#except i got a green version of the shirt instead

[fluffypotatoes]

after 76 hours over the span of several weeks, it's finally done! behold, all hermits + emperors + life series members

design notes under the cut:

beef: his classic apron is over his current outfit, except it's paint instead of something that's definitely not blood

cleo: she's got flowers growing out from her seams, also flowers inside her?

cub: i draw him with slitted pupils, also vex :D

false: empires false is less saturated than hermit false

gem: her empires dress is sunset coloured on the inside, also her hair is a slightly different shade

impulse: wasn't a demon initially, made skizz an angel and he had to match

jimmy: empires skin has more saturated skin and hair because toy, also blush

joe: his green hair from last season is growing out (ignore the fact that it'll probably should be more grown out)

joel: did you know his classic skin's pants are orange?? like shrek's pants are kinda orange but it's much more subtle

lizzie: i think i saw it somewhere before but lizzie's ears are hidden by her buns, also she's got big anime eyes and blush on her mask

martyn: he's weirdly angry? maybe it's cause i've mainly watched his life series videos

pearl: her empires self is more tan from farming and being in the sun, also her hair is more golden

pix: he's carrying his regular jacket since he's not really playing a character, official verdict from friend:

scar: he's got a bit of blue in his eyes from vex magic, also it's helping him push his wheelchair but the colour's not very visible

shelby: her hair is messy bc she cut it herself. she seems like the type of person to do that

skizz: same incident scarred his skin and blew up his sleeves, he tore off the sleeves of all his other shirts for fun

tango: he's a shapeless mass under his ice coat, both versions are rocking eyeshadow, offical verdict from friend pt 2:

[mistressroxielove]

Hey everyone~ I got some more stuff for ya~

Long story short, I've discovered the new Fairly Oddparents reboot, absolutely loved it and was inspired to make this AU idea for the show! With a slight reimagine/redesign of the characters as well.

Here's some more info about my AU:

Fairly Odd Parents AU/Rewrite

Au Name: FairlyOdd Brother

Summary:

Perri (previously known as Poof) recently graduated from Fairy Godparents School and is eager to start granting Wishes for his very own godchild! Only problem is that with his lack of experience Jorgen is weary of giving him an assignment and keeps finding excuses/reasons to not give him a godkid. Realizing it might be a 1,000 years before they give him a chance to be a Fairy Godparent, Perri decides he needs to be a little bold and perhaps, bend Da Rules, to get his foot in the door so to speak. And his answer comes to him from a new neighbor in his human home, a family with a sweet shy 10 year old girl who is absolutely miserable. Perhaps Perri might be able to offer this girl a little comfort and fun as her new Fairy Godbrother!?

(Basically the same premise of the show, except Perri’s first godchild is Hazel, and through a technicality in the rule book, becomes her god brother instead of her godparent.)

ALSO please note this AU is more of a slight reimagine of the original show, meaning I did tweaked / changed some of the characters personality to match the new story I made for them. Nothing majorly different, but again just a heads up before you read on. Hope you like it~

Name: Devin “Dev” Dimmadome 

Age: 9/almost 10

Sex: Male

Physical Description: 

Is basically the same as in the show, though there are a few key differences. 

-Despite having slicked back hair he always has a single strand that no matter what always sticks out, he hates it and is always trying to move it back into place but to no avail. In reality without the hair product he has natural curly hair like his father, though his curls are a little more difficult to comb and manage than his father, something that he doesn’t like about himself

-Has freckles! But always wears makeup to cover them as according to Dale’s research are ’less desirable’ and would statistically do better with them covered up

-Also has heterochromia, one blue and one green eye, but always wears either a blue or green contacts to hide his ‘flaw’, again being told to do so by his father

- Though he is always required to wear a branded white hoodie, Dale actually lets him wear whatever shirt he wants underneath, just with the promise Dev never takes his sweater off in public. Dev usually wears all sorts of geeky and nerdy shirts, mostly love meridian and Crimson Chin related stuff, it's the closes thing he’s allowed to wear ‘freely’ without requiring his father’s approval. Again this ‘freedom’ is kinda pointless since he still has to wear the hoodie, but he still appreciates it.   

-As you can see in the photo above I showed what he looks typically on the left, and on the right is basically what Dev would dress like if he had no rules or restrictions.

Personality: 

It's basically exactly the same as in the show, I really like Dev both in a story sense and a comedic sense so nothing to really change. The only slight difference is that Dev in this version clearly gets a crush on Hazel in this version. I think the show is ‘hinting’ of them possibly being a couple later on, but in my version I wanted to make it a little more clear that he has a subconscious crush on her. Basically think Anya and Damion from Spy x Family if you want a good example. He likes her, but being a 10 year old boy with severe daddy issues has no idea how to handle this and ends up being kinda mean to his regret. 

Other fun facts:

-I won’t get into it now, but his relationship with his father is a bit different, as I have a unique take on Dale and who he is as a person. I’ll probably draw him next but for now just know Dale isn’t an evil heartless father and there’s more to him than it seems, and thus the relationship between Dale and Dev is a little more complex.

-And yes though it isn’t important yet, he does end up getting Cosmo and Wanda as his fairy godparents instead of Hazel as the AU would suggest.

- In this version Peri is also not a big fan of Dev. As he obviously doesn’t like how he’s mean to her at first, but as they become friends and Peri soon realizes that Dev has a crush on Hazel this leaves Peri horrified at the thought. And of course being a proper big brother is completely against and despises the idea of Dev and Hazel ever ending up together. He’s not too over the top about his dislike, but definitely would be sitting in to conor with his arms crossed, while trying to subtly tell Hazel she could do soooooooo much better than him.   

I hope you guys like this, I'm personally really happy with how this design turned out, especially his 'real Dev' design on the right. But I would love to hear your guys thoughts and opinions about my designs. Do you like them, hate them? Feel free to tell me below.

Also tomorrow I'll post a version of this photo with a transparent BG and maybe upclose shots of the design as well, just so you can see the design easier without the BG

Previous - Next

[splatsvilles-fashionista]

Okay, so last piece of news that I didn't repost in time because I was playing Side Order instead: Gear Adjustment got a serious boost in version 7.0!

I can't go over every piece of gear that had adjustments added, but basically, any brimmed cap can now flipped, all goggles and glasses can be moved to the top of your head, or if they were already there, can be moved to over your eyes.

Some more T-shirts were made adjustable so that they can be oversized, like the Green Tee, but more importantly so were all the variants of the Layered LS model. Additionally, all the various sweaters can also be oversized, or in the case of the Manatee Swag Sweat, be regularsized instead. And that's not even everything for clothing, because hoodies can have their sleeves rolled up too!

And for shoes you can now remove the socks of almost all of the shoes that have them included in the base model, with the one exception being the School shoes you get from the Splatoon 1 and 2 Inkling Girl amiibo.

With that said, this being at its core a Splatoon fashion blog I am of course very curious: What gear being made adjustable has you the most excited? Please tell me! I really genuinely want to know! For me it's probably the Choco Clogs, because I really like their model and color, but their pale green socks always made them difficult to work with for me up to now.

[pyrrhicpoison]

tw // self harm mention + scars

WOOHOOO THEYRE FINALLY DONE!! team rwby are here and real after nearly 23 hours spent on them in total 😵‍💫

^ versions without the text&arrows

vvv hc transcript + hcs not mentioned vvv:

Ruby

She/they/crescent

5’4

Genderfluid

Butch Lesbian

AuDHD + PTSD

goggles: ‘Goggles to protect remaining eye (+they make crescent look cool as hell)

right eye: ‘Eye scratched out by Cinder’s grimm arm’

green hairband: ‘For Penny :(‘

nose: ‘Shares nose shape, skin tone & freckles with their Dad & Yang’

upper chest: ‘scars on chest from CC’s attempted possession’

chest 1: ‘Yang bought their binder & had it customised for her (+ Blake)’

chest 2: ‘Binds their chest most of the time except from when she’s in Vacuo. Then they borrow trans tape from Blake and bind with that instead’

sash: ‘CR hooks onto the back of sash and sits diagonally across crescent’s back’

shirt and shorts: ‘Stole one of Yang’s goofy shirts & cut his cargos into shorts’

Weiss

She/her

4’11 (5’2 w/ heels)

Transfem lesbian

Asexual

OCD + PTSD

hair: ‘Hair cut shorter & she wears it down more often’

green hair tie: ‘For Penny :,)’

nose: ‘Shares nose shape with her brother + got her beauty mark from her mother who has one in the same place (TO ME!!)’

face: ‘On E’

red bandana: ‘gift from Ruby :)’

right arm: ‘Heavily scarred arms from SH & fighting grimm’

left eye: ‘Blind in this eye’

left shoulder: ‘Wears shawl to protect shoulders from the sun (burns easily)’

right side: ‘Chest scar carries over to her back & she has no feeling in the skin there — the nerves were burned away and caused permanent damage’ then off that ‘Doesn’t cope well in hot climates (Vacuo) too well because of this’

myrtenaster: ‘Has a strict routine she keeps with maintaining Myrtenaster and if she doesn’t do it, it’ll send her into a spiral’

Blake

She/they

5’7

Non-binary bisexual

Autistic + PTSD

ears: ‘Gold jewellery like her mum’s’

right eye: ‘Eyes shine in the dark due to faunus night vision’

left eye: ‘More prominent faunus facial features (slit pupils, fangs, nose, etc.)

hood: ‘Hood has cat ear shaped pockets that unzip so she can choose whether to have her ears out or covered’

chest: ‘wearing trans tape under crop top’

left bicep: ‘Has big, strong arm & shoulder muscles from throwing Yang around with Gambol, but a softer tummy cause she’s healing from all the bad habits they picked up in the WF’

orange scarf: ‘Wears orange scarf to mirror where Yang’s arm ends and where metal begins’

tummy: ‘happy trail and STRETCH MARKS!!!”

shoulder+elbow: ‘More furry like their Dad’

forearm: ‘Scars from WF training, SH & grimm’

waist straps: ‘Yang uses these to pull her in for a kiss all the time :)’

chaps: ‘chaps + cowboy boots = sapphic devastation’

tummy scar: ‘The scar on her hip is the only one that still looks fairly gruesome, and the only one that burns and stings even long after the initial injury is healed. She thinks it’s because technically she was stabbed there twice, even if the second time she managed to use her semblance to get away.’

Yang

She/he

6’0

Butch lesbian

AuDHD + PTSD

nose: ‘Got his nose scar while fighting a jabber walker’

eye: ‘Eyes have specs of crimson in them even when his semblance isn’t active’

ear: ‘Shares skin tone, nose and hair with his dad’

facial hair: ‘On T’

left bicep: wears scarf on left bicep to mirror Blake’

arm,legs,tummy,chest: ‘HAIRY!!! :D’

leg: ‘Heavily scarred from SH, grimm and bar fights’

shorts: ‘Can sew and likes to decorate his trousers/shorts with patches & pins. He also likes to sew things for his team (he’s the reason they all have the team colours somewhere on their outfits)’

chest 1: ‘Scar across chest from Neo’s blade’

chest 2: ‘Got top surgery at some point in Vacuo (he likes to joke around and say that her semblance blew his tits off).

HCS NOT PUT HERE (i forgor):

Ruby:

•takes tips and advice from Yang on how to dress but mainly just throws clothes on and hopes for the best. she hasn’t quite got the hang of things looking… cohesive… yet.

•strong arms from swinging CR around.

Weiss:

•Was quite slender, but began gaining a bit of weight once she got back to Remnant. Starting to heal :,).

Blake:

•has chronic pain that stems from her tummy scar and radiates up her spine. Overworking, stress & the cold cause most flare-ups.

Yang:

•has a collection of goofy shirts (That ruby always steals from).

•has weapons hidden in her prosthetic arm in case he’s ever out of dust or in a bind.

•still experiences phantom pain in his stump and pain from some of the scars he’s acquired over the course of the war.

[needlesandnilbogs]

I guess art is going on tumblr instead of on blogspot today lolll cause I’m lazy. half the high school au crowd goes to see a movie. that is all. (If I successfully did this then there will be a read more bc I put the fic here and it got long)

Image ID: two digital drawings. One is of high school versions of murderbot characters dressed in costumes and standing in front of a movie poster: from left to right, Rin (high school au murderbot), Bharadwaj, Overse, Gurathin, Pin-Lee, and Indah. Rin has dark curly hair and dark brown skin. It is not dressed in a costume, just a blue hoodie and gray pants, and is standing behind and apart from the group. Bharadwaj has dark brown skin and her hair is under a light purple hijab which extends into a cape behind her; she also wears a long dark blue dress belted at the waist and a silver circlet. Overse has light skin, shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, and glasses; she wears a light blue dress with pink trim and sleeves, pink shoes laced up her calves, a Magen David necklace, and a small pink crown. Gurathin has the lightest skin, brown hair cut unflatteringly, and big round wire glasses; he is wearing a red shirt and leggings with gold armor over it, and he has a silver flute hung over his shoulder. Pin-Lee has lightish skin, black hair in a bun, and wears a green bodysuit half covered in green and pink feathers. Indah is the tallest except for Rin and has medium skin and light brown hair; she is wearing a turquoise shirt, purple leggings, a skirt in a different shade of purple with gold trim, and yellow shoes.

the other image is the poster that is behind them. It is for a made up movie called “Sunshine Warriors: Day of the Second Sun” and features an orange and yellow stylized sun on a blue background. On the sun there are images of a pink crown, a red eighth note, a green bird, and a purple butterfly. Under the movie title, at the bottom, it says “Ten Years Later…”. End ID.

anyways this is for chatfic I am deciding whether to post to ao3 or not, I wrote the fic last year and it’s part of the hsau’s summer between Mensah and mb’s senior year of high school and going to college. The relevant bit of the fic itself is as follows:

———

DM: Lee (Pin-Lee), bhara (Bharadwaj)

[10:01] bhara: Hey, wanna go to the river w me this afternoon?? I need out of the house and my aunt won't let me take the car

[10:03] Lee: I'm down, want me to pick you up?

