosses her arms. “I had a delightful script planned out. Of course now you decide to get your head out of your ass and use it.”

“Was anything you said even the truth?” Sam asks, “Can Dean really die from this?”

“Of course, dearie. I never fool around when it comes to spells.”

“Then fix it!” he slams his fist on the table, “Whatever game you’re playing at, it’s over! Why you’d want to do this I don’t know but -”

“Will you untwist your knickers, Samuel,” she waves him off, “your brother’s already fixed and probably having himself a good time.”

He falters, Rowena leveling the playing field once more to her advantage. “What?” he says, “What?”

Pointing at him with her fork she tells him to give Dean a call. And he does, only to make sure she isn’t lying to him. While waiting for his brother to pick up he stares at her. Not letting her out of his sight in case she dips away.

Luckily for her Dean answers on the third ring. “Sammy,” he huffs, rustling in the background, “this better be good...”

“Dean!” Sam relaxes in his seat, tension oozing out of him like the filling of the apple pie, “I was so worried... so it wasn’t permanent.”

“What wasn’t...” There’s a muttered something on the other end of the line and Dean gasps. “Right, the curse... yeah, it’s all hunky dory over here. So if you don’t mind...”

“How’d you wake up?” he asks him, “Was it after I left? Why didn’t you call me when you woke up? Are there any side effects you need my help with.”

“Sammy the only help I need from you is you shutting up.”

“Dean, I deserve to know. I was - I was scared -”

Dean’s voice fades and another replaces his, much deeper, rougher, and more in control of itself. “Allow me to explain, Sam,” Castiel says, “it all started when I received a call from Rowena...”

Castiel parked in the lot, watching the Impala roar out and into the street. He drove at least double the speed limit and through many stop signs and lights only to be ditched at the last second. It didn’t sit right with him, as well as the many text messages from Dean left unanswered. As did Sam. Calling them proved fruitless as it went to voicemail. So changing tactics he tried for the person who sent him running towards the Winchesters.

“Rowena told me you needed my help in a case,” he said, “that Dean had been cursed and you were on your way to meet her.”

“Not that I knew I was...” he mumbled glaring at Rowena.

“I also told him to go look over your brother,” she tutted, “I made sure he wasn’t alone during such a scary predicament!”

“That you put him in!”

“Semantics mean nothing to me.”

“She also gave me the strangest set of instructions,” Castiel continued, “that whatever I do I shouldn’t kiss Dean.”

Sam nearly dropped his phone. “What?” he asked, “Why would you tell him that?”

Rowena smirked around her fork, slowly pulling it from between her lips. “Reverse psychology, Samuel.”

“What?”

“I must admit I didn’t understand it myself, at the time,” Castiel said, “But when I found Dean he... it was all I could think about, I guess. He looked so peaceful...”

His brother’s familiar chuckle filled his ears. “I’m irresistible.”

Sam scrunched his brows together. “Did you put me on speaker?”

“Yeah, so Cas can keep his hands free.”

He almost asks why he would need them free only for a mental image to answer for him. Sam chokes on his tongue and splutters. “Are you two fooling around while I’m talking to you?”

“Cas is making sure I’m curse free,” Dean scoffs, “he’s very thorough.”

“Yes, Sam,” the other man agrees, “Who knows how much of this curse is still in your brother. I doubt only one kiss was enough...”

Sam drags a hand down his face, shuddering. His eyes rise to meet the amused twinkle shining in Rowena’s gaze. He squints at her. “Did you know this would happen?”

She sighs, pushing her finished plate away. “Of course I did, Samuel. I wouldn’t curse your brother if there wasn’t a way to break it... anymore. Consider this a favor for all the times you helped me get out of messes that I made for myself.”

He nearly chews her out again, only stopped by the soft sighing from his phone. Dean and Castiel must have forgotten they were on the phone and were mumbling to each other. Simple declarations of their love and how long they’ve wanted this to happen. It douses all the fire within Sam and cools any lingering annoyance with Rowena’s actions. He hits the end button and lays his phone on the table.

“So how good is that apple pie?”

#Supernatural #Spn #Spn fanfic #Supernatural fanfiction #Sam Winchester #Clueless Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Castiel #Rowena MacLeod #Destiel #destiel fanfic #deancas #deancas fanfic #sleeping curse

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forgxtemall · 4 years

Text

Anonymous has sent: 🔥

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion. [Accepting, send in a subject!]

DISCLAIMER: This post contains opinion! If you can’t deal well with these things, either don’t read this post, come talk to me about it privately or block me. This post isn’t aimed at anyone, don’t let someone’s opinion on the internet hurt your feelings. Opinions aren’t facts.

// On the topic of using fan arts for icons, which was a hot topic last week. I wanted to say something but I feel like the emotions were too high, and honestly it wouldn’t help the situation. So, here’s my hot take on it:

It’s very rich of people, to tell others to just stop using fan arts without providing anything that they could use as substitutes for it. Whether you like it or not, one of the stupid unspoken rules uwu in the RPC is that the person must have icons in order to be able to RP around here.

Do you know where most people get their icons from? Old af, icons dumps that have been posted 4-3 years ago. In a time, when clearly the trend had just begun and using fan arts wasn’t really frowned upon. Back when I started getting invested into graphics making, I almost exclusively used fan arts for my edits. Bc that was the time’s trend, and I didn’t really think on it.

Most people who do this, are likely in the same position I used to be at years ago. It was just for RPing, everyone around us did this, so clearly there shouldn’t be any problem in it, right?

Unless you’re purposely trying to profit off ppl’s fanarts, these can fuck right off, I have absolutely no respect for the likes of u <3

This isn’t an isolated problem within the pokerpc, a lot of other fandoms & communities do this as well (Im looking @ u LOL).

I am glad that people are acknowledging this as a problem, and there are people who are trying to find workarounds this (either by looking for similar looking FCs from other sources, & the surge of blogs like @nationalicondex that have been providing icons from official sources [which has been my biggest inspiration, to try my hand at doing a similar thing]).

However, I find it extremely shitty when people put themselves on a pedestal who do nothing but shame and point a finger at people who likely have just begun RPing on tumblr, and have only found resources for their muses out of old icon dumps that use fan arts.

I hate to pop your bubble captain obvious, but you’re doing jack shit to help stop the issue of art thievery.

Here’s an alternative for those who are “truly” bothered by this: How about you stop supporting people who solely, rely on fan arts for their edits? Don’t follow back/don’t interact/etc, try linking them to icons dumps for their muses if you see something that fits them. Actually... Help them, yknow?

Instead of uh, IDK. Kiss their asses, while you keep shaming everyone else for simply doing the same exact thing? Bc gasp! What do u mean not everyone has PS/Gimp/whatever & knows how to crop their own stuff????<3

#long post tw #Would you like some salt in your tea?#ooc /#oof I guess we are starting today salty

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starsgivemehp · 5 years

Note

☯ + Judgement Hall

Canon Drabbles | accepting

(WELLLLL this isn’t a drabble. It’s very long. BUT it just so happens I’d written this long ago from Frisk’s point of view, from an earlier version of Red, so getting to rewrite it in his POV and with updated backstories was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. So, here you are~!)

