#finally i have someone to draw riz with

[deptofinterplanaldefense]

Chapter 2

Merda! Merda! Merda!, Derex is in full blown panic mode. He attacked not only his bosses and his crush (and Chuck), but also revealed his ability to cast without the use of a wand or staff. A very rare trait that would draw a lot of attention to himself if people found out. Defeating the purpose of him moving to Creators Point to begin with. I’m screwed. Their going to fire me for sure!, Derex shriek in his mind, continuously spiraling into an endless void of despair. While everyone in the real world were stretching their limbs after being released from petrification or vines. After a few groans, Talulla finally spoke up, “Okay. As much as I would like to take time to explain everything, we’re running behind schedule. So Derex, you’re coming with us.” That somewhat snapped him out of it enough to look confused. Talulla motioned at Riz and they nodded in response. Next thing he knows, Derex is being carried bridal style by Riz, “I’m sorry.”, he spoke gently, “But we really do need to get going. And I promise everything will be explained. Okay?”, Derex dumbly nods in response. His pansexual heart beating like a jackhammer causing his brain to finally short circuit to the point that he didn’t notice Riz slightly blushing. The group walked to the back of the store where Talulla and Romara’s office was. Talulla then scribed a phrase in elvish with her fingers on the wall to reveal a secret door. 

This brought Derex fully back to reality though still confused. He asked worriedly, “Wait, where are you taking me?”, Talulla turns and briskly responds, “Like I said. We’ll explain later.”, and continues forward with the rest following close behind. Derex wants to ask more questions but knows better not to when Talulla’s that short with someone for she only did it when the situation called for it. Though he’d be lying if said he wasn’t curious now. What could possibly be going that required all black suits, masks, and secret entrances he wondered, and wondered even more when they started climbing down stairs to what looked like a subway platform. It was beautifully decorated with cobalt blue and marble white tiles in star and crescent moon patterns covering the walls and floor lit by white crystalline torches. The tram itself was also decorated to look like a shooting star, covered in ornate streaks of polished gold and the inside had matching gold poles and plush red velvet seats. Derex was speechless that something like this was hidden underneath a simple coffee shop. He was looking around like he was a kid in a candy shop oblivious to Romara poking Talulla with her elbow, point at Riz and Derex with a giant smirk as everyone was inside the tram. Talulla chuckled and said, “You can put him down now Riz.”, causing both of them to stare at each other for a moment before realizing Riz was still carrying Derex. Riz began rapidly apologizing while Derex fumbled reassurances at the same time, both blushing like adorable fools. Talulla and Romara held hands and smiled fondly watching the two remembering acting the same at beginning of their relationship while Chuck was playing games on his CC unaware of what was going on. The tram started to move forcing Riz and Derex to stop trying (and failing) to be awkward and sit down next to each other. 

Derex decided to look out the window to avoid eye contact with Riz and further embarrassing himself and saw that even the tunnel was stunning. The walls covered in fluorescent crystals of multiple colors like stars were embedded in to the rock itself. Now his nervousness switched to excitement as he couldn’t wait to see where they were going and what was at the other end of the tunnel. He didn’t have to wait long, they reached the end in what Derex believed was two minutes. This was just as exquisitely designed as the last, only this time the platform was decorated with white clouds and golden suns and lit by pale yellow crystal torches. Though Derex was more concerned with who was waiting for them at the platform. Because standing there was none other than Mayor Elzra and his husband Drish both looking regal with little effort. Derex was in panic again for nothing could prepare him for this. Never in a million years did he expect to be face to face with the Elzra, a sun elf whose been the mayor of Creators Point since its inception. Hence his nickname, the King Mayor. Derex had met his husband before, Drish frequented the shop to get coffee for both himself and Elzra. Though often wearing a cloak and sunglasses as, being a moon elf, his skin burned easily under the sun and his eyes were sensitive to sunlight. 

“I was beginning to worry.”, Elzra calmly stated piercing azure eyes looking right at Derex. He gave Talulla a quizzical look and she sighed in reply, “He thought we were intruders and attacked us. And won.” Elzra’s eyes went wide with surprise. Drish whistled and began congratulatory clapping, “Well done good sir! That is no small feet!” He spoke excitedly. Derex’s cheeks began to warm again and thanked him for the compliment. “Well. As curious as I am to learn the details of your skirmish, we must be getting to the business at hand since we are running behind. Come.” Elzra starts walking towards the stairs with Drish following by his side. The others began walking in the same direction, so Derex followed their example not knowing what else to do. His head too busy buzzing with question after question like a hive to think. They end up in what looked like a conference room with a giant crystal projector and screen at one end of a long rectangular table surrounded by surprisingly comfortable looking office chairs. Elzra took the end seat with the screen behind him and Drish took the seat to his right. Everyone else took their own seats but Derex, who chose to stand in the corner closest to the door out of habit. “Derex what are you doing?” Talulla questioned, everyone giving him quizzical stares to match causing his cheeks to darken slightly. “I was just…trying to stay out of the way?” He shrugged not knowing what else to say. Elzra spoke up, “Mr. Cardoso, please join us and take a seat. You have more than earned it after taking down the entire team solo.” Everyone nodded in agreement with Riz patting the seat next to them. Derex took it but still felt apprehensive, yet excited at the same time. Never had he imagined he’d actually be apart of an important meeting for once after years of being shunned in the background. “Now that we’re all settled let’s begin the briefing. Apologies to you in advance, Mr. Cardoso, as we don’t have time to fully explain what the function of the team is. You’ll have to be fully caught up on the way to the mission if you decide to help us.” Elzra explained and turned on the projector showing an image of demons foaming at the mouth, tearing everything near them to shreds. 

“Last Monday, demons in the Hells District began going rabid, attacking anything and/or anyone in close proximity of them.” He began, “The episode would last about an hour, then the demon would pass out. Giving a small window of time for resuscitation before the demon sadly dies. We do not how this is happening, why, who’s involved, or if there’s any connection between the victims. What we do know is that is seems to be mostly located in the restaurant area known as Hells’s Kitchen. Your mission is to infiltrate Hells’s Kitchen and find out what’s going and put a stop to it. Are there any questions?” Romara raises her and begins signing with Talulla interpreting, Do we have any potential suspects? Elzra sighs, pinching the bridge of nose in frustration. Drish puts his hand over Elzra’s and stands, “We do, but it’s purely speculation. Nothing concrete.” He replies coolly. “We think the Knights of Illumination from the Holy District are possibly at play since this is their MO. But we all know how well they cover their tracks.” Oh no not them, Derex thinks, knowing the type of zealots that run the Knights of Illumination. The kind that would rather destroy anything or anyone they deemed unfit for their version of a “perfect world” all done in the name of Illuma. Many have tried to disband them but the Knights’s money and powerful connections would always prevail. Thankfully their influence has slowly dwindled to where their more of a nuisance than a threat. But others are still weary as their recent actions have seemed increasingly desperate of late. So it made sense to everyone why they were the main suspects, they’ve tried since the end of the Calamitous War to purge the world of demons. Despite them having given up their demonic contracting and other such things around the same time. 

Drish sits down and Elzra gently squeezes his hand in thanks, returning his attention to the group. “Now before you go, there is one more thing we must address. Mr. Cardoso.” He spoke and now all eyes are on Derex. “I think I speak for the group when I say we would greatly appreciate you joining us on this mission, should you accept. However, please don’t feel obligated to do so. Just know that we will have to erase your memories if you refuse for the safety of you and the team.” Derex crossed his arms and looked down at the table, trying to appear stoic while calming his racing mind to figure out what he should do. He wished he had more time to think. More time…oh!, inspiration struck, he knew what he could do. “I would like to be more informed about what exactly I’m signing up for so I’ll agree to go. But on a trial basis. Afterwards, I’ll make a decision based on what I’ve gathered.” Elzra nods in agreement with everyone else and adjourns the meeting. Talulla puts her hand on Derex’s shoulder and instructs him to follow her to get suited up before heading out. They enter a room filled with fitted black suits, the same ones everyone else was wearing, all in various sizes. Talulla starts grabbing some off the hangers and begins comparing them to Derex’s body until she finds ones that fit him best. Derex changes into his new clothes noting how soft and breathable the fabric was on his skin. “This bracelet has an enchanted gem in it.” Talulla explained, “You’ll use it to change in and out of your uniform, activate its special abilities, and communicate between teammates.” She puts it on his wrist a black metal band with a black diamond in the middle completely blending into his uniform. Derex gives her quizzical look and asks what she meant by “special abilities”. She explains that for two hours, the suit can turn you invisible and give resistance to fire and acid on top of its abilities to regulate the wearer’s body temperature and protection against weapons. She warned, however, that when the two hours are up it takes three hours to recharge and that the suit can’t perpetually protect from weapons. It too needs time to mend itself though only a minute. 

Derex was amazed by the suit, how it felt like a second skin. How it was tight fitted yet didn’t hinder his movement in the slightest. But soon his admiration turned to questions. What could they possibly be doing to require such equipment? Who are these people really? Did he actually know them? Did he really know Riz? All these questions swarming his mind but with no time to dwell on them. Talulla was already whisking him away to yet another tram headed towards he believed the Hells District. Everyone else was already on board when they arrived and once on they were in motion. Talulla took a seat next to Romara, leaving Derex to face everyone on his own. “What’s going on?” Finally at his limit, Derex demanded answers, “Who are you all really and what exactly do you actually do?” Talulla sighed, “Whelp, it will be a while before we reach the Hells District so…yeah. Nows as good a time as any for answers.” She gestures at the seat across from her and Derex sits down looking stern and frustrated. “First off, welcome Mr. Cardoso, to the Department of Interplanal Affairs.”

[namaaaes]

fuck off tem ur dead now we entering real riz x pina hours fellas

[bardicbird]

more autistic riz headcanons bc ppl liked my last ones and that makes me happy :]

- he doesn’t really have sensory issue with food but he DOES have issues with temperature. is it too hot? he’s suddenly in overstimulation hell. is it too cold? he needs many many blankets and a hot coffee so he doesn’t get irritable as fuck.

- seems like the type of dude who used to chew on the inside of his mouth n now he has scars there. you know what im talking about.

- special interest is detective shit can’t believe i didn’t say this before. he also develops shorter hyperfixations sometimes on very specific cases but it all leads back to the detectiving.

- simultaneously makes All the eye contact and also None of the eye contact. does he blink? we don’t know ! he is either very focused on the ground or accidentally zoning out staring into another persons eyes.

- i think he has the autistic experience of like. what is gender? no idea ! he doesn’t super understand it since gender roles go way over his head and he questions a lot of societal constructs bc they just. dont make sense. so like. yeah he identifies as a boy but also he’s literally never thought about it in his life and if someone made him he’d probably blue screen.

- when he’s deep in thought he tends to talk to himself . unaware that other people are around. it has made for some awkward situations.

- remember when he was like: “i’ve just always wanted to be a crab king because i’ve always been a shrimp and i’ve always felt like a shrimp” or something along those lines. yeah. that’s all.

- i think riz probably had other babysitters before penny but they all… didn’t work out. especially when he was younger he’d bite people when they’d try to get him to do something he didn’t want to do. he was very weirdly argumentative—not in a defiant and mean way, just in a.. he didn’t actually understand a lot of what was going on and asking questions made him seem very oppositional way—and a lot of babysitters did Not know how to handle that. sklonda was so relieved when she found penny: finally a kid who operates on more of riz’s frequency.

- i don’t know why but i feel like there was a part of his life.. maybe middle school or grade school age.. where he was just very into making maps? or layouts of crime scenes? he would just sit down with his crayons and draw for hours and his mom was proud but also kind of concerned because wow. thats a lot of time drawing. he had them hung up all over his room until he decided he was suddenly too “cool” for them (probably right before high school lmao).

- understands metaphors well enough but takes instructions very literally. if you ask him to do something he will do Exactly what you asked and nothing more. this is why he was probably better at math in school than like. english, assuming that they had like. a more normal education before aguefort academy. (although i think he did pretty well in all his classes and probably could write a really good argumentative essay)

- usually has very concrete ideas about how things Should Go and when that doesn’t happen it makes him kind of panic because he doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore

- has a weird dichotomy of Needing to follow the rules and also some rules are bullshit and don’t make sense why would i follow them. he’s the kind of kid who didn’t swear until high school but is 100% on board with sneaking onto a crime scene to get that good Info

[noladyme]

La Cuervo - Chapter 25

She is used to the biker-life, having grown into a woman in the familiar embrace of SAMCRO. A bad decision and a gun-shot later, she gets whisked off to Santo Padre, and put under the protection of another club. What is supposed to be a short stint in the Mayan headquarters just north of the border to Mexico, turns into something more; when la quervo begins to develop feelings for el angel - and he seems to return them in kind...

TW: violence, blood, drug use, alcohol, smut, fluff, angst

In the spirit of "The Crown Princess of Charming", this is a story about O.C. Nina and Angel Reyes. It is obviously non-canon, as characters who have passed on, on Mayans M.C., are present in it, and others have been excluded completely. Nina is written as a cis-female, but I have tried to keep her race and looks as ambiguous as possible. Should you find any of this story offensive, please let me know.

25.

After their middle of the night conversation and subsequent make-up sex, Nina and Angel got a few hours of sleep.

The sound of the birds in the tree outside, and a hard knocking on the front door, woke Nina up. Turning her head, she saw that Angel was still sound asleep, with Bug nuzzled up in the crook of his neck. Finding the sight too adorable to disturb, Nina quietly crawled out of bed, and put on her sleeping shorts, and one of Angel’s shirts. Putting a bit more weight on her pained leg than she’d been able to a few days earlier, she made her way to the front door, and looked out the peep hole; before opening.

“Good morning”, EZ said; holding up two paper cups of coffee. “He’s still sleeping”, Nina said, and moved so he could enter. “In the bed?”, EZ asked disbelievingly. “He told you…”, she muttered. “He’s my brother. He told me you guys weren’t doing so good… But, you’re better now?”. “We’re working on it”, Nina shrugged. “I’ll go get him, so you can give him that”. She nodded towards the coffee. “No, this is for you”. EZ held out a cup for her, and she took it confusedly.

She limped over to sit on the couch, and lit one of the cigarettes from Angel’s pack. Bug slipped out through the crack of the bedroom door, and when he saw EZ, he hissed. “What the hell is that?”, the prospect asked. “Bug… Her cat”, Angel grunted, as he came out after the cat; rubbing his eyes. He’d taken time to put on sweatpants and a beater. “Our cat”, Nina reiterated. “It looks… sick”, EZ said, giving Bug’s one and a half ear and skinny body a hesitant look. Angel walked over, and gave the cat a quick scratch behind the ears. “He’s a fighter”, he said, and went over to sit down next to Nina.

EZ sat down on the recliner, and looked down at his own coffee. “I would have gotten you one, but I didn’t know if you’d already left”, he muttered at Angel. “It’s good bro”, Angel said, and nabbed Nina’s cigarette. The prospect gave Nina a half smile. “It was kind of a peace-offering. You’ve been staying away from the clubhouse”. “I’m not mad at you”, Nina said. “I’m just… I don’t know if I’m ready to face Bishop and Taza”. “Taza hasn’t been around either”, Angel said. “You guys didn’t… He’s ok, right?”, Nina asked worriedly. She was angry, but she didn’t want Taza hurt. “We haven’t done anything to him… But we have a vote later today”, Angel said. “We need to decide whether he and Bish’ are keeping their posts”. “Why?”, Nina guffawed. “Because they went behind the club’s back; pulling that shit with you and Palo”, Angel said. “Bishop has stepped down temporarily, until we decide what to do. He’s been around, but Tranq’s taken the head of the table for now… He ain’t president material, though”. “And Taza?”, Nina said. “If we vote Bish’ back in, I’m guessing he’s gonna want him back as VP… If we let Taza come back at all”, Angel said.

EZ took a sip of his coffee, and leaned forwards; giving his brother a hesitant look. “Where do you stand on all that?”. Angel took a deep draw from the cigarette, and blew out the smoke while shaking his head. “I’m not sure, man…”, he admitted. “As prez’ and VP, I didn’t ever have a problem with them before. But they lied to the club… And this shit was personal to me. They put Nina in danger”. “You don’t have a problem with Taza being…”, EZ said, trailing off. “It’s called gay… homosexual… He likes men. You can say it”, Nina scolded him. “Yeah, I can say it…!”, EZ exclaimed. “It’s just one of those rules I’ve had trouble dealing with. I follow the club on a lot of things; but that…”. Nina gave him slight smile; happy that he felt like she did. “I don’t have a problem with that”, Angel shrugged. “No one should”.

Taking sip from the cup, Nina then traded Angel the coffee for the cigarette. She took a deep drag, before stubbing it out. “Well, it looks like you have stuff to do today”, she said. “I guess me and Bug will just hang out here”. The cat came over to brush against her good leg. He’d been good with leaving the pained one alone. “Hank wants you at the clubhouse…”, EZ muttered, giving her a hesitant look. “He sent me to get you… We didn’t know if you and Angel were talking”. Nina sighed. “I don’t know… EZ, all that shit that went down…”. “That’s why he wants you there”, EZ said. “He wants the club to hear your side, before they take the vote”.

Looking up to meet Angel’s eyes, Nina found nothing but warmth and support in them. “I’m not gonna make you do anything. It’s up to you, ma’”. She took the cup from him, and emptied it; before getting to her feet. “I’m gonna need more coffee…”, she grunted, and limped in to the bedroom to get dressed.

---

The scrapyard seemed like a completely different place to the last time Nina had been there. There was tension in the air, as EZ and Angel – with Nina behind him – rode up to the clubhouse. Chucky gave her slight wave from the front office, when they passed it.