[10:03] bhara: That'd be great \o/ I have no agenda lol I just really need a break

[10:04] Lee: Also, want to come to the movies tonight with Indah and me, too? We're making plans to see the Sunshine Warriors film in full costume tonight, possibly with Gurathin and Overse and Rin too.

[10:04] bhara: OMG I FORGOT THE MOVIE COMES OUT TONIGHT AAAAAA AND ITS LIVE ACTION LIKE THE PART IN THE DOCUMENTARY WHERE THE ACTORS DID THE SCENES

[10:05] Lee: I was actually about to ask if you wanted to come when you texted me!

[10:07] bhara: I CAN GO \o/ \o/ \o/

[10:07] Lee: Great. Pick you up in ten for river time, at 4 for the movie?

[10:07] bhara: o7 but also changed my mind, let's go see how much of a costume we can put together in the time between now and 4?

[10:08] Lee: I'll make a group chat so we can coordinate costumes!

New Chat: Pin-Lee (Pin-Lee), Bharadwaj (Bharadwaj), gurathin (gurathin), indah (indah), Overse (Overse), Rin (Rin)

[10:10] Pin-Lee (Pin-Lee) started chat

[10:10] Pin-Lee (Pin-Lee) changed chat name to Sunshine Warriors Assemble

[10:11] Pin-Lee: So. We are doing this, okay? I call dibs on being Feather, he was always my favorite.

[10:11] indah: I'd forgotten how much I loved this show

[10:12] indah: I want to be Color, if possible, I have the most clothing I could use for her.

[10:15] Overse: Arada isn't interested in going but she says she'll lend me her floofy skirt so I wanted to be color

[10:15] indah: I'll duel you for it. Swords at 2 am on the 29th?

[10:16] Overse: wow rude

[10:16] Overse: whatever happened to reasonable sleep schedules? [10:17] gurathin: Not to interrupt but I want to stake a claim on flute, the least terrible warrior

[10:18] Overse: omg Gurathin just be sun lord, you're already that pompous <3

[10:18] Bharadwaj: So we have Flute, Feather, and two people who want to be Color, who wants Princess and what do the rest of you want to do?

[10:20] Overse: well, I can be princess instead, i do have good high heels for it, but what do you wanna do?

[10:20] Rin: I'm not coming in costume.

[10:20] Bharadwaj: I was thinking Queen Midnight but only if everyone else is down for going with the villain?

[10:21] Pin-Lee: I am *always* down for going with villains. I'll be over in 5 minutes and we can hit your closet and the thrift store, okay?

[10:22] indah: The plan is meet at Pin-Lee's house at 4, carpool to the movie theater, see the 4:45 showing, get dinner, see the 9:50 showing, go home, unless anyone can't stay out till midnight.

[10:30] Bharadwaj: I just checked and my aunt says that's fine

[10:30] Bharadwaj: She also says if we want to come over after and watch the documentary that came out a couple years ago about the making of the show we are welcome to do so and then sleep over!

[10:31] Bharadwaj: It's SUCH a good documentary, it's a beautiful letter of love to the way the show was made and the choices the writers had to make to make it socially acceptable

[10:31] Bharadwaj: I know I just like documentaries in general but I really love this one and not just because it's about fiction I enjoy

[10:35] Overse: omg perf

[10:35] Overse: I have to be princess then bc I loved her voice actor in the show

[livewireprojects]

Old Lou & June stuff

I was told to put this in another post since it's long & the original post is meant to just be a ref

Link to original post

Once again want to mention everyone(except like 3 pics) are drawn with everyone as humans instead of puppet people & I forgot why.

So here’s the old refs for them, for some reason I drew Muppet characters in human/gijinka form most of the time. Dunno why I think part of it was not being sure how well I could do Muppet style all the time.

I don’t remember what Juniper’s coloring was but old Lou was a copy of Lips but eyes covered, freckles & no facial hair. Now they look more like mixes of their parents, June is green cause she’s a mix of her parents’ colors(the lip color is lipstick) June has a very slightly thinner version of Lips’s nose & ignoring the eyes Lou got Zoot’s face/chin, he’s a little more yellow than June but still different than in the past.

It’s kind of interesting how they changed from Juniper & Lou to June & that estranged murderous brother she doesn’t want to be near & for some reason blames past relatives deaths on despite him being too young(or not even being born) to be the cause.

“So this is Juniper, Zoot & Lip’s adult daughter. She works in IT & her brother & dad will embarrass her later by mistaking her fiance saying "I do” for a rejection" -From the description of the Juniper ref

So here's the only time I drew Juniper/old June in Muppet form. I've forgotten at this point what led to her design.(Vincent told he what to draw & what to do for this but it's a blur & possibly on Skype which I don't use anymore) This version's hair later went into the design of Vincent's version of Zoot's mom, Sarah.(Link1)(Link2)

The writing in the bottom left corner came from thinking I messed up her hair a little. As you can probably see & if you read some of the text Juniper & June are pretty different. Juniper was a stylish IT worker that was annoyed by her family’s craziness & the fact they wasted her college fund. June is an introvert editor/assistant for a fashion magazine that doesn’t really put effort into her looks due to being busy with work & cares about her family despite how they are. She still would likely pull a Juniper if her family possibly embarrassed her in front of her partner if she had one.

Here's a redraw of an old image I made involving an old image of younger Juniper & Lou along side a redraw were this time it's current June & Lou.

Some interesting things to know is that for some reason I drew all Muppet characters in gijinka form because I wasn't sure about drawing their muppet forms. As you can see with recent pics I can do muppet style now.

Another thing is that besides mentioning Lou use to be nicer in the past he was also the older sibling in the old stuff. Juniper/June is the older one now.

Link to a colored version I reblogged(for just in case) from Vincent that was colored by another friend of our's

Here's some old pictures of old ver Lou, first one is just him in an ironic shirt & the only time I semi could get his body type right.(I had trouble working on different body types when I was younger, Lou is meant to be chubby but this is likely not good enough) The second picture is just Lou in a dress just cause. It's kind of funny that his shirt says humble, original Lou use to be a relaxed & friendly airheaded guy that loves his family even if they're all crazy(him included) however Lou is a scam artist. Lou's main source of money is selling rocks, minerals, crystals & fake gems while making people(mostly hippies & spiritual people) think these are good crystals & spiritual items or some shit. Janice was his first victim, not because he sold shit to her but he took her crystals. I don't remember what happened I think he was throwing them as skipping rocks or something & learned he could sell these to people when someone asked to buy them from him.

Current/present ver Lou is a guy that has hurt his family, killed animals & now is with a guy(Who as a joke looks like Jim Henson) just as bad if not worse than him with multiple kids. Lou is married to a serial killer cult leader whose first victims were his grandpa(original creator of the cult) & his dad(grandpa's right-hand man) but to be fair they had it coming cause they led to how Sage is now.

One of his kids is Chrysanthemum or Chrys(is the oldest daughter) in past pics who eventually ran away from the cult & go a job helping people that use to be in cults de-learn their cult shit & have normal lives

I don't remember what the context for this was I think I was watching videos of weird moments on Family Feud or something & drew this.

For some reason it's Zoot & Lips(I have no idea why I drew him like this) with their adult kids on a game show with the original version of Clover as the host. Juniper is mad her family is a bunch of idiots(she's suppose to be the family member with common sense) because the winning question was "say the word what" but some how they don't know the answer. Clover wishes to use an airhorn on them to end this show since they've been like this for a little.

Last set of pics I have, this is a compilation of old digital sketches that were part of other sketch dumps. The one in the top left corner was shown already due to being used as context.

Yes these are full sized, I don't know why I drew shit so small in the past.

Top:

Old ver Lou as a kid holding baby Juniper(he grew his hair out a little when he was older which is why they're not covered)

Lou again

Juniper pissed, I think it has to do with her family again

Bottom:

Old ver Lou with eyes uncovered

Zoot & Lips, still don't know why I drew them like this

[zoyalannister]

Gracetopher week 2024

Day 5: First

@gracetopher-week

Read on Ao3

Since I already wrote in many fics the first meeting/”I love you”/kiss/time, I decided to go in a totally different and comedic direction.  Modern!AU where Christopher introduces for the first time his girlfriend Grace to the family, but the Six Nations is on and today's match is Wales vs England. 1032 words.

Grace was a bit nervous, but Christopher held her hand and kissed her on the cheek. 

“Don’t worry, my family will love you,” he said. 

She exhaled a shaky breath. 

She and Christopher had been dating for a few weeks, and now that they’d both finished the exams for their first semester of uni, they had decided it was time to meet his family. He talked about his family a lot, and she knew how close they were, and a little part of her couldn’t calm down the fear that they wouldn’t like her, despite Kit’s constant reassurances of the opposite. 

Christopher gave her a last kiss on the cheek and rang the doorbell. A few moments later, a woman opened the door. 

Grace stared at her: she was in her early forties, had black hair and blue eyes, and was wearing a Wales rugby jersey. 

The woman smiled and hugged her son as she said, “Kit, you came home just in time for the match.”

“Match?” he asked her, puzzled.

The woman let them in as she explained, “The Six Nations. It’s Wales versus England today.”

Christopher made a face that screamed he’d forgotten about it. It was entirely possible: they’d both been so immersed in their respective studies for their exams, neither of them had kept track of the sport events of the season or checked their social media. 

“She is Grace, my girlfriend,” he said, as if remembering why they’d gone to the Lightwoods’ in the first place.

The woman held out her hand to her. “It’s a pleasure meeting you, Grace. I’m Cecily, Christopher’s mother.”

“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Lightwood,” Grace replied. 

Cecily waved her hand. “No need to be so formal, you can call me by name.”

Grace and Christopher were led inside, but Grace had barely taken five steps when Cecily addressed her with, “So, Grace, are you supporting Wales or England?”

Before she could reply, a man got in the room. He was obviously Christopher’s father: he looked like an older version of him, except that he had green eyes and didn’t wear glasses. He was wearing an England rugby jersey and handed Christopher an identical one saying, “Kit! Here’s yours.”

Christopher hugged him before saying, “Dad, she is Grace, my girlfriend.”

“Gabriel Lightwood, nice to meet you.”

As they shook hands, Grace saw Kit quickly taking off his shirt to wear the white one his father had just given him.

“You’re supporting England, right?” Gabriel asked her.  

Grace glanced at Christopher for help. What was she supposed to say?

Was she supposed to pick England, like the two men? Or Wales, like his mother?

“Kit! You’re back!”

A little boy wearing Wales’s red jersey, not older than eight years old and with wild black hair and green eyes, ran towards them, and hugged Christopher tight.

“Hey, Alex, how are you?”

His little brother smiled. “I’m great! The match is starting, come here!”

Alex dragged Kit over to the living room, and Grace took her chance to avoid giving a reply to that million-pound question. 

While Christopher’s parents discussed what crisps and drinks to bring into the living room, Grace walked inside to find two women sitting on the sofa.

One looked so similar to Cecily, Grace only guessed she had to be Christopher’s sister. She kept her hair short and wasn’t wearing any jersey: instead, she had a Guns N’ Roses t-shirt. The girl next to her was Indian, and by the way she was holding the other woman’s hand, Grace guessed they were partners. Most importantly, she wasn’t wearing a jersey either.

“Grace, this is my sister Anna and her girlfriend Ari. You met Alex already, but he was too rude to introduce himself.”

“I’m not rude!” the child yelled. “I was just excited.”

Grace chuckled as she shook his hand before doing the same with Anna and Ari’s.

“Did Mom and Dad ask you to choose who you’re supporting?” Anna asked.

“Yes, they did,” Grace answered, then pointed at the other woman’s clothes and added, “Who are you supporting?”

Anna shrugged. “I support good sportsmanship.”

“It’s a fancy way to say that she changes sides according to who’s winning,” Christopher cut in. 

“I don’t support anyone,” Ari intervened. “We don’t have rugby in India, and I don’t understand the rules.”