- - - - -

“stop right there, kid.”

Red watched the human child come to asurprised halt, clearly startled by his sudden appearance. They hadn’t spokensince Snowidn, but he’d been there, watching, from Syren’s little concert tothe vents of Hotland to the winding hallways of the core. He wasn’t impressed.He stood facing them, his hands in his pockets, gaze narrowed. They gave himthat innocent, confused look, the same look they gave Mettaton, and Undyne, andVex, and anyone else who fought them. Like they couldn’t believe it. He grit histeeth.

“don’t gimme that look… you and i both knowwhat’s gonna happen next.”

They tilted their head slightly. They wereeven shorter than him, a child, their body stocky and still growing. Theirhands moved precisely, quick and confident.

‘Why are you here, Red?’

“don’t ask stupid questions. you made it allthis way, you beat my boss, and the captain, even the human-killing robot. youshould’ve died ages ago. how did you survive?”

They didn’t answer, their hands hesitating,and he scoffed.

“yeah, i know how. by making friends with them. by being nice to them until they spared you outof pity, or to return the favor. well, lemme tell ya somethin’, kid. no onespares anyone down here. that’s just not how the underground works. for years,there’s been only one rule. kill, or bekilled.”

Frisk set their jaw, straightening up, andfinally found words.

‘But I did neither of those things.’

“that’s right. you didn’t kill, and you weren’tkilled. well. good for you, kid. but now what? you can’t pass the barrier onyour own no matter how much ‘determination’ you have. you need a monster souland a human soul. and not just any monster soul, either. a monster soul thatwill persist long enough after death for you to take it and absorb it. a bossmonster’s soul. and as of right now, there are only two boss monsters. one isthe king. and the other… well, who knows where the queen went?”

Frisk lifted their hands, but he bulldozed on,unwilling to let them dig in with their talk of mercy. Not for this.

“so, kid, we got a good ending and a bad ending.the bad ending is, you walk past me and fight and kill our king – and he’s areal jerk, don’t get me wrong, but he isking – you take his soul, you pass through the barrier leaving us behind in apower vacuum. we fall into despair; monsters everywhere start falling down anddying. we struggle to survive and hope against hope that another human fallssoon. or… the good ending. you die. you give us your soul, and we break free ofthis mountain.”

Of course, the King had plans of war, butthose could be dealt with after. vex and undyne weren’t training for nothing,or just to beat up vagabonds. This kid didn’t need to know these things.

He pulled his left hand out of his pocket, palm up, hispupils softening a little around the edges. He did his best to look genuine.

“you can guess which one we’d prefer. i’m askin’ ya nicely,kid. do everyone a favor, and give it up peacefully. if you do, i’ll make yourdeath quick and painless. i’m a nice guy sometimes, y’know, and i don’t like toput in a lot of effort. fighting is a hassle, don’t you agree? “

He waited like that patiently, with his arm stretched out,while Frisk stared at him in shock. He wasn’t surprised. His offer wasdownright generous, compared to the other fights they’d been through. There wasa chance, a small chance that theymight actually take his offer, and he wouldn’t have to make this a big mess.But, he could tell already they weren’t going to take his offer. Of course. Hewas resigning himself even before their jaw set.

‘I’m going to return to the surface, and I’m taking you allwith me.’

Red sighed, flipping his hand for the palm to face Frisk.

“well, i tried it the easy way. now you get the hard way.”

He turned their soul blue and threw them into the airviciously.

Things seemed to blur after that. He was sure he’d beatenthem, he was sure he could smell the sickening tang of human blood, making histhroat close up and his soul thud in revulsion. But no, here he was again, hishand out, ready to turn their soul blue. He paused for just a moment, watchingthem.

“that expression…”

He turned their soul blue and flung them. They survived hisattack, slamming the CHECK button. He tried not to shiver, and instead smirked,enjoying their shocked expression at his piss-poor stats.

“what? thought i was stronger? i toldja i didn’t likefighting. but hey, you should’ve attacked while you had the chance, buddy.”

He attacked viciously, trying to dredge up the faintest hintof KR to make it easier on himself. He couldn’t. He couldn’t muster therighteous fury needed to make his magic spark yellow, to make his attacks domore than one measly point at a time. But even without it, he had tricks andworkarounds that gave him a severe advantage.

Things started blurring a little more, but he was gettingused to it. He was experiencing the time LOADs he’d theorized they were usingto win. But he still wouldn’t let them win.

‘Hey, Red! What do you call a skeleton that stuck its head inthe freezer? A numbskull!’“hehehe, good one kid. i’ll use it myself when i get tothe surface.”-- - - - - - - - -‘Did you sit on a pile of sugar, Red? Because you have apretty sweet ass!’“hehe. clever, but i’m a skeleton. i don't have an ass.”- - - - - - - - - -'Red, please, stop! You’vekilled me four times now!’“i know how to count,thanks. i’m a physicist. a well-rounded five, maybe?”

- - - - - - - - - -

“lemme tell you a story.”

Red wandered over to oneof the pillars in the golden hallway. The kid was clutching their bleeding arm.The smell of blood made him nauseated, but he shook it off. He watched themwith his good eye, the blind right one closed to give him a casual look.

“so i’m a sentry atsnowdin forest, right? out there, in the middle of nowhere, is a door. the doorto the ruins, i’m guessing. but it’s perfect for knock-knock jokes. one time, iwas sittin’ there, crankin’ 'em out as usual, when i heard a voice. a laugh.someone was on the other side, and they liked my stupid puns. it was a woman. idon’t know her name, i never asked. but she really freakin’ loves puns. then sheknocked herself and told one of her own. she was good. we startedgoin’ back and forth, almost every day. we’ve been doin’ it for years now. it’sgreat.”

He knew he had a stupid,fond look on his face as he told the story. Even though he’d never seen her face,he had a terrible fondness for her.

“one day… thelady wasn’t laughin’ much. somethin’ was wrong, i could tell. y'know, i’mpretty good at telling stuff like that. so i asked her what was up. she neverdid get around to tellin’ me what happened. but instead, she asked mesomethin’. she asked me, 'Red, how do you feel about promises?’ and so i toldher, 'look lady, i don’t make promises to people unless i trust 'em a lot…but you’re one of those people. tell me what you want and i’ll decide.’ so shetold me this: “If a human ever passes through this door… please kill them.’”

'Wait, what?’ Frisksigned incredulously.

“it’s the truth.she said to me, 'Please kill them quickly and painlessly. Do not let KingAsgore torture them. Give them the mercy of a painless death from someone witha good heart.’ and so i promised her that. and then, all these years later,here you are.”

'But… but…’

“look. i take mypromises seriously. i keep 'em even if they could kill me. so i intend to keepthis one too.”

He pushed off from the pillarand outstretched his good hand again, palm up.

“you’ll never get outwithout killing the king, kid. we’ll never get out without your soul. this isthe best outcome any of us can hope for. i’ll make sure it’s painless. just takemy offer.”

It was sparing, in itsown way. Yes, they would die, but he could make it be painless. Hell, if it madethem feel better, he’d give them a hug and a last wish or dying request. He’dmake their name be known and immortalized. But, of course, they refused. Theylooked like they were about to start crying, which made his soul clench.

