#did a toy just confirm that one stupid theory I made not too long ago

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

Since when could mans afford to get a nice black button down in the 1400’s????

[onisiondrama]

Killstream w/ Onision 3/30/2020 - Summary Part 3

Re-Upload 

Sorry this is taking me so long to get through. It’s almost 4 hours long.

(Unless specifically stated, everything written is from Greg / James’ words. Parenthesis are my notes/thoughts.):

Greg / James says he knew Hansen wasn’t going to do the interview because he has too much dirt on Hansen and he knew Greg was going to bring it up. His debts, his mistress, having someone kill themselves on his show, the way he showed up to Greg’s house when Greg has chronic depression just like the person that killed themselves- risking Greg’s life.

Greg goes through what happened with the Hansen interview: First Greg asked for a charity interview to be streamed on twitter in December, Hansen wanted it on his own channel, Greg now offered another interview and Hansen said no because he thought it would be on Only Fans, Greg said he wanted it on his twitter, Hansen wanted it on his channel, Greg said to demonetize it, Chris Hasnen tweeted he won’t do any conditions, then an hour later Hansen tweeted it will be demonetized, then Greg was like “fuck yeah I was able to control Chris Hansen”, Mike writes Greg and says it’s going to be pre-recorded, Greg says no, then Greg says you can pre-record it but he’ll livestream it on his channel, they were silent for a while, then Hansen said he wouldn’t do it because he did’t want to hurt the victim’s feelings. Keem guesses his attorney told him not to do it live to keep Greg from bringing up the dirt he has on Hansen.

Host reads from someone telling him to ask Greg why he asked underage fans to send pics in their underwear. Greg says you need proof. He says that doesn’t make sense because his forums were 18+ and appropriate images only and that doesn’t sound like an appropriate image. He wouldn’t ask minors for that. He denies it and says it doesn’t sound like him. (He did not start using an 18+ only rule on his forums until 2017. The Onision XYZ forums ran from October 2016 to May 2017. It had many underage fans submitting photos of themselves for Greg to use in his videos, some in their underwear. This forum had NO age restriction. This video contains clips of Greg saying there is no age restriction on the site and DEFENDING his right to rate the bodies of underage girls in their underwear.)

He says people will show other people asking for stuff on the forums and act like he’s asking for it. (This is true, people do do this. I am not a fan of using other people’s posts from the site against him. There is already a ton of video evidence out there of Greg rating underage fans’ bodies with pics submitted to the XYZ forums.)

Greg says you can use the Wayback Machine to verify it says 18+ only on various forums. (Yes, but only after XYZ was shut down in 2017.)

Host reads a tweet from Repzion asking about Greg’s statement on if you don’t report sexual abuse instantly, you are as bad as a rapist. Greg says he doesn’t remember this tweet. He says he tweets a lot of hilarious things. Greg says he doesn’t agree with it. (The tweets are here. They were from 2016 and 2018.) He says we all tweet stupid shit, but he doesn’t remember that. (He is pretending he doesn’t remember this, but he made an apology video about the tweets three months ago in January. The video is still up on Speaks.)

They all bring up the DMCA abuse. Keem seems particularly angry about that. Greg says if you talk to the right people at Youtube, you get access to cms.youtube.com, which flags your content for you when others use it in their video. When something comes up, Greg always tells it they can’t monetize his content. If they appeal it, he loses his power. Host asks then why does he do it. Greg says the system shows him content and he confirms if it’s his content or not. If he confirms it, the system will claim the video. If they fight it and Greg knows they are not using it in a way that isn’t fair, he gives them 7 days. They can get a copyright strike or talk to Youtube directly to have Youtube review it. Youtube almost always says they don’t know so the give it to the person who’s appealing it. Greg says if Youtube took it down, typically they reviewed it and saw it was stealing. Someone asks if Greg is denying he uses the copyright system to squash criticism of himself. Greg says no, that was never the point. He says he claimed someone the other day that was supporting him because he realized he can’t just claim people that don’t support him. Keem thinks this is hilarious. Greg says if he didn’t do it, he would be using it as a weapon. He says he’s glad he made that decision the other day so he could say that.