Christopher rolled his eyes as he sat next to his sister and gestured at Grace to do the same before addressing Ari. “You’ve been living in London since you were a child. You just pretend not to understand rugby because Mom and Dad won’t doubt your word.”

Ari laughed at that. “It may be,” she said with a wink.

“Please, Ari, support Wales this time!” Alex exclaimed as he sat on the arm of the sofa next to the woman.

“I will see how the match goes.”

Grace felt a little twinge of envy looking at them. She’d never had a loving family, and she was a bit jealous of the ease with which Christopher, Anna, Ari and Alex talked to each other. 

But also…

Neutrality was an option.

When Cecily arrived, a few moments later, all the Lightwood siblings and Ari were lost in their talks about statistics, points and players, and so Grace got up to help Cecily put the soda and the packets of crisps on the coffee table. 

“Thanks, Grace.”

“No worries. Anyway, as for who I’m supporting, my family has never been into rugby and I wouldn’t know who to pick.”

Cecily just smiled at that answer. “Don’t worry, you’ll see that Wales is the best team when we crush England, and you’ll know who to support next time.”

“I love your confidence,” Gabriel Lightwood intervened, bringing more crisps and some bottles of beer on the table. “But you must know we are going to win.”

It turned into a full-on fight that involved the whole family. It wasn’t serious, but both the parents started listing the respective nation’s victories to each other, with their children chiming in and adding spice to the argument. 

Grace stayed out of it, but as the conversation unfolded, she smiled. 

For the first time, she finally felt at home.

[sp-ud]

Part 2 of a look at the new Genloss teaser except this part is just about the game on generationloss.tv

Pt 1

U start as this guy in a room he doesn't recongize, with a door that goes no where. Walking up to the static filled TV changes the scene to somewhere outside in a city.

You encounter two Friends

One who says "you know you can't be out here like this", which goes along with my theory that the character Ranboo plays might be a former Showfall Media employee who went into hiding after learning too much.

And the other says "you have to be careful around here", which is a bit vaguer, might imply this is a generally shady part of town.

I think there's a chance these might be the characters Charlie and Sneeg play. Though, admittedly the only real proof of that is the fact one of them is wearing green and the other blue. And we know they're also somehow involved in The Show.

The next screen is the most intresting. You run into a stranger who tells you to go check out the dumpster after it makes a weird clinking sound

This character, unlike everyone else, has a red censor over his face instead of black. Which is probably relevant somehow.

Anyways, you move the dumpster, and this appears

Some kinda. Pulsing red blob. Maybe a portal? Maybe this is the infinity we've been told to look into?

Staring into it leads you to some sort of glitchy run down and red-hue'd version of the world. And each character says something in binary when talked to.

I kinda want to say this is what role each of them will play, but I'm not sure I'm convinced of that as I think the Stranger might actually be a Showfall Media guy. But we'll get back to that in a second.

Next, you go stand on that button, and the glitchy screen transition that has been there for each major scene change ends with the old TV 'click' animation. Followed by this text

"You don't know what this is..."

I believe this "you" is referring to the audience (aka, us :D) once more, and how they don't understand the full reality and consequences of The Show.

Now. I think the normal half of the city part might be a replay of whatever lead to His disappearance (His/He/Him being Ranboos character for future reference, because im still on the fence about him being The Hero)

As we start with two friends warning him, followed by a stranger leading him to something strange that seems to link him to another world, something which seems to align with some of the phrasing in the Keynote video, which talked about connecting to a new frontier and said "this world" instead of like, "our world" or "the world".

And this might be what led to Him truly going missing (if I was right about the missing posters from Showfall Media being to help catch Him, not find Him.)

Which is why I'm not sure if the titles for each character is accurate. Because a character that led Him to being taken to another world isn't a Savior in any typical context.

Along with if I'm right about the green-shirted friend who warns Him that it's not safe to be out here being Charlie's character, why would that character be The Villain.

Blue-shirt who could be Sneeg being The Taken makes sense though. As the pictures of him and Charlie appeared in the Keynote with the words "Found them!" On screen, which could mean they were. You know. Taken.

Though perhaps. Stranger might be a Savior... to Showfall Media, and green-shirted friend could be a Villain to them.

And also the reason I don't know if He/Ranboos character is the Hero, is because he's the one we see being chained and electrocuted or something in the video with the description "Help Him - H". H could possibly mean "Hero".

And also I'm fairly certain ooc Ranboos vaguely implied the protagonist we follow might not be him.

Okay that's all I got rn. If anyone else wants to chime in with their own ideas, go crazy.

[peregrinefashion]

Brand Creation Process Notes: Peregrine

Part 1

So I felt for a long time like I was neglecting my main muse just because I didn't have the patterns I needed to meet my Very Specific Vision of a brand, and by the time I'm getting around to making this post I Have Found The Lolita Dresses And Can Die Happy but even so, the rest of her brand is still just. So satisfying to me.

I knew from the start that I wanted to do a something reminiscent of a luxury/girly kei brand, with a stronger, darker color palette. I knew for a while that I wanted navy to be my base color, with cream and maybe gold, but I wasn't sure what to do for an accent color. I eventually settled on two--a jade green and a mulberry color--and while they do look nice together, they're not meant to be used in the same outfit. It's more designed so that you can pick a dominant color--navy or cream or a balance of both--and an accent color--jade or mulberry--and mix and match any of the pieces until you have a cromulent outfit.

I'm describing it a little backwards, because I ended up waiting for patterns before I picked the colors. Even though the site I was using to compare color palettes has HSB, the colors display a little differently in game. The lighter navy is much brighter and feels more saturated in game, and the off-white feels much closer to white than to the cream. The only way to see those differences was to test them on actual patterns in-game, and it wasn't fun for me to test them on patterns I wouldn't be using and exit out.

So, I had to wait for patterns.

As I said above, i really wanted Peregrine's brand to be something between cute and elegant, and evocative of a luxury brand (I say, as someone who has never shopped at a luxury brand in my life). In terms of patterns, I knew I wanted a lot of fluffy knitwear, lace, cute dresses, suits and the depressingly few boy lolita patterns we have in game for the type Bs (mens fashion git gud challenge). But I really wanted the overall image to be fairly fancy and elegant. I wanted to make things that would work well with the lolita dresses when I finally was able to work them in, rather than make things that I was likely to stop using.

It was also really important to me to make a feminine brand that didn't have floral patterns. First of all, this brand is for me first. I hope the rest of you like it, but I came here to make art for me first. And I like floral patterns, but I get frustrated at not being able to find things in patterns that I do like. Thus, Peregrine's brand gets lace and bows patterns, subtle polka dots and pinstripes, plaids, and as many of the star patterns as I can make look classy instead of florals. I might make an exception for one or two of the lolita dresses I've seen around, but the bulk of the florals are going to Murasaki's brand.

Above are almost all the patterns I've collected for use in Peregrine's brand so far. I haven't used all of them yet, and there are a few gacha patterns (the silk skirts, leather ballet flats) that I've used up already. Since Fashion dreamer mixes all your own brands together and i'm making a lot of duplicates for mix-and-matchability, I don't have a very efficient way to screenshot the finished products, but you can see the kind of image I'm going for! I also am trying to pay attention to finishes as well, for example I favor the leather ballet flats from the gacha over the just ballet flats that are in my pattern list, or I favor crew socks with emblem or wool crew socks over plain ones. When possible, I like to grab the versions of shirts or dresses that have necklaces over the ones that don't.

Once I got patterns, i finally got to start creating! I think the first thing I made for Peregrine's brand was the asymmetric knit dress she's wearing in the picture on the left, followed by the silk skirts and pearl-embroidered sweaters I got 50 million of from the gacha. Those items really solidified how I was going to use the colors I chose, interestingly enough. Outerwear has to be done in the darker navy or the cream to show up better over shirts or dresses made with the lighter navy/off-white. Non-lolita shirts are almost always off-white. Any metal on a pattern has to be changed to gold. The pale pink and greens are reserved for gems that look like they should have a high reflectivity. Cream tends to look better as lace than the off-white does.

I know I absolutely favor the green when styling, but I love how the pink looks as well (even if I don't have nearly as many good pictures of it, augh). It's really satisfying to see all my pieces in my inventory, and mix and match them new and different ways.

If you've read this long, thank you! I put a lot of thought into my brand and I'm really proud of it. I'm going to try and take more photos, especially of the pieces that I don't tend to favor while styling.

If you enjoyed any of these looks please visit my showroom/request lookits! You can also DM me if you want something specific. I'm happy to accommodate!

ID: wEkrjAYrkL

In Part 2, I'll talk about vetting Lolita dresses for inclusion in my brand, and also hopefully name the damn thing.

[kochanski]

Promotion

Rimmer/Lister, rated T, no real content warnings to speak of. Pre-accident fic. Rimmer gets a promotion and drives Lister absolutely bonkers. (This is a repost so you can read while AO3 is down/for further archival purposes.)

Dave Lister's life was hell.

Alright, maybe it wasn't hell, but it was pretty damn close now that Rimmer'd actually somehow gone and managed to cheat his way past the engineering exam. Just like that, everything Lister had worked so hard for the past two years was gone. For months he'd been slowly replacing those stupid little newspaper clippings with his own parody versions, and Rimmer hadn't even noticed as he'd shoved everything he owned into a baby-vomit green rolling suitcase, happy as a smegging clam. Now, the cup full of mold Lister'd been painstakingly feeding and watering served no purpose except occasionally giving him pneumonia. 

His new bunkmate was mind-numbingly boring, which was saying something considering Rimmer had an aglet collection. Aglets. As in, the little hard bits at the ends of your shoelaces. Lister hadn't ever even given them a second thought before he'd moved in with Rimmer, and now every time he looked down at his scuffed old boots all he saw was double-punched brass-plated smegging aglets. 

His bunkmate didn't even really have a proper name, because Lister couldn't remember it for the life of him. He was a completely average-looking guy, a little pudgy, with a round face and a mop of dark hair up top that he didn't bother combing in the morning. Well, relative morning. Lister and his roommate worked opposite shifts, so they only ever saw each other two hours a day. That meant there wasn't anyone to complain when Lister brought out his guitar, because good old Fireman Sam was off auditing the fire suppression systems or some such boring thing. 

It also meant Lister had a lot of alone time. Lots of time to think. To ponder how he was wasting his youth slaving away for JMC, how once this tour was over, he wouldn't even have enough saved up for the plane ride to Fiji, how he'd be stuck here for thirty more years if he wanted a decent pension. 

God, Rimmer, look what you've done, he thought bitterly. I could be cutting nipple holes in all your uniform shirts, and instead I'm thinking about me future. He couldn't bring himself to torment the new guy, not when he seemed like a nice enough sort of bloke. Or, at least, mumbled "have a good shift" from the pile of blankets in the bottom bunk as Lister pulled on his boilersuit, which was nicer than anything his previous bunkmate had ever said to him.

The bunkroom stuff was all a bunch of minor gripes, though, compared to what his work life was like now. Because, see, Rimmer wasn't just a technician anymore. He was an engineer. That meant he was bound to turn up right as Lister was finishing up his normal maintenance routine- smacking the vending machine up on five-oh-two with a spanner until it worked- and insist on reprogramming the thing for four hours.

Worst, now that Rimmer was an engineer, it actually meant something when he handed citations up the chain, because Chief Engineer Callaghan didn't tolerate disruptions. Lister thought Rimmer was off his rocker, but after a disciplinary meeting with old Callaghan, he'd learnt a new definition of wrath. So, sure, maybe Rimmer still didn't actually wield any of his own power yet, but as long as he still had his boss backing him up, he had Lister under his thumb.

"Why is it you've got to keep botherin' me, anyway? You can't tell me you get assigned to the exact same machines as me, every day."

"I don't see you every day. Thursday last week, we didn't cross paths at all." Rimmer crossed his arms. "Besides, I'm not the one bothering you. If anything, you're disrupting my work."

"I'm just saying, when it was you and me there weren't any engineers hovering around, towering over us like a giraffe in a goat pen."

"If that's a jab about my neck, Third Technician…" Rimmer clicked his pen with the sort of zeal only a bona fide maintenance engineer could muster. 

"Write me up, Scotty," Lister sighed, not looking forward to the beet red bulldog jowls he was going to have to face tomorrow morning. Smeg, he couldn't even make a joke anymore. Not even a remark. Life was hell. Absolute hell.

---

Friday night was still a night for the boys, and Lister was all set to drown his sorrows in a few pints of lager and a few more pints of lager and one or two after that. If Lister was really lucky, he'd meet a nice girl tonight and Fireman Sam would have the room all to himself. More likely, he'd get sloshed beyond belief and wake up on the floor wedged in Petersen's bosoms again. Whatever else happened, he was certain of one thing: Friday was magic, it was sacred, it was blowing off steam after the horrid week and it was the only soothing ritual he had left, besides cutting up his nudie magazines and making Franken-porn.

"Why the long face?" Chen asked him as he sat down. "Ya look hungover and it ain't even Monday mornin' yet." This earned a collective chuckle from Selby and Petersen.

