#currently trying to learn about arrays. god help me

[aspectpriority]

spending half the day learning java via making a homestuck typing quirk thing and then getting followed by a homestuck blog is genuinely hysterical. anyway welcome 2 the hole in the ground i call a blog :3

[bambisnc]

(   ➴ ) 𝒢𝖱𝖤𝖤𝖪 𝖳𝖱𝖠𝖦𝖤𝖣𝒴 ⚔ as the world caves in

☼ 𝖺𝗌𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖾𝗇𝗁𝗒𝗉𝖾𝗇 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗂𝖾𝗌 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝗀𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗄 𝗆𝗒𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗅𝗈𝗀𝗒

### . STARRING ⌢ OT7 x f.r ⋆ headcanons + 1k / tw. death, falling in love / aphrodite 🛐🛐 + i'm kinda just yapping soz + most of these are SO tragic im romanticism maxxing sm + unedited ˖ ✧

𝓍𝗈𝗑𝗈 ─── heard their may cb might be greek mytho based 🙏🙏 so happy i'm done w/ this shut up this has been rotting in drafts for like a MONTH. + [FILE.ZIP]

이희승 — ❪ LEE HEESEUNG ❫  

౨ৎ Leander & Hero; a tale that could prove to be the inspiration behind Romeo and Juliet, this sees a man falling at first sight for a priestess of none other than Aphrodite.

due to your oath to the goddess of love, however, you can’t help but refuse the sweet confession of his. despite knowing very well, that deep down, you fully reciprocate his feelings.

only for heeseung to relentlessly attempt to win your affections, telling you there is no better way to serve the goddess of love than by devoting yourself to a life full of it. at the end, when you do agree to meet him again, he swims across a literal ocean ── and is even temporarily halted by the god of the seas himself ── to finally put an end to both your yearnings and allow a rendezvous <3

          ⋅ ˚ ଳ �� ‧ others utc

박종성 — ❪ JAY PARK ❫  

౨ৎ Odysseus & Penelope; jay being a warrior who suffers through years of war and voyages of tumultuous seas bravely, owing only to the memories of his wife is so in character to me.

thoughts of you would be such an unshakable source of drive for him, motivating him to get back to you so greatly that he'd even reject immortality as offered by the titan daughter Calypso.

and you, the wife, meanwhile, would refuse to take on any of the numerous suitors who attempt to woo you, regardless of their status and the benefits they could provide to your currently doomed kingdom. when finally he returns to his own land, he'd waste no time in absolutely demolishing all the pest-like suitors and restoring your kingdom back to its former glory. loyalty win!

심재윤 — ❪ JAKE SIM ❫  

౨ৎ Dionysus & Ariadne; some asshole who shows up to try to assert a victory on the half man-half beast Minotaur cruelly kept by your father, the king, looks ever so pitiful that you decide to help out him and his men.

he then promptly promises to take you as his queen but soon after abandons you on an island all alone.

said island is visited by Jake, deity of insanity and wine. being horrified by how you were treated, he decides to take you under his own shelter. you soon fall in love with each other but the earlier talked about asshole ends up murdering you! petty ahh but jake being, well, a god is quite easily able to bring you back, granting you immortality along the way.

and then you both laugh as the asshole is thrown off a cliff by his own people. happy ending <3

박성훈 — ❪ PARK SUNGHOON ❫  

౨ৎ Eros & Psyche; Aphrodite's issue with you in this tale is that you are considered so beautiful that people revere you, instead of worshipping the goddess. a little later, when you're unable to find a suitable partner, it is decided that to appease the goddess you must be wedded off to a "horrible serpent."

sunghoon, Aphrodite's son commands his winds to rescue you, having seen over you for a while now. he visits you in the dark so as not to alarm you of his identity but when your family learns of your luck, they maliciously sow seeds of mistrust in you towards him. t

his leads to you going against his warning of not looking at him in the light. and true to his word, when you do catch a glimpse of him, he disappears without a trace.

desperate to reconnect and apologize, you turn to Aphrodite herself, who, even more angered due to your sojourn with her son, punishes you with an array of Herculean tasks. only when you are finally able to finish them all, learning resilience, humility and sacrifice along the way are you able to reunite with sunghoon your damsel in distress fr. your dedication is also awarded with ambrosia, making you immortal <3

김선우 — ❪ KIM SUNWOO ❫  

౨ৎ Pygmalion & Galatea;  you, being a well established sculptor, known all over for your talent were quite obviously a much sought out potential bride. because, patriarchal society.

though your experience with men as well as all that which you'd heard from others had completely put you off from them. you instead choose to devote yourself to sculpting.

one sculpture, affectionately referred to by you as sunoo, in particular was modeled as a beautiful man, one who had all your ideal traits for a partner. Aphrodite, finding this rather romantic, decides to grant the sculpture sentience. but having now become a human male, it's only obvious you'd discover his flaws.

this would perhaps cause some barriers in the relationship you'd imagined with rose tinted glasses, but with both of you willing to work on yourselves to be better for the other, it would be much more real and meaningful. no miscommunication on my watch, thanks.

양정원 — ❪ YANG JUNGWON ❫  

౨ৎ Perseus & Andromeda; possibly the only pairing with a confirmed non-tragic end. this is yet another tale wherein Aphrodite is the meddling goddess.

beginning with a queen bragging about her daughter (you) being prettier than all the nymphs of the sea. this statement ends up angering Poseidon enough for him to unleash a sea monster to wreck havoc upon your kingdom's land as well as its people. after which, said people of the kingdom decide the only possible way to appease the monster is to sacrifice you, the said daughter (who had absolutely nothing to do with any of this).

a great warrior, jungwon, while passing by happens to come across the sacrificial ceremony near the coast, and taking pity on you decides to kill the monster. because he's just iconic like that. and then you marry each other and live happily ever after <3

西村 力 — ❪ NISHIMURA RIKI ❫  

౨ৎ Orpheus & Eurydice; an extremely talented musician, niki, while on a quest, comes across you and the two of you immediately fall in love. however, the bliss of the subsequent marriage is lost swiftly, when while being pursued by a past suitor, a snake happens to bite you.

refusing to accept this tragic outcome, niki decides the only course of action is to traverse the underworld and bring you back himself. he successfully persuades Hades and Persephone to do so, however a condition is placed upon him. he must not look behind even once while leading you outwards.

and sure, he's able to make the journey back but right as he nears the line dividing the light and the dark he realizes the edge is steep.

fearing that you might trip, niki glances back and is greeted by the sight of you for merely a second, before you fade away. this time to a place from where even his god-like musical aptitude could bring you back from, no matter how he yearned.

𐙚 . regulars : @chrrific @jessxxfwd @evanesceki @soobundle1009 @weedatthegasstation @flipitkickit ⋆

[@bambisnc] 2k25

[kwritingbooks]

co-written by me & @sunsalutationsss

catch up on: tumblr or wattpad

Nerves rakes through Aurora's body as she notices the news in her favorite coffee shop. They skyrocket when she catches a glimpse of someone outside the shop's windows. Could it be who she thinks it is?

AU: star-being!harry x astronomy-student!aurora

AURORA'S POV.

"Iced caramel coffee with oak milk for Aurora." The barista shouted from behind the counter.

I was currently glued to my computer screen as I read an article for my Star Structure and Evolution's class. Hearing my name made me practically jump out of my seat, but luckily no one seemed to notice. I quickly walked over and cupped it into my hands, immediately welcoming in the warm touch.

"Thanks Christina." I nodded in her direction. She gave me a polite smile back and turned around towards the espresso machine behind her. Her tattooed arms moved delicately with the knobs on the machine. It made me want my own one day, but the thought of something so permanent on my body scared me too much.

I spun on my heel, making my way back to my favorite spot by the window. The sound of Hozier over the radio mixed in with a multitude of chattering voices. I smiled to myself as I took my first sip of sweetened caffeine.

Unfortunately, my laptop remained unchanged as it still lit up the same article that I had left it on. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact this was one of the many required readings for our next test. And I procrastinated. Again. Shocking.

I aimlessly padded away, scanning my eyes over the array of words. As long as I got the gist of it, it would be fine. At least that was what I kept telling myself so I wouldn't hate myself as badly.

"Recent studies have found more insight that stars of mass could exist in clusters if formed...blah blah blah...star clusters are born from a giant molecular cloud...blah." I read aloud to myself.

I already knew most of this, so I felt good about it—good enough anyway. Plus, I still wasn't completely over the whole Harry disappearing act. It wasn't so caught up in my mind that it was all I thought about, but it still had a sneaky way of creeping up every now and then. Learning about the structures and evolutions of stars really wasn't helping push any of those thoughts away either.

I looked around the room, begging for an excuse to distract myself from what glared back at me. The traffic inside was busier than it normally was at this time of day, and it kind of surprised me. Almost every table and booth were taken up by people.

Across from me was a guy about my age. His nose was buried into a textbook with his laptop opened at the same time. I squinted my eyes to try and read the words across his screen out of pure curiosity.

His eyes popped up from his readings to see me squinting at him and my heart dropped. I bit back a smile, nodding at him before turning back to my laptop.

God strike me dead now.

I shoved my face back into my laptop, reading over the words as I sipped my iced coffee. Through the sips I heard the news come on the TV in front of me. I adjusted my vision in order to see further away, leaning forward as I saw the words come across the screen more clearly.

"Another Shooting Star Caught Going Backwards Last Night Near Yellowstone Park", moved across the bottom of the screen. A suited news anchor was situated at their desk as stereotypical images of shooting stars flashed on the screen. I couldn't make out what they were saying and even if I could, I was too taken aback by what I just read.

My jaw immediately slacked as I slapped my hands hard on the table. "No fucking way!" I excitedly said as I jumped out of my seat. The people around me went quiet for a moment, all eyes pointing towards me.

I stilled, looking around as a sheepish smile formed on my lips. Maybe I shouldn't have caused a scene, but this was a big fucking deal. I couldn't believe that another star had been caught going backwards. Once was a big enough deal, but twice?

I immediately started closing my laptop and textbooks, shoving them into my bag quickly. It slung over my shoulder with a soft huff brushing past my lips. I had to go and talk about this with Professor Collins as soon as I could.

I grabbed my coffee, looking over towards the window as I watched people walk by. Then, I saw a familiar mop of hair walk past the window and for a moment I brushed it off until I realized...

"Harry?" I said out loud, watching him walk by. I hurriedly ran out of the coffee shop, looking over to my left. He was casually walking down the sidewalk as I questioned my sanity. Could it really have been him? He was wearing an oversized gray sweater with ripped jeans, but his shoes were the same shoes I remembered him having the first night in the field. It still even had bits of mud leftover on the soles. I crooked my head to the side as I examined closer. His stride was much different than it was the last time I had seen him.

"Hey!" I yelled out, walking towards him, but he was a fast walker. My smaller legs had a hard time catching up with his. "Harry! Harry!" I said again, pouting my lips before he finally turned around.

His brows were furrowed as he looked in the crowds of people, his eyes swimming over the various heads spread around. I waved my hand at him, resulting in his eyes finally meeting mine. That same wide, goofy smile spread across his lips as he reciprocated a wave back to me.

"Aurora!" He laughed out, walking towards me with his hands in his pocket. "Hi! What're you doing?"

"Dude!" I gaped, taking a step closer to him. He looked at me with confusion for a moment, tilting his head. There was a worried expression on my face as I peered up at him.

"Where have you been? I've been— I mean, me and Nina have been looking for you everywhere." I frowned, rubbing my arm slowly. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh." He pursed his lips, looking away for a moment. "I'm okay. I went to visit family for a couple of days. I'm sorry I worried you both."

"Okay, I just— I'm sorry... if I had overstepped when I went to your apartment." I breathed out, clenching my coffee in my hand. "I shouldn't have gone through your stuff like that."

His face scrunched into an expression I didn't quite recognize, but then softened just as quick.

"Oh...No, it's okay. I mean." He paused for a second as his eyes darted around in thought. "I mean I guess it was kind of embarrassing, but I just hadn't had time to...grocery shop I guess." He shrugged his shoulders with a lopsided smile.

"No judgment." I laughed. "My fridge is a bit bare too, besides a bottle of wine Nina and I didn't finish and some leftovers."

He let out a breathy laugh and then silence fell between us for a moment. I shifted awkwardly in place, shoving a hand into my pocket. The rocks by my feet became extra entertaining as I shoved them around, averting my gaze from his. I didn't know what else to say, but I wasn't ready to break our conversation yet. I had to think of something.

"Hey, uh, I was just heading to go see Professor Collins about the news." My attention switched between my feet to his face, not quite able to hold his eye contact for longer than a few minutes. It was weird how nervous I was to see him all of a sudden compared to that first night we met.

I continued. "Would you wanna tag along? He should be back at the planetarium." He grinned wide, causing one of my own to spread.

"Sure thing, I was just on my way to get my time clock fixed anyway." His voice was soft, yet raspy as his bright eyes flicked upwards to meet my gaze. I felt my heart jump, averting my attention to the building next to us as I chuckled, giving him a small nod.

"Perfect, let's go." I spoke a little too excitedly.

I swiped my card, a small ding ringing out as it allowed us access inside the building. The science center always seemed like a completely different atmosphere when it was after hours. There were no students bustling through the hallways, they all remained empty. Lights in the classrooms were off, and only the hallway lights guided us through the building.

"You sure he'll be in today?" Harry asked, peeking his head around the corner. He looked slightly freaked out by the absence of bodies around. He even jumped slightly when he saw a student zoned in one of the computers to the right. It shocked me a little too. Not many people used the science center's computer room.

"I would think so, I feel like he's always working. Especially now with all the space shit going on." I said, peeking around the corner myself. I waved at him to continue following me down the stretch of the hall.

His office door was closed, and I silently cursed under my breath. I assumed I missed him, but as I inched closer, I saw a small peek of light shining through the crack of the door.

"Oh good, he's in." I said as I breathed out a sigh of relief. Harry stood close behind me, his fingers grazing my arm for a mere moment as he moved past me to peek through the window. I glanced at him, biting back a smile.

I knocked lightly against the wood, causing his head to shoot up from his stack of papers. His reading glasses fell down the bridge of his nose as he looked up. Upon recognizing my figure in the door's window, he smiled and gestured for me to come in.

"Hey Professor Collins, it's Harry and I." I said softly.

"Jerry." He corrected with a smile. "Nice to see you guys."

"Ah, habit, sorry." I shyly laughed. Harry stood there to the side with his hands intertwined in front of him. I flicked my eyes back over to him and cleared my throat. "Did you see the news yet?"

A content look wrapped around his features as he set his hands out on his desk in front of him.

"I just heard about it actually. Just got off the phone with the head director. He's about as lost about it as I am." He stopped for a moment as he inched his glasses back to his eyes. He grabbed one of the papers on his desk and scanned over them. "It just doesn't make sense. I've been trying to read everything I have over the topic and... nothing."

I hummed in thought.

"Wait, what happened on the news?" Harry piped in. My eyes briefly widened in his direction, but then I remembered I just ran into him right when I heard about it myself. The notion that he truly hadn't heard yet wasn't all that far-fetched.

Jerry drifted his eyes from mine to his, confused.

"Aurora didn't fill you in on your way here?" He shook his head, changing the topic. "Doesn't matter really–There appears to have been another case of a backwards shooting star."

His eyebrows raised in interest. "Oh cool. Like that time a few days ago, right? The one where people were freaking out?"

Professor Collins chuckled to himself. "Yes. That would be the one. You were at the last showing, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Aurora did great, I could sit there and listen for hours—" He cut himself off. "Listen to the show. Any show, regardless of Aurora presenting or not. I just really like the shows." He cleared his throat, awkwardly switching on his feet.

I chewed on my cheek, biting back a smile that threatened to give way at his newfound nervousness. I could have sworn a tint of pink had spread across his face, but it was gone just as fast as it appeared.

"Right..." The professor trailed off. "Anyways, I'm glad you guys stopped by. I was flip-flopping some ideas around for class. I liked the turnout for the last gathering we had in the field, and I was thinking about doing it again. Perhaps even making it a regular thing considering this might be a regular occurrence? We could maybe find out some really valuable information if we catch it in person. I'll bring out the telescopes, cameras, and everything. What do you guys think?"

I clasped my hands together in excitement. "Absolutely! I would be happy to help. I'm sure Harry would, too?" I looked towards him as I gauged his reaction. He seemed happy, but not nearly as excited as I was. I was practically hopping up and down whereas he stayed firm with a grin on his face. Except he wasn't looking at the professor, he was looking back at me with that smile.

He turned back to the professor. "Yeah absolutely. Sounds like fun."

"Great, glad to have you guys. Aurora, I'll email you the details so you can write something up for the students to be sent out. I'm going to keep working on this as much as I can, but I'll see you two later in class." That was his silent way of giving us the boot I realized.

"Sounds great, thank you so much Professor C–Jerry." I caught myself, resulting in him flashing me his all-knowing smile.

"Do you wanna stop by my house with me? Thought it would be a bit easier since we're waiting on Collins—Jerry…whatever, to email me with plans." I asked as I pushed my body against the door, letting Harry walk out first. "I can make us some lunch, too."

"I've already eaten." He answered, shoving his hands into his pockets as we walked down the sidewalk towards my apartment. "I don't mind stopping by though."

"There's this new place down the road from me, I've been wanting to go for a while. You should come with me—now that I think about it, I've never seen you eat, not even once." I chuckled, raising my brow at him. "I'm starting to think you're an alien or something."

"What? Who told you that?" Harry stopped in his tracks, a concerned look on his face as he stared down at me. I was still walking but stopped when I noticed his presence lacking from my side.

"Uh... what?" I breathed out, looking up at him with just as much confusion. "It was a joke... 'cause aliens don't eat, y'know?"

"Oh, right." He shook his head, putting his hand on his head as he laughed out. "That's true. Aliens really don't eat." He continued his original walking pace as he caught up to me again. I gave him a weird look before turning away from him.

"Well—anyways, I gotta take Astro out to use the bathroom. Hopefully she hasn't messed up the apartment while I'm gone." I sighed, tilting my head back. Harry looked at me with an expression I couldn't decipher.

"Astro..." He rasped out, pursing his lips in thought as he scratched the back of his neck. "Who is Astro?" He asked slowly, like he was trying to recall if I had mentioned her before.

"I told you I have a dog!" I said, pulling my keys out of my pocket as we approached my apartment building. "Her name is Astro. She's the sweetest girl, a super big baby, and chews up everything."

"So, she's not gonna hurt me, is she?" He asked nervously, a blush on his cheeks as he took a step back from the door. I twisted the key in, unlocking the latch. I looked back at him with a smile as I waved him in.

"Of course not." I reassured.

Astro immediately met me at the door, excitedly barking as her form of greeting. Harry flinched from behind me, shielding himself with his arms as I grabbed her leash and put it on her.

"Oh, she's—" Harry's eyes widened as she ran towards him. He hurriedly took a few steps back, swallowing thickly as he almost tripped over his own feet.

"She...is huge." He squeaked out.

"Astro! Calm!" I groaned out, pulling her towards me then patting her butt softly to make her sit. She panted out, wagging her tail as she sat on the sidewalk, looking up at Harry with her tongue out.

"What a beautiful creature..." Harry whispered to himself, kneeling down as he slowly held his hand out to her. She sniffed his fingers for a couple seconds then started to lick them, hesitantly waddling over to him as she pressed her body against his knees.

"Sorry, she's a big baby. She loves attention." I breathed out, watching Harry as he looked at her in awe. He ran his ring cladded fingers down her back slowly, staring into her eyes as he pursed his lips.

I hadn’t even noticed his rings until now, at least not the amount he had. Most were different versions of silver rings, some bigger than others. Only one had a sparkle of color in it with a beautiful blue stone directly in the center. Astro even seemed to like them by the way they scratched against her back at his touch.

"Where did you get one like this? She's incredible. I love her. She's so soft and absolutely adorable." He said seriously, standing back to his feet as he looked at me with his brows knitted together.

"Oh, I got Astro from the shelter down the road. It's a no-kill shelter too." I said as we made our way across the street to the park. Astro ran, her tongue hanging out of her mouth as she pranced through the grass.

"No-kill?" He frowned, looking at Astro, then back at me. "They kill these creatures? That isn't humane."

"Yeah, they sadly do that in a lot of shelters when they fill up. There's a lot of strays, especially in college towns like this. People will adopt one without realizing the responsibilities it comes with...makes me sad, but I'm glad I could help get her into a good home." I sighed as I watched Astro run around the field. "She was really easy to train, too. Super smart dog."

"I want one." He said, staring at her as his fingers fiddled with his rings, nodding to himself. "I'll have to look into that, yeah."

Aurora dashed back up the porch steps, alerting us that she was done with her business. We both followed close behind, giggling as we watched her dance at the doorway. Once the door swung open, she immediately jumped on the couch and stared up at us with googly eyes.

"You want anything to drink?" I asked, walking towards the kitchen. I peered in the fridge's doors. The reminder of the lack of grocery shopping sprung back to my mind. "Well...not that there's many options besides water and that wine..." I grabbed the water filter, placing it on the counter.

"No, I'm good. Thank you, though." Harry chimed in between mumbling sweet words to Astro on the couch.

The glass clinked against the counter as the cold water splashed inside.

"Okay. If you say so. It'll be in the fridge if you need it, so just help yourself."

Small echoes of laughter reverberated in the kitchen from the living room. I smiled to myself as I switched the light off and came around the corner. Harry was completely distracted with Astro as he gave her belly rubs.

"I knew she'd like you." I laughed as I took a sip of water. "As long as she doesn't like you more than she likes me then it's okay. We'll have a problem if that changes though." My joking tone caused Harry to chuckle, giving one last pat on her stomach.

"Mmm... we'll see about that." He smirked up at me, adjusting himself back onto the couch as he let out a soft huff. His eyes wandered around the living room, taking in all the decorations. He smoothed his hand over the potted ivy's leaves on the side table beside him. He looked so amazed at the leafy features.

"So, tell me about your family." I cleared my throat, fiddling with my record player so we could have some background noise.

The music made Harry's head pop up, his eyes watching the record spin in amusement. "Uh... my mom and dad are just normal parents. I have an older brother, too. He's kind of an asshole and gets me in trouble a lot, but—"

"Aren't you an adult? I mean, how could he possibly get you in trouble?" I quipped, finding myself sitting next to him as I set my water down on the coffee table. I propped my legs up onto it as I gazed over to him. Harry pursed his lips, looking down in thought before shrugging.

"It's complicated" was all he said.

There was an awkward silence between the two of us, the music lulling in the background. Harry fiddled with the loose strings that frayed on his jeans, his eyes glancing over at me every so often. I pretended not to notice.

"You're not much of a talker, are you?" He mumbled, glancing over to me again. "I—uh, I enjoy listening to your voice." He stammered and shook his head. "I mean, not that I—I'm trying to say that you—"

"Harry, it's okay." I laughed, watching his face start to go red as he tried to explain himself. Harry was really cute, the way his dimples became so prominent when he smiled or the way his eyes wrinkled when he was happy.

"I enjoy talking to you, too." I breathed out shyly. My phone buzzed in my pocket, distracting me from him as I grabbed it. Harry was now boring his eyes into me as I looked down at the text from the professor.

"Who is that?" He scooted closer to me, and I felt his fingers brush against my leg as he moved over. My breath hitched in my throat from the sudden proximity. I could even feel the heat start to spread throughout my cheeks as I tried to focus on the texts.

"It's, uh... It's that email from Professor Collins —Jerry." I said thickly as I briefly scanned over the words. I promised myself I would look closer at it later, because I didn't want to get too distracted from my time with Harry. I turned my head towards him, and he was inches from my face, but his gaze was still locked on the phone. I clicked it closed and shoved it back into my pocket.

"I'll look more at it later. It was just information about the next meeting. Said something about tomorrow night I think. I'll write it out before I go to bed." I shrugged my shoulders.

In normal circumstances, I would have never shrugged off such an important text from him, but I didn't want to make Harry sit there while I did my work. I wasn't quite ready for him to leave just yet either.

He finally looked at me after a moment, his cheeks flushing as he stared into my eyes. I parted my lips, my nerves getting the better of me. If one of us got any closer, I think I would have melted away on the couch.

"Uh, sorry." He mumbled, moving away to the other side of the sofa. I couldn't help but notice the new distance between us feeling colder than before.

"I know he said it was tomorrow night, but you wanna go out there tonight anyways? The park gives a really open view of the sky. Be even better if there wasn't light pollution clogging the skies, but–" I cut myself off, stopping myself from going on a tangent. "Only if you want to."

"Sure, that sounds fun. Maybe we can find one of those shooting stars you guys were talking about." He said with a smile and stood up from the couch.

I grunted as I lifted myself up. "That's the goal." I replied with a laugh.

Astro jumped down from the couch, circling the two of us with a wagging tail. I gave her a pat on the head and reassured her we would be back soon. I made her promise me she wouldn't tear up anything while we were gone, and I counted the tilting of her head as her oath.

The night air rushed in through the door as we pushed our bodies through. I didn't realize how much time we had wasted together, but I was fortunate that it got timed so perfectly. I tried to go out to gaze at the stars as much as I could, but it was hard when it was just me to accompany myself. Nina would sometimes be willing to tag along, but not always. Harry was a nice change considering his similar interest.

"This is a nice park, I like it." Harry butted in as we walked through the open entrance.

The moonlight lit against the playground equipment ahead of us that was surrounded by grass fields. I slipped my shoes off, feeling the cold ground against my feet with each step. At first Harry looked at me funny but followed my lead with his shoes in his own hands.

"I like how empty it gets at night." I whispered out as I surveyed around us. It really was completely empty, bare of any walks of life.

I decided on a patch of grass right beside the pond that was centered in the park. A large tree waved around on the opposite side. This was my typical spot for relaxing or stargazing. Something about the sounds of the leaves brushing against the wind mixed with splashes of water was a perfect remedy for stress. Every so often quacks would sprinkle into the mix as the ducks passed by for their own de-stressing time.

I laid my back against the ground, feeling the blades between my fingers. Harry was already laying down by the time I got situated. His eyes were closed, and a smile poked out across his face. He looked about as happy as I did when I got to come out here when it was this quiet. I closed my eyes too, almost forgetting the whole point of us coming out was to look up at the night sky.

"You see that?" Harry pointed up to the stars, causing my eyes to flutter back open. I squinted as I tried to gauge where he was pointing.

"See what?"

He pointed again as if that helped me see his point of view. "Lyra. See the triangle at the end and that other rectangular shape beside it? It's where the Vega star is. See?"

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "Yeah, I see it now. I think I learned about Lyra a few years ago, I don't really remember much about it besides the fact it's shaped like a harp."

I turned my head side to side as I looked closer at it, envisioning the music soaring out of it in the way the Greek gods described it.

"Orpheus —that's who it was about. Apollo gave him that harp and he played music so sweetly it was said to even change the river's courses in order to stay near its beauty." He hummed with contentment as he continued to stare out into the sky.

"That's beautiful...What ended up happening?" I eagerly asked. I felt him peek at me through the corner of his eye before he continued.

"Orpheus fell in love." He said softly. "And he was set to marry Eurydice, but their wedding day ended tragically...She got bitten by a snake and passed away. Orpheus was struck with so much grief it was unbearable."

My eyes widened at the story. I had never felt so invested in a tale about stars as I had in that moment— and that was coming from an astronomy student. It was the way he spoke so passionately about it that drew me in so tightly. He talked with such respect and gratitude for the stars, as if he was there when it all happened.

"He was so heartbroken he went to the underworld to get her back. He was granted access into Hades because Pluto enjoyed his sweet music so much. It was even said to soften Pluto's heart to the point that he allowed Orpheus's wish to come true. But unfortunately, that wasn't the last of the tragedies. Before Eurydice took her last step back into the upper world, she vanished. Her last words were 'farewell.'"

He sighed as if he was full of grief himself. "For the rest of Orpheus's life, he wandered the Greek hills until his murder. He was buried by the Muses, and Apollo placed his harp into the sky as remembrance."