Don’t you do that to me, kid. I HAVE to dothis.

‘Red… I can’t. I refuseto die. I refuse to give up.’

“but why?”he asked, frustrated. “giving up is so much easier. it takes so littleeffort. it hurts less. just… give up, kid.”

‘I won’t.’

Red sighed, slowlydropping his hand.

“y’see? this is why i hate making promises.”

He rolled his shouldersand jumped back into the fray.

- - - - - - - - - -

He gave that speechseveral more times. He always gave them a chance. He couldn’t stop himself. Itwas a part of the ‘script’ he supposed. But he always doubled down after that.They kept sparing, insisting, and multiple times, he knew he snarled that hehated them as he sent another attack their way. He lost count. It had to beover 30 times he killed them total. And he could feel that he was getting tired.Reaching his limits. They were getting better and better.

No wonder they even got past Undyne.

The worst part was theirwords.

“if you’re not gonnadie, you stupid kid, then just kill me and get it over with!” he snarled, andthey reeled like they’d been struck.

‘No!’

“why the fuck not?”

‘Because I care aboutyou, I can’t kill you!’

“wha…?” He paused in hisattack, staring at them with darkened sockets. “you… care about me…?”

‘I care about all ofyou! I care about your brother, and Undyne, and Alphys, and I definitely careabout you!’

And that ridiculouslittle kid actually made it seem… believable.He recalled Vex going red in the face during their ‘play date,’ watching Undynechasing them down only to have her stalk over tot their house and mumble somethingabout cooking with them, raiding Alphys’s lab only to see her dumping out herworse experiments herself. They had all changed… Was it really only becausethis kid showed they cared? Was that really it?

…No. It couldn’t be.There had to be other things at play. It was all some sick game. He grit histeeth, yanking them with blue magic again.

“you don’t. those arejust words. if you really cared about me, about any of us… you would just die already!”

He saw vividly tearingthrough their fragile flesh with a dozen bones, the blood spattering. His soulseized at the gore, and he felt vomit welling up before the world blurred.

- - - - - - - - - -

“…survive this, and i’ll show you my specialattack!”

He had said those wordseight times before. He was fighting a losing battle. What was the point? Hethrew everything at them. Everything he had, until he was gasping for breath, themagic in his good eye sputtering, exhaustion sweeping through him. He fell tohis knees, the assault ending, and they were still alive. Bleeding, but alive.The smell was horrible, but he was too tired to even be grossed out by thispoint.

“hhh… hhh…hhh… why won’t… you… just die…?” he panted,his eye sockets completely blank now. “why… hhh… why won’t you…just… give up…? hhh… please… hhh… please just… give up…”

He held onto his ‘turn’with the last ounces of will he had in him. Even so, they shuffled closer,kneeling in front of him. He braced for the end. But instead, he heard theirsoft, mostly unused voice.

“I can never give up,Red. I’ve got to get out.”

“hhh… k-kid… i don’t… idon’t have… some special attack… that’s all i got… hhh… you, you beat me… i can’tkill you, s-so… so please, just… kill me instead…”

“No! I refuse to killyou. I refuse to kill anyone.”

“please… please, kid, i’m beegin’ ya… after allof this… i can’t do it… i can’t watch you kill the king… take away our hope. ican’t watch boss feel betrayed… i just… i can’t, kid, i can’t do this anymore,i can’t…”

He broke off in a soband hated himself deeply for that weakness. Here he was, crumpled in front of achild, crying pathetically like he was still a little kid himself. If anyoneelse saw, he’d be dead. But all Frisk did was put their little hand on hisshoulder, and rub gently.

“I won’t. I care aboutyou, I’d never hurt you.”

He shook his head,sobbing quietly again. “if you cared about me, you’d do this for me… i’ve onlygot 1… i’m all out of HOPE. watchin’ you take away boss’s hope is gonna kill meanyway… this would be the less painful way to go, please…”

“I refuse.”

“why… not even for revenge?i killed you so many times i lost count.”

“Yes… But it doesn’tmatter. I know you’re a good person. You were fighting me to protect the peopleyou love.”

“that doesn’t excusemurder… and i ain’t the only one. so many have been cruel, anyone else wouldtake one look at us and just call us all bad people!”

“Well… I believe eventhe worst person can change. That everyone can be a good person, if they justtry. I’m going through life trying to be the best person I can be. Forgivingeveryone of their mistakes and bad choices, in the hopes they’ll try to becomebetter people too. It’s working so far… Hasn’t your brother changed? You sawhim after our date.”

Red wiped at his eyes,shifting to sit on his haunches slowly. “yeah, he… he looked happy… he hasn’tlooked so happy in a long time…” He looked up at them tiredly. “you… you changedhim, kid.”

“I’m glad! Because Icare about him a lot! And I’d never hurt him, especially not by killing you.You’re his precious brother. He loves you, you know. Even if he doesn’t say it.”

Red felt tears well up inhis sockets again. His soul throbbed. He knew, deep inside, it had just… beenso long since he’d acknowledged it. What with all of their fighting, theinsults, the punches, the disappointment and goading, the vicious cycle they’dbeen stuck in… Despite all of that…

“i… i know he does. ilove him too. that’s why i want him to get to the surface. i… want him to drivea cool car, and see the sun ride every morning…”

‘I want that too.’ Friskshifted back to signing now that he was watching them. ‘I’m gonna do it, Red. I’mgoing to set everyone free.’

“but how? we can’tharness the power of your soul without killing you, and we need it. besides,the king is…”

‘I’ll find a way. I alwaysfind a way.’

“heh…” He fell silent,looking down at his hand. He was exhausted, and emotionally wrung out, and…despite all of his conviction, there was something about Frisk. Something hecouldn’t help but trust. “somehow… i believe you, kid. i’m sorry foreverything.”

They smiled at him andoffered their hand. He took a deep breath, then took it to get to his feet.

The FIGHT ended.

#drabbles #fanfiction #my work #skeleton artsu #my fanfiction #hey its me (red)#angel or demon (frisk)#still love him (vex)#mun responds #tripleswapverse

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intim3ate · 5 years

Text

Irresistible Indulgence | McCree/Mercy/Sombra/Symmetra [Overwatch]

The mission was supposed to be easy. It would have been, too, if a certain someone hadn't triggered Mercy's heat a few days early. Fortunately for her, though, they happen to run into a few others with the same problem...

A kemonomimi AU commission for a certain someone’s special someone. :3c The prompt was for a sex-pollen like situation involving scents and pheromones, with Bunny Mercy, Bunny Sombra, and Bunny Symmetra getting knotted by Wolf McCree.

Happy Easter?

AO3 Link | Commission Info | Leave a Tip?

Heavy, pounding footfalls echo along the hallway behind them.

“This way!” Angela feels a tug at her wrist, then a short, harsh jerk as McCree grabs her and pulls her around the corner and down a new hallway.

They hadn’t meant to get caught. This was supposed to be a quick infiltration mission: get in, grab some files, get out. Mercy shouldn’t even have been on this mission, technically, but McCree had had a nasty accident about a week ago and she had insisted on accompanying him to monitor his recovery.

