#i have no idea whatsoever on what exactly drew me in

[gaykarstaagforever]

1969

Jim Shooter wrote this, so it is significantly less idiotic than most of these.

That said...

Most of the plot - Superman and the Flash having amnesia and thinking each is the other one - hinges on the fact that they are identical men, except with different hair. Which seems implausible, since one is a magical alien with super-strength from the Sun, and the other is a nerd who was near exploding go-fast chemicals. But I guess it at least acknowledges how DC artists could only draw one muscley man over and over again in different skin-tight unitards. Fair enough, Jim.

We also get the weirdest random explanation for where Superman stores his Clark Kent clothes:

Clark Kent and Barry Allen spend most of the story running back and forth from Central City to Metropolis, desperately trying to find each-other to figure out what the hell is happening. Barry uses makeup to look like Clark Kent and gets almost-fired by Perry White for being bad at reporting on weddings. Because while this comic takes time to remind us Barry is a "police scientist," Perry also says he writes like a child.

Which...I mean, seems kind of rude to me, especially coming from someone who writes superhero comics for 8 year olds for a living. But I don't solve murders with science. So if you do, please confirm if you and your colleagues don't know how to write.

Eventually, Clark and Barry accidentally meet clandestinely on a Metropolis park bench. But Barry is dressed like Raphael from the Ninja Turtles, so they still don't figure it out:

...Why does this look like something someone drew from a picture they took from a bush? Is that just me? That might just be me.

This, however, is 100% exactly what it looks like:

They finally meet in an abandoned train tunnel and figure out each is the other, and trade clothes.

So it is canon in DC comics that Clark Kent and Barry Allen have been nude together in a train station, at least once. And then traded underpants.

Clark suddenly remembers what happened to them (possibly from the shock of being naked with Barry Allen; the comic breezes over this). There is giant space seed flying towards Earth, carrying the spore of a monster space plant that will grow to consume all life. Superman saw it and summoned the JLA to help him, but only the Flash showed up, because "Green Lantern is off helping Hawkman," and...I guess Jim forgot who else was in the JLA at the time.

Good on Barry for showing up, but how exactly is he going to help Superman stop a threat that is still in Space?

Answer: he is not. But Superman came up with a plan where he and Barry changed outfits to confuse the space seed (yes, really), and then Barry put on a helmet and Clark flew them both into it.

...At which point he suddenly realized it had kryptonite in it. He and Barry fell to Earth, unharmed but with amnesia.

But now that they're inexplicably cured by re-switching pants, it is time to hurry up and actually stop the space seed. Superman draws Barry a helpful diagram of his plan:

...Thanks, Kal-El. Totally worth the time it took to do that.

Assuming, like me, you have no goddamn idea what his plan is, think of the absolute dumbest way Superman could save the Earth from a giant kernel of space-corn. And that is exactly what he does:

He temporarily stops the Earth by making the ground really hard (specifically in Brazil, for some reason), and then repeatedly doing flying elbow drops onto it. Which, I won't lie, is exactly the awesome way all problems would be solved if we lived in a better universe where wrestling was real, and wrestlers were Superman.

...I still assume this probably killed at least a few people. Or fish, at least, on the daylight side where the Sun suddenly boiled an entire ocean.

Also, note how this "new" Superman plan ALSO DIDN'T INVOLVE THE FLASH WHATSOEVER. Except that he came along and narrated it for our benefit, while Superman was repeatedly smashing himself into Brazil.

The story ends with Barry hugging his wife and Clark musing to himself how he and Barry can trust each-other with their secret identities from now on, because their balls sweat into the same Spandex for like a week.

Implying that, what, the members of the JLA go into that WITHOUT knowing who each-other are? I mean, I of course see Batman pulling shit like that. But Wonder Woman and Hawkman barely have secret identities to begin with.

But I guess if Clark and Barry have exactly the same proportions and faces, maybe it doesn't really matter either way.

This issue also features the following ad for jeans:

I don't know if cattle-rustling was still such a huge problem in the West by 1969. But if you are a teen boy keen to take it upon yourself to stop it, I suppose it makes sense you should make sure your butt looks good while doing it.

Also, if you need more cheap plastic armies in your house,

[a-french-coconut]

Drew Tanaka (Part 9)

"Peace at last ?"

"I wouldn't say peace," Drew says as she struggles to put reins on Porky, "it's more like a truce."

"Why's that ?" Connor asks her, leaning on Porky's stable.

"Well," she grunts as the pegasus moves his head again, "I talked to her about Silena and she understood, but she seemed kinda nervous about the whole thing."

"You think she's hiding something ?"

"I don't know-stop moving your damn head- no, not you Connor, the horse."

"It's unlikely, though." Connor says as he hands her the saddle pad, "she's too new to this world to be involved in something."

"Thanks, I wouldn't so sure about that. Remember her quest, a giant kidnapped her father ? It's the first time monsters use our mortal links to threaten us."

"Maybe she's got a really good relationship with her dad," Connor shrugs, "and we, a whole generation with parental issues, don't get how someone could use our mortal parents to blackmail us." He snorts, "If someone told me they had my mother, I would offer them a gift."

"Give me the saddle. Piper didn't seem on good terms with her dad. Famous actor, Tristan Mclean ?"

"I've been at camp since I was a child Drew, I have no idea who that is."

"Anyway, she told me they didn't speak a lot." She adjusts the saddle, give Porky an apple to distract him while she mounts him. "I think the whole story is fishy."

"Are you sure you like Piper ? Because you sure seems to try to find her problems."

"I'm not trying" she rolls her eyes, "but one disaster was enough, I don't need another Silena."

"Drew," Connor says softly, "Silena is dead, the war is over. Don't you think you're searching with something that isn't there ?"

"What ?" She snaps, "you think I'm crazy ?"

"I'm not saying that, but you've been so obsessed with "Piper being a new Silena" thing-"

"I wasn't obsessed, Stoll," she grits, "Piper thinks like Silena, she has charmspeak just like Silena, what else does she have in common with her too ?"

"What ? You think she's traitor ?" Connor cackles, "please, Drew, it's ridiculous."

"Listen, Stoll," she hisses, gripping Porky's mane tightly, "if all you are going to do is laugh at me, you can go. There is something weird with the whole quest. Piper insisted on going despite having no training whatsoever, and oh ! Her dad is kidnapped !"

"Coincidence !" Connor says with an infuriating flippancy, "they wanted leverage, and Jason's mom and Leo's weren't exactly available were they ?"

"Why ?" Drew frowns.

"They're dead."

"How the fuck do you know that ?"

"Annabeth told me about it after Thalia told her last summer and Leo talks a lot."

"Fine, but it doesn't change the fact that it's weird."

"Drew," Connor sighs tiredly, his smile a bit more strained, "I thought you wanted people to like you. You are not going to achieve that by accusing your new sister with no proof at all."

"Oh please, they'll get over it !"

"Accusing someone is big deal," Connor says bitterly, "trust me, it's no fun."

"Connor, it's not the same situation-"

"Except your own suspicions, do you have any concrete proof ?"

"No, but I can find-"

"Did she told you anything that might make her a traitor ?"

"I told you, she looked nervous-"

"Drew !" Connor snaps, "you can't go around telling people Piper is a traitor just because you think she is one !"

"Why not ?" She refutes hotly, "you turned out fine in the end !"

It's not right and she knows it.

She knows the nights Connor spent awake, cursing the campers who accused him, cursing Luke for being his brother.

She knows he doesn't trust people like he used to, not after the Titan war.

"I didn't mean it. Connor, I'm sorry."

But he's leaving.

"Connor !" She yells as he leaves the stables, "I'm sorry !"

Cursing, she dismounts Porky, and runs after the son of Hermes.

"Connor, don't you dare run !"

He runs, fast as a dryad.

"Oh for the love of gods." She groans, picking up speed, "Stoll !".

"Catch me and we'll talk !" He screams, going even faster.

"And no charmspeak !" He adds.

As if she could speak after chasing him for a good solid hour.

She's panting, her legs are aching and burning and they are probably the main show of the afternoon but she keeps running.

She has to apologise because she can't lose her best friend.

"Still there ?" He taunts her, the bastard still breathing perfectly, "Because I can keep going for a long- SOLACE PUT ME DOWN !"

As they pass in front of the infirmary, Will catches Connor and picks him up, bridal style.

"Will, you're the best !" She says when she arrives at their level.

"Don't listen to her, you're the worst." Connor pouts in Will's arms.

"What's been going on between you two ?" The son of Apollo asks sternly.

Drew's sure he would cross his arms if it wasn't for Connor.

"I messed up." She admits.

"She thinks Piper is a traitor." Connor says.

"That's not where I messed up." Drew clarifies.

"Oh yeah, she basically said that you can go around calling people traitors."

"And I'm wrong, I know."

Will sighs, obliged to free Connor to pinch his nose.

"First of all, apologise to Connor."

"Already did."

Will looks at Connor for confirmation and the son of Hermes nods.

"Great, second of all, what the fuck Drew ?"

"See ? It's ridiculous !" Connor exclaims.

"It's not !" She argues, "I have reasons !"

"What are they ?" Will sighs.

She tells me the same thing she told Connor, Piper's weird attitude and the mystery of her dad being kidnapped.

"Nonsense." Connor rolls his eyes.

She's ready to throttle him when Will talks.

"No, there's something weird about Piper's dad."

While Connor's jaw drops to the floor, Drew whoops.

"See, Stoll ? I'm not crazy."

"Wait, I'm not saying she's a traitor." Will warns, "but if her dad was kidnapped, then the giants knew about her."

"But she's new to this world !" Connor protests, "they certainly didn't get the information from here."

"Then it was from before."

"I don't know, Drew, even if the giants knew about her dad, what does it change ? They still saved Hera in the end and nobody died." Will points out.

"Yeah," Connor presses on, "if she was a traitor, she would have sabotaged the quest."

"That ends your theory, Drew." Will smiles, "congrats, your sister is not a traitor !"

"Yeah," she sighs, "I guess so..."

"The normal reaction would to be happy." Connor states.

"I know but you guys didn't see her when we talked about Silena, she looked uncomfortable when I told her she reminded me of her."

"As would anybody when you tell them you remind me of my dead sister." Connor mimics her voice.

"Shut up," Will hits Connor, "you almost had a panic attack when you saw Jason."

"Really ?"

"It wasn't a panic attack," Connor rolls his eyes, "I just freaked out a little when I saw blonde hair and glacial blue eyes."

"He stayed in the infirmary for two hours." Will adds.

"What happened to doctor-patient privacy ?" Connor complains.

"You didn't told me that." Drew frowns.

"Sorry," the son of Hermes says, "I just thought you had enough with your plate with Piper."

"Now that all the skeletons are out of the closet, come in." Will cheerfully push them in the infirmary.

"Why ?" They both ask.

"I need help classing the files."

They both groan.

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

Turns out the three of them have very diverse manners to sort things. While Will does it by alphabetical order, Drew tries to create the best colour pattern and Connor ranks it from younger to older.