I blinked hard as I took in the full scene. It blew my mind that little flicks of light could hold so much meaning and emotion. It didn't matter to me if it was real or not because it felt real enough. Real enough to cause the hairs on my arm to stand.

"That's...tragic, but in such a beautiful way." I said, turning my head against the grass to face him.

His head shifted to face me as well. The moonlight was the only thing that illuminated against him, only a faint resemblance of his features staring back at me. Even through it, I saw a minimal curl of his lips.

"Most of them are. I think that's why I love them so much." He paused to face upwards again. "Tragedy has a funny way of being beautiful sometimes."

"It just goes to show that falling in love can kill you in many ways." I whispered out, my hands resting on my stomach as my fingers slid up and down my clothed torso mindlessly. Harry hummed, his head tilting towards me as his eyes scanned over my features carefully, his lips parted.

"You're right." He breathed out, licking over his lips. I caught a glimpse of him looking at me, a blush crept on my cheeks once again as I rolled my head to look at him. He didn't break eye contact even for a moment. He just stared into my eyes.

"I should—I should probably head home." I said thickly, hoisting myself up on my elbows as I let out a huff. Harry stayed laying there for a second before getting up with me. "Thanks...for watching the stars with me. I had a lot of fun."

"Thank you for inviting me." He rasped out. I couldn't help but notice how big his pupils had gotten as he looked at me. I felt goosebumps prick along my arms as he studied over me carefully— shamelessly.

"Should I walk you home or..." I cleared my throat, taking a step back from him. Harry tapped his chin with his two fingers, looking to the left as he studied over the roads.

"I live five minutes from here, I'll be okay." He finally said, putting a hand on my shoulder as he looked down at me. "I will see you soon, right?"

"Y-Yes." I stammered out, swallowing thickly, "Got class tomorrow, so...yep." As if there wasn't any way to make this more awkward, I felt like there was a thermometer attached to me, alerting him of the rising temperature of my body as he placed a hand on me.

"Great!" He smiled crookedly, tilting his head as he let his hand fall off my shoulder. "Then I will see you tomorrow, Aurora."

We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I went into the house feeling a weight on my body drop drastically. My heart was fluttering a bit from being around him. He was incredibly smart—I had never met someone who knew so much about Greek mythology and astronomy. I had found myself missing his company already, mentally scolding myself for that.

I had to shake this feeling off. It left an itchy feeling against my skin and my mind was running a million miles an hour. I opted for taking Astro out once more to clear my mind and then got ready for bed. I had many tests tomorrow and had to keep my wits about myself.

But I really couldn't stop thinking about him as I drifted off to sleep.

NEXT UPDATE: 03/08/22

a/n: thank you guys for the feedback we've been given. we seriously love sending you guys' comments back to one another. and thank you to those that just like and retweet it, it all means a lot! i hope everyone enjoys this fluffy ass chapter <3

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 299: No Chains Left

Previously on BnHA: Horikoshi was all “and then AFO broke out all of the inmates from six other prisons and took a nap. well anyways, here’s the hospital angst.” Kacchan woke up two days later and was all, “WAIT BUT HOW ARE DEKU AND TODOROKI AND ALL OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS EXCEPT IIDA DOING” and then we cut to Shouto’s room where the other U.A. kids were sitting around being Mutually Traumatized and giving each other moral support and such. Everyone was alll, “...”, and then the rest of the Todofam showed up, INCLUDING POSSIBLY REI?! which, omg. The chapter ended with Kacchan STOMPING THROUGH THE HALLS all “WHADDYA MEAN DEKU HASN’T WOKEN UP YET”, dragging along Satou and Mineta behind him, fueled by the power of ALL OF THE FUCKS HE NOW GIVES. He gives so many fucks now you guys. This boy cares so much he can probably deduct it on his taxes.

Today on BnHA: SPEAKING OF PEOPLE WHO GIVE A LOT OF FUCKS, the story cuts abruptly to Hawks, freshly recovering from his near-death experience, and pondering the threads that have weaved the tapestry of his life and led him to this moment. Basically he grew up in poverty with his Jerk Dad and Jerk Mom until his dad got arrested one day and his mom sent him off to go Find Money Or Something, and so he rescued a busload of people and found himself a new career. Back in the present day, Hawks and Jeanist ride around town in Jeanist’s Jamborghini having awkward encounters with civilians in a country on the brink of social collapse, and visiting Hawks’s mother’s home. Hawks is all “I know from an outsider’s perspective it must look like my life currently sucks, but now that the HPSC is gone, my public image is shot, and my parents are finally out of my life, I’m actually feeling SURPRISINGLY GOOD.” Anyway so he’s gonna go meet up with Endeavor now, and p.s. this chapter was fucking fantastic though, damn.

oh my god?? is this Hawks narration?? something about him growing up watching the heroes on TV and thinking of them as fictional characters

okay I scrolled down a little bit more to see the rest of that “Keigo” panel, and wow

this is basically a shed. poor boy definitely grew up rough. let me tell you guys, I came in here ready for some BakuDeku shenanigans; I was not prepared for Hawks Flashback Angst. I AM HERE FOR IT, but also wow I gotta brace myself now lol

HELLO MISTER HAWKS’S JERK DAD, SIR

BnHA sure does have an array of Jerk Dads, doesn’t it. makes me appreciate characters like Masaru and JirouDad all the more for bucking the trend

anyway. so Horikoshi, you really thought that one itty bitty chapter of hospital catharsis would be enough to calm us all before you went right back to showing us child abuse huh. my god man can we rest

BABY HAWKS

swear to god this kid can’t be more than five or six, and yet he has this completely blank look on his face even with his dad looming over him being all threatening and shit. like he’s shut down his emotions to protect himself. imagine what has to happen to a child for him to have learned this at such a young age. fuck

AND MEANWHILE THIS GUY

don’t mingle with humans?? not “other” humans, just humans?? what is this implying here?? and also holy shit Hawks definitely didn’t inherit his looks from his dad orz

then again he doesn’t really bear much of a resemblance to his strung-out mom here either

omg omg omg. and this child is basically trapped here in this environment with these two people. this explains a SHITLOAD about Hawks’s personality though you guys. his ability to completely separate his real thoughts from the face he presents to the outside world. his pragmatic approach to analyzing and solving problems. his layers of emotional walls. turns out almost none of that came from the HPSC training -- that was all learned hands-on in his own personal do-or-die survival nightmare childhood!! oh, boy

and small wonder then that he latched on to Endeavor so strongly if he really is the one who brought down his dad and inadvertently saved him from this. also, just putting this out there, I know people are always talking about him and Dabi being foils, and I think it’s very interesting how Touya grew up in a household where he saw firsthand the dark side of hero society, and so ended up becoming a villain in order to bring it down. whereas young Keigo had almost the exact opposite experience, growing up experiencing the dark side of villain society and becoming a hero in order to bring about a world where no one else has to experience that. just. both of them are so determined not to become their fathers. some interesting parallels there

so Hawks was sort of an accident after his parents had “thanks for helping me not get caught after I killed that guy” sex, and now this little boy is growing up in squalor and being beaten by his father for things like Sitting In The Wrong Out-Of-The-Way Corner Trying Not To Be A Bother To Anybody. holy fuck. this is so rough to read through you guys

wait so does Jerk Dad have a an eyeball manipulation quirk?? because he doesn’t have the wings like his son, but wth are these things??

this presumably also means that Keigo has never been to school or anything either. he basically doesn’t exist. he thinks heroes are fictional characters, he doesn’t realize that they’re real people. these are people who could help him if he could escape and find them, but he doesn’t know, and they don’t know about him

OH MY GOD HE’S JUST SITTING IN HIS CORNER HUGGLING HIS ENDEAVOR PLUSH OH MY GOD

how could this child possibly have an anti-fandom when he’s done NOTHING WRONG HIS ENTIRE LIFE. huh. just explain that to me. lol I mean I’m not looking to pick a fight with anyone, but also, MAYBE I AM, idk?? this kid has gotten me all riled up lmao

anyways, Protect Keigo 2021, and thank you Horikoshi for these three very terrible pages. I am pleased to inform you that you’ve effectively gotten your point across and you may now commence saving this kid already

YAY

oh no, Keigo’s dumbass jerk dad tried to steal a car and the popo nabbed his ass and now his mom can’t just sit around neglecting her VERY YOUNG SON all day long, oh horrors. sorry lady my tiny violin is on backorder. just imagine that I’m playing a very sarcastic song on it for you

anyway so what are you gonna do now, abandon him? I can hardly imagine he’d be worse off, if anything it might be a near-instant improvement

LMAO HE’S ALL “WAIT WHAT ENDEAVOR’S A REAL FUCKING DUDE?!”

AND THEY SAY THAT A HERO CAN SAVE US~~~~ I’M NOT GONNA STAND HERE AND WAAAAAIT~~~~~ I’LL HOLD ONTO THE WINGS OF THE EAGLES, WATCH AS WE ALL FLY AWAAAAAAY~~~~

lol what a randomly pivotal moment in his young life. TIME TO GO MAKE THESE MEMES INTO DREAMS YOUNG ONE

anyway so his mom freaked out and grabbed him and they wound up at a train station with her TELLING HIM TO GO GET HER SOME MONEY, oh my god. SURE MOM LEMME JUST WALTZ RIGHT ON DOWN TO THE “JOBS FOR FIVE-YEAR-OLDS” STORE AND TELL THEM I NEED SOME CASH. ffff manifesting someone to come help him in 3... 2...

...

SIGH, JUST GO RESCUE THE PEOPLE FROM THE BUS, KEIGO. is this the outfit he was wearing when that happened?? it must be, right?? I can’t imagine them surviving more than a couple days out here unless this starts getting REALLY dark in a way I know that even Horikoshi won’t explore, so yeah. cut to the HPSC now please. never thought we’d be glad to see them. I mean sure, it may be an “out of the frying pan...” case, but good god

THANK YOU!!

and I guess it was his mom’s eyeball quirk then. anyway, whatever, see you again never, hopefully. lol oh man. thaaaat, was upsetting. need to center myself here for a sec. NAMASTE

OH YAY THE PRESENT

so we cut from Baby Hawks Angst straight to Present Day Hawks Angst, huh. not that this exhausted and traumatized lil lad isn’t still a baby to me too, I’ll have you know

BEST JEANIST, ALWAYS WITH THE JOKES

“WHEW, THOUGHT YOU DIED ON ME FOR A SEC THERE KID.” lmao. Caleb will no doubt ruin this by making his word choice all stiffly formal as usual, so I’m just going to treasure this “WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, I’M FRESH OUT OF FUCKS” version of Jeanist while I can

look at him, driving his Jeanistmobile

again, is it any wonder Kacchan was bitching about Endeavor’s dinky little car when he was used to riding around town in style like this. anyone else staring at this panel trying to figure out how this car is somehow secretly made of jeans

NOOOOO

FUCK YOU DABI LMAO. PUTTING THESE VOICE ACTORS OUT OF A JOB ONE BY ONE

anyway so Jeanist is all “GOOD THING IT’S THE FUTURE AND WE’RE SO GOOD AT MEDICAL SCIENCE” to handwave how Hawks went from one step shy of being a very handsome corpse, to sitting around texting Jeanist in a car all of two days later

OH MY GOD, AND FINALLY AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS

wait a minute. I’m so confused lmfao. soooo, was Hawks all “anyway, here’s Jeanist’s dead body, you can examine it but please don’t look at him too closely and also I’m gonna need that back unharmed.” how tf did you pull that off lmao

(ETA: also isn’t this technically confirmation of the ol’ Noumu Jeanist theory lol. I’m gonna go ahead and say it is.)

NO BUT PLEASE, CONTINUE. I unironically love reading Horikoshi’s overly convoluted “SEE IT’S NOT A PLOT HOLE” explanations

lkldslfk so wait, you’re telling me Hawks convinced Dabi and the League to put Jeanist’s body in storage, and basically just hoped they wouldn’t use him for any experiments until he could put his plan into action and have the HPSC’s people break in and find and revive him?? WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG. A FOOLPROOF PLAN IF I’VE EVER HEARD ONE

fff this man really asked Jeanist to risk it all to prop up his little cover story, and Jeanist was all “sure why not” omfg. anyways, thanks for recapping all of this out loud for no particular reason in your car conversation you two

LMAO NOW WHAT

TROUBLE YOU SAY? GOOD THING THE NEW NUMBER ONE HERO IS ON THE JOB THEN

okay no it’s just some random thugs strolling around terrorizing the downtown. fuck ‘em. so Jeanist is making short work of them now

uh oh

won’t come? not can’t, but won’t?? what???

WOW

well I guess that makes the local heroes A BUNCH OF SHITHEADS now doesn’t it?? jesus

and okay, serious question, if the cops are spread too thin and the heroes have literally walked out on the job, what exactly is stopping everyone from deciding to use their quirks to defend themselves, legal or not? nothing, as far as I can tell. society just got a hell of a lot more chaotic

anyway so this is an interesting panel here

man, Dabi really did pull it off, didn’t he. well anyway so here’s that better world all of the villains were wanting, you guys! isn’t it so great?? everyone’s terrified and angry and losing hope and society is inches away from collapsing into total anarchy! but hey, at least we exposed the number one hero as a hypocrite

anyway so what are these guys up to

fucking hell, he’s visiting his mom. I really wasn’t prepared to commit this much emotional energy towards reading this chapter today. BUT VERY WELL, WE PRESS ON

?? wait she’s not there?

is this supposed to explain how Dabi knew who Hawks really was? except that there’s the little matter of how he even know where to find his mother in the first place. feels like we’re still missing something there, but oh well

OH MY GOD

RHA I TAKE BACK EVERY WORD I EVER SPOKE AGAINST YOU. YOU ARE A SCANLATION GROUP FILLED WITH ANGELS LMAO. I WILL TAKE THIS PANEL IN MY HANDS, AND TREASURE IT AND KEEP IT SAFE

ANYWAY, BECAUSE MY TIRED BIRD SON’S LIFE SUCKED SO MUCH ALREADY, IT TURNS OUT HE’S ACTUALLY PLEASED WITH THIS NEW TURN OF EVENTS LOL HOW ABOUT THAT

GOOD FOR YOU BBY. YOU GO OUT THERE AND BE YOUR OWN PERSON

and in all seriousness, I love that identity he chooses -- chooses, because it actually is him making a choice now, possibly for the very first time in his life -- is “guy who helps people”, though. it really is nothing short of miraculous that he held on to that kind of optimism and desire to do good even with everything he’s been through. there were so many times he could have chosen to turn his back on the world in retaliation for the way it treated him. but he didn’t!! and here he is now, finally free, and what he wants to do with the rest of his life now is simply to help others. anyway please excuse me for a moment, I need to go find some sort of basket or a big vase to put all of my fresh new Hawks Feels in, pardonne-moi

YEAH BOIIIIII

“FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS, MISTER JEANIST, WHERE DID YOU FIND YOUSELF THAT SWEETASS CAR.” hey, all I’m saying is if this boy’s wings really aren’t growing back, he’s gonna need to find himself a new means of transportation y’know?

oh my god you guys it’s a flashback to his mom buying him the Endeavor plushie when he was like two because, and I quote, ALL MIGHT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE

oh my god oh my god. my boy out here with a new lease on life finding hope in the darkest of times

wasn’t your throat supposed to be all fucked up lmao. Horikoshi was suddenly all “oh shit the VAs are gonna be pissed at me if I keep this up huh”

“that’s why Bubaigawara was such a great guy” motherfucker IT IS A TERRIBLE DAY FOR RAIN. FORECAST SAID NOTHING ABOUT THIS

:’)

yes ma’am. yes indeed. confirmed, I really will straight up fight some motherfuckers for this child. well not really, but YOU KEEP YOUR DISCOURSE OFF MY LAWN AND OUT OF MY BLOG YOU HEAR. THIS IS A HAWKS-FRIENDLY SPACE. WE RESPECT TAKAMI KEIGO IN THESE STREETS

and he’s saying (or is he thinking?? what a weirdly shaped speech bubble this is) that even if what Dabi said about the Todoroki household is true, “I’m not sure it’s the same now.” which happens to be ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. man this whole chapter really is all about saying “fuck the past” and moving forward and I am living for it

SON!!!!

“the first step is at my beginning” fklkjlk. what an iconic fucking line??

AND HIS WINGS!!!! THEY ACTUALLY ARE GROWING BACK AHHHHHHH. “PUT A RAINCHECK ON THAT CAR, JEANIST-SAN.” THE HAWKSMOBILE CAN WAIT, RIGHT NOW HE HAS TO GO INSERT HIMSELF BACK INTO THE TODODRAMA WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT

you guys. I came here ready for some BAKUDEKU HOSPITAL ANGST, and I got DIDDLY SHIT of that, and none of my other kids were even in this chapter, but!!! ASK ME IF I CARE LMAO omg. because bird son is hanging with his new best friend, and he’s out here Finding Himself and picking up the pieces and putting them back together stronger than ever because RESILIENCE HAS A NAME, AND IT’S SPELLED H-A-W-K-S, and you guys. profound, my love for this child. holy shit. hey google, play Silence by Marshmello

[highqueenofelfhame]

fafs, twenty four

so i was definitely going to wait to post this until tomorrow or the day after but then decided to say fuck it and in the spirit of rowaelin month am just giving it to you now, whatever. who needs rules. or regulations. not me.

follow @highqueenofelfhamewrites and turn on post notifs to receive updates (i don't do taglists anymore, sorry folks!) masterlist//support me with a ko-fi//redbubble

It was nowhere near the worst injury she’d ever had, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant.

The living room floor of one of her smaller sanctuaries had been turned into a makeshift operating room. A trash bag was laid out beneath her, rustling with every move she made. The first aid kit that had been untouched and hidden under the kitchen sink was open with all its pieces scattered around her. A brand new bottle of vodka sat to her right, several shots worth already buzzing through her veins. It would take at least one more swig before she got started, but it was already difficult to slide the thread into the needle, so she was holding off until she was just about ready to begin.

Gods damn the agent that shot her. Aelin would bet money that it was Remelle, the blonde bitch that had been pawing at Rowan for years. Before, when she was Lilian, she’d heard a wide array of stories about the woman and her unwanted advances. Ever since Aelin had been introduced to the FBI as a criminal informant, she had shot daggers at her in every meeting, likely angry Aelin was spending so much time with Rowan. Despite how much of that time was angry banter from Rowan, no matter if Aelin was trying to thaw out his icy inner and exterior.

None of that mattered now. She could have Rowan if she really wanted him. Maybe they were already together and--

Aelin stopped those thoughts in their tracks, eyes focusing on the task at hand. There were bigger things to worry about, like getting out of the city and, most importantly, the bleeding wound on her thigh. She chewed on her lip until the thread finally made it into the curved needle, and she held back a cheer as she sloshed some vodka over the wound on her thigh. Hissing through her teeth, she thanked the gods that it wasn’t any worse.

It wasn’t even that bad, considering everything else she’d experienced. There was the time Arobynn had stabbed a dagger through her palm, and she’d had to stitch up the injury herself. She wasn’t sure how many times she’d been sliced and jabbed in training. Her list of broken bones and scars was a long one. Once she got older and was better at her job than all of the men combined, training had become more of a game of survival. They had been out for blood, shedding hers in red tears on the floor until she managed to incapacitate them enough to claim the victory for herself.

This gunshot wound was minor. It hadn’t nicked anything major, and it had taken a while for Aelin to realize she’d even been shot. The adrenaline from running from the full force of the FBI had been enough to repel the pain until she was nearly to her safehouse. She was four blocks away when she realized her pace was slowing and that there was a sharp, hot pain throbbing in her left thigh. A glance down told her everything she needed to know. She had limped straight through the front door and to the first aid kit, where she now prepared to stitch her own leg up.

At one point, there had been a numbing agent in this bag, but she remembered using it on Sam after a nasty fight with Arobynn one night when she was twenty-one. Since then, she’d seldom been to this safehouse and had neglected to restock her kit. There was barely enough of the nylon thread left over, but she would manage. Aelin made a mental note to have someone, either Nox or herself, replenish the missing items.

With a deep breath and a final swig of vodka, she picked up the forceps and shimmied the tension from her shoulders while she hunched over her leg, ready to begin.

With the first stick and the drag of the thread through her skin, Aelin bit her lip so hard she drew blood. It was a bizarre and uncomfortable feeling accompanied by a slight burning sensation. Several times she groaned while she sewed her skin back together. By the time she was finished, her mouth tasted metallic, and the trash bag beneath her was covered in droplets of blood. Her bare thigh looked grim and would leave behind a jagged, ugly scar, but she doused it once more in vodka before wiping away the blood with a damp piece of gauze. Her hands were mostly steady while she placed a bandage over the top and taped it down.

It was just another painful memory that would soon fade to silvery skin. How many more would it take until she was free?

Shaking her head to pull her from any thoughts too negative to deal with right now, Aelin smiled a bit. She was almost pleased with herself for handling the entire situation so well, but the reality of the situation was soon to crash down on her. It didn’t take long for her to get up, going about the tiny house and jerking all the curtains closed. Hardly any natural light was able to filter in through the gaps in the curtains for how tightly she’d twisted at the blinds until they were sealed completely shut. Thumbtacks were shoved into the walls to keep anyone curious from peering inside. She would move to another place in a day or two, she promised herself, after she had time to dye her hair and her wound wasn’t so fresh.

Every lock on every door was twisted into place-- seven locks on both the front and back doors. Only two of those locks could be opened with a key from the outside. The other five were inside only, a variation of deadbolts and chain locks that made her feel secure.

Only when she was satisfied that she was as safe for the time being did she go to the single bedroom and lock the door behind her. In a handful of heartbeats, she collapsed on the old quilt and drifted into a fitful sleep.

~*~

The news that it would take weeks, maybe months, of physical therapy to have his shoulder back to one-hundred percent was irritating to say the least. Rowan would be out of work for a while, but that wasn’t the most frustrating part of the situation. He would be wearing the restrictive sling for weeks, only to take it off when he changed clothes or showered. They didn’t even allow him to take it off to sleep, for gods’ sake. Rowan would be sleeping sitting up for the foreseeable future, and he was fucking annoyed about it.

The last few nights sleeping in the hospital had been anything but fruitful. Not only was he woken by the nurses coming in to check on him every few hours, every single time he tried to adjust to a more comfortable position, he was reminded of the sling. The pain was nearly suffocating. Rowan had heard from Fenrys about how bad shoulder injuries were, but this was on another level of anything he had ever experienced.

So why he was standing in the abandoned apartment of the woman who had shot the bullet through it in the first place was beyond him at the moment.

It wasn’t the apartment littered with cameras and paid for by the bureau. It was the one she’d lived in privately before her beating and arrest. It was the one decorated with opulence and taste. With artwork that wouldn’t surprise Rowan to find it had been stolen and was priceless. The one with books stacking shelves every which way, those novels bookmarked and annotated, as he had just learned. Like she loved them so much, she couldn’t help but document her favorite and least favorite parts.

The linens closet was filled with the softest blankets and nicest sheets Rowan had ever felt in his life. Silk sheets were currently stretched over the mattress in her bedroom, a thing that Rowan had thought she’d quipped as a joke once.

“Sorry, the sheets aren’t Egyptian cotton for whatever the hell you’re used to,” he’d said, a bite in his tone as he showed her the dump of an apartment the bureau had decided on for her.

“Silk,” she winked. “Feels good against my skin when I sleep naked.”

It hadn’t been a joke. He ran his fingers over the fabric and almost smiled at the memory but forced his lips into a frown instead. As he looked around the room, the nearly ostentatious yet somehow tasteful room, he missed her. He hated himself for it, but he missed her. The woman had shot him through the shoulder, but the pain in his heart was somehow worse. His first thought when he woke in the hospital from surgery had been about if they’d found her and she was safe, gods above. Everything about himself was secondary, and he didn’t really care.

But they hadn’t found her. There was no trace of her after her anklet was cut. Nobody had seen her; traffic cams had stopped picking her up like she had just… vanished. He hated that she was so good at her job, so good at being a criminal.

Deep down, Rowan knew that wasn’t what bothered him. It never really had. There wasn’t a part of her soul that he had seen and didn’t understand or want to love. Nothing she had ever done had pushed him away in the slightest. Her honesty about her life and the vulnerability she had shown him only made him respect and love her more.

He wasn’t mad that she shot him. Was he annoyed that he couldn’t use his arm? Of course. But he understood. Rowan understood that she felt backed into a corner and betrayed, and she went into fight or flight mode. In this case, it had been fight and flight. He had stepped too close and got shot in return. It was fair. She was used to fighting her way out of situations, so of course, it was the route she’d taken.

He just wanted her to slip up for once so he could just find her and talk to her. Figure out whatever the hell was going on when they’d argued before she shot him, then disappeared in the middle of the day in a bustling city. Rowan wasn’t even mad that she hadn’t been caught. In fact, he was glad they hadn’t caught her.

Rowan didn’t want her to be found. The full force of the FBI would rain down on her like a hurricane and she would be shown no mercy. There wasn’t a single part of him that wanted her suffering in an interrogation room, throwing around the word allegedly like she used to throw daggers. For her to be thrown back in that dismal jail cell awaiting a death sentence that almost assuredly awaited her for what happened at the bureau.

But he was still frustrated as all hell that he couldn’t find her now, no matter how much he didn’t want her rotting in prison on the outskirts of the city.

It was while he stood with his fingers running over the silk of her sheets that he heard the jingling of keys at her front door. It was surprising, considering he’d had to pick several locks to get up here in the first place. Rowan flattened his body against the bedroom wall, listening to the front door open and close.

The footsteps that followed weren’t Aelin’s, though. They were a little louder, carrying a larger and heavier body. Rowan moved to stand in the doorway, startling the man in the center of the room. He dropped the bag he was carrying, swearing loudly as he bent to pick it back up.

“Gods above, Suit,” he murmured, dropping the bag on the kitchen counter. “What are you doing here? Getting something for Celaena?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Rowan inquired, noting that the bag he carried contained nothing of real importance. If anything, it looked like a combination of garden tools and art supplies.

“I think I stashed something here if we’re being candid and off the record, which I would very much appreciate if we were, by the way. I’ve come to collect.” Haversham -- Rowan still didn’t know the man’s real name -- began digging around Aelin’s bookshelves, looking behind and even inside some of her books that turned out not to be books at all. They looked like books, but when opened in the middle were hidden pockets. Some were empty; some weren’t. Rowan noticed a few that had different bits of identification tucked away. None of that seemed to be what Haversham looked for as he simply closed them and put them back on the shelves.

“Where is she?” Rowan finally asked, a little boldly.

“Can’t you check that fancy anklet you have her wearing and figure it out? I haven’t seen her in a week. She isn’t calling me back, either, so when you do see her, can you tell her that I…” The man trailed off after looking up from his search and seeing Rowan’s face. Rowan’s hard, unyielding face and the concern that was likely etched in his features. The wrinkle between his brow, the stiff way he held his lips. Haversham’s head tilted curiously.

“Holy gods, did she make a run for it?”

“Something happened at the bureau. I can’t find her. Neither can they. But I need to talk to her. I can’t help her otherwise.”

“Do you want to help her?” The sound that came from Rowan was nearly a growl, and Haversham retreated a step with his hands raised defensively. “Look, I’m just saying. She wouldn’t make a run for it unless it was something serious and you’re incapacitated at the moment. Which leads me to believe that she did it; otherwise, you wouldn’t be hurt at all. Celaena wouldn’t let somebody hurt you. So either you really fucked up--”

“I did, but only by not protecting her and defending her when it mattered.”

Haversham twisted his mouth to the side while he gave Rowan a hard once-over. It was like he was assessing everything he knew about his character while deciding if he would help him or not. There was a prolonged silence that made Rowan want to throw something at the man, but he waited it out.

“I’m only going to help you because you make her happy. And I don’t mean superficially. I mean that for the first time in the eight years I’ve known her, she’s been happier and more alive than I’ve ever seen her. I know she trusted you more than she’s ever trusted anyone else. More than me, which doesn’t say much considering I think she trusts me as far as she can throw me. But she trusts you more than Sam even.” Finally, he ripped a page from one of the books and began to scrawl across the page until it was nearly full. When he handed it to Rowan, he realized it was a collection of addresses. Some were in the city; some were in other countries. Some were a handful of hours of a drive into nowhere. One was practically around the corner from where they were now.