And he’d been fine – no trouble at all. It wasn’t his injury that caused them to get caught - no, there was no longer any trace of a wound at all - it had been faulty intel. LumériCo was supposed to be in the middle of a big corporate overhaul and undergoing renovation, but apparently, their timeline for it was much shorter than reported. All halls that were meant to be deserted were armed with security patrols.

And they’d just happened to get stuck between two of them.

“Shit!” McCree growls as another troop appears at the end of the hall they’d just turned down. He looks around wildly for another sign of escape, but this time it’s Angela who pulls him aside and throws him into a supply closet.

She closes the door as quietly as she can and waits for the sound of footfalls to fade into the distance. Even then, she waits, not wanting to accidentally blow their cover.

She breathes in quickly, shallowly. Then deeper. Deeper. Deeper…

Angela closes her eyes. She feels a distinct tingle between her legs, signifying the start of her heat cycle. She curses herself mentally for not being prepared for it - she knew it was coming up. She was expecting it a few days from now, though, not today. But she had failed to account for one specific thing:

McCree.

She was used to these frequent heat cycles. As a rabbit, she fell victim to them often, but normally she was able to keep them under control. Still, the intensity of these heats could hit her hard, and like most rabbits, she was susceptible to other animals’ pheromones.

And few animals had scents as strong as wolves.

Mercy had been around her fair share of wolves. She’d gotten used to them, to some extent, but even she was no match for McCree, who had one of the most overwhelmingly powerful scents she’d ever come across. And normally, this isn’t a problem. If their heats ever end up syncing, they’re usually able to take care of matters quickly and privately. That isn’t an option on missions, though, so they’ve found a number of workarounds. Provided McCree takes them, that is.

Mercy sighs heavily. “I wish you had remembered your suppressants,” she says.

McCree raises a brow. “I did.”

“Did you?” Angela looks at him incredulously. He can’t have - he smells so strong. “How many did you take?”

“Just the one.”

Mercy sighs and leans against the wall. “Next time, take two.”

“Thought one would be enough.” McCree's mouth breaks into a wide grin, his sharp canines stirring a mixture of primal fear and deep, deep arousal in Mercy. “Guess when the season hits, it hits hard, huh?”

Angela glares at him, long ears flattening behind her head, but her face turns pink. “Wolves.”

McCree shrugs. “Can't help it anymore than you can,” he says.

And isn't that the truth. Angela can tell he's trying to rein himself in, to make himself seem as unappealing as he can by trying to get on her nerves, but there's not much he can do to stop the wonderfully heady, musky scent rolling off him in waves…

Before she realizes what she's doing, Mercy inhales deeply, drinking in that beautiful scent. She leans forward subconsciously, following it…

“Whoa there, partner,” McCree says, holding up a hand to push her away. The touch, light as it is, sends an electric tingle all through her body. “We're on a mission, remember?”

“Y-yes, of course I do,” Mercy responds, hating how her voice falters. She can feel her face warm even more. “Is the coast clear?”

McCree hums and turns to face the door. His ears perk right up, then twist and turn left and right as he tries to listen for people approaching. “Seems safe to me. Can't hear nothin’.”

“Good.” Mercy waits for him to open the closet door for her and she strides out ahead of him, only a little less gracefully than normal. She takes a deep breath, glad to no longer be in that cramped closet where all she could smell were the pheromones radiating off of McCree.

“Which way now?” she asks.

McCree takes a second to re-orient himself before pointing to a hallway to their left. “This way.”

He takes off and Angela follows without question.

---

They make it a fair distance before they have to stop again. The two of them run together, McCree just slightly ahead - Angela is fast, even for a rabbit, but she still can’t keep up with McCree’s powerful wolf legs - until McCree suddenly halts at a corner, sticking out a hand to stop Angela going any further. He presses himself against the wall, and she presses herself to it too, right next to him.

Close. Too close.

And that’s her first mistake.

Her second mistake is not holding her breath. She closes her mouth to breathe through her nose and immediately knows she’s messed up: McCree smells even stronger now, the sweat gathered beneath his clothes and armor amplifying his scent. Angela bites her lip and clenches her legs together, trying in vain to alleviate some of the pressure that’s gathered between them. And oh, god, she’s wet, too. She squeezes her eyes shut, wishing for nothing more than the ground to swallow her up and put her out of her misery--

But that doesn’t happen. Instead, McCree shifts next to her, his hand brushing her shoulder (probably to get her attention), and it’s like a switch goes off in her head. She opens her eyes and grabs McCree by the arms, dragging him down into a forceful kiss and wrapping her arms around his neck. Angela pushes herself into him, sighing through her nose at the pleasant feel of her sensitive breasts pressing up against his chest.

McCree leans into the kiss, slipping his tongue into Angela’s mouth and sliding it against hers. It doesn’t last long, however, because he comes to his senses and pulls away almost immediately. “Ange, what’re you--”

He stops, seeing the look on Mercy’s face. Her eyes are dark, pupils blown wide open, and her face is flushed desperately. McCree licks his lips. No words need to be said: he knows what she wants.

And he wants it too.

He lets her drag him through the hall until they find another door. She reaches for the handle, but McCree beats her to it and practically throws the door open, dragging Angela inside and throwing her up against the nearest wall while the door slams shut behind them.

But then they hear something. A voice.

“Um, excuse me? We’re kind of in the middle of something here.”

McCree goes stock still. Angela tenses against him, and slowly, she looks over his shoulder to see that the office they’re in is currently occupied.

By two more rabbits.

One of them has her arms around the other - this one has brown ears and a dark mohawk flipped over one side of her head, the ends of it tipped in purple and white. The other looks serious, if not annoyed, and she has a long, straight curtain of dark hair hanging down her back. She glares at the two intruders, her black ears flattening down behind her head.

“Just what do you think you are doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” McCree says back, somehow managing to sound composed despite how wildly his scent indicates the opposite. “You don’t look like LumériCo employees to me.”

“We’re not,” the purple-haired one says back. Mercy notes the way her lips curl into a smile and how her grip on her… friend loosens slightly. “But neither are you.”

“How perceptive.” McCree turns around fully now, stepping away from the wall and taking a small step towards the other women. Angela frowns: she knows that tone, recognizes the cautious, but intrigued tilt of McCree’s ears, the way his tail tenses…

The purple-haired woman walks forward too, leaving her friend behind. “I know you. You’re Overwatch.”

“You can call me McCree.”

“Sombra.”

They stop, half a foot apart. McCree leers down at Sombra, and Sombra smirks up at him. “That don’t sound like a real name to me.”

“You don’t need to know any more than that.”

Sombra licks her lips. She looks McCree up and down, very obviously checking him out. Angela steps forward, her ears perked and her nose twitching wildly as she steps closer. She sniffs the air as she approaches the two of them and her eyes lock with Sombra’s. The scent of sex and want is in the air, radiating off all three of them like sunlight through a break in the clouds. Angela can smell it on herself, on McCree, on Sombra…

And she wants more.

She can tell Sombra must be thinking the same thing, because the other bunny turns to face her as she approaches. And like she was returning to a lost love after years of being apart, Sombra opens her arms and pulls Mercy in, kissing her hungrily and desperately.