Will kicks them out rather quickly, as they messed up more his files than actually help him, and Drew wanders back to the archery range, for once empty from any Apollo's children.

She grabs a bow and a quiver, sets the moving targets and begins her training.

Look. String. Shoot.

Black circle.

Both her friends agree, Piper is not a threat.

Patience, follow the target's path.

Shoot, blue circle.

She's a new demigod, a new sister with who Drew got off on the wrong foot.

Two arrows at once, two different targets.

String the bow, bowstring cutting her fingers because she forget her gloves.

Black circle, miss the other.

Too long since she practiced, too long since anyone bothered teaching her.

They relaxed and Percy disappeared.

They thought the war was over and a new one fell upon them, catching them by surprise.

Last arrow, make it count.

Farthest target, moving between trees.

She can't have another Silena, and maybe Connor is right, maybe she's just a lunatic broken by war, a paranoid girl seeing Silena where she isn't.

Breathe, in and out.

Bowstring next to the ear, arrow ready to fly.

Wait for the target.

But Piper was nervous, and she needs to be sure, otherwise the worm of doubt will rot her from inside until it consumed her entirely.

Breathe, steady the arms, don't let them shake.

One last despicable act, one last sister under charmspeak.

Are you a traitor ?

Piper will say no, as Connor and Will say, and Drew will be free from Silena.

No more nightmares.

No more seeing her where she doesn't belong.

Target in front of her, shoot.

Red circle, not yellow.

Drew sighs as she lets down the weapon.

She really needs to practice more.

[pomrania]

Here's my depiction of the zomargon, from @maniculum's Bestiaryposting. Mostly doodles, because a) I'd had trouble thinking of something I wanted to draw for this and b) it's unpleasantly hot in our apartment today so I had trouble thinking of anything whatsoever, but I like what I ended up with.

The design here is pretty basic. I took the general form of an ungulate, since it's a mammal that lives in herds, then gave it stiff legs, large feet, boar tusks, and a really long nose. I earlier had the idea of the trunk ending in a hand, but I decided to go with a trumpet shape instead.

Then, the doodles. THIS is the asexual icon, "no desire to mate", and it's much nicer to be in a Pride parade than in a battle, so that's what I drew the people doing. (The blue skin is just my default for when I don't have anything specific in mind.) And then there's the zomargon being startled by a mouse (not to scale), which I included because it was simple to draw, and also it amused me. I know EXACTLY the sound it would make there, because I played french horn for a few years in grade school so I'm quite familiar with all the non-musical noises you can get out of brass instruments, but I don't know how to describe it as anything other than "sound that will make your dog run out of the living room while you're learning to play french horn" (true story).

[jezmmart]

Chamomile Comic Trivia #31

#159 - Notice

It's Sam! I wish I had written down more about my decision to add her, although at this point I'm fairly sure I wasn't certain she was going to become a main character - in fact it was RIGHT around the week this posted that I began work on the first proper cover art for the series which of course did not include her.

Her design was based off this old one-off pin-up girl art from 2017, technically making her the first ever major Chamomile Comic character to exist, sort of.

She was named after Sam Lloyd, likely known for his portrayal of Ted the Lawyer from Scrubs. The news of his death had recently broken and I had just recently begun listening to Fake Doctors, Real Friends, the Scrubs rewatch podcast, as my go-to background entertainment when colouring the comic specifically each week. It still is now, albeit intermittently since they don't always produce an episode each week and I no longer have a backlog to catch up on. Now granted, I don't love the podcast as much as I used to - can be a bit cringey at times as these two hollywood actors chat about utterly unrelatable anecdotes from their lives - but it's overall been enjoyable and it'll be weird to find something new to accompany my colouring if it does come to an end or stops being enjoyable once they permanently pivot into... whatever they plan to do after they run out of Scrubs episodes. It's been part of my colouring process for the comic for longer than it hasn't been now, haha. So... yeah it felt right to honour that connection to my comic with Sam's name, on top of the fact that Scrubs is just straight-up one of my favourite TV shows and Ted was always a character that gave me big laughs.

Of course... I realised after that I'd introduced yet another character to the comic ending in "-a"! ...But whatever, it's a common thing. Not so long ago I had 5 co-workers simultaneously whose names also ended in -a, lol.

The decision to have had her always be around simply came from not having any strong ideas to introduce her and preferring the idea that at least some of the cast already knew her. The gag's been done before, but I thought it'd be extra funny to introduce her with a scene in which she is specifically announcing her departure from being a regular face in Cammie's life, which typically would mean the same for the audience in most works with actually established characters.

Final little bonus note - in panel 1, Cammie once again is entering with a handful of steaming coffee.

#160 - Official

I didn't really mean for it to be so small it's barely legible at web size, but the little sign on the panic alarm button behind the till says "Real emergencies only Cammie!", in reference to #50.

#161 - Before

All that Scrubs talk regarding Sam is kinda fitting, because they did the "this character was always here!" gag there too. For their one, they edited her in on various memorable shots and pretended the main character didn't notice her being present, here I obviously extended the frame on the end of several punchline panels from previous comics.

Here's a gif that shows the original panels compared to the new ones, showing both the new and old art isolated as well so you can see exactly what I drew to extend the older panels which naturally weren't drawn originally knowing that I would one day be extending them!

The second of the three Sam flashbacks is just a nice little bridging one, but it did take me a while to decide for sure which way around I wanted the first and third flashback panel. For the first: while there's been a little bit of mild bad language in the comic once the seal was broken here, Sam's "bitch" is the first time such language has appeared so it amused me to place it in a scene that has already happened long ago just barely outside of the audience's perspective. For the third: the joke is of course that the reveal of Sam's additional dialogue is particularly adding nothing to the scene whatsoever - like, as if Cammie making a fool of herself would even be remark-worthy at this point. I felt both these two goofs had a good punch to them in their own way so yeah, I remember being conflicted over whether I had chosen the funniest possible flow of these three gags.

Of course, the final joke of this one, in case it wasn't obvious (I could see it being subtle for some), is that Mimi's whole running gag is she's a side character who also has existed in the comic for long before her first on-screen appearance, yet Cammie never remembers her.

#162 - New

The art and dialogue structure of the first two panels here is identical to #160. I think it being a time-saver on my workload for the week was definitely a factor - for whatever reason I needed it at the time - but I also remember going for something with that choice beyond just that... But I can't for the life of me remember what. I don't think the parallel between the two comics adds anything reading them back now.

Anyway here's Newt! I really thought at the time that he was going to be as significant an addition as Sam, and I did come up with the idea of introducing a regular male character at the time I chose to bring Sam in, with Sam's introduction - and exit - being an amusing way to introduce a surprise new character.

...Then I proceeded to never really get any super strong story ideas for him lol. More detail on that in a second. I haven't forgotten him though, frustrates me that he keeps getting sidelined!

#163 - Training

Standard behind-the-scenes retail frustration humour here. I can neither confirm nor deny how much is based on my current employment. A little detail of authenticity/flavour is that they're watching a DVD intended for widescreen on an old non-widescreen TV that's clearly been in their staff room for at least a decade. Such was the case for my painful training videos too! (It's all online now as of a few years into when I started, so some progress has been made I guess).

#164 - Huh

It's not made clear yet, but the new status quo that Sam is a receptionist at a primary school is established here - the coloured hanging letter signage on the wall that is too perspective'd to read says "WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL".

I chose this as a job for her based simply on the fact that my Mum has often worked in school offices for most of my life. She wasn't a receptionist but it was the sort of job where I have some... vague enough memories of the "behind-the-scenes" enough to draw something along those lines when I needed to show Sam at work.

Getting back to Newt, obviously the goof here is that Cammie is just being a sore loser about her friend leaving and Newt is about the most cool-sounding interesting person you could imagine meeting. Unfortunately that involved specifically coming up with fun sounding stuff that are not super common to do or know people that do, so despite the super interesting combo of cave-diving, stand-up and polyamory these are all things I feel like I'd have to do thorough research on to represent in the actual comic accurately... which is something I'd like to do but, time is finite and I have so much pre-existing experience with being a silly nonsense person. Would you believe it, there's another character in the comic for whom that experience lends itself very well!!

Speaking of whom, the first appearance of the bell on the door in Repeat 1 Records was only a month after Cammie got the job. She works fast!

[Trivia Archive | Browse from most recent]

[astroboots]

I was in a really strange mood the other day. Not sure what it was exactly - the spring, something in the water, retrograde Mercury...Whatever it was, it set me aflame with the desire for Oscar Isaac. That feeling is not a new one, but the intensity it hit me with was pretty remarkable even for me. So I did what every logical person would've done - got here to get myself some gorgeous gifs of his.

Long story short, a couple of hours and several delicious gifs later, I started to think that maybe it's a good idea to read something. Well, I actually specifically didn't want to read shit, but there were just two many texts coming my way, upon thirst scrolling. So, while I was half-heartedly trying to drive these thoughts away with an imaginary stick, I came upon the "Red Flags." And was met with something I can't fucking resist - long chapters.

I read all sorts of different fanfics for all sorts of different reasons. We all have our own preferences, and I am trying not to concentrate on mine all that often, because it will just result in me reading only specific things, and there is a chance I'll miss something really good.

But I still do have those preferences. And for me, THE most important thing in the story is for the characters to feel like themselves from the original incarnation. Not to a tea, perhaps. Not always, at least. But I want to read something they do and go: "Yeep, that's them. That's exactly how they would've acted. "

I've read a lot of absolutely brilliant stories that I see more like an AU situation. Great storytelling, amazing characters - it's all there. But the characters just don't feel the same to me. It doesn't make the story bad whatsoever. It's just a separate category for me.

And then there are those VERY rare ones that are just making every single thing right in my eyes. Of course, these things are objective. Of course, it's only based on what I personally want to see. But when I find them, I'm treating them like an absolute treasure.

Which leads us to the "Red Flags." The story that got me so invested that I ended up reading it till 3 in the morning because I just couldn't bring myself to separate with these characters.

After the series, Steven got so much love. Which is completely understandable. He is an adorable, goofy, absolutely charming idiot that you just want to be around. But I don't think Marc himself is getting enough appreciation. Which he should.

The way he was written here made my heart ache. He was portrayed so real, I was sometimes sure I could touch him through the screen of my phone. The man was so broken on such a deep level that he had to create a happy version of himself, to be able to cope with trauma. The man, who is denying himself happiness because he doesn't think he deserves it. The man, who is willing to give every single good thing in his life to his alter ego, whom he sees as a pure and sweet person.

One of the most realistic main heroines I've seen in fan fiction - just like her, I wanted to grab him, shake him up, and scream that he deserves love, deserves to be cared for, deserves being looked after and to be able to just be himself around a person, who loves him. To let someone love him. He doesn't deserve to be shout at, though. Doesn't matter if it comes from a place of genuine care. I'd kill for this man. Got every last bit of patience out of me to help him see how much he is loved and needed. How beautiful, how kind, and caring he actually is. How empathetic he is. How, no matter what little he thinks of himself, he is a whole world.