“What is this?”

“Safehouses. Those are the ones I know about. Celaena has… a lot of secrets. I don’t know even half of them. I have my suspicions about a lot of shit, but I’m letting her come to me with it when she’s ready. So I don’t know all of her safehouses, but I know those ones. Those are the ones she’s let me use in times of trouble. That’s the only help I can really offer you besides calling if I hear from her.”

“Thank you,” Rowan said softly, and he meant it. It was the biggest and only lead that he had on her whereabouts, and even if she wasn’t crashing on a bed in any of these places, it was a start. It was the only hope he had so far that maybe, just maybe… he might find her.

~*~

Rowan had decided to start on the outside and work his way in, and it was wasting a lot of time. Everyone he was friendly with at the bureau was constantly calling and texting to see how he was doing, asking what he was up to. Fenrys told him he’d stopped by his apartment a few times this week, and he hadn’t been home. Rowan replied, saying he was just taking some time to himself, which seemed to satisfy the man, and that had been that.

In reality, Rowan had been in Terrasen trying to find Aelin. She wasn’t in either of the two listed near the border of Adarlan, so now he was slowly working his way back toward Rifthold. It just didn’t seem likely for her to be hiding somewhere in the city, not when she would have to leave for food and other necessities at some point. So he’d gone as far out as he could before making his way back. So far, it had turned up nothing. Both of the cabins he’d visited in the woods had seen better days and likely hadn’t seen Aelin in years.

He was driving toward his fourth destination now, so deep in Oakwald, he wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t back in Terrasen at this point. The location pinged on the Adarlanian side of the border, but he had little hope of actually finding her. There were only two safehouses left on the list, and both of them were in the city itself. Would he still check them? Of course. But did he think that she was stupid enough to be there? Absolutely not.

The energy of the place was different as soon as he made it up the drive. Halfway up, a gate that covered the driveway, and Rowan had to abandon his car and hop the fence. It was a bit of a feat, as it was taller than him, and he only had one good arm to use, but he managed. Even if it had taken him three times as long as it usually would have. Feet pounding down against the dirt so hard it caused a small cloud, he proceeded up toward the small cottage with a little more confidence than he’d had the rest of the drive.

Smoke was wafting from the chimney, and a dim glow flickered in the window. The window that a lithe body stood in, peering through the curtains and backlit by the fire. He couldn’t see her face, but he knew it was Aelin, knew he’d been spotted, and knew she was watching. How she had known he’d arrived, he wasn’t sure. Being overcautious her entire life likely meant that there were tripwires that alerted her of his presence somewhere on the driveway.

As he got closer, she disappeared, and the curtains slipped back into place. When he got to the door, he reached out but hesitated for a moment. Aelin clearly didn’t want to be found and was clearly mad at him. What if she did worse than she had the last time they’d seen each other? Part of him thought she wouldn’t, but he hadn’t ever thought she would shoot him, either. Rowan wasn’t sure how many times she had told him she hated guns, but desperate times call for desperate measures, after all.

It took more courage than he cared to admit to turn the knob. Much to his surprise, the door opened, and he slipped inside, shutting it behind him quietly. To be frank, Rowan couldn’t believe his luck. He couldn’t believe he’d managed to find her at all, much less on a list of places that Haversham managed to remember.

As his eyes adjusted to the room, he saw Aelin sitting across the room with a bottle of rum in one hand, balanced on her thigh. She was slumped down a bit in the chair; her hair dyed a muddy reddish-brown color. A dagger was in her other hand, being twisted in circles against her bare leg. Rowan wanted to tell her to stop, that she would hurt herself, but faster than he could register, she was moving. He was stunned further into silence by the whistling of the wind and the slight breeze by his ear. A loud thud had him whipping around to the door.

Embedded in the wood, millimeters from where his head had just been, was the dagger she’d been holding, and when he looked back at Aelin, she was smirking.

[buffysummerslay]

I have watched Lucifer series finale yesterday and I am still reeling from feelings, feelings I need to work through to be able to move on.

Unfortunately, I am late to the party and I have started watching Lucifer (despite the show being on my radar for a few years already) when season 6 came out, and this turned avoiding spoilers about the ending as well as the show itself into an extremely hard task. I have, of course, seen some reactions to the ending and it was obvious that the viewers were divided between "the ending was amazing, they really did the story and the characters justice" and "what the fuck was that". I always take these reactions, especially when they come instantly after the episode has ended, with a grain of salt because, realistically, I haven't been fully satisfied with the way a tv show has ended - any tv show - since, like, 2010. However, I also know that there is a difference between "okay, the ending was anticlimactic/disappointing/etc, however, it is the journey that matters and I am still pretty happy with the show" and HIMYM type of ending where you are like "I want this show wiped from my memory because the final hour has ruined the entire experience for me". So, I took some time to reflect on the events that took place, gather my thoughts, and make my peace with the ending. After doing that, I can comfortably say that I am not fully satisfied with the ending because of one very simple reason - I can make sense of the choices taken by the character at the very end of the show only if I use "Lucifer gave Rory his word" rationale, and not because I believe in the theory they provided or the choices they make. So here are some of my thoughts about the ending of this beloved show, including both the things I liked and disliked. Be warned, there are spoilers ahead so if you haven't seen the show, the final season or the series finale, please stop reading because you don't want to manifest spoilery energy into your life!

The main thing I have a problem with is the time loop. I will begin by saying that I really dislike time travel in general - I think that it is an overly used plot divice that more than often creates holes in the story instead of driving the narrative where it needs to go, unless the concept of time travel is integral to the show, like for example in Timeless and Fringe. However, in this case, I dislike that the major characters have made a major decision (a serious, impactful, life-altering decision) based on a flimsy theory. And since they have told us exactly what will happen in the end, we simply didn't know why and how, I have expected a more bulletproof reasoning instead of a rushed conversation wrapped up in five minutes and sealed by a promise. Lucifer leaves Chloe and Rory and goes back to hell, Rory grows up resenting him and she becomes so angry she travels through time to confront him only to end up being the reason for his departure, therefore creating an unbreakable time loop. She makes her parents give her their word that they won't change a thing in order to make sure that Lucifer discovers his true calling, which is helping souls in Hell break their hell loops and ascend to Heaven. And the reason I am so hesitant to accept this is because of two reasons:

1. Lucifer has made amazing progress through the show when it comes to his character development, finding his worth and making peace with his identity, and yet you are trying to tell me that this is the only way he would discover his true calling, especially now when he has a higher level of understanding himself than ever before? And especially since these thoughts and doubts have already been in his mind aka him postponing to become God long before Rory's arrival into their timeline!

2. The consequences of our actions are the results of the choices we make, not the other way around. And sometimes, different choices can lead to different outcomes and sometimes the array of choices we make lead to the same outcome. It is absolutely possible that if they broke the time loop and made different choices, that their actions would lead them to the same outcome aka Lucifer finding his calling while remaining in their lives. I think that it is fully possible for them to make a timeline B (the timeline that would have been created if they broke the time loop) based on the discoveries from the timeline A (their current timeline). There's no reason for me to believe otherwise.

Apart from the discovery of Lucifer's calling, the only thing that came out of the time loop was pain, suffering and probably a lot of loneliness. Even the good things that came out of the time loop (like Lucifer and Rory bonding) are a consequence of the pain that it caused. Of course, if they broke a time loop and created a completely new timeline, choices they would make there could theoretically end up having worse consequences on their lives. They could also be better, or they could be completely the same. The thing is, we don't know, we can only speculate and that is exactly what bothers me. The main characters made a major decision based on a speculation. I don't necessarily have a problem with the things that have happened, but rather with how they happened and how they were explained. Or better to say, how they weren't. I think that they should have completely dedicated the season to exploring this and reassuring us that this is the right choice to make and the right way to go.

Also, the concept of free will and making one's own choices has been pretty integral to the show. We have watched Lucifer struggle with the concept since the beginning of the show because he was convinced he is only a puppet in his father's grand plans. There were many events in the show reinforcing that belief, like Chloe being the gift from God. It took him seasons to accept that he chose to stay in her life, to be close to her, to be her partner in work as well as in life and in that acceptance he finally found the strength to tell her that he loves her. He chose her and she chose him. And while one can argue that leaving them and going back to hell was Lucifer's choice (since, technically, he could have chosen to break his word to his daughter and change things), it is one he didn't want to make. In the final episode he says that he desires to watch his daughter grow up and before he leaves for Hell he tells Chloe he doesn't want to leave her (she even responds that she doesn't want him to leave either, but that this is the choice that they are making for Rory's sake), making me feel like he is making this choice out of duty, out of fear and not because he wants to. He finally accepted that the choices he makes are his and his only, and the final choice in the show was made for him instead by him - I really don't think that the character deserved this. Lucifer gave Rory his word and we know he always goes by his word - they have turned one of the most essential qualities of his character into a plot device and an instrument that caused pain. Additionally, since Rory asked him not to change anything, it was implied that Lucifer can't come back to Earth in order not to risk changing anything even though it is completely possible for him to balance his work hours in Hell and his family time on Earth, like Amenadiel did. I also found this completely unfair and it felt like Lucifer was "banished" to Hell, not only missing out on being with Chloe and watching Rory grow up, but also staying away from his friends and the life he had built for himself. However, on the brighter side, Lucifer doing this - something he doesn't completely understand, something he doesn't want to do - is incredibly selfless of him and only shows how much he has grown. A character who has been described as selfish and self-serving from the very beginning does something so ultimately selfless, something that doesn't serve him in any way - quite the opposite, it pains him. As I said, I don't necessarily mind how things played out, I mind the lack of guarantee that they had to be this way. The only thing we don't know is if Lucifer and Chloe were in contact over the years since Chloe could have kept in touch with him behind Rory's back - maybe she sent him pictures of Rory, and maybe they exchanged letters. I am very doubtful because this would probably make the whole situation harder on them nor do I think that they would risk it because they wouldn't be able to know if their actions are breaking the time loop or if they are a part of the original timeline but hey, this is the stuff that fan fictions are made of!

And finally, I very much disliked the parallel between Lucifer and God - Lucifer abandoning his child for the sake of doing his job and that child growing up resenting him - if it was their intention to draw such a parallel. I think that God somewhat "redeemed" himself in Lucifer's eyes and that through accepting himself Lucifer also learned how to stop resenting his father for the things that transpired between them, and I don't necessarily believe that Lucifer had to walk in his father's shoes to understand him. So, in my opinion, this was completely unnecessary. Something I did like was Lucifer's calling - I think that it shows nicely the full circle he has made and that the souls he thought he is supposed to torture he is now helping heal. In a way, Hell is also the reflection of who Lucifer is - when he saw himself as broken, as evil, as unworthy and undeserving, Hell was also a place of torture - it was a reflection of him. And now that he accepted himself and that others have accepted him for who he is as well, it is a place of healing. In the end, Hell is his kingdom and he can choose to rule it the way he wants to. He broke his own hell loop and he truly became a lightbringer.

And, of course, Lucifer and Chloe (they are so soft and I am so soft for them). Taking into consideration my very bad OTP track reckord, I kinda expected a much, much worse ending for them - I mean, the Devil falling in love with a human, what could possibly go wrong, right? I knew from the very beginning that they aren't getting a pure, wholeseome, family-like ending. In order for that to happen, she would either have to become immortal (leaving Trixie, losing her detective identity), or he would have to become mortal - both of these scenarios feel cheap and I never would have wanted this for them or the show. Another option was to give them their happy life on Earth but then they would either have to leave a somewhat open ending or deal with the fact that ultimately, as a mortal, Chloe will die. And if they were given their happy ending on Earth, who knows if they would end up together in afterlife. Even if they did, it definitely wouldn't feel as emotional and as gratifying as it does now. The thing is, it is easy to give in to the pain of their separation when we measure it by the pivotal moments of happiness and loss that drive the lives of humans - him not being there when Rory was born or when she grew wings or when she started school - and it is even harder when you know how much she needed him and how much he wanted to be there for her. It is even more painful when you think about Chloe spending her entire lifetime without him, carrying all that pain inside of her, and him spending what had to be centuries alone in Hell. However, this is a fantasy show and many of our characters are immortal, celestial beings who have a different understanding of time, so maybe the idea of what a happy ending is and the rules for measuring happiness aren't the same as they would have been under other circumstances. Chloe became lieutenant and tried to make a difference, and she got to raise her daughters and see them grow up, and Lucifer helped so many souls heal, doing so much good. And now they get to spend the eternity together, solving crimes and kicking ass in the afterlife! Many of their friends and family are immortal, celestial beings too and (I am pretty sure) they can pay a visit to their human friends in Heaven... or see them in Hell, but let's hope not! In the end, what is one lifetime compared to eternity? Of course, none of this makes for the time they have lost, the momories they didn't get to make and the moments he wasn't there for, but now there are so many new memories they will get to make and so many moments to catch up on. It is bittersweet, but I think that's how it was supposed to be - in the end, pain is part of life.

I also have a few (dis)honourable mentions:

1. I am really sad and disappointed Lucifer didn't get to say goodbye to Trixie. She was gone for the majority of the season, but she was also a very important person in his life and he loved her. And we know how much she loved him.

2. I can't get over Rory travelling through time to kill her father because she is angry at him... sis, you kill him before he makes you, you wipe yourself out of existence.

3. I can't believe that they were surprised that Chloe got pregnant after having loads of superhuman sex (without any protection, apparently) after another human already got pregnant with an angel not that long ago.

4. Lucifer saying goodbye to Maze will forever remain one of the most beautiful scenes in the show.

5. The final major scene between Chloe and Lucifer, where they say goodbye before he leaves for hell, lives in my head rent free. I was choking on tears watching that scene, I literally had to pause and rewind three times. Such a beautiful(ly painful) scene. Also, when you have a ship and a person A says to the person B "close your eyes", pain is coming. I swear I travelled back to 1999 when Buffy said the same thing to Angel before sending him to a hell dimension.

6. When Chloe dies and goes to Heaven and Amenadiel greets her and asks her if she's ready to go home and then takes her to Lucifer was so pure. Her Heaven is being in Hell with Lucifer and there's something deeply poetic about that.

7. Hearing hello detective for the last time cleared my skin.

I have really and truly enjoyed the show, and the minor inconsistencies I see in its ending can't change that. I loved the show because it told stories about people and it allowed them to drive the narrative, and I can't say many shows these days do that.

[roxygenstudiesagain]

100 days of productivity (16/100) 01.5.23

If ai must affect me and my workflow, I might as well get used to it

Not in like a “take advantage of artists” but more like me downloading a bunch of apps to streamline my life

So far we’ve got

Reminders for cleaning

Bunch of meditation and mood regulation helper apps

Learning

Social media

Basic stuff but on a good day it helps so damn much. I’m blessed with a lot of stuff right now; it’s why homelessness scares me a lot. I hope we are fortunate enough to pull it all off

Today I

Started on thumbnails for new studio project

Read a bunch of my books

Cleared pantry

Tossed old cereal

Cleaned top of fridge

Retroboarded an exercise from atla for work

Went and got pupusas with my wife 🫓

Actually did everything on my to do list including yoga, laundry and meditation

Got through a lot of my guilt and difficult emotions using my own emotional recovery and coping toolkit

I’ve also recently written some music wow 🤩!!

Applied to a bunch of scholarships

Array of self care stuff on my workdesk. It brings me a lot of joy

Got in touch with emdr and therapy setup today. Tomorrow I’m gonna try to call my clinic to get a new doctors appointment, because I’m so tired of waiting for a sleep study. It’s been years of concerned partners being like oh my god you sound like you’re dying at night. I hope it isn’t apnea but if it is, I hope cpap can take away some of this tiredness and maybe I can try to come off sleeping pills. My current goal is to go down to just hydroxyzine and melatonin by the end of the year and next year work on cutting it out entirely. Hopefully sooner but I’m being extra gentle on that coz the last thing I need is another thing on my mind before sleep innit

To do:

Tomorrow fully commit to at least sorting out All medical appointments. I’ve only got like 3 left so it’s no biggie and realistic unless I like get immensely compromised

Clean the floor

Clean up cupboards

Get through laundry

Art

Screenplay beat sheet meeting n draft

Talk to therapist about recent outbursts

Play more ukulele

Apply to essay scholarships

Make some money

[dingdongitsbees]

Hi, i was thinking of Attack on castes and i really like the idea of janitor levi, wannabe Hitch and so, would you write a one history teacher Erwin x lawyer reader, where she is friend to Frieda who is a teacher in the school asked her to pick Historia up for her and that's when Erwin sees her for the first time and immediately fell for her.... Hope you can accept it

offer up your heart

↪ WC: 3.3k ↪ Ao3 Link ↪ Genre: fluff, light-hearted, soft

Attack on Castes for those who haven’t read it! (it’s the reason some characters may seem oc)

Just send an ask to be added to the Erwin taglist!

Attack on Titan Masterlist  | Main Masterlist

You were already late and by god did you not want to be there. You were glad to leave high school behind you when you graduated, promising yourself to never set foot in one ever again. Gossip, bullies, shitty teachers, stupid drama and a mind crushing amount of work. Sure, good things too, but nothing that couldn’t be found in the adult world.

In the adult world you got adventures. You got to fight to bring people the justice they deserved, their livelihood in your hands. They offered up their hearts begging you to save them. It gave you purpose. Whether or not they shed tears of grief or joy would be for you to decide. Nothing quite came close.

Or that’s how you would have felt if your current client wasn’t being such an annoying little shit. He had lied to your face with three wildly conflicting stories about what happened, and then when he got cross-examined by the prosecutor, he decided to go completely off script and implicate himself even further for something he didn’t even do.

The evidence against him were fables and rumours at best but he had begun to make it look plausible through his shifty character. You would get the “not guilty” verdict at the end of the trial, but you were going to have ripped out most of your hair by then.

When you were busy screaming in your hands during the intermission, your friend Frieda rang you and asked you to pick up her younger sister from school because their bastard of a father surely wasn’t going to. You nearly yelled at her then.

Frieda had done favour after favour for you in the past years with your insanely busy and gruelling schedule, so refusing the one time she asked for something in return would put you up with the likes of your client. You agreed, for some reason not asking what time, and then promptly forgot about it.

So there you were, heels clicking rapidly against the school’s hallway, the oranges hues of the sunset streaming through windows and the entrance. You really should have asked for Historia’s number, though you weren’t sure if the girl would bother to reply.

Historia was the epitome of “I think I will cause problems on purpose” simply because she’s bored. To be fair, you couldn’t really blame her, you had no such positive attitude towards school either, but with her being at the top of the pecking order she had the ability to make those problems quite substantial. Freida’s hair was probably going to go grey soon.

You thanked any god that would listen that she had cheerleading practice or you might have genuinely cried. The amount of stress that blonde girl was putting you through simply because she refused to take the bus home was nearly unparalleled.

You looked around the school, each corridor breaking off into another. The same basic lockers and same ceiling lights, same everything. You were fucking lost.

You jogged down some corridors hoping to find someone, turning your head frantically, letting you slam full force into something hard, tall and…blond?

 .

Erwin may love being a teacher but my lord did it get tedious sometimes. He loved the younger ones, brimming with hopes, dreams and potential. Though nearly all of them seemed to be misusing it, putting it on the backburner or simply didn’t care. Kids were good but they certainly could be better. Of course, there’d be the standout kids like Armin and Marco who took their schooling seriously and asked questions that allowed him to gush about things that weren’t just on the set curriculum. But what he would give so all of them were that engaged…

He just wanted them to offer their hearts to him, to trust him and put faith in the information he was giving forward. History is something, that he believed at least, was unparalleled in its importance. You learn from the mistakes done by the generations before you, using the knowledge to guide the current decisions needed to be made. On top of that it just let you understand the world around you; how it came to be and your place within it. History was unparalleled in its importance.

That’s why he was still at the school, marking very obviously last-minute written essays, so he could give them back with thorough annotations and advice that he was sure most of them wouldn’t even glance at.

He had popped off to the teacher’s lounge to get a cup of tea, and was making his way back, eyes glued to the swaying liquid as not to spill it, when a smaller figure came barrelling into him. He instinctually moved the tea away, not wanting the scalding water to hit this unfortunate stranger full in the face. Some of the brown liquid dripped to the floor, Levi would surely have his head for it later, but it was better than any burns.

When he was sure the tea was steady, he looked to the stranger on the ground.

He swore he saw a deity.

Erwin peered down at you in pure awe. Albeit being a bit dishevelled and frazzled, you were clearly a force to be reckoned with. Your pant suit was tailored to fit you perfectly, your heels matching your simple jewellery and watch, your hair which was now a little ruffled, was obviously put together with precision in the morning. You were immaculately put together.

And your face, your face. Everything was right where it needed to be in the exact size and proportion to everything else. It was like you had been perfectly carved for over a millennium by only the best sculptors available.

Your aura was something else. Even if he had found you in pyjamas, the power you would exude would be to the same effect. Something in the way your face shifted as thoughts flew across your mind, the way every bit of movement seemed controlled and purposeful. Erwin had read hundreds, maybe thousands of myths all around the world, and none of the gods in them had never been as ethereal as you.

You were the definition of a muse.

You on the other hand were trying to keep down your groans about your ankles as much as possible. Heels were a mistake enough to attempt to run in let alone fall in, god could this day get any…better? Oh no. He was hot.

You swallowed harshly as he looked down at you, tilting his head and eyes wide. You noticed the tea spilt in a little puddle behind him and felt a little guilty, but he seemed to pay it no mind, his piercing blue eyes only on you.

After a silent moment he offered his empty hand. You took it with a hasty thank you under your breath and gripped on. His hand was so warm, so steady, so comfortable to hold. The moment was over quicker than either of you wanted it to be.

You looked to the ground, smoothing down the ruffles in your clothes, some that existed and some that certainly didn’t, so you could reset yourself. You were not going to be flustered by the first man you saw outside of work though to be fair he would be a good reason to let that rule lay down. He was certainly a fine specimen.

You looked back up, coughing to clear your throat. His gaze was already glued to you, it hadn’t been torn off since the moment you bumped into him. His eyes didn’t even shift now you were staring into his. His mouth was slightly agape, his cheeks dusted pink, his eyebrows raised. You were getting nervous but wanted to know what was going on in that head of his.

“Uh, hi…” you started, leaning your head to the side, “Didn’t mean to bump into you there, sorry for spilling your tea.”

He blinked.

“You’re…” he trailed off, having caught himself before he said something stupid. He coughed into his fist, finally looking away, the student poster about splitting atoms on the classroom becoming suddenly riveting. “Sorry, could I help you in anyway?”

You scratched the back of your head with a small smile and Erwin short circuited. “Yeah actually, I’m meant to be picking up a friend’s sister, but I got lost.”

“What’s the student’s name? I may be able to direct you?”

“Historia Reiss.”

“Ah.”

“Ah indeed.”

It was no question that the girl would be infamous to teachers as well, the girl tended to make quite an impression. Hopefully she wouldn’t be rolling her eyes at you more than necessary when you finally found her.

“Miss Reiss is likely at the gym.” He pointed down a corridor, the one you had come from.

You opened your mouth and closed it again, you would probably get lost again but you couldn’t convince yourself that’s why you asked the next question. “Sorry, do you think you walk me there?”

A colourful array of curses flew through your mind as he stilled, a deer in the headlights. You were about to apologise for being a bother and go on your way when his face brightened to an almost blinding degree and his eyes crinkled with his accompanying smile.

“It would be my pleasure.”

The walk started in silence for a few moments as you both scrambled for something to talk about.

“So um,” you said, “What do you teach here? You are a teacher, right? Not just some random guy taking advantage of the tea?”

He was already panicking being in the vicinity of you, so he almost didn’t pick up your teasing tone. The fact you were making fun of him just made his heart hammer even harder.

“I can confirm I’m not some stranger, to this school at least.” His added smile made your heart skip a beat; you should sue him. “I teach history here, but I won’t burden you with the specifics.”

“Do.”

“Pardon?”

“Burden me with the specifics. The teaching path wasn’t for me, but I admire those who followed it,” you sent a smile of your own back, “Plus, you seem like the kind of guy to know your stuff. You look like a passionate teacher. I wish there were more of those when I went to school.”

He took a second to compose himself, you being very cruel to him right now. He’d known you for approximately two minutes, but you were making it increasingly difficult for him to not declare his inevitable love right then and there.

“Oh well um,” he stumbled over his words, trying to string a few sentences together that would be worthy of your time. His hands were already extended, ready to add a visual focus. “War is quite an obvious favourite to go to, but I’ve always been more interested in the things that went on behind the scenes, the life of soldiers and nurses who lost their lives, the lives of those who stayed behind, anyone trying to look for peaceful solutions. Those have always interested me more. And then going far past the world and civil wars of the past three centuries, going back to when England and France were nowhere near the superpowers they became, and of course focusing all around the world. Europe has honestly been pretty lacklustre with their stories compared to everywhere else.”

He looked back to you, half-expecting you to be twiddling your thumbs, but your sight hadn’t moved. Your eyes were wide and bright like the ones he had seen in Armin and Marco except with an added adult understanding and perspective. This was quite unfair on his heart.

He turned his head down a corridor, taking the opportunity to calm down his heated cheeks. Really quite unfair.

“So what do you do?” He tried his best to make the words come out as smooth as he hoped. You didn’t seem to take notice that they didn’t.

“I’m a lawyer, so definitely a different world from yours.” Your laugh was awe-inspiring, he wished it were his morning alarm. There was no way he could come to hate it.

“It suits you,” he noted. It made perfect sense, everything about you commanded attention, thinking about you controlling a court room was easy to picture.

You sputtered out a few sounds, not sure if they were sophisticated enough to be called words and looked down a corridor as you passed, trying to figure out what the angry looking janitor was thinking about instead of what your brain was. This man was having quite the effect on you, and it wasn’t even his looks! Rude!

“Thank you, assuming that’s a compliment.”

Erwin simply nodded, not wanting to let you be privy to his thought processes right then. He would never recover.

“What area do you work in if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Currently represent for murder and manslaughter cases, anything that usually ended up with a person dead or nearly dead.”

A different world from yours indeed.

“I imagine that’s quite intense.”

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes. “The paperwork numbs a lot of it, honestly most of my clients aren’t any different from students.”

“I’d hope not.”

“You’d be surprised. Some of those annoying kids in school tend to keep being annoying, annoying enough to land themselves as a suspect for a murder case.”

Now he couldn’t stop thinking about you intimidating a client into submission and to just listen to you and let you take the reins. He would like to see that. He may possibly want to be subjected to it if he was in the right mood. He towered over you, but he would fall to his knees in a second if you told him to as a joke. He hoped that was a wild exaggeration done by his brain, but he knew most things come from a semblance of truth.

You really were something else.

You couldn’t believe you were talking to someone like him. He seemed so self-assured and at one with the flow of life, not needing to seek more to find contentment. He clearly loved his job as much as you loved yours, both acknowledging the downsides but knew it was worth it in the end.

He seemed to be taking up more and more of your brain as he continued to talk, only adding to the list of positives, there hadn’t seemed to be any negatives yet. You were concerned that there didn’t seem to be any. From his looks to his personality to the way he held himself, it was honesty too good to be true. Right?

When he looked at you, your cheeks would burn, and you’d feel like you were in high school all over again. That was one of the things you had forgotten, although small, they had been of the good parts about school. Crushes had always been a little fun.

But the way his lips pulled into an easy smile should be illegal. You could deal with murderers, not this. If he was ever on the stand in court, you would be a stuttering mess when trying to cross-examine him.

As you two kept talking, you’d take turns left and right, seemingly with no real reason. You were pretty sure you had seen those maths posters before, but you didn’t mention it. You were plenty happy to let this be dragged out a little longer. You were flattered to say the least.

