#but then if i did NOT answer it would be some kind of weird victory for you and i'm petty so....no <3

[jlf23tumble]

"but go on and send me some links to 'big' and real pubs that are somehow trashing louis" FITF review by Alim Kheraj, the Guardian. A Harry fan. Walls review by Ashley Bardhan, Pitchfork. A Harry fan. Walls review by Alexandra Pollard, Independent. A Harry fan. All these reviews counted towards the metacritic score.

[thedemonscrawler]

I'm just gonna do this to Ruin

LIKE. YES I KNOW HE DID EVERYTHING WRONG. BUT HAVE YOU CONSIDERED HOW SAD HE MIGHT BE ABOUT IT

Like aaaaa I'm cursed to only like characters when they're losing I guess, and a Pyrrhic victory counts as a loss. I didn't CARE about this guy when he was the main antagonist, and then Eclipse 3.0 chucked him in the back of a car and kidnapped him and I was suddenly interested. And NOW, when everyone is very much upset about Solar, I'm off to the side shaking this bastard around because we finally got some concrete answers to what's going on in his head.

Just! This whole thing-- this is an exceptionally Moon thing for him to have done. To go 'I'm going to completely and totally remove this possible threat from ever occurring, and I'm fine with being the bad guy to do it'? That's some Old Moon kind of thinking. This wasn't a plan he came up with in the past few months, this took him years.

And speaking of years! Fifty years of playing pretend! Of acting like you enjoy hurting people, that you don't care as your body literally falls apart around you. I'm not a fan of the idea that he was never infected, I like the perspective better that he was infected, it just wasn't as responsible for his behavior as he made it out to be-- but still. At some point he had to have gone numb to it for the sake of his own survival.

What does that do to your mentality? Your outlook? What's it like knowing that your whole world was brought to its knees by your creator? What's it like being the only semi-stable person you know for half a century? What's it like realizing that you're also changing, and not for the better?

He's just... so painfully isolated, in a way that Eclipse doesn't even come close to touching.

And! And even after being 'cured'! He's still isolated! Like it was a good thing he WAS up to something-- can you imagine how crushing it would be if he'd been genuinely not doing anything, and he was still treated with suspicion for a solid like 4 months? By probably the most consistent group of animatronics he's had to talk to that weren't infected with a weird virus?

Like, the man didn't get repaired until 3 months after being cured, after Solar made a blueprint in his spare time. He didn't get a bed until Moon felt guilty about rummaging around inside his head-- and tbh I don't know if he ever got to actually use that bed. He let them call him Ruin.

Ruin never had a home in 'our' dimension.

And hhhhngh like I'm not even sure he cares, because he's past the point of caring. He's got one of Sun's worst traits as well, "There's no point in sharing what I'm thinking because no one is listening". He could have approached Moon and Solar with like "Hey okay so I started on this plan to do this thing like 10 years ago, I would like some input" and maybe an alternative could have been found!

But he didn't, because he's alone. He came up with the best plan he could, weighed the risks, and acted on it, all by himself. A single weird Eclipse against 5,000 Creators, because he felt like that was the greatest threat.

And like, lets be real-- Solar's death was 100% a narrative necessity. Otherwise we the audience wouldn't really care that Ruin had wiped so many dimensions from existing, it'd just be a number. That thing of like, you gotta make it personal to have impact. Very good storytelling right there.

(Though from a in-universe perspective, man it must have been an unpleasant shock to learn that of course the only other dimensional refugee was from one of the worlds you had to destroy. Like, come on, what are the odds)

He did something horrible. A multi-dimensional catastrophe to prevent a multi-dimensional catastrophe. He probably accepted the ramifications of it ages ago. He just... utterly lacks any hope, you know? No hope of forgiveness, no hope of improvement. He survived his world long enough to do this thing, and he has nothing else going for him.

He's just waiting for them to finally kill off his body, because he already died years ago.

Anyway I'm desperately trying to find an angle that can be used to maybe pull him out of his coffin here and so far I'm not seeing one qq but maybe future eps will give me something to work off of.

[navybrat817]

Fall Like a Rose Petal

Pairing: Soft Dark!Scott Huffman x Female Reader Summary: Your normal routing leaves you unhappy and you can't figure out why. Word Count: Over 1.4k Warnings: Gaps in memory, gaslighting, coercion, creepy vibes, Scott Huffman (yep, he's a warning) A/N: Scott and Rose's Intro for my Disturbia AU! ❤️ Beta read by the lovely @whisperlullaby, but any and all mistakes are my own. Divider by the talented @firefly-graphics. Please follow @navybrat817-sideblog for new fics and notifications. Comments, reblogs, feedback are loved and appreciated!

You enjoyed living your life according to a schedule. It wasn't that you didn't like spontaneity. You just looked forward to accomplishing tasks each day. Checklists were a thing of beauty and crossing things off one by one were your mini victories. You tried to get the toughest things out of the way first to create and keep your momentum throughout the rest of the day. By the time your head hit the pillow, you had a sense of fulfillment.

Happiness.

So why do I feel like I'm going around in circles?

You stared at your "To Do" list after you set the table for dinner. Scott would be home any minute with the expectation of a warm meal prepared. Instead of crossing it off like normal, you grabbed the pink sheet of paper and went to the sink. You watched dispassionately as you took a lighter and set the corner of it on fire. You dropped the charred paper in before it could burn you and turned the water on. It didn't make you feel any better.

The smell won't mix well with the delicious food I cooked. A good wife takes pride in her work.

Sniffling when you heard the car pull into the driveway, you quickly went to light a rose scented candle before you fixed Scott a drink. A lawyer who fought for people who couldn't fight for themselves, you admired your husband and how hard he worked. He cared about what he did and you supported him.

But what do I want?

You couldn't explain why you felt moody all of a sudden. Today was exactly like how every other day was. You did your chores like normal and gave Ruby some tips on cooking a casserole. It was nice. So why did you feel off?

What did I used to do to relieve stress before I moved here?

You hissed at the sudden sharp pain in your head. As fast as it came on, it went away into nothingness. The way some of your memories did. You wondered if you liked making lists because you were a forgetful person. But that didn't seem right.

"I'm home!" Scott announced as he walked in.

You smoothed out your dress and smiled as you went to greet him. "How was your day?" you asked, giving him a gentle kiss once the door was shut. His lips lingered before he pressed them a little harder against yours. You accepted it, both pliant and eager.

A good wife is always happy to see her husband.

"It was good," he said, handing you his briefcase as he took the drink you offered. "How was yours?"

"I'm glad you had a good day," you said, biting your lip as he waited for you to answer his question. "I don't know."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?" He asked slowly, setting his drink on the hall table to focus all of his attention on you. "Did something happen?"

"No. Nothing happened," you said, leaning into his hand when he touched your cheek.

A good wife doesn't worry her husband.

"Was there anything out of the ordinary today?" he asked, his blue eyes searching your face for some sort of explanation. "Rose, talk to me."

"No. Nothing. I just…" your face scrunched up, frustrated that you couldn't pinpoint the problem. "Do you ever just wake up in a weird mood for no reason?"

Scott nodded after a moment. "Yeah, I think we all have those kinds of days. There's no specific reason why we're upset. We just are."

"Yeah, exactly," you said, happy that he understood.

He knows exactly how to read me.

"So, you're having an off day. That's okay."

"But I don't know what to do about it," you said, an unexpected tear slipping from your eye. "I tried to think of what to do to make myself feel better and nothing came to mind."

"What about what we used to do?" he suggested.

You furrowed your brows, not sure what he was talking about.

"You don't remember?" he asked, a touch of hurt in his voice. You wanted to apologize, even though you didn't do anything wrong. "We used to sit on the floor in my office while we ate. You'd say one good thing about the day and I'd say something else. We'd go back and forth until we ran out of things."

There were bits and pieces of flashes in your mind of sitting with him on his office floor, but not a seamless memory.

"I thought that meant something to you," he whispered.

Which prompted you to burst into tears.

A good wife doesn't make a scene.

Scott said something to you, but you didn't hear him over the sound of your crying. You let him take you to the sofa and collapsed in his arms. "What's wrong with me?" You sobbed.

"Nothing. There's nothing wrong with you," he promised, wiping at your cheeks with his thumbs.

"Something has to be," you mumbled, gesturing to the room. "I do my checklist every day and something feels like it's missing. Like there's a void."

Where's my real sense of purpose?

"I'm going to make a phone call," he said, brushing away another tear. "Give me just a second, okay?"

"Okay," you replied, not sure how a call would help, but you didn't voice that opinion when he stepped out of the room.

A good wife doesn't pry.

You toyed with the hem of your dress and looked around the room. It was like something out of a magazine. Everything had its place. A home built with love.

Right?

"Hey," Scott said when he came back a few minutes later. "I think I figured out part of the problem."

"You have?"

"When's the last time you've done anything for yourself?" he asked as he sat next to you. When you couldn't give him an answer, he nodded. "Exactly. You're so busy taking care of our home and me that you neglected your needs. No, I neglected those needs. And for that, I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault. You work so hard," you said, putting your hand over his. It was strange how you wanted to make him feel better when you were the one upset.

A good wife puts her husband's needs ahead of her own.

"But I should know when something is bothering my wife," he said, clenching his jaw. "I won't let it happen again."

"It's okay, Scott."

"No. You need to get out of the house more. Spend quality time with the wives. Have fun," he said, a smile spreading on his handsome face. "Which is why we're going to get a part-time maid."

"A maid?" you questioned, a tremor running through your body. Why did that frighten you? "No, we can't get a maid. What would everyone say if they found out? They'll think I can't take care of our home."

A good wife doesn't argue with her husband.

"They won't say anything. Andy's the one who recommended her and everyone knows you run our home with pride," he assured you, which calmed you down slightly. "Not only that, but you help the other wives without a second thought. They admire you and your helpful nature, Rose. I know Bucky's wife will, too."

You smiled a little. Bucky's wife was the talk of the neighborhood, though you hadn't met her yet. "I don't want anyone judging you."

What I do and don't do is a reflection on him.

"You have nothing to worry about. And since the maid would be part-time, she'll only do some of the chores. You pick and choose what you want to do and she can do the rest while you relax or pick up a hobby. You deserve that."

"Can I think about it, please?" you asked. A stranger in your home made you nervous, but if Andy and Scott trusted her, that helped.

Scott wouldn't do anything that caused me discomfort.

His jaw clenched again, but he smiled before you could dwell on it. "Sure," he said, kissing your forehead. "Do you feel any better?"

I don't know.

"I think so. Thank you," you said to appease him. "Why don't we eat on the floor in your office? We can talk about the good things."

He smiled like you handed him a gift. "That's a great idea."

Maybe you would take him up on his offer for a maid, if only to regain a sense of yourself.

As long as I keep Scott happy.

Remember, everything is FINE. Love and thanks for reading! ❤️

Masterlist ⚓ Scott Huffman Masterlist ⚓ Ko-Fi

[lilyrizzy]

For the prompt thingy - daniel taking care of max when he was sick in jeddah please? 🤲

I know this is a prompt thingy from ages ago, but I hope you like it anyway anon!

Cw: descriptions of throwing up

There’s a horrible retching noise coming through the bathroom door, followed by the telltale sound of liquid hitting liquid. Daniel rattles the knob again, already having found it locked the first time he tried.

“Maxy,” he calls again, voice a sing-song, “Maxy, open the door.”

For a moment, Daniel thinks Max is ignoring him, then-

More sounds of him violently throwing up.

“I think I am dying, Daniel,” he eventually manages to catch, a muffled whimper, “and I cannot of course take you down with me.”

There is something echoey in Max’s voice, probably because it’s bouncing off the ceramic of the toilet that his head is currently stuck in. Resting his forehead against the door, Daniel can’t help but smile at his flare for the dramatic, though maybe that isn’t totally fair. He probably does feel like he’s dying.

“Life isn’t worth living without you, baby,” he answers, a joke, but- Well. “Don’t you want me to rub your back, or, uh-“ He tries to remember what his mum would do for him the days he’d stay home from school, wagging or not, “-put a cold flannel on your forehead?”

Really, that could go either way. Max is picky with when he wants to be touched and when he wants to be left alone, and Daniel is mostly good these days at reading that. Cuddles after sex are a must, but to sleep? No way. Some things though, he’s still learning.

There’s no answer, and with Max sometimes that is the answer, so Daniel is getting ready to walk away, go back to the UFC match they were watching before Max bolted from the sofa back to the toilet, and add does not like to be held when sick to the growing list of ways he knows Max like nobody else, except-

The lock snicks, and when Daniel tries the door again it opens.

Max is already retreating to his position, praying to the porcelain god, by the time Daniel gets through the door. The room smells disgusting, but Daniel doesn’t dare say that in case it gets him stuck on the other side again, helpless. He can’t do much in here either, but if Max let him in it’s because he wants him.

It’s only seconds before Max is gagging again, not throwing up exactly but giving it a bloody good go.

“Oh sweetheart," Daniel says, and the sudden rush of tenderness both surprises him and has him crouching down beside Max, hand moving in circles over his shoulder blades like promised.

His offers of support hadn’t exactly been disingenuous, but Daniel hasn’t exactly won any medals for boyfriend of the year before, so it’s a shock how quickly the actions change from feeling like an obligation, to those born from the need to see Max better, to see him smile.

Which is maybe a little much to ask for. Instead, Max coughs, then spits, then groans miserably. Standing again, Daniel fills up the glass he usually uses for mouthwash with cold water and offers it to him, but Max pitifully shakes his head.

“It will only come back up again, I think,” he grimaces, and yeah. He’s probably right. “I think this is your fault.”

“My fault?” Daniel questions with a laugh, a little affronted. Squeezing Max’s shoulder he adds, “I’m not that desperate for your seat, mate.”

It gets him that smile he was after from Max, which feels like a small victory.

“You made me eat that spicy chicken,” he insists, resting his forehead against their toilet seat. “From the Indian restaurant last week. I told you it makes my tummy bad.”

Tummy. Something that feels a lot like love twists itself around Daniel’s heart.

“I don’t think some chicken you ate over a week ago is making you sick, babe,” Daniel can’t help but point out, even though Max is right, he did make him try some of his Chicken Jalfrezi. “Maybe it was the pizza.”

Later, after, naked in bed, Daniel went for his classic while Max insisted on one with all kinds of weird and wonderful deli meats slapped on top, so it’s not exactly rocket science.

Daniel is one hundred percent sure it’s the pizza.

An impulse order last night after getting a little too wine drunk and giggly in the apartment together, a rare evening of quiet fun between Max’s hectic race schedule. Daniel promising that Max would like the next glass of red just so he could watch the alcohol stain his lips darker and darker, to kiss the taste of it out of his mouth.

Max is shaking his head though, his hair especially blonde in the almost fluorescent light of the bathroom. His eyes are shut.

“Pizza would not betray me like this, I think.”

This time, Daniel doesn’t argue, just leans to press a kiss to the sweaty back of Max’s neck. Max makes a soft humming noise, not exactly happy but- Almost.

“Sorry I am so gross,” he croaks out after a few beats more of silence, and he is but he’s also Daniel’s to take care of.

“Hey,” he tries, rubbing the shell of Max’s ear now, “I’m the one who was about the bust down the door to get in.” Then because it doesn’t feel quite enough, he adds, “gross or not gross, sickness and in health, baby.”