It's not even just the romance, but how he treats Steven, too. It's just beyond words. I never thought about it that way, but it was so heartbreaking to see that he went far and beyond with writing Steven cards from their mom. He did not have to do it, but he wanted Steven to feel loved. Something that he never got himself. The man, who grew up abused and hated by his own mother, who drew so many walls around himself, still remained a kind soul behind it all.

I want you to know that by now, I've read it twice over, and I'll be absolutely doing it again. Alongside all the one shots. No idea if it was intended that way or not, but they absolutely do read like a continuation of the main story.

I don't really have the words to describe how much I loved it and how I fell in love with every aspect of it. But I just need to thank you and your wonderful co-writer for giving us (well, me, personally😇) the privilege to read something that extraordinary🥰💙🥂

Hello lovely!!!!!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer this. When I received this ask this week my face and soul lit up. It's so kind and sweet of you to take the time to write this and send it. I really appreciate you so much.

I'm so glad that you felt that the characters read like they were in their original MCU universes. It's something that I completely owe @thirstworldproblemss too she has an insane knack for storytelling and character voices that blows me away everytime. Between the two of us i'm the one living in London and yet I have a Transatlantic accent and I don't ever use British slang, and she was the one who had to britishify Steven and she did it with such skills I'm in awe of her always.

But also the characterisation of Marc, once again I owe so much to her, because she's the one who broke down the character and made me appreciate all the beautiful, heartbreaking layers of his character.

Red Flags has been such an absolute beast to write and taught me so much about long-form story telling and it has an incredibly special place in my heart and to know that people are still reading it, and that you had such a strong reaction to it fills me with immense joy. Thank you so much once again for reaching out! I adore you.

[trashyswitch]

Day 17: Interrogation

Drew loves wearing his boyfriend's sweater. But when Vel comes home, Drew refuses to let him have his favorite sweater back. So...Vel bribes his boyfriend with the tickle fight Drew had been waiting all day for.

I wrote this fanfic for my special boys! @foxboidrew and Vel! <333 I hope you enjoy!

Drew was giggling as he walked around, wearing his boyfriend’s Ice Nine Kills sweater. It was a comfy black and red sweater that was several sizes bigger than him. But…Drew didn’t care. He rather enjoyed the feeling of large sweaters. He loved the feeling of drowning in sweaters. And he loved the feeling of being engulfed by something that solely smelled like his boyfriend. And comfy…so comfy and soft. 

He walked around the house in the zip-up sweater with a bright smile on his face and a hop in his step. He fixed up his short green hair, and blepped at himself in the mirror before walking off. Then, Drew brought out his tablet and digital pen, and began to draw some Sun & Moon Show fanart for a while. 

He had just finished outlining his drawing of Solar from The Sun & Moon Show, when he heard the front door open and close. He gasped and widened his eyes, knowing exactly who it was. It was Vel…His boyfriend. He was back from work, and was likely exhausted. But Drew had a sense that Vel would want to wear the sweater Drew had stolen from him. And Drew…he did not want to give it up just yet. He refused to let him have it. It was HIS sweater. His to steal and nom on for all eternity. 

To further ensure the sweater isn’t stolen back, Drew took it off and put it on top of his bed, before putting the covers over it. With that out of the way, Drew ran out of the room to greet him. “Hellooo!” Drew said, hugging him tightly. 

“Hi Drew.” Vel replied, hugging him back. “How was your day?” He asked. 

“It was good. I played a bit of Rainbow Billy, and I’m almost done drawing Solar!” Drew told him. 

“Cool!” He replied. 

Vel walked to his room, disappearing around the corner. While Vel was doing whatever the heck he was doing, Drew sat himself down and continued to draw Solar. He finished outlining the chest and shoulders, before moving onto the robotic arms and hands. 

Soon, Drew felt someone sit on the couch beside him. “How’s it coming along?” Vel asked. 

Drew zoomed out his tablet and showed him the half-outlined drawing of Solar. “It’s good Eclipse.” Drew explained. 

“I see...” He replied. “Hey Drew, have you seen my sweater?” Vel asked. 

Drew blinked, acting like he had no idea what he was talking about. “Which sweater?” Drew asked him innocently. 

“The…” Vel sighed. “The Ice Nine Kills sweater.” He told him. 

Drew tried to think of a good response to this that didn’t sound suspicious whatsoever. “Uuuuhhhhhhh-no.” Drew replied. 

Vel narrowed his eyes and slowly looked over at Drew. “...Are you sure?” He asked. 

Drew veeeeery slowly looked towards Vel, and grew a wide, ‘innocent’ smile. “.........Yeeaaah?” Drew admitted. 

Vel stared at Drew for a good 10 seconds…while placing his controller down very gently onto the table. He was still keeping eye contact with Drew as he brought his hands back. “You have one last chance to tell me the truth.” He warned him. “Do you know where my favorite sweater is?” Vel asked. 

Drew stared at him, with growing mischief on his face. His smile slightly widened in response. “...Nooooooo?” Drew replied. 

And in a matter of seconds, Vel had tackled Drew onto the couch. He grabbed Drew’s wrists and held them above his head. “Awwww, is the poor baby scared?” He asked, wiggling his fingers. 

Drew squeaked as the tickly evil hand touched down on his stomach. “EEEK! HEEHEEheeheeheee! EEHEEK! HEHEEHEE! HEHEEK!” He laughed, fighting his tickles a little bit. Vel stopped his tickle attack and looked at Drew with a happy smile. “How are you doing?” He asked. “How are you doing, huh? You doing good?” He asked playfully. 

Even though the tickles had stopped, Drew was still a giggling, blushing mess. 

“Scared?” He asked with a laugh. Drew giggled and nodded his head. Vel smiled and dug into his hips next. “Hehehe~ Good.” He said. 

Drew’s cute little girly giggles filled the living room for a few minutes. Vel had this method of tickling Drew, then stopping. Tickling Drew, then stopping. Tickling Drew, then stopping. This made fits of giggles and squeaks burst out of Drew every single time. It was an adorable fact about Drew that Vel rather enjoyed, and took advantage of constantly. 

After a few minutes in the hips, Vel moved onto his neck. “Awwww, so shy…” He teased, poking the left side of his belly. 

“Heeeheehehee- EEEK!” Drew squeaked, arching his back as he laid helplessly on the couch. 

“So giggly like a baby…so squeaky like a mouse.” He teased. “Tell me, why the laughter? What’s so funny?” He asked. 

“HEEHEeheeheehee! Yahoo know whyyyyEEEE!” Drew yelled, before throwing his head back with more giggly laughter. 

“No, I’m afraid I don’t. Why do you commit the laughy laugh?” Vel asked. 

“Yohou’re meeeehehehehean!” Drew complained. 

“Mean?!” Vel yelled, offended. 

“Yeheheheah! Meeeeheheanie mean!” Drew kept saying. 

“Say it one more time…” He brought his fingers closer and closer to one of Drew’s worst spots. “I dare you.” He warned. 

Drew smirked and blepped at him. “Meanie bitch.” He declared. 

Vel slowly took in a big, dramatic gasp. “You…Little…” He immediately started squeezing his boyfriend’s inner thighs. “You have taken it too far. ACCEPT YOUR DOOM.” Vel declared playfully. 

Drew threw his head back and bursted out laughing and squeaking. As if it wasn’t obvious enough already, Drew absolutely loved being Vel’s little lee. He loves teasing the hell out of his boyfriend, and loves getting destroyed with tickles as a result. And since they knew each other for years, Vel knew exactly which teases Drew loved the most. 

“So, baby…” Vel stopped his fingers and let go of Drew’s hands. “You ready to tell me where my sweater is?” Vel asked. 

Drew’s breathless giggles filled the room for a few moments while he recovered. “Ihihi…” Drew looked up at Vel, unsure whether he should tell him the truth, or lie to him again. As much as he loved the idea of telling the truth to Vel and seeing Vel wear it…lying would earn him more tickles. And Drew may or may not be craving a few more minutes of tickles. 

“.......No.” Drew replied. 

“Determined to keep your precious little secrets?” He asked in a sly, deep voice. 

Drew widened his eyes and squeaked. “N-No!” He reacted helplessly. 

Vel used both his hands to tickle either side of his ribs. “Ooooh, such a giggly little baby.” He teased. 

“Heheehee-EEK! HEEHEE! EEHEEK! HAhahaha! EheheheeeeEEEK!” Drew laughed. 

“Stuck in place with nowhere to go…” He said with a smirk. “I’m afraid you are forever stuck…being tickle-tickle-tickled.” He kept going in his sly voice. 

“EEhEEHEEK! HAHAHA! HAHeheheehee! NAHAAHAA! AAHAHAhee!” Drew teased. 

“I’m barely even touching you…” He smirked. “And yet, every little poke and flutter seems to make my baby jump.” Vel explained. “Are you really…that ticklish~?” Vel asked in his sly voice. 

“NAhaAHAHA! EEEHEHEhehee! Heheheeha-HAHA!” Drew cackled, his laughter jumping up and down in volume. 

Vel started kissing him all over his neck, earning him more high-pitched cackles and giggles. “Such a sweet little ticklish neck…” He teased, fluttering a single finger up and down his neck. “I could kiss this face for hours~” Vel teased. 

“HEEHEHEE! HAHAhahaha! EEEK! NUHUHUUU!” Drew laughed. By this point, Drew was wiggling around and kicking his feet so much, his shirt had begun to ride up his middle, exposing his belly. 

“Oooh? What’s this?” Vel asked, looking at Drew’s belly. “Has Drew…offered me his belly?” He asked, poking it. 

Drew squeaked and attempted to cover his belly. “EEK! NAHAHA-!” Drew laughed. 

But Vel grabbed his wrists and held them up, before taking advantage of this wonderful little ticklish spot. “Pinch!” He teased, gently pinching his belly. “Pinch, pinch, pinch-pinch! Pinch-pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch-pinch, pinch-pinch, pinch-pinch, pinch!” Vel kept teasing, pinching his belly. 

“AHaha! AHAha! HAHAha! EheHEE! HEHEEEK! Heheha! HAHaha!” Drew kept giggling in spurts. 

“Pinch-pinch-pinch-pinch! Pinch-pinch-pinch-pinch! A pinch-pinch-pinch-pinch!” Vel kept teasing, continuing his gentle little pinches on his belly. 

“aAAHAHA! HAhA! HAhah! HEHEHa!” Drew kept going, shaking his head and failing to cover up his face. 

Vel finally stopped his little attack, and put his hands down again. “Alright…” He mumbled. “So…” 

Drew held onto his belly, still giggling up a storm on the couch. His giggles eventually turned breathless as he attempted to recuperate his lungs. It was tiring being interrogated like that…but does it really count as an interrogation if the interogee is enjoying the punishment? 

“Where’s my sweater?” Vel asked. 

“Ihihi…Ihin my room…under thehe cohovers.” Drew replied. 

Vel ran to Drew’s room, and came walking out with the black and red sweater. “Thank you!” Vel replied, playing with the drawstrings. 