Erwin knew that he couldn’t “trick” you without you noticing eventually, he couldn’t do that to save his life, but he also knew that if you had caught on to his little game, you would mention it if you wanted him to stop. That fact made his chest flutter, though perhaps it probably was time to take you where you needed to go so you didn’t have your friend yelling at you. He wasn’t that cruel.

The sound of cheers reached your eyes, your shoulders deflated. Guess this is it then. The gym doors came into sight and you could spot the cheerleaders practicing their formations through the open door. They all looked exhausted, so it was probably near the end by now.

Against the wall you could see Historia’s “friends” watching and applauding whenever Historia so as much breathed. No wonder she got bored.

Your feet came to a stop, just outside the entrance and you looked up to him. He shifted slightly, unsure of what to say.

“Thank you um…” you said before your eyes few open, “Holy- I can’t believe I didn’t get your name?”

He chuckled, deep and clear. “Erwin, Erwin Smith.”

You gave your name to his and his lips mouthed around it silently, feeling the shape of all the letters. It made you a little flustered how earnestly he was printing it into his brain.

Neither of you moved, you didn’t want to go into the gym, and he didn’t want to leave. To put it simply, you were smitten with each other and it was embarrassingly obvious to everyone including the both of you.

The cheerleaders stopped, grabbing their bags and chugging down litre water bottles. Historia would snitch on you in an instant if she saw you hitting on her teacher, so it was time to depart.

“I guess this is it then…” You dragged out the sentence, still trying to stall.

“I suppose it is.”

“Thank you, I do mean it. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”

He nodded, swallowing. “I guess I will. Have a pleasant evening, both you and Miss Reiss.”

You cracked a grin. “I can’t promise she will have one, but I know you definitely made my evening a good one. See you, Erwin.”

He smiled softly. “See you.”

He waved as he walked back through the corridors, he snuck a look over his shoulder when he had almost disappeared from view to find you still looking at him. Both of your faces burst into flames and you looked away from each other.

You took Historia home after she (mainly her friends) questioned why you were there instead of Frieda. Reiner, you believed his name was, offering to take her home as suavely as he could to be shot down so quickly by Historia you got whiplash. Her friends bid her dramatic goodbyes which she didn’t reply to, and you two made your way to the car.

“Were you talking to Mr Smith?” She didn’t even bother taking her eyes off of her phone to ask.

“I…I was. I got lots trying to find you so he helped me get to the gym.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “He didn’t need to take you all the way there though.”

“He was…he was just being nice.”

She hummed, no emotion behind to hide whether or not it was full of doubt. You really didn’t want her to tell Frieda or you’d never live it down.

“I finally get your ass out of the court room and you flirt with the first guy you see? Bold as ever.”

Though maybe, just maybe, it meant you could offer to pick up Historia more often. Maybe.

Everyone knew it wasn’t a maybe.

Erwin made his way back to his desk and he plopped himself down on his chair with a sigh. He leant his head back to look at the ceiling, projecting the past minutes on the white ceiling.

He didn’t even ask for your number.

He cursed at himself and dragged a hand over his face before getting back to his mountain of paperwork. Perhaps it was too bold to offer up his heart this quickly.

But you had said “see you”, and maybe it was too much for him to assume, but usually that meant a second meeting was anticipated. Maybe.

Everyone knew it wasn’t a maybe.

His tea had gone cold, but that was alright. He had met a goddess that evening after all.  

.

.

.

a/n: to the person who sent this in sorry it took so long! this was my first time writing for Erwin so i hope it’s alright! thank you for reading :)

Just send an ask to be added to the Erwin taglist!

Attack on Titan Masterlist  | Main Masterlist

Ko-fi

[quirkcodes]

"Productive Devs" Rant/Vent

Content Warning: Degrading Language and Harsh Criticism. I'm currently emotional and insecure; I don't normally act like this:

"I made a commercial game in one week," ok but how many bitches did you get in one week?

In all seriousness, I'm kinda sick and tired of random people going on the internet to brag about their ridiculous accomplishments. I'm over here taking almost a month to recreate an arcade game and this goodie-two-shoes study-with-a-buddy millennial is out here making monetized product.

Good for you stinky. Are you going to use that money to buy some soap that doesn't smell like sci-fi dead body like every other man marketed hygiene product, stinky? Are you going to buy something for your nerdy collectible shelf that spans the entire wall of your apartment living room? Maybe a funko pop? Is that what you'd like?

Devlogs

You'd think a video like that would be a way to help people. Aside from tutorials and game design discussion videos, I see tons of videos people make about their indie games where they transparently document their progress to show new devs what to expect. The videos show people how long development takes, how to publish a game, how much money devs might expect to make, etc. This video is a devlog but more like a poop log because I said so.

Being someone who is also making a game with dev logs, I have to say that documenting things is hard. It takes time out of your day just to keep track of what you've done, and I struggle to get my weekly updates out in time because of how dependent it is on where I am at with the progress of my game. I can't show something almost done because the game won't run with errors, so I end up having to work on it for another day and release it the next day with additional changes.

Expectations

And I don't like how unrealistic this poop log is. Maybe I'm just frickin' dumb, but in ACTUAL game development, every feature ends up having to be re-coded and tweaked 20+ times. There's a lot of nodes, scripts, and scenes to keep track of, and all of them depend on something else in order to work.

It is CRIMINAL to expect a beginner dev to get anything more than a tech demo done in less than a week, and content like this leads people (me) to becoming insecure and hopeless in comparison. When you say "this is what you SHOULD be capable of" other people say to themselves, "why can't I do that?" Once people start believe they can't do it, they won't try. By making that kind of content, you create and feed into issues that have plagued the indie gaming community for decades: the inhibitory fear and shame about getting started.

I think it is very important to acknowledge why people succeed. Its destructive to compare yourself to others in a one-dimensional way: they have that, I don't. Its more constructive to examine what it took to get them to where they are. Sure, this person made a game in a week, but its also their 15th commercial game they've made out of the dozens of other games they've made. I didn't know what an array was one month ago. Knowing what I know now, I could remake what I have done in a couple days because most of my time was spent learning the coding concepts that weren't so obvious and easy to me as they are now.

Conclusion

If you want to document your progress, that's fine. If you want to celebrate your accomplishments, that's fine. If you're going to brag to random people, prop yourself up as a clout chasing productivity god, and try to make others feel lesser in the process, then you can sit the fuck down.

In the end, everyone should know that bragging only puts a target on your back. If you really are that good, people are going to try to take advantage of it. They will copy your work, steal your work, or hire you just make profit off of your work. Every time you brag is an opportunity for someone else to show that they can do a better job than you.

If you're really that good at making quality games very quickly, why don't you try to make something people would give a fuck about instead of these corny ass, unoriginal, low effort, puzzle platformers that somehow win every game jam.

After Thoughts

I'm going to be completely honest: this whole post was made out of insecurity. I'm usually not insecure about anything, but I've been struggling with the feeling that I'm less capable. This person's video is harmless. They're just posting a personal challenge they made for themselves.

This person isn’t propping themselves up as superior to tag a group of people as “inferior”. However other people are doing that and I am talking about them too. Those delusional "learn to code in 2 months with zero experience" type of channels are preying on ignorance and insecurity by spreading misinformation, usually to get people to pay for their shitty courses. I get people have to earn a living but at least try to be a proper teacher instead of an absent minded passive income hustler who doesn’t put time into their course.

[itsbenedict]

I didn’t post about everything I played this year, so here’s my opinions on the stuff I played that I didn’t make a rec post for:

Raging Loop 

Raging Loop is one of them twisty meta Zero Escape-y branching-path visual novels where an ensemble cast is trapped in a mysterious circumstance where people are dying gruesomely, and you have to find out what’s happening and stop it by looping a bunch. 

I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it, because... it tries to have its cake and eat it too with the supernatural elements. Clearly magic is real and has important impacts on the scenario, but then other parts are trickery you’re supposed to see through, and it’s entirely uninterested in cluing you in to how that trickery was accomplished. Not exactly a fair play mystery, in that regard- you have to kind of just be along for the ride, rather than try to figure it out.

That said, it’s a good ride- pretty strong character writing, and the central conceit of the Werewolf/Mafia-style murder scenario creates really interesting drama. It’s more concerned with making itself feel clever than letting the player feel clever, but it’s still well-paced and gripping and has a pretty decent resolution.

Detective Grimoire

I recommended Tangle Tower, the sequel, pretty strongly- and this one, while obviously a little rougher around the edges with the art and mechanics (the suspicion tracker system is a total dud; I didn’t even realize it existed until I realized I was missing an achievement for using it), it’s still pretty darn good. Really fun character designs and animations, fully-voiced, and a solid whodunit backing it all. Plus- while the two are more or less self-contained, the continuity threads with Tangle Tower raised some really interesting questions.

Contradiction - the all-video murder mystery

This one was pretty fun, largely on the strength of the actors. The main mechanic of interrogating people on evidence and using their own statements against each other was some good stuff, too. Definitely had that Phoenix Wright quality to the deductions, and Jenks is a really fun character. (Had a few points where progression was just linked to standing in a certain previously-abandoned area of the map where a clue was suddenly there for no reason, there- good thing it had a hint system.)

As a mystery, it could use a little work- most of what you end up finding out is sequel bait (for a sequel that never actually came together, unfortunately), and the actual whodunit is just sort of hiding in the cracks of all that. And... cornering the culprit just sort of happens out of nowhere once you’ve got your hands on the right piece of evidence, without much fanfare. You’re following up on leads like usual, you find a little lie in someone’s testimony, and then- oh, shit, they’re just confessing everything! Unlike all the previous times you questioned them and they were super evasive like everyone else! And then the game is over. 

All in all, it’s pretty meaty and entertaining and I’d recommend it, but unfortunately the creators have moved on to other things, so there’s not going to be any follow-up on the stuff it left unresolved.

Ikenfell

Ikenfell is a tightly-designed RPG about kids at a magic school, with Paper Mario-style action command mechanics and a battle system that makes a big deal out of careful positioning and movement, which was really enjoyable. The difficulty’s a little high (I recommend always always always speccing into max damage because killing things before they kill you is worth more than any amount of defense, speed doesn’t work, and healing is cheap), but I found it really satisfying.

There’s... something... off? About... I don’t know how to put it, it’s... doing that “yes, everyone is queer and mentally ill, deal with it” thing, which, sure, okay. But for a lot of them it’s such a background thing, like... half the playable cast is unambiguously nonbinary, but like... I don’t know if it’s trying to make some statement on how there are no rules to being NB and you can 100% perform a particular binary gender presentation but still count, or if they wrote the whole story and then changed the pronouns of some of the characters for Representation Points, or what. Probably the former? I dunno, it just feels weird. Maybe I’m just not woke enough to Get It.

(unrelatedly: why the heck is the official art they use everywhere so... off-model? none of them look like they do in-game- they look like the creator commissioned someone to draw a group shot with one reference image each and didn’t tell them anything about the characters. how much you wanna bet they commissioned a friend and it came out wrong but they were too polite to say “sorry, no, this is wrong, can you do it over?”)

Trails of Cold Steel IV

Hoo boy. It’s... not great, and it’s not great in a pretty predictable way for an even-numbered entry in the Trails series. It happens every time- first there’s a game in a new engine with new characters and a new world to explore, and it’s really nice and does interesting things... and then it ends on a cliffhanger, and then there’s a sequel game in the same engine with the same characters and the same world, reusing as many assets as possible. Also the League Of Generically Evil Anime Supervillains is there causing trouble for reasons they refuse to explain, and the plot is a storm of magicbabble and macguffin-chasing that makes little to no sense. 

Cold Steel IV is that for Cold Steel III, full stop. Welcome back to all the same places you visited last game, except this time there’s some stupid magic apocalypse happening (not that it stops you from taking the time to do random sidequests constantly, of course). The whole “oh, the evil curse mind controls people and that’s why they do stupid bullshit that’s in no one’s interest” plot point is leaned on super hard, and it’s just a big yawn the whole way through.

It’s still really fun, though, because the battle system remains really well-designed. (The same battle system that was just as fun in Cold Steel III, mind you, but it hasn’t gotten old.) And- though they’re struggling to square it with the dumb mind control apocalypse plot, the NPC dialogue continues to make the world feel believable and lived-in. They don’t slack on the parts that make Trails good- it’s just the parts that make Trails bad are making themselves more evident than ever.

did finally get to date Towa though so that’s a win

One Step From Eden

OSFE is... uh. It’s fucking hard is what it is. It’s sort of a deckbuilding roguelike, and there’s this combat that takes place on a grid, and- wait, it’s like Mega Man Battle Network, it’s exactly like Mega Man Battle Network. Man, I forgot about that, but the mechanical influence is extremely obvious. It’s MMBN meets Slay the Spire.

Except it’s super duper hard as hell, because unlike MMBN you can’t pause and swap out chips or anything- everything is just always happening so much, all at once, everywhere, and you have no recourse but to git gud and learn all the enemy patterns and the behavior of your own spells and develop the twitch reflexes necessary to not fucking die from all the shit that’s on the screen always.

(What’s the story? Uhhhh, there was some kind of magic apocalypse, and some anime girls are trying to reach a city for some reason that doesn’t really get explained ever. The game doesn’t really care to build its world at all- it’s all mechanics plus a little token character dialogue that doesn’t say much.)

The point is it’s really frickin’ hard but I am an epic pro gamer and I got ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS, MOTHERFUCKER. If you’ve played it, I expect you to be really god damn impressed with me, okay???

A Short Hike

This one was really relaxing! It’s a platformer where you explore an Animal Crossing-y island of cartoon animal people, collecting mobility upgrades- but like, mainly it’s about straight chillin’. The flight controls are fun and there’s lots of little secrets to find and it’s just a nice time that doesn’t drag on too long. Not too much to say about this one.

Pokémon Sword

Ehhhhh.

I’m not here for the hot takes about how Dexit is good actually. Development hell happened, they had to make cuts for time, I get it. It’s disappointing and makes the game a little bit worse, but it’s not the end of the world.

Apart from that... perfectly serviceable? The Wild Area could’ve used a little more technical polish (as could most things in the game, really) but was a step in the right direction, giving the player a wider array of early-game team-building options than ever before. No HMs is good. Story and characters were kind of nothing, but that’s par for the course. “At least this time they’re not shoehorning in some kind of stupid evil-team-wants-legendary-pokemon-to-destroy-the-world apocalypse plot”, I thought to myself before they managed to shoehorn one in at the last minute with zero buildup- but, hey, beats wasting half the game on it.

It’s nothing special and it’s missing a lot of polish, but its problems are mainly due to being rushed, and presumably next gen they’ll be able to reuse a lot of the models and animations (maybe even improve the animations so they’re not so boring??? a man can dream) and make something interesting. SwSh seem like they were testing the waters for something else, and not taking too many chances in the meantime. 

(yo why would you sell all these cosmetic items and then turn them all off during gym battles, though) 

Hades

Hades is- oh, who am I kidding? Everyone knows Hades, it’s the game of the year, greatest thing since sliced bread, Supergiant are heroes, yada yada yada. I’ve played almost 300 hours of it and I’ve completed everything except all the Resources Director levels (currently a Sigma Wraith), it’s extremely fun and you don’t need me to tell you that.

Petal Crash

It was that thing the Paranatural creator helped on? It’s, uh. It’s a block-sliding puzzle game thing, sort of in a Puyo Puyo vein. It has fun character designs and some good dialogue, like you’d expect from Zack’s involvement, but it didn’t really leave an impression otherwise (besides how got dang infuriating some of its Turn Trial puzzles can be.) The story is... kinda heartwarming, kinda didactic, kinda childish, not especially deep or interesting. Hard for it to be, when it’s told through little bits of fluffy character dialogue that exist to set up a puzzle battle as quickly as possible. Not super recommended unless you really really like block-sliding puzzles.

Hollow Knight

Man, why’d I sleep on this for so long? It’s a metroidvania platformer with heavy Dark Souls inspiration, in terms of tone and difficulty and death mechanics and environmental storytelling. And it’s... apart from all that, just really good as a game, with tight controls and juicy movement and great animation. Progression is linked as much to mastery as it is to upgrades collected- I found myself in lategame areas facing down things that would’ve killed me ten times over at the start- not because I had the best gear, but because I’d learned the game’s language and understood how to move in ways that wouldn’t get me killed.

(Usually. Sometimes I’d walk into a room and sit on a bench and suddenly there’d be a boss fight and I’d get slaughtered. Ain’t that just the way it goes?)

Anyway, on top of all that it’s just charming as hell, with a really unique and well-realized world full of little bug people. I love how, like, your character is clearly some kind of eldritch abomination, but it’s small and cute and so everyone (besides enemies that attack you on sight because they’re possessed by some kinda evil mold) is like “awww, who’s this little guy? want some help, little guy?”

(except Zote, who is just an ass hole. i love him.)

[muwur]

If requests are open.. Suga x reader -3rd year student- where friends to pining where reader is a exchange student mid year -parent’s job- and reader is new to the school, can barely communicate Japanese and is too shy to meet new people.. reader is welcomed as a co-manager for vb club and all the other boys adopt her has their sister. She tutors them in their English lesson too.. also how would Suga help her open up from her shyness..

request: sugawara x fem! reader who is a shy exchange student!

another beginning.

✩ one-shot ✩ for sugawara bb

❧ fem reader

✎ 4.9k words

a/n: FINALLY GOT THIS BBY DONE, ty for being patient requester <3 i hope its ok, lmk if u would like smth different!

also curious but do yall listen to music when you write or read? i dnt always but when i DO i listen to some boppy music so i can shake mah ass (unles im depresso AHAHA) LMAO rec me some pls--

send me asks--

current listen: juicy by doja cat, gasolina by daddy yankee, 11 PM by maluma

A pencil dangled between two of your fingers, gently swinging back and forth as you tapped the eraser’s tip against your chin in thought. Looking over Hinata’s shoulder at the worksheet laying on the table, you extended your hand and made a neat scrawl on the page. “That’s good translating, Hinata! However,” you dragged your pencil across the surface, marking a line and arrow to point at a space near the beginning of his sentence, “keep in mind that although gerunds look like verbs, they act as nouns. So, this word should go here.”

Yachi, who was seated to your right, nodded in agreement. “I looked through his notes doodles, and it looked like they were going over gerunds in class!”

With narrowed eyes, Hinata scanned the page, muttering the sentence underneath his breath. Suddenly, his hazel eyes lit up in understanding and his lips morphed into a round “O.” “Ohhhh, that make a lot more sense! Thanks, (y/n), you’re a big help, especially in English! Also, look, guys!”

He rummaged through his cluttered backpack and fished out a slightly wrinkled sheet of paper with a red “14/50” marked on the top right corner. Holding it up proudly, he declared, “I got a better score than last time! By nine points!”

“That’s still an F,” Tsukishima pointed out, eyes glued to the pages of the book he was reading. Yamaguchi and Kageyama tried to stifle their snickers.

“Y-You’re not even looking!” Hinata defended. The ginger was met with a shrug. “I don’t need to see the score to know you failed.”

Before any fighting could break out, however, the door swung open, revealing the remaining third-years. Bags of snacks in their arms, the four of them stepped in. “We’re back! Your parent/guardian let us in, (y/n),” Sugawara announced, setting his bag down on the table. The rest followed suit and set the goodies down. Rummaging through one of the bags, Daichi pulled out a meat bun.

“Hinata, here’s your meat bun,” he said, handing the snack to the excited first-year, who had long-forgotten Tsukishima’s snide remark about his lack of intellectual aptitude. Kiyoko offered Kageyama his milk, the slight brush of their hands being enough to stir Noya and Tanaka into an envious craze. Asahi tried to settle them down, nervously reminding them that they needed to act respectful in your home, especially after your family had agreed to let you all study there. You stifled a giggle as Sugawara and Daichi joined in, scolding their underclassmen for their poor behavior and threatening them with a time-out.

With an exasperated sigh, Sugawara took a seat next to you on the mat. “Ah, I can’t help but worry about how Ennoshita’s going to handle both of them on his own.”

Giving a sidelong glance to the second-year, who was now forcing Noya and Tanaka to complete timed practice problems, your lips formed a small smile. “Looks like he does a pretty good job at it, though.”

Sugawara let out an amused huff. “Guess I’m worried over nothing. Oh, also,” he dug into the plastic bag in front of him, taking out your favorite snack and offering it to you. “Here you go.”

(can u tell from my stories yet that fav snacks aka actions are my love language--)

“Oh, thank you, Suga, I didn’t even ask for this…” you flashed him a grateful smile and took the package from his hands, suppressing the blush that threatened to overcome your cheeks as your fingertips brushed. He gave a sheepish smile and glanced to the side in response, giving the back of his neck an anxious rub.

“Ah, it’s the least I could do to thank you for letting us all come over to study. It’s really helpful. I appreciate it, (y/n).”

“It’s not much, really. I’m more than glad to help you all (read: Hinata, Kageyama, Tanaka, and Noya) out with English and offer my place. Having everyone together makes it easier. They need to pass these exams so you all get to play.”

Your offer to help the team with their studies may have seemed a simple gesture as both their friend and co-manager. On the inside, however, you really were more than happy to have everyone over for whatever reason. It left you with a feeling of awe. The last thing you would’ve expected 3 months ago was to be sitting in your new home in Japan, surrounded by a group of people who accepted you despite your poor Japanese and late appearance to Karasuno. Just 4 months ago, after you learned about your parent/guardian’s job transfer to Japan, you were left feeling an array of mixed feelings:

Anxiety – a whole new country? With a language you could barely even speak or understand? How was that going to work? Could you even make friends at school? God knows how long it took you to make the friends you have now.

Disappointment – you were looking forward to graduating high school with the friends you’ve made throughout the past few years. Having to say goodbye would be difficult, and you’d miss them.

Yet, you felt a sliver of hopefulness – new experiences were waiting for you. You had the opportunity to lead a new life in a foreign place. It filled you both with fear and exhilaration.

On the night before your first day at Karasuno, you could barely sleep after spending hours religiously practicing how to introduce yourself in Japanese. Having to introduce yourself to the class and speaking with your new classmates was inevitable, after all. And so the next day, you found yourself standing in front of the classroom, trying to suppress the nervous shudder that threatened to rack your body and ignore the prickles of sweat on your palms. Despite how much you mentally recited your introduction that morning, your current situation left your mind blank, unable to conjure any words. Fueled by the awkward silence, the numerous gazes focused on you, and the growing pit of anxiety in your stomach, what came out was a quiet, jumbled form of what you intended to say.

“Hello, (y/n) (l/n). I’m (insert your original country name here). I can’t Japanese, but I hope friends. Everyone, nice to meet,” you bowed, both in respect and so that you could hide your face, which was red from embarrassment. You knew you messed up, but you pretended otherwise, hoping that nobody would point out your mistake.

You straightened up after a few moments of silence, registering the confused looks of your new classmates and feeling another stab of shame. In response to your introduction, the teacher raised her eyebrows and blinked in confusion. Then her eyes warmed, and she offered you a smile as she spoke up. “Class, this is (l/n) (y/n). She recently moved here from (insert OG country here). She’s still learning Japanese; however, her English is perfect, so I’m sure you can all learn something from each other. Please make her feel welcome. Your seat is over there, (l/n).”

Shoulders sagging, you made your way to your desk, avoiding eye contact despite the pairs of eyes that followed you to your seat. Focusing on the lecture was a struggle. Not only could you barely understand anything the teacher was saying; worries about how the rest of the day would go also flooded your mind. This was only the morning; how could you navigate your way through the halls? Ask for directions? Would you meet people? Where would you eat lunch? How could you survive?

The remainder of the classes went by gruesomely slow. Too embarrassed from your slip this morning and too shy to meet new people despite wanting to make a friend, you successfully dodged conversation with any of your classmates. You were relieved that finally lunch came by, yet that presented another problem. You weren’t sure where to go, but you were sure that you were going to eat by yourself.

After a few minutes of walking around the hallways, you settled for eating lunch in the classroom. At least it meant you didn’t have to rush to class after the bell rang. Taking a seat, you pulled out your boxed lunch and set it out in front of you. Painfully aware of how alone you must have looked, you pretended to look really interested in your meal (am i the only one or--). You poked it, broke it into pieces, then brought each sliver to your mouth and chewed slowly. If only your family had switched your phone plans earlier, then you could at least spend time scrolling the internet or lament to your friends back home about how your day was going.

Still “engrossed” in your meal, you failed to notice a figure standing in front of your desk. Only after you saw a hand situate itself on the edge of your desk did you look up.

You met the chestnut eyes of a boy. He bore a warm smile that made a small crinkle in his eyes and beauty mark. Strands of grey hair draped naturally in front of his eyes and framed the sides of his face. Despite your unease, his soft features helped to calm your racing heart and mind. He seemed a friendly person; after all, he was able to approach you.

“Hey, you’re (l/n), right? I’m Sugawara Koushi, but you can call me Suga. I’m in your class,” he introduced in pretty darn good English.

‘Man, that means he heard me this morning…’ you thought miserably. Yet, you couldn’t help but feel some relief. Perhaps you hadn’t given others or yourself much of a chance before jumping to the conclusion that you were incapable of meeting new people.

Clearing your throat, you shyly extended a hand to him in greeting. “Yes, I’m (y/n) (l/n). Call me (y/n). It’s nice to meet you, Suga,” you replied hesitantly, finally using the correct words in Japanese that you had been practicing the previous night.

Shaking your hand, his eyes widened in pleasant surprise. “Your Japanese sounds pretty good! You just moved, so you’re still learning, right? How about I help you improve that while you help me with English?”

You were about to nod eagerly in appreciation when you both overheard some snickering across the room. Two boys and a girl sat together, whispering quite loudly and sneaking oh-so-inconspicuous glances over at your desk. Taking notice that they were caught staring, they presumed to loudly munch on their meals and talk about the weather.

Suga only shot them annoyed glare and shook his head before turning his attention back to you. “Sorry, those are my… Friends.” The strain in his voice after saying that last word made you question if they really were on friendly terms.

After that day, you found yourself spending every lunch period with Suga and his other third-year friends Daichi, Asahi, and Shimizu. You initially felt unsure of how to talk to them, but after Sugawara’s efforts to include you in his circle and some reassuring words about being yourself and not letting a small, temporary language barrier hold you back from making friends, you earned a bit of confidence. While you spoke a hybrid of English and Japanese with them, you eventually managed to pick up a lot of Japanese from talking everyday, and after these few months of constant exposure, you were able to hold decent conversations. Additionally, the extra help you sought from the teaching staff allowed you to be able to keep up in class, and your instructors were understanding enough to give you some leniency on your assignments during this adjustment period.

Hanging around your new friends often, it was only a matter of time before you were introduced to the rest of Karasuno’s boys’ volleyball team. It occurred one lunch period three weeks after you first arrived, when Asahi suggested that you join some club activities. You were discouraged, however, considering that it was already halfway through the year, you didn’t know enough Japanese yet to converse with just anyone, and you were a tad shy, which made joining clubs a bit difficult. At that moment, your new friends all made eye contact with each other, then looked at you.

“Why not join our volleyball club?” Suga asked. “Shimizu could always use the help. She’s our only student manager.”

Shimizu nodded in agreement, her blue gaze soft. “Your help would be really appreciated. There’s a lot to this job, so having someone to split the work with would be relieving. You can also help me look for someone to take my place when we graduate.”

Later that day you found yourself in the gym being blocked by Sugawara, who was protecting you from two crazed boys whose collars were held back by Daichi. A ginger-haired boy looked at you with curiosity, excitedly introducing himself as Hinata and pointing out the names of the other members on the court (“This is ‘Bakageyama’ and that guy’s ‘Four-eyed Jerk Face’—").

Upon their release (which was granted only after they promised to behave), Tanaka and Noya dashed over to you, tears in their eyes as they held your hands and expressed their gratitude for your presence. “Oh, (y/n), you kind soul, helping Shimizu with the managerial work. Better yet, now we have two cute girls to support us, this is amazing!”