Coco and Gilly came down from the porch to greet them as they arrived, and Nina gave both of them a warm hug. “Are you ok?”, she asked. “I know there was at least some fighting the other day…”. “We’re good, niña”, Coco said. “How’s the leg?”. “Much better”, Nina said. Letting Angel put his arm around her waist, they all walked up to the porch, and into the clubhouse together.

Inside, the rest of the charter – except for Taza – were spread throughout the room. Bishop sat alone by a table in the corner; and gave her short look. He almost looked embarrassed. Hank walked straight up to Nina, and put a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for coming”, he said warmly. “We need your take on all this”. “I don’t know what you want me to say… I’m not happy about what happened”, Nina said. “We just need you to be honest”, Riz said, having come over to join them. “Shouldn’t come as a problem…”, Creeper muttered sarcastically, and stubbed out his cigarette. Nina frowned confusedly in his direction. “Where are we doing this?”, Angel asked. “Templo…”, Hank said. “And we should get to it. We got Reaper incoming soon”. Nina swallowed thickly. Being in the room with Bishop was hard enough, but having to face Filip was something she hadn’t been prepared for. “It’ll be ok, cuervo”, Angel said below his breath. The nickname struck her as odd at the moment, but Nina decided against challenging him on it; and simply let him lead her into templo. EZ stayed behind in the bar area, looking worried, and prepared for anything to happen.

Letting his hand brush against his usual chair, Hank went to sit at the head of the table. He looked very uncomfortable with his current station. “Please…”, he said, and gestured for Nina to take the seat at the other end of the table. The rest of the Mayans took to their own seats; with Bishop taking the one furthest from his regular seat. This meant he sat just around the corner of the table from Nina, making her unable to ignore him. Angel shot her a comforting smile, before looking to his temporary president.

Seemingly waiting for someone else to begin, Hank finally realized that was his job; and cleared his throat. “I guess… we should get started”, he said. “Nina; thanks for coming. I asked the prospect to bring you, because we have an important vote coming up; but we need to know what to base our decision on”. Riz let Hank out of his misery, by taking over. “We already heard from Bishop. He let us know that you weren’t aware of his and Taza’s decision to go behind our backs…” “Yeah, they behind our backs, but so did she…”, Creeper interrupted. He looked hard at Nina. “You might not have known the real plan, but you went against the club’s decision; and snuck off to do your own shit”. “Sure, but she’s not a member of the club”, Gilly said. “Pretty damn close”, Creeper said.

Angel looked at Creeper; the promise of a serious beating almost written in neon over his head. “What are you trying to say? You wanna punish her?”, he said. “I didn’t bring her here to get…”. “I’m just telling it like it is”, Creeper said. “Nina tricked me in to letting her sneak away”. Bishop chuckled slightly. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so easily tricked…”, he said. “Careful, Bishop”, Riz said. “You’re the one on trial here, and Creep isn’t wrong”. Nina threw up her hands, and sighed. “Why don’t you just get to it then. Punch me around, and degrade me to toilet-cleaner. I’ve been through much worse lately!”. “Everyone calm down!”, Hank said. “Nina, you did go against the club. You broke our trust…”. “At the time, you didn’t even know Bishop was in on it; so, on top of that, you went against the president’s direct orders”, Riz said. Creeper nodded in agreement.

“Ok”, Nina said. Every face at the table turned to her. “What? You wanted me to apologize? I was trying to save your asses”. “Technically, she did”, Coco said. He grabbed a cigarette from his back and lit it; before sliding both the pack and his lighter down the table to Nina. She took one of the smokes, and lit it; sending Coco a slight smile. “If we’d gone to war with VM… fuck”, Coco said, visibly shuddering. “We voted for war”, Creeper said. “You didn’t seem like that’s what you wanted at the time…”, Gilly said. “But that’s how this shit works!”, Creeper said. “This club is a democracy…”. “El Padrino was in on it”, Angel said. “At the end of the day…”. “He doesn’t call the shots here”, Riz said.

Nina took a deep drag of her cigarette. “Riz… I’m sorry you’re angry that I went against the club by going with Taza. I’m not gonna apologize for actually doing it, though. If the plan he told me about had worked out, it would have been the best move for your club. That’s a fact you can’t deny”. Unable to come up with a reply, Riz shrugged in something resembling agreement. “It didn’t work out, though”, Creeper said. “That’s not my fault”, Nina retorted. “And honestly, I think your butthurt mostly has to do with the fact that another woman managed to trick you”. “Nina…”, Angel said warily. Creeper’s expression grew saddened. “If you’re talking about Camille, you’re right. She got to me. But that was just a fling with a hangaround…”. His brows furrowed, and he shook his head defeatedly. “You’re family… You were supposed to have our back… My back. Not lie to me”. Nina swallowed thickly, feeling choked and ashamed. “You’re right… I’m sorry for lying. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t trust me anymore; but I understand it”. She sighed deeply. “I’ll take whatever punishment the club decides to give me”. “There won’t be no punishment”, Angel said. “If there is, I’m out of here”. “Angel!”, Nina exclaimed. “Nah, mami… They ain’t touching you”.

“We’re not going to punish Nina”, Hank declared. “She’s right. Taza’s fake plan would have been a good move; and she did what she did to help the club. She wasn’t a part of the official vote, and she’s not a patch. She doesn’t owe us to follow orders; and she didn’t owe us to try to help the way she did”. He looked deep into Nina’s eyes. “You risked your life for the MC… Thank you”. Angel relaxed in his seat. “I get what you’re saying, but…”, Creeper began. Hank slammed his fist into the table. He looked angrier than Nina had ever seen him; but then again, digging through her memories, she’d never seen him angry. “I’ll be happy to take it to a vote; but even with Angel stepping out for being biased, it still looks like punishment will be off the table”. Creeper raised his hands in defeat, and leaned back in his seat.

“If no one else has anything to say, then let’s get to why we’re here”, Hank said. “Nina, what’s your view on what happened the other day?”. Nina took another drag of her cigarette. “Taza called. He said he had a way of avoiding a full-blown war, and asked me to meet him; so we could go see Palo”. “Did you know he’d told Palo that he would hand you over?”, Riz asked. “Yes…”, Nina said, meeting Angel’s eyes for a short second. Anger ghosted his face, but he held his tongue. “He told me we’d be able to reason with Palo, and I thought so too. He seemed about to go for it as well, but… He said he wanted his pound of flesh; and that’s when they brought in Angel”. “Which wouldn’t have happened if…”, Bishop began. “Fuck you, Bish’!”, Angel said. “You ain’t president right now. I’d be happy to show you around the cage…”. “Angel!”, Hank said. “Nina, please…”. “Palo wanted me to shoot Angel, but Bishop and the rest of them arrived in time to…”. She couldn’t finish the sentence; feeling tears welling up. “Taza killed Palo, and that was it”, she finished, and wiped her eyes. “And how do you feel about being lied to about what the real plan was?”, Riz asked. “Come on, Riz…”, Coco said. “I’m not trying to stir shit up, man”, Riz said. “We asked her to come here, to tell us about her experience with all this”. “Yeah, but this ain’t Oprah”, Gilly said. “It’s fine… I’ll answer”, Nina said. “I feel like shit. My decision to go with Taza on this, was based on me not wanting anyone else to get hurt… But Sala was shot, and Palo’s neck was slit right in front of me”. She stubbed out her cigarette. “I might be safe from VM and Palo, but it came at the cost of even more lives… Daniella; Camille; Sala; Palo… Those were all because of me, and what I did to Gael in that alley two months ago…”.

Self-hatred washed over her, and she got her feet. “I don’t think you should punish Bishop, or kick Taza out of the MC… All of this is my fault. I’m sorry I came here and messed up your club”. Ignoring the pain in her leg, Nina stormed out of templo. EZ and Chucky – who’d come in to the clubhouse, while she was in templo – gave her confused looks, as she ran out of the clubhouse, and slammed the door shut behind her. She sat down on the stairs, and buried her face in her hands, letting her tears fall.

The door opened and closed behind her, and she looked up; confused to see Creeper sit down next to her. “This isn’t your fault, Nina”, he said. “I thought you were pissed at me…”. “I was… I am. But not because I think you’re to blame for all this. You worried me… us. Putting yourself in danger like that…”. He sighed deeply. “The thing about you going behind our backs… You’re a part of the family. I expected you to act like a patch; but that’s not fair. We won’t let you wear a cut, so I can’t assume that you’ll act like you are”. “I’m sorry for tricking you”, Nina croaked. “I should never have come here… You lost your president, your VP… You almost went in to full on war!”. Creeper put his arm around Nina’s shoulders. “We haven’t decided on Bishop and Taza yet”, he said. “And war with the Vatos has been under way for a long time. Even before you got here”.

Nina sighed, and looked intently at Creeper. “Don’t punish Bishop and Taza. Don’t take away their flashes”, she said. “They had to make a quick decision; and they wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t think they were doing what was best for the MC… Just because they’re leaders, doesn’t mean they’re infallible. Give them a chance”. Creeper narrowed his eyes at her. “I know Angel said you were smart; but that was almost sage wisdom”, he smirked. “Where do you get it from?”. Nina let out a soft laugh, and wiped her eyes. “I knew a guy who had to make a lot of hard decisions”, she said. “Some of them were really shitty, but they all came from a place of love for his club and his family”. Creeper pressed a kiss to her forehead; then got to his feet, and helped Nina up to stand. “I’ll tell them what you said”, he smiled. “But I won’t use words like infallible. I don’t think half of them know what that means”. There was the sound of glass shattering from inside the clubhouse. “You should get back inside. Gilly’s physically holding Angel down in there”.

He supported her weight back to the door, and opened it for her. Chucky was sweeping up a broken beer bottle, and Angel was struggling to get free from Gilly’s grasp on his arms. Nina walked over to him, and as Gilly let him free, Angel wrapped her into his arms. “Are you ok?”, he whispered into her ear. “Yeah… I’m ok”, Nina said. “He…?”. “We’re good. Really”. She got on her toes, and caught his lips in a warm kiss. “Go vote… Make good decisions”. Angel nodded, and stole another kiss from her, before following his brothers back in to templo.

Nina limped over to sit down by a table, and blew out a deep breath. After four days of hiding at the house, eating microwave dinners, and cursing her own inability to cook; she was overjoyed when EZ came over, and placed a Tupperware box in front of her. “Gaby?”, she asked with bated breath. “Uh huh”, EZ smiled. “I’m serious, Ezekiel. I will marry her myself, if you don’t!”. The prospect let out a warm laugh, and sat down next to her, producing two forks. Chucky came over with two cold cokes for them, before going over to count the chairs in the room, for some reason. “Chuck? What are you doing?”, EZ asked. “I need to make sure we have enough seats for the wedding”. Nina laughed, feeling herself brighten up slightly.

They were seated, eating straight out of the box, and trying to keep each other’s moods up, when the door opened, and Taza stepped inside; his cut hung over his arm. He nodded solemnly at them, and walked over to the ornate door of templo; seemingly taking a deep breath before stepping inside, and closing the door behind him again. “What do you think that means?”, Nina muttered. “I don’t know…”, EZ said. “Hopefully it’s good news”. He noticed Nina’s strained expression, and squeezed her shoulder. “Are you ok? I know you’re not happy about how things went down…”. Nina sighed. “You all keep telling me I’m family… But they forced me to be a part of something I was trying so hard to avoid. Is that how you treat kin?”. “If family doesn’t know what’s best for them, then maybe… yeah”, EZ said. “Palo wouldn’t have let you go. You’d be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life. Hurt feelings; you can get over shit like that. But death is kind of final”. “Maybe… But I wish they’d told me the truth”.

They sat in silence for a long moment. “Is you dad mad at me, for stealing his truck?”, Nina asked quietly. “You parked it by his shop. He was ok”, EZ replied. “Yeah, but…”. “Nina, you make Angel happy; and pap’ sees grandkids in his future”, EZ chuckled. “You can do no wrong in his eyes”. “I’m not pregnant!”. “Not for lack of my brother trying, I’m guessing”, EZ smirked. “We’re not having this conversation!”, Nina said. Ezekiel shrugged in surrender. “Just… If you do make me a tío, don’t let Angel name the baby”. “Why?”. “He named your cat Bug!”, EZ laughed. Nina punched his shoulder. “That was me…”, she pouted.

The door to templo opened, and Hank stepped out, giving them a warm smile. Bishop came out behind him, and they gave each other a warm and very masculine hug. “Thanks for taking the gavel when needed”, Bishop said. “Thanks for taking it back”, Hank smiled. “That chair is uncomfortable”. Nina couldn’t help but smile, and Bishop met her eyes; giving her a half smile in return.

The rest of the Mayans emerged from the room, with Taza coming out lastly; wearing his cut. Nina let out an audible, relieved gasp. Getting to her feet, Angel went over to support her. He let her lean against him, as she walked up to Bishop and Taza. “It looks like we have you to thank for keeping these flashes”, Bishop said. “I think we’ve got more than that to thank you for”, Taza smiled softly. Nina shook her head. “Just… trust your family with the truth in the future. It might be painful, but it’s the better way out”, she said. “Alright”, Bishop said. “Still; thank you…”. Nina grinned at him. “You’re fishing for a hug again, aren’t you…?”. “Yes he is”, Taza said.

Nina put her arms around the president, and hugged him tightly. He gave as good as he got, and turned to whisper in her ear. “I’m sorry, mija…”. “I forgive you”, she replied. Taza was next, and Nina gave him a short kiss on the cheek. “I forgive you too, Scarecrow”. Taza pulled back, and looked down at her. “I’m not that sharp on my Judy Garland, but I’m pretty sure the line is I’ll miss you the most… Are you going somewhere?”. “Nah”, Nina said, and looked around at the faces of her family. “There’s no place like home”.

There was a rumbling of bikes outside, and EZ looked out of the window. “SOA”, he said. Nina took Angel’s hand, and let herself be tucked into his side. “Better break out the Jameson”, she said. “Can’t Chibs drink anything else?”, Angel asked. Nina sighed. “It’s for me…”.

---

Happy, Tig and Rat came through the door, and made a beeline for Nina. It was a clusterhug, that ended with her having to waving her hands in the air, to be allowed to breathe. Once released from their grasp, Nina looked behind them with a confused expression. “Chibs?”, she said quietly. “Outside…”, Tig said. “Did you vote yet?”, Nina asked hesitantly. “What vote?”, Happy asked. “You think we’d take the chance to let Tiggy be president?”. Rat visibly shuddered, and Tig smacked the back of his head; making the younger biker let out a yelp. “We get why he did it”, Tig said. “We didn’t like it, but… He’s not the first SAMCRO president to make decisions behind the club’s back, to protect a family-member”. “That’s what he was doing. You know that”, Happy said. Nina sighed, and began moving towards the door. Rat grabbed her arm to halt her. “Rat, I’m sorry for tricking you, but…”, she began. “No… I get it”, he said. “I just wanted to say; don’t be too hard on him. He loves you”. Nina nodded, and went outside.

Filip was leaning against his bike, when she came down from the porch. “Hi…”, she said quietly. “Hello… I didn’t want to come inside, if you didn’t want me there”, Filip said. “It’s not my house”. “Yes, it is”, he smiled softly. Limping halfway over to him, Filip hurried over to grab Nina’s arm. “Is that leg not doing better?”, he asked. “Yeah. I’m just cutting down on the painkillers”, she said. “Good… That’s smart. But you shouldn’t overexert yourself”.

He led her over to lean against his bike. “How angry are you?”, he asked. “Very… You knew how I felt about the bloodshed… Too many people had died already”, Nina said. “But I understand why you did it. You were trying to protect me”. “I really was, luv’”, Filip sighed. “But it’s like you didn’t respect me enough to make me part of the plan”. “I respected you too much, Nina!”. Filip grabbed her hand, and held it tightly. “You’re too good for decisions like the ones we had to make that day… And what you said about Jax…”. “I shouldn’t have brought him up”, Nina said. “No, you were within your rights to”, Filip said. “But… I think he would have made the same decision, little sister. Anything to keep you safe”.

Sighing deeply, Nina pulled at Filip’s hand, to make him wrap his arms around her. She threw her own arms around his neck. “I love you, big brother…”, she croaked. “But don’t ever lie to me again, or I’ll stab you in the balls with a rusty screwdriver”. “That’s oddly specific”, Filip muttered. “I wanna make sure it’s extra painful”. “Fair enough”.

He kissed her temple, and together they made their way back to the clubhouse.

---

“That’s a long ass ride to take, just to come see me”, Nina said, as she sat on Angel’s lap, surrounded by her SAMCRO brothers. Apparently, the Mayan felt that they’d spent too much time apart in the last four days, and after she came back inside with Filip, he hadn’t left her side. “We never left”, Happy said. “We’ve been staying at Vicky’s… It’s quite comfortable there”, Filip smirked. “Venus good with that?”, Nina asked Tig. “We’ve been doing facetime”, Tig winked at her. “I don’t need any of Vicky’s girls, when I got a woman at home waiting for me”. “You thinking about putting a ring on that?”, Angel asked. “She wants to fully transition first”, Tig shrugged. “I told her, I don’t care, but it’s important to her”.

EZ came over with a tray of shots. “What’s this?”, Rat asked. “Mezcal”, EZ said, and shot a smirk at Nina. “In that case, I’m out”, she said. “Just plain old tequila, then?”, Creeper asked, and set down a full shot glass in front of her. Nina rolled her eyes, and picked up the glass; cheering with the bikers. “It is time for us to go, though”, Filip declared, once he’d finished his drink. “We have a business to run”. “Wouldn’t want the line in front of the shop get too long”, Angel smirked. “People need their ice-cream”. “We do milkshakes too”, Rat smiled brightly. The rest of the Sons laughed at their endearingly naïve brother, and got to their feet.