When Vel sat down beside Drew on the couch again, Drew rested himself against Vel and his special sweater, and cuddled with him for the evening. He loved his boyfriend so much…and looked forward to every future night they would spend time together. 

[lolotheparagon]

What are the various Rogues' opinions on Scarecrow's new daughters minions?

Riddler:

I know I’m the best supervillain Gotham has ever seen, but I always had a humble respect for Crane. The man has elicited terror and fear thoroughout Gotham for many years and is a profilic terrorist and scientist. So it baffles the mind that he has taken upon himself to be a parent, oh wait I mean (snickers) boss to a bunch of tiny pastel ponies so he can scare the whole populace. It’s almost comical how stupid that plan is. Oh sure, the average Neanderthal slumping around the streets would be scared of these sickeningly cute critters. But that’ll wear off soon enough and you don’t see Two-Face or Harley Quinn afraid of them! What will be your plan next? Face it, Crane. You just want to play house with these ponies because you’re so desperate to have a goal in your life, you’ve resorted to parenthood like a lonely housewife in a loveless marriage. Pathetic!…What? What do I think of the ponies themselves? What’s there to talk about? They’re annoying, disgustingly cute and clearly lack any intelligence whatsoever! They’re also relentless, whenever Crane’s not around, they always force me to partake in their juvenile games. Do I look like a babysitter to you?!

Penguin:

Don’t remind me of those little bastards. When I found out that the Scarecrow himself had employed these tiny ponies to be his minions, I was laughing for days. Look at ‘em, you’d think you can easily just kick those little tykes to the curb, swot ‘em like a fly. But no, not only are they immune to bullets, they took down half my men, tied me up in ribbons, put bloody makeup on me and turned my club into a BLOODY ICE RINK!! Ohhh, you think you’ve won this battle, Crane. Think you’ve humiliated me. But mark my words, once your back is turned and your mind focused on the Bat again, I’ll take your little ponies and put ‘em in a glue factory!

Two-Face:

Oh yeah, those little…things. (Shudders) Their cuteness is so overwhelming they creep me out NEXT WE SEE ‘EM, WE SHOOT THOSE CRITTERS AND SMEAR THEM ALL OVER THE WALLS. You’re just pissed off cos they did our makeup. THOSE LITTLE BITCHES DREW ALL OVER OUR FACE I know we look stupid but you don’t see me raging about it SHUT UP, HARV! NO ONE WILL TAKE US SERIOUSLY WHEN WE GO ON CRIME SPREES WITH THIS SHIT PLASTERED ON! No one took us seriously anyway. WE’RE MEN! MEN DONT WEAR MAKEUP!! WHAT ARE YOU, GAY?! …I really need therapy.

Poison Ivy:

Those ponies are herbivores, nature is part of their diet. Normally, I would be against them but I just can’t say no to kids. These little ones have an unspoiled innocence that I hope their time in Gotham would never taint it. I feel almost sorry for them. Crane is a smart man, but he is cold and ruthless, not exactly father of the year material. But it is rather amusing to see himself run ragged trying to keep a bunch of ponies in order. Especially that unicorn following him around like a puppy. He’s stuck with all of them for eternity so I can’t wait to see how this will unfold. My bet is that he’ll have a mental breakdown within a few months. And I’ll have front row seats.

Harley Quinn:

What?! Dr Crane has magical ponies as his kids?!. Oh my god, that’s hysterical!! Wow, I mean, I know the Bat beat you pretty bad and you’re out of ideas, but that is a whole new level of desperate! Whats next year’s Halloween’s plan, he’s gonna sic Starbright Sprinkle and Princesscake on us? Ohhh, I’m so scared! But ya know what, good for him for finding a new career that suits him: a fucking loser! By the way, which ranch did he get those ponies from? Cos I want one! In fact, Crane, can I have the pink one? No, wait, I’ll trade ya for the flying fairy one!

Catwoman:

I always see the little guys running around at the mall, playing dress up and terrifying thugs with their mere existence. Its funny to see a bunch of grown men terrified at something so cute. Honestly, I have no idea why Crane of all people is in custody of these ponies. To see the master of fear being a dad and a decent one to boot is…weird. I don’t know if he’s just putting it on to regain some scare factor or if he’s genuinely enjoying it, but at least the ponies seem happy. However, if he does put any of those kids in danger, I’ll tear his stitched ass apart.

Killer Croc:

Doesn’t matter, they’re all just food to me. Those little things don’t scare me. Nothing scares me. Not even, you, Crane.

Mr Freeze:

He has what? That is…concerning. I do hope those little ponies are treated properly. Are they well-fed? Do they have proper education? He doesn’t experiment on them, does he? No? Oh thank goodness. Well, are their mental and emotional needs met? Does he spend quality time with them? …Sorry, I have a few arctic hares that I keep as pets that I’ve grown very attached to over the last month. They’re like children to me. So I just hope Crane is taking the responsibilities of parenting seriously.

[itcanbesour]

Jator reincarnation au!! It’s crackship time yall ,, except for me this is personally a rare pair and I love it dearly :3 (James/Lotor) also a thank you to a friend on mine because I didn’t come up with everything myself. We essentially gave each other ideas 🙏🙏

KISMET

I’ve always seen Lotor as immortal. He’s lived a long time and I can’t help but think of that’s because he is immortal. ik he isn’t but for this AU he is. In this AU he joins the Voltron coalition and is helping alongside the paladins before they arrived to earth, going against his parents wishes more or less betraying them. When Lotor & paladins arrive to earth Lotor sees someone that takes his interest, despite this guy being completely normal and not having anything special whatsoever (to the public eye). Except this guy, James Griffin (fighter pilot, squad captain, and officer) didn’t exactly care for Lotors presence. He knew the guy existed and that he was helping save earth, and to him that’s all that mattered. His princely title meant nothing to James. And so by default James only spoke to Lotor when it mattered. Lotor on the other hand really, really wanted to get to know James. Something about the other drew him in and like a moth to a light, he followed. It felt natural. Like this was his fate.

As time went on Lotor figured out the best way to get to talk to James, or get the man to really look at him. There’s been talk around how James is very adamant on the rules and regulations and there for: he acts out. If he acted out, James spoke to him. If he acts out, James looks at him. It’s what he was looking for. This is an on going thing, for months he does little things that he knows 1) isn’t enough to boot him from the garrison (not to mention it’s during the war. They can’t anyway he provided information since his father was Zarkon) and 2) enough where he can engage in small talk with James.

It doesn’t work at first, but after a while it does. Lotor made sure to be careful and respectful, letting James know that he is free anytime and would love to get to know him. James is confused by this. Someone wanted to get to know *him?* something about him mattered to another person? It wasn’t like it was shocking, just unexpected and unpredictable. And it comes to a time where they do actually, sorta hang out. It’s not as long as Lotor was hoping but when duty calls they have to answer.

James almost died that day.

And so after that the two hang out more! James successfully gets his team & Lotor to be somewhat friends (he just wanted to let them get along.) and it’s become a regular basis where he’s with Lotor. Whether it’s just strolls around the garrison, or James helping teach Lotor how to read and write in English, getting food together, maybe even training together. It didn’t exactly matter, they were by each other side no matter what. No matter what time or place.

Eventually the two men find out their feelings for each other, they go on a few dates, and in that year they spent together they start dating. It’s a fever dream, but damn was it worth it. For a time at least.

They spend their days together, even during the war and after. It takes takes to build earth but at some point Lotor learns the customs, even understands James’ culture and loves engaging with him in it. (Dabke, food, music) but all happy things must come to an end. James is admitted to the hospital and Lotor rushes to his beside.

They never got engaged. They just promised they would in years time.

And on James’ nightstand sat a note and the promise ring. The note described in detail how much he loved and was greatful to Lotor, being immensely apologetic and promising him that someday they’d find each other again.

Did I mention James doesn’t know Lotor is gonna live forever?

The funeral was on James’ birthday. (Up to you when that is.) and after that everything felt surreal. Lotor wasn’t sure what he was meant to do. His lover was gone and could’ve spent the rest of their lives together in just two years time. Must the universe forsake him like this? If this was his consequences, he could take it.

Until one morning about a year later after James’ passing there’s an all-too-familiar face walking down the street. It made Lotor freeze up. The nose was the same, the hair, the olive skin. Except he was still different. This man didn’t act the same. Unlike his former lover, the guy was quiet and kept to himself. Almost timid.

Lotor approaches anyway. It’s James. His James. The James he longed for since he passed away, his lover was back. The cycle repeats. He gets to know this new James, learns to love him and learns the way his personality clashes with his own.

But James’ fate is only repeated. They hold the funeral on his birthday, once more.

This happens a couple times actually. He finds James either a year later, or maybe even 5 years later. Falls in love with the man, learns to love him for what he is and not for what he was, and James dies. This goes on for a while and it only got worse. Sometimes James reincarnates as something unrecognizable: a flower, maybe even an animal. What is he meant to do when this brown and sandy cat walks up to him one late afternoon; rubs up against his leg and even calls for him? Well, of course. He takes in the stray as his own, crowning the animal with the name griffin.

He finds James, but he can’t *see* him. He’s almost completely different now, married to a beautiful woman, tall and gorgeous. with two little girls clutching at his legs. It was painful to watch, but he couldn’t do anything anyway. That ‘James’ lives till old age, different in contrast to how he died whilst dating Lotor.

Yet again, he finds James. It’s a bit humorous how he is now. The olive skin now pale, that hooked nose he loved to kiss was different, all recognizable features gone. It wasn’t the same anymore, learning to love this James pained him to his very core. Falling in love with this man and learning the beat of his rhythm was tough. Kissing his nose won’t ever be the same.

This wasn’t James anymore; he realizes. After what felt like forever he realizes this. He spent his years looking for the man who’d never be the same again.

And so Lotor becomes an author. An artist, didn’t matter. He’d teach and tell story’s of how two lovers came to be together in the same universe, different time lines. On how an immortal came to be with a mortal. It’s safe to say it wasn’t fictional. But that just meant Lotor stopped looking for his lover. He can’t love him for what he is now, cant love him for what he was then. He can only love him by honoring his memory, letting go and telling the story’s of how they came to be.

He really hopes james can forgive him when he falls in love with someone else.

End

Kismet

a hypothetical force or personified power that determines the course of the future events : FATE, DESTINY

[monty-glasses-roxy]

24 (What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?) for Roxy

Thanks for copying the question here buddy I appreciate that a lot (I can't load the post on my phone or my own blogs at all still)

Uhhhh honestly, Roxy's pretty different to a lot of my usual other blorbos. I could compare her to Labrys from Persona 4 Arena in a sense that they're both robots with horrible trauma that have been forced to do things they wouldn't dream of doing otherwise, but that doesn't feel like a great comparison ngl

I could compare her to a lot of blorbos though. Like Bracken from Ni No Kuni 2, Unit #024 and Labrys from Persona 4 Arena, for being chronically underutilized by the devs. Maybe PURL from Kuni 2 but PURL feels more... Like an opposite to Mimic? The first attempt at sentient AI in that world, determined to answer the question of what colour is the sky for herself... Only knows a few things, a child her closest friend, and accidentally takes over the wholeass factory in her attempts to see the sky again after like a decade of being deactivated. And also because the devs couldn't think of anything interesting for a new Broadleaf area so they wanted to make sure you did the wholeass factory again for some fucking reason.