Keem asks about GamerFromMars’ theory that Greg found a way to survive on Youtube by becoming the most hated person, making sure people make videos on him that gets millions of views, then claim the videos to collect the revenue. (This is a really good question. I’m glad he brought this up.)  Keem guesses Greg is still bringing in $20k - 30k a month off the flagged videos. Greg says someone freaked out about losing $30 on a video about him that he claimed. Someone says that’s a big deal to some people. Greg says he thinks he made $1,000 off of claimed videos last month. Keem says he means during the prime, when everyone was making Onision videos. Greg says people reuploading the fake meltdown videos was some of the best earnings he’s made because people would reupload it and only change the sound so it was a slam dunk copyright case. He guesses he made $4,000 from copyright claims during that. They sound disappointed with the number. (Idk, to me getting $1,000 - $4,000 a month seems like a lot of really good side money to me.)

Greg explains the Madame situation. He says if she did bring it to court, all he would have to do is show he only made $100 and she used his copyright music. Says you can’t use copyright music, it’s common sense. Says this is an example of someone making a big deal out of copyright when it’s a slam dunk for him. He says it’s not worth bringing to court. Greg says $30,000 would be nice, but that would be worth bringing him to court over.

The host says he’s going to ask about the window incident. Greg says it’s about a little girl, so it should be off limits. He says you don’t talk about Keemstar’s girl. Greg says CPS and detectives investigated it and concluded it was an accident. He doesn’t understand why people question professionals. Keem says he’s seen people say they need their kids taken away because they weren’t watching her. Greg says then you’re calling the detectives stupid. Keem says kids get hurt and do stupid things. Greg says the level of injury was horrifying and they both didn’t know what to do.

Greg says CPS was called when Sarah was there because Sarah or somebody was being horrible. When they showed up, the lady checked that window to make sure it was working. He says after the incident, they couldn’t stop thinking about her checking the window and asking why she did that. They tried to position the room so no one could get to the window, but the kid stood on the back of the bed, put their pressure on the window screen, and the screen popped off. They now have locks on every window.

Greg says he was directly underneath when it happened. He was in the garage and he for some reason wasn’t wearing his headphones like he usually does. Kai was upstairs making dinner. He hears a deep voice, like his son’s. He thought he heard a toy car on the garage door. He was wondering what they were doing outside at 7:00 at night and it was getting dark. He walks upstairs and sees his son playing video games. He thought “what the fuck” because he heard that deep voice mumbling outside. Host asks what it sounded like. Greg says like indistinguishable “uhh uhh”, like humming or groaning. He says the Ring camera caught his reaction, which was horrible to watch. He had to show the detective. His brain couldn’t comprehend what he saw on the ground. It didn’t look like an animal, but it was covered in debris from the driveway and from the grass surrounding it. After a few seconds it clicks and he screams “call an ambulance.” He says he was panicking (he sounds like he’s about to cry for a second) he apologies. He said his kid was looking up to the left, frozen in place. He says the weird thing is the kid wasn’t near the garage door. They were a foot or two away. He says he still doesn’t know what it was that tipped him off.

He says it’s been pretty much a full recovery, but there’s still a little limp. He says they said everything should heal well and by the time they’re an adult you won’t even see that anything ever happened on the scull. He says a 7 year old fell off a golf cart around the same time and is now a full cripple. He says Kai was following that story online. He says the brain was swollen, but the scull didn’t crack so the brain had no room to expand. In his situation, the scull cracked so it gave the brain room to swell and the brain didn’t kill itself.

[violetosprey]

BTD2 My thoughts on Cain

I covered my thoughts long ago on all of the “Till Death Do Us Part” game characters, but I never really took the time to talk about my thoughts about the main series “Boyfriend to Death” characters.  I have actually talked about many of these characters through various different posts.  But otherwise, there haven’t been that many posts dedicated specifically to certain BTD characters.

These posts will mostly be about my own opinions and views (a rough analysis more than anything).  I may end up focusing on multiple aspects of the character, or just one particular one if I think it defines them best (we’ll see).  For those that have read some of my other posts, there likely WILL be some thoughts I’ve stated before that I’ll simply be re-iterating here.  But there may also be some new stuff in here if it happens to come to mind, or because I’ve simply not had the time before to go over such a topic.