Angela moans. Her knees go weak and she lets Sombra guide her through the kiss, opening her mouth the instant a tongue prods against her lips. She hears McCree growl behind her (possessively? Enviously?) and she backs up, turning and pulling Sombra with her until she’s sandwiched between the purple-haired rabbit and the big, hungry wolf.

She can feel McCree’s dick pressing up against her ass, already hard, and she grinds up against him wantonly. He groans, deep in his throat, and leans down to press his lips to her neck. It’s a little bit awkward with Sombra still kissing her so deeply and eagerly, but it still feels so, so good. Mercy moans again and throws her head back, at last breaking the kiss. Sombra hums, half-chuckling to herself as she backs up to watch McCree take her place.

“Look at them,” Sombra says, voice low but still distinct enough for Angela’s sensitive ears to pick up on the words. “They don’t even try to fight it. Why do you? I know you want this as bad as I do…”

“I’m busy,” the other woman says. “I’ve been tasked with--”

But Sombra cuts her off with a hand trailing down her chest, over the swell of her breast. Mercy opens her eyes to watch.

“Symmetra, please,” Sombra croons. Her other hand comes up to stroke that long, shimmering hair. “We’ll get to it. Why don’t we have some fun in the meantime?”

Symmetra glances at Mercy and McCree, still locked in their embrace, and frowns. Sombra waits for an answer patiently, but when she doesn’t get one, she says, “Fine. I’ll just go enjoy myself then.”

She practically skips back over to Angela and McCree, leaving Symmetra red-faced and appalled. But the long-haired rabbit doesn’t make a move to leave - she stands where she is and watches instead. Sombra turns back to wink at her before giving Angela and McCree her full attention.

Angela immediately feels a hand on her hips, guiding her so that Sombra can press herself firmly against her back. She sighs when she feels Sombra’s breasts squish against her, and she gasps when she feels another hand reach around to stroke between her legs.

“Ohh…” Sombra groans. Angela pulls away from McCree’s lips and shrinks in on herself a little bit, closing her eyes to lose herself to the pleasure of Sombra’s fingers stroking her through her leggings.

“What’s got you so worked up?” Sombra asks. “Is this all him?” She glances up at McCree, eyes hooded and cloudy with lust. “He smells so good… no wonder you’re so wet.”

A chill runs through Angela, but she smiles through it. “Have you never been with a wolf before?” she asks, and she can’t help the smugness that seeps into her tone.

Sombra shakes her head. Her nose twitches as she inhales McCree’s scent. “Never.”

“Oh?” McCree leans forward, grinning. Sombra’s eyes light up when she sees his canines shine in the low light. “Well now’s your chance, sugar.”

They surge forward at the same time, kissing over Mercy’s shoulder while she grinds between the two of them. Sombra’s hand on her pussy provides some much-needed relief, but it’s not enough. She needs more direct contact - a finger, a tongue, a cock, anything.

As if sensing her desperation, McCree pulls away from Sombra with a wet smack. He backs up and gives Angela just enough space for her to slip her leggings and panties off, and she does so in a rush, not bothering to be graceful or teasing about it. Her audience seems to appreciate it just the same.

“Damn, Ange, you’re worse off than I thought,” McCree says, licking his lips and narrowing his eyes hungrily at her. The smile he gives her is absolutely predatory, and she can’t wait any longer: before he or Sombra can make any other move, Mercy thrusts a hand between her legs and starts to rub at her own clit, whimpering and whining as she works at it furiously.

“What a good little bunny you’ve trained,” Sombra says, eyes locked on McCree before she turns to look longingly at Symmetra. “If only my little conejita was the same…”

Symmetra’s eyes had been on Mercy, but her attention snaps back to Sombra as soon as she hears the nickname. Both other women look at her smugly; she can try all she wants to hide it, but she’s clearly been affected not only by the intense scents and pheromones in the room, but by the sight of Angela’s desperation. Still, she does not relent, though her hand moves suspiciously from the front of her dress to clutch at the side of it. “I don’t think so.”

Sombra shrugs nonchalantly. “Whatever you say. More for me, then.”

She turns back to the other two. McCree is stripping slowly, watching as Angela continues to masturbate, and Angela’s eyes are firmly locked on him. She doesn’t notice Sombra taking off her clothes until the other bunny comes up behind her and drops to her knees, spreading Angela’s folds and slipping her tongue between them.

“Ah!” Angela’s knees buckle and Sombra catches her, holding her up with firm, steady hands on her hips. She feels Sombra laugh, the vibrations of it shooting up through her and coiling in her gut. She’s already so close, and yet…

“That’s it.” McCree’s voice catches her attention and she looks up to see him, shirt unbuttoned and naked from the waist down, walking toward her. “Get her nice and wet now, then we can give her exactly what she wants.”

“Please,” Mercy whines.

Another laugh from Sombra. Mercy clenches around her tongue and her eyes squeeze shut as she tries to hold back a scream. When she opens them, McCree is in front of her.

He leers down and puts his big, strong hands on her shoulders to push her down to her knees. Comprehension dawns on Angela’s face immediately and she goes readily, opening her mouth in anticipation of it being filled.

As she moves down, Sombra pulls away. There’s no more room for her to continue eating Mercy out, and Mercy whimpers, desperate to feel that sinfully skilled tongue inside her again. McCree seems to understand, though, and he grins.

“Ain’t no reason you gotta stop, sugar,” he says to Sombra. “Ange, be a good girl and spread your legs nice and wide for her. Let her in there, that’s it.”

Mercy does as she’s asked as soon as the words leave McCree’s mouth, and as soon as she’s in position Sombra slips between her legs, lying flat on her back on the floor. She kisses Angela’s leaking pussy gently before going right back to what she’d started and greedily lapping at her clit, but this time slipping two fingers inside her as well.

Angela’s mouth falls open. She cries out and McCree wastes no time taking advantage of it: he shoves his cock into her mouth as deep as it’ll go, and then that little bit deeper as it swells. Angela moans around it, her eyes brimming with happy, relieved tears. She’s finally, finally getting what she wants.

“You like that?” McCree asks. Angela wants so badly to nod, but she can’t; McCree’s knot has filled out in her mouth and she can barely move. She’s never been so happy to lack a gag reflex

Once Mercy has had time to adjust to his size and find where she’s comfortable, McCree lets her have it. He jerks his hips, growling as his cock hits the back of her throat over and over again. He can’t thrust as deeply as he’d like to, since his knot prevents him from pulling out all the way, but this is good enough. He’s hot and thick in her mouth and in her throat, and Mercy is certain he must be able to see his tip bulging in her.

“Fuck, Ange,” McCree grits out between clenched teeth. Angela tries to swallow around him, hoping to show that she’s enjoying this just as much as he is, and that she doesn’t just want him to fuck her face. She wants to work him to completion, to suck him down until he comes down her throat and fills her up.

And he does - but not before she comes. Angela gets so lost in the euphoria of McCree fucking her mouth that she almost forgets about Sombra finger-fucking her pussy, but she’s blissfully reminded of the other bunny when she feels a third finger slip into her cunt like it’s nothing. Angela rocks back against Sombra, moaning around McCree when Sombra crooks her fingers and rubs that sweet spot inside her that makes her see stars.