Saying goodbye was less melancholic this time around. Nina managed to avoid completely soaking Angel’s shirt, as she hid her face against his chest, after waving goodbye to her Charming brothers; when they drove off the lot. Chucky, on the other hand, had to take a few minutes to himself in the garage. Coco went after him, and they emerged moments later, with Chucky wiping his eyes, as Coco muttered encouraging words in his ear.

After they all went back inside, Bishop cleared his throat. “Yo. Listen up”, he barked. “It’s time to get back to business around here. We’ve got a few runs to prepare for, and the yard looks like shit”. “It’s a scrapyard, jefe”, Coco said. “It’s supposed to look that way”. “Let’s take the day off”, Taza said. “We can get back to it tomorrow”. Bishop grunted in agreement, and the Mayans all looked like excited frat boys. Creeper and Gilly got to work, calling in some hangarounds for an impromptu party.

Nina – tears dry, and peaceful at heart – got on her toes, and kissed Angel’s cheek. “You can stay… I’m not really in the mood for partying”, she muttered. Angel snaked an arm around her waist, and brushed his lips against his ear. “Nah… I’ll go with you. The only party I wanna go to, is in your panties”, he hummed. “You’re so eloquent”, Nina chuckled. “So elegant…”, Angel nodded, and squeezed her butt; before quietly leading her out the clubhouse.

---

“Ow!”. “Sorry, mami… Maybe try turning the other way”. “My hair is stuck in the handlebars…”. “There… You’re free”. “Someone might see!”. “No, we’re good… Fuck! Don’t stop moving like that”. “Ok, yeah… Wow… Angel, please…”. “Fuck, yes! Put your foot on the fender… That’s right. Take it!”. “I’m so close… Angel!”. “You gonna come?”. “Uh huh… Holy, shit… Harder!”. “Me too… You feel so good…”. “Yes!”. “Oh fuck… I’m coming…! Ahh… Shit, I love you…”. “Te amo, papi… Wow. That was…”. “Uh huh…! I can’t believe we pulled it off…”. “Yeah… Now we just gotta figure out how to get your bike out of the front door again”.

---

To be continued…

tags: @cole-winchester @doloreschanal

[labelleofbelfastcity]

fig and gorgug’s excellent adventure

word count: 1.7k

read on ao3 here!

“Bill, my most esteemed colleague…”

Fig looks over at a quietly snoring Gorgug, his face softly lit by the shadows of Bill and Ted on her crystal. Even after a year of knowing each other, a few months of which were spent in a cramped cell together, she hadn’t known he snores. It had never been quiet enough, she had never been quiet enough, to notice that about him.

If Fig focuses, she can feel the rumble of the tour bus against her back, and, if she leans her head against the metal wall by her shoulder, the vibrations of tires over asphalt rattle around in her skull. They’ve only been on the road for a week, with just two concerts under their belts, and Fig is already kind of exhausted.

It’s a lot. The managers and the calls home and the makeup assignments for missed schoolwork. She probably wouldn’t even be doing the latter, but Gorgug spends his allotted midmorning time sitting at their extremely tiny table, with papers of Barbarian Theory and Engineering 1 scattered around him, and she’d feel like an asshole to just watch.

Fig hasn’t been sleeping well, either. The little bunk seems to press in around her, shoving her into an even smaller version of herself. Which feels stupid to complain about, because Gorgug is over a foot taller than her, since his growth spurt over the summer, and he’s sleeping just fine.

As if to prove her point, Gorgug shifts in his sleep, curling closer into Fig’s side. It’s just past one in the morning, and they have a gig tomorrow so Fig should really be sleeping too, but she’d felt like crying, for some reason, alone in her bunk. She’d crawled into Gorgug’s, instead, and pulled up Bill and Ted while he blinked blearily at her. It didn’t take him much longer to fall back asleep—now with his arm tucked around Fig’s shoulders—and Fig continues to hide from her emotions by watching Ted philosophize.

“Hey, Gorgug,” Fig hisses, burrowing her head into his chest in a way she knows will stick him with her horns. “Gorgug.”

“Hrmgh,” he grumbles, shifting more so that Fig can’t really poke him anymore. “Go to sleep.”

“No. Gorgug, hey. Come on, dude, I have an idea.” She doesn’t, really, more the idea of an idea, just like how Bill and Ted only operate on negative brian power and a pretty homoerotic bromance.

Homoerotic. She must’ve texted Kristen too much yesterday.

“Sleep is my idea,” Gorgug says, but it’s more of a sigh and a yawn wrapped up together and stretched like a yawning cat.

Fig’s brain unhelpfully supplies an image of sleepy Riz—ears cocked all funny and pupils absolutely giant. She shoves it back into the little chest lovingly marked “Bad Kids” that she’d constructed the second they drove away from Elmville because Fig is great at compartmentalizing and hiding her feelings. Totally.

“I’m bored, I want to do my idea.”

“You’re watching Bill and Ted.”

“No, I’m not. I’m talking to you.”

“Then stop talking to me and go to sleep.”

Fig huffs, about to say something just into the realm of mean, but then she feels Gorgug smile against the top of her head, and she relaxes a little.

“What’s your idea?” He asks, still sleepy, but also endearing in that goofy and sweet Gorgug way.

There’s a pause, while Fig tries to come up with her idea. The bus trundles along and Bill and Ted continue to kidnap historical figures. Finally, she says, much quieter than is warranted, like it’s some big secret she’s been holding close to her heart, “I’m gonna find a chronomancer so we can go back in time.”

“Like Augefort?” Gorgug yawns again.

“Absolutely not, Augefort doesn’t have Rufus energy.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Maybe not a chronomancer, then, but like, someone who’s fucked with time, ya know. It would be cool to hang out with someone who’s fucked with time.”

“Like Augefort?” Gorgug says, before amending, “No. Wait. Rufus.”

“Yeah, Rufus,” Fig agrees. “Except if Rufus were hot, I think it would be more fun if our Rufus was hot.”

“Rufus is already hot. He’s got… sunglasses.”

Fig giggles and Gorgug snorts too. “You need your eyes checked, dude.”

“We watched the,” he yawns, “the Matrix last month. That’s what you said about Neo.”

“Uh. Neo is Keanu Reeves so just, automatically hot. Which. Speaking of. Bill and Ted are right there, dude.”

Gorgug laughs, quietly, voice still gummy with sleep, as he pokes her gently in the side, “I thought you liked older men.”

Fig makes a face that is very scandalized and very affronted. “That doesn’t mean I like Rufus.”

Gorgug shrugs, as best he can while in cuddle-mode. “I don’t know…”

Fig huffs and whacks him on the arm. “Maybe we should go to sleep.”

“Works for me,” he says, and settles back down.

“Hey. Hey! Don’t go back to bed, Gorgug. I’m still talking.”

He grumbles and turns his head even further into hers, trying to shield his eyes from the crystal’s light. “Watch your movie.”

“This is our movie, Gorgug. It’s ours.”

“It’s too late for it to be ‘our’ anything.”

“You’re no fun, you know that? No fun.”

“I’m sorry,” Gorgug says, way too sincerely for her to continue down that line of teasing.

“Hey, no, it’s fine. You’re tired, I should let you rest.”

Gorgug’s hand moves where it’s on her shoulder, rubbing over her sleep shirt, and then pausing, “Hey, is this mine?”

“Um,” Fig says, because it is, in fact, his. He’d left one of his Owlbears t-shirts on a chair, right after they unpacked all their stuff onto the tour bus, and she’d thought about it for approximately three seconds before snatching it and chucking it at her pile of clothes.

That first night, neither her nor Gorgug had gotten any sleep, sitting on the floor of the bus between their bunks, anxiously going over lyric and style choices for the next night’s show. So the shirt had waited until after their first concert, when both of them had been too tired to do much more than change out of sweaty, smoke-filled clothes and fall into their respective beds. It had smelled comfortingly of the Thistlesprings’ homemade fabric softener, but Fig’s varying states of cleanliness have not helped the smell stick around.

Now, though, cuddled up against Gorgug’s chest, she doesn’t miss the shirt’s smell. It’s nothing compared to the real thing.

“It’s okay if you took it,” Gorgug says, cracking a small smile. “It looks better on you anyway.”

“Since when do you have an eye for fashion, Mr. Hoodies-In-Summer?”

He reaches around and pokes her on the cheek, “Hey, my hoodies are a catch for women ages thirteen to twenty-eight.”

“We did sell, like, a literal ton last night,” Fig says, snorting.

There’s a lull in the conversation. Bill and Ted shred some sick air guitar.

“...It’s a little weird,” Gorgug says, eventually, in that introspective tone of his that promises paternal questioning.

“What is?”

“That we’re sophomores in high school and have so many people, like, caring about us. Or, I mean, watching us. Like, I guess we’re famous, or something? That’s weird.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“I guess I never thought about it like that.” Fig’s been too caught up in the whole being famous thing to think about what it means for her, a fifteen year old, to be famous. She isn’t a fan of thinking about it, actually, and decides to put it off even further. This is why Gorgug’s the thoughtful, considerate one.

“That’s probably why you’re better at songwriting than I am,” Gorgug muses. “You just do what feels right.”

Fig shifts a little, so she can look at him better, his features cast in the shifting colors of the crystal. “Dude, that’s like all drumming is. Like, just playing your emotions and not overthinking it. And you’re literally the world’s best drummer.”

“Oh,” Gorgug laughs, “I wouldn’t say that.”

“You are. What other teenager gets to go on a tour while they’re still in high school?”

“Um. The Jonas Brothers?”

“I mean this in the nicest way possible, but if you compare our music to the Jonas Brothers again I will stab you with my horns.”

“I really don't think they’re poky enough to do that—”

“Stab, Gorgug. With force. You wouldn’t like it.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll take your word for it.”

“Wo-ah,” Ted says, on the crystal.

“Wicked,” Bill chimes in.

“What if we talked like them at our next concert?” Fig asks, “Just come out with full Bill and Ted voices and keep them up the whole show.”

“That sounds… hard.”

“No, it would be fun! Like, um,” Fig switches into the voice, drawing out her vowels and smiling dumbly, “we’ll totally get babes like this, dude.”

“You can get princess babes,” Gorgug says. “I’ve got Zelda. That’s basically the same thing.”

“Oh my god, you’re too cute,” Fig burrows closer to him, back in her usual voice.

She can tell Gorgug’s blushing by the bashful tone of his silence. “Um, thanks. I should probably call her tomorrow.”

“Do you mind if I join too? I really like her, she’s nice. And sick as hell.”

“Yeah, that would be fun! We can show her our set, maybe.”

“Totally! If school wasn’t on right now we could’ve brought her along.”

“I don’t know, wouldn’t that, like, Beatles us?”

“Did you seriously just mention another boy band? Also, beyond that, did you use the Beatles as a verb?”

“Er.”

“Sometimes, I wonder how you ever made it into the punk-rock scene. And then I remember that I invited you.”

“Thanks for doing that,” Gorgug says, wrapping his other arm around Fig’s shoulders. “I never really said it before, but, thank you. This has, um, it’s meant a lot to me.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, dude.”

“It’s, like, kind of everything right now, Fig.”

“Oh.”

“So, I guess, um, thank you. For inviting me to join a band with you and taking me on tour.”

“I, uh… Of course. Thanks for being my drummer, Gorgug. I’ll always take you on my adventures.”

“And I’ll always go with you.”

Bill says, “Excellent,” on the crystal screen, smiling at Ted with big eyes.

Yeah, Fig thinks, as Gorgug sighs and smiles into the top of her head. Excellent.

[everyhowlmarksthedead]

KEEPING UP WITH THE ARIZAS

Chapter 4: “Back home”

Word count: 640

Thanks to my lovely beta reader @chibsytelford 💘

Author comments: I hope you all enjoy. Gif credits: @fromthesixteenthfloor.

Tag list: @starrynite7114 ​ @chibsytelford ​ @dazzledamazon ​ @mara-mpou ​ @sammskellington ​ @gemini0410 ​ @1-800-imagines ​ @briana-mishell24 ​ @sassymox @whyisgmora @aquamento @leaalfred 💥 (if you wanna be tagged, send me a message!)

“Did you miss me?”

You jump on him with both arms surrounding his neck and your legs wrapping his waist, filling his face with kisses all around it.

“Hell, no”. You answer somewhat desperate, so happy to see him as always he has to leave Santo Padre.

“Amazing, 'cause I don' have to travel till next month and I'll turn your life into a fucking nightmare”. Riz says then, walking towards the closer wall to support your back there.

“I miss you too, princesa”. You hear your father's voice passing you away and taking off his helmet.

“Yea', whatever, dad!” You chuckle, before Riz pressing his lips on yours, kissing you so much needy. “And you... don' fucking mess with someone who knows how to cut your brakes”.

Poking his chest with your forefinger, he laughs leaving you on the floor, before hugging you very tightly. It's been almost five days since he left the town and you always feel very bad when he does, praying all the time for nothing to happen to him. With an arm on your shoulders, and you surrounding his hips with yours, you follow the other Mayans into the clubhouse flooded with latin music.

Letting Riz greets the other members, who stayed there, you go towards the bar to grab some cold beers. Your husband is laying down on the sofa, offering one of the drinks, before you make yourself a space between his legs to laying on top of him. Every time he comes back from a ride, you spend the next two days constantly clinging to him. So, that's what are you doing, surrounding his body with your arms leaving some kisses on his chest above the kutt and the fabric of his shirt.

Hearing Bishop and Tranq talking about the travel, with Riz caressing your head and your hair, you finally fall asleep after the last nights without sleeping enough to rest. He smells like home, and his calmed heart beat helps too.

┅┅ ┅ ┅ ┅┅

“She looks like an angel, when she's sleeping”. Taza says enraptured, totally in love with you. He could shoot himself if you ask for it.

“Yea', she's always complaining about how bad nights are when I'm out”. Riz whispers pulling away a bristle of hair, caressing your cheek.

“Take her home, man”. Coco adds having a puff of his cigar.

“You should”. EZ agrees.

With Michael's hands touring your back gently and leaving some kisses on your forehead, he tries to wake you up, making you roll over him.

“Hey, baby...”

“No...” You say totally sleepy. “Maldito Mario Bros mexicano...” (Fucking mexican Mario Bros).

Some giggles under the breath floods the clubhouse, 'cause it's a show seeing you like that.

“Baby...”

“No... Tell'fucking Bishop you're sick”. You growl sinking your face on his neck, having a deep breathe of his smell.

“But ba—”.

“No! I don' wan'you to go again... Fuck the MC, it's been fou' days, Michael”. You still being sleepy, but the tears are filling your eyes, starting to sob tangling your fingers on his shirt to pull him closer. “I miss you... please, don'go”.

“Wake up, we're goin' home, mi amor”. He chuckles, leaving another kiss on your head.

Turning your face above his chest, resting your cheek on it, you clean your tears with a hand looking around you. The guys are laughing loud because of your reaction, drawing an innocent smile on your lips.

“That was fuckin' adorable, sista'”. Creeper says supporting his arms on the pool table, leaning over it.

“Shut the fuck up”. You reply getting comfy between your husband's arm.

“And... she's here agaaaain!” Angel says drinking from his beer, making the men laugh another time while you show him your middle finger.

“Did you call me ‘mexican Mario Bros’?” Bishop asks pointing his own chest.

[w2beastars]

Analyzing Rhythlart’s tarot cards(part 2)

Gonna take a look more at Beastars tarot cards made by @rhythlart

Again, if you wanna see the actual cards, go follow Rhythlart.

And one more thing: I don’t think you should try and use tarot cards to actually predict the future or stuff. It’s a party trick at best, a con at worst. In fact, their origin is not mystical at all, they are the predecessor of today’s standard playing cards from the mid-15th century. Then someone in the late 18th century decided to try using them for fortune telling, most likely for funsies. Heck, people are trying to predict the future with todays playing cards.

Anyways...

The Devil.

Making Pina the Devil of the deck is an interesting choice. The Devil card can mean such things as addiction, dependency, excess, powerlessness, limitations, freedom, revelation, or reclaiming control.

Well, the Devil card is actually not the “Devil” as in the bible but rather a satyr as far as I understand. And satyrs are goat-men who are quite interested in the other sex. Pina IS a sheep, but he has horns and plenty of girlfriends, so he could be called a pseudo satyr.

Getting the devil card can mean that you have lack of fulfillment in your life. Pina seems to be fine with being the sort of guy he is... but that changes when he knows that Riz might kill him since it makes him depressed as he “fits the role of pathetic guy who dies at the end”. He is aware that he is sort of a flat person who is only good at flirting and look sexy. So he does have a lack of fulfilment of a sort.

Another meaning of the Devil card can be that you have becomes self-aware and becomes a better person, a complete one since you are finally tired of running in circles and need of change of a sort. And Pina does stand tall as he realize that he must face the end one way or another, so he might as well do it standing rather than squirming. And he becomes much more aware of his predator classmates and try to help them when they are in a crisis, like how he is there for Bill.

The Sun.

Jack is The Sun that represents happiness, success, optimism, confidence and truth... as well as blocked happiness, pessimism and unrealistic expectations.

Drawing the Sun can mean that you provide others with inspiration and joy. People are drawn to you because they are capable of seeing the warm and beautiful energy which you bring them. You are also in a position in which you are capable of sharing your qualities with other people. You are the perfect friend.

... That, or you might have difficulties finding the bright side in your situation.

Besides being a very kind dog who makes other happy and is like a brother(and mother?) for Legosi, Jack is also an academic, someone who seeks knowledge, meaning he also seeks the truth(like about the secret history of carnivores and herbivores).

But he is also burdened by being a dog since he has been breed to be a perfect animal who can’t even cry. He suffers from self loathing and fear of what he is and what he could become.

The Hermit.