It will take a while to get through all 8, so please have some patience and just check back later if it looks like I don’t have a post up yet for a character you’re really interested in.  I will also be talking through these under the assumption that you’ve played/read all the routes (so I might mention but not go into explicit detail on a scene).

*major spoilers below, and this is stupid long…like anything I write*

Fun fact:  Cain is my second favorite character in the entire BTD/TDDUP series.  The ONLY reason he isn’t my #1 favorite is because I have an intense love for villainous male yanderes, so Marcus just has an unfair advantage here.  If Marcus did not exist though, Cain would be my favorite hands down.

In some ways, Cain is very straightforward in regards to his characters.  He’s THE bad guy.  If he were in another video game or story, he’d likely be the final boss to defeat.  His powers are ridiculous, he’s nearly 3000 years old I think, and I think his creator has implied that he’s not a fan of working under others.  He’s had to as a torturer, but hasn’t seemed to like it (though maybe it depends on the other person/character).  If his character just came off as too OP to you when playing BTD2, well that’s probably because he’s not supposed to be a push-over :P  And the MC of all things in the game is CERTAINLY not a character implied to be anywhere near his caliber to take him on. What’s more, Cain can be considered a bad guy for the VAST majority of his life, and he shows no regrets whatsoever as to the monster he’s become.

Another fun fact is, I actually didn’t make the connection at first upon Cain’s introduction that he’s the Cain from the story of Cain and Abel.  You do get some dialogue in BTD2 from Cain about his origins there, but in the event that someone is not familiar with the importance of this background, I’ll dip in a little here.  Basically, in the bible you have the first humans, Adam and Eve, and their first sons following that were Cain and Abel.  I’m not incredibly familiar with the full story myself, but what happened was the brothers needed (or maybe wanted- don’t remember) to make a tribute to God.  Cain was a farmer, so he presented some of his harvest as tribute.  Abel was a shepherd, so he slayed some of his livestock and presented it as a sacrifice to God.  Between the two gifts, God preferred Abel’s.  After this, Cain then murdered Abel.  The significance here would be that following this tale of early human creation, that would make this the first act of human murder.  So what Cain represents is the origin of one of the most extreme acts of violence on another human being.  And when you ask Cain about his feelings on the matter in BTD2, he STILL does not regret murdering his brother after all these years.  Apparently the bible doesn’t fully goes in Cain’s motives (so it’s fitting that in BTD2 it’s also left to the imagination), but jealousy is a common theory.

So the Cain we know of BTD2 was punished, marked, and sent to hell I believe.  While likely being punished himself, he served a torturer in hell when needed.  If you checked through ElectricPuke’s tumblr, you’ll also learn that he would have been used for big events of depression or war such as the black plague and the crusades. Most of the time, Cain was kept in line by the more powerful fallen angels in hell.  He’s arguably one of the strongest villains, but not THE strongest person basically (Sam who pops up in one ending was confirmed stronger, but just is held back by rules and restrictions).  Recently though, he was able to escape, and he does not plan to go back.

So what’s he do now that he’s out?  Repent for his sins and come to terms with his years of torture to try to be a better person and go on a long journey of enlightenment *eyes sparkle*? Pfft, nope.  He goes straight to tormenting humanity (likely both small scale and large scale, depending on his mood and what he can get away with without being caught) because that’s what he enjoys the most.  That’s the thing about Cain.  He does show moments in the game where he’s quiet, thoughtful, and perhaps even lonely.  But when you look at him as a whole, he’s just a sadist that does whatever he wants to do.  He’s a VERY charming character, but it’s best not to be fooled by this man.  Sweet words may just end up being his way of manipulating someone, tempting them, into doing what he wants.  He does this frequently throughout the game actually, encouraging you to join tell him your sins, join him in the bath, drink his wine, or join him on the balcony.  But if you go back to many of these scenes and see what they lead into (often Cain getting rough and causing harm to the MC), you realize in your attempt to reach out towards the rose…that you forgot about the thorns underneath.  Maybe that’s another reason Cain likes roses :P