Max laughs, eyes still closed. There’s too much stubble on his jaw, too much breadth to his shoulders for Daniel to think he looks anything like he did in the Red Bull briefings, eighteen with his head on the table like he was sleeping, and yet his mind pulls him back to that Max anyway.

How far he’s come, how far they both have.

“That is for if you are married,” Max says, as though he is reminding Daniel. Like he thinks maybe Daniel is a little crazy for bringing it up, and maybe he is, but it doesn’t feel like that.

When you know, you know, his mum had always told him and for almost two decades of dating he would roll his eyes at her and bite down how not everyone could have the perfect love story she and his dad did. These days, he thinks she’s onto something.

“Yeah Maxy, you’re right,” he says, instead of the words he wants to. Let’s fucking do it then. Nobody wants to get proposed two between rounds of vomit after only eight months.

[libbytwq]

wowie i did it! I drew sonic designs for if he were in each shatterverse!

Im very proud of them, they look so skrungly

Also this was a challenge for me, i just kinda made up their designs as i went along with no references and no premade color palettes

Heres the post where i first made the idea:

Anyway, closeups + character info below

(Keep in mind, these characters exist in a timeline where the prism was never shattered)

Renegade Blur, the Sonic of the New Yoke City Shatterverse

I took some design element inspo from Knucks, with the scars and the lil spine dent thingies

He is incredibly reckless and very loud and overconfident (his scars are from being reckless and stupid)

He is kinda similar to Chaos Sonic tbh

He stops at nothing to defeat his enemies, even when his body cant take another hit

He can be a lil bit overbearing, but when it counts, his heart is usually in the right place

He works with Rebel and Knucks, and sometimes they don't get along but they can trust Blur usually

Loves races and is a sore loser

He's also never met Nine, but if he were to meet Nine, he'd be able to get along with him, but would side with the Rebels and agree he can't always be trusted

Very violently aro/ace, he do his own thing and doesn't like the idea of being bogged down by another person he has to take care of

Quill, the Sonic of the Boscage Maze Shatterverse

Took some design inspo from Gnarly and Thorn, as well as the facepaint from Prim

He can be a lil nervous and underconfident, and doesnt know he can run fast (hes a lil bit klutzy - if he runs too fast he trips on something and falls over, so he doesnt run too fast typically)

He loves his friends! He hates getting abandoned

He typically hangs out with Prim, Gnarly, Hangry and Mangey above the forest, but he does hang out with Thorn occasionally below the treetops (the rest of the group has no idea)

Thorn scares him a lot. He is so afraid of her, but he sticks around cuz they do actually care about each other, but they refuse to admit it

Quill is usually the one that the group sends below the forest, cuz he is able to grab some food without immediately getting sent up by Thorn and Birdie

If Thorn ever catches him taking berries, Quill is usually able to explain himself, and Thorn usually lets him off the hook

Quill and Thorn like each other (shhhh dont tell anyone i said that, not even quill knows he likes her)

Mangey is one of his best buds! They get along so well and no one knows why

Has never heard of the idea of relationships, but he has these weird fuzzy feelings for Thorn that he cant identify, hm must be nothing

Sexuality? Whats that?

Aklesh, the Sonic of the No Place Shatterverse

This one was my fav to design. I took a lot of inspo from a lot of the No Place characters, and "Aklesh" is Sanskrit for "Swift Lord"

The shiny rings and accessories are the colors of his friends - Red for Dread, Yellow for Sails, Pink for Black Rose, and Purple for Batten

His bandana on his head is yellow to go along with how Sails's bandana is blue

He just loves vibing with his crew, he gets along well with everybody - Sails and Dread are his besties tho

He's perfectly fine with being lazy and not doing anything everyday, but when the time calls, he's more than happy to be a swashbuckling pirate

Surprisingly, he is not afraid of water

He loves his colorful shiny accessories and is a bit of a collector

The peacemaker of the group, he settles disputes and suggests that the answer isn't through violence - but if the answer is to use violence, like if another pirate ship raids them, he won't stop fighting until he is victorious

Kind of unofficially unspokenly the second in command to Dread

Raging pansexual. Kind of a slut, with how he keeps his shirt half open /j

Aklesh thinks Dread is very very neat (and they were crewmates wink wink). Dread has no clue

ok thats all i needed to say, hope ya like it

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

tell us about your timeloop lesbians? :3

When I played Elden Ring and started the Melania fight I started to feel sad for her because no matter how many times she kills me, no matter how much better she is that I’ll ever be, I’ve already won the fight. It was a weird kind of feeling seeing this beautiful woman who outclassed me in skill in every possible way, seeing her cut me to ribbons countless times, and knowing that it would never be enough. If she slips up a single time it wouldn’t matter how much better she was, she could kill me thousands of times and I only had to kill her once. Something about that activated the part of my brain that loves lesbians in tragic circumstances and I created my own.

Okay before you read any of this I want to say I’m a bit conflicted writing thing because I think the ambiguity of the short story I’m writing about them is part of what I think makes it interesting. That said, I love rambling about my characters soooo….

That Her Will May Come To Pass was born in the temple of the goddess of the harvest, divination, inevitably, and time. As all born into the faith, the scryers and weavers saw her fate and wove for her a threaded talisman that depicted the destiny the goddess had in store for her. She was predestined to become one of the elite few who serve as the goddess’s Threads of Fate, the holy warriors trained to carry out the Will of the goddess, thus the name That Her Will May Come To Pass. From the day she learned to stand she was trained in arts of combat. While her peers learned to be diviners, preachers, weavers, and healers, she learned to fight for a purpose she did not yet understand. When she came of age she was brought before the other Threads of Fate and the high priestess, and her sacrament of initiation began. A golden thread woven into her talisman was cut and pulled free, where it was then burned. The ashes were dispersed into the hourglass relic that served as the crowning jewel of the temple, and her tongue was cut out in ritual silencing.

That Her Will May Come To Pass then learned the truth of her destiny, the reason that goddess she devoted her life to serving was never wrong with her predictions, was partially because of the Threads of Fate. She found herself assigned missions facing off against enemies with seemingly impossible odds. When she was struck down, initially from an arrow finding purchase in her heart, she felt the world shatter. It remade itself and she found herself just outside of where the fight began. The difficulty didn’t matter, with unlimited tries anyone can overcome any obstacle. Thankfully, due to her training as a warrior, it rarely took more than three.

The story, which I hope to some day post here once I finish editing and rewriting it, is about her facing off against a foe far greater than herself, being trapped in the unending loop. But the longer she spends being killed by a warrior her skill cannot compare to, the more she finds herself admiring her. That Her Will May Come To Pass is conflicted by her realization that none of it matters, her foe is the greatest warrior she ever met, and yet the goddess’s rigged loop has made her victory’s inevitable.

As is true of all media, a summary of it won’t really do it justice. I hope to eventually let you all experience it for yourselves. Also sorry for answering this like over two months late lmao

[hanniluvi]

LOVE NEWS ! — CHAPTER 19

article nineteen - feeling evil rn

warnings : ???

WRITTEN PART — 🤍 || WORD COUNT : 0.6K+

You've been in a really bad spot ever since you gave Niki access to that private twitter account. All you could think about was meeting him, when he'd bombard you with questions and demand responses. How did you find out? For an entire hour, he has been blowing up your phone.

He’s a different kind of obsessed.

You set yourself in the do not disturb mode, disregarding the several notifications when your screen would light up from text messages. To be ready for tomorrow's "big" day, you need to get some rest.

You entered the school with caution the entire time. You searched all around, but Niki wasn't coming for you. That's great. To get your textbooks, you went to your locker.

When you shut it, Niki was standing there leaning against the locker next to you. He laughed while you yelled. How was he able to be so annoying?

You simply keep walking away in humiliation. In this building, there was no chance of losing him because he trailed you closely. “What do you want, Niki?” you ask as you halt in your tracks.

He turns to face you while leaning in and says, "I want to hear about your crush, stuco pres."

“Oh shut up!” He giggled and followed you behind as you walked more quickly. “Come on!”

You had no idea that Jungwon was around to see everything that took place. The whisper in your ear causes you to flush. He saw everything. Weird. But, it is not at all odd to see you with his friend. However, he didn't need to worry much because he knew Niki knew that he liked you.

He only had to hope that Niki didn't also like you. One person was enough to deal with.

“Come on! You’re gonna have to tell me at one point.” Still following you along, Niki exclaims. He's been sitting next to you all day, and during breaks he's always close to you.

You swear you'll finally hurl this lunch table at him if you hear his voice one more time. You merely stabbed into your food as he persisted in interrogating you. He started to back away a little as you kept being forceful.

“You’re seriously not gonna tell me?” He says, trying to deceive you with a mournful tone in his voice. You rolled your eyes and mocked him.

“Come on, maybe I could help you!” You keep eating your meal because you're not persuaded. “And maybe he likes you too.”

He observed your abrupt stop and the shock in your eyes as you turned to face him. “Are you kidding?”

“I guess I did say maybe, didn't I?”

“Why do you know that?” Now when you're the one bombarding him with all these questions, he feels victorious.

“I dunno, maybe talk about your crush and I'll answer your questions.” He definitely got you there. He seemed really interested in your romantic life, so you sighed and told him everything.

When Jungwon saw you two again, he wished he had been seated next to you. But, he knew Niki had no bad intentions—everyone wants to get to know you. He wasn't so possessive and overprotective like that, so it wouldn't hurt for you two to be friends.

You and Niki were already "working" together for you to confess while Jungwon is overthinking it. That's correct—Niki followed you the entire time so he could force you to tell him. You were unaware that Niki was tired of Jungwon constantly bringing you up while remaining silent.

To make the ynwon ship actually happen, Niki felt he had to take matters into his own hands. The time had come to start the plan because he had all the information he needed.

Love operation, start!

previous || next page || masterlist

A/N : EVERYONE THANK NIKI 🙏

ENHA PERM TAGLIST — @son4taa @mokiverse @yenavrse @shinsou-rii @luveuly @ilovewonyo @yenqa @dimplewonie @bubblytaetae @wtfhyuck @ineedaherosavemeenow @starcubes @starikizs @wonioml @chirokookie @heartz4hyunjae @xiaoderrrr @neozon3nha @en-chantedtomeetyou @millksea @enhaz1 @eundiarys @yeniiverse @ahnneyong @hanienie

TAGLIST . . 💗 CLOSED 💗

@invusblog @wonvnz @iad0ru @nyuukei @curly-fr13s @itsactuallylina @risseei @0310lvr @viagumi @luvdokja @sickvision @wanna-live-yn-life @rionah @dreamenvi @rinnqx @0i8ma @ksnu @sunoksunny @aki1e @adajoemaya @naddii @yourfavjwstan @meeznoi @wonyoungsvirus @nokacchan @luvkait @kyanmeai @sserafimez

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS VERSUS SONG Bloody Night Animate Tokuten Drama CD ”The Contest is the Smell of Money!? ~The Vampires’ Desire~”

Original title: コンクールはお金の香り!?～ヴァンパイアたちの欲望

Source: Diabolik Lovers VERSUS SONG Animate Tokuten Drama CD

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Toriumi Kousuke, Katsuyuki Konishi, Midorikawa Hikaru, Takahiro Sakurai, Kimura Ryouhei & Morikawa Toshiyuki

Translator’s note: Once again, the Vampires prove that they are more human than anyone else because their number one motivator in life is...sweet, sweet money. xD They’re all so thirsty for cash 99% of the time, it’s honestly hilarious. I wonder what else you could push them to do, just because there’s a large amount of prize money on the line. The climax of this CD kind of caught me off guard because I expected they would just royally fuck up on the day of the concert but no...They never even got to enter lol. Great move by the MC. They don’t really hint at what her explanation for not submitting the application on time was, but I want to believe that she did it on purpose to get revenge for all the times they treated her like trash. You go girl.

*Rustle*

Ayato: Haah…God…The fuck is this? And here I thought I’d head straight home to pick on Chichinashi…Oi, you. Have you heard anythin’ ‘bout what’s goin’ on?

*Flip*

Ruki: Hm…

Ayato: Oi, bastard! You’re just gonna ignore me, huh!?

Ruki: Was my lack of a response not clear enough of an answer?

Ayato: Aah…!? 

Ruki: Haah…

Ruki closes his book.

Ruki: I haven’t heard anything. Now relax. I am sure we will find out sooner or later.

Ayato: But you know…Whoever decided to gather this group of people here must be fuckin’ bonkers. I feel like we’re bein’ set up for some weird shit.

*Rustle* 

Kou: Well…I guess I can’t blame you for feeling that way…

Carla: Heh…

Ayato: Anyway, how come you’re here as well, Carla? I can’t imagine you’d actually show up under normal circumstances. 

Carla: Is my appearance truly that puzzling? 

Ruki: Well, I do believe you must have a solid reason for doing so. 

Kou: I mean, Mr. ‘Almighty Founder’ doesn’t even show up for class usually, does he~? 

Carla: I had nothing better to do, that is all. 

Ayato: Smells fishy.

Kou: Right? I can only imagine you have some kind of ulterior motive.

Carla: You fiends…Who do you think you are talking to…? 

Ayato: Hah!? You wanna throw down!? Fine, I accept your challenge!

Reiji: Come on now, everyone. Please stop getting up in each other’s faces like that.

Ruki: Hm? This voice is…? 

Reiji enters the room.

*Rattle* 

Ayato: Reiji…? Don’t tell me you’re the one who…?

Reiji: I had no other choice. Otherwise you lot would have never shown up. 

Carla: Oi, you. You are the one who summoned me here. So it must be safe to assume that you had a good reason for doing so? 

Reiji: You are rather impatient, are you not? I shall explain shortly, so please wait a few more minutes.　ーー For starters, I would like all of you to take a look at this. 

Reiji starts distributing flyers. 

*Flip* 

Carla: …Hm? …This isーー!? 

Ruki: Could it be…?

Ayato: Haah!? A music competition!? 

Reiji: Exactly. We will participate in it. 

Kou: Eh? You’re joking, right?

Reiji: No, I am dead serious. 

Ayato: …!? Are you out of your mind!? You want to sign up with the people gathered here? 

Reiji: Yes. I have carefully selected a group of people who would aim for victory.

Ruki: I see…You are after the prize money, correct?

Kou: Hm? What do you mean? 

Carla: Take a good look at the flyer. Especially at the part about the prize.

*Flip* 

Ayato: …!? For real…!? The winner gets…ten thousand dollars!? (1)

Kou: No way!?

Ruki: It must be a print mistake of some sorts, right?

Shuu: Sounds too suspicious. 

Reiji: Oh my, Shuu. Seems like someone has finally woken up.

Shuu: You really think I could sleep with you guys making such a fuss? 

Reiji: I believe it is more likely that it was the prize money which caught your attention…But oh well. Ahem. I have already contacted the organizers about it. It would appear that our school would like to shift their focus on attracting promising artists, so to catch the attention of potential stars from all across the country, they have chosen to attach a bountiful prize to the contest.

Kou: I see. I expected no less from Reiji-kun! Nothing gets past you.

Reiji: Of course not. …So, what will you do? 

Ayato: What do you mean? Are you askin’ us whether we’ll participate or not? 

Reiji: Yes…According to my data, the people I have gathered here have the highest chance at success. 

Shuu: And how exactly? We’re the only ones who have any sort of musical talent, right?

Kou: Excuse me!? I have published my own CDs, you know!? 

Shuu: Those are not even worth mentioning. 

Kou: Haah!? 