And that’s how you found yourself sitting with your new friends in your living room and feeling grateful for their vibrant personalities, kindness, and acceptance. You couldn’t have asked for a better batch of friends to end your year with. Though, you were most grateful to Sugawara. If not for him, the last several months of your highschool experience may have gone by miserably, with nothing special to note and no new friends to celebrate with. His gentle, understanding nature had done nothing but support you and make you feel welcome. He helped introduce you to a new, comfortable life you had trouble imagining before your arrival to Japan. He dispelled your doubts and fears, instilling in you a newfound confidence in your abilities. It certainly helped that the team was just as supportive and patient with you.

You could recount the events of the past few months that brought warmth to your heart. These people were growing on you, making you feel like you could be yourself more each day. Daichi provided you a sense of security and leadership. Asahi was empathetic, quick to detect your feelings of uneasiness and asking you if you were okay. Shimizu made sure to make you feel welcome as a friend and fellow manager, even inviting you to a café over the weekend to brainstorm ideas on recruiting a replacement (who you both later discovered to be Yachi) and try out some desserts. Tanaka and Noya tried to teach you all the Japanese curse words they knew, initially lying to you about their meanings so they could see the rest of the team’s reactions when you would blurt things out in the middle of practice (Let’s just say that Daichi, Suga, Ennoshita, and Tsukki knew whose fault this was, and Asahi was real shook hearing a string of curse words from your mouth while you sat there, no ill intent emanating from you whatsoever). Ennoshita gave you a comforting, easygoing presence. Tsukki was… Tsukki (LOL). But he could carry on a conversation, often genuinely interested whenever you talked about the culture back in (other country). And you knew he was soft. Hinata was a burst of energy, and you found his bickering with Tsukishima and Kageyama silly and quite precious. You often stayed with Yachi to toss balls to Kageyama late at night, much to his appreciation. Yachi and Yamaguchi were some of the biggest sweethearts on the team, and all you could think about was needing to protect them.

There was definitely something different in your interactions with Sugawara, though. You found yourself closest to him out of everyone. It may have been because he was the first you talked to, or maybe it was because he was one of the most easygoing people you’ve ever met. That, and you found yourself wanting to get closer to him. You wanted to know more about him.

Sugawara chuckled in response. “I suppose you’re right. We wouldn’t have made it this far without everyone,” he said softly, a tinge of fondness showing in his brown eyes. He proceeded to take out his schoolwork and pen, resting his chin in his palm as he read the words across the page of his assignment. Occasionally, you glanced over at him, admiring the way his eyebrows knit together in concentration, and how his hair brushed his cheeks whenever his head shifted in its position. How the grey tips of lashes kissed his bottom eyelids with each flutter of his chocolate hues. You even took a mental note that his lips, currently pursed in thought, were rather smooth and full in appearance.

A rogue thought about how those lips would feel against your own flitted across your mind. It brought a small pang to your chest, and you had to mentally slap yourself back into reality. You noticed these new feelings were starting to become more prevalent the longer you hung around Sugawara. You consulted your friends back home about it, and in their excitement, they insisted you had a crush on this guy (and demanded photos). Heart palpitations, heat-flooded cheeks, covert glances, and a desire for closeness in all aspects possible? All symptoms of infatuation, your personal love doctors concluded. You recalled when these signs first appeared about a month ago, after he offered to walk you home when practice had gone late into the night. Initially you declined, not wanting him to go out of his way when it was already dark outside. However, after seeing the soft look in his eyes as he declared he wanted to ensure you got home safely and that he didn’t mind the walk, your heart couldn’t help but give in and agree.

It was a tranquil night, accompanied only by the sound of crickets chirping and a cool, whispy breeze. About 15 minutes after having left campus, you were both seated on an aged bench at a small park, snacking on recent convenience store purchases to satisfy your growling stomachs. A comfortable silence settled in the air. The nightly surroundings were illuminated by the gentle glow of several nearby lampposts and stars that burned lightyears away.

Your gaze followed the tracks of a small bug crawling across the sidewalk in front of your feet. It skittered soundlessly against the pavement, eventually disappearing in the security of a bush. A gentle sigh took hold of your attention, and your eyes flickered over to your friend, who was peering up at the star-dusted evening sky.

“Do you know what you’re doing after graduation?” he asked, a hint of wonder in his voice.

You shook your head. “No clue, to be honest. You?”

He pursed his lips and took a sidelong glance at you before focusing back upwards. “Well, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher…”

“Seems fitting. Your Japanese lessons have been really helpful,” you pointed out, smiling.

The tips of his lips curved upwards as well. “Really? I’m glad. You’ve improved a lot, too. You’re a quick learner.”

“Heh, well I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Another comfortable silence fell upon you two before he spoke again. “I was thinking about how to keep in touch with everyone after we left, and how it’s a shame we’re leaving so soon after you arrived. I would’ve liked to know you better, too, but there’s only a few months left...”

His genuine words left a rosy tinge on your cheeks. As you were thinking of a response, you looked down, noticing how close your hand lay next to his. Heartrate quickening, you stammered, “Y-Yeah, I wish we had more time, too.. T-To hang around each other, I mean. But graduation doesn’t have to mean goodbye, right?”

“That’s true... You always know just what to say, you know that, (y/n)?” he turned his gaze on you and held out an extended pinky. “Promise to talk to me after graduating, then?”

You rolled your eyes playfully and huffed in amusement. Taking your own pinky and intertwining it with his, you nodded. “So long as you keep your end of the promise, too.”

“Of course.”

Sugawara’s voice brought you out of your momentary flashback. “(Y/n)? Can I ask you a question?”

Blinking your previous thoughts away and calming the warmth on your cheeks, you responded, “What’s up?”

He slid his assignment closer to you, pointing at a section he was having trouble with. “Here. I’m not sure if I’m doing this correctly..”

You leaned in, scooching towards him and closing in on the gap between you. Focused on the homework, you failed to notice how the brush of your shoulders made Sugawara’s body stiffen slightly. With your proximity, your scent easily wafted to his nose, and he could observe the closer details of your appearance. The hair tucked behind your ear exposed your cheekbone, looking soft to the touch. Your determined hues scanned the page, and he could visualize your thinking through your small, occasional self-nods. You looked cute and comfortable in the casual hoodie you wore, bringing him a strange, mixed sense of bashfulness and ease. His mind wandered, trying to envision how you would look if you wore any of his jackets, but his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of your sweet voice and scribbles against paper.

“It sounds great, Suga! I just made a note there on how you can fix it; otherwise, it should be okay,” you gave him a reassuring smile as you slid his work back to him. You, however, didn’t shift back to your original position and instead stayed seated mere inches from the boy. Not that he minded, but…

“O-Oh, alright, thanks!”

It made concentrating during the rest of the study session a little difficult.

Occasionally you did get up, helping mostly the first and second years with some of their English assignments. His eyes would secretly (but c’mon, everyone but Hinata and Kageyama could tell) follow your figure, admiring the way you looked as you interacted happily with the others and did whatever you could to assist them. Yet you always returned to the same spot, near Suga. Close enough that everyone else on the team took notice (if they haven’t already), relayed the information via mental telephone, and secretly agreed to depart a bit earlier than they had anticipated.

“Oh, you guys are leaving already?” you asked everyone as they were packing up their belongings.

They all nodded in response, offering up their reasons for leaving earlier than the original time you set, which ranged from, “My parents wanted me home for dinner” to “My sister’s wasted and locked out of the house, nobody’s home—” (u good der Saeko)

Standing at your doorway, you waved to your friends, sending them off with a “I’ll see you at school!” as they waved back and filed out of your home. Looking over to Suga, who was still standing beside you, you wondered, “Oh, you’re staying?”

“Oh, yeah! I was surprised to see everyone leave so soon, but I was planning to head home in another hour. B-But I can go now if you need me to..!” he answered a bit shakily, waving around his hands in small, bashful gestures.

You shook your head and you waved your hand dismissively. “It’s okay, you’re more than welcome to stay for however long you need to.”

Settled back in the common area, you both tried to resume your schoolwork, but to no avail. Groaning, you leaned back, using your arms to support you from behind. “I’m tired of workingggggg.”

He sighed in agreement, resting an elbow on the table and propping up his head in a closed fist. “Same. Do you want to do something else?”

“Hmm..” you pondered aloud. “Do you want to see my room?”

Shrugging and responding with a “why not?”, you both stood up, leaving the common area to go to your room. You opened the door and stepped inside, Suga closely trailing behind you.

“Welcome to my room. Make yourself cozy,” you insisted as you sat on your bed and pat the spot next to you. He took your offer, taking a seat beside you and looking around your bedroom in curiosity.

“Something about this place really seems like you, (y/n).”

You raised an eyebrow at his comment. “Is it the messy pile of clothes in that basket or the neat desk I cleaned up this morning?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “I suppose you could say those are part of it. I just meant there’s a lot to you that you should feel comfortable sharing with others. People are complex and there’s so many sides to a person we discover along the way. I remember how timid you were in our first weeks of knowing each other, and now you’re getting along great with everyone and work hard to improve everyday. You were able to overcome a stressful repeat of entering highschool, but this time in another country, and adapted just fine! Your kindness and determination is admirable.”

Twiddling with your fingers, you felt a sheepish grin form on your face. “Aha, you’re too kind, Suga. You know I couldn’t have made these friends or adjust so well without your help. I was too worried about talking to anyone until you came up to me, so… Thank you.”

You risked a glance towards the boy, finding his chocolate gaze already set on you. If none of your interactions in the past month had set your heart ablaze, then certainly this moment would take the cake. Sugawara’s eyes flickered downwards briefly in a moment of hesitance, then locked again onto yours with a hint of an undetectable emotion lurking behind those irises.  Neither of you could bring up any words to say. The only sounds present were the soft hums of your breathing and the low creak of your bed as you found yourselves shifting your weight in order to inch closer to one another.

His mind flooded with a cacophony of emotions, from crippling nervousness to an allure for risk-taking. He could barely come to terms with the current situation and what might happen. Maybe he was overthinking it. Surely being this close face-to-face with someone who you just happen to like doesn’t automatically mean they like you back and want to kiss you just as much. Perhaps you were just leaning in to rest your head on his shoulder; after all, you did seem tired from the events of today. Or, you were scooting close for a better look at his face so you could point out, “hey, you got a little something on your face.” Perhaps a crumb from the cracker he had earlier?

But when he took note of the way your eyes fluttered shut, eyelashes caressing the tops of your dusted cheeks, his doubts began to waver. Maybe this was the chance he’s been seeking out lately. Once Daichi deciphered Sugawara’s affections for you, eventually the whole team found out and began to silently root for him. Thankfully, despite their blatant attempts to help him out, you hadn’t noticed a thing. It made him wonder whether you were oblivious, or just didn’t like him, or both. However, in this moment, when it appeared as though maybe you returned his feelings, he felt he should—as Tanaka would say—shoot his shot.

A sudden knock on the door sent you both jumping 5 feet away from each other. Frazzled and wide-eyed, you choked out a weak, “H-Hello?” in response to the interruption. The door opened, revealing your parent/guardian, who peeked inside.

“Dinner’s ready. Would you like to stay and have it with us?” they were asking Suga.

Heart still racing from the fear that gripped it, he blinked in surprise. He piped out a polite no thank you, reasoning that he didn’t want to intrude.

“Nonsense, we’re happy to have you. Come soon.”

They closed the door and left, leaving you two in an awkward silence that was soon interrupted by the sound of your cough. “We should, uh, get going…”

Standing up, you reached for the door with Suga in tow. The tension in the air remained between the two of you throughout dinner. Nevertheless, Sugawara was able to leave a good impression on your family by being a good conversationalist, even earning a few laughs from your parent/guardian. It made your heart swell at how natural it was for him to be able to get along with others.

After dinner ended and he packed his things, you stepped outside with him to send him off, closing the door behind you. He was about to salute you with a “thanks for having me over” when you gave him a peck on the cheek so sudden that he didn’t have time to react before you were already making your way back into your house.

“Thanks for coming, Suga! I’ll see you at school! Let me know when you get home!” you exclaimed animatedly, shutting the door quickly to hide your embarrassment from your sudden actions. You leaned your back against it, instantly regretting what you did with tightly shut eyes. ‘Oh gawd how am I gonna face him at school tomorrow dhefjkg.’

But on the other side of the door, Suga stood dumbfounded, hovering a hand over the area your lips had touch. Though highly embarrassed, he felt a rush of elation pass over him like a humongous wave that never stopped crashing against the shores.

He was starting to really think it was a good idea to introduce himself to the cute new girl in class. Nice one, Suga.

[bluebellhairpin]

As We Can

Thor Odinson X Immortal!Reader

A/N: Am I doing another self-projection fic? Yes. Do I want to get the point across that I love you, no matter what you look like, and I will help you take care of yourself? Hell yes. Some of my closest companions are on the chunky side. I would kill for them. - Nemo

Warning(s): Idk but there’s a hell of a lot of talk about self-worth, and hence self-love. So talk about Insecurities, character Death (very brief - Loki hoes might cry), Angst, but also a buttload of f l u f f ! 

Summary: We all need to give ourselves some care sometimes. Thor is one of those people, so you give him a little help - and sometimes that comes in a many few different ways; words, music, flower crowns. 

Masterlist  

[Gif was a Google find since Tumblr tags don’t have the representation. Creds to the maker, we love your work!] 

Saying you’d lived for a long time was the understatement of the century. 

You’d lived through too many natural disasters to count - Mount Vesuvius one of the more memorable of such disasters - plus hundreds of wars, and as many ‘collenizations’ of ‘new worlds’ to poke a stick at - not to mention the sicknesses that passed by as well. 

By now you were pretty damn tired of it all. 

But then, on top of everything, you could add something that had never happened before. In much more recent years, Earth had taken to being invaded by aliens. The first and most obvious was that of the Chitauri in New York. The most recent was Thanos and his Army in Upstate New York. 

By this point in your life, you’d started to become ‘exposed’. As most immortals do, over time you showed up in different photographs and paintings over the years, and with access to anything from one place - a.k.a the internet - some started to put things together. 

You even had your own online conspiracy club. You were proud of that. 

While it didn’t exactly bother you, you could see it causing some problems in the future - especially if you showed up in more places more often. So you made a decision. You needed to get off Earth. 

Luckily, timing then had you neatly close to Tønsberg, having watched the events of Thanos’ newest attack on the news in your hotel room in Oslo, you fast-tracked your journey there - to ‘New Asgard' - forward a week. 

There you sought out Thor, and through him a passage off into space. 

__________

Days, if not weeks passed - honest to god by now you couldn’t tell the difference - and while he was in no way the worst person to hang around, Thor was acting off. 

You’d never met him before your of-hand trip to space, but you had seen him on the news, online, and in papers. He was nothing like he was then, now. 

If you’d learn one thing in your age-less life it was that everyone needs a cause, a purpose. You’d spent the last three-hundred years - at least - devoting yourself to different causes, including the two World Wars, and it was clear to you that Thor currently did not have one.

So you decided to help him find it. 

Naturally you started with the subtle things. Being on a ship full of delinquents, also known as ex-space criminals, subtlety wasn’t always the best bet if you wanted something. Especially when it came to Drax. Hints went over his head like a frisbee in a hurricane - but you figured Thor wouldn’t be that… Unwittingly ignorant. 

By the time a couple days passed you had your answer. 

He was that unwittingly ignorant.

You didn't know how anyone else felt, but you knew it went a bit deeper than what others might’ve thought.  __________

“Thor, may I pull you aside for a moment?” you asked, appearing behind the Asgardian as the ship floated lazily through space outside. 

He jumped slightly, completely unaware of his surroundings, but nodded in agreement once he saw it was ‘just you’. Luckily no one else was around this part of the ship, either opting to rest or oversee Peter up in the cockpit. 

You fiddled with your sleeve, eyeing Thor as he settled in one of the seats across the room. You decided then and there to not beat around.

“Are you okay?” His eyes snapped up to yours, being me with your ever-so-slight scowl. 

“Am I okay?” he asked, scoffing out a laugh, “I am fine, why? Why wouldn’t I be?” 

You turned your head, taking a couple steps forward. 

“I can tell if you are, or if you aren’t.” He rolled his eyes at that, crossing his arms and pulling up his guard. “Do you remember what I told you, back on earth when I asked to come with you here?” you asked softer, gesturing to the ship and the stars outside.

He grumbled, rubbing at his eye and ruffling his hair before staring at you expectantly.

“I promised I could help.” 

“Look at you, how the hell could you help?”

“I am almost two thousand years old, Thor Odinson. If I know anything it’s how to help you.” He kept his eyes on you, watching as you dragged a chair out and sat in front of him. You took in a deep breath, searching his body language for any signs that meant he didn’t want you to continue.

“Are you really that old?” he asked, leaning towards you slightly.

“Aye, that I am,” you nodded, “Was born in Ancient Rome. The first notable event I lived though was when I was about ten, word spread around about that volcano erupting - not that we knew what it was back then.” you smiled little at the memory, looking down at your hands sadly. 

Apparently he wasn’t too bad a reading body language either. 

“No one else was like you, though - being able to live forever. Were they?” You shook your head no, and he hummed. “Maybe then we could help each other?” 

“Sure thing Sparky.”  ___________

You’d been working together with Thor for a good couple months, and in between searching for Gamora with the Guardians, and - in your opinion - hopelessly looking for Loki too, you thought Thor was doing much better.

He was less recluse, took care of himself a little more, and backed off Peter’s leadership a little (the latter may have been barely noticeable). Even if those things all came under your urging, you still counted them as steps forward. 

Anything positive, no matter how small, was still positive.

“(y/n)!” Thor boomed, rattling you from your bunk in the ship, “Are you ‘Holding out for a Hero’?” 

Nebula and Mantis poked their heads out from the bunk above you, ceasing their game of Paper Football to watch for your reply. You rolled your eyes, sliding off your comfy spot to lumber out to Thor.

“Pardon?” Thor cleared his throat as he held out Peter’s Zune. 

“This song speaks of a hero. Do you need one?” You took the player from Thor, scrunching up your nose at the 80’s song. 

“Not currently, but if I do you’d be the first person I’d call for, you can count on that.” you said, scrolling through the song list, looking for a song you preferred more. You missed the proud grin that reached Thor’s face. 

“There,” you pressed ‘Hold the Line’, and tried shooing him off so you could get back to your cozy corner, “Try that one Sparky.” 

“Much thanks.” He said, turning off with the device in his hands. You made it back to the doorway and watched him go.

Thank goodness Peter wasn’t here, otherwise he would’ve snatched that thing from Thor even before he got hold of it. __________

The planet you’d stopped on to replenish supplies was one of the most Earth-Like ones you’d seen since you left Earth. The only major difference was the inhabitant’s fashion choices, and the large array of flowers - they were literally everywhere.

If Rocket hadn’t  latched onto Groot’s shoulder the moment they stepped off-ship, you’d probably have lost the humanoid among the greenery.

“Great Zeus.” You breathed, slight disbelief at the sheer amount of flowers. 

“Who is ‘Great Zeus’?” Mantis asked, you cast a glance back at her.

“Um, basically him,” you pointed at Thor, “But much older, and more horny.” 

“You are going to be more horny when you are older,” Drax said, clapping Thor on the shoulder, “Congratulations!” 

“I meant a -” you stopped yourself, snickering, “- Nevermind.” You step off into the crowds and mazes of flowers, not waiting for Thor - your ‘Supply Buddy’ - to catch up. It never took him long anyway.

“Is Zeus one of your ‘Roman Gods’?” Thor asked, sidling up beside you as you maneuvered around the crowds.

“Nope. Zeus is Greek. In Roman his name is Jupiter.” 

“And in Norse he is Thor.” he said. You looked up at him, cracking a smile. 

“Mhm, I think I prefer Thor over Jupiter or Zeus though.” you said, eyeing a patch of flowers that was inhabited by a small crowd - and they were making flower crowns. 

Thor had no choice but to follow you as you made yourself comfortable among the multi coloured blooms - distracted and off task as ever. But he made no effort to join you, standing off to the side instead. 

You eyed him as you pulled a few flowers into your hand, weaving them together in the same way you remember your mother doing a hundred lifetimes ago. Patting the spot next to you, you grinned.

“Come over here Sparky.” you said, flicking your eyes down to the flower patch to pick a few more. “I need to make sure this fits.” 

You weren’t taking a no. The nickname you gave him in itself spoke volumes. 

He came over, slumping down beside you in the sunlight. You made quick work of the flowers, tying them together neatly before laying it atop Thor’s half pulled-away hair. It fit perfectly. 

“A crown fit for a king, I’d say.” 

“Pity I’m not much of a king.” he said, reaching a hand up to play with some of the petals.

“‘Ζώμεν γαρ ού ως θέλομεν, αλλ’ ως δυνάμεθα’.” you blurted, not once breaking your stare at Thor. His eyes widened, then moved to looking very confused, so you translated. “‘We live, not as we wish to, but as we can’. A Greek Dramatist said that. It was one of the few phrases we knew it greek, and our father taught it to us. He always implored us to do our own best, not the best anyone else can do.” 

All the while you explained, you weaved together another crown, one slightly smaller than the first, yet still almost identical. Tying it off, you sat it on your own head.

“Our best can sometimes be a lot, or a little even if we wish it to be a lot. But it doesn’t matter. Our best is still our best.” Thor looked between your crown, and your eyes. 

“I don’t think it’s that easy.” 

“Because it takes practice.” you plucked another flower, this time sticking it in his beard. “No one gets everything right the first time. Yet everyone does do their best at the time of their first time. Accepting that they did their best - that’s what they struggle with.” 

You poked in more flowers into his beard - your words seemed to plunge him into deep thought - he made no effort  to stop you, if he even noticed. 

After a time, he looked down at your hands, still piling flowers into his flower-filled beard, and smiled lightly.

“How about you make some for the other Asguardians of the Galaxy.” 

“Flower crowns?”

“Yes,” he grinned, “Your best ones.”

[pengychan]

[Good Omens] Winging It - Jeremiah 17:9

Summary: Shockingly, attempting to destroy an angel without consulting God first comes with consequences. There is more than one way to fall, and a thousand more ways to inconvenience an angel and a demon who just wanted to be left in peace. Characters: Gabriel, Crowley, Aziraphale, Beelzebub, Michael, Uriel, Sandalphon Rating: T  

Prologue and all chapters are tagged as ‘winging it’ on my blog.

A/N: No vintage pornography was mistreated in the making of this chapter.

(A scene was partly based on and amazing comic by @hyunlou, because I loved it so much I could no longer picture the scene going any other way,and also @lunaescribe on my birthday with art - check the fic tag to see both!)

***

“... Is that what they asked you? If you had carnal desires? Were those their exact words?”

“Yes,” Gabriel said, and shifted a little when Łukasz let out a groan, rubbing his temples.

“Why do they speak like they came out of some shitty BBC period drama?” Fabrizio asked, only for Łukasz to entirely ignore him and look back at Gabriel.

“And you said no.”

“I said I don’t think I do-- I am not sure-- and then they left before I could suggest we go out for the evening, and I have no idea why. But they did take the mugs, so--”

“Jesus Christ, mate, they were making a pass at you!”

Gabriel blinked. “... They were making a what?”

Fabrizio cleared his throat before speaking in the fakest, poshest British accent imaginable. “I think what my esteemed colleague is trying to say is that this… what’s their name again?”

“Beel-- Bill.”

“Right. This Bill was trying to politely gauge whether or not you may, perchance, be entertaining the thought of shagging.”

“Shagging?” Gabriel repeated. He was familiar with the term, of course - working in warehouse near the docks had taught him a vast array of terms all generally referring to the same things - but he had no idea why Beelzebub would be asking if he entertained the thought of-- 

“Shagging them, specifically.”

Gabriel stared. He opened his mouth, gaped a little more, then blinked. “They-- were?” he asked, sounding every inch as bewildered as he felt. The notion was so alien to him, it was hard to wrap his mind around it… and yet, now that it had been clearly spelled out for him, Gabriel felt a sudden desire to reach back into the space-time continuum and smack himself in the back of the head. Unable to do that due to his current limitations as a mortal, he just blinked again. “But... why?”

Forehead firmly pressed on the table, Łukasz snickered. “That’s an excellent question,” he said. “I’m starting to suspect your friend is a rabid moronsexual.”

“A what?”

That caused Fabrizio to burst laughing so suddenly and violently that Gabriel was left with little doubt that he was supposed to feel insulted by the remark. However, he was too baffled to.

“That was never-- it never came up,” he protested.

“Hah! Well, it did now. They brought it up. So, are you?”

Gabriel opened his mouth. 

“... Before you go ‘am I what’, allow me to make myself clear. Are you interested in the offer?”

Ah. “I’m… not certain it was an offer, I ought not assume--”

“Let’s say it was. Are you?”

Gabriel hesitated, and this time they didn’t press him for an answer. Which was good, because he honestly did not have one yet; there had been something when he’d held the Prince of Hell in his arms, something that had made him wish he didn’t have to put them down… but the notion of carnal desires was so foreign to him, he had no idea what that would even feel like. 

In the end, he sighed. “... I’ll need to do research,” he finally said. 

If Łukasz and Fabrizio found it an odd response, which they probably did, they said nothing of it. 

“All right. But, my friend, let me tell you something. Whether you want to shag them or not, you’re so smitten it’s not even funny,” Fabrizio said. Gabriel didn’t even try to argue he was not.

Lying is, after all, a sin.

***

Indulging in carnal  pleasures was, quite obviously, not the immediate ticket to the lowest circles of Hell that many mortals seemed to believe it was.

It was in some cases, of course, whenever someone forced their own lust on somebody who was anything but a willing participant; those souls had a circle of their own, which was rather cramped as well as boasting a frankly astounding amount of Catholic priests. 

A good number of them may have been tempted by demons, though Beelzebub suspected it was a minority, but even in those cases all the forces of Hell had really done was put some rather non-specific lust in their heart; how they let it grow and then acted upon it was entirely their choice.

It was not a circle of Hell Beelzebub had ever had much to do with, as lust did not precisely fall under their expertise, and therefore they did not know the minute details of what was the exact line between simple carnal pleasure and sinful lust. However, they felt reasonably certain in the assumption that carnal relations with a Prince of Hell would, at the very least, be a prominent enough sin to tilt the balance of the scale towards Hell.

And I may be more successful in doing that than I was trying to convince him to push an old lady under the bus. 

Just maybe. There were demons who made seduction their weapon of choice when it came to gaining influence over mortals, but Beelzebub was not among them. Plus, when asked if he did have carnal desires, Gabriel had said he didn’t think he did.

But he hadn’t said no, either, which had been his immediate reply whenever they had tried to talk him into any kind of serious sin, and therefore Beelzebub concluded it would be foolish not to make at least an attempt. So they would - but first, they needed to do some research over what carnal relations precisely entailed other than just choosing one out of two models of genitalia and make them fit with the other’s. 

They would come across as rather stupid, after all, if Gabriel accepted and they had to reveal they didn’t know the first thing about what they’d just proposed.

*** 

The dancers should stand facing each other, keep their feet loose and relaxed, standing so that they are facing each other with about an arm's length of space in between them...

By the time he got to the second paragraph, Gabriel had begun to suspect that guide - Learn How To Shag In One Minute - was not precisely what he was looking for. With a frown, he went back to the search results and looked around a bit further. 

Ah, so apparently shag dancing was a thing. It looked rather awkward and had no relevance to his research, doubly so as angels did not dance and he certainly had not picked up the habit since becoming mortal, so in the end Gabriel sighed and just put his phone down.

All right, it seemed that the Internet was not a reliable source, regardless of the large amounts of porn that, he had been informed, could be found in it. He had absolutely no intention to come across as a fool if - when? - Beelzebub brought up the matter again, and therefore he needed better sources than dubious websites with excessive amounts of Xs in their name.

A book. Books are more reliable.

Of course Gabriel was not so gullible to think all books could be trusted - he had seen too many outlandish editions of the Bible not to know better - so he would need to be certain the book he got his hands on would be a reputable one.

And he just so happened to know an expert in the field.

***

“Lord Beelzeb--”

“Nothing!”

Dagon blinked, taken aback, when Lord Beelzebub let out a noise that was only slightly more dignified than a shriek and slammed their laptop shut. They had been sitting on their throne, staring at the screen with such keen interest they hadn’t heard her coming in - and now, for some reason, they were sitting on the laptop. 