The complexity to Cain lies in the fact that he’s difficult to figure out…especially when you NEED to figure him out to live.  Cain is very fickle, and he gets bored fairly easily.  On one hand, he does whatever he wants, and he’s most pleased when he’s tormenting someone.  But he does have to still be careful about where he wanders because the other fallen angels ARE looking for him to a degree.  And Damien’s aware of Cain’s reappearance and is prepping for whenever Cain decides to start causing mass genocide for the heck of it.  How much damage Cain has caused since he’s gotten out btw, I’m not sure.  We only know that the MC isn’t his first victim since getting out since apparently he likes to text “weird pictures” to Damien.  I’m gonna go out on a limb and say these “pictures”…are likely of his victims after he’s done something horrific to them.  Just a guess, but I’d bet good money on that :P

Back to what I was saying though, Cain is still restricted as to where he can go and how often. Damien can’t beat him, sure, but the other angels that can beat him he’s smart enough to avoid.  He has to hide away in Tartarus for…who knows how long at a time honestly.  That’s not something we learn in the game or are given hints to.  Soooo Cain is even MORE bored when he has to sit around his house all day.  He can read books, but he’ll probably end up reading his same stuff over and over again to the point where it’s unenjoyable.  So what’s he decide he wants to do?  Cain wants a pet (and he is the worst pet owner in the world).  

Let’s face it, pets are companions that give you something else to focus on in your day-to-day routine and help even ease away some loneliness.  But he’s Cain, so a fish, bird, dog or cat isn’t going to cut it for him. Why settle for smaller creatures like those when he could grab something that he can make conversation with, indulge in sexual pleasures…and listen to them scream when he tortures them?  Cain makes it VERY clear that he sees the MC as nothing but a toy to him. You may not be a dog, but you’re just Pet 2.0 at best to him.  He really doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of humans either honestly.  Despite having been one, Cain’s not really all the impressed with what he sees.  It’s not like Rire, who Darqx has stated likes humans and prefers to torment them over demons because it’s more interesting to watch something that’s so obviously inferior to you try to fight back.  Cain does also like a victim that puts up a fight, but when he says the MC is “interesting,” it’s not explicitly because they are human.  Actually, I forget who put up the post, but someone figured out that if you name yourself “Ashe,” then you get a few dialogue changes suggesting MC ISN’T human in this case (it’s a reference’s to Gato’s angel character you meet at the river).  Cain can also turn you into a demon or a fallen angel, so he really doesn’t care about keeping you human.  So if you wanted to think up an OC to use for Cain’s route, probably any species would work as long as it’s weaker than him (which would….probably be 98% of creatures that come across him anyway).

I fully believe Cain when he says his intention is to kill you in the end.  While he’s looking for something more long term than when Rire “plays” with his victims, Cain’s “pets” just wouldn’t last very long.  First off, trying to please him is infuriating.  If you stay silent right after he’s kidnapped you, he’s unimpressed and kills you by ripping his tongue out.  He gets furious if you yell back at him and storm off the kitchen, even calling you a child.  Yet he likes if you say you’re not going to roll over for him when you take a bath together, and he gets turned on when you bring a knife and try to stab him.  It seems if you want to survive Cain, you have to hit JUST the right notes of feisty and entertaining, while not going too far into a defiant state that's just too obnoxious for the nearly 3000 year old fallen angel to deal with.  I myself, just kept getting abandoned and killed by Sam XD  I never made him happy enough on my own.  It doesn’t help that he’s one of the two characters where you don’t see his heart changes until the very end either.  Kudos to whoever figured out those survival endings where you end up with Cain (alive I mean).