Shuu: I mean, think about it. We’re joining a musical competition, not some kind of concert. Unless you’ve actually taken proper vocal music classes? 

Reiji: Shuu…It would appear to me that you don’t understand the true meaning of a contest. 

Shuu: What do you mean?

Reiji: In a contest, the winner is decided by the judges’ votes. In other words…By people. 

Ruki: I see. So appearance is an important factor as well. 

Reiji: Exactly. I am glad you are quick to understand. 

Kou: In other words…Since I’m a good-looking idol, it’s possible that I could appeal to the judges? 

Ruki: Exactly. Humans are so easily won over by appearance. It is possible they will let you get away with making some mistakes because your looks make up for it. 

Kou: Ruki-kun, how mean…That doesn’t make me happy at all. 

Shuu: Then what about the other two guys? Ayato most likely has zero experience with music whatsoever, and I can’t imagine old man Carla (2) over there playing music either. 

Carla: You fiends…You really do not hold back at all, do you? Calling me elderly, a fossil or even an old woman!

Kou: Wait, nobody ever called you an old woman, did they? 

Ayato: I actually took violin lessons many, many years ago!

Reiji: Exactly. I remember. 

Shuu: Are you talking about when aunt Cordelia forced him to start taking classes in hopes of competing against us? 

Ruki: Heeh…The eldest triplet plays the violin, huh? That’s new information to me.

Shuu: If I recall correctly…He gave up after just one week and smashed his instrument. 

Ayato: Just so you know, that wasn’t my fault!

Shuu: Hm? 

Ayato: That hysteric old hag destroyed it during one of her crazy moments. I mean, I was glad that I didn’t have to bother with those lessons anymore. 

Shuu: …I guess destroying violins was her thing, huh? 

Reiji: …W-Well…Anyway! He isn’t a complete amateur when it comes to music, so his chances are somewhat higher than any of the other guys. …And you, Carla, you are none other than a Founder, aren’t you?

Carla: …!

Reiji: The cream of the crop of all Demons…A First Blood. Therefore I believe it is only safe to assume that you would have no issues mastering music, a human invention? 

Carla: W-Well…

Ruki: I guess it might be tricky after all? 

Carla: A-As if…! I am a First Blood! A Founder! There is nothing I cannot do!

*Clap clap clap* 

Reiji: A true Founder!

Shuu: …I wonder. 

Reiji: That being said, what will you all do? Will you participate? 

Ruki: I would like to ask one question. I assume that we will be splitting the prize money even amongst all participants? 

Reiji: Hm? Of course. 

Ruki: In that case, I’m in. Kou as well. 

Kou: Eh!? Excuse me!? Why!? 

Ruki: Don’t play dumb now. Whose fault do you think it is that we have to be so careful with our spendings? 

Kou: …!? W-Well…

Ruki: It is your fault for being such an impulsive buyer. Isn’t that right?

Kou: Nnー...

Ayato: …I don’t want to! Joining a contest sounds like a big pain in the ass. 

Reiji: Hooh? Is that so? What a shame…If you were to win, then the ‘takoyaki pool’ you have dreamt of for years might just be able to become reality. 

Ayato: …!? 

Shuu: I’m skipping out as well. It’s obviously too much trouble. 

Reiji: Oh dear, is that so? I mean, I personally don’t mind since the less people participate, the less people we have to split the money between. …You might just be able to buy the antique gramophone you’ve been wanting so badly though. 

Shuu: …!? 

Reiji: Ah, right, right! The jamon iberico you love so much, Carla, you should be able to purchase a few logs of it with the prize money. 

Carla: …!! You shall not bribe me with such a thing!!

Reiji: Ahaha. Of course not. You are a lofty Founder after all. You must not let yourself be won over by money, correct? 

Carla: Exactly!

Reiji: However…It truly is a shame, isn’t it? It would be such a perfect opportunity to get an entire log of the finest quality jamon iberico. That vaguely nutty flavor spreading inside your mouth…growing stronger and stronger as you chew. Seasoned to perfection.

Carla: …Ah…

Reiji: I suppose you three do not want any of those things. It is a shame, truly. 

Ayato, Shuu & Carla: …

Ayato: G-Guess I have no other choice…If you insist…I suppose I do have some free time on my hands anyway. 

Shuu: I had been thinking it was about time I picked up the violin again…I guess this is the perfect opportunity. 

Reiji: Oh my, is that so? I am glad. 

*Rustle* 

Reiji: Then, what about you, Carla? 

Carla: Hm…I shall help you out. It is one of my many duties as a Founder to show compassion towards the lower masses after all. 

Reiji: I see. I am terribly grateful for that. 

Ruki: Seems like we’ve come to a conclusion. In that case, we should apply at once. I shall head to the agency at oーー

Reiji: Ah! About that, I suggest we leave that up to her. She does not seem to have anything better to do after all. 

Ruki: Hm. I understand. Let us start practicing at once then. Time is money. If we want to aim for victory, then we have no other choice but to practice as much as we can. 

Kou: But what exactly will we do with our group? We can’t pull off an orchestra, can we? 

Reiji: Please do not worry about that. I have come with a plan. We will participate in two groups of three members each. 

Ruki: I see. To get as much out of it as we can, correct?

Carla: What do you mean? 

*Flip* 

Ruki: According to this flyer, a prize will be awarded to both first and second place. If we participate in two groups and get both prizes…

Reiji: The combined prize money would be fifteen million yen. Split amongst us six, it means each of us would get a total of two million fifty thousand yen. 

Ayato: Woah…! Amazing! 

Reiji: Right? As for the groups…I suggest Kou, Carla and myself as one group and Shuu, Ayato and Ruki as the other, effectively splitting up Shuu and myself as we have the most experience with music. 

Ruki: I believe those are well-balanced groups. 

Reiji: Why of course. I put them together based on precise, evidence-based data after all. 

*Rattle* 

Kou: Ah! M-neko-chan~!

Ayato: Chichinashi!

Reiji: Oh dear, what’s the matter? Is there something you need?

You explain. 

Reiji: I see. You came to check up on us? Well, I suppose you would find it intriguing why the teacher would lend us the music classroom and its instruments. 

Ayato: Perfect timing! Chichinashi, you should join our team!

*Rustle*

Kou: Eh? Hold up! M-neko-chan is coming this way…She’s joining our group!

Ayato: Haah!? Excuse me!? 

*Clap clap clap* 

Reiji: Stop right there, no fighting! While we may have split up in two groups, we are still on the same team. 

Ruki: Exactly. Now is not the time to have a fall-out. …Oi, Livestock. You shall listen to our performance as we practice and act as our advisor. 

Shuu: Well, I guess we need someone who can give us some objective input. Let’s not question whether or not she’s the right person to do so though…

Reiji: Ahem. Well then, I suppose we should discuss within our teams who will play which instrument first.

*TIMESKIP*

*Rustle* 

Reiji: Well then…As for our team, I believe it makes most sense to start by asking which instrument each of you feels most comfortable with and then we can decide on our line-up based on that. 

Kou: Hm…Why not? Seems like the most logical solution. 

Carla: I am a Founder. You can assign me any instrument you like. 

Reiji: What…do you mean by that? 

Carla: That I can play each one with ease. 

Kou: Really!? 

Carla: Why would I lie about such a thing? 

Reiji: I see. I suppose you were not simply bluffing earlier. In which case, I shall randomly assign you an instrument…Kou, what about you? 

Kou: Um…I could probably handle the end-blow flute, the triangle, the tambourine… 

Reiji: Any string or wind instruments? 

Kou: Hm… For percussion instruments, maybe the djembe, ngoma? (3)

Carla: What are those?

Kou: They’re African instruments! The locals taught me how to play them when I visited the area during one of my on location photo shoots. 

Reiji: Those are some awfully niche choices…As an idol, are you not capable of playing any instruments with a little more flair? Like the piano or the flute? 

Kou: Hmー I can play some simple tunes with one hand on the piano…

Reiji: That simply won’t do…

Carla: I mean, we do not actually need to play for real, do we? 

Kou: Huh? What do you mean?

Carla: All you need to do is pretend to be playing. Say we go for a violin trio, then only Reiji and myself need to be able to actually play the instrument. 

Reiji: I see. I suppose we have that option as well. 

Carla: Exactly. One cannot get delicious cured ham by only playing fair. 

Reiji: Exactly. …Nor will I be able to get my hands on that high-tech built-in kitchen…

Kou: Huh? Did you say something just now? 

Reiji: No, not at all. 

You try to convince them to keep things fair. 

Carla: Excuse me? Did you say something just now? 

Reiji: Hmー Well…I suppose it is true that we risk losing our prize money if they find out that we cheated. 

Kou: I’ll do the vocals instead then! Although I haven’t actually ever taken proper singing classes like Shuu-kun mentioned either. 

Reiji: That sounds good. Let us go with that. You should not have any complaints then either, correct? 

You nod. 

Reiji: Well then. From the various scores I have brought with me…

*Flip flip*

Reiji: This one should work. Let us practice this for about an hour and then we can try to put everything together. 

Carla: I can go right here, right now. 

Reiji: Oh, come on. At least check the score first. 

Carla: Hmph. 

You start walking away. 

Carla: Oi, you. Where are you going? 

You explain. 

Carla: Ah…You want to go check up on the other group? …Well, I am somewhat curious as well. Now that I have decided I will participate, I definitely do not want to lose to them. 

Kou: Eeh~? We don’t really need to compete amongst each other, right? As long as one of our groups wins, we’ll split the prize money anyway. 

Carla: That is not my style.   

Reiji: Hm…I guess you have a point. I believe it only makes sense to want to aim for first place with our group. 

Kou: Hm…Well, I guess being ‘first’ sounds kind of nice. 

Carla: Oi, woman. You heard us. I shall allow you to investigate the other group. Once you are done, I expect you to report back to me at once. Understood? 

Kou: M-neko-chan, we’re counting on you~! Off you go~!

You head towards the other group.

*Rustle* 

Shuu: Well then…About our group…The two of you don’t need to do anything. Or rather, please don’t. 

Ayato: Aah!? The fuck!? What do you mean!? 

Shuu: I don’t want you two to hold me back. 

Ayato: That tone of yours is really pissin’ me off. You usually don’t give a shit ‘bout anythin’, so what makes today different? 

Shuu: My gramophone is on the line here…Besides, music is kind of dear to me. Oh well, my reasoning doesn't matter. Anyway, it’d obviously be better for me to perform a solo act than to try and force some weird instrumental trio. 

Ayato: Look who’s talking when you haven’t even heard me perform yet!

Shuu: I’m saying this because I unfortunate have heard you play.

Ayato: Ah!? For real!? 

Shuu: Back in the past, I thought some idiot was playing around by opening and closing some rusty, old door of our castle, when it turned out the sound was coming from you playing the violin. 

Ayato: …!!

Shuu: Besides, you haven’t touched the violin in years, have you? 

Ayato: W-Well…

Shuu: I’m spot on, aren’t I? …As for you, Ruki, I’m pretty sure you grew up in an environment where music was the least of your worries? 

Ruki: It appears you have quite the faulty image of me. I was actually rather good at playing the violin. 

Shuu: Heeh…That’s surprising. In that case…Why don’t you show me what you’ve got? 

*Rustle*

Shuu grabs one of the violins and plays a bit. 

Shuu: …You can choose any song you want, try and play a bit. 

Ruki: Very well. 

Ruki plays the violin as well. 

Ruki: …As easy as pie. 

Ayato: …Kuh!

Shuu: …Heeh. You’re not half bad. 

Ruki: What do you think? I bet you wouldn’t mind letting me join the performance now? 

Shuu: I mean, I have to admit that you are miles above Ayato in terms of skill. 

Ayato: Ugh…Fuck off! Do you really have to put it like that!? I can easily pull that off as well!

Ayato grabs the violin. 

Ayato: Gimme that!

*Rustle* 

Ayato: Now listen closely, ‘kay? ーー Kuh!

Ayato plays the violin badly.

Ruki: Ugh…What a disaster…

Shuu: Kuh…Cut it out! You’re making my ears bleed!

Ayato: …Huh? That’s weird…? Fuck! One more try!

*Rustle* 

He plays just as badly. 

Shuu: …Enough!

Shuu steals the violin from him as you walk up to them. 

Ruki: …Hm? Oh, it’s you, Livestock. Why do you look terrified? 

You explain. 

Shuu: Hm? Screams? Ahー That was Ayato playing the violin. You’re not wrong to compare it to someone screeching. 

Ayato: Chichinashi, you bitch…!

Ruki: Well, I guess you realize why you have to give up now? 

Shuu: Just pretend you are playing instead. 

You protest.

Shuu: …I know you’re against cheating but you heard his performance earlier, didn’t you?

You offer for Ayato to sing instead.

Ruki: Kou will be singing for the other group? Which means…

Shuu: Vocals, huh? 

Ayato: …I just gotta sing, right!? 

Shuu: Guess we have no other choice. Let’s go with that. 

Ayato: I’ll blow your socks off with my beautiful voice!

Shuu: Anyway, you got a feel of what the other group’s doing, right? How are things coming together? 

You explain. 

Ruki: I see. The other group as well. I cannot wait to show them what we’ve got.

Ayato: I mean, as long as we do a half-decent job, we shouldn’t lose to them, right?

Shuu: Anyway, we should probably get some practice in as well and then come back together after an hour. 

Ruki: Agreed. 

*TIMESKIP*

Reiji: Well then, we should probably show each other what we’ve got so far. 

Ruki: We just gathered together again. I believe your group did as well? 

Reiji: Yes, exactly. …You seem very well informed. 

Carla: You must have a lot of time on hand to eavesdrop on our group from the shadows. 

Shuu: She’s the one who informed you guys as well, right? We’re in the same boat then. 

Carla & Reiji: …!!

Kou: Why are you guys being so competitive towards each other when we’re all working towards the same goal…? I mean, whatever. Anyway, let’s just get to it. This isn’t the real deal yet. We’re only practicing. 

Ruki: Even so, we still have to try our best. 

Reiji: Exactly. Well then, how will we go about this? I believe this is the prime opportunity to decide which one of our groups is superior in terms of skill. 

Carla: Fufufu…I shall show you something truly breathtaking!

Kou: Uwah~ It’s no use. His switch got flipped. 

Carla: Oi, woman! You shall judge who is the superior group, understood? 

Ayato: Hey, bastard! Don’t be threatenin’ Chichinashi now! She’s gonna get scared and favor you guys as a result!

Carla: I am not intimidating her in the slightest. Once you hear our performance, it will be clear that we will come out victorious. …Oi, Four-Eyes. Let us begin. 

Reiji: …’Four-Eyes’, could you be referring to me, by any chance? 

Carla: You are the only one here wearing glasses, are you not? 

*Rustle* 

Reiji: …I am rather displeased by that remark. 

Kou: Let’s get this party started~! …Ah, by the way, you’ll have to wait to hear me sing until the actual performance day~

*Rustle* 

Reiji and Carla start playing the violin.

Shuu: They’re not bad…

Ruki: No, wait…Take a look at Carla. 

Carla: Haah…

Ayato: Haah? 

Kou: Eh!? The bow’s moving by itself…!? Could it be…?

Ruki: It’s magic! He’s using his magic to play the violin…!

Shuu: Haah…

Carla: Phew…There you go, I did not even break a sweat. 

Reiji: Hahaha…First place is as good as ours. …Right? Hey, you!

*Bzz bzzt*

Reiji: …!? E-Excuse me!? 