Gohin(his official name is actually Gohin, but I will still tag posts with “gouhin” just in case) is a hermit as well as the card Hermit. The card symbolizes self-reflection, introspection, withdrawal, solitude, search for self as well as loneliness, isolation, being anti-social and returning to society. Gouhin doesn’t represent these as such, but he is a therapist who specializes in carnivores, so he is still connected to all of this.

The Hermit is a seeker for the knowledge that comes from within, kinda like how Gohin seeks for patients who needs his help and methods to help them. And he shares his wisdom with people who needs to hear the harsh truth... after he beat the shit out of them.

The Hermit also means that you at the moment need to be alone. That you need to clear your mind of all the distractions that comes with everyday life. Like how Gohin had to lose his family to be a better(and somewhat crazy) doctor.

The Hermit may also refer to your effort in taking action that is authentic and aligned with your true self. You are perhaps searching your inner soul for guidance on what is right, and where your next steps are to be. That is what Gohin is to Legosi.

The other meaning of the Hermit is that you are in a situation where you'd like to be alone. But just because you WANT to be alone is not the same as saying you should be since self isolation can become quite harmful to both yourself and others. You must learn to balance your need for truth with connection to your friends and family. Gohin has done none of this, and that is why he lost his wife and son.

Death.

Death. The most well-known tarot card ever. the most spooky one as well... but mostly because of assumption

Louis as a child is the motive of the Death card. And that is not so strange since the card doesn’t necessarily mean the end of your life as it represents transformation, endings and change as well as fear of change, repeating negative patterns, resisting change, stagnancy and decay.

The young Louis can represent all of this since he is stuck in his past. He can’t let go of the fact that he is number 4. That he was born to be eaten. But he also escaped his fade as a simple snack by impressing his adoptive father he took him away from the BAM and taught him everything he needed to know to be a potential candidate as Beastar.

[dooptown]

we’re almost at the end...episode ten..d

Riz’s depiction is soo good in the anime. like, really spot on! I just am not sure why he’s like, chocolate/vanilla soft serve ice cream color when he should be brown. Would be fun if someone noted that and it’s cuz he’s going gray due to stress (well not fun but you know what i mean)

Riz calls Legosi perverted. Is that cuz of the kiss? God lmao that’s funny. And we have Legosi here still drinking way too much respect women juice cuz he thinks him having a sexy dream about Haru is punishable by death. He never really did get someone to tell him to calm down in the manga and that’s sad (i mean Kyuu kinda tried but the way she went about it was literally the worst)

“Let’s go somewhere else” goes to the only place legosi and haru have had scenes together this season

I’ve said it before but I’d be more on board with these romantic scenes with them if I didn’t know how little development they get later. Legosi even says “once everything is taken care of i’ll embrace you” but guess what! once everything is taken care of he doesn’t!

Pina gets a worse beating by palette swap/player 2 Els than in the manga. Also I feel like Riz warning him about not getting further involved and they’ll just go on peacefully is new? but it might not be. We get the finger suck scene which goes on for a hornily long time. Pina’s scene on stage which really fucking gets him to shine. Great voice actor for Pina! Shame he’ll disappear after this season (crying emoji) Him luring Riz out with a note is new, and gives Legosi reason to go to Riz’s locker to get the note and start the fight

The anime really makes me hyped for Fightgosi, until i remember how hurt he gets. Like damn whenever i draw him he’s so soft and happy and idealized and that’s GOOD but i wanna draw him fighting more too (also in writing i don’t write it much...well the CMTYG finale is coming up...) Riz sexy with eyes normal. He doesn’t say Legosi looks scrumptious or anything so like...yea they took that out. Also Legosi having the revelation about love breaking down the barriers between carnivores and herbivores isn’t a revelation here he just says it. In the manga his face goes all soft like he just realized himself and he has some pity for Riz. Speaking of that, Riz saying how all carnivores can have is anger and loneliness dude to their bodies and instincts so much reflects Legosi’s old mindset, further driving the Riz and Legosi parallel

Also i put this out of order but Free and Ibuki’s scene was moved here chronologically, which I think helps a lot. Also Ibuki gives Free a desert eagle instead of just a single bullet. Wonder if he’ll get shot multiple times here? And like if it’s with a DE then yea he’s fucking dying. In the manga it was odd that he died so fast from one bullet (although one could say he didn’t die right away but didn’t want to put Louis through more suffering that he had to. plus he wanted to die so he just gave up)

Anyway i’m happy with the anime now cuz Dressgosi is happening, confirmed by next week’s preview. Everything fitting into the last episode might feel cramped but like maybe now Lougosi will finally sail for the anime!!!

[athena1138]

About Me/Tag List

I figured I’d go ahead and instead of just updating my tag list, I’d just create a full About Me because I don’t really have one. 

I’m absurdly shy, so instead of talking to other people like a proper member of society, I just go like/reblog every post someone shares until they either block me or they talk to me lol. (So, if I’m in your notes a lot, I greatly enjoy your presence and consider you a friend even if we’ve never said a word to each other.)  If you’re interested, my Ask box or my DMs are always open to people who wanna talk. I’m not a great conversationalist, so it’d be best if you just throw me into a topic instead of trying to make small talk.

My name’s Becca. I’m 25, live in the U.S., use she/her pronouns, and I’m queer. I would use a more specific label but frankly idfk what's going on anymore.

I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Mandarin Chinese, and I also speak nearly fluent Spanish and a bit of French. I’ve got 2 cats, Varric and Chowder.

Athena1138 is my name for just about everything--snap, insta, tiktok, twitch, steam, epic. I’m on both PlayStation and Xbox under Blackheart1138 because I was young and edgy. I’ve got an ao3 as PusillanimousBitch1138, and I’ve got other tumblr blogs, too. Pb1138 is my writing blog and Gossamer-Wings-and-Teeth1138 is my art blog. I have others but they’re not as active. 

I do not tolerate terfs or anything of the sort, nor homophobes, racists, sexists, nazis, white supremacists, Trump supporters, incels, MAPs/pedophiles, you get the point. If you’re into that kind of shit, you can go ahead and flush yourself down the toilet with the rest of it because I want nothing to do with you.

I stream at twitch on Mondays at about 5:30 EST, and I try to post YouTube videos of my streams on Sundays. Both names for that are athena1138 if you're ever interested.

My main fandoms seem to be Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Critical Role, Dimension 20, the Witcher, things of that nature. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, I ran out of steam lol. So this is my tag list if you want to blacklist something or whatever. The posts I tag the most consistently are posts that I make myself. 

shut up becca -- this tag goes with all original posts I make, no matter what they are. Sometimes I’ll forget, but I’m usually pretty good about adding at least this one. 

selfie / my face / me -- these are some of the tags I’ll use if I share a selfie. It doesn’t happen super often, but I usually do 2 or 3 at a time because I’m feeling myself. 

critical role spoilers / critrole spoilers / cr spoilers -- all 3 of these are the tags I’ll put on every post concerning the newest episode of Critical Role until a week after it airs. I.e., this week’s episode is 118. Every post concerning ep118 will be tagged with all 3 tags until the following Thursday. Unless I forget which happens, but usually only for a post or 2. This applies to all posts, even ones not made by me. If it’s a post that applies to more than just this one episode, I will also include the tags -- critical role / critrole / cr -- and I will also tag characters as needed. 

cat / cats / my cat / my son / my cats / my sons / my children -- these go with posts about my cats. Each cat has his own individual tag, either -- varric giovanni cathras / pippin armani took / riz chowder gukcat -- depending on which cat it is. 

It is important to note that I do not tag most posts which are reblogged. 99.5% of the time, I do a fast reblog. The other .5% is usually just me talking in the notes. I will sometimes tag things that I think might be triggers and will tag it like “ tw whateveritis “ but that’s for the really sensitive stuff. If I post a lot about something that you think I should tag, you can tell me, but I won’t promise to commit to tagging it. (Like, Cullen. I’ve been asked to tag posts about Cullen. Like no, dude, at that point you should just unfollow me because I post about him a lot.) I try to be considerate, but at the end of the day, this is my blog and I don’t have the spoons to try to conscientiously tag each and every one of the nearly-limit-reaching amount of posts I post every day. If you do have something you want me to tag, please send it to me in a DM rather than as an ask on anon. I tend to see anons asking me to do things like that as aggressive whether they intend to be or not, and will most likely just delete it, whereas with a DM I have a face to place it with and can check myself. 

personal -- posts where I talk about myself or my life or my family or my feelings. this one has been popping up a lot more lately. 

becca writes -- posts where I share my writing

becca draws -- posts about my drawings 

becca rambles -- posts where I’m just talking, probably about nothing super important 

becca rants -- rants. 

becca’s work -- posts about my job. Usually paired with the becca rants tag because my job is stressful 

becca’s family drama -- posts about shit going on in my shithole family. I’m white trash so there’s quite a bit of it. 

becca speaks -- kind of goes with becca rambles, but this one usually goes with asks, too. 

becca’s dreams -- my dreams. I have very detailed dreams that I usually remember, so the interesting ones get posted. 

my ocs -- my ocs. I’ve got like 54 of them by now. I don’t talk about them as much as I used to, but they’re still there. There are tags for groupings (like, wardens: missella/mireena/brilla/rastig , hawkes: belladonna/anna/nev/mariana ) but there’s too many to just tag them by name anymore. I’m also very tired and won’t write out every single grouping I have, especially since I’ll probably just churn a new one out and have to update it again. 

Which brings me to my final thing:  I’m a bitch, y’all. People are usually surprised. Most of the time, I don’t mean to be. I have a hard time reading social cues and more often than not, I don’t realize I’m being rude until way after the fact. It’s worse when I’m tired which is all the time nowadays. You’re free to call me on it if you care to. 

[samcrobae]

Taken

“Papi, you can’t keep doing this,” you softly say to your fiancé as you clean the gash across his cheek. “You’re going to get yourself hurt Angel Reyes, and I need you here to make it to our wedding”.

“It ain’t even that bad querida. You know those fools like to act tough every chance they get. Always gotta fuck with us. It was the prospects fault though. I was just backing him up.”

“Yeah yeah whatever it is, please don’t let it happen again—until AFTER our wedding mi amor.” You gently kiss his forehead. “Okay all done.”

“Mmm you take such good care of me mi dulce.” He stood up and hugged you from behind, wrapping his arms around your waist. “Come to bed with me.” His hands begin roaming your body, hands run along your sides, grabbing at your breasts, butt, and thighs.

———————————

“Take Boy Scout with you. I’d feel better.” Angel spoke as he sipped from his coffee mug.

“Angel, I’m going to work, I don’t need a baby sitter. No offense, EZ.” EZ holds up his hands “none taken Y/N”.

Angel looks over at you with a warning glance, “I said take the Boy Scout with you. When you gonna start being an obedient wife? Everytime I tell you something you got some shit back to say. Only time you ever listen is when you’re on your knees for me...I tell you take him with, take him with!”

“Oh fuck off Angel you always gotta take shit to another level.” You spat back.

EZ sat in an uncomfortable silence as he watched the two of you go back and forth.

“Fine whatever, I’m leaving in 10 minutes.” You finally agree. When you were ready you head to your car and notice EZ’s glance is across the street. “Everything okay?”

He snaps his head back to look at you, “yeah don’t look but there’s been a van parked out there all morning. Noticed it when I got here, it’s still here now. Just be on alert when you head in today. Shit with the Swole Boys is kinda messy and I don’t know how far they’ll take it.”

Pulling into the parking lot, you turn to look at EZ. You don’t have to come in and stay all day, I’m working an 8.5 hour shift today so if You wanna come back later that’s fine.”

“Sorry Y/N, Angel wants me with you, I gotta stay on you.” Pointing at the stitching on his kutte that reads ‘PROSPECT’, “I don’t make the rules”.

You let out a sigh and roll your eyes. “Fine, if you get hungry or want some coffee come on in. I’ll come get you when I’m on my lunch break.

———————————————

Your shift was coming to an end with only 2 hours left. You heard the bell of the diner ding and watched as 3 men walked over to a corner booth. You head over to their table “hey guys can I get you started on something to drink?”

“There’s our favorite biker bitch.” One spat.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” The other said.

“Who the fuck are you?” You ask.

“Easy sweetheart, lose the attitude. Fast. I’ll take a coffee. Black. Cheeseburger . You on the side.” One of them says as he winks at you.

You head to the kitchen to get the coffee and put in their orders. Pulling out your cell you dial EZ’s number. “Come on EZ, come on...” no answer. You glance over at the front booth and are confused to see it’s empty. Where did they go? You needed to get EZ in here quick, but didn’t want to draw attention to yourself in case they were hanging out front. You step out the back entrance when you feel a hard bit to the back of your head and your world goes black.

———————————————————-

EZ shakes his head and rubs his eyes awake. He fell asleep. Shit. What time is it? He looks over at the radio clock “11:47PM.” Wait where’s Y/N? She was supposed to be out by now. Looking at his phone he notices 2 missed calls from you. Looking back at the diner, the lights are now off. He calls you back but no answer. Straight to voicemail. Fuck.

He jumps out of the car and runs to the entrance to get a look inside but sees nothing. Angel was going to murder him if he came home without you. He dials your number again-voicemail. Panicking, he dials Coco.

“Boy Scout.”

“Coco, listen to me man, stay calm. Don’t react. Are you with Angel?”

“Yeah on our way back now.”

“Something’s wrong, I can’t find Y/N. I was supposed to be with her. I fell asleep. I woke up and she’s gone man, her shift ended hours ago, diners closed and she’s not here. Look this morning there was a van outside Angel’s house. I think whoever was in that van has her.”

“What the fuck prospect!” Coco yells.

“Wait is that my brother? What’s wrong ? Y/N okay? Gimme the phone.” Angel snatches the phone from Coco. “Ezekiel, what’s going on?”

“Angel, I-I’m... Y/N. I can’t find her. I think someone took her..I fell asleep......” the rest of what he’s saying fades out as Angels ears begin to ring, his blood is boiling, clenching his jaw and his fist, he throws coco’s phone across the back of the truck as hard as he could, shattering the phone to pieces.

“Angel what the fuck?!” Gilly, Riz, and creeper sat in the back of the truck with Angel and watched as he lost his temper.

When they pulled into the yard, EZ was there waiting for them. Angel jumped out of the truck, a rage in his eyes. Darting straight at EZ he grabs him by his shirt and flings him to the ground “you fell asleep?!!!! I asked you to keep her safe. Watch her. And you fell asleep?! I can’t even trust my baby brother!” The two wrestle on the gravel til Bishop motions at Gilly “break that shit up.”

“Alright let’s talk facts. We just had a run in with Swole Boys. Has to be them. Retaliation. Prospect, what do you know?” Bishop asked.

“Not much. There was a van parked outside their house this morning when I pulled into the driveway. Still there when I left with Y/N to head in with her. Nothing after that. Nothing at the diner either. I fell asleep in the car. When I woke up she was gone.i got a look at the plate number QBZ1789”

Angels fists clenched at his words. “Next time prospect, lead with that.”

Bishop held his hand up, “Creep, run the plates. See if we get a match to our friends. Prospect, you made a careless mistake and fell asleep. What the fuck is wrong with you? Don’t let this messy shit happen again. If it does you’re out.”

Angel rose from his seat. “If anything happens to her EZ, it’s on you.”

“Got a match!” Creeper came back.

—————————————-

When you woke up, you were on the floor in a basement , unable to fully open your right eye, a busted lip keeping you from opening your mouth to call for help. All you could do was whimper out.

“Rise and shine sweetheart” there was a man with a blue hoodie approaching you. He stopped when he was towering above you, delivering a swift kick to your side. You cried out and fell over, “please stop..”

“Wheres your bitch boyfriend now? Nowhere in sight.. now, what do we do with you? Gonna have to think on this.”

He heads back up stairs and shuts the door behind him.

Finally, what felt like hours later, you hear quick and loud pops from upstairs. Followed by chairs and furniture being dragged across the floor. The door handle jiggles but doesn’t open and your heart is in your feet as you’re unsure what’s awaiting on the other side. Whoever was on the other side shoots the lock open and slowly creeps down. It’s hard to make out what’s happening in the darkness. You hear the familiar sound of heavy boots dragging across the floor and you run to one side of the room you’re in and start banging on the door with all the strength you could muster up. The door handle breaks off and the door opens up to reveal Coco on the other side.

“Shit- Angel! Angel! I got her!” Heads turn and angel runs to the door you’re standing at.

“Angel...” tears stream down your face and he brings you into him.

“Baby.... baby I’m so sorry... I got you. It’s okay. I got you. Let me see you.”

He takes your face in his hands and examines your wounds. “Did they do anything else?”

You shake your head no.

“I’m so sorry. I should have been there, this is my fault. I love you. I love you so much. This will never happen again querida.”

“Can we go home?” You mumble through a swollen lip.

“Yeah, let’s go home mi dulce”.

He lifts you into his arms and carries you out the house and into the truck, heading back to the home the two of you shared.

@briannab1234 @cind-in-real-life @sickofbitches

[obviouslycassandra]

A/N: so, this morning @riz-gukgak mentioned a morning fabriz scene featuring some very wonderful ace riz headcanons that hit quite close to where i live and… well, i found myself thinking about it hours later so now, here we are.

this isn’t quite what Peach’s post detailed but it was for sure inspired by it so credit where credit is due.

also, i guess this is technically my first time sharing work in the fandom? wow. anyways, hope you enjoy!

1.6K, Fabriz, post-canon/aged up

[ao3]

The hand which wakes Fabian is light on his forearm and so barely there that he reasonably shouldn’t have stirred at all. He does anyway, years of sleeping one good eye open keeping him alert even though he knows, in a sleepier, calmer corner of his mind, that it’s Sunday morning and he has nowhere to be beyond his own bedroom.