Speaking of his age…good luck with either of you relating to each other.  That’s one of the hurdles here too if you’re trying to survive.  I’ve always said that Cain is more likely to hold sympathy for you than someone like the demon king Rire, because Cain used to be human.  That being said, there’s not a whole lot of sympathy for him to give.  Like I said, he doesn’t really seem impressed with humans. And one difficulty with relationships where there are rather large age gaps is how life experiences and events (past and current) shape one’s personality and views.  Basic example is an 18 year old and a 70 year old will have VERY different life goals and obstacles at the point in time of their lives. The 70 year MIGHT be able to relate to some of the 18 year old’s troubles since they’d have already experienced them, but at the same time they could just wave off those troubles saying “oh that’s not so bad, wait until you have to worry about this.”  Meanwhile, the 18 year old of course isn’t going to be able to relate to later difficulties in life that the 50 year old has faced.  I know I’m getting a little weird here, and you’re probably thinking “18 and 70 year old in a relationship?  That’d be a disaster.”  Well now the old man is nearly 3000 years old…you think he cares that much about your college exams, mortgage payments, or taxes you have to pay?  Even the MC’s emotional trauma might just seem petty or insignificant to him.  And if he picked up say…a 25 year old.  You think the 25 year old version of him would have anything in common with a modern day 25 year old?  Probably not.

And that’s another thing I like about Cain’s path.  Your survival is based on two things: a) Either someone else comes and saves you after you’ve avoided danger long enough or b) your personality and Cain’s end up meshing.  If Cain doesn’t care that you’re human, and he doesn’t sympathize or relate to you, you have to hope that you’re the kind of person that’s entertaining and pleasant enough for him.  It also might help if the MC is a little masochistic (makes for a better slave) or has some dark thoughts (think of the painting in the one ending).  There’s also two different ways this happens.  If you get the ending where he turns you into a demon, Puke described that as him making you one of his minions.  Whereas the ending where you turns you into a fallen angel, you’re more his equal.  So demon ending I see as you are JUST obedient enough to not be boring or obnoxious, but it’s still like he’s just grown attached more to his “pet” to me.  Like, he’s kicked you around and harassed you a bit, but when you betray Damien and stay with him on your own he’s like, “Awww that’s adorable.  How can I say no to that face?”  He’d probably still torture you a bit and keep you in a submissive role (but more playfulness there I suppose?).  Is it weird that I could also imagine quiet moments where he’s petting the MC’s head on his lap while he reads a book?  Fallen angel ending he’d probably have more respect for you and even treat you as a proper lover, rather than a sex toy.

Going way back to when I said I fully believed Cain when he said he intended to kill you from the start, I think it’s because he doesn’t really expect to end up making everyone he captures a minion or fallen angel (fallen angel probably even less).  And let’s say he DOES like a person for quite a while, but never enough to turn them into a minion or fallen angel.  He’s probably still eventually going to kill you because he’ll get bored of the same old thing and hasn’t gotten attached to you (this is probably more likely), or because you’re just getting too old to be durable for his torture.  Yeah do you think he’d keep someone around when they’re elderly?  He’d probably “pet his pet down” much sooner than that.  I think he changes someone he REALLY likes into a minion or fallen angel so that they not only become more durable (if he keeps up his sadistic acts) but so they can live longer with him.  Humans can barely live to 100.  Cain’s so fickle though that my head canon is if he doesn’t grow attached to you after a week of torment, then he just kills you.  I don’t think he has the patience to let someone prove themselves to him over a few years.  That’s just my opinion though.

I’d have to replay ALL his routes again.  Strangely enough despite him saying that he likes a little fight in the MC, it feels like there are more moments where he likes your compliance more.  Weird, but I’d have to check into that.  Still, with Cain it’s hard to tell whether that compliance just ends up making you too “yes-man” for Cain to really enjoy, or which moments you pick to be feisty won’t end up with you getting your tongue ripped out.

Overall, I think Cain is one of the more interesting characters in the series due to his backstory, charm, consistently evil persona, and survival difficulty.  He’s one of the reasons I consider BTD2 more fleshed out than BTD.  I know it’s not fair to compare the two games like that since BTD was made very quickly in good humor, but a lot of the characters in BTD2 have a little more to them going on that we get to see in the BTD guys (Strade, Rire, and Akira just doesn’t have as much screentime…I think).  And out of the 4 in BTD2, Cain is definitely the most straightforward evil. Nothing really sympathetic about him. I may have said it’s possible that he gets lonely, but “being lonely” doesn’t mean you’re automatically a good person that people should feel bad for right away.  Cain has not shown any remorse for what he’s done, and even in the survival endings where you end up with him, he doesn’t imply he’s going to stop being the villain in anyway.