Carla: Do you have a problem with our performance!? 

Kou: I mean, you can hardly blame her. Any normal person would be in shock after seeing that performance from earlier. 

Reiji: …! Carla! This would not be an issue if you would simply use your hands as you play!

Carla: T-That’s…

Reiji: Hm? Don’t tell me…You cannot? 

Carla: …!!

Shuu: Fufu…Hilarious. 

Ayato: This competition is ours!

You point out that they have yet to play. 

Ayato: …Ah? I mean, sure, we haven’t performed yet, but it’s so obvious. 

Ruki: I mean, why not give them a listen? 

Shuu: Haah…It’s a drag but I guess we have no other choice. I’m sure they’ll admit defeat after hearing us play. 

*Rustle* 

Shuu: Anyway, for now, we’ll let you hear the violin part. Let’s go. 

Shuu and Ruki start playing.

Carla & Reiji: …!!

Ayato: Hehe! How’s that? Pissin’ your pants? 

Kou: Both of them are actually using their hands to play! I had no idea Ruki-kun was gifted at the violin!

Reiji: …!! …This is rather infuriating. 

False notes start mixing in. 

Reiji: Hm? …T-This is…!!

Carla: What is going on…!? 

Kou: Aah! Ow! What a horrible noise…Stop! Time out!!

Shuu: …!! Oi, Ruki! What was that just now!? 

Ruki: What do you mean? I played the violin. 

Kou: We know that! You started off great but then it all went downhill halfway through!? 

Ruki: Ah, about that. Oh well, do not let that bother you. 

Reiji: How are we supposed to do that!? 

Ruki: It’s the first few notes which truly matter. In short, as long as I can make a good first impression, the tone has already been set for an amazing piece. 

Shuu: Haah…In other words, you can only play well for a couple of seconds? 

Carla: Hahaha! I guess that means we have won. 

Ayato: Oi, Chichinashi! What’s the verdict of this competition?

You frown. 

Kou: I’m pretty sure both groups had issues of our own? …But I doubt these guys will let this pass without there being a clear winner. 

The other guys act competitive towards each other. 

Kou: Hm? What was that? We should wait for a winner to be declared until the day of the actual competition? Makes sense. It’s not like there’s any point in fighting over it right now.

Shuu: Oi, Ruki. I expect you to master the rest of the score by then. 

Reiji: Carla! You should learn to play with your hands as well! Come on, start practicing at once!

Ayato: …Seems like those two got stuck in between Shuu and Reiji’s personal conflict. 

Kou: Oh well, whatever. All that matters is that we get our hands on those ten million yen by winning both first and second prize! We better give it our best shot. 

*TIMESKIP*

Ruki: ( ーー And so, we continued to practice playing the violin from dusk till dawn for days on end. ) 

Carla: ( It was more challenging and daunting than any task I had faced in the past. )

Reiji: ( All I want is to surpass Shuu’s team! )

Shuu: ( I became more serious about honing my violin skills than ever before, all for the sake of that gramophone. )

Ayato: ( Even I - who wasn’t too thrilled about the whole idea at first - got very serious about the competition. )

Kou: ( Everyone held tightly onto their violin’’s bow, as the moment of truth arrivedーー )

*Rustle* 

Ruki: …Ridiculous! Can someone please explain this to me!? 

Kou: R-Ruki-kun, calm down…

Ruki: How am I supposed to keep calm in a situation like this!? 

Shuu: Unbelievable…

Reiji: You! I am fairly sure I told you to submit our application in time so how has this happened?

You explain. 

Reiji: Haah…I was a fool for entrusting you with this task. ーー Well, all of us know how to properly play now, so let us put those skills to good use at the next given opportunity, I suppose. …Right, Carla? 

Carla: …W-Wha…? 

Ayato: Oi, do you also smell trouble? 

Kou: Yeah, you’re right…

Ayato: Let’s dip before it’s too late!

Kou: Good idea…

Ayato and Kou sneak away. 

Carla: Haha…Hahaha…

Reiji: Good grief…Laughter is the only thing coming out of him.

Carla: Ahahaha…!

Shuu & Ruki: …!? 

Carla: You bastards…!!

*WOOSH*

Reiji: …Carla!? R-Relax! Everyone makes mistakes! Let us remain calm and talk it out!

*BOOM*

Carla: My Iberico serranoーーーー!!

ーー THE END ーー

Translation notes 

(1) 一千万 or ‘issenman’ is 10.000.000 or ten million yen, when converted to dollar, it would be around ten thousand dollars. 

(2) Shuu calls him 化石男 or ‘kaseki otoko’ which literally means ‘fossil guy’. 

(3) There’s one third instrument he mentions but I could not find what it is for the life of me. To me it sounds like he’s saying ‘zunzun’ or ‘zunzu’ but I couldn’t find any African instruments with that name.

[adanseydivorce]

Adam Parrish + 2 😈😈(for the ask game)

How would you rewrite this characters canon arc?

Partially answered with my tag rant on this reblog https://www.tumblr.com/adanseydivorce/751040074340286464?source=share

I don’t really have much I would say about changing his trc arc because I think overall it’s a very good arc one of my favorites. I did reblog a meta post about both trc and tdt and how Adam generally isn’t allowed to *fail* in a sense, when he overworks himself in a variety of ways manually academically magically etc. and that feeding into the weird way he’s a sort of capitalistic success story when you take in all seven books, and I think they’re right and there are places in both trc and tdt where that could be interrogated or altered a bit. But the emotional beats of his arc are well handled imo and I wouldn’t really change them. I would have liked some additional resolutions to some of his relationships in TRK but that has more to do with issues I have with TRK in general and less Adam’s role in it specifically (although I think if I could change one thing there I would have him actually apologize to Blue for some things about how he treated her; but also I partly feel that way more for fandom reasons than in text ones since in text I think their bitchy Ninos argument is a fun resolution. And then the Adansey shovel talk scene is the opposite: I’m not a huge fan of the scene itself as resolution / would prefer Gansey to actually voice his feeling hurt by Adam so it could be unpacked, but fandom was overdramatic and annoying about the scene so that’s pushed me to acceptance.) much more to say about td3 for obvious reasons so moving on:

Basically I like the set up in cdth of him wanting to reinvent himself, of course being who I am I love the fucked up trying to be Gansey 2.0 part of it lol and I don’t think he should have a smooth sailing path to success / suddenly be content at Harvard so him being a bit miserable there and the whole crying club thing made sense. I do think we should have gotten more details about the crying club like I said I think some actual characterization from them could have helped the storyline. But my problems are largely after cdth, how this never really leads to him reckoning with his identity issues the way we need to see on page for this arc to be satisfying (that one pov is good, but it is not nearly enough to carry that to conclusion).

I think I would have written him trying to explicitly reflect or invert his individual relationships with the Gangsey with the Crying Club, maybe he gravitates towards one character who is a mirror (lol) for Blue that could be really fascinating, there could maybe be one character in the group who is a scholarship student and he projects onto them / tries to kind of reverse engineer his dynamic with Gansey with them to work through some things. That’s a way to explore a kind of complicated dichotomy of him feeling victorious he made it out of Henrietta while also missing “the things that were important to him in the past”, it would also effectively mirror some of what Ronan was doing with Bryde and Hennessy since he transposes elements of Niall Adam and imo Gansey onto Bryde + recreates parts of his dynamic with Kavinsky with Hennessy. (I’m torn on whether Ronan should have an explicit mirror in this version of the crying club because on the one hand I feel like the ‘you were the place I stored all that reality’ would hit harder if he’s the one person Adam didn’t try to replace there, on the other hand it could compliment the Bryde plot like I said… (also ik there are a lot of people who don’t like the Bryde plot at all I’m kind of neutral on it tbh I don’t love or hate it but anyway this is not a post about changing Ronan’s arc so writing this assuming that’s p similar to canon and only changes in response to Adam’s). Yes maybe part of this is self indulgent because it plays on some themes it’s well documented on my blog that I’m obsessed with but also this series is literally largely about clones and doubling and this verse has been concerned with identity/mirroring/masking since trc, so I do think it would fit, self indulgent or not! Also getting to see Adam be crazy like this would make him and Ronan ‘forgiving each other’ seem a little less unbalanced at least to me… I still would want like. Actual resolution to the Pynch arc where they talk, break up for at least a week (I would prefer more, but bare minimum that), work through the issues MI poses… particularly I’d want them to have an actual conversation about Ronan’s insecurity about the role Cabeswater played in their getting together and Adam could respond with the fact that Cabeswater is a separate entity from Ronan in the same way Mathew and Bryde are or how Jordan is separate from Hennessy; the deal he made with Cabeswater was of his own volition, is a separate one from their relationship though it may have played a role in it (at least I think this is what we’re supposed to take from that dropped thread?

I just think it’s something that should be discussed). ((I do realize a big part of why Adam’s arc feels off is the audience feedback loop influencing both Maggie’s willingness to write his pov and in how Pynch was ultimately treated, but this is how I think I would want it written)). In terms of the resolution to the Harvard thing it matters less to me if he stays or transfers like I said on that post but I would like a resolution for the crying club either he came clean and was rejected or accepted by them either one would I think be better for that arc than him just ghosting them (at least I think that’s what he did?) And whatever happens with him and the I would want him to actually develop a community outside of the Lynch brothers + The other Gangsey members to some degree, also obviously he is not going to be a cop in this… idk what specific profession I’d want him to have but I would like to think he actually finds something he wants to do / a new goal to be ambitious about rather than just winning at capitalism. Maybe that latter part is wishful thinking… but anyway. Not a cop at the end that’s the number 1 change I would make obviously everything else is of a lower level of importance than that. Pynch can break up then work through their issues and get back together or they can have a proper divorce arc either one works for me but they can not go on Like That… I mean I think Maggie also feels that way but again Audience Feedback Loop (I rbed a really interesting post about how break ups are treated in ya adjacent lit so I do think if nothing else this got me thinking about that on a meta level in a way I didn’t before… still don’t think it was worth it 🫤. Also this is all a word vomit / theoretical, want to remind ya’ll that I first read Greywaren like a month and a half ago, after a reread spiral of the all the other books in the verse (which basically was a first read of td3 since I read cdth and mi for the first time with High Quarantine Brain and remembered basically nothing about them due to that) so maybe some of these thoughts could change … but currently these are my takes xo!

[baronetcoins]

I feel like I win when I lose—Director's Commentary

In what is rapidly becoming a tradition of mine, I went on a research Bender for my Yuletide fic and there are so many details I want to point out and discuss—so I will. This year I wrote I feel like I win when I lose for @avengingmariner and I did loose my mind over it, but in a fun way. Join me in my descent into madness below the cut.

My brief was "you must put my man laurence in A Situation" and I somehow landed on the core nugget of "Napoleon finds Laurence in his darkest hour, instead of Tharkay"—mostly because NGL I haven't read further in this series than Victory of Eagles. I'm working on it, just not there yet.

From that point I just sort of... started writing and felt out where the story wanted to go, and then I kept falling into research holes. Here are some of the fun pieces of information I learned in rough order of where they popped up in the fic.

There was chicken set aside from the dinner he was supposed to have had hours ago, before an urgent missive had pulled him away—a simple roast bird, born out from what local provisions had been found

The WEEK I was working on this, Max Miller of Tasting History put out a video on Napoleon. I wasn't able to work in a lot of detail about the food here just because I couldn't make it flow into what I was writing, but there's so much I wish I could have talked about. The weird thing with chicken! Apocryphal stories about how dishes got their names! His drinking habits! The inherent whatever of breaking bread with somebody who's supposed to be your enemy! Now that I'm writing this paragraph I feel like I need to write another fic about food.

And then I Made chicken marengo the week after because I was curious. It was fine?

le mistral noir

Now this bit owes its thanks to Kangoo, my resident French correspondent. I was talking to him about what could be a nickname the French soldiers used for Temeraire, and he suggested "le mistral" which he described as "(very cold and often violent wind that blows into france from great britain, known for cleaning the sky of clouds and also wrecking your shit) (also the name of a fighter plane)" and I went "oh, that's Perfect". And I wanted to be able to explain that reference. Because it's So Good.

He blinked around at the courtyard of brick building before being hurried just as swiftly into a fine bedchamber where he was given a cold supper and the opportunity to wash himself. With little else to do, he fell into another restless sleep.

This was a fun bit of gamesmanship to think out—where would Napoleon want to set the treaty signing in order to send a message? And in order to think about that, I had to learn more about how the government of Britain worked in this timeframe (polisci major hat incoming).

In the US, authority to make treaties is vested in the executive branch, but the legislative branch has to ratify them. I did not know how that worked for the British, because their system mystefies me to this day. Luckily, I found this paper which explains how it worked in 1938, and there isn't much reason to expect it to have changed in that period, so the answer is "at least in theory, the authority rests with the Crown".

Based on that, I figured he'd want to make a point by holding it in a royal building as opposed to Westminster, so I went with St. James' palace which has been used for state stuff forever. Unfortunately, the details for the interior of St. James' are scarce. I was looking at 1860s watercolors to try and squint out a layout.

It was a dress uniform of aviator green, with gold braid and buttons as well as twin epaulettes. He dropped it as if it were a hot coal.

This was perhaps my longest diversion. I'm not intimately familiar with the internal culture of the military <understatement, but I knew having Laurence be present in any form would be read as a huge statement. So what kind of statement would you want to make? Ultimately I went with "the biggest 'fuck you' possible", so Laurence in a British aviator's uniform.

Then there was the question of fringe or no fringe. Which didn't even make it into the fic, but was an interesting diversion. You see, "captain" is a term that connotes a different level of authority in the Army vs the Navy. NATO has a standard rank scale I was able to squint at here, as it tries to standardize across branches and countries. Captain in the British Army is an OF-2 rank, but Captain in the British Navy is an OF-5 rank. What does it represent in those terms in the Arial Corps? I have no idea! This impacts nothing here other than if one or both epaulettes would have fringe on them.

He wandered the hallways, passing French soldiers who saluted him and English dignitaries who ignored him or glared at him in turn. In desperation he returned to seek refuge in the room he’d been left last.

The medal Laurence gets is that of the Légion d'honneur, and nominally military personnel in uniform are supposed to salute other uniformed personnel wearing it, regardless of ranks involved. That was too good of a detail not to gesture at.

The Wikipedia article

I picked Jacques-Louis David entirely because he's my favorite artist of this time period and location, though the fact he did official work for Napoleon was a bonus. I'm very interested in the uses of these really formalized displays of image-crafting as used for propaganda, and also it's just fun to think about. Spent ages looking at Wikipedia too to get the formatting and the style of writing right, which I think I did.

The Title

Really, it just made me laugh, so it had to stay. I mean the song is also fitting and I think it's the sentiment I wanted to gesture at emotionally, but it is also funny,

[c2-eh]

Charles realising he's in love with Carlos?

thankie anon for the prompt! this was fun to write! enjoy <3

For Charles, it came slowly. Continually building up with every second, minute and hour. With every moment spent together and those spent apart too.

Unlike everything else in his life – hectic, busy and fast fast fast, as fastest as possible, chasing podiums and victories to the exhaustion, till his tyres are scraped and barely able to arrive to parc fermé – this came slowly.

Fast - the word in the first place in his vocabulary. With all the travelling and jumping from country to country, it is almost impossible to find someone that is willing to be part of this lifestyle.

Part of the risk, uncertainty, spotlight, moodswings and thousands things that are hidden under the layers of being Formula 1 driver. His whole life could be summed into this summary – except the love he's feeling right now.