"It's just work," Lister said. "I don't wanna talk about it, let's get plastered."

That was the thing- when he said that, they all started drinking and carrying on like normal, but Lister couldn't quite enjoy himself. Maybe a few Fridays ago, he'd have been living in the moment, right, not thinking about the consequences, the future being the farthest thing from his mind, but… well, now all he could think about was that Friday was fleeting and in a few hours it would be Saturday, and mere hours after that it would be Monday and he would wake up, get ready, quiet as so not to disturb his bunkmate who'd just gone to bed, and wander the corridors wheeling a heavy trolley until the biggest tool on the ship decided to show up.

"Hello, Listy," someone said in his ear, and he jumped, scared out of his skin that he'd somehow summoned Monday three days ahead of schedule.

"Oh, smeg off." He had to restrain himself from taking a swing at Rimmer's smug grin. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I don't have exams to prep for anymore, and since I'm not your direct superior, it's no longer unethical for me to come over and have a drink with you, is it?"

"Yer nose is unethical," Selby started, but Lister motioned for him to stop.

"Just don't," he hissed, afraid that angering Rimmer would make things even worse.

"Why?" Petersen asked helpfully in that slow, deep Danish drawl of his. "You like him all of a sudden?"

"No, look-"

"Well, if ya like him so much-" God damnit, Chen. "-how's about you marry him, then?" Guffaws from the whole table.

"Just leave him alone, alright?" He turned to Rimmer. "And, you. Can't you give me one evening of peace? I mean, I have to spend fifty hours every week with you, I'd think that's enough quality time for the both of us."

"Right, but that's work. This is leisure time." Rimmer grabbed a chair from a nearby table where a woman had just gotten up to get peanuts, shoving his way into the group. "So. I imagine you've all heard that I finally made engineer, haven't you?"

"Tell the truth, I thought you died," Selby admitted. "Lister said he got a new bunkmate, so I figured you spaced yourself or pulled a Mad Jonesy and ran off to live on the diesel decks."

"I- no, why would I do either of those things? No, our friend Lister here has completely misrepresented the situation. I passed my exams, became a well-respected engineer, and now I can finally move on to other conquests, like friendship."

"Conquests," Petersen laughed, but Lister's stomach was starting to sink as he realized what was happening.

He was Rimmer's friend. Rimmer's only friend. Rimmer wasn't his friend, but he was Rimmer's. He was the only person Rimmer had probably ever spoken to for more than five minutes who hadn't immediately made an excuse and left the room.

God, he was doomed.

"Rimsy," he said in a strained voice. "Could you an' I take a little timeout for a sec?"

"Oh. Well, I suppose. You haven't properly congratulated me on my promotion, anyway."

"Oh, yeah, Listy," Selby said with his big fat mouth. "Better go congratulate him."

"Congratulate him so good," Petersen added, and Chen's chittering laughter followed.

"Smeg off," Lister snapped, and he headed for the door, not bothering to check if Rimmer followed him out.

"Finally. I don't understand why you spend time with those brutes, Lister. You simply shouldn't put up with that relentless bullying-"

"You know why they're bullying me?" he asked, exasperated. "They're picking on me because of you."

"What? But I'm an engineer now. If anything, that should rocket your social status right to the tippy-top."

"No, exactly. That's what they think is hilarious, that right there."

"That… that I'm an engineer?"

"That you think bein' an engineer suddenly makes you a cool guy," Lister said, exasperated. "No matter what you do, what your rank is, you're always going to be Rimmer. And I know it, and they know it, but you somehow can't get it through your thick head. That's what's hilarious. And now you've decided to hang off me arm like a barnacle with abandonment issues-"

"But- I- But this is the best we've gotten on in years," Rimmer protested, eyes cemented on his shoes. "I genuinely thought it was because you were beginning to respect me."

"It's because if I do anything out of line, you rat on me to Callaghan, and all of a sudden I've got a chief engineer up my arsehole and all my video privileges revoked for six months!"

"I… see." Rimmer took a deep, fluttery breath, the kind you took when you were trying really really hard not to burst into tears in front of your mates. "I suppose I'll see you Monday, then," he mumbled.

"S'pose you will," Lister said, and he stormed off down the hall, not even in the mood to drink his sorrows away.

---

The weekend had been a total bust. Lister hadn't properly blown off any steam whatsoever. Monday morning came around, and he just laid uselessly in bed, listening as the doors whooshed open and Fireman Sam came in.

He undressed in the dark, doing everything quietly so as not to wake Lister, and then snored softly in the bottom bunk. He was so considerate that way- no Esperanto-lessons-while-you-sleep tapes, no practicing his Schalmei horn at odd hours (come on, Lister, it's not any different than your guitar) and no rambling, one-sided conversations that started just as Lister was finally beginning to drift off. If Fireman Sam had been his bunkmate from the beginning, maybe Lister wouldn't have been so sleep-deprived all the time.

Not that it made any difference now. Lister had spent the night tossing and turning, mourning his ruined weekend, hoping beyond hope that somehow he would close his eyes and open them and that the alarm clock would read "SA" instead of "MO."

It wasn't meant to be.

Evidently their little row had gotten Rimmer wound even tighter than he was normally, and Lister had to pay extra attention to what he was doing.

"It's the wrong screwdriver," Rimmer insisted.

"Yeah, the screw's stripped. I have to use the flathead."

"Well, what about the square drive?"

"That's going to make it worse," Lister muttered, but he picked up the square drive and gave it a half-hearted try.

"Come on, Lister. If you can't get this panel cover off, I'm not going to be able to reprogram the temperature controls. Cold showers for the whole floor, Lister, is that what you want?"

"I-" God, he couldn't. "No, sir." He bit his tongue and kept turning the square drive until the center of the screw was completely hollowed out.

"Well, now you've gone and done it," Rimmer scoffed. "Give me the flathead, I'll fix it myself."

"Yes, sir."

"Don't give me cheek, Lister, or I'll write you up. I'm not in the mood."

"All I said was 'yes, sir!'"

"Right, but it's the way you said it. It's about basic decency and respect."

"I am being respectful."

"All I'm saying is, you could say it in a nicer tone, couldn't you? Service with a smile and all?"

Lister was about to burst. Seriously, he might explode right here and now. He wasn't sure what was going to happen next. Either he was going to peel Rimmer's skin off and start eating him alive, or he was going to shove the square drive up his own nose until it reached his brain.

"There we are. See? It's so easy to solve our problems when we use the correct tools, isn't it?"

Thwack.

Lister's knuckles hurt, and he realized too late that he'd punched Rimmer in the face.

"I- Christ, mate, I didn't mean to- I mean- look, you don't have to-"

"Lister," Rimmer said, oddly cool, though his eyes were watering and there was a definite bruise forming on his cheekbone. "Get the first aid kit."

"Y… yes, sir," he said, certain now that he could say goodbye to the next three weekends, at least.

There was something strange about Rimmer today, as evidenced by the fact that he hadn't clicked his pen and damned Lister to thirty-plus hours of janitorial purgatory yet.

"Here's the medical kit," Lister said, unsure what to make of the whole thing. Rimmer shook his head, patting the spot next to him on the floor.

"Sit."

"What, why?"

"You broke it, so you're the one who's going to fix it."

Lister couldn't argue that. Well, he could, but he really didn't want Rimmer to write him up for this. So he sat down cross-legged next to the prick and opened the box.

"I'm not missing any teeth?" Rimmer asked, curling his lips back.

"No, no. I didn't think I hit you hard enough for that."

"You hit me pretty damn hard."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Oh, come now. You shouldn't apologize unless you mean it, and I know you don't."

"How's that?"

"You hate me. Of course you're not sorry. You hate me just like all the others, maybe more. No- definitely more." Rimmer smiled weakly. "Right, then. Put the ointment on."

Lister handed him the ointment, confused when Rimmer didn't accept it.

"You put it on."

"Rub this on your face?"

"Yes."

"With my hand?"

"Good point. Clean those things first."

"But can't you do this yourself?"

"It's called a power play, Lister. I gave you an order, so do it, or I really will report you for punching a senior officer."

Hm.

Hmm.

Alright.

Lister rubbed some sanitizer over his fingers first, then squeezed some of the topical cream out of its tube. This was the good stuff- he'd used it plenty of times after his own scrapes. Probably, Rimmer would wake up tomorrow morning righter than rain, no soreness, no discoloration. Like it'd never happened. And Lister would still have Friday night.

It was odd, though, smudging paste on Rimmer's swollen cheek, sort of a strangely tender moment. Like they were in the trenches in some old war movie, and he was dressing Rimmer's wounds with the kind of care you reserved for the guy you'd gone through hell with. Nevermind that Rimmer was the hell.

"Excellent," Rimmer murmured when he'd finished. "There's just one more thing I want from you before you pack it up."

"Okay?"

"Kiss it better."

"What?"

"Well, not like that."

"Yeah, an adult man kissing another adult man on the cheek. S'the most heterosexual thing I've heard all week."

"It's meant to be like a mafia kiss. You kiss the ring as- as a show of fealty, you know, a sign of respect."

"But I don't respect you."

"You'll have to, now."

"But if I don't respect you, and I don't mean it, then it's just a gay kiss, isn't it?"

"What sort of logic is that?" Rimmer shook his head. "You're not squirming out of this one. I want you to show me I'm the boss, and it's this or licking the soles of my boots."

Lister considered it very, very, very hard.

"Oh, grow up."

"Fine, I'll give you the smeggin' gay kiss. But in exchange, I want a week off. No threats, no hoverin' over my shoulder, no showing up on my days off."

"You're not in any position to bargain," Rimmer started, but before he could decline the deal Lister put his lips to Rimmer's cheek.

Sure, he could've gone the easy route, given him a second-long peck and been done with it. But this was a prime opportunity to mess with Rimmer, his only opportunity in weeks, and Lister'd been going through withdrawals.

So he lingered a second or two too long, nuzzling Rimmer's cheek with his nose and suppressing a laugh when he felt it go red-hot with embarrassment. 

"How's that for respect?" Lister said softly, still only about a centimeter from Rimmer's massive head. "Prick."

"A week," Rimmer nodded hurriedly. "A week is great. Fine."

---

Those first four days might well have been heaven. Work went smoothly without Rimmer around to sabotage things, and Lister actually finished his tasks ahead of schedule most days, with plenty of time to bum around. When Rimmer did show up, which wasn't often, he was quiet and avoided eye contact. It suited Lister just fine. And that seemed to confirm what he'd suspected- Rimmer didn't actually need to stalk along his route every day, and had been doing it out of either straight up sadism or desperation for social contact.

Lister still couldn't enjoy his Friday night.

To be fair, it had started out fine. The four of them- the boys, him, Chen, Selby and Petersen, terrors of the disco- were on the pull, eager to make up for last week's disappointment. And there was a new face in town, an decent-looking astro surveyor with curly dark hair down to her waist, and Lister had managed to talk her into a dance somehow.

They swayed along to the noise from the speakers- some artificially nostalgic 70s cover of a 40s cover of a song from the 2090s- and Belinda, or Brittany, Berta, whatever it was, wrapped her arms around Lister's neck.

"Thanks for the warm welcome," she smiled, and kissed Lister's cheek, her fingers flitting across the side of his neck.

"I need the toilet," Lister blurted. He tore her hand away and made a run for it, leaving the poor woman standing in the middle of the dance floor, utterly confused and probably a bit insulted.

Goddamn Rimmer. Smegging Rimmer. He couldn't even leave Lister in peace for one week, had to go and ruin something as lovely as a kiss on the cheek.

Yeah, so maybe it was Lister's own fault that the ghost of Rimmer past was haunting him tonight, but that didn't mean he couldn't get mad about it. He stared in the mirror at the lipstick mark on his left cheek. It looked a bit like a bruise.

He wasn't going back to Brenda's tonight, was he.

---

"There," Lister sighed, checking his watch. "The week's officially up. You can torment me again."

"Good, because I've been dying to remind you that you can't use your pliers as a hammer. You'll ruin them that way."

"Fine, so you try fitting a hammer between these supports."

"I'm not going to do your job for you. Just try to hit it at an angle."

"What angle? Me arm's inside the smegging wall!"

Rimmer clicked his pen.

"Alright, alright," Lister muttered, picking up the hammer.

"Alright…?"

"Yes, I heard you, I'm doing it."

"That's not how you speak to your superiors."

"Alright, sir," he grumbled.

"Better." Rimmer hovered closer. "You know, I think you and I could possibly learn to get along. Reach a sort of… common ground."

"What is this about?" Maybe the week of silence had made him lonely.

"No need to sound so suspicious. All I'm asking for is a little cooperation. I scratch your back, you scratch mine."

"Is this more fake mafia nonsense? Are you going through one of your phases?"

"No, Lister, I'm proposing a ceasefire. I'm sure you had a rather restful week, and I'd like to extend that privilege to you again. One more week, in exchange for…" He struggled with the next words, and they came out in a jumble. "Another kiss."