Every inch of Angela’s body tenses up. Her legs seize, her pussy clenches, and her throat closes tight around McCree’s cock, tight enough that it makes McCree moan - almost howl - with pleasure, and that’s when he lets go. Mercy takes shallow, greedy breaths through her nose as cum floods her mouth and gushes down her throat. Tears fall from the corners of her eyes, but she smiles and almost laughs through it, she’s so happy.

McCree’s brow relaxes as his knot deflates. He pulls out once it’s small enough, and as he does, the last spurts of cum follow and leak out from between Mercy’s lips. It dribbles down her chin messily.

McCree laughs. “Sorry, Ange,” he says, but Angela barely hears him. She doesn’t quite have the wherewithal to reply: her orgasm is still wearing off with the last few, gentle flicks of Sombra’s tongue against her clit.

McCree looks down just in time to see Sombra slide out from under Mercy. She licks her lips, satisfied, and turns her narrow, lusty gaze on the wolf instead. “Not bad,” she says. “But I think I’d like to get a taste of something else.”

McCree gets the message right away and walks forward. His dick is starting to soften, but that doesn’t seem to deter Sombra in the least: she leans forward, still on her knees, and licks at the tip, happily lapping up the remnants of cum still clinging to McCree.

And it’s like a switch flicks on.

Sombra goes all-in: she takes McCree as deep into her mouth as she can, like she just can’t get enough of the taste of his cum. Mercy watches with awe and just the slightest bit of envy: even though she’s already come, even though she’s already swallowed him down, she wants more.

McCree seems to notice. He grins, feral and toothy, and pulls Sombra off his dick. She whines and pouts up at him.

“Don’t you worry, now,” he tells her, taking her chin in his hand and directing her gaze back to Mercy. “Daddy’s got somethin’ else planned for you. But I don’t think Angie’s quite finished yet.”

With his free hand, he beckons Angela closer. She crawls to him obediently, then when McCree gestures to Sombra, she leans in to kiss the other woman deeply. Once again, the taste of McCree floods her mouth and she moans, wrapping her arms around Sombra and pulling her closer while McCree positions himself behind her.

It’s not just McCree she tastes, and the realization of it hits her like a truck - it’s herself, too, and the mixture of the two of them, salty-sour-sweet all together. It makes Angela weak in the knees, but she keeps going, keeps holding Sombra to her, unwilling to let her go for even a second, not when she’s still so aroused and Sombra’s lips are so soft and inviting...

But she doesn’t have much choice. McCree slips his fingers into Sombra and she gasps, breaking the kiss, and leaving Mercy wanting more.

“Fuck,” the wolf hisses through clenched teeth. “So wet you don’t even need me to warm you up. What say we just get right to it, then?”

He takes Sombra by the hips and yanks her back, but it’s hardly necessary; Sombra goes with him willingly, turning over so she’s on her back and looking up at McCree hovering over her. “Let me see those teeth while you fuck me, Papi.”

McCree grins and bears them. “Anything you want, sweetheart.”

He slams in.

The moment he’s inside her, Angela moans. Sombra’s back arches right off the floor and she screams, so loud Angela wonders if she’s already come. She can practically feel the phantom stretch of having McCree’s knot in her, too, and she decides right then and there that if she can’t have it right now, she needs something. Her hand flies between her legs once again and she slips two fingers into her still-gaping hole, fucking herself on them as she watches McCree go to town on Sombra’s pussy.

Sombra’s eyes are hazy as she turns her head to face Mercy, but she smiles and laughs weakly through the fugue of being filled so completely. “Jealous, conejita?”

Angela is too far-gone to glare, but she tries anyway. Sombra laughs, shakes her head, then tilts her chin up and moves her gaze onto something behind Mercy. “Come on, Sym, why don’t you come play with us?”

Mercy turns around to look at Symmetra, who, though once-proud and defiant, is currently leaning, almost doubled-over, on the lone desk in the room. She bites her lip, trying to move so Mercy can’t see that her prosthetic hand has slipped beneath her dress. Although she’s a little bit more subtle than Mercy has been, it’s still painfully obvious what she had been doing up until Sombra called her out.

Symmetra freezes, wide-eyed, and looks from Sombra to McCree to Mercy and back again. Behind her, Mercy hears Sombra laugh, and she turns to look, but her view of Sombra splayed-out on the floor and loving every second of it is obscured by McCree leaning over and licking her face as he thrusts wildly into her dripping pussy.

McCree groans. “Fuck, can still taste her on you,” he says. He thrusts harder, faster, like the taste of Angela’s ejaculate has spurred him on and re-energized him.

It’s re-energized Angela, too.

She stands up, withdrawing her fingers from herself and licking them clean as she saunters over to Symmetra. She sits on the edge of the desk, right next to the other woman, with a sly smile. Symmetra eyes her warily.

“You look like you could use some help,” Angela says quietly. She leans in closer. “May I?”

“I refuse to let that wolf touch me,” Symmetra spits, but some of the venom of her words is lost from the way she gazes longingly at said wolf and his new prey. Angela just smiles.

“You don’t have to,” she says reassuringly. “But will you let me?”

Satya doesn’t say yes, but she doesn’t protest, either. Angela just waits, watching Symmetra carefully even when the other woman won’t meet her eye. But eventually, she does lean in closer, offering her cheek to Angela.

And Angela takes it, kissing it softly. She kisses her again, this time moving slightly closer to the black bunny’s lips. Then again, right at the corner of them. On the fourth kiss, Symmetra turns her head so they can kiss properly, closed lips meeting gently.

Then all hell breaks loose.

All restraint melts away from Symmetra after that first contact. She presses forward, massaging Mercy’s lips open gently until they’re both kissing open-mouthed, tongues sliding against one another. Symmetra moans and Angela slides a hand under her dress to trace the hot, damp outline of Symmetra’s cunt through her underclothes.

The kiss breaks and Symmetra cries out, unable to hold back. Her face flushes and Mercy coos at her, leaning in to kiss her cheeks, her chin, her neck. “It’s okay,” she whispers. “You can let go. I’ll take care of you.”

There’s one last moment of hesitation, but it quickly dissolves and Symmetra surrenders. She lets Mercy strip her of her shorts and panties, and practically jumps on her fingers when she offers them. Her short, fluffy tail twitches erratically when she finally gets something inside her.

“We’ve kept you waiting far too long,” Mercy teases. She smiles as she crooks her fingers, stroking Symmetra from the inside and quickly bringing her near the edge. Symmetra cries out, a hand flying to her mouth to once again try and silence herself, but Mercy pulls it away just as fast.

“I told you it was okay, didn’t I?” she says without a trace of malice. “Please, Symmetra, let me hear you. If you try to quiet yourself again, I might…”

She slows the movement of her fingers.

“...Just…”

She pulls them out.

“Stop.”

Symmetra nearly sobs. She looks at Angela pleadingly, face flushed dark and ears pinned back flat against the back of her head. “No, please…”

Angela smiles and moves around to stand behind her. “That’s better. Now be a good girl for me and let them know how much you’re enjoying this.”