People around the world have different views on this weird, in many cases unexplainable, thing. Some say it is something "fast and uncontrollable, others that's it's "sudden and unexpected."

Charles hasn't experienced any sudden and world-changing realizations that would take his breath away and leave him speechless and unable to do anything for hours, days even. He knows his love for Carlos wasn't expeditious.

If he were to reflect on the situation, he'd tell you he should have seen it coming.

Carlos is explaining something for the Ferrari promo video and Charles only sees him. As if the world around him did not exist - only Carlos' face and his eyes, nose, lips, hair and so many other features that drive Charles crazy.

That's a bit risky – the camera is rolling and the whole world will see him watching Carlos' every move with fond look in his eyes.

He is aware of the soft smile on his lips, smitten. The kind that makes his eyes crinkle at the sides, green eyes betraying him and exposing his feelings to other people around him.

The sun from outside shines into the room and it only defines Carlos' features more. Charles traces his eyes from his luscious locks, down his nose and cheeks dusted with freckles, Charles knows he holds from young age.

Carlos' bottom lip moves a lot when he talks and Charles finds it cute. Endearing. Like everything he associates with Carlos.

"Right?" Carlos directs his attention to Charles. He's smiling. He's so beautiful.

Brown eyes cheerful and mischievous, telling Charles to expect teasing in the near future. Carlos has been trying everything to make him giggle, since the start.

I love you.

"You're correct," he answers, no clue what he's agreeing to. It's an ad, he has to agree to everything either way.

Carlos' right eyebrow twitches for a milisecond in a silent question. Are you okay?

Charles smiles back at him, sending a slightest nod his way. I'm okay.

Warm hand – oh so warm, spreading heat down Charles' back with every touch and brush of its fingers on his skin – clasps him on the shoulder. Carlos' fingers squeeze him, harder than necessary. Another silent conversation between them.

Carlos briefly caresses his left shoulder blade with his fingertips.

I love you. I love you so much.

Charles can't stop looking at him. Thinking how much he wants to end this video and just soak in every drop of Carlos' attention. Turn towards him like he's the sun and Charles is the sunflower chasing the warmth. Feel warm and loved, even without saying it and revealing the most vulnerable part of him. Because Carlos always makes him feel like that.

I love you.

Please love me back.

Charles smiles again and touches Carlos too, resting his hand on Carlos' knee.

He looks deep into his eyes, communicating what's on his mind and in his heart.

I love you.

By the look in Carlos' eyes, Charles knows he feels the same.

[stardustedsins]

Kiss Prompts #41: A kiss because the world is saved

Polnareff/reader (gender neutral reader)

The four of you stand in the early morning sunlight, watching as Dio’s body crumbles to ash and blows away. With this, it’s really over. The world is safe from the threat of stand wielding vampire maniacs, and Mrs. Holly is already recovering well. Despite your losses, you’ve done it. You feel a little giddy about it, actually.

“I can’t believe we did it.” You say, and Polnareff puts an arm around you.

“I know, it’s not every day you save the world.” He says. Mr. Joestar nods.

“I’ve done it twice now. Let’s hope none of us have to do it again.” You’ve all heard his stories about fighting gods in Switzerland in his youth, but they seem a lot more believable after all this.

“It feels weird that hardly anyone even knows about any of this.” You’re thinking of all the ordinary people going about their ordinary lives, even here in Cairo where the danger was lurking right in their own city. 

“What do you want, a parade?” Jotaro asks jokingly, but your silly boyfriend answers before you can.

“Actually, yes! Wouldn’t you like to see a Silver Chariot parade balloon?” 

“I don’t think Hermit Purple would make a very good balloon.” Mr. Joestar actually sounds disappointed. 

“How would the balloon makers even know how to make a Chariot balloon?” You ask, thinking of how most people can’t see stands.

“I would draw them a perfectly accurate reference picture, of course!” He brags. “It would be just like the Mickey Mouse balloons, the perfect advertising for Polnareff Land! Man, now I wish we really were getting a parade.”

“Would you settle for a victory kiss?” You ask, and he turns to face you.

“I would be honored to accept such a wonderful prize.” He puts on a voice and bows lightly like some kind of knight in a movie. You catch Jotaro rolling his eyes over Polnareff’s shoulder before he rises, but that’s not enough to bring your mood down. Especially when you have Polnareff, the two of you giggling against each other’s lips before a proper victory kiss, long and just a little too heated before you push him away.

“Jean! Not the time.” You swat his arm lightly, but he just winks at you.

“Ah, to be young again.” Mr. Joestar sighs.

“Good grief.” Jotaro turns to get back in the car that brought you all out here. 

[applepi-1]

Secrets out- Akaashi

In high school, everyone knew they Miya's.

Atsumu Miya the flirt

Osamu Miya the cook

And Y/n Miya the brains.

If you didn't know the Miya trio most would assume Osamu is the better twin, the better Miya, he's less firtly, more mature, less weird.

But if you did know them, most like Akaashi would say Y/n was the better Miya. Every time Bokuto asked why he'd say Y/n, he'd just tell him to look at you, you are stunning, you're smart, and you know what you want in life. And here he was staring at your beautiful body as you danced with a stranger. Jealousy flooded his veins but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. He watched as your body move swiftly with the music, hips matching the beat and moved without a care in the world. He felt stupid, he's not in high school anymore, so what's the need to hide you? Just as he as going to walk towards you, Atsumu put his arm around his shoulder.

"Hey, Akaashi, we're about to play seven minutes in heaven. You in?"

"Why?"

"Come on man, it's my 27th victory in a row, that has to be some kind of record." Akaashi sighed before his gaze followed yours. "Oi! Y/n, seven minutes in heaven, you in?" You stopped dancing waving bye the group of people you was with walking over to the boys.

"Sure, you playing too, Aka?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so."

"Good, let's go." Atsumu led the boy to the group who was in a circle, You sat next to your friend as Akaashi set right across next to Bokuto. Akaashi looked down as you sat crisscrossed your chest showing more than he'd like. Atsumu decided to go first since it was his victory party after all, landing on the girl beside him. He winked and led the girl out. Hinata and Bokuto locked the door and set a timer, talking amongst themselves. You glanced at Akaashi as he leaned back resting on his hands. You watched as he swallowed his spit, your eyes moved with his adams apple, before the trailed all over his body. You weren't sure how long you were staring for, but Akaashi felt your gaze and looked at you. You sat up straighter and turned to your friend.

"And he was like, 'babe, I'm sorry, it won't happen again.' Of course I cared because who eats pineapple on pizza?"

"It's gross."

"Right." The timer was heard in the distance turning their attention to your brother as a hickey was spotted on his neck.

"Now that's gross." Your friend nodded you head laughing soflty. "Aka." The nickname made the boy look at you. "It's your turn." The tips of his ears turned pink as he spun the bottle, not moving his eyes up til it stopped. He hesitated to look up at your shock fac.

"Don't do anything to make us kill you." Osamu said as he talked to Suna. You got up stretching before following Akaashi to the room. He looked around nervously as the girl ran your eyes over him.

"You're a tease you know." He looked back at you confused.

"Me? You're the one dancing with some guy, and the outfit." He glanced down at your strapless crop top and blue jeans.

"Yes?"

"You have no idea what you're doing."

"Did you like it? My dancing?" You asked stepping closer to the boy, he leaned back into the wall. "Well?"

"It was..."

"Use your words."

"You're turning me on like crazy."

"What about me is turning you on exactly?"

"Y/n." He reached out to you grabbing your waist as you rest a hand on the wall next to his head.

"Yes?"

"No that's the answer."

"My name?"

"All of you turns me on, love." He leaned down capturing your mouth with his, your bodies fit each other perfectly.

While you wrapped your free hand around his neck, he poked his tongue into your mouth and you granted him access. He smoothly glided his tongue over your teeth, feeling practically every inch of your mouth.

Both of you stopped to take a breath. Nothing else in the room mattered and all you could see was his breathtaking eyes. He moved down to your neck kissing, biting, sucking. He pulled back hearing a pop as your skin left his mouth. "Mine." He stated as he leaned back up. "Now everyone knows."

"You sure about this?"

"I love you, we're not in high school anymore."

"You're right I love you too, Aka. I'm all yours."

You glanced down to his lips and you started kissing again.

Although neither of you had noticed, Bokuto had opened the door. When he saw you two kissing, his mouth gaped open and he was unable to move so he just watched in silence.

Because neither of you had noticed him, you kept on making out.

You deepened the kiss as he thrust his hips into yours which made you let out a little moan. That made him smile.

The feeling of his smiling lips against yours was indescribable and amazing.

Bokuto had finally seen enough and broke out of his trance.

Although he was uncomfortable with the progress you two were making in front of him, he couldn’t resist but tease his friend. “Dang… Get at her, dude!”

You and Akaashi broke apart instantly, both turning toward Bokuto.

You were both huffing and puffing, trying to catch your breaths, when Akaashi spoke. "Give me 5 more minutes with my fiance, will you?"

"Welp, guess the secrets out, huh?" Akaashi shrugged his shoulders leaning down to kiss you some more.

[epickiya722]

Ok so not exactly ship bashing bc i don't hate it per se, but not positive either, just something i was thinking

But i remember once when someone was asking some ppl why they didn't like bkdk and/or prefered other ships the response to kr//////bk were sometimes the usual "yea bc abusive" and then some actually caught my attention.

"bc Bakugou can start in a clean slate and be happy without his bad history with Deku"

And i never understood why this sounded weird to me, other than a feeling like Kiri was just being used as some kind of escape. What do you think of it? I'm actually curious

Honestly, I wish I knew myself, Anon. I don't have an answer, but I do have some thoughts.

First, that is just a weird thing to me because... to people who say "Bakugou and Kirishima can start with a clean slate", what qualifies?

Because it's not like their relationship started off like...

"Hi, I'm Bakugou!"

"Hey, I'm Kirishima!"

"Want to be friends?"

"Yeah! Let's be friends!"

*High Five*

No. It was completely opposite. They did not start off with a clean slate. Their relationship started off with Kirishima criticizing Bakugou's behavior and even calling him "unmanly". He did not like Bakugou at first.

Really the person he did start off a clean slate with is Midoriya. Granted, they were kids. But they were childhood friends before it turned sour.

Now, I don't hate KiriBaku. It was one of the first ships I gotten into and I still have a love for it. And I also have favor Midoriya a lot. He is my #1 favorite characters along with another everybody should probably know by now. I am also a multishipper.

With that said, in my earliest days of being in the fandom, I was taken back to see that some KiriBaku shippers actually didn't like BakuDeku, let alone Midoriya.

Why? Well, for BakuDeku, I get it. Ship rivalry and all that. Again, as a multishipper I just don't care for that. Feeling "threatening" by the presence of another ship, having ship wars and saying why this ship is better than this one.

Now dislike for Midoriya, I have no clue. But as I thought about it, and seen some things, I feel like it was because BakuDeku does an upper hand of having more content for them, history be damned. Maybe some people feel like Midoriya is a threat. After all, Midoriya may know a lot more about Bakugou than anyone else. They were childhood friends. And childhood friends is a popular trope.

Now, let's be real here, if Midoriya and Bakugou dated other people, it would be Bakugou who would have more of a problem than Midoriya would.

If Midoriya, in canon, acknowledges that Kirishima is Bakugou's friend, I doubt he would be upset if they dated. Hell, to be jealous would fly over his head because he's the type of person to want people happy. It's Kirishima, he likes Kirishima. He has a mutual friendly relationship with him. If Kirishima and Bakugou dated, Midoriys would root for that.

On top of that, Bakugou really didn't become a top concern for Midoriya until season 3. Before that, he was making his own friends and doing his own thing, including during their middle school days. By that time, Midoriya actually distanced himself from Bakugou. He doesn't follow him anymore. Midoriya was a loner. In fact, after season 3, he still just let Bakugou do whatever without having a say so or following him around. Bakugou always been visible to Midoriya, but he isn't that "possessive" or a "stalker" as some people think he is. Bakugou only became more visible to him because Bakugou made it so. Bakugou just always been Midoriya’s vision of victory and of course, he saddened by where their relationship ended up. He admires Bakugou, but he doesn't listen to his conversations or just "I know Bakugou better than you!"

Bakugou is always watching Midoriya, on the other hand. No, for real, he is always watching him. He almost always has Midoriya on his mind in some way. Even has followed Midoriya and Todoroki just to hear their conversation. It's how he even realized that Midoriya was holding a secret about OFA. If Midoriya disappeared for even 2 minutes, Bakugou would notice. Tells Midoriya to watch him during the Joint Training arc. Ran off with Midoriya at the start of the Paranormal Liberation Arc (says to get payback at Shigaraki, but we all know it was also he didn't want Midoriya to go alone).

It's like the moment Midoriya does anything Bakugou has to be there for it. Not for his own benefit, but because he is aware of the type of person Midoriya is.

He's not like this with anyone else.

He doesn't think about anyone else 24/7 for literally years because he has regrets and regrets he has voiced to Midoriya himself. He even has cried twice in front of Midoriya. He keeps a card, a heartfelt physical symbol of just how he wishes for their relationship to go back to the good times.

Now when it comes to Kirishima and Bakugou... I sometimes feel like people like it because Kirishima, while Bakugou's friend, works as his "tamer". Think about it.

There are people who only like a character when they're in a ship and go as far as to change that character completely through the other character's actions and words for the sake of liking said ship.

If you don't like one character, then don't ship the ship they're in!

Given that Bakugou has a lot of haters, what if some of those haters happen to like KiriBaku only when they can interpret Bakugou as being more "tolerable" because Kirishima can "tame" him?

Kirishima can handle Bakugou because he literally is a thick skinned person. His quirk is a visual gag of that. Anything Bakugou says or do, he doesn't take it to heart. But here's the thing.

He is not the only person.

Everyone doesn't take anything Bakugou says or do to heart. Even Midoriya who just brushes it off or has sassed him back.

I think people just take to shipping Kirishima more with Bakugou and not anyone else is because it is stated explicitly they have bonded (the Kamino Rescue).

That and circling back to the "taming" thing, there are moments where Kirishima does seem to be the one where he reels Bakugou in. Such as making comments like "ooooh, that doesn't sound very heroic" or "BAKUGOU, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM".

Like moments where he directly scowls Bakugou.

Iida does the same, he's the first one to do it from Class A, in fact. However, there isn't a lot of BakuIida shippers compared to KiriBaku. Again, Kirishima is explicitly stated to be Bakugou's friend. That's not to say no one else is friends with Bakugou.

Here's a guess. Maybe people find that Kirishima can change Bakugou into something "better". And when I mean "better" I mean much less grouchy, angry, more friendly. Turn him into a whole different character to the point Bakugou would be recognized as some OC and not Bakugou.

Kinda funny considering since Kirishima did change himself. His personality stayed the same, but he grew into having a thicker skin, being brave and not hesitating, and changed his hair.

In a way, it's like... "I'm a new person, I created this new persona of myself... maybe I can do the same to someone else".

Which, let's be honest, would be toxic on Kirishima's part via fanon wise. Changing someone into someone else into what you want. Canon Kirishima may call Bakugou out or tease him, he wouldn't go as far as to dictate how Bakugou should be or even change him.

Again, like the rest of Class A, they don't let Bakugou get to them. Tease him about and whatnot, but Bakugou is Bakugou. If they were all the same person, that wouldn't be fun. Everyone is different in their own way.