… All right. Dagon would assume that whatever they were looking at was a private matter and not ask, then. She cleared her throat and somehow managed to keep a straight face despite the utter surprise; she had never seen the Lord of the Flies caught so off-guard. 

“What do you want!” Beelzebub barked, looking one step away from trying to turn her to ashes. Not that Hellfire could destroy a demon, of course, but it would hurt quite badly and Dagon liked it better when she was not hurt quite badly. 

“I, uh, am here concerning the meeting to review the performance of our demons this month,” she said. “If it suits you, we can move the time--”

“You can chair that stupid meeting,” the Prince of Hell snapped. “Now leave. I’m busy.”

“Oh. Is it anything I can help wi--”

“You can help by chairing the meeting in my stead.”

“Ah. Does that mean I am authorized to choose who to punish and what bonuses to award--”

“You’re authorized to do whatever the Heaven you want, as long as you leave me now!”

The flies around Lord Beelzebub’s head buzzed furiously as though to underline the unspoken threat, and Dagon was clever enough not to argue further: a quick bow, and she was out of the throne room as fast as her legs could carry her while still maintaining some composure. 

Once alone, Beelzebub let out a groan and rubbed their eyes. They stood, picked up the laptop from their throne, and opened it again. The screen was cracked, but then again the entire thing was so busted it was plainly not supposed to work in any capacity, and Beelzebub had yet to meet a piece of technology that would defy their order to work when they were supposed to. 

It sure worked now, as Beelzebub turned it back on and to look at their most recent searches. 

how to do courtship how to court human how to court idiot how to kiss human genitalia how penis work how vagina work how to have sex tutorial

The last one led to a rather educational video depicting a man and a woman on a large, round bed. If they squinted, the man even looked a little like Gabriel. 

Beelzebub supposed it would do for now, in case they decided to acquire female genitalia for the occasion, but they were still on the fence about that and would probably need to seek more varied videos. Just to make sure they had grasped the main idea, of course. 

“Unnecessarily complicated, is what all this is,” Beelzebub, Prince of Hell and Lord of the Flies, declared loudly. Then they leaned back on their throne, reached for one of the mugs Gabriel had bought them, and hit play again.

For research.

***

“Gabriel! It’s good to see you.”

“He doesn’t mean that,” Crowley muttered. 

“Come, sit. I’ll make some tea.”

“Feel free to decline, we won’t mind.”

“Tea would be much appreciated, thank you,” Gabriel said, to Crowley’s annoyance, and sat, to his further annoyance, while entirely ignoring his remarks, to his utter annoyance. He looked around the cottage, and if he dared say anything about the decor Crowley would chew his head off, especially after seeing what kind of minimalistic nightmare Heaven was.

“This is… cozy,” Gabriel finally said after a slight hesitation, leaving Crowley just a little miffed that he didn’t, after all, get a good excuse to chew off his head. Yet. 

“Oh, we’re still in the process of moving everything,” Aziraphale was saying, picking up the teapot he’d put on the stove only minutes before Gabriel had showed up at the bookstore. With the portal-door between the store and the cottage wide open, the sound of him knocking had carried over and Aziraphale had let him in before Crowley could stop it. 

“We will keep the door open between here and my bookstore, it is such a convenient place to store all my books and I am not ready to give it up just yet. Crowley still needs to move some paintings out of his flat, that garish throne and the decoration he stole from a church--”

“I didn’t steal it, the church was bombed.”

“I remember. It was an eventful evening,” Aziraphale said lightly, putting the teapot on the table. “I almost got discorporated, but Crowley came to help me out. He saved us all upstairs so much paperwork.”

“Ah,” Gabriel said, clearly not sure what to say to that. “I mean-- thank you.” 

Crowley gave him a long, unimpressed look, and he cleared his throat. “Anyway… where’s here, exactly?”

“That’s on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need to know,” Crowley said, crossing his arms. They both had agreed that neither Heaven nor Hell would ever know where their cottage was, and while Gabriel was technically part of neither, he still counted as a stuck-up archangel as far as Crowley was concerned. Now that he knew about the cottage, something would have to be done about the door connecting it to the bookstore. Maybe a seal, the kind that would keep out anyone who was not the two of them…

“It’s good to know you’re doing well,” Aziraphale was saying, clearly speaking for himself only, and poured tea in all three cups on the table despite the fact Crowley had elected not to sit yet, instead glaring at Gabriel in hopes he would feel uncomfortable enough to leave. “Now, what was that you mentioned about needing research books?” he asked, and brought the cup to his mouth. 

“I need pornography books,” Gabriel declared, and the excellent tea Aziraphale had just sipped was sprayed right back out on the table in a fine mist. From his corner, Crowley raised both eyebrows up to almost his hairline. 

Well. That was not what he’d expected to hear.

Aziraphale looked down at the mess on the table and on his own clothes before he gave Gabriel a very, very weary look. “You know, don’t you, that there really is no need for codes now?”

Gabriel shook his head. “No, no, it’s not a code. I do need some pornography books.”

Aziraphale stared.

“... For research. As I sa-- Aziraphale?”

No answer: Aziraphale stood, without a further word, and was out of the room within moments, hands up in the air. Whether to find someplace to scream in peace, stare at the wall for a few minutes while scrubbing the mental image out of his brain, or try to clean the tea off his clothes, Crowley was not sure. 

He would check on him in a minute. First, he had questions.

“Research, huh?” he said, leaning on the table across a rather bewildered Gabriel, who had somehow expected a different reaction to him asking to borrow pornography books. He grinned, wide enough to almost make his cheeks hurt. There was some amazing mocking material there, he could feel it. “And who is this about? A new friend? A coworker?”

Still stunned by Aziraphale’s reaction, Gabriel answered without pausing a moment to ponder whether he should answer that question. “Beelzebub,” he said, like he was answering a question on what kind of tea he preferred.

Ah.

For a few moments Crowley could only stare, the grin frozen on his lips. He was startled out of it by a sound like breaking glass that, he realized rather belatedly, came from inside his own brain. 

No. No no no no. Nope. Nope. Abort, abort. 

“Angel!” he called out, his voice a little strangled, and went to search for Aziraphale to make him share with him whatever bleach he was now using on his brain. Behind him, Gabriel spoke up.

“Uh, so can I borrow a book--” he tried to ask, but a slamming door was the only reply he got for a good while.

*** 

“Oh, this is never going to come out…” 

Aziraphale sighed, looking down at his waistcoat, whose front was currently drenched with tea. Of course he could miracle it away, with Gabriel no longer in the position of writing him strongly worded letters about frivolous miracles... but he could feel a headache build up just thinking about Gabriel and looking around for a clean napkin was a rather welcomed distraction.

Until Crowley stepped in, eyes wide. 

“Beelzebub,” he blurted out, causing Aziraphale to nearly jump out of his skin and frantically look around. God knew, the last thing he needed to deal with was the Lord of the Flies in his bookstore.

“What-- where??”

“No, I mean--” Crowley let out a pained noise, rubbing his eyes like he hoped to get an awful image off his retinas. “It’s about Beelzebub. Gabriel’s research. On pornography.”

Ah.

“Ah,” Aziraphale said. He needed a few moments for what he’d just heard to entirely sink into his brain. When it did, he barely repressed a shudder. “That is… not… what I was expecting.”

“The Archangel Fucking Gabriel and Beelzebub. It’s in my brain now. Can you miracle it away?”

“I’m afraid that goes beyond my abilities,” Aziraphale said, reaching up to put a hand on his own head to calm the building headache. “If your head also hurts something awful, though, I can help with that. If you can get the tea out of my waistco-- oh. Thank you.” He smiled as Crowley took care of that with a snap of his fingers, the other hand still firmly on his eyes. 

“You’re welcome. Now, can we throw him whatever book he wants and then throw him out?”

Aziraphale was very much opposed to throwing books, of course, but shoving a pornography book in Gabriel’s hands and firmly showing him the door seemed the best course of action.

***

“... I can explain.”

“No offence, but we’d really rather you do not.”

Gabriel shifted a little, a heavy leather-bound book in his arms. “Right. Well, er… thank you for the book. I’ll return it once I’ve--”

“Feel free to return it whenever. You’re very much welcome,” Aziraphale spoke quickly, and while he didn’t physically shove Gabriel through the door, he very much did get the message that he really wanted him to leave sooner rather than later. “Best of, er, luck. With your research,” he added quickly, and closed the door behind him.

Gabriel stood on the spot a few moments, blinking in slight confusion, but in the end he shrugged it off - maybe he had caught him in a busy moment - and opened the book to have a quick look.

… Huh. Could a mortal’s spine actually do that?

There was laughter, a couple of children running past him, and Gabriel immediately closed the book. Right, right - looking at pornography in public was frowned upon, so he ought to wait until he was back home. On the way back, he’d purchase a pen and notebook. 

In case he needed to write something down. 

*** 

Once their research was completed, Beelzebub was still not certain what it was about the act that so many humans found irresistible - but, they had to admit, their curiosity was piqued. Perhaps a carnal act with Gabriel would pave the way for his descent into Hell, perhaps it would not, but either way they would get to know what it precisely was about, so they would be getting something out of it. 

The only thing for them to find out was whether Gabriel would be a willing participant, which was a rather important point because they may be the Prince of Hell but they also had standards. And, all things considered, they got the answer to that rather quickly: they couldn’t be many other reasons for Gabriel to be sitting at his desk with an open book full of pornographic images and a notebook half-filled with notes.

At least, they hoped they were not. Beelzebub found that the idea Gabriel might harbor carnal desire for someone else left them distinctly annoyed. 

“I can explain,” Gabriel blurted out as soon as he recovered from the mini heart attack Beelzebub’s sudden appearance in flames and smoke had given in. Quick recovery, they had to give him that. “This is, uh-- this is-- research, for--”

“You’ve given my question some thought, I see.”

“Well--” he finally regained composure, and cleared his throat. “I have.”

“And…?”

“I’m not certain I do have those, uh, inclinations, but I’d be open to give it a try. If you’re so inclined,” he added quickly.

“I see,” Beelzebub said, their voice perfectly collected. Inwardly, however, they felt very much like a Jehovah's Witness who’d just been invited inside to talk after knocking: hadn’t really thought they would get that far and had already forgotten just about everything they had planned to do in the event. So they said nothing else, and stared. 

Gabriel said nothing else. And stared. 

Needless to say, that was not a promising start. 

“... Which one?” Beelzebub finally asked.

“Huh?”

“Which set of genitalia.”

“Oh. I have--”

“I know what you have, I have seen you showering. I’m asking which one I should get now.”

“Ah.” Gabriel glanced at the book as though hoping to find an answer there. “Er… either? We can throw a coin,” he muttered, and dug a coin out of his pocket and handed it to them. “Head for penis and--”

Beelzebub threw the coin, caught it, and looked down at it. “Tails.”

“Right. Well--”

“Do not presume for even a moment I will allow you to be above me.”

“I’m not presuming, I just-- what are those?”

“Notes,” Beelzebub muttered, more than slightly irritated at having forgotten their own script. They shuffled through the clue cards they had pulled out of their back pockets, rather wishing their handwriting did not look like a dying fly had dragged itself across the paper after being dunked in ink.

 “... Right. So we have come to the agreement we both consent. At this point, we’re supposed to--” they began, and trailed off when Gabriel did the unthinkable. 

He laughed.

“What are you-- hey! Stop laughing!” Beelzebub buzzed furiously, their face suddenly really, really hot. They crumpled notes in their fist and glaring up at Gabriel. “Cease this instant!” they ordered, and were a moment away from kicking him in the shin - how dare he laugh at the Lord of the Flies? - when Gabriel spoke, his laugh dying down to a snicker. 

“I-- heh. My apologies. I just--” he gestured to the papers crumpled in Beelzebub’s fist, and then at his own notebook on the desk. “One way or another, we end up with paperwork. I suspect humans are more spontaneous about it.”

Beelzebub huffed. “Well, I am not human,” they muttered, but the anger died down, and they crossed their arms. “If you don’t plan by the book, how do you know if you’re getting things right?”

“Well-- sometimes you don’t know. Humans take chances all the time.”

A scoff. “What a disgustingly human thing to say. Is that how your mind operates now?”

“... I do still find it somewhat frightening,” Gabriel said, quietly, and whatever mockery Beelzebub was about to utter next died in their throat. The look he was giving them was surprisingly open, and he looked painfully vulnerable.

In the end, when they spoke, their voice was just as quiet. 

“You have no reason to be frightened,” they said, and burned the note in their fist, letting the ashes fall on the floor. “I usually do punish failure, but I’m willing to make you an exception, I suppose.”

A chuckle, and Gabriel lifted a hand, holding it up almost close enough to Beelzebub’s face to touch the skin. “May I?”

“... You may,” they replied. The touch was warm, foreign and familiar at the same time - did he touch their face like that a long time ago, when they were still Ba’al? - and leaning into it, finding out where it all led, was so very tempting. Ironic, considering that they were supposed to be the one doing the tempting and… and…

No.

“Wait.” Beelzebub reached up to brace a hand against Gabriel’s chest, keeping him at a distance. He immediately stopped, and looked down at them in confusion, their faces only inches apart. “There is a chance this may count as a serious sin.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Shouldn’t have told him. He’ll call it off. 

Gabriel blinked, and the confused expression turned into a smile. “I figured,” he said, and tilted up their chin. “I think I’ll take the chance.”

… Well, they had given him a fair warning, so their conscience was clear. Would have been clear, if they had one. “You’re a fool,” the Prince of Hell informed him.

“I figured that too,” the fool replied.

What followed was a bit messier and significantly more complicated than expected, but given enough time and attempts, they did figure that out as well.

*** 

A good while after they had both caught their breath and Gabriel’s heart no longer felt like it was trying to burst out of his chest, Beelzebub had yet to say a word.

But they were still there, even if silent, accepting Gabriel’s arms around them and his quiet breathing against the nape of their neck, and he supposed that was a sure sign they had no complaints. In the end, he dared break the peaceful silence. 

“Can you stay for the night?” he asked, his voice low. 

“I am Prince of Hell. I can do as I wish.”

“... Do you wish to stay for the night?”

“I can’t see why not,” they conceded, causing Gabriel’s lips to curl into a smile. He said nothing, kissing the back of Beelzebub’s shoulder instead. Of course, they could tell he was smiling right away. “What are you smirking about?”

“Well, it was-- pleasant, was it not?”

Gabriel felt their light snort more than he heard it. “Bragging already, are you?” they muttered, and turned in his arms to face him. Their skin was pleasantly warm. “Do I have to remind you who was leading?”

Of course, there was no need. It wasn’t often that Gabriel found himself in the position of having to look up at the Lord of the Flies, and he hadn’t minded the change. He hadn’t minded at all. 

“Oh, I never tried to take credit.” Gabriel dropped a kiss on the bridge of Beelzebub’s nose, gaining himself a frown and a buzzing noise - but no attempt at all to shove him off them. He was dimly aware of the fact that there was a folder in Hell bearing his name which perhaps had just gained a sin in red ink, but he found he couldn’t even begin to feel concern. 

“Next time,” Beelzebub was saying, “I’ll try the other set of genitalia.”

“Heh. So there will be a next time?”

The Lord of the Flies did shove him at that, flat onto his back, before they rolled on top of him. They propped themselves up on their elbows, which rested on his chest. It wasn’t the most comfortable predicament, but Gabriel’s muscles still felt like cooked asparagus and he wouldn’t have bothered to protest for anything short of being raked over hot coals. 

“We both have researched a great deal more than what we have put in practice, and I don’t see why the time spent on it should go to waste,” they said, tilting their head. “Don’t you agree?”

A smile, and Gabriel dared tilt up his head to try and catch their lips again. He missed, and his mouth rested briefly on their throat instead before he pulled them down against his chest. 

“I do,” he murmured. “Wholeheartedly.”

***

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  --Jeremiah 17:9

***

[Back]

[Next]

[silvergalaxyx7]

Friday Night Funkin Original Story (Corrupta Nigrum) [Part 2: Crimson Metal]

Part 2: Crimson Metal

Another beautiful day shined upon the Holy Granda Church as Sarv sat within the greenhouse towards the back of the building, holding a plate of handmade cookies, some having strawberry frosting with a crudely made heart with a cross in the middle while others had gray frosting with an attempt to draw her friend Ruv, the nun trying to bring one of the pink cookies to the man’s mouth, only for Ruv to turn his head.

“Ruuuuv, just try them!” Sarv tried to bring the cookie closer to her friend’s face, only for Ruv to simply grunt in response.

“Sarv, you know how much I hate those kinds of foods,” the man stood up.

“Aww, but you haven’t even tried to eat one yet!” Sarv whined as Ruv stood up from his chair, Sarv following, “And where do you think you’re going?”

“Somewhere where I don’t have to be forced to eat disgusting sweets!” Ruv began walking away before Sarv held her cookie tighter going after the man.

“Oh no you don’t!” Sarv tried to shove one of the cookies into Ruv’s mouth, only for the man to slap it away, “H-Hey, I spent all last night making these! Pick it up right now, young man!”

“S-Sorry, but you asked for it!” Ruv explained, going down to get the cookie before realizing what was going on, looking up to see Sarv poised and ready to shove another cookie in his mouth, this one being the one representing his face, “Oh you little-”

“Come here!” Sarv exclaimed, running after the man who dodged every instance of her trying to shove the frosted dessert in his mouth.

“No, never!” Ruv widened his eyes a small bit, his eyebrows following the same pattern, a clear indication that he was either surprised or trying to smile despite not being able to do so.

“Say ahhh!” Sarv instructed, running after the man with her mouth open.

“AHHH!” Ruv screamed as the greenhouse shook with the man’s voice, the window panes that surrounded them beginning to crack as Sarv fell onto the ground, her plate breaking from the impact, a large array of her cookies littering the ground, as Sarv looked up, dizzy from the impact, but more so saddened by the remnant of all her work.

“Nooo, my cookies!” Sarv pretended to cry dramatically, Ruv rolling his eyes as he stood tall above her, “Ruv you brute, how could you?”

“Ugh, fine!” Ruv scoffed, grabbing one of the only whole cookies from the ground, this being the gray one with his face, before shoving it into his mouth before momentarily wincing at the strong flavor and swallowing it with a bit too much effort for eating such a simple food.

Sarv gasped with joy before picking up the rest of the broken cookies and bringing them to another plate she had left on one of the counters that held her tending tools for the greenhouse’s plants, waiting for her friend’s rather overdramatic attempt at trying to digest her gift to him.

“Sooo, how is it?” she gathered her broom and dustpan, sweeping the pieces of the plate into it turning to Ruv with an expectant smile.

“Sweet…..too sweet,” Ruv commented before coughing, a piece of the plate coming out of his mouth, “Oh, and this tastes horrible too by the way.”

“Ruv!” Sarv picked up the piece before placing it in the dustpan, emptying it in the trashcan nearby, “I swear, you can be such a child sometimes.”

“At least I’m not trying to force people to eat poison!” Ruv remarked.

“It’s not poison and you know it!” Sarv placed her hands on her hips as Ruv simply gave another grunt.

“It wasn’t…..completely awful,” Ruv responded as Sarv’s eyes sparkled from the compliment, hugging her friend tightly.

“Aw, you mean it?”

“Yeah, it was a lot better than your last ten tries this week,” Ruv shrugged.

“Gee, thanks very much,” Sarv said sarcastically, rolling her eyes before laughing, Ruv only capable of one or two chuckles as the duo stood underneath the sunlight beaming through the windows of their collection of fauna. 

Suddenly however, a small sobbing began coming from the door that stopped both friends from their little happy moment, Sarv slowly pulling away from her and Ruv’s embrace before walking towards the door that led to the main mass hall where nobody really arrived to nowadays, prayer being of little importance to a world that ran on melody, though Sarv believed otherwise.

“It’s that man again, isn’t it?” Ruv asked, following Sarv who peered through the crack of the door, observing an old man with a disheveled gray beard and long white hair at one of the church’s benches, kneeling down with his hands together in prayer as his eyes were closed, tears escaping from them as he continued to pray.

“Bless those who mourn, eternal God, with the…..*sniff*.....comfort of your love that I may face each new day…*sniff*...with hope and the certainty that nothing can destroy the good that has been given. May my and…*sniff*…..mine loved ones memories become joyful, their days enriched with friendship, and our lives encircled by your love, amen” the old man had said, sobs and sniffs in between his prayer as he let out a shaky breath before continuing to cry, his cane at his side.

Sarv looked on, a pained expression filling her face as she looked on, a pained guilt inside her chest that she couldn’t help everyone who was suffering in the world at the moment, the musical harmony that is shown through the flashy billboards and tv commercials only hiding the suffering that individuals like this man were feeling, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Heh, “God’s Plan” as they called it.

“Yes….” Sarv finally responded to Ruv’s question as she gave a deep sigh of her melancholy heart.

“What’s his name?” Ruv asked as Sarv looked up at the man who stared at the praying elder, Ruv having never shown any interest in the lives of those outside of herself, though the nun simply smiled sadly with that fact.

“Joseph Gerrack,” Sarv answered before her smile shifted into a frown.

“Lost loved one I’m guessing?” Ruv closed his eyes for a moment, not needing to see Sarv’s slow nod to know he was right.

“His wife, Isabelle Gerrack, recently passed away at eighty just the other day, and Joseph, having been extremely close to her, used every cent he had left in his account to give her the medical and affectionate attention she needed and deserves but…..but it turned out to not be enough I’m afraid,” Sarv’s grip on the door’s side tightening for a moment, tears escaping her eyes for a second before the nun wiped them away, “Ruv, is it selfish of us to live passed all of them when they have to go through so much suffering and death, only to go to someplace better?”

“Are you saying life isn’t worth living if you go to a better place?” Ruv brought his voice lower than they had been speaking, but his words were always louder than necessary, so the nun could hear him clearly.

“Of course not, but I feel like it makes us look like we are living our lives free of worries while everyone has to go through the pain of losing their loved ones in the process of trying to be their best selves,” Sarv looked back at Joseph who had grabbed something from the coat of his jacket, this being a rosary that he gripped in his hand before continuing his prayer.

“Or maybe we lose ourselves,” Ruv’s hardened expression made it hard to make it apparent that he too had a saddened look on his face, “But we are lucky that we are immortal.”

“How so?” Sarv looked up at the man with surprise.

“We have more time to reflect on ourselves, find longer and better ways to help those who need it…...well, at least you do,” Ruv held Sarv’s hand as she simply smiled back with some semblance of understanding in her breaths. 

“Ruv, you know I believe you can do it, after everything that you’ve done to try redemption, to try and be a far better person than you have been,” Sarv squeezed the man’s help with a determined look, “You are not your actions. Don’t let your past define who you currently are.”

“Right,” Ruv looked down at the nun’s hands.

“Ruv, if you wouldn’t mind me asking, since you don’t really talk too much about other people around you and all, have you ever seen someone lose a loved one?” Sarv asked as Ruv’s eyes widened for a moment, the man placing both hands in his pockets in contemplation.

“Dozens of times actually,” Ruv sighed, “When I did some horrible things back in Tomsk, I was leaving the country, but before I reached the city walls, I encountered a cemetery with a few of the family members who belonged to those that I…..killed.

I heard them saying a prayer in their language, praying that ‘Благословенный Бог нашей земли обетованной, чтобы наша жизнь была наполнена светом и обетованием, и чтобы единство и слава, которые ждет всех нас в будущем, сбудутся, аминь.’ (Blessed God of our promised land, so that our lives will be filled with light and promise, and that the unity and glory that awaits all of us in the future will come true, amen).

At that moment I just felt like giving up, that nothing was worth continuing if I would only cause pain and suffering to those that I came near, but I stayed around for a little longer, moving into the next town over as I stayed within the alleys of the city, the motel having my posters up too, until a babushka came outside her home and say me, taking me inside her home.

As much as I didn’t trust her, she was nice to me, and when I asked her why she didn’t just call the police, she said something to me.

‘If you hit a dog with a shoe so that he stops eating all of your vareniki, it will live all of its life afraid to eat a single type of food, but if you teach it that there are other foods to eat, things that won’t get him in trouble, then it learns his lesson, and its trust on you as not an owner but a friend grows.’

I didn’t really know what she was talking about, but spending a while with her allowed me to self reflect on who I was as a person and although it only lasted a little bit, it helped me continue going forward with something in my chest, though I don’t know if it was hope or a desperate call for salvation that led me to this city…...to you.”

“Ruv…” Sarv gave a smile, the nun beginning to tear up once more before the man gesture that Joseph was leaving, Sarv quickly realizing this as she exited the greenhouse into the mass hall, “O-Oh, Mr. Gerrack, have a good day and may your soul rest in peace knowing that things will get better!”

“I trust the lord to promise me that, dear,” Joseph smiled and waved goodbye before using his cane to exit the building, dismissing Sarv’s consistent attempts to help walk him home.

“Another day, another empty church,” Sarv sighed, crossing her arms as she began to turn around, Ruv returning back inside the greenhouse.

“Excuse me!” the nun suddenly heard a voice come from the front of the church’s doors which opened slowly, a man peeking his head inside, quickly lowering his voice, “I-I’m not interrupting a mass, am I?”

“O-Oh!” Sarv gasp, this being one of the first times anybody had come to visit the church, “Not at all, please come in!”

“Thank goodness!” the man walked in, being nearly as tall as Sarv was, having short and black curly hair, thin glasses, a cinnamon suit that seemed to somewhat resemble her own, and an overhanging black cloak, “I didn’t wish to be rude since masses are quite sacred events held in these buildings, although it only seems as if one individual was here at the moment, so I take it today isn’t an average day?”

“If only,” Sarv gave a small laugh, “Unfortunately, it seems as if this is a regular occurrence for us.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s quite alright!” Sarv waves her hands, dismissing the man’s worries, “We’re quite used to it.”

“I see, well, that’s good news at least,” the man gave a warm smile, looking around the church in admiration for its ancient yet welcoming infrastructure, “So I take it you’re Sarvente?”

“You’ve seen the poster!” Sarv clapped her hands together happily, “I thought most of them were removed from the bulletin board at the center of town, so I had thought no one would arrive, though here you are.”

“Well then, I’m glad I could make your day,” the man grinned, extending his hand out, “Geovanni Gouge, at your service.”

“Sarvente-er-you already know that, don’t you?” Sarv shook the man’s head with a sheepish smile, “Oh, have you come to join the church?”

“Oh, um, hehe,” Geovanni scratched the back of his head, “Actually, I came here to look for you.”

“For me?” Sarv tiled her head, “Well, whatever for?”

“Have you ever heard of Boyfriend and Luc-er-Girlfriend?” Geovanni asked the nun who contemplated the question, her memories fluttering back to a few weeks ago before it snapped into place. 

“Oh, the ungrateful children,” Sarv said in an irritating tone, “Yes, unfortunately we’ve had the pleasure of crossing paths, why do you ask?”

“Do you remember having a rap battle with them?” Geovanni continued as Sarv began nodding slowly before stopping.

“Wait, how do you know this?” Sarv questioned, unaware that she and the children had had an audience during that evening.

“Oh, yes, this is always the hardest part to explain,” the man scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile, “Well, to best describe it, I was simply observing the events surrounding Boyfriend and Girlfriend’s “adventures” and “encounters” with those opposing their average life, though the direct orders of Daddy Dearest.”

“Daddy Dearest?” Sarv repeated the name, contemplating it for a moment before a glare formed on her face as she clenched her gloves hands together in anger, “That demon!”

“Yes, well, through my own person peering spell that allows me to view events through the time and space of this reality, only tying it to the movements and overall body of Boyfriend himself, allowed me to follow him and Girlfriend throughout various dimensions and reality,” Geovanni continued to explain. 

“Alright, as impressive as your “magical techniques” sound, is there a point to any of this?” Sarv crossed her arms.

“Very straightforward, aren’t you?” Geovanni gave a nervous laugh, “Well, in any case, I…...require your demonic assistance.”