"Hmm." Lister put the hammer down. "Well, I'd be crazy not to take a deal like that. Even if you chargin' a protection fee for a problem you created is mad shady."

"There's a catch." Rimmer stared down at his clipboard, lips tight, toying with the metal clip. Snap. Snap. Snap. "I want it on the mouth this time."

"Ah."

"Of course, one could argue that leveraging my power over you for- for romantic-adjacent means could be taken as unethical. So. If you took this deal, the reports to Callaghan would naturally have to stop for fear that you would report me back."

"Oh, naturally," Lister parroted.

"It would be a stalemate. You and I would be on equal terms again."

"You must be desperate to kiss somebody."

"It's not like that! This is- it's an equalizer, you understand. It's quid pro quo. It's a non-zero-sum situation."

"You must be desperate to kiss me."

"No- it's a- it's a pawn sacrifice in our little battle of wits. It's just to- it's to level the playing field, it's a tactical move-"

Rimmer went on like that for a few more rambling sentences, giving Lister a moment to mull it over.

The prospect of another week was tempting, but more than that… he wanted to take him up on another kiss, didn't he? There was a pretty sizable part of him that got all tingly at the thought of pressing Rimmer against the wall of the corridor, showing him who was boss. That'll teach you, telling me not to ruin my pliers. Mwah. 

At the same time- he'd turned down the opportunity to spend the weekend in bed with a beautiful, smart, funny woman with huge cans. If this continued, Rimmer was probably going to ruin him. Probably had done.

"Well?" Rimmer asked, gripping the clipboard so hard his fingers had turned white.

"Okay," Lister said, against his better judgement. "You've got a deal."

---

Of course as soon as they'd shaken on it, the once-empty corridor had come alive with the bustle of miners and technicians hurrying down the hall on their lunch break.

"Look, come to my quarters after your shift," Rimmer had murmured below the chattering crowd, pressing a scrap of paper into Lister's hand. "I have a single now. Engineers get single rooms." Oh, smegging engineers.

It was a nice room, though, only a little smaller than the one they'd shared. With some amusement, Lister noticed the fake clippings he'd made were sitting in the bin- how long had it taken Rimmer to notice? Although there wasn't a window, there was a nice armchair bolted to the floor near the foot of the bed, which would be perfect for all the pretending to read Rimmer did. There was an angled desk with some nice-looking diagrams of something clipped onto it, which Lister understood absolutely none of. Dots and lines. He realized Rimmer had drawn it after a few moments of squinting- there was that telltale block lettering, almost perfect except for the squashed O's and unfinished R's. Huh. It made a twisted sort of sense that he'd be good at this. Rimmer had always liked taking a ruler to a perfectly good piece of paper and turning it into a schedule from Satan's nightmares.

Other than that, the room wasn't that interesting. Lister had done all the snooping he wanted to do, and twenty minutes later Rimmer was nowhere to be found. And sure, Lister knew Rimmer was a bit of a flake any time he needed to do something that involved even the tiniest bit of bravery. He waited until the last minute to get any of his shore-leave vaccinations, or didn't leave the ship at all. It was just- did he expect to be able to avoid his own bunk forever? Did he expect Lister to give up after a half-hour, go home, and pretend nothing had happened?

Lister laid back on the bed, shoes still on, smudged with grease, and made himself comfortable. Rimmer wasn't going to go back on this, not with a week of total blissful solitude on the line. Lister had no issue waiting it out. Actually… he looked around the room one more time. Like Rimmer'd said, they were equals again. Lister opened two of the pens sitting in a tray at the bottom of the desk and swapped the ink chambers. It was a lame prank, but he knew Rimmer would get disproportionately angry about it when he realized the black was writing in red and vice versa.

There was a hesitant knock on the door, and Lister jumped, diving back onto the bed.

"You- er- you're here," Rimmer gulped as he opened the door. "I halfway expected you wouldn't be."

"It took you long enough to get here. I thought you'd stood me up in your own room."

"They had me working on something down in the diesel decks," Rimmer sighed. "It took me ages to get there and back. To think, I got into this job because I didn't want to commute."

"I thought your dad forced you to sign up."

"It was a joke, Lister, I thought you enjoyed those."

Maybe Rimmer'd forgotten all about their deal, because he sat down in the armchair and took off his boots like it was just a normal day.

"Anyways, you wouldn't believe who I ran into down there. Do you remember that skutter- the one that was a shade of blue different than the others? The mispaint?"

"No way. Thunder's still around?" Lister couldn't contain his smile. "He was my favorite. Always let him bum a cig off me."

"You mean you used it as an ashtray," Rimmer scoffed.

"No, I swear the little bugger smoked 'em!"

"Well, from what I understand, they had to pull it apart to clean all the ashes out. But-" A smile tugged at the corners of Rimmer's mouth. "They didn't end up removing that little lightning bolt you drew on him. It's still there, if a bit chipped."

"You had a fit," Lister reminisced. "Defacing company property an' all."

"Well, it- yes. It's still a punishable offense. But, I don't know, seeing it now was a… moment of reprieve from an otherwise miserable sort of day."

There was a second or two there, Rimmer smiling to himself, where maybe Lister would have kissed him without any strings attached. No- this was still Rimmer, after all. They were only getting along because they'd finally had the opportunity to spend time apart. As soon as the smothering began again, Lister would be back to hating him.

"Let's get this over with," he insisted. "I've got things to do."

"You're so right, Listy. I wouldn't want to keep you from curing cancer or building the galaxy's first quantum engine." Rimmer twirled into the spot next to him on the bed, fingers picking at the seam of his crisp uniform pants. "Get to it, then," he said quietly.

Lister took Rimmer by the chin, tilting his head so that they were face-to-face. It felt uncomfortable. Rimmer clearly had no idea where to look, his eyes flitting from meeting Lister's gaze to his mouth to his forehead.

"Close your eyes, alright?"

"I'll keep them open, if it's all the same."

"That's unnatural. Just close 'em."

"I don't trust you. You're going to do something weird, I just know it."

"Maybe I would normally, but I want a week of peace an' quiet. Close your eyes and relax." Lister put his hands on Rimmer's shoulders, lowering them by a few inches, and Rimmer sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. Much better.

It wasn't as difficult to kiss him as Lister had thought it would be.

Obviously he'd been stuck on the first one for a week, but he thought for sure there'd be some sense of disgust when it happened for real. Rimmer would do something off, and he'd wake up and realize he was snogging the human equivalent of queuing at the post office, and that would be that.

Instead, Rimmer's lips felt like… lips. By some miracle, his hands made their way to the sides of Lister's neck and jaw, and his breath was warm on Lister's cheeks. He knew how to kiss, which was a pleasant surprise, even if it was a little unsteady, and his lips clung to Lister's, alternating top and bottom, softer than expected. He smelled good- kind of sweaty, yeah, considering the belly of the ship could get miserably cold or miserably hot depending on what section you were in. But it was a good smell. Soapy.

Lister hadn't noticed they'd been kissing for so long, too wrapped up in the experience, and he quickly pulled away.

"That's one week," he said. Rimmer had definitely noticed.

"Yes. One week, as promised." Rimmer paused. "Of course, we- we could do it in bulk."

"Bulk?"

"Get another one out of the way, while you're here. I doubt you'll want to come all the way back here again come next Monday, will you?"

"You have a point," Lister agreed. He didn't. He didn't have a point, not really, but at this point any excuse to just stay in this weird warm spot was a good one. "Two weeks."

"Two weeks," Rimmer nodded, and he leaned in.

Lister scooted forward, throwing his arms around Rimmer's neck like they belonged there. Comfortable. Something about this was comfortable.

This kiss was a lot shakier than the last, as though whatever courage Rimmer had plucked up was quickly faltering. That was alright- Lister stroked the soft hairs on the back of his neck, satisfied when Rimmer shuddered. It was so easy. It felt so easy.

"Th- three?" Rimmer stuttered after they'd separated.

"Yeah. Three."

---

It was only eighteen hours into the month and a half Lister'd earned when Rimmer came to bother him again.

"What's this about?" he groaned.

"You know damned well what this is about," Rimmer said, holding up two pens.

"Ah, c'mon, man, you left me alone in the room. You knew the risk."

"I'm not angry," Rimmer lied through his teeth. "I just want you to fix it."

"Can't you do it yourself? You're not holdin' up our agreement."

"I can't, Lister, it's the principle of the thing. You broke it, you fix it."

"Ohhh." Lister put down his tools. "You can't, can you?"

"It's the principle of the thing," Rimmer repeated.

"You're a big bad engineer, and you can't figure out how to take a pen apart."

"Just fix it, alright?" he squeaked, shoving the pens at Lister.

Lister laughed and pulled the ends off, swapping the cartridges easy as anything. 

"Thank you," Rimmer said tersely. "Touch my things again, by the way, and I don't care about our agreement- I can and will disembowel you and use your entrails as a jump rope."

"Sure, Rimmer," Lister smiled. "Anything else you need?"

"I… well, no, that was it. I suppose I should bid you adieu."

"Yeah. Guess you should."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"Actually-" Lister pointed at the mess of wiring inside the junction box. "You're killer at organizing things. You could help me with this mess."

"Well, Lister, I'm a very busy man, and I have a lot on my plate, but… for old time's sake, maybe I could slot it into my schedule."

"Thanks," Lister said, stepping aside and slipping Rimmer a handful of connectors. "So, the travellers are the real problem…"

---

"You seem a lot less depressed." Selby nudged him. "C'mon, don't hold out on us. What's her name?"

"What d'you mean?" Lister laughed. "I can't just be happy for no reason?"

"You?" Chen shook his head. "You're a gloomy fucker in between relationships."

"Ja. You always have this look like a puppy kicked you," Petersen added.

"I think it's 'like a kicked puppy.'"

"I'm happily single," Lister insisted, nursing his pint glass. "Maybe work's gone better than usual."

"So, what? They fired Rimmer?"

"No. We're just- we get on now, y'know?" This line of conversation was really dangerous. Lister doubted the boys cared a lick if he kissed a bloke- it was more the fact that he'd kissed Rimmer that would make him into an instant pariah. Well. Not a pariah, but he'd never hear the last of it, never ever. "Er- yeah, I think us not being stuck together day and night makes it easier not to toss him down an elevator shaft."

"How's bunking with Tillery? I heard he's a total bore."

"Who?" It took Lister a second to realize they were talking about Fireman Sam, and the next second the nickname had sent the group into a fit of laughter.

"That's just perfect!" Chen chittered like a hyena. "Spot on!"

"Look, he's a nice guy. I just don't get to have a lot of-" Lister's eyes caught a figure standing awkwardly in the middle distance. "Ah, hey, I've got to use the head. Watch me beer, yeah?"

"Too much spicy food," Petersen scolded him. "I told you to stay away from those vending machine curries."

"Right, shame on me," Lister said, making a quick escape.

"Rimmer, what are you doing here?"

"Not- I wasn't here to bother you," he said frantically. "I didn't even know you'd be here tonight. I was just- trying something different."

"No, it's good to see you out. I always said you needed to get your nose out of those boring war books and make some friends." Lister gingerly grabbed his elbow, steering him towards an alcove where they'd be less likely to be seen by his group.

"Unsurprisingly, I'm not having any luck in that pursuit. As it turns out, you were right about not many people being impressed by my status." He sighed. "This was sort of a last attempt, before I go back to studying for the astronavigation exam. At least as an officer, I'll command some sort of respect-"

"What? But you're a brilliant engineer."

"I- no I'm not?" Rimmer's confusion was genuine. "You think I'm a good engineer?"

"I've seen those drawings you did. Those were really good, I think. I mean, I didn't know what any of it meant, but it looked good."

"Oh." He looked pale and shaken, like Lister had just told him how he was going to die.

"Anyways-" Lister glanced back towards the table. Petersen had drank his beer pretty much immediately after he'd left. "I should get back to my boys, but… I dunno, I'll see you Monday?"

"Next next Monday," Rimmer nodded.

"Well- yeah, next next Monday." It was what Lister'd earned, after all.

---

It felt like forever until the next time Rimmer asked him for a kiss. At some point, Lister had given in and taken to fantasizing about him- those soft curly hairs on the back of his neck, the way his breath stank of regulation toothpaste, the little tremors in his breath when they pulled apart.

It was the day today, and Lister couldn't help but feel nervous despite himself. There was absolutely a non-zero chance that Rimmer wasn't going to ask him. Maybe he'd changed his mind, or met someone, against all odds. Maybe he would chicken out, like always, and he wouldn't even show up to work.

He did the unthinkable and showered, scrubbing everything clean, brushing his teeth furiously until all he could taste was mint and blood. He put on his least ratty boilersuit, cursing the fact that he hadn't done his laundry in a week.

"Mmrph," Tillery grunted from the bottom bunk as the door slid open, leaching fluorescent light into the dark room.

"Sorry, man," Lister whispered. "You get some rest."