So, yeah, I do think some people ship KiriBaku for the dynamic, which I see nothing wrong with that. I, myself, like the bond Bakugou and Kirishima have. It's different from their other relationships, and I like different. It's why I ship it. (And yes, I also like it platonically.)

However, other than the dynamic, I think some people ship KiriBaku because they may portray Kirishima as this person who can "change Bakugou into someone else entirely". Like making Bakugou someone else for their benefit because they don't like Bakugou as he is.

Sure, Bakugou is unpleasant at times. But it's not like he isn't aware. It's not like his classmates aren't aware.

If Kirishima didn't like Bakugou for how he is and is extremely bothered by his behavior, he wouldn't have befriended him in the first place and he would have tried to change Bakugou into someone else. Instead though, he just sticks to being his friend and having a laugh and sometimes scowling at his antics.

That's really all I have to say. Again, it's a guess and I won't even say I'm right. I'm not an expert on any shipper.

All I really am is some who happens to like ships and characters for how they are in this fandom.

[hel-phoenyx]

Desire, Nru, Universe and Kal @corneille-but-not-the-author 's characters

She's a weird little lady, that one. All in pink and skin subtly revealed, her tiny stature barely reaching my neck, she's looking at me with the interested eyes of a predator that just found his prey.

I don't like those eyes, but they're giving me a damn good hint on her nature. Usually people take me for the predator. Especially right now, with both magic and anger seeping through every hole in my body.

People that can die never consider me their prey, nor their inferior.

It's a goddess. I can hardly guess her nature nor her motive, but I suppose it will be revealed soon enough.

I squint my eyes, look towards her, take advantage of our height difference to try and assert dominance.

She doesn't even flinch.

"Alright. What the fuck am I doing here? And adding to that, WHERE is "here"."

A smile rips through her lips.

"Do you mind not screaming? I have sensitive ears."

Well talk about a first impression. I roll my eyes, crossing my arms on my chest. I'm not even screaming, godsdamnit, I just have a very strong voice. The kind that beams through battlefields.

"Just fucking answer that question."

She laughs, hand in front of her face, her smile still not disappearing.

"What a filthy mouth you have there, Mairù Claro. Did you ever teach yourself politeness?"

"Abyss nope, and certainly not toward goddesses. Can I have a fucking answer now?"

Her eyes gleam with victory.

"They weren't lying, you are a smart one."

Her arms held behind her, she salutes me with a reverence people reserve for their equals.

"I am Desire of Lazzaro, current Queen of Lazzarian principality. And coincidentally, that's where you are. Happy coincidences, ain't it?"

"Principalities are ruled by queens now?"

"Let's just say I had to.... Reinstate old titles."

Not reassuring. And the fact I don't even know that country is not helping. Is it a part of the Paper continent? I thought we were good with Faloi. And worst of all, her tone when she's telling me that is somehow heavier than it needs to be. What old titles? Fuck is happening here?

Like I'd know. I only just got back from a several year long exile, just in time to witness the most disgustingly bucolic scene my eyes have ever seen. Anger fills my heart at the thought, and I restrain a hiss with all my willpower; sadly, it didn't get past her.

"As for what you're doing here... I think you have some sort of idea. Kal'Dithryon was about to kill you. I couldn't let that happen."

Right. I remember now. I was right in the middle of something important and my asshole of a former boss kinda threw some creationnist spells at me. Apparently he's now keen on starting duels on royal grounds, that's damn interesting. Oh how I wanted so badly to thrust a tentacle or two into his sorry ass. Or bones. Whatever.

But killing the queen's new counselor would have earned me the death penalty for sure, and that is in admittance I'd have won. Kal is far from a newbie in magic, and we play on the same field. A duel would make my victory more uncertain than you'd think.

That still doesn't answer my question.

"And you wanted me alive for what?"

Because I'm not stupid, people and especially gods don't save lives with no hidden intentions. There has to be something.

Desire is still smiling, albeit a bit more... Hungrily.

"You are indeed a smart one. I didn't save you from the goodness of my heart, despite how cute you are..."

I grumble at the use of the word I stopped believing a long time ago but she carries on, unfazed.

"... I just need you for several things. First one is easy, just be a mole for me. Spy on your queen, bring me intel, I don't ask for much, I know you're not the Mandate's favorite person..."

She winks, and I shiver. I'm not used to feel terror, but that little woman is making me feel really uneasy.

"The second thing is more important. When the moment comes, and you will recognize it, I'll need you by my side. Sadly I can't say much, a law of the cosmic kind is stopping me, but I will tell you as much as I can, in due time."

Not sure I'll believe it, but eh, loyalty to a kingdom's never been my forte. And I have a... Certain resentment towards the Mandate. So betrayal is not something unforgivable, if only...

"Sounds like you wanna make me your little pocket dog until then, sweetie. And I'm not keen on being kept on a leash."

"Pleaaaase.... I only give leashes to consenting partners, and I wouldn't dare force one on you."

I smile. Magic crepitates between my teeth, ready to strike.

"Cool. Wouldn't want you to discover what it exactly feels like to have a goddess put down."

"Sweettalker. Don't worry, I will not only give you your life in exchange. What about a little deal?"

Deal? She speaks more of my language. I did not usually receive deals in my life. Either I take what I want, or people take what they want from me. Come to think of it, the last person I made a deal with is Kal.

The expression on her face tells me there are things I'd better leave uncovered, but for now, I decide to dare the devil and keep looking that girl in the eyes.

She's still smiling.

"A deal, huh. Like what?"

"Well I am goddess of Desire. As such, of course I know what is the Desire of your heart..."

"Is that supposed to be a pun? Spare me that, please," I grunt, "and get to the point."

"You're a fun breaker. What if I serve you your beloved on a plate, with the deaths of Kal'Dithryon, and Kage and Nru Frosilæn as a bonus? Would that be of interest?"

Well that's getting to the point. I let myself smile, pushing away the very tempting idea; Deals with that kind of entity are often more binding that they appear to be and I don't want to give myself a reason to fight a goddess yet.

"And how would you do that in a way I can't?"

Again she winks. Abyss, she's creeping me out. My body's not supposed to react like that to anyone. I am not supposed to feel fear. Where did all those years of conditioning go?

"Stealthily for starters. No offense to you but you're not exactly sleek in what you want. And how do you think Asura would react if you killed her wife in such an obvious way?"

Good point.

I always was a fast thinker, but now I don't even take the time to reflect before extending my hand.

"Deal. But you let me take care of Kal. Old resentments."

And I'd rather be the one who ends his life. Letting him die without having my part in it would be... Dissatisfying.

She takes my hand and smiles even wider.

"Deal. I'm sure we'll get along smoothly."

I never less believed a lie.

****

She's squirming on the floor of my laboratory, hands and feet tied, a look of pure hatred and terror on her face. But I ignore her easily enough. I have waited enough to see Nru Frosilaen at my mercy for being afraid now.

Why would I be anyway ? All daughter of Death she is, I am a better fighter than her and she knows it. I won't hesitate to kill her and the split second she would take to try and kill me would be far, far more than enough.

Desire is smiling, towering over Nru with a foot on her back. She doesn't even pay attention to the first daughter of the Frosilaen trying so desperately to escape.

"And there she is, the girl in the flesh ! Or bones, I don't know. Daughters of death have a tendency to become lichs. Have I ever told you about the Collector-"

"I don't want to hear a history lesson, sweetheart, I have things to do."

Desire winks at me.

"And an owl to pluck, of course of course! I wouldn't want to slow you down... But no offense to you, it's hard to believe you're motivated if you keep calling me petnames, Mairù, my dear. I'm gonna start to believe I did everything for naught..."

Really ? Goddesses and their tendency to joke around, really I'd never understand that species.

"Don't take this personally, everyone get petnames. They just get meaner if you're being a bitch and I'm seriously considering it."

"Aw, and here I thought we had something special. But what are you gonna do with the owl ?"

I lower my eyes towards said owl, even if she's currently in her human form, disgustingly human features and damning jet black hair that looks so much like Lina's. But while I adored her hair, that feature on Nru only inspires me with sheer hatred.

How dare you look so much like her and take everything when your sister gave me all ?

I'll make you pay. For taking my place, tossing me aside a time too much, and continuing to look at me with those eyes full of fear even after all those months.

I'm sick of people looking at me like a monster. So if they're not gonna change their minds about me, at least I'll give them the show they'll expect.

"None of your business."

"Thought as much. Too bad, I wanted to see that hatred of her face become fear. That would have been simply delicious."

"Whoa there! I'm a monster, not a torturer. I'll be quick, that's all you need to know."

Nru is still squirming, putting in question my resolution to act quickly. If not painlessly. Well, I didn't intend to give her a painless death anyway. I'm not good at that and certainly don't wanna learn.

"What do you have against Nru anyway ?"

Desire shrugs.

"Nothing in particular, but Death and I have history of some sorts. And, well, I do enjoy thorns in my side being pulled off. A daughter of death is a real danger for my current plans."

"Fair enough. Can you go now so I can get down to business ?"

She smiles again, and for a split second I feel my nerves straighten.

"Of course. Good evisceration, dear."

****

I don't remember anything before the point I woke up in the remains of my former confrery building, destroyed Gods know how. But one thing for sure, my body remember that woman.

Not in a weird way. more like in a "I'm not supposed to feel frightened" way. The way people that can kill me are making me feel like.

Fear is not in the natural order of things. I was always more powerful than other people around me. Only exception being Kal. And now, that woman.

And since people can't all be creationnist magicians reputed to be messiahs of a god nobody believes in anymore, I take it this one is a goddess.

She is waiting from me in what looks like a used torture room. Standing on a chair covered in blood, holding a wedding ring in her finger.

"Rings are powerful tools of love, are they not ? This one was made in honor of the love between queen Frosilaen's predecessors. A beauty of a couple, and people killed too soon. But you don't remember that, don't you ?"

I roll my eyes.

"I certainly remember not liking people that talk in riddles."

A laugh escapes from her throat, and she jumps from the chair with a huge, happy smile, taking my hand to guide me towards the inside of the torture room. I don't like that, blood is making me uneasy, tugging at the strings of my broken brain like something I should, or shouldn't, remember.

"Still the same as ever, Mairù ! I'm glad memory loss didn't take that from you."

"You know about my memory loss ?"

She climbs the chair, up now at my eye level.

"Of course I know. How could you forget about me, you... Oh wait, of course you did, since someone took your memories! Silly me!"

Again I hear her laugh, but far, far away in my head where other words she made sound so trivial resonate so harshly.

Took my memories.

So my memory loss WAS artificial.

I don't know many mages able to erase a memory entirely. It could be Kage, with a powerful space-time spell, I know those people mastered that fucking craft. Or Kal. Kal, who described himself as my friend, an old friend, of course he would hide from me that someone took my memory.

And why the actual fuck did people tamper with my brain, godsdamnit ? Can't a guy have autonomy around here ? It's disturbing enough to see people looking at you weird without knowing why !

Something is boiling in me.

I think it's anger.

I hope it's anger.

"... Memories taken away, huh."

"Yeaaaaah. And you didn't even reach the goal I promised you, I feel so guilty for that failure ! And here I thought everything was perfect..."

Her words once again call for an echo in my mind. A goal. I had a goal. Something I desired more than anything in the world...

I remember now.

She's Desire. Goddess of Desire.

And this is definitely not our first meeting.

Probably seeing the light of comprehension in my face, Desire smiles almost wickedly. For a split second, I feel a shiver run down what's left of my spine. That girl could gobble me up so easily. Just a split second...

I shake my head. No time for fear, I may be in front of one of the biggest opportunities in my dump of a life.

"And I guess you can do something about that, sweetheart ?"

She laughs again.

"Oh dear, I haven't heard petnames in so long! And I can do anything people Desire enough..."

"I almost wanted to forget your tendency to do puns around your name."

"You wound me. Do you want your memories back or not ?"

I don't hesitate. Never intended to.

"Yes."

Her eyes burn with a newfound victory.

"Come a bit closer."

Her tone is far more commending than it was before. I'm not one to follow orders, but to my biggest shame I am not in any way able to disobey, and I walk the two, three steps that separate me from the chair she's standing on. From where I am, she's now higher than eye level, and that's highly disturbing : But I don't move, and wait for the next seconds to pass.

She takes my head between her hands. Her eyes didn't leave my face.

"Look at me."

My eyes are riveted on her. I couldn't look away even if I wanted to. Even if all my nerves are screaming to run away, run away before she bites my head off, before that face that is very much too close reaches her goal-

Her voice holds me in place, almost too sultry.

"You don't mind me, do you ? I'll need a bit of... Closure to achieve my goal."

I feel something on my mouth, hot and soft, right after I had the time to nod, and my mind blanks on the only thought that can reach through my brain at the moment.

Did she just give me tongue that little-

I can't finish that sentence. Because at the exact moment her tongue brushes mine something explodes in my brain and it's now only flashes and flashes of pain and screaming.

I see that face I now remember I loathed bringing me to the training grounds. I can feel the spells, my body changing, morphing, despite all my attempts to block it, I feel the magic pulsing in my veins, destroying what's left of the fight. I feel all that magic getting out, hitting the innocent face of a five-year-old I never wanted to hurt. I feel the looks on my face, so full of fear and disgust, so little people wanting to be near me. I feel her kisses and I hear her laugh, right before in my head resonates a "we can't continue like this."

And in the middle of that maelstrom of pain, I see her. Red-headed, beautifully authoritarian, holding my neck like I was naught but a naughty cat in need of a little scolding. I see her in my laboratory while we're sharing a laugh on a reagent that exploded while I didn't want it to, and my face is now covered in bubbles. I see her looking towards me while I explain exactly what pain I'm feeling, those looks I hoped to be understanding but discovered to be longing far too late, and when I realized it, how I wanted so badly to give her back those looks.

I remember the training, even harsher than the first one but this time of my own volition. I remember wanting so hard to become useful to her, to be a man nobody could fear anymore, that she would be proud to love. How I wanted so badly to come back to her and say sorry for everything I failed her for.

I remember coming home far too late.

I remember the black-haired bitch.

I remember the blood on my eyes.

I remember my most precious friend taking my face into his hands.

I remember everything.

The hands around my cheeks are not Kal's. They're Desire, who's stroking my head with an almost worried expression.

It hurts.

It hurts so much.

Please make the pain stop.

Please.

Anything.

Anyone...

"Shhhhht. It's okay. Take your time."

The first voice I hear isn't the one I desire the most. It's the one of the goddess that incarnates that desire. She's not here. Of course she's not here. She is in her arms, frolicking, doing gods know what, casting me aside like I was nothing but a fleeting comfort.

Again I am nothing but a fling.

There is only me and Desire in that room.

Whatever that means.

I rip myself off her hands, and lean on the nearest wall, trying to stabilize my breath. I didn't even notice I was breathing like a rabid dog. Godsdamnit, should it always hurt so bad to recover memories ?

Well, considering the nature of the memories, I guess that couldn't be avoided.

It takes a little while to finally regain control of my brain, but when it is finally clearer, Desire is still sitting on the chair, a huge ass smile on her lips. She looks almost too happy.

"Well ? What do we say to our favorite goddess ?"

I laugh almost sincerely.

"Thank you, Desire."

"Good boy. Now what do you intend to do ?"

Thinking doesn't take me long, as usual. I am currently under the biggest cover I can have, and not a lot of people can realize I recovered my memory. Either Kage, but Kage's never here, or Kal. But I know several ways to shut Kal up.