Ohhh then again, I was watching those clips last night and Toothless and Hiccup made me think of Roxy and Cassie in an AU kind of way. Mostly because of the dogisms I like to give Roxy and because of several AUs that are more in line with How to Train Your D/ragon... (Put a slash in it to make extra sure I don't end up in any searches for that) So maybe Toothless? Maybe not?

Honestly I don't think I've ever liked a character that has shown much interest in their appearance before. Maybe Erza from Fairy T/ail? Looks cool and could kill you but has zero braincells whatsoever? Also very traumatised? Koromaru from P3 cause his persona is Cerberus and Roxy is the Cerberus to Mimic? And I can see her running around with a knife in her teeth? I dunno man that's a tough question

Ohhh there was also Blaze from the Sonic games! Not because of Roxy specifically, but because in coming up with a horse for her, many of the ideas for it was giving my Blaze vibes lmao. She has a horse in the Olympic games and it's pure white with light purple tack and possibly eyes I don't remember so yeah that kept popping to mind in coming up with a horse nsjsdj

And I suppose my OC Zephyr somewhat reminds me of her. That whole universe I made was started when I got so deep into a Pupcakes/Roxica Pirates AU that I decided to make it a whole thing and Zephyr is who Roxy in the story became. I like Zephyr she's very cool and has become very distinct from Roxy, but her roots are still there, ya know? I'll always remember where she started.

Jsisjsi I could associate Roxy with Disney's Bolt too just cause he's a superhero dog and a funny lil guy. And for some reason one of the OST tracks for the DS game will plague my mind for the rest of my days. Even though I'm thinking of every track but that one right now. It's the one for Bolt's part of the... Something Temple level. Bolivia? Belize??? I think it has a B in it... But anyway yeah Superdog! Hooray!

P03 from Inscryption too but mostly because it's tech themed, and I had that old AU where I drew her as the Scrybe of Technology. Inscryption is incredible btw I fucking love it. I suck at it apparently though. I got to Act 2 and played a fucking beefed up Ouroborus in the first stage of P03's fight like "oh I've got this fucker now!!" No I did not. I absolutely did that. Stoatal misplay. Could not have fucked that up more lmao anyone that's played or seen this game will know exactly what ended up happening there nsjdjdi I FORGOT okay?? I forgot!!!

BACK ON TOPIC yeah Roxy's a pretty different character to the norm for me. Genuinely can't think of anyone that might be similar to her enough for them to remind me of her if I saw them again. Maybe if I went back and watched the old My Little Pony from the fucking 70s or whatever, but it would just be the standard stereotype of "all girls care lots about their appearance and gasp in horror if you dirty a pretty dress" probably. You know the one. I do my best not to humour that shit in my own Roxy interpretation but it's hard to forget that's absolutely where her written personality stems from :/

[psid99]

RIFT: IGNITE, Chapter I: Lost.

Please understand that English is not my first language and I have no writing experience whatsoever, so I only tried my best to get my general idea come across.

Refer to : part 1 and part 2.

Chapter I: Lost.

“Can I borrow your lighter? If it's okay with you, of course."

Diluc was approached by a strange boy wearing a hooded jacket. But things didn't start out this way.

the begin? 3000 years ago should be correct. The boy looked exactly the same as the previous time they had met, which was the first thing Diluc noticed.

It was a different life; they were all different lives. But regret hung over Diluc when recollections of him unexpectedly invaded his head each time he was on his deathbed. In those lives, Diluc didn't even begin to recall about this specific person until that precise moment, so forget the promises, he didn't.

However, there was then the tiniest, most remote possibility of a life when he remembered it all, with his time still remaining, and it was due to having met Ajax.

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

I came upon Wuthering Hill, and it was windy, much like the town's name. I started to consider how rusty I had grown with age as I chased the hat that had been blown away. I realised that because I still had a hill to climb, there was no point in wasting my energy by going after it. The top hat had finally started to lose its levitation, so I slowed down while casually glancing at it. The hat didn't touch the ground, though, and in the midst of the roaring, your joyous voice was like a sudden beam of sunshine, clearing away all the fog that had been obscuring my thoughts.

"Got it! That was close, haha."

With the hat in hand, you walked towards me and I couldn't hear the wind howling anymore.

I suddenly find myself in front of that jail again, holding your hand, and you looked just the same.

" I can't save you."

I struggled to keep the words from falling out, but I was unable to conceal the turmoil that was making me short of breath. You turned your attention from my eyes to our joined hands for a brief moment, giving me the impression that you hadn't heard what I had said.

" I know." Your smile had a hint of melancholy, but you kept holding my hand. It was the end for us. Being a mortal means having a finite, single existence; after death, everything ends; we have no idea what it means to be immortal; it serves no purpose to think about being born again. The only thing left at that point was love; there was no hope; just love and misery. As a result, you weren't terrified and you didn't consider taking revenge.

However, I leaned in closer, like a conceited fool, and I made promises to you that I was unable to keep, going beyond the limits of what a mortal could rationally understand. Leaving my heart chained to the place you were.

" You must be Mr. Ragnvindr, the new owner of the mansion up the hill." Despite being overtaken by the memories, I could still clearly hear your voice when it pulled me out of them and brought me back to the present. Now that I look at you more closely, I noticed that you were dressed rather light for such chilly conditions, but you were dazzling with youth. You had bandages covering both of your wrists, your head, primarily to conceal your left eye, and your exposed neck. On your exposed neck, I could see numbers, imprinted Roman digits. However, I could only focus on them briefly as your eye caught mine once again as you drew forward to give me the hat.

Without removing my eyes from your glaze, I seized the hat you handed me.

"Thank you,…" -Ajax, I had your name on the tip of my tongue, but I lacked the confidence or the right context to utter it. Given that we have never met in this life, it might be questionable if I do.

"Sir, it's Ajax." The way you introduced yourself makes me feel a little special once more because I know how dearly you treasured your name.

"Many thanks, Mr. Ajax. Perhaps you are the housekeeper for the mansion. I apologies for being impolite; I forgot to ask for your name when I first sent the message and there was no sender's name on the telegram I received."

"No worries at all, sir. Mr. Whitney, who retired from his position a few months ago but occasionally still stops by the mansion to give me instructions, was the person who really got your telegram. He wanted to welcome you as well, so he offered to get in touch with you instead. I'm the new recruit. Both of us were waiting for you at the mansion when I decided to go since I felt like you might require help with your luggage."

It appears that I will be in your hands sooner than expected; thank you, Mr. Ajax.

"Sir, only Ajax will do! And it's really not a problem at all, shall we move forward? I'm sure you had a long ride; let's get you rested. It should take about 15 minutes to climb the hill."

I paused for a brief second when you offered to carry the case for me. It would seem strange if I refuse, but I can't help but feel uneasy, a fleeting recognition of the gap between us and the remaining time. But as I went with you up the hill, I swiftly threw that idea aside.

"Thou dost smile, I sing the while…" I couldn't help but think back to a long-ago memory when I heard you humming.

'What's that?' Even after you asked, we kept walking. You are aware that the things I said might have been something I wanted to keep to myself, but you are unsure, so you gave me the option of responding. Also unchanged is your awkward approach to showing affection.

"Now that I'm retired, I've been reading a lot lately—not news and reports, but poetry. I guess that whenever my mind wanders, it always comes to a work of literature."

"Uh, maybe your subconscious is encouraging you to start writing now that you're retired?" Your words had a hint of excitement.

"Hmm, perhaps," I noticed your hair being caught in the sun's early rays, which created a shadow and highlighted your youthful features. Maybe when I'm gone, I'll write memoirs that sound like letters to you about us.

"I invited Mr. Whitney to remain for dinner, but he politely declined, so it was just you and me. You should wash up and rest for the time being; I'll wake you up when it's almost time for supper, okay, Sir?" You spoke while standing at the door and awaiting my response. In all honesty, I don't want to be away from you right now, but I was at a loss for an explanation that wouldn't sound rude.

Okay, I'll meet you at supper." And I saw you shut the door after me.

I sighed deeply as I sat down on the bed with my hands propped up against my face. That was difficult; I sincerely hope nothing seems suspicious. When you first called my name, I was on the verge of rushing over to you to embrace you when I heard you. How is it that hardly anything about you has changed? Your speech, gait, grin, spirit, and other physical traits all contribute to the first ending being nothing more than an illusion.

But I believe it wasn't a dream because I can still feel the weight of my steps when I walked with you or the rough roughness of my skin when I ran my hands over my face. It's a miracle that I still have this much time remaining considering how old I am. It's been too long, but you don't seem to have aged a day. Was this maybe what they meant by "everlasting youth"?

The 3000 year voyage had left my mind weary and worn; it was likely the longest ride I've ever taken. I then closed my eyes and waited for you to wake me at dinnertime so that I could ask you more about how you've been.

But you never returned to wake me up in that life. When it was well past dinnertime and you weren't there, I woke up by myself. I reasoned that you may have freaked out, feeling uneasy spending time with a dull old man like me. You might have left, or you might have gotten lost climbing the hill in the dark. Anything, really—as long as I can still see you again.

I did see you again, because your mutilated body was discovered near the woods the next morning.

That's when it struck me, there was no such thing as everlasting youth, because you were never given the chance to grow old in the first place.

[j4m3s-b4k3r]

could do better..

I was an indifferent student. All the way through primary & high school, my typical report card was “talks too much” or “could do better” which frustrated Mum & Dad, who’d both been stellar students. I countered with “if I’ve never done better, how do these teachers know that this isn’t ALREADY my better?!” Teen sass aside, at 15 I knew was already on the runway to adulthood and would need to get a career airborne within a few years. There was only one thing I was halfway good at.. and started to wonder if I actually could DRAW for a living. 

Year 9 Parent/Teacher Night program.

Ever since I was small, I’d had adults leaning down to my child’s-eye-level asking; “what do you want to be when you grow up?” When I answered “I wanna be an animator” at age 8 it was oh-so cute, but it seemed screwy at 15, when nobody thought that job even existed in Australia. Unlike the USA, countries with small populations don’t have all industries (which is why Fiji doesn’t have astronauts). So, in my mid teens I started to think seriously about what job I possibly could do.. My best-guess career by the time I was 15 was a signwriter/illustrator. 

My earliest illustrations printed anywhere were done for school. From year 7 onwards, I eagerly drew art for pamphlets, program guides for school plays, banners for athletics & swimming carnivals, and cartoons for the school magazine. I also submitted art to fan mags, and even got a few cartoons into the local newspaper too. It is nutty how much pleasure it gave me simply to see something I’d drawn printed in a ‘proper’ publication. 

Window decorations for a pub.