[adapted-batteries]

Pensiveness and Kisses

Fandom: The Librarians

Rating: General/sfw (bit of making out)

Relationship: Jazekiel

Word Count: 1575

Stone attempts to study up on mythology, but Ezekiel interrupts him.

Also posted on my Ao3.

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With their last two recent adventures, Stone decided to spend his well deserved break from tethering ceremony practice to brush up on his Greek and Roman mythology. For once the Annex was quiet; Jenkins and Cassandra were working on the toaster tester thing in his lab, Ezekiel was...somewhere…and Flynn and Eve were supposed to be practicing their lines, though who knows if they actually were.

He read for awhile until he got to Minerva, then his mind wandered back to Slaten. Besides the people in this building, he was the only one who knew more about Stone than anyone else from his past. Slaten wasn’t pushy, but he didn’t relent trying to get Stone to do something with his life, right up until Slaten moved on with his life.

It had been good to see him, even if Slaten had about died thanks to Fortuna, even if he was angry at himself for the bubbly warm feeling in his chest when he walked into the barn. Heck, he barely stopped himself from giving his own answer when Slaten asked Ezekiel if he’d seen anything as beautiful as Slaten Star. He was sure glad Ezekiel didn’t see the stupid, goofy, love-stricken smile on his face anyway.

Before he could think more about Slaten, Ezekiel startled him by suddenly appearing at his desk.

“What’re you...how long have you been standin’ there?” Stone couldn't help but feel a bit flustered, even if he knew Ezekiel didn’t know what was in his head anyway.

“Long enough to know you were off in dreamland, mate,” Ezekiel replied. He glanced around the room, shifting his weight on his feet a bit, before sitting on the edge of the desk that was free from old books and manuscripts.

Stone watched him being uncharacteristically quiet, maybe even a bit nervous. When Ezekiel looked back him, he raised his eyebrows, hoping Ezekiel would get on with whatever question he was clearly wanting to ask.

“That bloke at the racetrack, Slaten, who was he to you? And don’t give me that ‘just a friend’ b.s.,” Ezekiel asked, apparently more observant than Stone thought.

Who was Slaten to him? He was a friend, despite Ezekiel’s assumptions, but it wasn’t like Stone could deny the years he spent silently pining away, hoping the feeling was mutual, but never acting on it, the looks that Slaten gave him sometimes, the comments that spurred on his guarded heart.

How would he explain his feelings the day before Slaten left, when they took a long drive to nowhere in Stone's pickup, watching the sun set over cattle in a field. How would he explain the something else permeating the comfortable silence in the cab, something tentative, unspoken. Stone could hear it in Slaten’s voice when he asked Stone if he'd leave the pipeline and come with him, or do anything to use “that smart brain of his.” He could see it in Slaten eyes when Stone said he couldn't. He could feel it in the hand on his knee that told him Slaten knew how hard it'd be for Stone to leave, that he was sad Stone wouldn’t stand up for himself, but he respected the decision. He felt it when he got in bed that night, alone, thinking he could've said yes, but knowing he couldn't get out of the rut he made that easy.

Stone realized he spent too long thinking to dodge Ezekiel's question. “He was...I had a crush on him...for a long time. But I never did anything about it, I mean I couldn't, if my dad had found out, I’d be...well...not here, that's for sure.”

Ezekiel watched him for a moment. Stone waited for him to joke, to be disgusted, to yell, to do anything, but the silence carried on until Ezekiel finally decided on his words. “Well you didn't fool me, mate." Stone looked up at him, eyes wide, expecting more, but Ezekiel seemed entirely unphased by Stone’s confession.

He relaxed back into his chair from where he’d sat up, expecting a need to defend himself or bolt. “You know, before I left the racetrack, he asked me to stay...and for a moment, I sure was tempted to. The way he asked, maybe there was something there, but how could I give this up?” Stone waved his hands around them, at the books on his desk, at Ezekiel. “I just, I wanna show people who I really am, all the people from my past, but I can't. And I can't get to know anyone new either...it's...frustrating.”