Best take advantage of it.

"Keep a low profile, of course! I am currently innocent like the newborn lamb for them, and I contribute to society! Why would I ruin that?"

"As always, you always choose the smartest move, my dear!"

It's not the most enjoyable one, but well, I know it will pay.

I don't mind playing the long game.

****

It's been a long time since my fucking trial, and Lina's coronation. Twenty years, if I recall. It's a lot, but for Travellers it goes like a second. Especially when you're at the head of a kingdom that needs rebuilding to the core.

Not like I care anyway. But contrary to Lina, who still looks as young as ever while having reached her forties, I feel my end approaching very, very quickly. I'm already at the high average of my species' life expectancy. I don't have much time to spare.

So I'm waiting for the right moment quite expectantly. Even more since Asura married. The pain I felt that day almost broke my vow of laying low, but I held my grounds. In a big part thanks to Desire and the tiny little button-like device now at the back of my head, that strangely helped regulate my emotions easier than I ever did myself.

She promised me only ten years of waiting. We're close to the deadline, and I still haven't heard a peep of that great project, besides the occasional mind conversation. We had a lot of things to do in ten years. For starters, I finally found something about Aelie's disease. I think I can create a vaccine, but I'm not quite sure. The virus is almost godlike, and gods don't like me meddling in their business.

Except Desire, apparently.

Since she's now sat on my fucking chair.

I should be happy to see her, really, I should. But the only thing I can think of is what the fuck girl I litteraly just woke up ???

"Wha- The hell are you doing in my room ???"

She lifts her head from the book she was reading, my research about the vaccine it seems.

"Oh hey Mairù ! Well, I'm trying to understand what you wrote there, but sadly I am no scientist."

"That- That wasn't my fucking question ?"

I say while realising in a split second that like the usual I'm fucking naked. Because of course I sleep naked, clothes are giving me a sensory nightmare. And I usually don't mind it except right now there's a fucking girl in my fucking room and she's the fucking goddess of fucking desire !

"fucking" being the appropriate word considering the look she just gave me. I'm under the feeling she just saw a very yummy plate of ribs that looks a little too eatable to my tastes. Intrigue the First, are goddesses always that horny ???

I blush, and pull back my covers on my chest. Not right now, not for you, and no don't smile more it's only creeping me out!

"Shy, are we ?"

"Can't a man have a right to damn privacy ? Let me put something on, at least, Intrigue the first be sent to Abyss!"

"Of course, of course, go ahead!"

And she

She doesn't move an inch.

Obviously.

I roll my eyes again, trying to not use a flashbang to get my damn privacy. Because that would be hostile, and plus, I'm not sure it works on gods.

"Desire, sweetheart, I meant LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE !!!"

I can't miss her look of disappointment.

"Ohhh, right. Tell me when you're ready, would you ?"

Finally she turns around. I leap out of my bed, keeping my eyes on her, and hurriedly put on underwear and something to become at least a little more decent. Finally, when I've got my blouse on me, I signal Desire I'm now dressed, and she turns around a bit fast for my tastes.

"There you go! Now I can finally give you things to do!"

"Bossing me around, huh ? Never been a fan of that, hon."

"I would never. Except in bed."

My blasé look is, I think, enough of an answer. She laughs a little bit, before standing up.

"But more seriously the plan is almost in place. I just need some elements to make it more believable. Would you be willing to help me ?"

"Depends. On what?"

"Oh, nothing much. Now that I have my best mole implanted on the field, I need him in action. Soon enough a very special event will take place. I need someone that will blow the alarm whistle on it, and it needs to be from the Divine Mandate. Otherwise, they won't be able to participate."

I raise my eyebrow in surprise.

"And you can't tell them ?"

"Nope ! Cosmic law, remember ? It needs to be a Mandatian that discovers the info on their own terms for it to be broken."

Of course it always needs to be convoluted. But I know cosmic bindings quite well. I have studied the case of the Enlightened One in much of my free time because Asura loved that part of history. So I am familiar with promises that bind you by the very law of the universe.

"I see, I see. And you can't drop the documents I'm certainly gonna need on anyone, of course."

"Well, I could, but there is a slight chance it won't work. Nru tried to spill the beans earlier in history but almost died, you know ? She is from Ink, maybe it played a role."

"Not like it would have bothered me."

Desire has a small laugh.

"Of course. Point is, I'm putting every last chance on my side. Your species is Mandatian to the core, you know ? Your kind is only born in that territory, and we never could figure out why. If there is someone that can break that cosmic binding, it's you."

And then again with being a prophet... Well, can't say I'm not used to it. And at least it would be useful for my very own personal goal.

"All right. Where do I need to go to find the precious information I'm supposed to break a cosmic binding around ?"

Desire smiles brightly and jumps towards me.

"Perfect ! Nothing far, don't worry, only in Love's cathedral."

"In where now ?"

My face must be very funny because Desire bursts into laughing almost immediately.

"Don't look so surprised ! Adam kept quite a lot of documents during his reign, on all of the kingdoms including yours. Love's cathedral is the best place to start genuine research."

"Okay, fair enough, but Love's cathedral is where, sweetie ? In PAPER CONTINENT. You think I'm allowed to go there alone ???"

My concerns are brushed aside in a movement of the hand and a shrug.

"Just find someone to accompany you, pretend a breakthrough for the vaccine, there's many pretexts ! It will be even more impactful that way !"

If you say so. I suppose it will be better than to stay in that unbearable status quo. And I'll finally get to see that infamous Love cathedral where lied the first Frosilaen brother.

****

I’m back from Paper continent with a shitload of new intel and even more questions, starting with those three countries I finally remember, or discovered, the existence of. Now I know what Principality of Lazzaro is referencing, and it doesn’t exactly please me. A cosmic binding can’t be enough to hide both three countries and a giant fuckass tournament to decide which one is governing the other.

Worst, in my opinion, is that Lazzaro won the last one. But the Mandate is still autonomous and going strong. So what the fuck happened ?

I’m sat in my room after giving the news, and watching Lina’s face shrivel in terror. I think there are other implications to this tournament I don’t follow. She already asked me to participate. How funny it is that she needs me exactly when the country is in dire need of power.

And not at any other moment.

Oh, the irony. Did she ever see me as something else than a tool to satisfy her needs ?

Did everyone ever that was in love saw the other as something other than the satisfaction of their needs anyway ?

My visit to Love’s cathedral convinced me otherwise. Love there was only people kissing, noises of face meeting and absolutely no conversation. I’m starting to believe these people speak another language that needs their tongues joined together, and I am definitely not fluent. I would accuse Adam of twisting the meaning of Love, but even his death didn’t change anything.

Being the son of Love, Adam must have known what she wanted. What the word meant.

And if it’s only that… Have I ever been in love ?

A cough is heard right behind me. Desire, popping in my room for the second time in a week. This time, fortunately, I am not naked.

“Congrats for completing the task. And now that you know what I meant by “being by my side”...”

“You want me to participate in the tournament.”

I cut her in the middle of her sentence, but she doesn’t look too outraged. Only nods, eyes still riveted on me.

“Exactly. Sorry for having to be clear now about what our agreement was, but cosmic bindings make so. I mean, I would like to participate, but sovereigns are not allowed to, and that means giving up the crown, even only for a moment…”

“Eh, I’m better at fighting than ruling or naming over successors.”

“You were once Thaumargeikhon for the Heirs, tho.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Dark period of my life. Even though Kal had to twist a little the true meaning of that ancestral place at the Heir government, I never loathed more my place in politics. And I was only here to snarl at those corrupted fuckers wanting to be no better than the one genociding them. And I meant the term. Racism goes both ways even when there is one part of the people that is systematically discriminated against.

Desire doesn’t push the subject. She just shrugs.

“Fine, as you wish. I’m also gonna need to recruit Kage and Kal, since they’re not out of my hair.”

“Why them ? I am enough of a powerhouse already.”

She smiles, sitting on my bed. Great, now I can’t go lie down, it’ll just be weird.

“You are. But if they’re not with us, they’re against us. Lina will recruit them to her team, especially if you’re not there, and you and Kal are of equal strength. I can’t afford uncertainty. I need to win.”

 “Why ?”

“For the exact reason it will be easy to convince Kage and Kal.”

She shuts up. Probably not wanting to say more. But there is something in her voice, something that tells me that the matter is all more personal than simply taking over a kingdom and reclaiming a victory the Mandate did not accept.

I would have pushed the subject, in another time. Or maybe just asked more questions. But my mind is occupied enough as it is.

Probably she noticed my silence, since she turned her head towards me.

“Something on your mind ?”

“A lot of things, really. I’m still thinking about Love’s cathedral. You’re really hated there, by the way.”

Desire sneers.

“Of course. They think love and desire don’t meddle easily, only create suffering. For them, love should only be submission. I find that completely stupid.”

“Heh. And here I thought you would tell me something about how love and sex are intertwined.”

I didn’t intend to do anything about that sour look on her face, only tease a little about all those times people told me to love someone, you must fuck them. Including some of the idiots in Love’s cathedral thinking sex is something you give, something you endure out of love. I always thought it was stupid, because then I’d never have been in love; but who would be listened to between the Love priest and the monster people love to hate ?

But to my surprise, she bursts out laughing, all traces of sourness gone from her face.

“Echiapolis, no! I’m not that stupid and especially not that inconstant. Sex is a matter of desire for pleasure, yours or the other’s, it has nothing to do with love. Can be linked, yes, but ain’t everything ?”

She lays down on my bed -great, there goes my nap- and sighs heavily.

“You know, sometimes I think I should have been one of the first goddesses. Because Desire, for everything, is what drives life forward. I have power some of those idiot Twelve can’t even imagine, including Love herself. But law says I am only a minor god with no counterpart, because Creator or whatever knows why. And Love is taken for everything I am while reducing what she is so, so much.”

“And what is love, then, if not what I saw at the cathedral ?”

Another sigh.

“You’re asking me a difficult question.”

“Who is the older-than-thou goddess that just told me Love isn’t what she appears to be ?”

She laughs, and pokes my non-existent ribs with a teasing smile.

“Smartass.”

“Should have thought of that before making a deal with me, sweetheart.”

Desire smirks and pinches the skin under what’s left of my torso.

“Oh, I’m more than happy to get the whole package, if you know what I mean.”

And if I had any doubts, the wink she just gave me is proof that yes, I know what she meant. Ew. Horny little shit. You’re not even sure I have something down there, for all you know magic could have destroyed that part of me. I did not check if it was still functional anyway, and I don’t see any future where it would be.

“You still didn’t answer my question.”

Apparently she didn’t expect me to come back to the subject, but she doesn’t have any ways to escape anymore. She sighs, and lay down again, looking at the ceiling with pensive eyes.

“Love is… Well, more than kissing, for starters. It’s the Desire to be close to someone, to hear their heart beat for you, to live for them. It’s shared interest or wanting to hear all about what they like, because it’s them and whatever they enjoy must be worth it. It’s wanting to stay with the person forever. It's so much more than just surrendering to someone.”

“You’re putting a lot of “want” in there.”

“Love is a bit selfish. It’s the selfishness to be selfless.”

“Wow. Deep,” I say with all the sarcasm I say. “You guys have something with a word and its opposite ?”

“Hey, you asked me to answer.”

“Fair.”

I think for a brief moment, before turning my head towards her.

“Have you ever been in love ?”

I probably shouldn’t have asked that question. Because her eyes are now lost behind a veil of mist, and the sadness in her expression is making me another kind of uneasy. I think it’s regret. Is it regret ?

Her face taints with every kind of sorrow.

“I have, yes.”

I stop pushing the subject.

***

My head hurts.

It hurts so much.

Why does it hurt that much ?

I should be happy.

Nru just died and it wasn’t my fault.

Yes, I did kill people during that tournament, but for her I stayed put. Like Desire told me to. and it paid. She's dead. Not by me.

I should be happy.

Why does it hurt ?

Was it Asura’s tears ? Everyone’s looks of sorrow ? Or my death approaching with the feeling I’ll never get those tears ?

I don’t know.

It hurts.

I have to fight Srodek tomorrow, and this time I don’t think I’ll be able to manage with the same bravado. Even though I swiped the Mandate’s team with ease, it took a big part of my energy and I had to get Kal to help me against Alba. Damn Byleth. Why did Desire expect me to fight an Aspect and win ? I barely obtained a victory and it was because he surrendered.

I feel so tired. My end is growing near. I could reach my forties but I know I won’t live past fifty. Every happiness I’ll obtain starting from now won’t last.

It hurts.

Desire is standing in front of a painting. Old, judging by the state of the paint. A woman is represented lying down on pillows, wearing a chiton whiter than snow. she would look perfectly normal if not for her skin, swirling and tracing a pattern of galaxy.

I don’t know who that woman is, but Desire looks at her with enough resentment for me to hate her.

I don’t know why.

“Mairù ?”

I sigh. Of course she would spot me. The amplification device tells her wherever I am, in whatever state. I didn’t expect her to worry about me.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Come closer.”

I obey, too tired to protest.

It hurts.

“How are you feeling ?”

I sigh.

“Bad.”

“Nru’s dead, tho. Shouldn’t that make you happy ?”

“I’m too close to death to be happy about anything right now.”

Something shifts in her expression, subtle, almost soft, before she finally stops looking at the painting to turn towards me.

“You won’t live that long, will you ?”

“Probably not. I’m already on borrowed time, and going full power for so long isn’t helping.”

“So any of the happiness I promised you wouldn’t last long anyway.”

“Afraid so. Hey, not your fault, alright ?” I smile, seeing some kind of shift in her face. “You upheld your part. The fact that I’m not eternal is my problem.”

It still hurts.

Desire bites her lower lip. Her eyes shift, from the painting to me to the painting again. One moment, I think she wants to say something, the other she just closes her eyes and steps a bit closer.

Her hands run over what’s left of the skin on my left arm.

“Nothing of this is fair.”

“Life ? Fair ? If it was, I wouldn’t be here with you, and I wouldn’t have any reason to accept your deal. Should be happy life fucked me over, sweetheart.”

Even the petname doesn’t make her laugh.

“I should not have to.”

It hurts a little less.

***

My brain is empty.

I do not know why I didn’t die.

I should have died.

I am close to death. And now the only thing keeping me alive threw my last chance of a fleeting happiness in the face.

Is it my fault ?

It’s probably my fault.

I don’t know what I’ve done. Only that it’s bad.

Only that Chiara is the only one who stopped in front of me.

“Desire seeks you,” she said. “You can still do something,” she said. But what ?

What good am I ?

Going on the battlefield at this time would kill me. My magic is too unstable, blood and death would be my end. At least I should time up that death to wipe out a maximum of enemies. But are they even my enemies ?

Some of them are the people Kal and I commanded. Heirs brainwashed by what took Love’s place to fight, to believe there is a future to that victory. But there won’t be a victory for anyone. Only for that eldritch beast that eats gods.

Is the something I can still do my death ?

Will I die as a tool after living as a monster ?

I can’t think.

I only walk, deep in the underground where Desire seeks me.

She’s there, protected by the H.A.R.D.I.. In front of her burns a purple flame, almost extinct, she’s looking at it with tired eyes.

She doesn’t even look my way.

“You’re here.”

The H.A.R.D.I. are looking at me with hateful eyes. Don’t know why. Too tired to care. I only know that now that I’m next to Desire, the pain is subsiding at least for a little while.

“Hey.”