So people had already been using my drawings for years, but for FREE. Getting paid to draw was the tricky part. Perhaps the first time I got money for my drawings was at 15, when my friend Stephen’s uncle paid me to design t-shirt graphics for him. He had a screen printing business & t-shirt shop, and I did logos and illustrations for local sports teams and so on.. Around that same time, I was paid to paint Christmas window displays at a pub where I worked after school (as a cleaner). Those early PAID illustration opportunities gave me hope that it might be viable career one day.

Sign-writing was a job I seriously considered. Freehanded calligraphic hand-painted signs were much more common in those days. Even today, pubs & cafes often have beautifully illustrated & hand drawn menus in chalk on huge blackboards, and I've always admired them. In year 10, as part of the work experience program, I spent two weeks as general dog’s-body for the graphic designer at the local university, preparing myself to be a sign-writer/illustrator. He was a one-man department doing graphics & illustration for the university’s printed publications, campus signage, and theatre department. Which sounds cool, but for two weeks I did all the stuff he didn’t want to do. Fiddly paste-up bollox (& calligraphy practice). Not much fun at all..

Decorations for student Common Room.

Our high school had a lounge for year 11 & 12 students known as “The Common Room” and I got to decorate its walls with cartoons. I can’t exactly remember whether this was someone else’s idea who approached me, or a case of me badgering the powers that be, but either way, the the school principal had to approve the project. Which he did.

I’ve written about cranky teachers at Catholic school but this brother was definitely one of the good ones. He was not of the fire & brimstone old guard, but of the groovy younger set of nuns & brothers (the cool cats with folk guitar). He was a warm & wonderful man with a great sense of humour, and tolerated much shenanigans from me & my mates. Even when he (justifiably) scolded us for being boneheads, there was always a twinkle in his eye.

Decorations for student Common Room.

Anyway, he let me draw what ever silly nonsense I wanted on the Common Room walls, with no editorialising whatsoever. Which is pretty amazing now that I come to think of it. When that brother moved on, to be principal at another school, the next principal painted over everything I’d drawn. I was out of school by that time so no harm done, but I’m sorry now not to have more photos.

My pal Peter had a community radio show (called “Sunday Soft Rock”) and I often sat in when he was on air, as the FM-station was mere blocks from the Baker Family home. Through this contact, I did a few illustrations for the station’s program guide, and promotional posters for the station (and another in Newcastle). I definitely enjoyed illustrating, and hoped I would get more of that to do, rather than simple calligraphic sign writing.

Posters for community radio stations.

During the break between years 10 & 11 Dad saw an ad in the newspaper for an "animation workshop" being held at the university, which is how I learned that there actually was an animation studio in Sydney. This was an electrifying discovery! Getting into animation became my focus in the last two years of high school (perhaps to the detriment of my already shoddy grades). I sent my drawings to the studio multiple times, until they finally called me down to Sydney for an interview, where I was offered a job.

However, even after I’d entered the animation biz, illustration continued to be a sideline for many years, in Sydney and even when I worked in Asia. Not just to supplement my often sporadic animation work, but also because I genuinely enjoyed doing it.

From www.James-Baker.com

[vonkarma2]

1, 23, 27 for the oc questions?

This contains super old drawings so I’m putting it under a cut, beware my middle school art. Thanks for asking these were fun to answer :)

1. Your first OC ever?

I’ve answered a similar question to this a couple of times before, and I mentioned like the ocs I made when I was like 8 years old. This time, I wanted to use like my first legit developed OC who I put effort into building as a character (this was when I was 13-14), but I wanted to put a specific drawing of her that I was really proud of at the time and I couldn’t find the notebook it was from, so maybe another time. Instead, here’s my wings of fire OC I made when I was 11. Her name is Bobcat and I did not put any effort into building her personality at all unfortunately. 

From this image I assume she was nice, but who is to say. I like talking about really early ocs though bc sometimes there’s not even a concept I just drew a person with random shapes on their face or outfit and then like an out of context line of dialogue and that was it. It’s also like fun to see the ideas I came up with that I have NO memory of whatsoever. I made a couple of sparkledog type characters and drew them each once and never again. I had no idea I ever did that it was news to me

As you can see the one on the left is fire themed (he was a supervillain) and the one on the right is technology themed (superhero). I found this context from the writing on the page which I cropped out bc it is dialogue I wrote at age 12

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Ok let’s see I’ve talked abt Angel and Gloria before so who’s left… I don’t think I’ve talked abt Daisy before. The like cyberpunk style characters originated as an idea for a DND campaign I had, and then decided to write out instead. However, I only came up with like one character, so I abandoned the idea. Coming back to it like 8 months later, I made it sci-fi themed instead. The first character I had like solidified was Remy, who was a pop star basically. For some reason, I later on came up with an incredibly similar idea of a like super rich diva girl type. Not only was this almost exactly the same as him, the design was also very very difficult to draw. So I was like ok this isn’t working so I redrew the character a couple of different ways, and one of them was like a repairman type character with super curly hair, who I thought looked cool, so I basically replaced everything abt the character (personality name gender backstory) except narrative role + role in the heist itself (<it was a heist at the time it’s not anymore).

Also Anjara was originally an ace attorney oc (<from when I knew absolutely nothing abt ace attorney but I had seen objection funk) with like a smug personality but then became like a samurai type personality instead.

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? 

Yes. Many. An embarrassing amount. My creative process is essentially listening to a song I like that doesn’t have anything to do with any of my ocs, so I come up with a new oc  to channel the emotion through. To better enjoy the song. I don’t do this as much now though because 1) I already have a lot of different ocs to cover various song types 2) I’m better at developing characters from nothing I would say. But enough abt that let’s get into specific songs.

every like sci fi oc I have: daft punk around the world/harder better faster stronger from alive 2007

Laura: Dynasty by rina sawayama 

Saida: Grace Kelly by Mika. She’s totally different from her original characterization. It used to be like she had no sense of identity and now she’s like, the complete opposite of that LOL

Melanie: baby one more time by Britney Spears, not because her character had anything to do with the song whatsoever, but because at the time I had a bunch of ocs that were just like visual designs made for fight scenes I would choreograph in my mind. To songs. So her design, but not personality, was one of the ones I made for this. Later on it was Honey I’m Home by Destroy Boys

Tane: The Pop Team Epic OP and also Ironina by nilfruits

Aurelia: Wonder What She Thinks of Me by Chloe x Halle, which is interesting in that that song has a very specific and obvious story which the character here has pretty much nothing to do with. Vibes I guess and massive recontextualization

Henry: Friends in Low Places by Worthikids even more egregious than the above since that’s literally a character song abt an ocs backstory. It was also very recontextualized

Luke: Electric Feel Justice Remix

^This is all a little embarrassing to admit, but I’m not going to lie on ocs ask memes I take ocs very seriously. Also I like how it said “an OC” and I just completely ignored that

[thehumaninteractivists]

The Human Interactivists

It was the strangest sensation, to talk with something outside of our own universe. Yet, at the very edge of the Milky Way, in a ship so vast it would make Jupiter look pathetic, that was exactly what one John Verience would experience.

The television screen, for all intents and purposes was exactly ordinary, the Standard, in-fact. It was wide enough to be mounted upon an Earth-typical display. He stood there in respectable silence, as an image came into view.

For most, the image would be incomprehensible, some would even complain that the screen had been shattered. Multiple lines were arching out, spreading in random directions with no discernible pattern whatsoever. John, however, did not at all seem perturbed by this.

As John placed a recording device off to his side, he carefully looked back at the screen, "And what did you say your name was? On the record this time,"

As the being spoke, the lines began to fragment, "As I did indeed say, I would not have a name in an ordinary sequence. However, for the purposes of your documentation, you may call me Arlen,"

"Of course. Now, why did you decide to communicate with humanity?" His voice was careful, lines obviously practiced.

"It's part of my...Subdivision, fragmentation if you so wish to call it. I, as well as a few others, are dedicated to testing whether or not other lifeforms can understand our existence. Or at least gain some fundamental knowledge upon us,"

"And how would you define these, um, subdivisions?"

The being was silent for a long moment; they had only practiced the first few questions, "It would, perhaps, be defined in similarity to human fandoms, or even the concept of a hivemind,"

"So your species is a hivemind?" John replied with a slight amount of surprise.

The lines upon the screen appeared agitated once more before quickly settling down, "Not exactly. I would compare it to a human computer. In essence, we are all crafted the same, with the exact same source as our material. Yet in minor aspects, we are changed, like the wallpaper upon a laptop, or the software used by that particular individual,"

Once more, John lapsed into silence. It was difficult to wrap his head around, but he wouldn't have been given this job if he couldn't comprehend difficult things.

"Okay... So, you're all, the same. But where you differ is your interests?" He said after a minute.

"Yes," The lines upon the screen replied.

"Right, and what of these interests? Are they just like human interests, or is it a bit more complex?"

"We call those, at least within the human tongues, Bonds. Individuals within the bond are akin to human social media networks. We communicate instantaneously, without need for individual words or diction. Ideas become superfluous,"

"Okay," John replied slowly, "So this has a bit more similarity to Telepathy and a hivemind structure,"

"It is, yes...And yet it is not,"

"Would you care to explain?" Whilst he was not necessarily confused, he was indeed thoroughly lost.

"There was a human artist, at one point, he drew a painting made out of dots. Do you recall, or perhaps have knowledge of him?"

John thought on it for a moment. Their ship was one of the few to have a proper archive of human art, in-fact, theirs had been the one tasked with making sure that part of history was not forgotten.

"I do, I believe," He replied after a long, long few seconds of thinking.

"We are structured as such, individual cells that come together to make a collective whole, within our Bonds. It was believed that our Mothers long long ago designed us as such to further our survival,

"Yet, much as you humans when you banded together, these traits became far more societal, susceptible to customs as such,"

It was only then that one stray line, from before the interview had even begun, slammed into his gut, "O-off of the record, before the interview began... You mentioned being Multiversal. What, exactly, did you mean?"

Without any hint of having perceived his shock and fear, it replied, "We exist along the axis that all universes collide. We have existed here for as long as our recorded history. Occasionally, in our studies, we will stray closer to one universe or the other; such as now, for instance,"

John's mind raced with the implications, and felt more than heard his mouth say, "And others of your species, how many of them have interests related to humans"

"There are only a few," Relief flooded his veins, "However, on occasions, test-samples will be taken from certain universes. We do have an Ethics Board, which is generally viewed as law. However, they are certainly easy to circumvent.

"It is understood that you may feel fear from this. However, your universe was chosen as it is generally seen as one of the least interesting. Will we have the pleasure of speaking with you again?"

[footballfanfictions]

I could keep you warm - Leon Goretzka

Warning: 18+ smut

Written on mobile so no read more yet.

————————

“What are you doing?” Leon asked, causing y/n to jump a little at the sound of his voice. He had been upstairs playing on X Box games with her brother, both of them arguing and laughing at high volume.

Y/n looked up at him, a blush creeping onto her cheeks, feeling somewhat embarrassed at her appearance. It was Sunday and she hadn’t made any effort whatsoever having had a tough week at work. She was still in her pyjamas with her hair thrown up in a messy bun and she had the duvet cover from her bed wrapped around her shoulders to keep her warm while she watched a film on the sofa.