He blinks awake to find Riz curled up on his side of the bed, one arm flung out to reach towards him but otherwise so small, so obviously comfortable under the covers he hasn’t quite managed to kick off. His face half-buried in his pillow and obscured by hair long enough to fall across his forehead, past the sharp point of his nose, all the way down to his lips. There’s no way that’s comfortable, Fabian thinks distractedly as his vision zeroes in on that one piece of hair that moves with each exhale. His own hair’s been too long for too many years to be kept down.

Fabian contemplates brushing the hair out of Riz’s face but that would require moving, would require pulling his arm out from under Riz’s fingertips and that’s a peace he doesn’t want to disturb. It’s rare that he’s awake first, rarer still that Riz would reach out to seek touch in those mornings they get to share in their bed, rarest, perhaps that there is a morning to share at all, between their work duties and impossible schedules and the sheer virtue of how precious a quiet Sunday morning can be. So Fabian doesn’t move.

It’s a few minutes before Riz’s hand twitches again, fingers going to curl ever so slightly around Fabian’s forearm, purposeful now where the touch could have been brushed off as accidental before, by someone other than Fabian, by someone who doesn’t know just how measured and resolute each instance of touch is for Riz.

“Mornin’,” Fabian says, and his voice is just an exhale of air tripping over the gravel of a good night’s sleep but loud enough still to bring him fully out of his state of hazy half-sleep and into an acceptance of wakefulness. Riz doesn’t answer and his eyes are still closed, and Fabian wonders if it’s a failure on his own perception’s end that he can’t figure out whether his breath has changed at all. Or perhaps, he’s just still asleep and reaching out, and all Fabian can do is let himself sink further into the mattress as seemingly every single nerve ending in his body migrates to just the four points on his forearm where Riz’s fingers have landed, the thumb pressing ever so slightly into the crook of his elbow.

“Riz, hey,” he whispers again, and is rewarded now with the flutter of Riz’s dark eyelashes, a pair of warm yellow eyes peering up at him under heavy eyelids. “Hey. Good morning. You okay?”

Riz’s eyes travel slowly from Fabian’s face down to where his hand rests on Fabian’s arm. His fingers flex gingerly, just a tiny bit, as if he’s testing their autonomy before he lets his eyes fall shut again, and nods.

“What time is it?”

“Early,” Fabian hasn’t looked at a clock. He can only guess from where sunlight is leaking through the blinds into the room, the elongated shape it’s cast on the ceiling. “You should sleep some more. It’s Sunday.”

Riz doesn’t protest, which is surprising in and of itself, but Fabian won’t question something that’s just so unequivocally good for his own concept of a perfect lazy morning. He’s content to lie here and enjoy closeness and stray touch until the sun climbs high enough in the sky that its light in the room is inescapable enough to guilt him into action. He doesn’t need anything else.

Then Riz’s hand slides down, closer to his wrist, and still so terribly light on his skin that Fabian has to close his eyes and wonder how something so minute can be just about enough to make his heart kick up in his chest like it does when Riz’s thumb lands just past his wrist, at the soft of the heel of his hand.

It’s that it’s rare, is all. That it’s Riz, and that it’s rare. It’s how it’s always been, he supposes, regardless of everything else he’s tried, anyone else he’s let touch him so much more, technically, than Riz is okay with touching most of the time. But it’s always been this; Fabian’s come to understand it’s all about whatever Riz wants, has always been all about whatever Riz wants, rest of the world be damned.

Still, it’s a shock which jolts him fully awake, Riz’s hand seeking his own over a faded gray bedsheet they bought together so long ago Fabian’s almost ashamed to consider how much time has passed. They should go bedsheet shopping, he thinks, right as Riz makes a soft noise into his pillow and strokes his thumb, just once, across the inside of Fabian’s wrist.

“Yeah?” Fabian breathes. He learned a long time ago to step back and let Riz direct what he wants; how much he wants to seek out and accept, what is okay for him and what crosses sharply into a field of too much that Fabian never wants to breach. Riz is an adult, and knows his limits better than anyone else. Fabian just knows how to listen, which cue to take, and what to give in exchange.

Today, the cue is a very small noise of affirmation as Riz’s fingers relax and his grip goes slack, and then it’s so easy for Fabian to shift and take Riz’s hand in his. Riz shudders at that, a full-body sigh as his body unfurls just a little to make the distance between them just ever so slightly smaller.

“Yeah,” he echoes, and then he meets Fabian’s tightening his hold just a fraction with an exhale that’s almost a laugh. When Fabian opens his eyes to look at whatever expression accompanies the sound, he’s met with a half smile on Riz’s lips, and then the realization that the hairs on Riz’s arm are standing on end, as if the point of contact is electric.

Fabian holds still, and Riz doesn’t pull back, so Fabian holds.

It’s a while before he moves again, shifting carefully closer. The bed creaks with his movement and Riz laughs again, one of those sleepy exhales Fabian knows, with an odd tinge of pride, that no one else would recognize as laughter at all. He’s close enough that Riz could probably curl into his chest if he wanted when Riz draws his hand back and breaks contact. Fabian only has a moment to regret pushing too far, has just started thinking too hard and opening his mouth with an apology on his tongue when all Riz does is roll over, one knee drawn up and his back to Fabian.

“Do you—” Fabian starts, careful more than he is uncertain, right as Riz cuts him off,

“Fabian,” and throws a hand back to reach for him.

Fabian takes his time closing the distance between them, gives Riz time to change his mind but Riz remains quiet and still as Fabian moves close enough that his chest is pressed to Riz’s back, as he hovers a cautious arm and finally sets it down lightly over Riz’s hip.

“Okay,” Riz whispers, once Fabian is finally still again, and Fabian has to wonder if it’s for his benefit or Riz is just talking to himself. His skin is covered in gooseflesh still, his arms and — Fabian’s now close enough to see — the back of his neck; his heart thumping away hard enough that Fabian can feel it against his ribs.

“This is a lot,” Fabian breathes, and watches the back of Riz’s head shift in a short nod. “You’re good?”

“Okay,” Riz repeats, his hand coming up to close over Fabian’s at his hip.

The magnitude a touch so minute, in the grand scheme of things, blows Fabian’s mind. Everything has always been so much when it’s Riz.

He stills, and breathes. Riz’s restless, shivery body takes its time to relax into his touch, until the gooseflesh fades and his breath evens out enough that Fabian wonders if he’s fallen back asleep.

The sun travels its morning route until it finds another crack in the blinds to shine through, casting a spotlight to the bony point of Riz’s shoulder. Fabian watches the spectacle, sunlight on skin, rendered breathless by how something so ordinary can be so important and devastating and beautiful until all he can do is lean in and press a whisper of a kiss onto Riz’s shoulder.

“God,” Riz hisses, his hand over Fabian’s gripping harder for a split second before he forces it into stillness again.

“Sorry,” Fabian whispers, quick, immediate, already halfway to pulling away. “Are you okay? I— you’re good?”

Riz mutters Fabian’s name under his breath and then twists, squirming until he manages to turn around and face Fabian, catching his eyes in a way which somehow feels immediately insistent.

“I’m okay,” he says quietly, and he sounds so dead serious that Fabian thinks, in that exact second, that he has never loved him more. Riz smiles at him, then shifts to kiss a spot on Fabian’s cheekbone that’s only half scar, “I promise, I’m good, this is… it’s good, right now. You’re good.”

He kisses the tip of Fabian’s nose and then draws back to settle with his face in the crook of Fabian’s neck as Fabian rests his hand right at the center of Riz’s back.

“This is good,” Riz mutters. “Thank you. It’s—”

“Do you think we should sleep some more?” Fabian asks, and it’s not quite a kiss when his lips just happen to get in the way of Riz’s hair as he nods his agreement.

[venactricisfics]

Malibu Desert

Camping

Mayans Based Story. Adult Content

Master List

Chapter Fifteen

I kissed and hugged and gave my goodbyes to Conner and the Irish Kings. I never noticed before how old fashioned their ways of thinking had been.  Until the senior King, Declan Brogan, commented on the way Bishop looked at me.

“Look at da state o’you, lass,” he says looking from me back to Bishop, “at least he’s no’ a protestant.  Yer da would roll in his grave.” I wanted to tell him that Bishop was everything to me. His heritage was every bit a part of him as mine was to me.  But I couldn’t find the words to express that wouldn’t alienate the Kings and kill everything that these clubs have been working for over the years. 

“I’ll see you next time you come stateside?” I ask as he climbs in the dark SUV.

“I’ll make it a point, lass. I’m gonna head-on before it gets any hotter ‘ere,” he closes the door and the Kings drive off.  

“The fuck was his problem?” Angel says as I turn back towards him and the rest of the Mayans. 

“Guess every dad’s worst nightmare,” I slip my hand in the crook of Bishop’s arm, “their little girl falling for a big bad dangerous biker.” I give my biker a kiss, “You’ve redeemed yourself in his eyes by being Catholic.” 

“And yours?” Bishop asks. 

“You have so many redeeming qualities, I can’t name them all,” my arms instinctively slide around his waist as I climb behind him on his bike, “my favorite is that thing you do with your tongue.”  

“I’ll keep that in mind, querida,” I hear the smile in his voice over the revving of his Harley as we head out.  I watch confused as Taza, Riz, and Angel turn one way while Bishop with Hank at his side and Creeper following us in the van turn another.  

“Where are they going?” I call out. I couldn’t make out Bishop’s response over the sounds of the wind and bike. I hold on as we move up the winding road and come to a stop in the woods.

“Promised you a trip to a quiet cabin,” Bishop helps me off the back of his bike while Hank opens the cabin door.  He makes sure everything is all clear before calling for Creeper to bring in our bags.

“Where did the other’s go?” I ask Bishop’s arm slides around my waist as he leads me inside, “They’re heading back to Stockton. It’s just us here. So relax, querida.” 

“It’s all clear,” Hank says, “I’m just a call away if you need anything.” 

“Thank you, “ I give Hank a kiss on the cheek and Creeper a wave as they move back down the road through the woods. 

My lips curve into a smile when his strong hands rest on my hips, pulling me back against him, I let out a soft moan as his lips find that sweet spot at the crook of my neck. “Why don’t you get cleaned up and I’ll fix us something to eat?" 

“Alright, baby,” I walk through the cabin and into the bedroom. The cabin is rustic and cozy. More a place for guys to go hang out and not a romantic getaway.  But with Bishop, that’s exactly what this would be. I take a quick shower to rinse away the road dust and get dressed.  I slip into a cami and a long flowing skirt.  It was comfortable and clung to every one of my curves in exactly the right way. 

I stop in the archway to the cabin’s kitchen watching as Bishop works. His kutte hangs on the back of a chair and his shirt opened enough to uncover his chest. It was pretty much the sexiest thing I’d seen. "Hey, ” my eyes meet him when he turns toward me, “you need help with anything?" 

"You want to open a bottle?” He points toward the wine rack in the corner. They weren’t fancy but it was wine. I half expected the rack to be full of moonshine. I grab a bottle and set it on the counter. Glasses were easy enough to find. An opener took a little longer to find. After filling the glasses I hop on the counter and take a sip. 

“Smells good, what’s for dinner?" 

"Spaghetti, ” he scoops up a spoonful of sauce, “Güeros don’t have much for spices, ” I take the bite he offered, “I think I did alright.”

“Delicious, ” I give him a coy smile, “But I’m in the mood for dessert first.” My fingers curl into his shirt and I pull him closer. His smirk matched mine as he places the spoon on the counter beside me and places his hands on my face, bringing my lips to his. I lean my head to the side as his lips trail along my jaw and down my neck, his fingers pulling the straps down my shoulders. Baring my breasts.  His hands found them fingers followed by his lips and tongue coaxing them to a hardened nub.  I thrust my hips against him as my arousal built. 

“What do you want, hermosa?” Bishop asked as his hands inched my skirt up.  His thumbs massaging circles on my inner thighs.  

“You,” I gasped as he pulls my nipple between his lips. He smiles into my flesh finding that I wasn’t wearing anything under my skirt.  

“You want me to what?” His fingers dance lightly over my slick folds. I lick my lips and glance down with my eyes, “I want you to taste me.”  He smiled and licked his lips moving down as his hands push my skirt up over my hips.  Exposing me fully to him. 

In another life, with another man, I would have felt ashamed wanting what I wanted from him. But I never needed to be afraid to ask Bishop for what I wanted. 

I lean back on the cool countertop. Gasping at how good his warm breath felt over my pussy.  The heat of his breath was replaced by his warm wet tongue.  He swirled slow circles down one side and back up the other.  Not quite entering me, but each circle seemed to make its way right to my clit.  I moaned loud, grinding my pussy into his mouth.  I wanted to feel his soft, wet lips encircle my clit. I wanted him to suck it into his mouth while he flicked at it with the tip of his tongue.  I wanted to feel the wetness of another orgasm drench his lips and chin.  And then I wanted to feel his cock inside me.  Oh fuck, I needed to have his cock inside me.

I glance down at him, pleading with just the look for him to make me cum. He smirked keeping his eyes locked with mine then plunged his tongue inside me, lapping up my juices before gliding his tongue up to flick my clit. I was riding on the edge of an orgasm and he made me ride it. My legs tingled and twitched as he took me to the edge then backed away.  

“Please,” my voice raspy from gasping, “make me cum.”

“Not yet,” he replaced his tongue with a finger. He grinned as my walls clenched around it. I let out a gasp when his finger curled up to find that spot. My head fell back and I moaned as he toyed with me. With one finger first, then adding another.  Taking me higher than I’d ever known. I arched my back grinding my clit against the palm of his hand. 

My legs spread wide opening myself up to whatever pleasure he wanted to give me. It was a beautiful torture.  I was torn between wanting the sensation to last forever and wanting to release the pleasure he was storing inside me. I knew I couldn’t have both.  

He didn’t let me decide as he pulled my clit between his lips and sucked. I lost all remaining control, giving myself over to the pure bliss that pulsed down my legs and through my whole body. I thrust my hips with each suck of his lips around my clit. Knowing the only other thing I wanted was to have his cock buried deep inside me.  The sound of my orgasm filled the cabin.

I raised up, my eyes meeting his as he lifted his head, his lips and chin were covered with my juices. “What else do you want, querida?” he asked.  My head still swimming from my orgasm, I bit my lip and nodded. Bishop’s eyes remain locked on mine not moving until I give him an answer.  

“Fuck me,” I pleaded. He kept his gaze with mine as he unbuttoned his shirt, and unfastened his jeans sliding them down.  His cock sprang free and hit me on my inner thigh, he moved so it rested against my pussy. His hands rested on either side of me on the counter and slid his cock over my wetness.  Slipping over my folds, the underside of his thickness rubbed against my clit.

“Please,” I whimper, “just fuck me. I need you inside me.”  His eyes dark as he continued to slide between my sensitive lips. I felt the head of his cock agonizingly at my entrance, I wanted so much for him to drive hard and deep inside me instead he pulled back and brushed his hardness over my clit.  

I ached to have him inside me. And I could tell his need was swelling.  His moans matched mine. I knew the feel of my wetness on the head of his cock was getting too much for both of us. He slid just the head of his cock inside me.  Gasping together as he held it there. My lips squeezed around him, urging him farther. Deeper. Inch by excruciating inch, he pushed inside me.  My walls pulsing around him each time.  I wanted all of him. I rolled my hips and lifted my leg to rest on his shoulder, finally, he drove fully inside me. 

“Yes,” I cried out as he held it there, grinding into me making sure he was all the way inside before he pulled out, he drove deep inside me a second, then third time before hitting a rhythm.  His thumb found my clit and circled it while he fucked me with his hard thick cock. My fingers toyed with my nipples and I felt myself climbing the mountain of pleasure again.  Only this time I would have someone reach that peak with me.  

He quickened his pace and I could feel his cock pulsing inside me.  “That’s it,” I groaned, every inch of me trembling with the radiating pleasure, “I want your cum inside me. Make me cum.” I couldn’t tell if my words made any sense.  I just knew I wanted to feel his release.  His fingers dug into my thighs and an animalistic growl echoed from inside him as I felt his cock spasm inside me.  Spurt after spurt of his cum filled me, and that pushed me over again.  I screamed with pleasure as my world went white with pleasure. Writhing against each other as we both draw out the pleasure as long as we can make it last. 

His arms wrap around me, pulling me up to his chest in a warm embrace, placing a soft kiss on my neck. 

“I love you,” I whisper, he presses a kiss to my jaw and then my lips.  I feel the sweet wetness of our mingled cum between my thighs and shiver.  

His eyes mirror back all the feelings I felt. “I love you too, querida,” He helped me off the counter, “go lay by the fire,” he motions to the pile of blankets he had spread there, “get warm. I’ll bring you something to eat.” 

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 7

Moms, Meltdowns, and Mayhem

Hello and welcome back to Fabian’s worst nightmare, already in progress!

We rejoin the Bad Kids who have linked back up the next day and are on their way to the library of the city Leviathan--The Compass Point Library. On the way there, they see the Crow’s Keep burning but Fabian, assuming it has to do with what happened to him, tells everyone to leave it alone.

Adaine questions why Riz hasn’t had any nightmares (Riz: In a way, my life is a nightmare) and the whole group goes into another round of Shadowcat speculation. Is she protecting Riz from nightmares for some reason? Why can Tracker and Garthy suddenly see her in the picture despite not having seen her irl or had any weird dreams? Is she masquerading as someone else? 

Anyway, they reach the library which is the cool, cobbled together and largely stolen (to Fig’s delight) pirate-y library of Alexandria type place. They meet an old pirate wizard named Rollins with a book of pirate spells that Fig immediately wants to steal and Adaine wants to borrow (or steal, she’s flexible). They all sign up for Compass Point library cards and go up to the observatory to look for Ayda Aguefort. 