“Guys, she ordered without even giving me an answer. Do me a favor and get out. I need pristine concentration.”

H.A.R.D.I. grunt like a sole man, but obey without any question. Ivan pushes me aside like I’m nothing but an obstacle in his way, without even sparing a look in my direction. I only roll my eyes. Whatever goes through those meatheads, I want nothing in it.

I sit down on the floor, waiting. What good can I still do, here, with a goddess and a weird flame ?

“Do you know what that is ?”

She asked, like she has nothing better to do. I squint my eyes.

“The Soul of all Souls, I recall. Artefact hidden in the chambers that helps give the royals their powers. What is responsible for Lina’s ability to cast powerful creationnist spells, and what’s left of the creationnist energy of the kingdom.”

“Yes… And no. Creation was consumed with the death of the royal lineage, who were also the last of their species, only maintained alive by that flame. With them gone, there is no one able to channel their power enough to keep creationnist energy like you knew it. This flame is not a remainder. It’s a catalyst.”

“Huh.”

There is something she’s not telling me, again, in her tone of voice. some sort of fear, some sort of longing. But I’m too tired to go deeper. I only want to sleep, sleep and hope I won’t wake up in this life.

Even though eternal punishment would be waiting for me at the end it would always be better than her eyes burning with hatred.

Desire is still standing in front of the flame.

“Do you know what I’m trying to do ?”

I shrug. Something that has to do with awakening a power bigger than the gods to end that fucking thing. And the war that is starting in the fields in front of Wake’li. A war I can’t partake in, because it would be too early for me to die that stupidly.

“Vaguely.”

“Do you think I can do it ?”

I roll my eyes.

“You’re asking a scientist to give a result on something that has never in all life been tested. Sure, I can think, but what good would it prove, anyway ?”

“I underestimated your pragmatism, it seems. You’re not keen on encouragement, are you?”

“Never has been, never will be. Did you ask for support or facts ?”

“Good point.”

She laughs a little bit, before looking again at the flame.

“Do you know what I’ll be able to do if I do it ?”

“Not quite. Kill that bastard of a giant critter over there ?”

“I mean, yeah, but not only.”

She is still back turned on me, still standing, still immobile. Her hand is, I notice it now, right in the middle of the flames. It doesn’t consume her, apparently, her skin and flesh stay pristine. But she doesn’t get her hand out.

“I will be able to wield a power big enough to mold the world like I want to. I could give you what you wanted for good. What would you wish for, if I could give you all ?”

That’s a difficult question. What would I wish for when every last one of my reasons to live disappeared with no chance of coming back ? I have only some days to live and even then, I wouldn’t have anything to live with. Anything to live for.

What then ? Do I ask for life and live the bland existence of the one that always will be alone ? Or worse, of the one you call only when you need him ? The one you run away from ? Or do I ask for death and leave behind me nothing but a meaningless existence ? What do I want from life that doesn’t need a sacrifice ?

My lack of answer is apparently not of Desire’s taste, because she grits her teeth.

“Her again ?”

A painful smile grows on my lips.

“What for ? She hates me, and loving me would take everything I cherished away from her. Even if you could grant me life, Desire, it would only be meaningless.”

“What, then ?”

“What could I wish for ? I had illusions all my life, but the truth is I led an existence as nothing more than a tool or a monster.”

And tools or monsters cant wish 

for 

anything at all.

Silence falls on the basement. The flame burns brighter. And for minutes I thought I won’t have any answers, before she turns around, and I see something I’d never thought I see in the corner of her eye.

“I do not see you as either a tool or a monster.”

And strangely I want to believe her.

Because in all the years I knew her and looked at her face never have I seen a single tear.

***

Universe is looking at what’s left of the Worm, godless and exploded out of creation leaving only behind dust and the traces of its existence. Everything is now over, and even though I hear faint crying on the battlefield, there is no sounds of battle.

We won.

And I’m still alive.

I spent three days in that room, slipping Desire some magic, helping her control hers. It helped me regain a bit of control over my brain, enough to not explode yet, but what really saved me is one single word out of the mouth of that strange goddess now possessing my… 

Huh. I don’t know what word to use. Partner in crime, perhaps ?

Anyway. The First God, or whatever she is, is still possessing her. I won’t say a word, because we kinda needed her to win at that point, but I really don’t like that situation. Is Desire going to stay like that forever ? I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.

Lina, next to me, is grunting.

“Okay. Now that we got worm dust and an army running away from my castle, can someone explains to me what the fuck is going on ?”

Desire, or rather, Universe, turns towards her purple eyes.

“Nothing, Lina Frosilaen. Just my awakening.”

“You’re not making any fucking sense.”

“Am I? Maybe I should smite you for that disrespect.”

And Lina, for once in her life, shuts up. Maybe because she finally realized that Desire’s voice is not Desire, or maybe it’s because her body is now squirming, trying to fight that amount of power.

Universe rolls her eyes.

“Can you stay put, Desire ? I won’t be there for long, you’re the one restraining me.”

“Let’s see if I got that properly," interjected Asura with a wary expression. “You are not Desire, but rather the power she tried to awaken during those last four days. And now you want to gain… Or regain autonomy but she’s stopping you. On what grounds ? You don’t look like a power a mere goddess can control.”

I would be insulted for the use of “mere” goddess if I didn’t witness Universe break an enemy we took so long to fight in only one word. But I’m still surprised by her precedent affirmation. Why is Desire restraining her ? The fight proved the power of her mother is not something you can control. If she continues, she may end up hurt in the process.

I don’t want that.

I don’t want to ever see her agonize.

Universe crosses Desire’s arms, a bored expression on her face. It doesn’t suit her at all.

“You’re right on many points. I don’t intend to stay any longer under the yoke of that pest, and nor do I intend to hurt you. I just want to spend some time with my daughter, see what I missed in this word. But she wants to… extort from me a last service before I leave.”

“That is ?”

She sighs, before turning her head towards me.

“Well, she wants me to definitively stabilize the sovereign of magic. In a physical, mental, magical, and… Sexual way, apparently.”

wh.

wait.

wHAT ????

I’m not the only one surprised, apparently. Lina looks like she just swallowed a big chunk of Heir viscera. And I won't talk about Asura whose jaw is somewhere on the floor, stupefied by whatever just got out of Universe’s mouth. She turns her head towards me, and I feel her eyes piercing me, in a mix of disgust and astonishment.

My cheeks are probably completely blue with embarrassment, but I still have the energy to shout.

“Hey, don’t fucking look at me like that! I have no damn idea what she’s talking about!”

“Mairù Claro and women, once again striking, she sneers, putting a hand on her forehead. You really have no idea ?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean ?!”

Worst is, I hear from what’s left of the infirmary a double laugh that I know damn well whose it is. And I’m getting fucking tired of this shit. Now is the moment you choose to be little siblings ??

“Eat your damn shit, Baku, Akira ! I didn’t ask for your mockery!”

Of course, the laughs don’t stop. And Universe is still looking at me, quite expectantly. I think she’s waiting for something.

“What do you think about all that ?”

What, me ? She’s asking for MY input ? It’s even more surprising than Desire admitting she wants to fuck me. Because well I’m not gonna lie, now I think I should have seen that coming.

Trying to hide the embarrassment, I cross my arms and stare at her right in those damn purple eyes.

“You think I would spit on an opportunity to finally live my life without pain and the risk of exploding at every damn moment ?”

“Funny. I would have thought you’d rather die.”

I.

Well.

That is kinda true.

I did want to die. Moments before. days before. I don’t know.

But now when I think about the possibility of me dying it’s just. That would be such a waste. I didn’t die during that giant ass battle, why would I die now ? And if I don’t die, I will take the opportunity to live. And live however I want to.

However I want to…

“Yeah, well, suicidal phase over. People would be too happy I’d disappear anyway.”

And I’m certainly not gonna let that happen. If I have to live, I will annoy everyone that thought I would die soon in a way they won’t forget.

If I can live, I'd rather live a life for people who believed I could. Like the little woman restraining the mother of all life with all her body and might just to give me that chance.

Universe smiles. Then open her mouth. And the litany of words that gets out of it sends all of us into a deep, deep sleep.

***

“You still think life is unfair now ?”

I have woken up from one of my first full nights of sleep in ages, and Desire is on top of me, her transparent dress not covering anything. I can still see the marks I gave her earlier in the day, everywhere on her chest and prominent belly, where my child is preparing to be born. I’m sure I’m in a worse state. Gods, apparently, mark as well as sovereign of magic when both of them want to, and I desperately want to keep a trace of her on me.

I laugh, kiss her right next to that cute smirk, and bring her closer.

“Abyss yes. How is a man supposed to get immortality, full power with no repercussions and a woman that perfect without thinking how life is unfair to the poor saps that won’t get the same chance ?”

“Sweettalker.”

“Always for you, sweetheart.”

Her laugh joins mine while she lays down on me, her pregnant belly weighing against my stomach. She’s heavy, but I would admit that for nothing, because that means she would move, and I don’t want her to move.

“Up to do something today ? We could go to the castle and annoy Lina, or just stay here for a little while to do some… Sport.”

“We were at it for five DAYS.”

“And I’m still a goddess, my dear. Plus, from what I’ve seen, your body is reacting very well to your newfound infinite endurance.”

“I’m beginning to think I’m nothing but a sex toy to you, love. A very useful, extremely multitasking and always willing sex toy.”

Her laugh rings in my ear, the sound of it rippling through my body.

“You wound me. Alright mister, no sex for you!”

“You’ll yield before me, you cute little horndog.”

“Then no hugs.”

She looks at me with a victorious smile while I burst out laughing.

“Please, no! My heart won’t handle it !”

“Liar! You don’t have any heart !”

“And the fact you asked for my dick to be regenerated rather than my heart is saying a lot about you, honey!”

She hits me playfully with the back of her hand, or tries to anyway, since I catch her right in the act and make her roll on the bed. We spend a little time like this, just playfully fighting, ignoring the sheets and pillows going everywhere in the room. There’s no one to hear us anyway, this far in Liovelnis’s desert.

Finally I yield, and she climbs once again on top of me, just plopping on my chest. Intrigue the first she’s adorable when she pouts like that.

But because I’d rather see her smile, I stroke her hair gently, and bring her closer. I have no heart for her to hear beating, it’s true, but it’s for her nonetheless.

I let her put her head in the curve of my shoulder and smile.

“I love you.”

She kisses my collarbone with the exact same smile.

“I love you too.”

[queer-coded-camaro-driver]

Prompt idea maybe: "You look so pretty when you cry."

sorry this took me a minute, but the right scenario needed time to formulate

Harringrove pre-relationship, post S2/pre S3, marijuana

---

He’s stoned as hell when he says it, of course. Otherwise he would never have opened his mouth and let something so totally idiotic come flying out in front of Hawkins’ notorious bad boy, Billy Hargrove. But they both show up at one of the quarry’s lesser known spots at the same time and both outright refuse to leave… So the somewhat-rivals begrudgingly agree to share some of Eddie Munson’s better shit and ignore the tension brewing between them. At least for a few glorious hours.

Until Steve exhales a cloud of blue smoke and says offhandedly: “You look so pretty when you cry.”

Billy’s head snaps up, expression grim – he’s borderline murderous already. The blond’s upper lip curls back until he’s snarling, until Steve is staring down a Billy who’s more wolf than boy. “What the fuck did you say to me, Harrington?”

Steve blinks. Shit. How is he supposed to answer that when he hadn’t even meant to open his mouth in the first place!? How the hell is he supposed to tell the guy who beat the shit out of him a few weeks ago that he looked stunning from below–

In retrospect, obviously. At the time of their altercation, Steve had been angry and frightened and was trying his best to protect the kids; which is, ironically enough, also what Billy had been trying to do. He’d been trying to protect Max from an entire room full of strange guys.

Which, like, fair enough.

But even after the Billy’s-fist shaped bruises have healed and the cuts fade to nothing, Steve’s mind keeps wandering back to those awful but electrifying moments before unconsciousness. The memory is glorious: blood dripping from that statuesque nose, tears forming at the corners of the younger boy’s wrathful blue eyes as he drives his fist into Steve’s face over and over. The howl Steve saw but never quite managed to hear, straining like distant thunder in the back of Billy’s throat. 

He’d been pissed at Billy, going out of his way to avoid the blond until Max filled him in on what went on at their house on Cherry Road. Staying mad about something as stupid as a misunderstanding in the wake of El’s incredible victory and this new information seems childish. Stupid. Steve has seen the end of the world and faced it head on, so what’s one equally lonesome asshole from California, really?

“Hey, pretty boy, you gonna fuckin’ answer me?”

“Oh!” Steve shakes his head and bites his bottom lip before exhaling. “Right… I mean, you have like–” Fuck. “–I don’t know dude, I’m high as fuck!”

“Well that’s kind of a weird thing to say, man.”

“I know that, Billy. Christ, you think I wanna sound this stupid all the time? Kids make fun of me when I open my mouth.”

Unexpectedly, the blond boy’s frown deepens. He starts rolling another joint on the hood of Steve’s car. “That’s not very nice of them, considering how much of your trust fund you’ spend on gas to tote them everywhere. If I were one of those brats, I’d be worshiping the ground you walk on.”

Steve gives Billy a look of outright awe. 

Did Eddie lace this shit? Am I dreaming? 

“Huh?”

“I rarely see you around without one of those nerdy little brats hanging off your jacket, so you clearly spend a lot of time helping them out and taking them places. They think it’s okay to treat you like crap just because they’ve read a few more books and gone to a few less parties? Dumbasses.”

“When I said you’re pretty when you cry, I mean your eyes get more intense. You have nice eyes for, like, a dude. I guess.”

Now it’s Billy’s turn to stare at Steve in shock. 

He lights up the joint and takes a drag before passing it to Steve. “Thanks, Harrington. That’s kind of nice, in a weird way.”

“It’s already been established that I’m pretty weird.”

“And sweet.”

“What?” 

“You’re sweet,” Billy reiterates, taking the joint back. “But you didn’t hear me say shit.”

“Course not,” Steve smiles. He’s really stoned; his head is full of cotton and he has the deep desire to reach out and touch Billy’s golden curls. “Hey, can I touch your hair?”

“Can I touch yours?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, sure.”

They each reach out with one hand. Billy tucks what he can behind Steve’s ears and Steve tugs gently at one of Billy’s ringlets only to watch it bounce back into place. Quietly, so quietly it’s barely audible, the older boy whispers: “What are we doing?”

Billy shrugs, fingers still tangled in loose brown locks. “Dunno. But I kinda like it.”

“Me, too.”

“Cool… Do you really think I’m pretty?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

They watch the sun rise over the far edge of the quarry in silence, shoulders pressed tightly together. They’re almost sober again, and Steve isn’t sure if things will go back to the way they were yesterday or if this new sense of understanding is permanent. The tension in the air hasn’t returned and he’s terrified to think that it may. 

He doesn’t want to lose this side of Billy.

“Hey, Hargrove…?”

“Yeah, pretty boy?” 

“Are we– Does this mean we can stop being assholes to each other?” Steve asks.

Billy laughs, bright and loud and so fucking beautiful that Steve’s chest aches. His gorgeous blue eyes go squinty and thin as his smile grows, slivers of seafoam iris showing through. “Yeah, Harrington. I think we can figure out a way to be friends.”

Steve’s grin is unstoppable. Genuine. Something is stirring in his heart like an animal waking from hibernation. 

“Cool.”