"You look… nice," Rimmer said stiffly. "Surely you didn't gussy up for my sake."

"Have a date tonight," Lister lied on impulse, and he immediately wanted to shoot himself out an airlock for that one.

"Oh." A pause. "So you probably don't want to-"

"No, we can. We can." He set his wire strippers back in the tool cart, giving up the pretense of working. "This floor's kind of deserted, right, I mean- it's just all cargo bays and machinery-"

"So you think you'll just get it all out of the way now, and go about your day." Rimmer was angry! His arms were at his hips, jaw squared, angry, and Lister hadn't realized how much he missed this expression.

"If you don't want to-"

"No, Lister, I do. Let's. Let's go behind the pallets of astronaut diapers. I can't think of any better place to do it."

"Look, if-"

"Come on," Rimmer snapped, and he briskly made his way into the labyrinthine supply stacks. Lister followed, unsure if he'd smegged the whole thing up yet or not.

Bam.

Rimmer grabbed him by the collar, pushing him against a large metal crate, and Lister hated what that did to his downstairs.

"Oh, Rimmer," he sighed, smirking when Rimmer turned bright red.

"You- Just so you're aware, I'm changing the price."

"You what?"

"I think a whole week is too cheap. You're getting far too bold, knowing you can just banish me for months at a time. So-" He loosened his grip, unsure- "One day."

"A day?" Lister tried to seem irritated. "Only a day, for all this?"

"It's- it's just what's fair. I'm not a lowly technician anymore, and I'm re-evaluating myself."

"Alright, well, can we still do it in bulk?"

"Fine."

"Then I'm gonna do a month. Get it out of the way."

"What?" Rimmer froze. "Here?"

"Mhmm," Lister hummed, pulling Rimmer forward by his tie.

The first kiss was electric, brilliant, and Lister could feel all the tension in him release. When Rimmer started to pull away, he tugged the tie again, biting his bottom lip gently. Stay there.

This wasn't going to be a quick process. He was going to keep Rimmer's mouth on his mouth all shift. He was going to get way behind on repairs.

Lister didn't let Rimmer get a word out before the second kiss happened. This time, Rimmer's tongue slipped between his lips, awkward, and their teeth clicked as he pushed Lister back up against the container, and it was sloppy and messy and a little gross and absolutely perfect.

And then the third kiss…

---

Dave Lister was in heaven. Or, close to it.

He didn't mind his job so much. At least, it was sort of satisfying building things, fixing things, and he was good at it. Every Friday night, he went to one of six bars with his boys and got absolutely sloshed. And then, Saturdays. 

Saturdays he spent in Rimmer's fancy single room, because they'd gotten caught a few times kissing in the corridor or in whatever corners they could find, so it was far more practical to just come over to Rimmer's and do it there.

And sometimes he stayed over, and it turned into Sunday.

"Wait," Rimmer said as Lister climbed into his bed one evening. "I don't think we can keep doing this."

"What?"

"Well- we're returning to Earth in a week. I don't want to owe you."

"You won't owe me, Rimmer, if anything you'll be sticking to the agreement. I mean, if you're up here and I'm down there, you won't have any problem avoiding me the whole day." They often had to re-do days or even weeks. It was sort of a flimsy excuse at this point.

"Right, but it's… I don't know. I suppose you're right."

"Hey. Don't look so gloomy."

"It's our last Saturday on the same assignment."

"I'm here now," Lister said, and he earned himself another day, pressed it gently against Rimmer's lips.

"You're still dead set on going back to Liverpool?" Rimmer asked when they separated.

"Yeah. I've been away from home long enough. Four years, and the place is probably all paved over."

"As it should be," Rimmer clucked. "I don't see what's so great about Liverpool. It's a slum compared to Io."

"There's tons to love about it."

"Name one good thing that ever came out of that blasted city."

"The Beatles?"

"Well-" He struggled. "So what? That was two hundred years ago."

"You like me well enough, and I came from there." Lister stroked Rimmer's cheek, delighted when he turned pink.

"A whole town full of Listers." Rimmer made a disgusted face.

"You'd love it. We have trees there, real ones, not like that bio-engineered crap you have on Io. It's historical, too, you could learn all about your world wars and trains and ships and things."

"Historical, how would you know? You've never been in a museum in your life."

"Been to the Beatles museum."

"Oh, of course you have."

"I'm serious," Lister continued. "You'd be happy in Liverpool, you know. I mean, it's a welcoming place. They need maintenance engineers everywhere, and you could get a cute little flat above a shop somewhere, make some friends who aren't half-mad from spaceship fumes…"

"I'd walk down the street and have a panic attack. There's no routine there, you know. People just walk around willy-nilly doing whatever they want."

"Sure there's a routine. It's just not enforced by anyone, y'know, it's like the city breathing in and out. There's real days there, people follow the sun. And I'd be in town. I'd help you figure it out."

"A week to move my entire life from outer space to England isn't enough time," he protested.

"Your entire life is about two lockers worth of stuff. And anyways, you could stay with me at my gran's old place for a couple weeks. I wouldn't mind."

"It's been abandoned for four years. It's probably caved in and full of vermin."

"So help me fix it up. And I'll owe you."

Rimmer leaned in, kissing the corner of Lister's mouth. Twelve hours.

"Lister," he said softly. "What happens when you get off this ship and you aren't stuck with me anymore?"

"I guess you'll be stuck with me instead, then, won't you?"

Rimmer went quiet for a moment, glancing away.

"I… I'll think about it."

They went back to necking without any further discussion.

And as much as Lister loved this new sense of desperation, the way Rimmer dug his fingers hard into his back, the soft moans Rimmer might have usually suppressed, he couldn't help the brick of disappointment that sank heavy to the bottom of his stomach.

---

The shuttle was mostly empty. Really just Lister and Selby. Chen was going to stay on another few days while the ship was docked with that blonde bird he'd been seeing, Petersen was signed up for another tour. 

It had been sad, saying goodbye to this great red beast that had let Lister squirm around in its belly for a whole four years. 

He'd said goodbye to Holly, and the vending machine that always gave him double rations ever since he fixed its intake valve. He'd tried and failed to find Thunder to smoke one last cig together, and settled on leaving a few scattered around the diesel decks where he thought no one would immediately find them.

He'd given Tillery a long, tight hug, much to Tillery's vague confusion, told him he'd been the best bunkmate ever, decided against telling him who'd started the now ship-wide Fireman Sam nickname.

And he hadn't heard anything from Rimmer.

He hadn't heard a single word since two days ago.

And it made sense- Rimmer hated change, and he hated getting jabbed with needles, and he hated the idea of leaving his comfortable, seasonless spaceship, with everything planned out for him for the next decade, down to the hour. He was a coward. And that was fine. Lister hadn't really expected him to change. He hadn't actually thought for more than a minute that Rimmer would run away to Earth with him. But smeg, he couldn't even have said goodbye after they'd been not-dating for a whole year?

"You alright, man?" Selby asked, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Fine. Just- y'know, feeling a bit down leaving this place. Might even be a bit homesick."

"Yeah. It was a good gig."

"It was a good gig," Lister nodded back.

FINAL CALL FOR BOARDING… PLEASE ENSURE ALL CARRY-ON LUGGAGE IS SECURED PROPERLY… the speakers blasted across the docking bay.

"Wait!" someone shrieked from outside.

"Look at that," Selby chuckled, but Lister wasn't in the mood to do anything but sulk. "No, look. Rimmer the engineer's out there, trying to haul around five suitcases."

"What?"

"Yeah! How does he think he's gonna fit all of that in the shuttle?" Selby laughed. "Typical- where are you going?"

Lister had unbuckled already, all-but-diving out the shuttle door.

"Oh, you smegging idiot, you dimwitted bastard of a man," he huffed, grabbing one edge of Rimmer's stupid heavy wooden trunk.

"Sorry," Rimmer wheezed. "The clerk told me I couldn't bring half of this on the shuttle- so- I had to complain at him for twenty minutes-"

"Yeah, they've got a cargo hold! You're s'posed to check this sort of thing!"

"And risk scuffing my father's trunk?" Rimmer said incredulously as they managed to get it across the threshold. Rimmer set down the rolling suitcase, large military backpack, and duffel bag he'd been carrying, and Lister immediately threw his arms around him, squeezing tight.

"You came. I didn't think you were going to come," he murmured into Rimmer's neck.

"I nearly didn't, thanks to the luggage clerk." Rimmer's fingers slid up Lister's back.

"Wait a second! You two- I knew it!" Selby hooted. "Oh, I fuckin' knew it! Oh, Chen owes me fifty dollar-pounds…" His excitement faded as he realized he was about to spend the better part of six hours stuck in a cramped shuttle with them.

The shuttle doors snapped shut and sealed with a hiss, and Lister reluctantly let go of Rimmer, grinning like a madman as he fastened himself back into the chair.

"You'd better be right about this," Rimmer muttered, glancing at Selby, red with embarrassment. "I can't believe I've derailed my entire life and career for you."

"Yeah, horrible decision on your part. But we'll figure it out, together." Lister smiled, sliding his fingers around Rimmer's hand, and in the next moment the shuttle roared to life. "Promise."

[batstorm93672]

Crimson staining the green of his gloves, it looked like a darker version of a Christmas tree except this time there are no lights and no joy.

Red Hood opened the door and pat his shoulder to get his attention "What were you doing here? I was loo-" He noticed the blood on Robin's hands, how the white of his mask were wide in shock, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at his hands, the fact he was on his knees looking like he got hit.

"Hey... look at me" Then Red Hood noticed the pool of blood trailing to Robin. This isn't Robin's blood. He isn't hurt. In the dark of the room was a figure, a man with a gun in his hand and the source of the blood.

"I... I tried to stop it..." Robin's voice was broken and disbelief. "What happened after Robin?"

"I tried to stop it..." Robin curled his fingers into his locks, red staining his dark hair. "I tried..."

He's in shock, that's all he can utter.

Red Hood grabbed the gun, opening the barrel, only one bullet was left. So the last one was intended for someone else, due to the bullet that went through his chin and struck him dead clean, he intended to kill two.

Who was the second?

The man has a ring on, engaged and there's a ring on the ground a few feet away. It was meant to be a kill and suicide.

"You saved the spouse. The man shot himself before you could stop him"

"I tried to stop it..."

Red Hood turned back to Robin, the kid looked like he's been through hell (again). Walking over and kneeling down, Red Hood cupped Robin's face as Robin lowered his hands away from his hair. "Come here kid" He took the back of his head and pressed him against his chest. Robin shouldn't be seeing this anymore.

Red Hood carried Robin back to his apartment, giving a message to Batman that he would be staying with him.

.

Jason washed the blood out of Damian's hair, the soap adapted a pinkish hue as it mixed with the red. Damian kept silent as he was bathed, letting Jason do what he wants. Jason was consumed with worry, the fact that Damian hadn't spoke and the image of that look on his face felt like a plague in Jason's mind.

What do I even say? He's in shock and I don't know how to really help, all I can do is get him out of this uniform and clean away the evidence. How does that help the shock he's experiencing? I can get rid of the outside issues, but the inside is completely different. Ah, the water is getting cool. He's clean, he left some clothes during one of our sleepovers. I washed them and put them in a box somewhere, just gotta look real quick.

"Keep the towel around you, I'm gonna find some clothes you left here"

Two minutes to find them under his bed, Jason grabbed a red shirt and black sweats from the box and dressed Damian.

Jason ruffled Damian's hair with the towel until it was no longer dripping on his bathroom floor. "Okay, come on. I have some leftover pizza, we can watch Lady and the Tramp while we eat" He gave an absent-minded nod and Jason heated up the pizza in the oven as the movie began.

It wasn't until finishing his food and Tramp killing the rat that Damian finally spoke.

"I-I tried... I tried to stop it..." Jason put a pause on the movie, keeping his full attention on his little brother. "He kept bleeding, I tried to stop the blood. I made his husband go to the nearest GCPD station. I tried to talk him down from it, he didn't listen. He wouldn't listen. I tried to stop the blood... I tried to stop it..."

"You did good, you saved a life. We sometimes don't always get that chance. It's difficult and painful to see a life you try to save go. But there were too many things that not even Batman can stop. That man was mentally ill and undiagnosed, clearly he had... tendencies. If it wasn't for you there would be two bodies instead of one. You tried and that's all we can do. It wasn't your fault that he did what he did. It wasn't your fault Damian. It wasn't your fault for what happened, you did everything you could. That's all we can do. It's not your fault"

"He was alone... he looked so sad when he saw him run away, then... then the gun..." Jason wrapped his arms around Damian "It's okay, it wasn't your fault kid. Just hold onto me and everything will be okay"

The two were silent as Jason kept holding him, then Damian inhaled and exhaled a sob.

"I tried... I really tried, he wouldn't listen"

"I know"

"I tried so hard to save him..."

"I know"

"I tried... I tried Jason"

"I know"

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 220

There’s No Place Like Home/Listen

And we’re back!! I’m 36, I cannot be staying up til 4am hoping that and then celebrating that a singer will announce an album three time zones away. It completely fucked my everything for DAYS. I’m gonna have to do three days in a row with two episodes…it’s fine. This is fine.