In the observatory, they find a huge orange-yellow bird on a perch and this is the part of the recap where I have to inform you that Aguefort had not only banged a phoenix, he somehow managed to procreate with it. Meet Ayda Aguefort, the half-phoenix (shout-out to the anon from last week who called Ayda as Aguefort’s daughter). She’s got wings and arms, bird legs, a plume of red fiery hair, and eyes which are basically just fire.

Fig thinks she’s the creature Aguefort made for her for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. She tries to feed her but Ayda rejects the food, not wishing to be in anyone’s debt. Ayda is kind of intense, abrupt, and anti-social when they meet her. She’s fully is about to fly away instead of helping until Fabian yells that Garthy sent them and Adaine remembers she has the letter from Garthy asking her to help them. After some back and forth, she agrees to give Adaine the spell (which will take 6 hours to learn) for 150 gold. But these are the Bad Kids so, of course, we have several tangents before the plot goes anywhere, during which we learn Ayda is a divination wizard (like Adaine), she asks if her father has talked about her (Fig successfully lies that he has), and Gorgug spouts out some fortune cookie nonsense (“What is a telescope but a spyglass pointed at the stars?”) that convinces Ayda that he could be the greatest wizard of their age (Adaine does a spit take and Fig is loving it).   

Adaine hits the books to learn the sending spell with Sandra-Lynn keeping watch while everyone else splits up suchly:

Fabian wants to go out to check on the Hangman but Kristen absolutely vetoes that. Buddy. System. Ragh agrees to go with him and she lays off. He tries to see what the damage on the Hangman is. Nat 1. As far as Fabian can tell, the Hangman is full dead. Not only that, Fabian is poor people sick which he isn’t used to at all. Ragh isn’t doing much better on the emotional front. He just started making progress with processing his emotions and now his mom might be dead. Saddest Hoot Growl ever (seriously, it’s heartbreaking). Cathilda comes in, loving as ever, with food and kind words and an old lullaby, but that’s not enough to stop Fabian from rolling another Nat 1 and gaining 2 levels of exhaustion (which means disadvantage on ability checks and speed halved). Lou, please burn those dice. 

Kristen and Riz are researching the Nightmare King. They go into a religious studies section of the library and (on a 20+ check from Riz) find texts about a temple to a forgotten god in Sylvere (the forest of the Nightmare King). The god is never named in any of the texts which Kristen finds weird. Riz decides to steal the book and is able to do it, despite Kristen’s “help”. Later, Kristen cross-refs Riz’s info with her world religions book and, on a dirty 20, she finds with frustration that there’s a lot of information but none of it really matches up. The fairies, treants, and especially the unicorns all had mysterious deities but none of them really match with the forgotten god. [Note: Last time we heard about unicorns was in episode one and we learned that the last time people saw the great unicorn was the last time the NK showed up.] At the same time, it seems like there are elements of the god in all five of the cultures in the forest. Adaine checks and there’s nothing magic with the book so it’s just the contents of the book that are weird, not the book itself. Kristen thinks there might be a connection to her weird dream about not being able to draw the face of her god. Adaine wonders if Kristen might have been worshipping this unnamed god by mistake. Gorgug wonders if the god is erasing themselves (a theory backed up late when they talk to Aguefort).  

Fig looks for information on cursed gems and (with a 19) she finds a good amount--no surprise in a pirate library. She finds a book called Breaking the Evil Eye in one of the forbidden sections and learns that it could be possible to planeshift into the gem, dispel magic from the inside and get rid of the trap, before breaking the original curse. She finds all of this out after she steals the book (disguised as Rollins). Planeshift is a level 7 spell though so Adaine has a while to go before she can learn it (she gets her first at level 13). 

Gorgug asks the real Rollins for books about cheering up a friend. He’s brought to a small, dusty section of the library. Gorgug rolls a nat 1 on an insight check and thinks that Rollins must be messing with him. Rollins is confused because he super wasn’t. Adaine takes a break and uses this pointless argument borne from misunderstanding to steal his book. Dirty 20. Rollins instantly skelatizes. She hastily puts the book back. He comes back Wrong and in incredible pain. He begs them to take the book out and Gorgug does. Adaine peaces out to finish studying, leaving Gorgug to deal with her mess. Gorgug decides to keep looking at the friendship books. Even on a 5, he finds a secret door into a HUGE friendship library. Guided by his library card, Gorgug finds a book called Cheer Up Me Hearties. When he gets out, Gilear is being accosted for killing Rollins, but Gorgug is able to get them to stand down. Gorgug Thistlespring, winning pirate hearts and minds. They take the book and Rollins’ bones to get him put back together.   

Adaine finishes up as Ayda comes to check on her. Ayda is about to make another quick exit but Adaine tries again to make friends with Ayda, this time by directly asking and offering to let her hold Boggy. Ayda is immediately obsessed with Boggy (and Adaine’s backpack terrarium AND the backpack she makes for him at Ayda’s suggestion) and extremely impressed with Adaine’s spellwork in manifesting Boggy. It’s a very cute scene and Adaine has made a useful ally. Ayda can’t believe she met the two greatest wizards of the age in one day. Wild. 

Everyone regroups to call Aguefort now that Adaine knows Sending. He sends them back some more powerful magic so he can talk for longer than the 25 word response. Think of it as magic Skype. He very casually tells them that Ragh’s house is a smoking crater and his mom is super dead. He takes far too long to follow up with the information that, a long time ago, he hid Lydia’s real body under the school, made a clone of her, and used the Magic Jar spell to basically hook up her consciousness to the clone body (which held a fake demon shard). The clone body is what got destroyed. Lydia’s real body and consciousness are fine. Way to bury the lede dude! Upon being asked, Arthur says that he used to remember the name of the god of the unicorn but he forgot. Suspicious and troubling. He and Fig also renew discussions on the creature she ordered but never paid for. He says the cheapest option is a pentacorn for 30k gold (which sounds like a unicorn w/ 5 horns and pretty useless but I refuse to get dragged into this insanity, I am just the messenger here).

Aguefort leaves to deal with the situation at home. Meanwhile, Gorgug notices smoke again but he also notices that it’s on the wrong side to be related to what happened to Fabian. After giving Fabian and Ragh oranges to prevent scurvy--a tip from the pirate friendship book--he brings it up to Fabian who thinks it’s probably Captain Wicklaw making a power play and they should probably stay out of it. What? says Adaine. Nah, we should fight him. Yeah, says Fig. You deserve revenge! Fabian just wants to lay low so they can get their C+. Adaine is not here for that C+ and she’s not here for Fabian’s concerning attitude shift. None of the Bad Kids are. However, the cast is very here for absolutely roasting Lou for all of his choices by having their respective characters inadvertently reference every bad thing that happened last episode. When Adaine suggests that Fabian might be cursed, Fabian finally haltingly comes out with the entire story (which Lou has to laugh-cry himself through in one of the best scenes of the episode) and everyone interjects with comments that they (out of character) know will just make Fabian’s storytelling even more uncomfortable. It’s a very wild combination of very emotional (in game) but deeply funny (out of game). Like:

Ally (who knows good and well that Chungledown Bim told Fabian he was gonna shit in his mouth): Did Chungledown Bim help you?

Zac (who also knows good and well that Chungledown Bim told Fabian he was gonna shit in his mouth): Chungledown Bim probably saved you.

Murph (yet another person who knows good and well that ChungledownBim told Fabian he was gonna shit in his mouth) You know what we should do? We should go see Chungledown Bim.        

Amazing. 

Fabian finishes his recounting of the 20 car pile-up that was last episode by repeating his earlier opinion that they shouldn’t go after Captain Wicklaw because it will just end with all of them dead. Kristen tries to slap him back to normal and tells him to lose the Gilear energy. Led by Gorgug and Adaine, the gang tells Fabian that being Bill Secaster’s son isn’t the only worthwhile thing about him (in fact, it’s pretty annoying). He’s worthwhile all on his own. Tracker chimes in and says that she thinks Fabian might have some issues with depression so maybe their well intentioned efforts to get Fabian to buck up weren’t the best way to handle things. Adaine and Riz are skeptical that Fabian is like, capital D, Depressed but Tracker sticks by her read on the situation. The group eventually decides to at least check out what’s going on with the smoke but before they arrive, an interlude:

As they walk to Crow’s Keep, Cathilda walks with Fabian and Cathilda starts dropping information about herself and about how her own children died before Fabian was born and about how she sees him as a son--though she’s tried to keep the proper professional distance. She comforts Fabian on his bad day and then her eyes go full Terminator and she mentally buts Wicklaw on her “People I Need to Murder Today” list (more on this later).

When they arrive at the place where the smoke is coming from, they find that the Ramble (kind of a pirate meetinghouse/Courthouse) has been burned down. Jemina Joy is there and she lets them know that Wicklaw asked what was necessary to become the new pirate king. He was told that all he needed to do was get the crown from the former pirate king (because respect for/fear of Bill was the only thing keeping there from being a new king). He just burned down the Ramble to be a dick. Adaine damn near gets her ass beat by Jemina by arguing politics with her (her point being that she wants to install Jemina as Pirate Queen while Jemina is like, “I just keep this place from sinking. Lay off.”) but Riz, mindful of the fact that this is a time sensitive situation, takes off to Gibbety Square where the pirate king’s crown is (and where Wicklaw is headed).

They make it to Brennan’s latest battle mechanic: The Row and the Ruction.

This is the crazy, pirate bicameral legislative system. The Row is a huge fistfight (no weapons allowed--or really they are allowed but everyone will gang up on you if you use them) at ground level. It’s always in session and has been for 150-ish years. Above that, is the Ruction which is a fight with full weapon and magic usage alone. The idea is that you need enough support on the ground in the Row so you can use them to get up in the Ruction. It’s a king of the hill situation up there and if you can hold your position up there for long enough, you can make laws. Got all that? Good. 

They get there just barely after Wicklaw and his men who haven’t yet entered the Row. Wicklaw starts talking mad trash to Fabian but his friends back him up. They give him back his sword, his eye-patch, and Kristen hits him with a Warding Bond (which means that he gets +1 to AC and saving throws if he stays close to her plus resistance to all damage and, more importantly, she takes all the damage he takes). Fig gives everyone Countercharm. And, to top it off, Cathilda shows up with in an all black, super-badass pirate uniform to say she’s gonna feed him his own freaking brains! Let’s goooooooo!

But, Wicklaw has some new allies as well. Three elves bamf in from Falinel (same people who Kristen felt scrying on them earlier) and they’re there to bring Adaine back, and it doesn’t seem like they’re gonna just ask nicely.   

Detention

Adaine for Unnecessary Theft and (Accidentally) Killing a Man 

Adaine was kind of on one this episode. Not only did she inadvertently kill* a man while stealing from him, Adaine also ghosted at the first sign of trouble, leaving Gorgug and Gilear to catch all the flak for her attempt at pulling a Fig. Bad form, girl!

*She probably didn’t technically kill him but she turned him into a skeleton and he called the pain upon reconstitution worse than death so let’s not quibble about the details. 

Honor Roll

Cathilda for Being a Badass Mom 

Oh man, oh man, oh man. 

I’ve low-key been waiting for Cathilda to go full pirate since we learned that was an option and especially since Fabian got attacked because it was a pretty safe bet that was going to be her berserk button and boy did she deliver.

When did she have the time for a costume change? Is she that stealthy? Did she magic it on? Or did she just manifest the outfit on the power of her rage alone?

The scene where she says Wicklaw is gonna pay? Chills. Not only pledging to eat your enemy’s brains but also saying you’re going to feed him his own brains and describing exactly how you’ll serve it? So raw. 

But I also have to shout out the non-murderous mom stuff she did this ep. The little talk she gave Fabian about no one being defined by their worst day was very sweet and good advice out of game too. 

But honorable mention to Gorgug for being an absolute sweetheart all episode. Zac’s improv about pirates giving their friends oranges to prevent scurvy bodied me.  

Random Thoughts

Some very useful posts from @jamiebluewind: Character Descriptions, Location Descriptions, Transcripts of Cathilda’s speeches from this ep. 

During the initial discussion with Collins, we learn that the transmutation exchange rate is 50 Parrots=10 Bananas=1 Gold. How are bananas more complex than parrots?

Adaine: May we steal books?

Her later actions aside, I think it’s funny that Adaine’s first move is basically always to sweetly ask for what she wants and Fig’s first move is, “Gotta steal that book!” Adaine is like the most polite person in the group but also ready to fight 100% of the time. The role reversal in the Jemina scene where Fig was the one who asked an on point question and Adaine was the one who made it almost spiral into an actual fight was great.

I was just saying this re: Harry Potter in a different context but clearly marked but not blocked off forbidden sections of libraries are more a dare than a deterrent. 

Fig as a horned parrot (done by Rollins for trying to steal his book) is adorable. Please somebody draw that.

I love that when they see the bird that turns out to be Ayda and Murph is like, “I don’t think that’s a bird,” Zac is like, “Yeah, Gorgug doesn’t know that.” Zac (like Travis as Grog in CritRole) has a real talent for playing dumb while actually being really smart.

“My principal scammed me?”

Brennan truly did not have to follow through on Aguefort saying he slept with a bird. He really, really did not have to but he was like, “Nope! I said it so it’s happening! This is happening!” I really wish you guys could have seen my face as I realized in real time that the madman was actually doing that. 

Adaine to Fig who thinks Ayda is her creature: This is a full person.

“I like school.”/“You would.”

Lol at Fig trying to draw parallels between Ayda’s prickliness and her own behavior and getting absolutely shut down. “I think people think you’re really tender.” The running thing of Fig’s perception of herself as this standoffish loner being constantly reality checked by literally everyone she knows being like, “You tell us you love us literally every day,” is one of my favorite group dynamics. It’s even funnier because, besides probably Adaine and Fabian, the rest of the Bad Kids probably knew Fig (or at least had seen her around) before she started going through her emo phase. So they totally remember her in 8th grade wearing preppy clothes and carrying a unicorn backpack and listening to Fantasy Taylor Swift and all that.   

All ep they were calling Kalina a cat and I was thinking, “I feel like—in game—that’s gotta be offensive.” And then Aguefort straight said it. Wild for it to come from him since he’s the craziest person ever but I’m glad it came up.

“You seem simple to me.”/“Thank God.”

Aww at Ayda asking if Aguefort ever talks about her. Brennan, you gotta stop putting little emotional traps into otherwise funny scenes. I can only handle so much!

The gang did some experimentation with the photo in this ep with these results: Ayda and Aguefort both couldn’t see Kalina in the picture. They also took a picture of the picture but that picture had the same properties as the original picture. Weeping Angel rules I guess. 

There’s speculation in this episode about why Riz isn’t having nightmares. I have another question kinda on that topic. In episode 2/3, we see the lie/mirror/Baron thing that happened with Riz. And that was for sure super nightmarish. But it doesn’t match what happened to Adaine and Fabian. Both of them seem to have had more ephemeral experiences that quickly vanished. And they weren’t borne from lies so much as fears. Riz’s monster came from a direct lie and it didn’t seem to be a nightmare. It came out of the mirror and attacked not only him but his friends later. No one saw Fabian or Adaine’s nightmares besides them (although, that could just be because they got away). And no other lie-monsters have showed up as far as we know. I’m just wondering if there’s maybe something else going on or if it was a different NK follower who did that or just a different power of the same dude. Just something I wanted to note because it’s been bugging me a little and no one’s brought it up yet. 

Cool quirk of the sending spell Adaine learned: Because it was modified by pirates, curse words don’t count towards the 25 word limit. What I immediately thought (and what Aguefort actually ended up doing more or less) was that you could easily send very long messages with, say, Morse code. Just designate one curse as a dot, one as a dash, and one as a space, and you’re good to go. It’d be slow, but totally workable. 

Also, after watching Laura as Jester absolutely flying by the seat of her pants with every sending spell, it was wild to see the group take the time to carefully craft the perfect message. 

I said two recaps ago that I wouldn’t be surprised if Gorgug multiclassed into a casting class soon and boy do I hope this episode means he’s gonna do it for real. Adaine’s total disbelief at Ayda’s interest in Gorgug’s wizarding potential was sending me.

Oh also. Ayda has forbidden Gorgug from reading any wizarding books so he doesn’t lose is totally uncomplicated mind. I guess he’s supposed to learn everything the savant way? Imagine Adaine diligently studying her wizard books, trying to master some complicated spell and Gorgug is like, “I woke up and I guess I can use Mage Hand now? Neat.” Absolutely maddening. 

Besides Cathilda, Gorgug was the MVP in this episode. Dude has a knack for making friends that I think will eventually pay dividends. 

Also, speaking of, everything Brennan said during the secret shelf section was so good as to sound planned, however, how could you predict that that was a thing a player was going to ask to find? Brennan is just always 7 seconds of prep time away from giving an elaborate and super specifically themed speech about friendship I guess.  

Big ups to Kristen for not letting Fabian go off by himself again. Like, for the sake of the party of course but also the, “We almost lost you,” was sweet. She also helped buff him going into the coming fight with Warding Bond that means she takes all the damage he takes. I am SO glad they brought another healer with them because that’s such a risky move. Kristen is a LOT but she’s also very ride or die and all heart. I really love that the last time she used this spell it was on Gilear for a joke and now it’s getting used seriously. It’s a perfect establish existence of power to audience/bring back at plot relevant time setup. Improv storytelling is so inexplicably good. 

Technically, to cast Warding Bond, you’re supposed to have matching rings with the person you’re casting it on so imagine Kristen blinged out with a ring for each party member and each of them having a corresponding one in case she needs to cast it on them.  

Little bit concerned that Tracker still doesn’t know about Sandra-Lynn/Garthy. The longer it takes for her to find out, the higher the chance it blows up and becomes a Thing.

Fig: *Meandering philosophical question about why Ayda watches the stars*/Ayda: I study it so I can know where this big city is floating.