Sarv’s eyes widened for a moment before giving a rather pompous and joyful laugh that echoed the main church chamber, light momentarily shining through the ceramic stained glass from above the main doorway that led outside the building, an image depicting a cross with a halo on top, bringing golden light in that for a moment almost seemed to act like spotlights for both the nun and the man, Sarv covered in a golden yellow as the man was washed over with a peachy white.

“Is that a yes?” the man asked.

“Oh dear, you must have seen a few demons within your home to assume something that ridiculous,” Sarv let out another laugh, this one a bit more playful in nature. 

“I’m being serious…” Geovanni responded with confusion.

“Oh, I bet you are!” Sarv giggled, extending her hand out in a warm happiness, “Come now, let this nun show you the joys of belief and clear your mind of these silly accusations.”

“Wait, but I-” Geovanni protested before being thrown a microphone that had pulled out of what seemed to be thin air, as Sarv flipped the switch on hers, a small DVD player towards the back of the church, on a small table near the altar, playing a rather cheerful melody that, with the building’s emptiness, easily echoed along its walls as if a speaker system had been placed there.

It looked like there was no changing this lady’s mind.

And so, the first battle begins.

[This battle is fairly straightforward since it uses the same songs as the first Mid-Fight Masses one, “Parish”, with the same movements for Sarv and Geovanni with the only difference being the background and setting that the two are in which is similar to the original character’s church, only now we are located in the center mass hall, rows of such a building’s benches being seen in the background of both characters, a red carpet being laid down beneath them as a yellow and dim glow lights up said background, two amber spotlights shining down on both characters.]

“Argh, not again!” Sarv scowled for a moment, gripping her microphone with an extreme force, the nun’s eyes momentarily flashing a magenta hue before she simply gave a deep breath, her grip loosening, as she returned her cheerful expression and smile, “Shall we try this again?”

“Lady Sarvente, I really do not have time for this!” Geovanni protested, but the nun wasn’t paying attention.

“And I do not have time for your accusations, so I will ask you again, will you join the church?” Sarv’s left eye twitched suddenly, the nun’s patience beginning to run thin far faster than how it last occurred with the children. 

“I cannot do such a thing I’m afraid,” Geovanni looked down, a surprising amount of guilt in the sorcerer’s expression. 

Sarv too was surprised by the sudden addition of sadness in the man’s eyes, but he was just as rude as that boy and his beloved, right?

Yes, just another accusation after another, though his reasoning for knowing her secret was rather solid.

No, she couldn’t simply give up like this.

“Then so be it,” Sarv pressed on the lower button on her mic, switching over to her next song.

With both sides a bit frazzled, the second battle commences.

[Same situation as before, only this time the song “Worship” from the mod is the music for this battle, Sarv’s movements still the same, although Geovanni’s movements are different, being from the third round in part 1 of the story, “Dark Resistance”, where he, like Sarv, is worn out from the first battle and a bit more hesitant to truly beat her and cause more trouble in his mission, but the nun wasn’t holding back, so neither could he.]

“OH COME ON!” Sarv’s voice echoed through the sacred chamber’s walls before the nun simply glared at Geovanni, grabbing something from her pocket before taking out a phone, making sure not to break eye contact with the man while she did so, “Don’t go anywhere.”

“I can’t do that anyway, since I’ve come for your assistance,” Geovanni tried to explain before being interrupted by the phone call the nun was in, speaking to a man that the sorcerer was quite familiar with due to all the posters he had seen gathered around the streets.

“Sarv….” a deep russian accented voice echoed through the building without the need to even shout, a man wearing a grayish white jacket to accompany a face that the sorcerer had only ever seen in cookie wrappers at the local supermarket, wearing a black eyepatch with markings over his left eye, large and heavy boots, and a ushanka, “You do realize that we are in the same building, right?”

“O-Oh, right….” the nun gave a nervous laugh, “I suppose it’s a force of habit.”

“Is there a problem here?” the man that Geovanni knew as Ruvyzvat without a clear indication as to his or the nun’s last names had asked the sorcerer.

“No, I am simply trying to recruit Lady Sarvente’s assistance through her impeccable and beneficial use of demonic magic in order to stop a massive threat that is a danger to our reality as we know it!” Geovanni tried to reason with the man, Sarv’s eyes softening for a moment.

“T-Threat….?” she said softly, though only Ruv could hear her.

“How did you know about her secret demonic shifting abilities?” Ruv asked as Sarv was immediately snapped out of her concern, her expression shifting to anger.

“RUV!” she scolded the man who slowly recorrected himself.

“U-Um, I mean, how could you accuse a nun of being a demonic ruler…?” he gave a neutral thumbs up towards Sarv who simply face palmed.

“Yes, that you a lot,” Sarv said bitterly, “Would you just deal with him please?”

“Right…” Ruv gave a quick nod as the nun threw him a microphone, the man flipping it off before looking back at Sarv for a moment, gesturing around the room, “Um, don’t you want to…..you know?”

“Argh, I completely forgot!” Sarv folded her hands together, her patience at needle length, before the nun once again took a deep breath, mumbling a few prayers under her breath, “You know what, I’ll fix it, but still, do try to be careful.”

[Ruv nods as Zavodilla starts playing.]

“As you wish,” Ruv readied his voice, one which everyone at that moment knew could destroy the pillars in this place, the man taking a short breath before-

“ENOUGH!” Geovanni shouted, startling Sarv as Ruv simply stood still, the sorcerer’s pupils depicting magical circles as at the ends of his hand’s fingertips slowly spun two fairly large circles of similar complexity of ancient images, the sorcerer expression tired and pained, “I have come here to simply ask for aid to stop a celestial and primordial deity from consuming our reality as we know it, and I’ve witnessed your abilities, inside and outside your interactions with Boyfriend and Girlfriend, but neither of you seem to really care about my message, do you?”

Sarv’s cautious position and expression once again softened, the nun reaching out towards the sorcerer whose head was dropped down, his own mic dropping with it as feedback pierced the church, neither Ruv or Geovanni seeming to pay any mind as Sarv winced slightly.

“You know what? I think it’s better I leave,” Geovanni took a deep breath before passing his hands through his hair and straightening his tie, a necklace of sorts glinting in the golden light as the sorcerer turned around, walking towards the main doors of the church.

Sarv and Ruv looked at each other for a moment before the nun took a few steps forward, steps which turned to walking, and walking which turned into a light jog that made it easier to reach the man.

“W-Wait!” Sarv called out as Geovanni stopped, just a foot away from the door.

“Hmm?” the sorcerer turned around slowly, irritation still present in his face, though it was apparent that the desperation for hope was also within the depths of his eyes.

“Wait…” Sarv rubbed her arm, stopping a few feet away from the man, “Please, don’t go…….we’re…..I’m sorry for chasing you away from this sacred place.

I do not completely understand your comprehension of what I am, just as much as I myself lack the understanding of what you are, but my mission, compared to whatever may be your own, is of equal importance to me, this being the insurance that all beings in this mortal and peaceful realm of melody are accepting into the heavenly gates of the father above, so in my own regards it is hypocritical and pathetic of me to try and hide away from those who require assistance.

That being said however, I require your understanding of my own situation, one in which I cannot simply reveal my demonic form to a mortal, especially one who I have never met and who has the capabilities to do harm with this secret, so how can I be sure that you are not deceiving me, or worse, a demon yourself?”

Geovanni completely turned around, this newfound respect and understanding being responded to with a slight nod from the sorcerer who recreated the peering spell that he had tried to use on Girlfriend early that evening, the floral symbol floating in front of him before revealing his aura and essence to the nun whose eyes widened.

“I do not know if you understand what this spell is, but sorcerers and magic users who protect the peace of this world have blue souls, a trait known to those who are within the good alignment of this world,” the sorcerer gave a weak smile before dissipating the spell, “I couldn’t physically use the spell on you when I had first seen you or Ruvyzvat, but I’ve seen what you’ve done throughout all these years, and you’re actually one of my favorite portals to view every day, so I come to ask for your assistance since I truly believe that you care for all life and that your abilities, while somewhat chaotic if your mental and emotional state are unbalanced, can be used for good, like the one who denied your entrance into heaven.”

Sarv stood motionless for a moment, contemplating the sorcerer’s request before taking a deep breath and nodding to herself.

“To what extent do you need my assistance?” she asked the sorcerer who widened his eyes as if he did not expect the nun to agree this quickly. 

“Do you know of the Corrupta Nigrum?” Geovanni asked as Sarv thought of the name before the nun’s eyes widened as she looked over at Ruv.

“Ruv, be a dear and close the church for now, then meet us in the library,” she instructed as Ruv gave a hesitant nod, the nun turning back to Geovanni, “Follow me.”

With those words, Sarv grabbed the sorcerer’s arm before dragging him to the right of the altar in which a door was placed, walking through it with the nun before finding himself between two doors, one on the left and the other right, before Sarv opened the left door, gesturing that Geovanni follow her down a stairwell as they walked down, luminescent lights hanging overhead as they walked deeper and deeper down into what he postulated was the library Sarv had mentioned, until the nun and he stood in front of an ordain and biblically carved door depicting the true forms of angels such as seraphims, thrones, watchers, and images of crosses. 

Sarv turned the knob before opening the door, a warm light hitting the sorcerer’s face as the nun gestured he enter the room, Geovanni doing so before finding himself in a place that reminded him of his study room, only a bit smaller, the factor that made of for such a feature being the thick books that dotted the shelves, dust covering almost every surface, and a single one foot by two foot book that lay flatly opened on a lectern with a chair in front of the piece of furniture.

“Incredible….” Geovanni commented with awe, looking around the room before hearing a loud slam of the door behind him, whirling around to find Ruv closing the door as the man leaned on it, crossing his arms in expectations as Sarv walked up to the large text towards the end of the room, blowing on it as a cloud of dust gave way, making the trio begin to cough.

“Apologies, it is a bit dusty, though that is merely due to the fact that I have not used this title in such a long time,” Sarv coughed a bit more before flipping through the pages, “Though the Corrupta Nigrum is a name I have only heard of through the first mentions of the story of creation itself.”

“So you know about it?” Geovanni walked up to the nun, looking at the book with confusion as it was written in a language unbeknownst to the sorcerer before he snapped his fingers, magical circles appearing in place of his pupils as he stared at the book, focusing on some form of a translation spell, only for nothing to occur, “How strange…”

“It is an eldritch and ancient language that only those closest to God can understand unfortunately,” Sarv placed her gloved finger along one line in the text, “Though demonic entities are capable of understanding it for a reason unknown to myself.”

“You once again amaze me Lady Sarvente,” Geovanni gave a friendly smile as Sarv simply waved away the name.

“Please, Sarvente will do fine enough,” Sarv gave a small laugh, her expression then slowly shifting into seriousness as the nun returned her attention to the text, “In any case, I take it you know of the story itself?”

“It is more so an event, but I believe I have,” Geovanni nodded before clearing his throat, “From what I remember, it goes as follows:

‘ In the beginning of creation, God had made it is own purpose to form the world as we now know it today, a world where his children could interact through the use of melody and music in a way that problems could easily be solved through a friendly match of musical beats that were implanted in every single human being, be it through instrumental or vocal larynxes within every single living organism that exists in the planet as we know today.

Unfortunately, with harmony comes disharmony.

Those that went against the holy order, demons and the Blacyx, creatures that inhabit capabilities that exceed those of the laws of magic and arcanic elements of the world to torture or decieve the reality and world around ourselves, alike, made itr their sole purpose to go against the order set across by God and deceive the world into sin, not through any personal and means of betrayal, but more so an invitable result of the creation of a universe.

Harmony vs. disharmony, order vs. chaos, the world was placed into an unbalance that would threaten to annihilate everything. 

Fortunately, God the Allfather had decided to compact the evils of the world into one set entity, an entity that would center around destruction and chaos as humanity knew it, and he called this entity Corrupta Nigrum.

It is said that God had then sealed away the entity within a black void of nothingness, between the cracks of space and time itself, and that the peaceful melody that would consume the world will keep it at bay for all of eternity unless a certain event takes place.

The daughter of two demons, imbued by the power of hatred and melody combined into one paradoxical entity of disharmony and utter chaos, which then was called the Filia Obumbratio, if such an event ever should occur, wouldbirth a gateway from the void of nothingness in which the Corrupta Nigrum is stored and release it into the world which shall consume all of destruction.

Until that day arrives, the melody of the world shall keep it locked away in the chains of music, peace, etc…”

Sarv gave a nod of approval at the sorcerer’s memorization, Ruv simply tilting his head in confusion. 

“So basically, it’s a huge monster that wants to eat the world?” Ruv gestured his hands to represent an explosion, “Like boom and we’re dead?”

“An oversimplification, but yes,” Geovanni gave a single nod as Ruv simply grunted, wishing to hear the answer from Sarv rather than this stranger.

“Unfortunately, over time various dimensions began to form within our universe and portals between them and us began ripping the fabric of space and time a bit too thin, allowing the Corrupta Nigrum to peer into our world and spread his influence among a fairly large amount of people throughout the lands of this planet and some other dimensions as told by the rest of the scripture,” Sarv continued with the next few pages, “We have been unfortunate enough to receive a coincidence in which Filia Obumbratio is within our presence, haven’t we?”

“I am afraid so,” Geovanni nodded sadly, “Though with your connection with God, we could very well fix-”

“Pardon me, connection?” Sarv repeated the word, “I presumed you needed my assistance, but to simply speak with the Allfather is something I cannot do, apologies.”

“Ah, I see….” Geovanni took a deep breath before nodding to himself, “Well, luckily I expected this to occur, so I planned ahead of time, though what I require of you will unfortunately place your actions into question with your ability to ever enter heaven again.”

“I see…...well, I really don’t-”

“She won’t do it,” Ruv stepped into the conversation, interrupting Sarv in her words.

“I’m sorry….?” Geovanni narrowed his eyes in irritation.

“You heard me,” Ruv took a step forward as Sarv grabbed his arm to stop the man from continuing.

“Ruv, it’s alright, I just-”

“No, she won’t let all these years of hard work go to waste!” Ruv interjected the nun’s words again, the man’s voice loud enough that a few books fell from their shelves, their thickness causing clouds of dust to float around the room, making Sarv and Geovanni cough as Ruv stood unfazed, “She’s tried so hard to do good in the world, and I won’t let her waste it on some second hand plan.”

“Ruv….” Sarv sighed.

“Ruvyzvat, I have monitored your atrocities throughout the world,” Geovanni now took his step forward, snapping his fingers as a magic circle appeared, a journal of sorts coming from it as pieces of newspapers fell onto the ground, “Moscow, Russia, twelve families killed, five of which contained six family members while the other six had between two and three.

In Vladivostok of the same country, thirty adult males and five women were brutally beaten and the ten survivors, eight being men and two being women, had suffered blunt force trauma toward their cranium.

For some unknown reason, in Bern, Switzerland, seven adult males, two women, a canine strangely enough, and an unnamed authority figure of the country’s Swiss intelligence community of the Federal Intelligence Service were killed through what those of the vicinity of the “accident” amounted to around 300 decibels, their bodies suffering extreme pressure with external bleeding as those near the area nearly suffered noise-induced hearing loss. 

Shall I continue?”

Ruv stopped talking, the man’s eyes widening for a moment before he took a step backwards. 

“Mr. Gouge….” Sarv warned, the nun’s eyes once again flashing their magenta hue.

“You may try and hurt me to Mister Ruvyzvat,” Geovanni flickered the necklace hanging around his neck, the piece of jewelry connected by a metallic eye at the center which momentarily flashed a golden light, the action causing hundreds of small spinning magical circles to surround the man’s body, almost like a protective shield, “Though I have hold of all your secrets, and I will not hesitate to bring justice to all those you have harmed, deserving or not, before your attempt at redemption is placed underway.” 

“That is enough!” Sarv interrupted the argument. Standing between the two, “Mr. Gouge, if you wish for my assistance, you will respect both myself and Ruv, is that clear?”

“.....crystal,” Geovanni tucked his necklace back into his vest’s collar, “So, may I continue?”

“Please,” Sarv affirmed.

“Very well, my plan is to simply have you remain here in your church as a central point of communication between you and I wherein I will give you my number and we shall communicate with one another from across wherever locations I will be located within,” Geovanni twirled his hand around before revealing a small piece of paper that indeed had his number on it, almost like a slight of hand trick one would see at a party, “I have been forming a spell that can theoretically find organisms of an individual’s essence and very soul, forming a connection between yourself and any potential demonic entities.

If you are able to cast correctly, it will allow me to use my peering spell and find those around the world who hold a trace of the Corrupta Nigrum from ancient or recent times and contain them within a pocket dimension of sorts and…….we will unfortunately have to place Girlfriend into its walls as well, though in a comatose state so that she cannot tap into her seeded hatred and release the entity.”

“You are planning on imprisoning a young girl for something she isn't aware is within her body?” Sarv gasped, “That is beyond unholy of you Mr. Gouge!”

“Yes, well, I believe you should be questioning why God hasn’t gotten rid of, or at least tried to prevent, Girlfriend from being born or had at least sealed off this entity so that it couldn’t break the foils of its imprisonment, and now we have to save our reality ourselves,” Geovanni retorted before looking at the duo, “We have to do this…...together.”

 “I….I will try and see if I can perfect and find a capability to complete the spell,” Sarv said after a few moments of acquiescence, “Though I beg you to find a less vulgar, less inhumane way of doing this.”

“I will….” the sorcerer nodded sincerely.

“How did you find this “pocket reality” in the first place?” Ruv asked.

“Actually, this pocket dimension is one of our first individuals we have to find, one that I feel also contains the Corrupta Nigrum within her body, though I do not know her location as of yet,” Geovanni explained, “I will return to my home and find any other scrolls that could strengthen this spell for international locations. Can I count on you both to assist me?”

“I assist Sarv, not you…” Ruv commented bitterly as Geovanni handed the journal to the nun who smiled at Ruv’s comment.

“Very well, thank you once again,” the sorcerer gave a fairly diffident smile before walking towards the door and stopping, looking back at the two who had gotten started in reading the book, “Oh, and Sarv?”

“Yes?” the nun looked back at the sorcerer.

“After this is all said and done, I would love to join your church,” Geovanni said with a grin before walking back up the staircase. 

Sarv smiled with glee.

A new member to the church.

A new potential friend.

And a new threat.

Mid-Fight Masses is a Friday Night Funkin' Game Mod by Dokki.doodlez and all respective characters associated with it are also owned by said creator. 

Friday Night Funkin' is an open-source donationware rhythm game developed by Cameron "ninjamuffin99" Taylor, David "PhantomArcade" Brown, Isaac "kawaisprite" Garcia, and evilsk8r.

- End Of Part 2 - 

[iphoenixrising]

hey we haven’t heard anything from you in a while. everything good? How’s life treating you? All my love for one of my favorite batfam writers!💗💗💗

Hi babe.

Ah sorry, I’ve been super busy at work and with kiddo :( I mean, I’m still writing when I can, but it’s just time and motivation. My project has really taken off (reads as: expanded) and most nights I’m chipping away at the massive amount of documentation for not only a Java-based framework, but an entire Platform *sob* So, it’s just such a huge amount of old articles and brainstorming sessions and meeting minutes and just ugh. I mean, it’s kind of interesting to try tracking all these things down and figuring out how they’re going to work together since the developers (from 12 to 50-ish, my God and now they want me to read markdown and do pull requests for comments and shit because this is my fucking life) are still working on the platform services, the development environment, and all these fucking tools I’ve never heard of (Kubernetes, wtf is this thing??) so I’m learning a foreign language almost tbh.

Did I mention *sigh*?

ANYWAY, also some of the things I’m working on that are like Batfam are a little more...I dunno, just things that a bit harder for me I guess, but even if I write just a sentence or two, I still count it as a win.

But like...I said something about a Sentinel / Guide Au, and even though I’m at what would be a good stopping point, I’m not very happy with it :/ So, if you’d like to see kind of what I’ve been doing, I’m going to throw down what I’ve got below the cut. 

Warnings: 

DickTim, Angst

Sentinel/Guide Au

**

After he brings B back from time, send the Dark Knight back to Gotham, he gives in to things long overdue, and trains with Shiva–

–to be an effective Guide.

Years of suppressants made it literally hell without them, trying to keep his shields up, trying to push out the telepathic traffic suffocating him the second he opens up just a crack.

Shiva, of course, had been her cheerfully murderous self, plying him with the full onslaught of a powerful Sentinel.

"You will be drawn to us from now on, Little Bird. You will want to protect us, bring us back from the abyss. If you choose to allow your powers as a Guide rein free, then you must learn to fight against the urges."

The fucked-up part is–

–she's right.

If he wants to stay in the life, wear the cape and cowl under the new name, go back to the Titans (since they've been looking for him again, fly-bys and searches for his tech), then he needs to learn how to deal with what he can do and how to deal with the instincts that come along for the ride.

It's not enough that Shiva is in the middle of hunting down a few former students ("They have made...the wrong choices." 

"That's rich coming from you, you know."

"We all have a code, Little Bird, and I am no different.")

but they managed to run into a few other Sentinels along the way.

He'd like to say he'd taken his ass beating like a pro at this juncture in the vigilante game, but the reality is, they'd had to take shelter in a shitty lean-to, so he could be tragically, metaphysically hung-over.

He gives up the cowl and suit, utility belt and sundries. He goes as a wrecked teenage American boy, changing it up from the last time he trekked behind Lady Shiva and took on her adversaries. He tries not to think about Dick or Jason, Dami or Alfred, tries not to think about the confused look on B's face in his safe house, drying his hair after a long shower, trying to readjust to the current timeline.

("You aren't going back to Gotham?"

"I still have things to do."

"...there's something you aren't telling me."

"There's a lot I'm not telling you."

"Come to me when you're ready, Tim. No matter what, you're always going to be one of my Robins.")

Instead, he learns how to keep himself, and the Sentinels around him, safe and sane while trying to stay two steps ahead of the next fight, the next clue, the next "training."

In Shanghai a few months later, he knows it's time to move on when people part ways for the brightly clad superheroes coming en-masse down the packed street for him.

Well, moving on it is.

Going back to the Tower, away from the Bats and Gotham and the Rogue Gallery (thinking about facing the Joker this raw and open is fucking terrifying), was the best he was going to get considering the circumstances.

Those circumstances being the pointed twitch over Kon's eye and Bart's very intense gaze.

"You were supposed to call, asshole. The OG Batman has been back in Gotham for like months and you've just been, you know, chilling with Lady Shiva?"

Tim, who is so out of bullshit at this juncture, feels better after a hot shower and some old sweats with a Superboy t-shirt, throws up his fucking hands.

"All right, fine. I never told anyone. I...I've been on suppressants since I was a kid, just like my mom. Guides..."

"It's not that bad anymore!" Cassie tries helplessly, the first to actually reach across the table for his hand.

The instant connection makes them both gasp. It’s a shallow one, just a dip under her natural shield (he knows it’s Cissy, the Guide that’s been helping her until now, bringing her back whenever she hits a Zone, recognizes the touch of their Arrowette), just a skim over her immediate emotions  this thing now untried and how utterly calm he makes her just by hands lightly placed. 

"O-ooh," is soft while his fingers tighten, his eyes sharpen, his shields constructing around her, his instinct to protect.

"Not necessary," Gar chimes in, still leaning against the door between the kitchen and communal entertainment room, "we're all good in the Tower, T."

Is what shakes him out of it, hastily pulling away from Cassie's hand.

"Wow." Wonder Girl breathes out, eyes soft and half-mast, looking at him dreamily.

"Nope." Because he can already feel the headache coming on, how her hand tries to grab back at his.

“We could fight better together, Tim!”

“Do you even know how strong a Guide has to be to take care of four Sentinels?”

In one terribly creepy singular move, Bart, Kon, Gar, and Cassie give him that look.

You know, aimed at his face.

"No one," Bart cuts in, eyes wide at the exchange, of Tim's aura warm and inviting suddenly stronger, reaching out... "Tim, T. No one has to know."

The flash of fear, a residual from the tunic, makes him hedge back a subtle step back.

Kon pointedly grips him by the bicep, over his shirt while Bart moves enough that his shoulder bumps into Tim’s ribs, halting the possible escape attempt.

“Okay, okay, backing off. New powers are about a bitch, not like we all haven’t been there once or twice.” Kon soothes over, taking small steps and tugging until Tim is moving with him closer to the communal kitchen where his seat is empty at the island, and they can possibly get proof the guy actually eats.

“Amen,” Cassie throws up a hand and is already digging through the fridge until she finds–

–the last grape Zesti.

Tim’s eyes narrow dangerously on that singular can, his body moving before his brain can take over because he’s sliding on his old chair, the can cold against his fingers, too thirsty for caffeine that he can’t even.

Sure, it’s a trap, but with these guys, at least he knows it.

“I’m very not ready to do anything remotely Guide-like in the field,” the soft ca-saaaa as the can opens. “You want me to sleuth, fight, and strategize, then I’m all for it.”

Bart is just suddenly in Kon’s usual seat beside him, spinning around in tight, fast circles, “you mean you’re thinking about coming back? To the life?” 

“Dude, that would be stellar.”

Tim side-eyes his besties, “it was never in the plan to-to stop.”

“Can’t blame us for assuming, you know,” Gar grins toothily, “no Red Robin for a while, my dude.”

Tim goes quiet, staring down at the can between his hands, shoulders hunched over.

“At least,” Raven’s voice is smooth and soft, comforting, “tell us why now, Tim?”

“Why now?”

“Why begin training as a Guide now?” She clarifies, sliding into the seat across from her, and the coolness of her aura, not a Sentinel, but something purely Raven puts his frayed nerves at ease, makes it easier for him to find the words.

“I turned 18,” and he can’t look at them while he admits to it, “and...and I figured out who my Sentinel is after Ra’s kicked me out the window.” (I was fine going out that way. It was fine. I was saving Wayne Enterprises from the League of Assassins, I was fighting the good fight. It shouldn’t have happened that way...why did it have to happen that way?)

“Oh,” and Cassie’s eyes get huge.

“Ra’s al Ghul is your Sentinel?!” Bart fairly screams.

“No dude,” Tim rolls his eyes and finds his can suddenly fascinating. “It’s...Dick. He’s...yeah. It’s him.”

“I didn’t hear that,” Kon hurries, standing shock-still, “I didn’t hear any of that.”

“Not him,” Bart is gritting his teeth because dammit, why couldn’t Tim have been his Guide? The universe was totally, wholly unfair.

A muscle in Tim’s jaw flexes, his nose pinkening along his upper cheekbones. He blinks watery eyes, takes a deep, deep breath to try and keep himself under control. 

“Yeah,” and Tim sighs a little, the ache in his chest more acutely painful when he thinks about that moment waking up in the Cave, Dick in the Batsuit without the cape/cowl combo smiling down at him, still painfully unaware of the connection drawn tight between them.

(He doesn’t need me. He’s got Babs and Dami. His Guide and his Robin.)

Getting the absolute fuck out of the Manor had been his first order of business once he’d come to, just sprouting whatever placating bullshit Dick needed to hear to let him go without much of a fight (this time).

Finding Bruce and staying the hell out of Gotham hadn’t helped the pull he inexplicably felt, or the pressure of minds around him that had sent him to Shiva in the first damn place. His Guide abilities were overcoming the suppressants, so he was out of time...and out of options. 

Still, even with the training, he occasionally has the dreams at night. Not the usual array of awful nightmares from his real life, Jason shooting him in the chest at point-blank to make sure the job gets done this time, Bruce dying right before his eyes, turning into that skeleton husk Superman brought to them thinking it was the real thing, Damian sneering at him with the katana held high, spitting out how it’s time the real Robin took his rightful place just before bringing the blade down–

No, no, it’s even worse than those.

It’s shadowy hands touching him, the warm wet of a mouth over his skin and scars, gentle voice in his ear telling him how beautiful he is, how much he’s needed, wanted, how it’s not just because of what he is or what tunic he used to wear, it’s all because he’s Tim. He doesn’t wake up when his dream self realizes it’s Dick over him, those blue eyes taking him in, pinning his wrists down to look over every inch of his naked body. He doesn’t wake up when Dick starts preparing him. He doesn’t wake up when Dick kisses him hard and desperate. He doesn’t wake up when the tears dry on his face and their bodies line up.