“There’s No Place Like Home”

Plot Description: after Sam stumbles across a video of Charlie Bradbury attacking a district attorney, the brothers track her down to find out why she’s back from Oz

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: I guess so? No one died…and I wouldn’t do anything to make Charlie mad like that

Dean, do you really think drinking green smoothies instead of eating burgers is going to fend off the effects of the mark?

OBSESSED with Dean wanting to go clean so as not to draw the attention of the mark but then still adds a blade to his personal arsenal. Are you kidding me?

Oh…this has to do with the accident that took Charlie’s parents from her

Dean’s so miserable on this diet

Wt ACTUAL FUCK has happened to Charlie??

HELLO?? A duplicate Charlie?? Mmm, this is her literally unleashed dark side

Sam, did you not hear the part where she’s all good Charlie? She can’t hack into someone else’s bank account

This feels like a bad plan…Dean’s a bit of an unstoppable and unstable killing machine, I can’t really trust that he’s not going to be able to refrain from slicing and dicing bad Charlie (which WILL hurt good Charlie)

I like this reasearch side plot they have Sam and good Charlie doing into fixing the key to go back to Oz. Hope it’s not all for nothing!!

UM. RUDE. You can’t tell how much money a person actually has by the clothes they choose to wear

I don’t trust bad Charlie, and I DEFINITELY don’t trust her handing Dean YET ANOTHER blade (even if she doesn’t know the effect it could have)

Yeah, I could have told you she’d stab him or at least find a way to kill the drunk driver

Excuse me?!?! The Wizard of Oz is this old Man of Letters dark side version?? This show is ridiculous

So…both bad and good Charlie are allowed to kill people?? And like blah blah greater good blah blah he forgave her but….she still very much killed him. That happened. Even if you don’t subscribe to a religion that follows the ten commandments, it’s still very much against the law for GOOD REASON.

Yeah, Dean forgot if you hurt one Charlie, you also hurt the other. Yeah, Dean. Think about how, even though she’s not dead, you literally have Charlie’s blood on your hands

Uggghhhhh the fact that she’s now scared of Dean is an unfortunate turn. It’s completely understandable but it SUCKS

Ok…she kinda got over that a little fast. But she also knows that Dean’s not gonna forgive himself for this

“Listen”

Plot Description: Ghosts of the past and future crowd into the lives of the Doctor and Clara

Doc, you need to get Clara back on this spaceship time machine. You’re going a little mad all by yourself, sweetie. Though, I suppose you’re not ACTUALLY all by yourself…SOMETHING wrote “listen” on that board

Omg this date is so awkward. You know…this should be a sign to never date someone you meet at work, but that’s like…all I’ve ever done, except once

Oh. This was a mistake. Watching this this close to bedtime…the whole what if you’re never really alone? What if there really is something living under your bed? What if everyone has that dream because it actually happened? But I know what’s under my bed. Storage bins with t-shirts and purses and the like

DOCTOR…why are we bringing Clara to meet herself since it could be so catastrophic?

Ah…it’s not her we’re meeting, it’s Danny, her coworker who she went out on a date with and was trying to call her when she was having her memories scanned by the TARDIS

This is a weirdly heavy handed episode…

Time travelers stop interacting with the child versions of your love interests challenge: impossible

Since when can the Doctor put people to sleep by touching their forehead???

Are people really that interested in what they look like from the back?? Clara just did it, it happened in a movie in [fandom redacted].

Ooooo now Clara’s striking out on her date with Danny…as the Doctor calls…you know, what if it’s not the Doctor?? Um what?? Ok, it wasn’t the Doctor but it WAS a descendant of Danny’s coming to collect Clara FOR the Doctor

Terrifying that the entire universe is dead but something out there still scares Orson

The Doctor��s “people skills” are “rusty” while asking Clara about her date

I was about to fall asleep (I’m still very tired)c but then something started knocking on the door to this time machine and/or space ship so omg I hate this so much. I don’t like feeling this scared. This is such a primal fear

Fuck. Flu away. Vworp vworp NOW.

Well NOW how far back did you go??? And why are you now …….. um what?? You’re now under the Doctor’s bed when he was a child?? Clara. You just became the reason everyone has that dream?? Are you kidding me?!?!

Holy shit. The barn Clara is meeting the Doctor as a child in is also the one where the War Doctor, Ten, and Eleven save Gallifrey in???

[fereality-indy]

My GI Joe Universe - Steel Brigade

In 1987/88 Hasbro came up with a Mail In program for GI Joe that allowed the fans to be members of the team's reserves.

By filling out the above form and sending it in with the required flag points/cash, you would receive a figure/file card/shirt patch.

The figure was a Frankenstein figure with a new head. Over the years that they were available there were 5 variations of the original color scheme and a gold head variant at the end of the availability.

The Brigade never appeared in any of the various Joe medias but Devil's Due have their version of the Green Shirts that were similar.

The Brigade appeared a few times with the DTC Steel Brigade Vs the Plague set, Joe Collector Club figures, and modern era series.

Now in my universe the Brigade works similar to the original version with the exception that instead of specially recruited members, every new member of the Joes after '87 was at one point a member of the Steel Brigade. That means every trainee we see in the great Issue 82 of the comic was a member of the Steel Brigade (which explains why they already had code names) and went back to the program when they washed out.

A few years ago I participated in group brainstorming session where we were given a theme and had to come up with a 5-6 figure set similar to the Toys R Us set that were out at the time. Over a few of the sets I would include at least one Brigade member to justify the creation of a new character. I never got around to actually customizing the figures but after I started making Joes in Hero Forge I decided to go ahead and make them in mini form (now I just need the money to have them printed). These characters will probably be among the first made as I try to figure out the Joe RPG whenever I get it.

I modified one of the ideas to combine the Brigade members into one set.

After capturing a remote Cobra outpost, the Joes find evidence that Cobra scientist Dr. Venom has developed a new device to activate inactive volcanoes. Cobra them planned to use them in order to black mail the nations of the world to surrender themselves or face their cities becoming a modern day Pompeii. The Joes alerted their allies around the world & sent teams out to the various volcanoes hoping to prevent a disaster. After hearing of a long dormant Volcano erupting in South America and that a United Nations team had been sent to evacuate the near by populace. Believing this might be a test run (from intercepted scrambled messages) the stretched thin Joe team sends in a Brigade team with two geology expert members among them down to help out. Upon arrival the two teams meet and stumble upon the Cobra agents. The fight is on.

Up first is my Joe-sona Fereality, hand to hand combat trainer/animal handler.

Next is the first of two geology specialists, Granite, intelligence/geologist.

Quartz, combat engineer/geophysicist.

Spelunker, infantry/mountaineer.

Evac, helo-pilot/medic.

[smol-cryptid]

check out these cute fitting room selfies i took yesterday cuz i was feeling good about myself 😊

[aquato-family-circus]

"What does Otto Mentallis' Brain look like?" "Yes!"

I've been wanting to pay a little tribute to everyone else's very fun little Otto ideas, since a lot of them inspired my own take, so finally we are here. If yours isn't here, don't worry about it, just means I must've missed it! Mostly worked with ones that had visual refs or at least detailed descriptions~

I included everyone's usernames in the images themselves, and here's the direct links to where I got the refs for these concepts too, so you can show them some love:

@banjo-bugs [x] @britishsass [x] [x] (second link is a fanfic series, go read it) @jnixz [x] @razputin-archetype [x] @save-me-san-fran-psychonauts [x] @sunnievii [x] @vikviky [x]

All image descriptions under the cut:

General ID: 7 Images depecticting different people's interpretations of mental denizens who would occupy the head of Otto Mentallis. A majority of them are iterations on Otto's design, barring a few exceptions such as jnixz and britishsass' concepts. Each image is labeled with the text "Concept By -" followed by the respective person's tumblr username. End ID.

ID #1: Concept by Banjo-Bugs. A continuous line drawing of an abstracted Otto Mentallis looking angry as he balls his fist and points aggressively to the left. The linework of his outer limbs and body is teal, then it grows from yellow to red as the colors reach his face. His eyes are swirling and bright yellow. He's surrounded by particle effects in the same colors as his body, and the background is a solid dark blue with blotches of darker blue circles. End ID.

ID #2: Concept by Britishsass. Three mechanical figures stand beside each other, each on top of a colored circle that is connected to a line that travels across the background in an erratic pattern. From left to right, the figures are Win-0 on the blue line, Turing on the red line, and Lovelace on the green line. Win-0 is a humanoid robot with a bronze/copper like complexion and ball-jointed limbs. It's wearing brass goggles on top of their head, a blue neckerchief, a grey t-shirt and a dark grey pair of overalls with black shoes and a brown belt. Turing is a simplistic robot with a circular head, bright red eyes, and an oval body with a small brain decal on the chest, tube arms, claw hands, and a singular wheel instead of legs. They're wearing a tiny floating hat with a brain decal, as well as a big brown satchel slung over one of his arms. Lovelace is a semi-humanoid robot with long, flowing metal hair, a stark white face with eyes that resemble camera apertures, mitten-like hands, and an electrical ghost tail. She's wearing a flowing grey dress with long sleeves under a green cloak with a silver heart on top. It also has a big green bow on the top of their head. End ID.

ID #3: Concept by Jnixz. A small silhouette of Otto Mentallis is floating down a green murky area as a large monster glowers down at him with bright yellow eyes. The monster resembles the design for a nightmare from Psychonauts, but it is much larger than a typical nightmare, and its multiple arms are all individually representative of a member of the Psychic 7. The limbs are all slightly out of focus, making the focus of the piece the Nightmare's skull-like head. End ID.

ID #4: Concept by Razputin-Archetype. A version of Otto that is modeled after blocky toys or miniature figurines one would find in a diorama or museum display. He has a slight wood grain texture and his joints are connected by small metal chains. He has his hands behind his back and he's looking up wistfully as he stands in a diorama depicting the heptadome by using pictures of in-game screenshots, superimposed on each wall and the floor. End ID.

ID #5: Concept by Save-Me-San-Fran-Psychonauts. A small Otto that is made of bright teal linework on top of a pitch black background. He has fluffy hair, and he's wearing a college graduation hat and robe. He looks determined as he holds onto a rabbit drawn in the same style which has ears meant to resemble lightbulbs. He's surrounded by bright red shark fins that are circling around his feet. End ID.

ID #6: Concept by Sunnievii. Three robotic versions of Otto expressing the emotions of Love, Anger, and Sadness. The Lovestruck Otto is colored in a pink monochrome, and has a heart on his chest that is showing an electrocardiogram, also in the shape of hearts. The Angry Otto is red, has sharper features, and has one hand raised up in a fist. The Sad Otto is blue and has softer features. He is slumped over in a defeated posture, one of his eyes is broken like glass, and his chest has a lightbulb inside of it. The background is a solid yellow color with white lines radiating from the three Ottos, in the shape of hearts, electrical lines, and rain, respectively. End ID.

ID #7: Concept by Vikviky. Otto is standing up against a dilapidated wooden door covered in wooden boards nailed to it, rusty chains, and a yellow ribbon labeled "DANGER!". Otto looks frightened and has his arms up in a defensive posture. His hair and cloak are wavier than is normal, the cloak especially starts to curl off into whisps resembling smoke at the bottom. His Psychonauts dress is also longer, reaching the ground. His glasses are bright yellow and glowing, one obscures his eye while the other is broken, revealing that his visible eye is bloodshot. In the background there are scribbles of eyes starring down at Otto. End ID.

[letterstotheflre]

that’s the thing about illicit affairs

summary: james was never hers to lose.

warnings: CHEATING, age gap (not specified but reader is in her 20s), tiiiny angst?? i don’t think it’s sad lmao, allusions to sex and one miniature sex scene, some food mentions, and a very badly written argument.

word count: 3k (why are they always so long ffs)

a/n: my first james potter fic <3 i love this man so much, sorry for making you the bad guy here. this one’s been sitting in my drafts for a few weeks, and since i’ve been feeling kinda sad i finally got around to edit it. also hedric rights!!

They always meet like this.

The room is dark except for a small sea salt lamp she bought on sale from Target. Her clothes are piling up on the floor, discarded carelessly by her lover, and his are not too far from meeting the same fate.

He is kissing her hungrily as he could never get enough of her. His hands travel all over her back while she unbuttons his shirt, their lips never parting. He moves her to her bed, the sheets a pale green that reminds him of—

No. He closes his eyes tightly, pretends the green is actually blue like the lacy bralette that covers her breasts and moves his lips down to her jaw. He sucks and nips and bites, letting her moans echo freely between the four walls that make their little sanctuary.

Her hands quickly undo his belt and stroke him lightly through the fabric of his boxers. He groans against the junction of her neck, the skin softer than anything he’s touched in years.