“Well, Baird did have us sign those NDA’s a couple years ago…” Ezekiel reminded him, trailing off when Stone rolled his eyes at Ezekiel. He really wasn’t in the mood to joke about this, but fortunately Ezekiel gathered that. “I know. It sucks that we can't, but Flynn and Baird get to have fun and all. But unless you managed to find someone really open minded...and completely fine with you being in danger, it'd just make everything complicated.”

Ezekiel went quiet, looking off in the Annex like he had been before. “Though, we could use their workaround, since that ‘doesn't count’ apparently.”

It took Stone a good five seconds before he realized what Ezekiel said. “Wait...are you suggestin’...”

“For an I.Q. of 190, you sure are slow sometimes," Ezekiel snorted, but he was blushing anyway.

“I didn't think, I mean, I wasn't expecting you to say something like that,” stone stammered, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Clearly,” Ezekiel said with a smirk, but the smile faltered when Stone just sat there in mild shock. “Not that we have to, it was just a natural suggestion, but I mean I wouldn't object to-"

Stone, recovered from Ezekiel’s statement, decided the best way to stop Ezekiel from rambling to the point he would run off was to kiss him. He tried his best to not launch himself out of his chair so he wouldn't shove Ezekiel off the desk, but Ezekiel did have to grab the edge of the desk with one hand to keep from sliding. The other hand, after a moment, was quick to find Stone’s side, while Stone’s hands held Ezekiel’s face to his own. Stone’s brain let them kiss for a good minute before it started thinking again. He pulled away from Ezekiel slightly, enough that he could look at Ezekiel in focus. “Wait, but what about Cassandra?”

Ezekiel clicked his tongue, smiling endearingly at Stone as he shook his head. “Like we're really going to keep her away from Estrella.”

“I suppose as a vampire she is a magical being…” Stone thought aloud. Ezekiel just smiled at him goofily and kissed him again.

They got to do that for a while, long enough that Stone was starting to want to go somewhere else, but that thought got interrupted by Flynn and Eve walking into the Annex. Stone reflexively backed up a few steps at the sound of their voices, but it was quite clear in both of their slightly disheveled appearances (and Ezekiel’s obvious “just been kissed” face) that Ezekiel and Stone had been having some fun.

Eve took the sight in for a moment then turned to Flynn, gesturing back at the boys. “So do they not count too?”

Flynn gawked at her. “What, no, wait, I mean,” he stuttered, unsure how to get his ideas out his mouth. He glanced to the slightly startled, both red faced boys, “um, congrats guys, on that," then looked back to Eve, “I know you know what I meant."

She smiled at Flynn, a smirk that conveyed “I know, but I'm not gonna stop teasing you for a while because I like seeing you squirm,” then looked back to the boys, tugging Flynn back the direction they came from. “Don't have too much fun in here,” Eve said over her shoulder.

Ezekiel snorted, unable to keep quiet. “Not like you two haven't,” he retorted, immediately looking like he realized he didn’t exactly want to say that, but was going to stick with his decision anyway.

Eve didn't turn around, but said, “That's none of your concern, Jones.” Flynn sputtered at her response, steps faltering a bit.

Stone glared at him, but was also mere moments away from going back to what they had been doing earlier. Ezekiel was a bit stunned he got that response. “I didn't think my theory would be confirmed…” He turned to fully face Stone, devious smile on his face. “You wanna even the score?”

Ezekiel’s question made Stone freeze, his mouth open in an O. “W...w...what...no...you can't just say things like that Ezekiel.”

Ezekiel reveled in Stone’s uncomfortableness. “Too early I suppose, we'll just keep it in mind for later.” He even winked to get Stone more bothered.

Stone opened his mouth, thinking for a moment before saying, “We are not talking about this right now.”

“Well I know something we can do that doesn't involve talking,” Ezekiel suggested, moving back into Stone’s space.

“You're really gonna make me kiss you to shut you up, aren't you?” Stone asked, staring at him intently.

Ezekiel bit his bottom lip just to toy with Stone more. “I don't think I have to make you do that, cowboy.”

He was right; Stone barely let him finish saying “cowboy” before his lips were back on the thief’s.

-----

Post Notes: Man “And the Steal of Fortune” was just full of stuff to inspire me. I couldn’t decide if Slaten was an old flame of Stone’s or an old crush, but 12 am me decided it was a crush so I went with that.