Symmetra whips her head around, taking in McCree and Sombra once again with wide eyes, as if she had forgotten they were there (how could she, though, when McCree was fucking Sombra so hard they could hear every thrust?). Mercy giggles softly behind her, then carefully slides her wet finger over Symmetra’s rim, past her perineum, and back into her soaking-wet cunt.

Symmetra sighs with relief, sinking down to lean over the desk on her elbows. Mercy leans over and gently nips at the tip of Symmetra’s long, elegant ears. “Watch them, now,” she says, and she feels Symmetra shiver against her.

Mercy watches, too. She watches as Sombra wraps her arms around McCree’s neck, pulling him down closer to her. They kiss, hard, but it’s barely a kiss at all, really: it’s all tongues meeting, all Sombra licking at McCree’s sharp canines, all growls and groans and gasps.

There are scratch marks on Sombra’s arms and back where McCree’s grabbed at her. He does it again, his nails raking more angry red lines down her back, and Sombra half-moans, half-laughs at the feeling. When she falls back to the floor, her legs come around McCree’s waist and she clamps down around him, holding him in place for a brief moment.

“Knot ain’t enough for you?” he asks. “Not like I’m about to fall out, you know.”

“Cállate.” Sombra nips and McCree’s jawline. “Just let me enjoy myself.”

“Guess you are pretty new to the whole wolf thing,” McCree says. “Shoulda had Ange give you some pointers.”

“Don’t need ‘em,” Sombra says right back without missing a beat. She jerks her hips and tenses up, and McCree grunts. His brows furrow and his fingers scrape against the floor - a sure sign that he’s about to come.

And come he does.

There’s so much. So much cum that it not just leaks out of Sombra’s pussy, but seems to flow out of her in waves. Angela is deeply familiar with the feeling, and she feels herself leak a little in an automatic response. She almost misses Symmetra’s desperate little whimper, but she doesn’t miss the way the black bunny clenches around her fingers. Symmetra is close, too.

Both McCree and Sombra continue to jerk and thrust against one another as they ride out their orgasms. Sombra looks absolutely wrecked by the time McCree finally deflates and pulls out of her. She lies there for a moment, just trying to come back down to earth, but eventually she staggers to her feet and slowly makes her way over to the other two ladies waiting for her. Jizz drips down her legs where it still leaks out of her over-full pussy.

Mercy swears Sombra’s belly is bulging.

Eventually, Sombra stops in front of the desk. She leans over, still foggy in the head, and sloppily kisses Symmetra. Symmetra eagerly returns it, the sound of her moans getting lost in Sombra’s mouth. Angela has stopped moving her fingers to give her a small break, but seeing how happy Symmetra is to be making out with her girlfriend (is Sombra her girlfriend?) gives Mercy an idea.

“Jesse,” she calls. McCree looks up, reaction time slowed by post-coital haze. “Come here.”

Slowly, he gets to his feet. McCree does as Angela asks and approaches her. He moves behind her when she gestures for him to, already knowing what she wants, as usual. Angela presses herself against his softening cock as he strokes it back to hardness, and as soon as he’s able to, he slips it inside her.

Angela does a marvelous job of keeping her composure this time. She sighs contentedly when she finally feels McCree’s knot swell and fill her up. She still does not move the hand buried inside Symmetra’s warm, wet heat, though.

Symmetra notices this, too. When Sombra pulls away from her, she turns her head to look at Mercy over her shoulders. Her eyes are cloudy, pupils blown wide - just as affected by all the pheromones as the rest of them, now. “Wh… why did you stop?”

Angela laughs. “Because I know this isn’t enough for you,” she says. When Symmetra looks at her uncomprehendingly, she clarifies: “I saw the way you looked at the two of them, and I don’t think Sombra is the one you want anymore, is it?”

Symmetra tenses, but stays silent. Bingo.

Sombra follows their gazes to McCree and smirks. “Aw, pobrecita,” she coos, leaning forward to take Symmetra’s chin in one hand. She turns the black bunny’s head toward her, and kisses her forehead gently. “I thought you were too good for the big bad wolf?”

Symmetra looks like she’s about to spit in Sombra’s face, but she doesn’t. Angela strokes her hair, right between her ears, and it seems to soothe Symmetra somewhat. “I… changed my mind,” she says simply.

“Oh?” Sombra looks like the cat that got the canary - not at all the rabbit running from its prey. “And why’s that?”

Symmetra grimaces. Angela plays with her ears. “Don’t tease her,” she says. “God knows how hard it is to resist McCree when he’s… like this.”

Behind her, McCree jerks his hips. Angela bites back a moan, but she turns her head so he can kiss her cheek. He licks it instead. “Hey now, you can’t blame all this on me,” he says. “I may smell good, but y’all are the ones in heat right now.”

“As if you’re not,” Sombra says, breathless, as she tries to take in another deep whiff of McCree’s scent. It’s not quite his time yet, but it wouldn’t surprise Mercy in the least if all of this - if her and Sombra and Symmetra in such heavy, obvious heats - has triggered it in him early.

“He just smells so good,” Symmetra says all in one breath, reminding them all that she’s still there, still desperate. “I can’t…”

“Can’t help yourself?” Mercy plays with Symmetra’s ear, rubbing the velvety tip of it between her thumb and forefinger. Symmetra melts into the touch, arching her head back to give Mercy better access. “It’s okay, dear. I know. But you have to earn your turn.”

She looks up at Sombra, extremely grateful that the other bunny is so quick on the uptake. Sombra climbs up onto the desk, sits in front of Symmetra, spreads her legs, and opens herself up. She’s still dripping excess wolf cum, and Mercy feels another jolt of arousal go through her that has nothing to do with the knot currently buried deep inside her. She swears she sees Symmetra’s mouth water, too.

“Go on, dear,” she says. “If you’re good and clean her all out, then I’ll let you have your turn.”

Symmetra practically dives in.

Mercy can’t blame her. She’s just barely held herself together up until this point, and now that both Sombra and Symmetra are occupied, she can finally let herself go too.

McCree must feel the tension leave her body, because as soon as Mercy stops focusing on Symmetra and starts to relax, he grabs her by the hips and starts to thrust into her like there’s no tomorrow. She feels his nails dig into her skin as he moves her, pushing and pulling her back and forth just as much and as hard as he fucks into her.

“I’m amazed you could wait,” she gasps out. “You’re not usually this patient…”

“Took everythin’ I had not to throw you down and fuck you ‘til you screamed,” McCree growls. “But I know not to interrupt you when you’re workin’.”

He licks her cheek again, lapping up the trickle of sweat that’s started to run down her temple. Mercy laughs and turns her head so McCree can kiss her properly. She clenches down around him, trying to stay nice and tight for him, just the way she knows he likes. He seems to appreciate it, because soon his rhythm is stuttering, losing all sense of control. He’s just chasing the high of orgasm now.

And that suits Mercy just fine.

She breaks away from McCree’s lips to turn her attention back to Symmetra. The other woman is tight around her fingers, and though Mercy isn’t moving them much, she doesn’t really feel the need to: Symmetra flutters around her just fine, rolling and gyrating her hips in whatever way gives her the most pleasure. She seems much more focused on eating Sombra out, anyway, and swallowing as much of McCree’s cum as she can.