He pushes her down on the bed, cupping her face while he looks at her properly, noting the tangled hair caused by his fingers. Her lips are puffy and shiny, his kisses being the perpetrator of their current state. He waits for her to say something, to give him a sign that this is okay.

(It’s not okay, and they both know it. It’ll never be okay.)

She nods her head, and he kneels in front of her, pushing her legs wide open before he dives in.

—

She is laying on her bed, the sheets covering her body as she watches him try to fix up his hair in front of the mirror on her makeshift vanity.

“Make sure no one sees you leave,” she says, “and put—”

“Put my hood up, I know,” he finishes the sentence for her. It’s not the first time they do this dance.

“Sirius and Remus are with Harry at home. I told them I was going for a run, so they won’t say anything if I show up all sweaty,” he adds, trying to fill the awkward silence.

She just nods her head, fingers playing with a loose thread on the edge of the sheet, pulling it a bit more every time she twists her index finger. He steps forward, then sits on her bed and traces her cheekbone with his knuckles. “You know I care about you, right?” he asks.

Her heart clenches, a heavy weight pressing down on her chest that makes it hard to breathe for a second. She lowers her eyes, refusing to stare at those hazel irises that started everything. “I know, James,” she assures quietly, looking at a picture of her and Harry that’s stuck to the wall just behind him.

James brushes back some stray hairs that are still stuck to her forehead, then presses a small kiss on the slightly sweaty skin. He gives her a tentative smile before heading to the door, and she only looks in his direction when she hears the click of the door.

(He might care, but not enough.)

—

Sundays are always a slightly awkward affair at first.

Both of their families have been friends for years, getting together every Sunday for lunch at the Potter’s. James and Sirius always man the grill with her dad, all of them wearing those corny ‘kiss the chef!’ aprons. Her mother helps Lily make the salads in the kitchen while they gossip with Remus, who steals a few tomatoes when they aren’t looking. Now that it’s summer, she and Harry splash each other in the pool instead of catching up in his room.

It’s always strange seeing James in the light of day, pretending that this is the only version of him she knows: the version of him that is a friend, a father, a husband.

But she knows the other version of him: the one that has her on her knees begging for a taste of him, the one that grips her hair while he pounds into her from behind, the one that lets his tongue explore places of her no one else has. The version of him that kisses her forehead and plays with her fingers while their bodies are tangled together under the sheets. The version of him that kisses her as if she were the only one made for him.

(She isn’t.)

They are sitting around the table eating. Sirius is laughing about something with his arm around Remus’s shoulders, his bark of laughter echoing across the garden. Her mother’s shoulders shake as Lily rolls her eyes in amusement. James and her father have gone back to the grill to bring everyone their second round of burgers, and she can hear her father complaining about something from work.

“Here y’go, kid,” says James as he places the plate in front of her before ruffling her hair. She tenses up for a second before relaxing, muttering a small “thank you” before reaching for the ketchup.

She hates that nickname. It’s so impersonal, keeps a distance between them that truly doesn’t exist. As if he isn’t the only person that can make her vision whiten and the colours of her room hazy while she clutches his shoulders. As if he isn’t the only person who can pull so many different sounds from her vocal cords, sounds he knows no one else has ever heard before because he is the only one who can create them.

She can feel Sirius’s eyes on her as she stretches one arm, so she hesitantly glances at him. He raises an eyebrow, eyes switching back and forth between James and her, and she can see the cogs turning in his mind.

She gulps anxiously, dismissing him with a wave of her hand and goes back to eating.

—

James’s moans are loud as he gathers her hair in a makeshift ponytail. His cock is buried in her throat, and he watches as she gags for a second before relaxing her throat.

She’s taking him so deep that her nose nuzzles his pubic hair, the musky scent of James filling her nose as she breathes deeply through it. She starts moving her head up and down, swirling her tongue around the tip every time she rises.

He is a mess above her, needy whines and wanton moans leaving his mouth. His hips thrust up softly, slowly fucking her mouth, and he relishes in the small choking sounds she makes. His head rolls back as he groans, “That’s it, baby, so good to me.”

She winces at the name and pulls away from him. “Don’t call me that,” she mutters, but her hands never stop stroking him. She takes him back into her mouth and starts sucking with a newfound fervour, his voice echoing inside her head as she tries to make him forget about her.

(She tries to forget too.)

—

Honey rays filter through her window.

They are both laying on her bed, James on his stomach while she refills the glasses with some cheap wine she got from the store. He looks at the tiny purple splotches on her neck and the red fingerprints on her hips, then smirks proudly. When she turns, she smiles at him softly.

There’s a summer breeze that ruffles her curtains, and he can hear some teenagers laughing as they walk down the street over the music that plays from her speaker.

She places her glass on her nightstand, her nipples brushing his naked back as she leans over him. She lays down on her side, her fingertips softly drawing shapes on his skin. It takes him a moment to realize they are not random shapes but letters.

Her name, written over his scattered freckles and connecting his moles with cursive loops.

He takes her hand and kisses it, slightly chapped lips pressing against her open palm. Then he kisses her lips, still bitterly sweet with grapes, as his tongue moves languidly against hers while he pulls her by the hand on top of him.

It feels like a distant memory. It feels like a dream.

—

The cacophony of different voices singing “Happy Birthday” rings in her ears.

Harry is at the front of the table, an adorable blush dusting his cheeks at the attention. On either side of him are James and Lily, smiles wide as they watch their son blow the candles. Cedric is behind him, hands on his shoulders, and he leans forward to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

She sings and claps, whooping with Sirius when Harry blows the last candle. She eats cake and drinks the pretty cocktails Lily ordered. She smiles and laughs, pretends she couldn’t see the way the candles made the golden band on James’s ring finger beam like the sun.

She pretends she doesn’t see the way James holds Lily’s waist before kissing her. She pretends she can’t see them dancing slowly to a song Remus put on the Spotify playlist as a joke.

She pretends she can’t hear his footsteps following her when she goes to the bathroom. She feigns disinterest when he grabs her wrist and pulls her towards a deserted corridor.

But she can’t ignore the butterflies in her stomach when he kisses her, the thrumming in her veins when he pushes one leg between her thighs, nor the pleasure-filled gasps and moans that leave her mouth when he helps her roll her hips along his covered thigh.

It’s thrilling; they’ve never done something like this in public, much less in such proximity to friends and family.

(In such proximity to her.)

Even though she knows it shouldn’t, it gives her a sense of victory. Because he is here with her now: he is kissing her, making her moan, and whispering dirty things in her ear.

A faraway call of his name breaks the spell they’re under. They pull away hastily; she fixes her dress while James makes sure there are no lipstick stains on his face. The footsteps are getting closer, heels hitting the floorboards at the same rhythm as their rapid beating hearts.

It’s Sirius.

James almost breathes a sigh of relief, but she remains tensed up. Sirius looks between them, the same look he had that Sunday all those weeks ago on his face, and she feels bile rising in her throat.

“Lily’s looking for you,” he says, his thumb pointing back over his shoulder towards the reception where everyone’s gathered.

“Right,” says James. “Better go see what she needs. You do not want to see an angry drunk Lily.” He laughs, almost oblivious to the awkward tension between his two friends. He goes back to Lily, leaving her leaning against the wall and Sirius standing in the middle of the hallway.

Sirius looks at her, and even though his mind already knows, he refuses to believe it. “I didn’t know where the bathroom was,” she offers as an explanation. It’s a flimsy excuse, she knows that, but it’s the best she can do under this kind of pressure.

“Right,” he whispers with a short nod, then follows James.

She stays rooted to her spot, lips tingling with the ghost of James touch and a guilty mind.

—

Hours later, she clings to a pillow as she lays on her bed alone. The same pillow James was resting on less than twelve hours ago.

She breathes in deeply, trying to catch any scent of him she can, but there’s only the scent of her fabric softener.

There’s no James. No citrus shampoo or woodsy cologne nor salty air from the beach near his house. Because he never wears any cologne when he comes to her, ensuring that there’s no trace of him once he leaves.

Like he doesn’t even exist.

—

It ends in a parking lot a month later.

She was waiting for Luna to arrive at the mall but ended up asking for a rain check when James texted her, saying they needed to talk.

‘Meet me behind the mall’, she texts him.

She walks to the back of the building and waits for his red car to show up. She already knows where this conversation is going to go, and her heart shatters at the thought of saying goodbye to him.

She raises her head when she hears a honk in front of her, and she gets in while whispering a small “hey”. He doesn’t start the car again, just settles for turning the ignition key off. She looks at the families leaving the mall through the tinted window, refusing to look at him, as her knee bounces up and down anxiously.

The silence is heavy, and she suddenly feels cold in the August heat.

James takes a deep breath, “We can’t keep doing this.”

She can’t help the snarky comment. “That’s not what you were saying yesterday while you had your fingers buried inside me.” He looks at her unimpressed, and she rolls her eyes.

“It’s wrong,” he says— as if she doesn’t already know that. “C’mon, baby, don’t make this harder than it has to—”

“I told you not to call me that!” she raises her voice, and the car gets silent again. She hates the tears that gather in her eyes, hates that she cares so much about him and their stupid game, but she couldn’t help it. Not when he whispered so many sweet nothings in her ears and caressed her skin so softly, almost afraid to break him if he was too rough.

(Not that he cared about that when he stretched her wide open and thrust so hard into her that the bed frame banged against the wall.)

“You can’t just show up here and tell me it’s over like you weren’t the one that came to me first,” she jeers, and she can see the tick of his jaw as he clenches it. Good, she thinks, make him angry.

“Don’t just blame me. You didn’t say ‘no’ once.” He grounds out, “In fact, I can recall you were begging me to fuck you against the wall.”

Her cheeks turn into a small fire, a slight feeling of shame overcoming her. “Oh, like you were any better!” she exclaims. “‘Been thinking about you for months.’ ‘You have no idea the things you do to me.’ ‘No one can suck my cock like you.’ ‘I care about you!’” She deepens her voice to mock him.

James opens his mouth to keep the ball rolling, and she wants him to do it because it meant that the fight was still on, that they wouldn’t have to end this. Instead, he takes a deep breath to calm himself. “I’m telling you now it’s over. Stop acting like a kid who didn’t get her Christmas present,” he says, knowing exactly what he is doing with those words.

“I’m not a kid,” she snaps, her eyes fighting back angry teats at his dismissal. “Then stop acting like one,” he shrugs.

Her hands turn into fists, nails digging themselves into her palms as she tries to keep her anger at bay. “Do you know how much of myself I gave to you? How many plans with my friends have I cancelled in case you called? How many guys I stopped seeing because they weren’t you?” she rants, her voice increasing in volume as she lets her frustration take over. Then, she pauses. “You’ve ruined me, James.”

Her voice is so pained that it makes his heart clench, and he lowers his head, refusing to look at her. He knows, God, he knows what he’s done, but he couldn’t help it. He had been so lonely with Lily spending so much time at the hospital, and then there she was with her caring and understanding nature. With her adorable laughs and those touches that were so addictive, a mercurial high that gave him the lowest lows whenever he tried to stop.

He keeps his mouth shut; there’s nothing left to say anyway, and it’s better for her to hate him rather than anything else. “You are not going to say anything?” It’s meek, vulnerable, and she wants to slap herself for acting this way. She knew it would never last, that he would always choose her.

He was never hers to lose, so why is she still fighting?

She nods her head in surrender, biting her lip to stop herself from sobbing. The anger now gave way to sadness, “I can’t believe I let you make a fool of me.” Her voice is hoarse, a result of the lump in her throat that prevents her from swallowing comfortably.

She gets out of the car and slams the door shut, then leaves the parking lot, leaving him behind. She keeps walking, fingers gripping the straps of her bag until she reaches an empty street.

The golden sun is ready to dip on the horizon, and she can hear James’s car speeding behind her.

—

She doesn’t let the tears fall until she’s inside her apartment.

The moment she closed the door, she crumbled to her knees, loud sobs falling from her mouth and fat tears rolling down her cheeks. It takes her a moment to gather enough strength to walk to her room.

She cries and cries, buries her face in her pillows and starts sobbing even harder because she can smell him. The salty scent and citrus shampoo finally embedded themselves in the fabric, and she can’t believe that after all those days she craved to feel him close to her, he chooses now to leave a trace behind.

She cries for hours until her eyes are puffy and red, and snot comes out of her nose. Her chest heaves with short breaths that don’t really fill her lungs as she clings to that damn pillow before throwing it across the room. She can’t believe it ended like this: with her completely broken for anyone else while James gets to go back to his life and act like nothing ever happened.

Yet she knows that if she had to choose, she would do it all over again because if she had to choose someone to be her ruination, she would choose James Potter a million times.

TAGLIST: @emmaev @gxtitobxby @ildm4ev @capsmischief @arisblackhole @dracosafety @dracoxgeorge @tonystarksmutgarden @blowing-mikey @roonilwazlibswhore @lovelylupinx @sarcasmismyon1ydefence @marxy-06 @glossiable @remusjlupinisdead @amixedwitch @mattefic @artisancowbells @zzzfour — if you want to be added tap here