“Just watching a film.” She said, smiling at him. Y/n’s brother and Leon had been friends since they had been at school together and had maintained their friendship despite Leon now being a famous footballer living away from where he grew up. Everyone was now back home for Christmas and it had meant that Leon had been spending a lot of time at Y/n’s parents’ house.

“Your brother has given up on me, he’s FaceTiming his girlfriend.” Leon perched as he spoke on the edge of the sofa, looking down at his hands rather that making eye contact with her.

“Are you heading off then?” She asked him, quietly hoping that he wouldn’t be and that he just might stay for a little while and talk to her. She had missed Leon, his smile, his sense of humour, his hugs, everything really. She struggled to admit it but Leon had been her first real crush and she still felt the familiar butterfly feeling every time he was near her.

“Are you cold?” He countered, not answering her previous question.

“Freezing. That’s why I have my duvet down here.”

“I could keep you warm…” he leant in closer and brushed his lips against her ear, one of his hands coming up to cup Y/n’s cheek. “Would it be the worst thing in the world if I were to kiss you right now?”

Y/n was floored for a moment or two, not quite sure how to answer the question. If she listened to her head she should tell him not to. The last she had heard he had a long term girlfriend in Munich and besides it would complicate the friendship that he had with her brother. If she listened to her body however, she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist his advances.

“Depends who you ask.” She said.

“Maybe I’m not asking anymore.” With that he stood suddenly and scooped her up into his arms off the sofa and carried her up the stairs. He knew their house well from years spent in it, but had never ventured into Y/n’s room before. Her parents had left it exactly how it had been when she had left for university 3 years earlier, the walls still embarrassingly adorned with Polaroids of her with her friends and posters of boyband members and other footballers.

Leon carried her through her bedroom and into her en-suite. She gave him a questioning look as he set her down on the counter next to the sink.

“Fancy a bath?” He said, turning the taps on and adjusting the temperature before he was pouring generous amounts of her bath oils into the water.

Y/N shifted slightly uncomfortably on the counter and bit her lip.

This didn’t go unnoticed, with Leon moving to stand in between her parted legs, one hand placed on each side of her as he leant into her. His mouth met hers in an urgent, desperate kiss and he drew her bottom lip between his teeth to bite down on it himself.

His hands were all over her then, Pulling down her pyjama vest top to free her tits.

“You have no idea how long I have wanted you.” He groaned, squeezing her bum with one hand while his other cupped one of her breasts.

She froze against him for a moment, remembering that he had a girlfriend at home and would probably forget all about her when he went back after the holidays.

“Have I done something wrong?” He took a step back and turned the the bath tap off.

“What about your girlfriend?” She asked, using one of her arms to cover her exposed chest.

“I don’t have one anymore. We broke up months ago.” She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he spoke, not fully focusing on the words until he repeated himself.

“Oh. Shit. I guess I’ve just ruined this then.” She blushed.

He smiled at her and shook his head, placing his hands on her hips he manoeuvred her to sit at the edge of the bath and got down onto his knees.

She leant back in this time and reached for the hem of his t shirt, pulling it up and off over his head in one fluid movement. She clung onto his shoulders as they kissed again, her fingernails grazing lightly over his skin. “Do you trust me?” He asked as he rid her of the rest of her clothes and lifted her as if she weighed nothing into the water.

“Yes.” She responded.

“Good, do as I say.”

She watched as he pulled his light grey joggers down followed swiftly by his boxers, discarding them behind him before he sunk into the tub behind her.

“Look forwards, and press your back into me.” He instructed. One his hands coiling around her neck and applying a small amount of pressure. His other hand got to work on one of her nipples, twisting and tugging gently until it peaked. Y/n felt like she was on fire, desperate to touch him but wanting to be rewarded by following his instructions. She could feel how hard he was, his cock pressing against her lower back.

He nuzzled his nose against the crook of her neck on the side he wasn’t holding and proceeded to kiss and suck at her skin there. The hand that had been teasing her nipple was now on her stomach, his fingers splayed out across it.

“What do you want?” He mumbled into her neck in between marking her.

“Please touch me. Please.”

“Like this?” His hand travelled lower, the pads of his fingers stroking her hip bone.

“Lower Leon, need to feel you. Want you to stretch me out with your fingers before you fuck me.”

She could almost feel him smirk against her skin, but he obliged, brushing his thumb lightly over her clit, eliciting a moan from her lips instantly.

He tested the waters, running over finger along her slit while his thumb remained against her clit. She squirmed against his hand, anything to get him to go further, to push it inside.

“Tell me that you need me.”

“I do. I need you so badly Leon please. Don’t tease me any longer.”

He obliged, his fingers testingly pumping in and out of her. She squirmed against him but he held her still, his arm across her chest holding her in place.

She was on the brink of cumming when his fingers left her. His strong arms were lifting her again, and she turned to face him. Running her wet fingers through his messed up curls she admired him. Taking control, she held the base of his dick steady as she sunk down onto him.

Gripping onto his shoulders, she started to move her hips against him. His hands found her bum and squeezed. She moved slowly at first conscious of not flooding the bathroom by letting the water splash, but when he grabbed her hips and forced her to move faster, she lost all concept of what was going on around them.

“Gonna make me come if you keep this up, such a good girl.”

She felt her pussy flutter and clench around him as her orgasm built inside of her.

“So close Leon…” she whispered breathlessly.

“Come for me.” He commanded, his hands continuing to guide her hips against him.

“Oh fuck.” She moaned as she felt her orgasm hit, her clenching around his dick and stilling her hips. He held herl as his dick twitched inside her and he came.

He held her still in his arms for a moment, his lips brushing against hers lightly, tucking a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear.

They were broken out of their post sex afterglow by a sharp knock on the door of the en-suite.

“If you two are done, it’s time for dinner.” Y/n’s brother called to them.

[ocean-in-my-rebel-soul]

Hello! For DADWC Prompt: "Hiding/hoping not to be caught kiss" for Fenders. (I can never get enough of them truthfully XD) <3

Yay Fenders! I also just adore this ship to pieces. Here's some first kisses for you and @dadrunkwriting !

Rated G, 1.3k words

-:- -:- -:-

The market was as busy as ever, packed with people from both High- and Lowtown. Anders walked beside Fenris with his staff in hand, disguised as a 'walking stick' that fooled a remarkable amount of people. Fenris snorted as they walked; no one was paying any mind whatsoever.

No one, except the Templars that patrolled the promenade.

"Shit," Anders said eloquently.

Fenris shouldered him into a nearby alley. There weren't many shadows to hide in, but he found one and shoved Anders into it. "You have to stop taking that damned stick with you."

"And leave myself defenseless?" Anders sputtered. "You try not taking that ridiculous sword with you and we'll talk."

"Ridiculous--"

Fenris was cut off by the clanking of steel and silverite. "Hurry, further in."

"All right, all right, don't get your knickers in a twist."

"Please understand, mage, that I'm doing this for your benefit, not mine. Unlike you, I can go unmolested."

Anders gave an unimpressed look at Fenris. "That's not true. You're an elf."

"That--" Fenris cut off. "That's a decent point, actually," he conceded.

"See? I have those occasionally." Anders let himself be harried further into the alley.

The clanking drew closer.

"Anders," Fenris said tightly, "we must be--fenedhis."

Anders heard it at the same time. "Fuck, knickerweasels--"

"May I kiss you?"

"May you what--"

Fenris fisted his hands in Anders' coat; he pressed him firmly against the wall, hiding him from view in the shadows. "Just--shut up."

And then, rising on his tip-toes, he pulled Anders down and kissed him.

It was a moronic idea, for sure. That's exactly what it was. Anders gasped against Fenris' mouth in surprise but he didn't pull away. Instead he only grasped at the hard planes of Fenris' shoulders, his staff clattering to the ground. And oh, he kissed back once the shock wore off.

(Maker, did he ever.)

Anders' mouth was soft under Fenris' own, opening easily to him. He moaned deep in his chest and Fenris could feel it beneath his hands. His tongue was sweet with juice from berries he'd sampled three stalls back, Fenris was surprised to find, and it shouldn't have been alluring--shouldn't have been, but was.

The morning had been one of many surprises, Fenris found.

It's like Anders couldn't decide where his hands should rest; they traveled from Fenris' shoulders to his back, roaming over him in a way that Fenris couldn't feel through his armor but wanted to. Anders' long, graceful fingers rose to Fenris' nape and threaded through his hair. Thumbs under his chin had him tilting his head further for Anders to angle them together better. Anders took more control, exploring his mouth with expert ease that spoke of more experience than Fenris had. He was gentle in his ministrations, a healer through and through, though Fenris hadn't doubted that in almost five years. A soft whine crept between them. Fenris should have been horrified to hear it coming from himself.

(But he wasn't. Not really.)

Despite the sounds he made Anders didn't shift forward to pin Fenris against a wall, didn't grab for him, didn't make demands of him. Instead they only traded kisses back and forth, the fire of urgency that had started this mess simmering down to a more moderate flame. They pulled apart with some reluctance on Fenris' part, but only enough that Anders could nudge their foreheads together.

"And what, exactly, was that for?" Anders asked, taking in a breath that shuddered around the edges.

What had that been for? "Ah... Templars. In the market. They were going to see you and your 'walking stick'."

Anders snorted. "They haven't been in the market for five whole minutes and we've been kissing for probably ten. Don't get me wrong, I really, really enjoyed that. I'm just saying."

Heat burned the tips of Fenris' ears. He hurriedly stepped a few feet away, his back to the market. Crossing his arms, he had to consider Anders in a new and perhaps frightening way in light of this. Anders stared back, a saucy smile growing over his face the longer Fenris tried to put his thoughts in order.

"You liked it! I knew it. You have to like me at least a little."

"I didn't, I just--Hawke would kill us both if you were caught."

"So you put your tongue down my throat?"

Fenris bristled. "It shut your fool mouth, didn't it? Knowing you, you'd get twisted and end up in the Gallows. You're a danger to yourself."

Anders' smile fell. If it had been a physical thing Fenris could have heard it shatter on the stone ground. "Wow. Okay. Back to that already? And after we'd shared a moment and everything. Just...wow, Fenris."

Chewing his lip, Fenris drummed his fingers along his arm. "I said to yourself."

"And others, I know, you've said it so many--"

"Just yourself," Fenris said quickly, ears burning again. He looked away. "I think... After five years, I can hope that you have your demon under control--"

"Not a demon--"

Fenris sighed. "Anyway," he continued, hand rising to pinch the bridge of his nose, "after all we've had to do together with and for Hawke, after five years, I've seen the worst you can do." He chuckled weakly. "You would make a horrible Magister. You'd die in mere weeks. Sooner, perhaps. You're too...nice."

"See? I told you you liked me." Anders gave a strained laugh. "Maker, Fenris, you have a funny way of showing it."

Fenris huffed and eyed Anders warily. "And how's that?"