“Fuck, Sati, you’re so - ah - s-s-ssssoooo good,” Sombra breathes. Her thighs tremble. Her hands shake. She must be close. Must be.

And oh - there it is. Sombra’s head falls back and she breathes in loudly, desperately, trying to refill her lungs as quickly as the breath is knocked out of her. It sounds like she’s been sucker-punched, even more so than when McCree had finished with her. Angela can’t help but smile; she’s never seen anyone enjoy an orgasm quite as much as Sombra.

Mercy looks down at Symmetra, who now has finally pulled herself out from between Sombra’s legs to breathe. She licks her lips, smiling faintly, like she isn’t completely aware of how much she’s betraying her emotions. Angela smiles, too.

She supposes that deserves a reward.

Angela withdraws her fingers. Predictably, Symmetra makes a noise at the sudden feeling of emptiness, but she doesn’t say anything. All protest dies on her tongue when Mercy brings those fingers to her mouth and licks them clean.

“My, you taste good,” she says quietly. Symmetra preens a little bit, forgetting to look disgusted for once. She must be really far-gone. “But I think you’d taste better after you’ve been properly filled, don’t you?”

Symmetra’s ears perk up. Mercy feels McCree twitch inside her, and when she looks over her shoulder at him, his ears have perked up, too.

“That mean what I think it means?”

“Yes, Jesse.” Angela gives him a wicked smile. “But you’ll have to finish with me, first.”

He doesn’t have a choice, really. Not when his knot is so full, so deeply entrenched inside her. Not that he would complain, anyway: McCree is more than happy to continue at his brutal pace, and this time, when the rhythm of his thrusting intensifies, Mercy meets him halfway, grinding herself into him and bouncing her hips on his dick.

“Oh, fuck -- fuck, Ange,” McCree grunts. His hold on her hips tightens even more and he tenses up, curling in on himself even as he continues thrusting into her. “Keep goin’ like that and I’ll--”

But he never finishes his sentence. Angela squeezes down around him and McCree comes, spilling himself inside her and filling her up so much that some of his cum gushes out of her along with her own when she finally comes too.

His knot deflates and he pulls out, only for Sombra to take his place. She’s almost delirious with pleasure, moaning and humming wantonly as she spreads Mercy’s already-gaping hole open and cleans her up. If Sombra had any semblance of restraint before (and she hadn’t), it’s long-gone now.

Angela twitches and squirms against Sombra. She’s still coming down, still over-sensitive, and right on the verge of coming again with Sombra’s skillful tongue working her open. “D-desperate little cumslut, aren’t you?” Angela just barely manages to gasp out. She hears Sombra make a noise behind her, not sure if the other bunny is agreeing with her or if she just likes being called a cumslut.

It hardly matters. McCree takes only a second to gather himself, and when he does and he slides himself into Symmetra with no resistance at all, that’s where Mercy’s full attention goes. She doesn’t even realize as she comes again and again on Sombra’s tongue, she’s so enraptured with watching her big, bad wolf fuck his new little bunny.

Symmetra is not weak. That much is clear in her form alone, lean muscle rippling under smooth skin. She has the body of a dancer, of someone who takes the utmost care of herself. But right now, in McCree’s hold, she looks like little more than a doll, letting him lift her and position her and pound her into the floor. She screams, she moans, she gasps, she wails; and there’s a smile on her face the whole time, like she’s in the utmost ecstasy.

She comes on his cock quickly. Once, twice in rapid succession. It’s not surprising in the least; Mercy and Sombra have both kept her pent up for some time now with no release. It looks like it’s worth it, too, as Symmetra’s eyes roll back in her head and she grasps McCree’s shoulders desperately. McCree leans down and licks a stray fleck of his own cum off her cheek - left over from Sombra, no doubt - and she shivers in his hold.

“That’s it, baby,” he growls over her. “Keep on comin’ for me. Stay nice ‘n’ tight for Daddy.”

Symmetra’s legs come up impossibly high and wrap around McCree’s back. Her flexibility is amazing, and for a moment, Mercy wishes she could bury her face between those legs, but she’d hate to interrupt the good time the two of them - and Sombra - are having. She pushes the thought aside for now, deciding to revisit it when they’re done and she can properly clean Symmetra up, but the thought is renewed again when a new wave of orgasm hits Symmetra and she gushes ejaculate all around herself and McCree.

“Fuck!” McCree leans forward and sucks a mark into Symmetra’s throat as he tenses up one final time, letting himself go and coming inside the last of his three bunnies. Nothing leaks out this time, not until he’s finished and his knot slowly deflates and makes room. When he pulls out, he presses some of the cum that spills from Symmetra’s pussy back inside with his thumb. Symmetra twitches and shivers, still sensitive, but she does not come again.

Sombra finishes cleaning Mercy up, licking the last few drops off her thighs. She pulls away with a kiss to the blonde bunny’s labia, then lightly plucks at her fluffy tail.

“Feel better?” Mercy asks. She, for one, feels like a new woman: refreshed and satisfied, this wave of her mating cycle’s heat dealt with for the time being. It’ll return in a few hours, no doubt, but by then the mission will be over and she’ll have all the time in the world to ride McCree properly.

“Yeah,” Sombra says. She turns her gaze to McCree, who has now stood up. His tail flicks as he readjusts his spent cock. “But I don’t think we’re quite done yet, are we?”

Mercy gives her a questioning look, but quickly catches on when Sombra wiggles her eyebrows. She laughs, shaking her head fondly. “You really are quite the cumslut.”

Sombra shrugs, but the nonchalance is lost in the smirk on her face. “Guilty as charged.”

The two women move over to McCree and, at the same time, drop to their knees and slowly start licking him clean. Symmetra joins them shortly, apparently not wanting to miss out on the chance to reward McCree for doing such a good job for them all.

It’s so strange, tasting four different people on McCree’s cock. At least, Mercy can imagine she can taste all of them. She thinks she might even enjoy it more than McCree, which is saying a lot: the wolf can just barely stay standing under the feeling of three tongues working at him. They’re all careful not to go too hard, though: none of them want to fight over who gets to ride McCree’s knot next.

Angela is confident she’ll win, anyway.

When they finish cleaning McCree off, all three women stand and redress. All at once, they’re uncomfortably reminded of why they were here in the first place, and what still needs to be done.

McCree is the first one to break the silence.

“What say we all just go our separate ways now?” he suggests. “We get on with our mission, you get on with yours.”

“And if we are enemies?” Symmetra counters.

“Well, then, we call it a stalemate and get each other properly next time.” McCree shrugs. “I don’t much like shootin’ ladies. Especially not after I sleep with ‘em.”

Blasé as he is about it, Mercy laughs at the joke. “I agree. I would rather not have to fight after… all of that.”

“Right.” Sombra grins. “Adios, then, Overwatch.”

Mercy and McCree leave the room. A small feeling of dread trickles into the pit of Mercy’s stomach - they really shouldn’t have just walked out of there without doing anything, especially after being identified as Overwatch at the get-go - but she decides that that is a problem for another time.

For now, she has to get McCree some new suppressants.

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