RIP to the Hangman. I don’t think he’s gone for good but it seems like he is for now. On my first watch, I thought that, on a 1, Fabian just fully thinks that the Hangman is gone but, the second time it seemed more like he’s just dead. Now, I’m not Brennan, but if I was in this situation, you know what I would do? I would have someone save the Hangman’s soul (or whatever he has instead of a soul) and store it in the Hangvan temporarily. Imagine how much he’d hate that. It’s full of potential for “roommate” shenanigans. 

Is there anything stopping them from just, ramming the Row with the Hangvan? Like, I know it’ll get them ganged up on, but will they be able to do much against a full van?

Also, if/when they hold the Ruction, I wonder what law they’re going to try and make. They didn’t really go in with a plan (understandable under the time pressure) so they’re really gonna have to improvise something on the fly. 

Also, I’m assuming Fabian stabbed the Hangman while he was asleep? I don’t think we were ever shown that scene, but Fabian must have been under some kind of compulsion since he woke up in the river (and the same happened to Ragh). 

Aguefort casually mentions that he has many children and this episode proves that Brennan can and will back up every single crazy thing that comes out of his mouth, so I’m excited to see if there is a single Aguefort out there that isn’t crazy.

Oh, also, the acknowledgement that occasionally that phoenix is a child is appreciated because that was def a question I was going to ask. Squicky to say the least but I guess that’s how phoenixes work so what are you gonna do?

Ally needing to roll a 10, rolling, being happy, checking Kristen’s modifier, and realizing it’s a negative 3 for a total of 9 is peak D&D.

Fig as Rollins: Look at how fast I can run!

I love Fig thinking Adaine could plausibly have 7 level spells. She’s like, idk bro. She’s the eleven oracle. She cares about school. She could know this too. Who knows? Certainly not Fig who thought she could buy wizard spells to use as a bard.

“Please speak more enthusiastically on my behalf.”

“It’s my brain guys.”

Fig mind controls Gilear into believing in himself and he fails his save. I wonder if this is could be valid therapy technique in this world. 

Aguefort mentions that a Wish spell can destroy a Magic Jar just fyi. That makes 3 pretty high level spells mentioned in this ep. Magic Jar is 6th level. Planeshift is 7th level. And Wish, basically the strongest spell in the game, is 9th level. We’re starting to deal with some serious magical mojo.

The whole thing with people in pictures that not everyone can see and memories that you know you once had but don’t anymore and information that should exist but doesn’t is hitting a very specific storytelling sweet spot for me. 

This is a little meta-gamey to be thinking about but I’m kinda wondering, why sideline Gorthalax? Obviously, it’s a good plot hook for Fig and that might be all it is. But I’m lowkey wondering is there something Gorthalax knows or can do that would solve the plot in 30 seconds if he was around? Like, was he roommates with the Nightmare King in hell or something?

Kristen finds it weird that the god’s name isn’t written anywhere but I’m sure that’s gotta be fairly common. Or at least not unheard of. Like, I know in Judaism you’re not supposed to do that. Anyway, watch the great unicorn be the Nightmare King just for the Nightmare/Night Mare pun.

Adaine being on brand no matter the situation: Everybody shut up I have to do my homework!

The, “Do you want a friend?”/“Desperately.” interaction killed me. 

“I don’t have any wizard friends.”/“I’m a wizard.”/(beat)/“I don’t have any wizard friends.”

Arthur cloned a woman, forgot to tell her, and then straight forgot. So business as usual from him. 

Fabian’s, “Nooooooo,” with the rising intonation every time someone made an assumption during his story and he had to correct him was amazing. Also, “He told me he was going to shit in my mouuuuwth.”

Ragh, Fig, and Adaine all crying about their parental issues at the same time. This has been, like, the longest week ever. I wonder if the 7 Maidens are unpacking this much trauma on their quest.

“Absolutely timbered.”

Lol at Brennan dropping the cool pirate sending spell “curses don’t count” detail and then being told from off camera that he needs to keep it PG-13. But then Cathilda needed to go beast mode so, like, what can you do?

Another cool worldbuilding detail is pirate clerics just keep shrines to every deity they’ve come into contact with to hedge their bets like Beni from The Mummy.

I know Lydia was attacked on orders from Kalina but I wonder if they knew about/had plans for the demon shard too. 

When Emily said she disguised herself as Rollins, I fully thought she was going to walk out the door the real Rollins was guarding and not go out the back door like she did. The idea of a back door didn’t even occur to me. I just thought we were in for some classic Axford insanity. 

Riz: You’ve gotta get better at talking to kids.

Riz: This is real Gilear energy.

Kristen: We brought one Gilear. We don’t wanna make that mistake twice.

Everything that happened with Fabian was really funny because there’s nothing I love more in D&D than players having a good time dunking on each other but, in game, Fabian is really going through it. Fabian low key has mom friend energy so to almost die and then for all of his friends to jump into the exact fight that almost killed him (including taunting the dude! Adaine!) against his advice must be giving him a level of anxiety and dread that I don’t even have the words to describe. Like, now is not the time for him to digging into that because things are life or death. Gotta save your life before you can fix it. But he def needs to at some point. Too bad Jawbone’s not around for a quick mid-battle therapy sesh like he had with Adaine during prom.   

Tracker suggested that Fabian might be depressed. I’m not an expert on depression. He could be depressed and, in any case, he definitely needs to see a therapist for a Lot of reasons. But having a breakdown because you saw 14 people die, almost died yourself, and were told that a man wanted to shit in your mouth less than 24 hours ago seems less like a sign of depression and more like the only rational human reaction.

Adaine calls the above, “a vaguely mediocre day”. Michael Scott Voice: Adaine you ignorant slut.

Also Adaine: You got that bike because you won it fair and square because we killed a lot of people.

This is the second time Adaine has said that Fabian’s lineage is actually the most annoying thing about him and these are the kind of tiny continuity details I live for.

Semi-relatedly, Fabian’s relationship with his parents v. Adaine’s relationship with hers is endlessly fascinating to me. Because they have such similar backgrounds but coming from, like, opposite directions of the same spectrum, you know? Can’t wait for those sweet, sweet parallels as we jump into her trauma! (What is D&D but group therapy interspaced with murder?)  

Speaking of Adaine’s trauma, it looks like we’ll be getting to it very soon as those FBI Falinel operatives have shown up to force her (and the plot) back to Falinel. This is Concerning to me for two reasons. First off, remember the Aelwyn fight from season 1? Remember how annoying that was? Now imagine that times three and also 2 separate pirate brawls are happening. That sounds like a Bad Time for our kids. They’ve leveled up some and they’ve been known to make some very clutch battle decisions, but this is gonna be tough any way you slice it. This is like two entirely separate encounters at the same time. A small good point: I looked up the language for teleportation and it can only be used to transport a willing creature. So they can’t just bum rush her and poof out. But they could give her an ultimatum to make her agree. The second reason this Concerns me is that Adaine high key doesn’t want to work with/for Falinel and they know this. The fact that they’ve resorted to kidnapping (fun international law fact: when a government kidnaps someone, it’s called rendition) tells me that they’re done playing nice which opens up two options to them they might not have otherwise used. They could coerce Adaine’s consent to be their oracle by threatening her life/her friends’ lives. Or, more troubling, they could just kill her. I mean, she became the elven oracle when the old one died, right? So, if she died, someone else would get the job. Probably someone less troublesome to deal with. I doubt they’re gonna go straight for that because they seem to want her alive, at least for now. But it is a concern. 

Of course, we’re assuming that what’s happening on the face of this is the whole story, but that’s not necessarily true. Iirc, all we heard was that they found the oracle and they were gonna bring her back to Falinel. For all we know, the elves could be working for Adaine’s mom. Of Adaine’s mom could be working with Falinel. Or she could be working with Falinel just as a way to get to her daughter. We really don’t know. The last person on this show that got kidnapped was Fabian and that was a friendly kidnapping. Anything is possible. 

Something that struck me as a possibility: This fight seems like it’s gonna suck. There is a world where the ideal move for Adaine is to pull an Evy (from the Mummy--two Mummy refs in one recap, did not plan that, I just love the Mummy) and agree to go with the Falinel elves if they help them instead (or at least stop helping Wicklaw) with the faith that her friends will come rescue her. I doubt they actually care much about what happens in the government of this pirate junk city. I’m curious about how they ended up together anyway. I’m guessing the elves clued into what was going on while scrying on the group and decided an alliance might be useful.

Brennan about both Ally’s Applebees Reference and Fig using a Leviathan phonebook: That is nothing.

Shoutout to Fruzzinoid in the chat who said Ally’s alignment is chaotic-chaotic. Accurate.

I love the laughing-squawk that Brennan does for Ayda as much as I hate the fact that he made the Choice to spell it that way.

Truly, the entire scene where Lou is recapping the fight from last episode and he’s laughing uncontrollably but Fabian is clearly crying and he’s expressing both of those things simultaneously is beautiful. 

A Fabian line that really hit but that I haven’t mentioned yet: “I probably have one follower running around. Never mind he’s my father’s just like everything else I have.” Ow. Such a deep cut but so off the cuff from Lou. As a writer, this show makes me so mad because that’s such a good line of dialogue that Lou just dropped out of his mouth like it was nothing. How dare he? 

Another good line I didn’t mention before, this tie from Riz: “We all draw strength from each other. You went in without your crew. What’s a pirate without his crew?” Ugh, Murph. Who gave you the right?

This episode has made me extremely curious about what Cathilda thinks about Hilariel. Because she sees herself as Fabian’s mom--which she essentially has been in a lot of the ways that count since Hilariel has been mentally out to lunch for the past however many years. To be clear, I do think Hilariel loves Fabian. She just hasn’t really been present even though she’s been literally present. The way Cathilda phrased some of the things she said and the way she seems to talk about Fabian’s dad so much more than his mom makes me wonder if she doesn’t...resent isn’t the right word exactly. Maybe, disapprove? It makes me wonder if she doesn’t disapprove of Hilariel’s parenting choices more than she lets on. 

Kristen’s, “Do you listen to music?” in the middle of actually useful questions for Ayda. 

Rich people sicknesses include having eaten too much caviar or smoked a cigar for too long in case you’re wondering.

“You want an orange, pal?”

On a practical note, we have two more episodes to go until the show breaks for the year so prepare yourselves from now people!

Riz, Adaine, and Gorgug each rolled one Nat 20 apiece. Fig, Gorgug, and Adaine each rolled a Nat 1 (but Adaine presumably cancelled out hers rolling with advantage because of Boggy). Fabian, who is still living his worst life, rolled three Nat 1s. Tragic.  

[sand-rose]

Magia Rapport Days I Didn’t Get To Until Now

There’s a lot of prompts I wanted to do but just didn’t get to, so I’m just gonna condense most of them into this post. Some of them I might go back to later and draw something for, but no guarantees.

Day 2- What is your proudest achievement in the game?

Finally getting Tart and Riz on their rerun banners! I’m about 80% F2P and the other 20% is divided up by Konoha, Madoka, and mostly Riz. I had enough gems and tickets saved up for Tart, but not for Riz. But after reading the last book of Tart Magica I had to get them both. They only have a slot apiece but they’re still very precious to me now that I have them!

Day 4- Who is your favorite of the light-element girls and why?

Tart, definitely! I’ve always had a soft spot for Joan of Arc thanks to a project I did about her in middle school. Seeing her in Madoka Magica as Kyubey mentioned the importance of Magical Girls in history really sparked my interest, and I was ecstatic when I found out there was a spin off manga. So you can only imagine how happy I was that they included her story and its characters in Magia Record! She’s just such a gentle soul who has such an amazing story, and she loves her friends and country so so much!

Day 5- Pair Yachiyo with a strong emotion. What is she feeling and why is she feeling this way?

Yachiyo is feeling content. She knows life can be tough, but she’s quite content knowing she has a successful modeling career and is (probably) doing well in her college classes. And most importantly, she’s got a new family in the Mikazuki Villa household that loves and accepts her for her strengths and weaknesses.

Day 7- Uh oh- it looks like Kyubey has found you. What would you wish for, and subsequently, what would turn you into a witch?

Welp, I’m older than the girls he usually targets. lol But ignoring this... I would wish for a happy, stress-free life with my sweetness, a life where things always go our way and we always have enough money to sustain ourselves and others around us. I know there’s probably a chance for something to go wrong in my wish, but I tried my best. lol As for what would turn me into a witch... Probably lots of negative thoughts about the world and people in general. But I’m hoping a stress-free life would prevent that. lol

Day 8- Who is your favorite of the dark-element girls and why?

Riz! She’s fiercely loyal to Tart, and she was a very interesting character in Tart Magica. I love how she’s the dark to Tart’s light, they work so well together and she was willing to do anything to make sure Tart fulfilled her wish. After everything she had been through in searching for that light, I couldn’t help but grow attached to her character.

Day 9- Tsuruno is the mightiest magical girl! Create a scenario where she takes down her greatest enemy.

I’m just imagining Tsuruno walking down a street and seeing a poster advertising a competing Chinese restuarant’s new dish or sales. She’d probably squint her eyes at it, look around really quick to make sure no one’s watching, and rip the poster from the building and crumple it into a ball. If someone happened to see... “What’s that?” “It’s the enemy!”

Day 12- Who is your favorite of the aqua-element girls and why?

I really like Konoha! I love her butterfly aesthetic and her color scheme. But I also just really enjoy her interactions with Hazuki and Ayame. Her character growth since their event makes me so proud of her, and I’m glad she’s learning to work with others and opening up more. And I admire her desire to get better at cooking, but maybe she should stop trying for health and safety reasons. lol

Day 13- Felicia is grumpy today. Why do you think that might be?

Maybe she forgot to save her game and has to rebuild a bunch of stuff? I know that would make me grumpy!

Day 14- What is your favorite relationship in the game and what activity are they doing together on Valentine’s Day? (If you don’t ship anyone, substitute with your favorite friendship!)

I really like Masara and Kokoro together! They would probably trade chocolate and go for a hike. And I got to see my favorite friendship in the Valentine’s Day events with Hinano’s story. Emiri cheered her on and when Hinano got rejected she gave her friend the support she needed! And their dynamic is always making me laugh!

Day 16- Who is your favorite of the forest-element girls and why?

Gotta go with Hinano! Her character grew on me the more I got to see her and Emiri interact. She’s older than most of the girls but she still has a childish side to her, what with her temper tantrums and dream to grow taller. And I just love her attack style. Chemicals and beakers just being thrown at the enemy is a joy to watch every time!

Day 20- Who is your favorite of the flame-element girls and why?

The mightiest magical girl Tsuruno! She’s so energetic, I envy her. lol But she’s always trying her best to help others, and she’s such a hard worker. The fact that the game addressed these as both her strengths and weaknesses really impressed me. There’s only so much a person can handle, and that part of the story really connected with me. And I just love how loud and expressive she is! I don’t think I’ll ever tire of hearing her battle cries! lol

Day 23- What character would you hug if you could?

All these girls need a hug, after everything they’ve had to deal with. But Sana’s story is especially sad. There was no damn reason for her family to be so cruel. Sana deserves all the hugs.

Day 24- Who is your favorite spinoff character? How do you think they would interact with Iroha?

Tart, of course! I really liked how she got along with Iroha. They’re both very kind characters who aren’t afraid to get tough when the situation calls for it.

Day 27- Mitama is taking a well-earned rest. What is she dreaming about right now?

Hopefully something pleasant. Maybe in her dream she decided to skip cooking and went out to eat and is putting ketchup on some fries, where it belongs.

Day 29- What moment, concept, or character makes you happiest in Magia Record?

Mitama is my favorite character, and I really enjoyed learning more about her. Her wish made me wonder if she would turn out to be a villain, but I’m so so happy she made friends with the Kamihama magical girls and chose their side in the chapter 8 conflict! So proud of her! And she’s just so quirky. Her cooking is terribly terrible, for example. Perhaps even worse than Konoha’s. At least Konoha cooks with food. Who cooks with paint? Do her parents cook like that? Or does she cook like that because she saw some weird videos on the Magia Record equivalent of tik tok? And she’s got the blue rose aesthetic. I just absolutely love blue roses. So anytime I see her in the story, an event, or just on my home screen, she’s just an instant mood booster!

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1242

Monday, December 24, 2018

 I was hit by a spasm of back pain on Saturday like the ghost of Christmas Past. That'll teach me for being such a Scrooge this time of year. I try not to be naughty but being nice is such a pain in the pants. I am slowly recovering under the gentle ministrations of Santa's Helper. Being around family and friends is better medicine than any pain pills I could take. My brother and sister-in-law hosted a brunch yesterday and seeing everyone together laughing and happy soothed me greatly. Just holding baby Oliver and making him smile eased my back pain.

 I saw the Ottawa premiere of Aquaman thanks to my Jee-Riz partner Chris, who won passes from the comic book store Myths, Legends and Heroes. I can sum up how I felt about the movie in one word; wigs. I wish they had spent some of the Atlantis special effects budget on better wigs for the actors. Arthur's dad's toupee was glaringly obvious. I've seen better hair on Cosplayers than Nicole Kidman's wigs. It looked like Amber Heard/Mera was wearing a wig at times but even when it looked like her real hair the colour red they chose was too unnatural looking. The movie's saving grace for me was Jason Momoa. He makes a great Arthur/Aquaman. I'm glad I didn't pay to see this one.

 Ugh. Stan Lee tribute covers. Terrible marketing idea.