“Mine,” his dream Sentinel doesn’t even hesitate, “Don’t ever run from me again. Do you understand me, Tim?”

Just before Dick pushes, he wakes up, panting and hard, his instincts going crazy enough that he has to meditate to calm down.

Cassie gently wraps her hand around his shoulder, making sure they don’t have skin-to-skin contact this time. “I’m sorry,” she smiles gently at his frown, “I know you and Dick have had some...issues in the past few years.” But he can read the guilt in her face. Back when everyone thought Bruce was dead and his cape had been yanked out from under him, Dick had sent Cassie to try talking some “sense” into him. She still feels awful for jumping on the same train everyone else had been riding, the ‘that guy is suffering from depression’ instead of believing he might actually be right. 

(It still stings though, doesn’t it?)

He doesn’t say anything back, just looks out one of the big windows and pulls out of her hold to take a drink of his Zesti.

“But,” Gar quickly jumps in, “you’ll stay in the Tower and fight on the team again, right? Like, no more trips with World’s Deadliest Assassins?”

Tim visibly hesitates, pausing with the can up to his mouth. 

Slowly, he lowers it, his eyes taking on a cold calculation that is and isn’t like their old Rob. “Like I said, I can’t be a Guide for anyone, and I mean that. Second, I told you the truth in confidence, so I expect everyone to keep my secret. Third, I’m not anywhere near ready to go to Gotham or face the Bats, so for now, I’m fighting under the radar. If those aren’t acceptable stipulations, I’ll grab some of my clothes from storage and be out of your Tower.”

“Storage?” Kon glances around at the team, “Tim, buddy, why do you think we’d have your stuff in storage?”

“I assumed Dick would already approach you about making Damian part of the team,” his tone is absolutely empty, emotionless. “And there’s no way both of us could be here at the same time, so...” he lets them put it together from there.

The look of utter devastation on Kon’s face makes him feel slightly better.

**

Coming back when Cassie, Bart, and Kon have his back, just like they were closer to the end of their YJ run, makes the transition easier than it realistically should have been.

And it really might just be how low the dose of suppressants are now, or that he feels comfortable stepping into Robin’s role on the team, just with a different name, a different mask. It might just be how Bart has a tendency to hover with that hummingbird energy coming off him even when he’s seemingly standing still, maybe it’s Kon’s TTK pressing at his back even if the guy is across the room, maybe it’s how he and Cassie have leadership meetings where they just binge watch reruns of Gossip Girl and eat ice cream to bemoan their woes. 

But maybe, it’s how he can feel them pulling at his shields unconsciously. Maybe it’s how he can sometimes push back enough, can skim just the edges to get impressions of angry, sad, depressed and gently erect a mental shield without delving deep without permission, can give them the space they need from their intense senses and powers. 

Just another way he can be the regular guy on the team, working under the radar. So much a part of his role in the first damn place. 

He doesn’t realize it becomes something normal until they take the good fight a little too close to Gotham for his liking, but the choices were few and Luthor is such an incredible ass hat that Tim actually plays it down, dresses up as CEO Tim Drake to divert their baddie while the team takes apart his latest weapon of mass destruction on the down-low.

What he absolutely doesn’t expect is to leave the lobby of one of the most posh restaurants in Metropolis–

And walk face-first into Dick Gryson’s chest.

(Technically, it’s Nightwing, but really, this doesn’t make the sitch any better.)

A hand, black with blue fingerstripes, covers his mouth, and the sound of a grapple retracting is a pending oh no that he doesn’t fight the vigilante pretty much kidnapping him off the street in broad daylight. 

He can only thank God it isn’t skin-to-skin contact because his inner senses are flaring this close to the Sentinel, his Sentinel, that he has to grind his back teeth to keep himself in check. He pulls away the second they land it on solid rooftop, shoving his sleeve back to check the team’s status on his hidden wrist computer. 

Mission success! 

“Imagine my surprise,” Nightwing growls, hand on his shoulder to spin him around, “when I find you having lunch with someone like Lex Luthor instead of taking my damn calls, Timmy.”

Stepping out of that hold is subtle because Tim is looking over the side of the roof, adjusting his tie to try putting some distance between them. “I’m undercover. Those are the things people like us do when we’re running an Op, Nightwing.”

Those whiteouts narrow on him, a trick only Dick can really pull off effectively. “None of that tells me where the hell you’ve been for the last year since you left to find Bruce, found him, and didn’t come back.”

His back straightens, eyes looking away when the irritation and heat of anger hits him harder without the nice little cocktail of suppressants and stabilizers, makes his own shields tremble at the burning sear along the edges of his consciousness. 

Instead of saying something he might come to regret, Tim sucks in a breath through his nose and works through the bolt of pain, gathers his shields around himself to keep the Sentinel from unerringly lashing out at him again.

“What the hell are you even doing here? Recon on Luthor? For which nefarious plot?”

A black and blue hand slashes the space between them, “not even important, Tim. So, how about you call your team and tell them you’ve got some Bat business because we? Need to talk.”

“I’m sorry, what now?”

“You heard me. I’ve been trying to get in contact with you for weeks.”

“I sent back your case files, asshole–”

“Not about cape and cowl shit, Tim!”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about right now,” even though he does, he really does. He just doesn’t know why it has to happen now.

Nightwing, however, has had enough of the talk and with a whip of his arm has a bolo out and thrown, his natural speed as a Sentinel might be slower than someone like the Flash, but it still has Tim wrapped up tight faster than he can realistically dodge.

The sight of the vigilante Nightwing swinging through Metropolis with the CEO of Wayne Enterprises over one shoulder would be big news in the city if anyone had been bothered to really look up.

**

The hotel is nice Tim thinks while wiggling around on the bed where Dick pretty much dumped him. His fingers are already getting the bolo loose from around his upper body by the time Dick has the mask off and the Nightwing suit unzipped to flop around his waist.

The Gotham Knights t-shirt underneath is a new one since the old faded one got blown up in that little explosion in the ‘Haven a few years back.

Dick lifts and sets a chair down with a pointed clack, sitting down to watch Tim squirm his way up. He’s got the bolo loose enough to brace his palms.

“What part of I’m in the middle of an OP–”

“Don’t care,” Dick cuts him off ruthlessly, those blue eyes hard and jaw tense. “I honestly don’t give a crap about the Titans right now.”

“Well I sure as hell do thank-you very much,” Tim pulls the bolo off, tosses it across the room with an angry flick, facing his former mentor, former partner, former friend with those old feelings creeping up his throat to make the taste in his mouth coppery and bitter.

“The only thing I care about right now is that I finally caught up to you. The last time I even saw you was that swan dive–”

“I’m aware. Being kicked out of a window is pretty memorable, even for people like us,” he keeps it deadpan, keeps the anger and irritation, the feelings of shit like betrayal and it must have been so easy to throw me the fuck away.

“The point is, smart ass, you left the Cave and haven’t been back. You only answer my emails about cases and bad guys. But when I ask you to come back home, which I have, Tim, I don’t even know how many times, and I get nothing! We need you–”

“Why would I come back to Gotham for you?” Is what spills out of his mouth, something bitter and foul. “You’ve already got a fucking Robin to be your little brother, remember?”

Welp, there goes playing it cool.

But watching Dick jerk back like Tim had landed a physical blow was more satisfying than he wanted to admit.  

“Are you kidding me right now? You’re still angry about that? I’ve explained to you exactly why–”

The irritation in Dick’s tone, obvious disgust when he leans back and crosses his arms over his chest is just about enough.

“You explained it just fine. You made your choice, so everyone just has to deal with it, right? Yeah, that’s really being my equal.” 

Tim makes himself stay deadly calm and cold, moves his legs away from Dick’s to stand and take a few steps away from the seething Sentinel to adjust his tie and try to get his hands to quit trembling. 

“I can’t believe you’re acting this childish, Tim. I’m really disappointed with you right now.”

“Glad we’re on the same page, Dick, disappointed in each other,” but it strikes him anyway in the small, sad place where he held on to the hope they could still work everything out somehow and at least go back to being friends. A small part that’s been slowly dying in degrees, and that last hit is enough to make it so absurdly painful.

(All those years in the R, fighting the good fight, being brothers, having each other’s backs, and it all ends here, doesn’t it?)

“What? I did everything I could do for you! I–”

“If that’s what you want to believe, then that’s fine. I don’t have any reasons to argue with you,” staring at his own reflection in the mirror, seeing the red start to creep over his cheeks, his eyes get overly shiny, Tim Drake straightens his spine and flexes his own shields. 

He keeps himself together enough to turn on a heel and walk calmly to the door.

“Tim, just...okay, just wait. Let’s talk this out–”

He doesn’t even turn, hand already on the knob, just pulls open the door and takes a hasty step through. It’s only the first step, but Dick is still just suddenly there, trying to snatch at Tim’s wrist with a bare hand, managing the brush of fingertips over a pulse.

“Don’t leave like this,” Is the last thing Dick says before the electric shock slides up his spine, the pull to all his senses almost has him on his knees.

The touch has Tim lurching away, jerking his wrist up to cradle against his chest, the red burn of Dick’s emotions beating at his shields harder with just a simple graze.

It ends with Dick still in the doorway, braced against the frame, gaping, and Tim leaning heavily into the wall across the hall, a wince on his face.

Stupid metaphysical connections and shit.

The touch hadn’t been enough to, you know, like bond them or anything, but it’s widely believed True Pairs didn’t even have to touch to get impressions from one another.

“You asshole,” he seethes at that shocked expression. 

“You feel like I betrayed you,” is low and thick, Dick’s eyes a little dazed with what he picked up through the momentary connection, “it hurt you so much when I made Dami my Robin because I didn’t even talk to you, I didn’t trust you. You think I just threw you out of my life. How could I ever do that to you...?”

If Tim was a better Guide, on a higher dose of suppressants, he would have been able to keep himself closed off enough that if they did manage to touch, he could have kept Dick out of his shields, wouldn’t have given him the ability to skim over shitty emotions.

If Tim was a better Guide, he wouldn’t have the urgent need to run.

But welp, here they are.

As the thought takes shape in his brain pan, that he’s in his civilian day-ware and can run down the hall while Dick –still half in Nightwing– is trapped in the doorway, his knees firm and his eyes dart wildly to the side, giving himself away.

And since Dick was Batman, is Nightwing, is a Sentinel, he sees the writing on the wall and absolutely refuses to let it happen. Dick shoves with his arms, darts out into the hallway, makes his suddenly weak knees work enough to shake up Tim’s plan, seizes the apparent Guide, his Guide, in a princess hold and get back before the door even starts to close.

“Put me–!”

But Dick folds his legs to sit with his back against the door, and wraps both arms around the struggling third Robin. He can hold onto Tim better than a bolo anyway. 

The push at Tim’s shields is a pressure he isn’t used to dealing with, and it’s painful to fight against it rather than just let the tentative connection open. His hands curl into fists in his lap, trying to strain against the arms pinning him while concentrating on strengthening his shields. 

He doesn’t realize he’s whispering, “no, no, no,” under his breath. 

“Please,” Dick lays his forehead down on top of Timmy’s head, “please don’t go. Not now. I’m finally...Tim, I get it now. I swear, I get it.”

“...doesn’t matter. Too late.”

“That isn’t fair,” the smallest shift and Dick is breathing against his throat, making him shiver, “I just found out you’re...a Guide. My Guide. We haven’t even started yet. It can’t be too late if we haven’t had a beginning.” It gets worse when Dick breathes in his scent deeply, a noise coming out of his chest.

“We have had a beginning,” he bites out, fists tight, concentrating on keeping his shields strong but flexible, “we’ve had years–”

“And I’m not ready to throw all of that away.”

The pressure against his mental shields finally eases up as Dick raises his head, gives him a little shake to make him look up. 

“You already did, remember?”

“I didn’t... I never threw you away. That’s not what I meant or wanted. Yes, I should have handled things better. I know that now, and I’m sorry I hurt you. I was sorry before, I just didn’t know how to tell you, how to make it better between us.”

Tim’s eyes narrow, and he doesn’t let up in case this is one of those diversionary tactics to put him in a false sense of security. 

(They fight bad guys. Sometimes, they have to cheat, and he wouldn’t put it past Dick to do just that.)

“I don’t know what you think is going to happen here,” he finally tries, staring up into those blue, blue eyes (I trusted you once, and fuck if I’m going to let you do this to me again). “But whatever it is, you’re wrong. I’m not going to come back to Gotham and be your Guide. I’m not going to bond with you because the universe says I’m meant to be some kind of magical counterbalance.”

Dick’s expression crumples, his arms go a little slack. 

“Tim, we’re...we’re a True–”

“I don’t give a fuck about True Pairs, Dick, not anymore. Babs has been your Guide since you both presented. She wants the job, she can damn well have it.”

It’s not a fight to push against Dick’s arms the second time and stand up out of his lap.

“You’ve loved me since the moment you put on the cape, Tim. I know you have.” When what he means is I know now.

“I loved you before that, you asshole, and you betrayed me. You don’t get that chance again.”

Turning away shouldn’t be this easy now that Dick knows the truth, but it is, and the very last parts of him still hoping, still craving, are just as easily–

–wiped out.

Dick’s eyes are watery when the door hisses and creaks upon opening, and it’s an automatic thing, reaching a hand up just expecting Tim to take it.

“Tim. Timmy, please.”

“Good-bye, Dick,” is already fading with rapidly retreating footsteps. At least he can keep some of his dignity because Dick will never know he falls the fuck apart as the elevator goes down.

**

Author’s notes:Here’s why I don’t like this: 1. I want to talk more about why Tim chose Shiva as the Sentinel to teach him how to be a good Guide. Like, I want to explore that dynamic more because I’ve never really had the time or space to write Shiva as we see her in Tim’s Robin run.2. I wanted to go more into the expanded senses of Sentinels and how to - hell, I dunno, make it seem to be a little closer to cannon maybe? Like point out some of Dick’s greatest escapes and be like part of that is due to his Sentinel power. 3. Dick says some shitty things, and I don’t give him any context. Like, at that point, he legit believes he did the right thing at the time, and look! Tim’s Red Robin so everyone wins! But yeah, once he got under those shields, the truth shakes him up. 4. I dunno, this au might not be for me. It doesn’t feel very different from some of my other angsty things I guess but meh. Who knows, I might fix it someday :D 

[the-wiresmarvelau]

T.H.E. W.I.R.E.S.

Peter and his Friends are allowed to design the compound and couldn’t help but riddle it with secret tunels and hallways. While Peter installs said hallways he makes some new acquaintences who he has to help and gets help from.

Chapter 1 Chapter 4

Chapter 5: arrangements 2

Peter picked out a small array of clothes from the ones they had gotten for Clint, Sam and Natasha.

Bringing the clothes to the room didn’t help the buzzing in his head though. So, he decided to take a walk to the small lake in the forest behind the compound.

As he stepped out, the sun had begun to set. Its warmth still lingered in the air, carrying the scent of dry earth and wildflowers

Breath after breath spread the dulled down electricity of summer throughout his whole body; and he savoured every last one of the sunrays reaching his skin.

Usually, he didn’t go for walks that much. Because for some reason.. birdsongs made him uneasy.

But right now, when coupled with such calming sensations and the contrast of how uncomfortable the compound felt right now, not even those alien tunes could bother him.

His spider sense in his head wasn’t gone perse, but it had calmed enough to be mistaken for a comfortable dizziness.

Strolling towards the forest, he cherished this moment of peace.

Bevor, he had thought that the only reason he was this wound up had been his concern for Loki.

Now he realised that it was pent up stress from the last few weeks. There had always been something to do.

Even though he knew he had enough time to get everything done; his perfectionism and anxiety to mess up seemed to have gotten the better of him.

Right this moment though? He felt a fragile, airy kind of contempt.

Trying to hold on to it for as long as possible as he made his way over to the treeline, he attempted to keep his thoughts empty and concentrate on all senses but his vision.

The ground beneath his feet was uneven and had only a minimal give to it.

Occasionally a stray fern or flower would stroke over his ankles and his clothes were soft on his skin, slowly building up warmth.

Behind him the faint, familiar hum of the arc reactors and electrical currents gave him a sense of safety, while the trees that rustled lazily in front of him seemed calm and reminded him of picnics with his aunt and uncle in the park.

He could hear woodpeckers, chip away at varying distances and wondered how many a normal person would be able to make out.

Only someone with enhanced senses would be able to hear the sloshing of the lake; of that he was sure.

But what about the cracking of twigs now and then? The beating wings and calls of baby birds, signalling their parents? Would Tony have been able to pick up on the grunting deer, somewhere to the right of him?

As he stepped under the first tree, he was greeted by the much colder, more humid air.

Moss cushioned his steps, swallowing all noise he made.

All but his breathing, which refreshed his lungs and grounded him, further.

Just as he thought that it would be helpful, if he opened his eyes again, the buzzing in his head flared up. Telling him to step to the side.

He did and at the same time opened his eyes. He had barely managed to avoid a collision with a tree.

Smiling to himself, he continued along, following the sound of water.

Arriving at his destination, his light mood seemed to shatter, like a bubble of hair thin glass. A cold shudder run down his spine as he found himself a tree with a large branch he could sit on.

In the dim evening light, the lake looked almost like a black void; reminding him of the deep, freezing cold water the vulture had dropped him in, and how he could have drowned if it wasn’t for Tony.

Peter owed this man, to whom he looked up to like he was a father, so much, that it stung; having to hide something so big from him.

A resigned sigh escaped his lips, when his spider sense suddenly concentrated more to one side, not telling him to do anything, but alerting him of some kind of presence.

‘Probably just some wild animal’ he thought. Not wanting to move and startle it.

But then, whatever it was, came closer and he got the impression that it probably wasn’t an animal.

His spider sense didn’t seem to register it as a threat though, and in his melancholic musings, he refused to move.

It was probably vision, wanting to check on him.

“Excuse me.” A female voice broke the silence, making him look in her direction.

“You are Spiderman, are you not?”

The woman he saw standing there was beautiful. A golden glow emanated from her, making everything about her look incredibly soft.

What struck him the most was how much she reminded him of his aunt May. With that kind look on her face. Eyes filled with worry but standing firm; No doubt in whether or not she did the right thing.

It was by no means hard to believe that she was a goddess.

Because of course, he knew who she was.

He had waited for her to arrive since he spoke to Mr. Loki.

“Uhm. Ma’am. Yes, I-. I’m spiderman.” He had to clear his throat bevor continuing. “I guess you’re here because of Mr- because of your son?”

In his head, Peter scolded himself for stumbling around his sentences, and almost faceplanting when he jumped down from the tree.

The goddess before him just smiled sweetly.

“Yes. He said you would find some place for him to stay.” she replied, politely ignorant of the teens nervousness; which put him at ease a little bit.

Nodding to himself, he answered “I have a room for him, hidden in the compound. Nobody will know he is here.” With his eyes he tried to convey as much earnestness as he could.

If this woman was anything like May, she would want to be sure that her son was in safe hands.

“We just have to somehow break him out. He said you would know how to?”

His answer was another one of those kind smiles, she seemed to give out plenty of.

How could the child of a woman as sweet and caring as this turn out trying to take over a planet. It was a puzzle with at least one missing piece; but he was determined to solve it non the less.

“Bringing him to Midgard is easy enough. Shall I bring him directly to the building?” It was clear that she was convinced he would say yes, but he shook his head.

“I think it’s better if you bring him here. His room is underground, and the nearest entrance is right over there.” He pointed to a big tree stump near where the forest gave way for a little gravel beach.

“It was mean to be a hidden bunker” He explained, blushing a little with how weird this must be for her.

She looked around, trying to memorize the place as detailed as possible before returning her gaze to Peter with a sigh.

"You can't imagine how grateful I am for your generosity. He has made his fair share of missteps but..

“he is a good boy at heart and I believe much can be attributed to his father’s treatment of him. I don't know what exactly happened when I wasn't around, but judging by the current situation, the animosity between them must have festered for quite some time now."

The young hero wasn't sure why she felt like she had to explain herself.

Without her, there was probably little to no chance of escape for her son, but she did help and it was clear to him that she cared.

“I’m sure he knows that.” He replied, not knowing what else he could say. “I will make sure that he is safe and has time and space to heal.” It was the least he could do in his opinion.

Frigga smiled again, her eyes fond and a little sad. Something about him told her that he was familiar with pain.

“He always had a good judgement of people. I’m just glad he will finally have a companion his age, you two are not so different from each other.”

A companion his age?

That statement confused Peter but bevor he could ask, the woman in front of him sighed and stood up a little straighter.

“Don’t worry if it takes a while for us to get back. I have to make sure that we can’t be traced back here. And it would probably be best, you prepare everything.”

Nodding the boy took a step in the direction of the entrance.

“When you arrive before I’m back out, just knock three times in the stump, leave a small pause, and knock twice. It will open and notify me.” He demonstrated the pattern but nothing happened.

The goddess raised a brow in question.

“Just need to put that into the system it’s for this occasion only... makes it easier.”

She nodded.

“We will meet again soon” she said before turning to the side and disappearing with a single step.

For a few seconds, he stood there, trying to get the whole conversation straight and not miss anything.

He still had no clue what she meant with the ‘his age’ thing but decided it wasn’t that important right now.

Loki’s Room was furnished, had electricity and a bath, he had fresh clothes…

What else did he need; like right now?

While he thought about it, he went over to other side of the stump and with his fingers found a small crack in the wood.

Pressing a plate at the top of it opened a panel in one of the roots, easy to miss if you didn’t look for it. He tapped in the code to open THE WIRES and was promptly met by the voice of Manuel.

“Sneaking in through the back door, are we? Does your father know you’re out this late?”

For some reason, the AI kept referring to Tony as his father; probably because of the rumours going around the tower.

Most of the data he had given him to learn speech from was security footage from the labs and living quarters.

“He wouldn’t be surprised now, would he?” Peter replied, before instructing Manuel on what to do when he got the signal.

While doing that, he remembered that his guest probably didn’t have nearly enough to eat in the past years, so he decided to make some eggs on toast, as well as bring some ingredients to the little kitchen nook for the god to be able to make himself something whenever he desired.

Most of the tracks back and forth were made by the service robot, while he made sure the eggs wouldn’t burn and that at least one of the ways into THE WIRES was open, so he could communicate with the AI in them.

The Gods hadn’t arrived yet, when he was done.

Placing everything to be kept warm into an insulated box and handing it off to the ever-busy robot, he made his way to the lab to finish of his watch.

KAREN was too much of a risk, and it was important that Manuel could always contact him.

This task didn’t take long either; the programming for it being rather simple.

Though he was sure that the older AI had noticed that his behaviour was weird; He hoped that she didn’t notice that he had given Manuel the possibility to override any protocols and contact attempts KAREN started from there and to ‘switch out’ at any time he entered THE WIRES.

Peter had just grabbed a (second) first aid kit and was on his way to their meeting place, when Manuel informed him that the two had knocked.

He checked that KAREN couldn’t hear through the watch, but the display pulsed a dark green, as opposed to her bright red.

“Don’t worry, I’ll ensure that she won’t find out.” Her counterpart assured. The boy gave a nod, but was too tense to speak, while running to greet the arriving Aesir.

They were taking the last step down the stairs when he came around the last corner; and the aspiring engineer was glad that he had decided to change to stairs after a short, initial drop with ladder.

Loki looked even worse, than when he had last seen him.

Running the last steps towards them, he gestured to the door near them, leading into the small storage room that served as front for the bunker.

Manuel had already opened the way for them.

Directly behind the opening was a narrow staircase, leading further down.

For the descent the super powered teenager carried the god bridal style, followed by his mother.

Every inch of exposed skin was coloured some variation of red, black, blue or yellow from bruises lacerations or gashes.

Dried blood clung to his skin in rivulets of crimson.

Fortunately, none of the wounds was actively bleeding.

The metal thread in his lips had been removed, but not after it had torn through his lips in several places. A golden glow held them together, which was probably some kind of healing spell.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he quickly but carefully, made his way over to the large, cushioned sleeping place encased in the wall to the right, at the opposite end of the room.

“I hate to leave him like this.” The god’s mother spoke up, “But I have to get back to Asgard, before my husband notices my absence.”

Her gaze spoke of the pain she felt at the prospect of leaving her boy alone like this.

Before the hero could answer she pulled out, what looked like some sort of fancy bowl or plate and placed it on the desk, next to the bed her son lay in.

“This will allow me to send you some healing elixirs, you will surely need. Never place anything in it, not even water to wash it. My boy can explain the rest to you once he awakes.”

And without another word she disappeared, the same way she had the first time.

Several moments went by in which Peter didn’t know what to do.

The unconscious form of the man on the bed looked almost dead, were it not for the irregular raise and fall of his chest.

He had forgotten to ask about the age comment she had made earlier.

Not that it mattered…

With a shake of his head, he turned towards the small bathroom, on the diagonally opposite side from the one the bed was in.

Soon he found several towels as well as a bowl of water, before covering the couch, in front of the bed with some of the towels and moving the thin, pale body onto it to start carefully washing the dried blood away.

Only where he could reach of course, but the sole fabric covering the god’s thin form, was a pair of shorts, so he got almost everything.

He worked in silence, grateful that Manuel kept quiet.

The whole day, he had been in strange moods and he didn’t want to have a shouting match with such a new AI, which would probably be the outcome of any comment right now.

After what felt like an endless but short while, he had washed away everything he could, leaving his guest looking only marginally better; but much more peaceful than before.

As expected, all clothes he had at brought from the others’ room were either too short or too wide.

Right now, too wide was a much better option, so he looked for the softest hoody he could find to slip over the ravenette’s torso.

When he had placed him back on the bed and covered him with a thin, but soft blanket; the teen put away the supplies he had used and sat down on the couch.

And again... he was at a loss for what to do.

Looking around the room, he cringed a bit at how unsymmetrical everything was. (visual)

The couch he sat on stood in front of a large shelf along one side, the shorter side of the L shape was against a wall.

In front of the longer side was as a sort of wall standing into the room, another shelf, this one made up of hexagonal shapes with a TV fastened onto it.

He had taken it from Bruce’s room, where it was meant as a reference to chemical structures, while in Loki’s it was more to hint on honeycombs.

Next to the shelf, in the corner between sofa and TV, was a seat made out of fabric hanging from the ceiling, looking almost like a hammock folded in half; held open by a wooden bar on the top.

Behind the honeycomb shelf was a closet, the door to the bathroom and another nook with two beds in it this time. They weren’t as big as the one Loki lay in right now and were positioned above one another.

The lower bed was open towards a narrow pathway on it’s left, where a small bedside table occupied the far back corner, while the upper bed could only be reached from the front and a small opening at the turn of the stairs; situated in the middle of the far wall from the couch.

Encircled by the stairs on two sides and the writing desk towards another, was the kitchen crowded into the wall.

On the desk was only the basic drawing supplies. And the bowl the goddess had left behind.

Curious, he made his way over to it. He was sure as hell not gonna leave the room until Loki woke up, might as well spend the time inspecting something, even though it probably wouldn’t tell him anything.

Hundreds of small ambers of varying colour made up the bowl like a mosaic, held together by gold, molten to perfectly encase the individual pieces which seemed to have been carved by hand.

Other than that, it didn’t look magical, but then again... He glanced over to the form on the bed and sighed.

The god didn’t look magical either. More like a porcelain doll, left in the care of an overly artistic toddler with red and blue crayons.

Just as he put down the bowl, the litte service robot came zooming back into the room; His wheels humming, eager to be of use.

Somehow the sound reminded Peter of bees, the diligence he had portrayed today furthered this imagery, so he send a text to Ned, asking if he could name the robot bumblebee and paint him accordingly.

After that he run out of ideas what to do.

Deciding to read a book, while he waited for his guest to wake up, he steeled down with a copy of Sherlock Holms.

At least there, everything worked out perfectly by the end of the stories.

Chapter 1 Chapter 4