 Dead Man Logan #2 - Ed Brisson (writer) Mike Henderson (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). A couple of things really annoyed me this issue. Sin, the Red Skull's daughter, acted like a spoiled brat. It's not a stretch to foresee the villains losing at the end of this 12-issue story. Then we have Forge repairing a machine that can get Old Man Logan back home. They actually go there and he doesn't stay. I'm for super heroics as much as the next nerd and maybe I'm selfish, but that irked me to no end. Old Man Logan has been whining about getting home ever since he showed up in this timeline and now he wants to stay to prevent all the super heroes from being killed by all the super villains. There isn't even a guarantee that is what happens in the future. And why don't they use the machine to fix things? Man I hate time travel. I really like Mike Henderson's art but this looks like another travelling super heroes versus super villains battle every issue, and that's not very interesting to me.

 Defenders: The Best Defense #1 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (pencils) Belardino Brabo (inks) Dono Sanchez Almara (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). It's the big Defenders reunion to save Earth. Old Man Dr. Strange, Hulk, Namor and the Silver Surfer have to sidetrack The Train in order for Earth to survive. It's a bit complicated and I'm surprised that you didn't really need to read all the one-shots to get what's going on. I mean all those scenes where the stabby killer in the bed sheet is killing aliens isn't even mentioned in this story. So what was up with that?

 Marvel Knights #4 - Vita Ayala & Donny Cates (writers) Joshua Cassara (art) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Here's where they explain why all the super heroes have forgotten who they are. T'Challa/Black Panther is featured in this issue that ends with him discovering the lair of villains. I'm wondering how the bad guys retained their memories.

 Old Man Hawkeye #12 - Ethan Sacks (writer) Francesco Mobili (art) Andres Mossa (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). That was a very satisfying ending. What a great prequel to the Old Man Logan story where Clint and Logan go on a road trip. This is where Clint loses his sight for good. I loved the last page epilogue showing Clint tracking down someone who will help him to continue to fight the bad guys despite his blindness.

 Runaways #16 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Kris Anka (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Reading this Christmas special is better than getting a lump of coal. Having Doombot as a dinner guest made this a treat. I wish he was a regular member of the team.

 West Coast Avengers #6 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Daniele Di Nicuolo (art) Triona Farrell (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The good guys have been captured by the bad guys: Satana Hellstrom, M.O.D.O.K., The Eel and Madame Masque. Kate is still free however and she's not going to abandon her team mates. Too bad she gets waylaid on her way to rescue them. Her captor is a complete surprise, which will make the next issue a hoot.

 Thor #8 - Jason Aaron (writer) Mike del Mundo (art) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This is an awesome issue with Thor fighting the Angelus. It ends with an ex-Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. being paid a visit by the Black Panther. I like how this book is being tied into The Avengers.

 Season's Beatings #1 - Jason Latour (writer) Greg Hinkle, Chris Brunner, Veronica Fish & Mario Del Pennino (art) Rico Renzi, Jim Campbell & Veronica Fish (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I should have realized from the cover that this was a Deadpool Christmas Special. If I had known, I would have bought a pair of socks from the Dollar Store with the $4.99 US that this comic book costs. Unless of course, you're a big Deadpool fan or West Coast Avengers fan or even an X-Force fan. They're all in here too. Plus Squirrel Girl and Doctor Doom. Come to think of it, this is an everything but the kitchen sink gift for a Marvel Comics fan who will get a few chuckles out of it.

 Freedom Fighters #1 - Robert Venditti (writer) Eddy Barrows (pencils) Eber Ferreira (inks) Adriano Lucas (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). This is some heavy duty patriotic poop right here. We start this 12-issue story in 1963 America that is ruled by Adolf Hitler and his "ratzi" party. The original Freedom Fighters meet to plot a resistance attack on a war robot factory. Things don't go well for the good guys. Jump forward to 2018 and the surprise appearance of the New Freedom Fighters; Black Condor, Doll Woman, the Human Bomb and Phantom Lady. All we need is Uncle Sam. Robert Venditti holds nothing back showing the Germans as ruthless racists. The art is really well done so I will give these Golden Age heroes a chance to see how they fare in modern times.

 Middlewest #2 - Skottie Young (writer) Jorge Corona (art) Jean Francois Beaulieu (colours) Nate Piekos (letters). A new character named Jeb is introduced who helps Abel get out of a bind. Jeb reminds me of the first time we meet Gandalf. Abel's quest continues and we find out a bit more about the symbol on his chest. I predict he'll meet his mother down the road but unlike the talking fox, I won't be travelling down it with him.

 Cover #4 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) David Mack (art) Michael Avon Oeming (Owen art) Zu Orzu (colours) Carlos Mangual (letters). This issue is a great example of how a comic book can tell a story with words and pictures. I felt like I was watching a TV show or a short film. Brian, David and Michael work together seamlessly

 Hardcore 1 - Robert Kirkman & Andy Diggle (writers) Alessandro Vitti (art) Adriano Lucas (colours) Thomas Mauer (letters). Yeah man, it is. Agent Drake is a drone pilot but what he controls are other human beings. A new nanotechnology allows him to take over and move a remote body for 72 hours so he can complete wetwork missions. It's really cool. The big problem arises when the guy who invented the tech comes back to reclaim it from the government. That guy is not asking nicely. I like this concept and the predicament that Agent Drake finds himself in at the end of this issue. Therefore, this goes on to my "must read" list.

 Klaus and the Crying Snowman #1 - Grant Morrison (writer) Dan Mora (art) Ed Dukeshire (letters). This $7.99 US one-shot tells the tale of how Sam the snowman helps Klaus save the Earth from murderous aliens. I loved how they wove in Norse mythology. You'd think a crying snowman would be doomed in the end and you'd be right, but fear not, 'tis a happy ending.

 Betty & Veronica #1 - Jamie Lee Rotante (writer) Sandra Lanz (art) Kelly Fitzpatrick (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). The BFFs are back with a 5-issue mini that starts off their senior year of high school. I know that these slightly more mature Archie Comics want to draw in a new audience but Betty dating Reggie? Sacrilege. A few other things bothered me storywise that turned me off even more. Betty drinking a spiked punch without noticing? C'mon. Then there's the art. I didn't like the interiors compared to the nice cover that Sandra drew. I expected my girl Betty to be treated better than this.

 Catwoman #6 - Joelle Jones (story & art) Laura Allred (colours) Josh Reed (letters). The finale of "Copycats" is a quick read so I read it twice. The first time was to see how Catwoman deals with the evil Mrs. Creel and her pumped up on drugs son. The second time was to see Catwoman in action and to savour the beautiful art and layouts. I wish Joelle Jones would do a Betty & Veronica mini.

 Extermination #5 - Ed Brisson (writer) Pepe Larraz (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I tolerated this time travel tale because of the amazing art. I wish Pepe Larraz would do a Betty & Veronica mini. If you thought that the mutants being exterminated was a real threat then you haven't been reading X-Men comic books for very long. This story puts the young X-Men back in their own time and all is well again. The big surprise comes on the last page and I'm thinking "oh geez, here we go again".

 Domino #9 - Gail Simone (writer) David Baldeon & Michael Shelfer (art) Roberto Poggi (ink assist) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Soldier of Fortune part 3. The ladies are asked to kill Longshot. Haven't seen him in a while. Might not see him for long though, since he's supposed to bring about the end of the world. This is interesting because both Domino and Longshot have the same super power. Who's luck is going to run out first?

 Firefly #2 - Greg Pak (writer) Dan McDaid (art) Marcelo Costa (colours) Jim Campbell (letters). Mal and Zoe are being hunted by a gang of thieves and the Alliance. Darn tootin' there's going to be shootin'. I have been watching Nathan Fillion's new cop show The Rookie and I quite like it.

 Batman #61 - Tom King (writer) Travis Moore (art) Tamra Bonvillain (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). Knightmares part 1. The "what the!?" appearance on the last page of #60 is explained here as a new story starts. I knew something was hinky when I saw the string of pearls around the dead body of Martha Wayne in the alley. I thought we were in an alternate universe and we sort of are but it came as a complete shock when what was going on was explained. Arkham Asylum is getting a new inmate. At least he's new to me unless I want to go back and read Batman #38.

[oh-god-theres-6]

Oof back at it again with that angst

I tossed all three together for maximum sad and also maximum comfort. I hope this makes you well, my lovely anon. Keep on smiling!

Modd Finn

---

A date on the couch is a common occurrence when dating Osomatsu, where the couple sat tiredly watching television. To be precise, he was watching the show and being a little more ignorant than usual. A chuckle would pass his lips every few minutes but his spare attention dropped to them when a commercial interrupted the idiotic crime show running on a marathon. Only then, as an infomercial played in the background, did he look down to see an odd red, glassy tint to their eyes. His eyebrows raise as he gave them a warm smile and ruffled their hair.

"Hey, babe, what's up?" The attention finally broke the gates and hot tears rolled across their skin, their breath catching painfully in their throat. The unexpected breakdown threw Oso for a loop and he stared down at his significant other with wide, unbelieving eyes. The television was shut off and only then could he hear the soft mumbling coming from beside him.

"No wonder you're always distracted by everything else. I'm no better than a can of beer. I'm so bland, why would you bother with me?" Their voice cracked and fractured with hiccups and heavy sobs that pulled Oso to their rescue in a flash. Soon, his arms were wrapped tightly around their waist and shoulders, dragging them back against his body as he laid down on the couch cushions. His hand gingerly ran across their head as they continued to cry, dampening his t-shirt. Slowly, their sobs fell into shaky breathing and his gaze rose to the ceiling.

"You're not thinking straight today. Yeah, I get distracted sometimes but do you have any idea how often I just look at you?" He breathed a laugh, squeezing their body gently and kissing the top of their head. "I'm surprised you're calling yourself bland when you look like a supermodel. Really, you shouldn't worry."

Silence continued to drift between them as Osomatsu slowly soothed his lover's worries, finally tapping their shoulder until they looked at him with puffy eyes.

"Wanna order some food and stay in all day?" The nod in response returned his goofy grin as he held them close against his chest, readying a feast of takeout to please his boo for days to come.

---

Karamatsu always made sure to please his lover, even if it took weeks to plan. Unfortunately, those weeks of planning pulled him away from the one person he hoped to gauge a reaction from and one day, he received it full force when, as he asked their preference on dinner foods, a sniffle alerted him to their hidden face. The alarm bells began to ring lowly, his hand reaching to their shoulder. They stepped out of reach.

"No, you have fun. I just don't see why you're bothering to ask someone like me. I can never keep up with your grand ideas for dates. You're the planner here. I hope your date turns out well." Their hiccuped words sent daggers through his heart and those alarm bells began screaming. He had them in a tight embrace faster than he could think, holding their trembling shoulders in his arms to keep them on their feet. Sobs wailed in his eardrums and he winced each time they rang out, pulling his guilt lower into his stomach.

"Darling, my rose, my angel, you are too good for anything I may conjure. You put royalty to shame. I know, I've been distracted but only because I've wanted to keep you happy." He placed a smattering of kisses along their cheeks, catching their lips every few seconds and hushing them to silence. "How about we start from scratch then. Remember that cafe we visited last week? Why don't we just go there instead?"

The rest of the day was spent in bed with several blankets and snacks, as well as neverending praise from Karamatsu as he did his best to fix all his wrongdoings with his one and only. There was no escape from his hours of flowery compliments and loving words but from what he could tell, seeing his better half so much calmer rested his worrying heart after their breakdown.

---

Choromatsu is a busy man, always planning, running errands, or catching up on his reading. It's even harder to fit in a lover whom he finds so difficult to show physical attention. His game of avoidance was so harsh that it took him a good five minutes before he decided to see what was wrong with his lover, hearing their whimpering from the living room. Upon finding them curled up on the couch, muffling heavy cries with their arm, his nerves jolted. Unable to think straight he could only watch as a few words were made out between the waves of crying.

"You're pathetic. He doesn't even want to touch a disgusting thing like you. Just stop *trying* already." The cold pins and needles drawing along his body turned painful, his gaze dropping to his hands. The hands he didn't have the courage to even set on their body. With a quick nod, he stepped up to the couch, crouching down and cautiously rubbing his shaking hand across their back. Startled, they shot up to look at him, watery eyes wide. He suddenly remembered how close they looked to crying when he had gotten home and yet he excused himself to take a shower. The next shot of pain pushed him to sit on the couch beside the still crying mound, his hand trailing to pet their head.

"You're...you mean a lot to me," he started, biting his lip sharply to keep up his courage. "I think of you a lot, more than I should but I...I can't always bring myself to show you that. I-I'm sorry, but I'll work on it. Just, just tell me from now on? I don't want to see you like this."

His gentle stroking continued, dragging down to their shoulder, then their forearm, until he carefully grabbed their hand in his, holding it reassuringly. No more words were shared, the comfortable silence making enough communication to keep the two calm and soon collected, gingerly holding each other's hands. Subtlety was always Choro's strong suit.

---

Mod Riz

---

It wasn’t long before Ichi had fallen asleep against the plush cushion of their couch, his already tired body being pulled easily into sleep when night began to fall. He was ignorant of the person who’s lap he laid on, the way their hands shook through his hair with every stroke, or how they mumbled so softly under their breath it became background noise in his dream. Like clockwork it repeated;

“I’m not even good enough to stay awake for... god I must be awful,” the words danced around his dreams, leaving the vacant space empty of all but that and unsettling the tired Matsu. He shifted and twisted against his bed, eyes shut tight and body curling carefully to try and find comfort as the crashing words continued.

“Not good enough.”

“I’m the one who should be considered trash.”

“No wonder he probably doesn’t love me.” It was unsettling and hellish, bringing him to an abrupt awakening where he looked around near frantically for the source, only to rest his eyes on his lover. Carefully he placed his hands on their cheeks and stared cautiously to them, thumbs brushing against the plush flesh as he spoke in slow, soft words, ”you okay?” It was a feeling of almost instant regret, for following it came the bombardment of tears, hot beads rolling down their face as sobs shook their body in front of him, leading him to practically force them into a tight embrace as they began to relay the words of before but louder, loud enough that he could hear them through the thin veil of fog left by sleep.

His fingers wound through their hair carefully, braiding the soft strands through the digits as he finally spoke, ”stop... I know I’m not always the most observant but you’re the only constant on my mind,” his lips brushed against their cheeks, his eyes steady when he pulled away enough to stare them down. ”I love you, y’know... if I don’t always pay attention it’s not because I don’t, it’s because I’m tired, that’s it so don’t... worry, this much okay?” He tried a smile, it was small and shaky but there, ”how about a feel better movie and late night pizza, okay?”

---

The day’s end brought on an orange painted sky, the sunset drawing the eyes of the second youngest Matsu towards the horizon with a large smile plastered across his face. The whole day, for him, had been fun, messing around with his brothers and his lover at the park until the five left and only they remained to watch the setting sun together,” isn’t it pretty?!” He cooed happily, hands clapping together between the fold of fabric that was his hoodie.

No response was given, which brought up confusion for the young man. It took him a moment but he slowly looked to the one beside him, on sight of their glassy eyes and constant moving lips he got confused. Little words now began to stick out; “fuck up,” adorning the air in common three-second slides of other mumbles.

Slowly, one of his hoodie covered hands rested on their shoulder, head tilting to the side as he asked what was bothering them, and then nearly yelped when the glossy eyes turned into full-on bawling and their body began to shake violently. Their words grew loud enough for him to hear, but he was quick in silencing them with a slow hug and a careful hum in his voice. He spoke no words, just hummed to them as they let loose against him, feelings and tears staining his hoodie for the next thirty minutes until a calm washed over. “Cupcake?” He started, using a caring touch to guide their chin up so he could see their eyes. With a small laugh and smile, he kissed them quick, nuzzling their nose and letting their foreheads rest together,” I love you, don’t think I ever don’t... I’m sorry for not being so focused today, I just never get to see my brothers so happy! I guess I got... carried away,” he flushed, guilty for his earlier actions, ”but now, you’re the center of my attention for the rest of the night! Promise promise promise!” Each Promise was said with another quick kiss, continuing until you began to laugh and he was able to easily pull you to the floor, ”let’s go get some oden and go home, yeah?”

Not even a second passed and he had stood up with you in his arms, continuing a barrage of kisses just so you know how much he really adores you, even if he gets distracted sometimes.

---

Totty’s full attention always seemed to fall on his phone; every conversation was paused so he could check his feed, every outing he wore it like a bracelet, everything he did he had that small device, so it was no wonder that it had begun to get to his lover when they were supposed to be sharing a night together.

He was, per usual, oblivious, staring at his phone like a lifeline bounced upon its screen. He would talk yes, but his conversation skills were being muddled by the screen. It came as no surprise that he hadn’t noticed the person on the couch beside him had started to talk only to themselves, knowing he wouldn’t listen.

“Hey, we should rent a movie tonight.” The statement was just something to fill the void once his phone had been pushed back into the confines of his pockets, eyes lazily scanning the tv screen for something of interest, though actions froze when he heard the quiet response beside him,

“So you can ignore me with another screen...” it was barely above a whisper, but without distractions to block it he could hear it plain as day. Totty took a moment to turn to you, eyebrow twitched in confusion as he asked what you meant by that, only to scramble for an apology when he watched the tears begin to fall like the rain. ”Shit,” he mumbled out and but down against his lip, looking around and snatching a blanket before wrapping it around the frail and shaking body, his arms following slowly and pulling their lover into a hug.

The explanation he revived stung, yes, but he couldn’t say it wasn’t expected. ”Look-“ He paused, mulling over his words before continuing with causation, ”I'm... on my phone a lot okay? It’s an addiction and one I need help with and... you... you’re helping me get over it,” when you looked to him questioningly through tears he further explained, ”my attention is either on my phone... or it’s on you, And lately I’ve been pulled more towards you so, there.” His sentence needed with a sigh, eyes filtering away as he hugged you closer, kissing your hairline and sighing, ”Please don’t think I don’t love you because of that, I’m just an idiot so... let’s just cuddle tonight, okay? No distractions, nothing, just you and I under blankets and pillows." He smiled, his cute little giggle and wink returning, "How's that sound?”