"Well"--Anders began ticking off his fingers--"first, there's the fact that we spent the first two years of our 'friendship' as enemies, or at the very least we definitely didn't like each other. Then we spent the next two years in a sort of detente where we began to acknowledge that for all our differences, we share a few commonalities. To our credit, we started to actually talk about things, not just talk past each other. It was tense, but we worked on it. And now, going on almost five years of knowing each other, we're friends one minute and you kiss me out of the blue and steal the breath from my lungs the next. That's how."

"That's...certainly the way of it, I suppose." Fenris unwound his arms. "Stole the breath from your lungs?"

"And more. You know," Anders said coyly, coming away from his wall to walk the short distance until he stood in front of Fenris, "you don't have to wait until I'm maybe in danger to kiss me again."

"What makes you so sure I want to kiss you again?"

"You haven't been able to look away from my mouth for more than three seconds before you look again. Newsflash: my eyes are up here." Anders giggled, actually giggled, his mouth pulled into a sweet smile that Fenris had only ever witnessed as an outsider. It was intoxicating, sound and smile both.

"And," he continued, quieter, "if I'm honest, I want to kiss you, too. Have for a while now."

The admission had Fenris' stomach flipping loops in his middle. "I think...I think I'd like that," Fenris said, hoping he sounded more brave than he actually felt.

Anders' smile grew wider, his warm brown eyes crinkling happily in the corners. His hands rose to frame Fenris' face, pale against his darker skin. "May I?" he asked, voice hushed.

Fenris nodded.

"Verbal consent, Fenris."

"Fasta vass, mage, fine, yes--"

And then suddenly Anders' mouth was on his once more, gentle but firm. He coaxed Fenris open with little kitten licks of his tongue, and with a happy hum he eased his way inside. One of Anders' hands moved to cup Fenris' nape while the other cradled his head. They shared sweet, unhurried kisses until Fenris' head spun.

When they parted, Fenris had his arms around Anders' neck, holding him close. Anders nudged their foreheads together once more. It was...comforting.

"What was that for?" Fenris asked in a shaky voice.

Anders smiled. "Because I wanted to."

"Oh."

"I told you you wanted to kiss me again."

"Shut up and put that mouth to better use."

Laughing, Anders did just that.

[dreamwritesimagines]

Burn The Witch 12 - Bad Surprise [Bucky Barnes x Reader]

A.N: Thank you so much for your wonderful support and feedback my loves ! ❤ Here’s the next chapter, I hope you like it as well and please let me know what you think! ❤ Thank you! ❤❤❤

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

Warnings: Enemies to lovers, fake dating, mentions of blood, sex, violence, death, manipulation, language, guns, knives.

Summary: Sometimes plans have to change.

Series Masterlist

Every job required something from people, and your job was no different.

Being a spy was not a conventional profession, everyone knew that. You were expected to be on the move all the time, be a good liar, be a good fighter, be whatever the job told you to.

And most important of all; never show fear, which you were usually fine with. You had learned long ago how to keep your calm in times of crisis. You had even managed to keep your calm facade when your last mission required you to play Russian Roulette with a target in order to keep your cover.

But this? This was something else.

Bucky cleared his throat to stifle a laugh as he looked down at you.

“Is it just me or are you using me as a human shield against a peacock right now?”

Your eyes snapped up at his for a moment before you turned your gaze to the peacock again, taking a subtle step to Bucky’s right to keep him between you and the animal.

Coming to the zoo was his idea, and you thought it could be a fun experience. You had never been to a zoo before, and it would count as one of the old times dates, so you were almost giggly by the time you got there.

Right until now.

“I think peacocks don’t have souls.”

“Alright.” Bucky sipped his coffee while you tried to ignore the fear bubbling at the pit of your stomach, eyeing the peacock that walked around the area behind the fences.

“I’m serious,” you insisted “What if it attacks me?”

“It’s not going to attack you Y/N.”

“It could,” you said, “It looks like it wants to attack me.”

The peacock fanned out its feathers all of a sudden and let out a squawk, making you jump out of your skin.

“Fuck!” the curse left your lips and Bucky’s eyebrows rose, an amused grin pulling at his lips.

“Sorry!” you said quickly, “Sorry, I…I don’t trust peacocks.”

“You got mugged in a dark alley and got shot, and a bird is where you draw the line?”

Correction, you were once held at gunpoint by the Italian mafia and peacocks were still where you drew the line.

“That’s not a bird.”

“….Peacocks are birds.”

“No, that’s the devil looking like a bird,” you said, “In-in bird shape. Bird shaped demon.”

“Okay, how about we see some other less threatening animal?”

“Let me check—oh my God Bucky they have sharks, I love sharks!” you said, waving the brochure in his face and he pulled his brows together.

“Sharks fall under the less threatening animal category?”

“Of course they do!” you said, looking at the brochure before looking around, “I think the aquarium is over there, let’s go.”

You grabbed his hand to entwine your fingers with his as you both started walking towards the huge blue structure.

“So I feel like I shouldn’t ask because I know you can’t exactly tell me the details,” you said, “But you’re not going on another mission soon, are you? This week?”

“I don’t think so,” he said, “Why?”

“I’m kind of planning something.”

He tilted his head, “What are you planning?”

“Not a club, relax.” you said, “Although I find it quite ironic that you’re this unstoppable brave superhero with super strength who gets intimidated by dancing.”

“I’m not intimidated…” he grumbled under his breath, making you giggle.

“Whatever you say,” you sang, and reached the entrance of the huge building and you pulled your hand out of his.

“Excuse me sir, is the aquarium still open?” you asked the security guard by the door and a small smirk appeared on his lips.

“Yes but it is closing in ten minutes sweetheart.”

Sweetheart?

Jesus Christ….

You smiled politely at him, batting your lashes.

“Oh—“ you took a look at the sign, “I just want to see the killer shark and we’ll be out. In five minutes. Please?”

He eyed you up and down but seemed to snap out of it when Bucky cleared his throat behind you as if warning him, making the guy gawk between you two.

Even you had to admit you seemed like a quite unusual couple. You were wearing a short white sundress with ruffled sleeves and sweetheart neckline with your hair loose while Bucky looked as if he was there to kill someone, a complete opposite of you with his dark jeans and black leather jacket as well as leather gloves.

You didn’t even have to turn your head to know that he was glaring at the guard before the guy shifted his weight, then stepped aside.

“Enjoy.”

“Thank you!” you said, grabbing Bucky’s hand as you led him inside. He followed you without any objections whatsoever, in complete silence as the sight of blue filled your vision along with many fish swimming behind the glass.

“You don’t even see it, do you?” he asked softly and you pulled your brows together.

“Hm?”

“Does anyone ever say no to you?”

You approached the label by the glass, “You do.”

“Do I?”

“All the time,” you nodded, still reading the label but your head shot up when you felt him tug you by the hand. A giggle escaped from your lips as he turned you around so that you could look up at him, then wrapped his arm around you to scoop you up, making you squeal.

“Bucky!”

“All the time?”

“Put me down!” you said, your laughter echoing in the empty aquarium halls and he tilted his head.

“Not until you explain yourself,” he teased you, “All the time?”

“Sometimes, sometimes!” you said quickly, “Very rare times I might add!”

“Mm hm, I thought so.”

“If you drop me, I swear to God—“ you started but was cut off when he pulled you into a kiss, making you wrap your arms around his neck. He took a step with you still in his embrace and you gasped as you felt your back hit the thick glass, but every single protest you could think of seemed to disappear from your mind as you lost yourself in the kiss. You raked your fingernails over the nape of his neck, making his grip around you tighter-

Then someone coughed.

Bucky pulled back instantly and you turned your head to see another rather annoyed technician leaning on her hip, watching you with her brows raised.

“Aquarium is about to close,” she said, pointing at you, “Take it elsewhere.”

Bucky put you down and you tried to fix the skirt of your dress, trying to look presentable.

“Sorry!” you said as Bucky mumbled an apology beside you as well, and the technician shook her head and walked away, talking about how she wasn’t getting paid enough for this. You covered your face and let out a whine but Bucky chuckled, causing you to lower your hands to stare up at him.

“Why is this entertaining for you?” you exclaimed and he held your wrist, gently steering you to the exit.

“Come on.”

“We can never come here again, ever.” you insisted as you followed him outside. It didn’t escape your notice that he bumped his shoulder into the security guard’s quite hard, almost knocking him over on your way out and your jaw dropped.

“That was mean!”

“Nah, he had it coming. Are you hungry?”

“But you could get in trouble. Besides, he was a nice guy—“

“Uh huh, a nice guy who was ogling you.”

You pulled your brows together, pretending to be confused, “Oh I’m sure you misunderstood.”

He tilted his head and pulled you closer to wrap his arm around your waist, then brushed his lips against yours, making you sigh.

“Bucky, it was mean and you can’t just kiss me to distract me—”

“I can try,” he murmured to your lips before kissing you again and you looked up at him when he pulled back with a grin.

“Fine,” you admitted, still pouting. “I’m hungry. Starving actually, let’s eat something.”

                                                    ***

You were finding it harder and harder to convince yourself it was time to go home after every date with Bucky.

Scratch that, you were finding it harder and harder not to invite him upstairs.

But of course, you would have to report it back to the General and discuss the further strategies with him and for some reason, it felt more of a betrayal than this whole thing.

Surprisingly enough, it was something you wanted and not something you would will yourself to do because of the mission. There was no denying it, he was an attractive guy and you really liked spending time with him and you kept having dreams about him and whenever you were with him you had this lightness in your mind, as if you were a different person.

A better person, maybe.

You shook your head at your thoughts and left your apartment to knock on Keith’s door.

“It’s me, open up.”

You heard footsteps before he opened the door and a boyish smile pulled at his lips at the sight of milkshakes in your hand.

“Jesus, finally!”

“I made it at home, can’t promise it’s good,” you said as you walked past him into his apartment and stepped into the living room, “What are you watching?”

“James Bond,” he grinned at you, “Hey, have you ever tried milkshake with gin?”

“No?”

“Me neither, let’s try it.” He said, taking the big glasses from you to pour gin into them. You sat on the couch and took a look at the screen.

“How many times have you watched this again?”

“Like a hundred,” he handed you your glass and you took a sip.

“Not bad,” you commented, putting your feet up on the coffee table. He sat beside you, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“What did you do today?”

“Had a date.”

“With Barnes?”

“Yeah. At the zoo.”

“He took you to the zoo?” he asked and you nodded.

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“And peacocks are fucking scary,” you muttered, “And hey, we learned that Bucky is the jealous type.”

“The guy was dating people back at 40s, I could tell you that much myself.” He snorted, “Chloe says you went on a mission with Julian?”

You slipped a little on the couch, “He’s an asshole.”

“I know. Is he really that bad in bed?”

You shrugged your shoulders, “Nah as much as I hate to admit, he’s pretty good. Unfortunately.”

“So top or bottom?”

“He goes either way to be honest, that comment was more about me.”

“About you?”

“Yeah, I like to be on top.”

“Suddenly everything about you makes sense,” he murmured and you took another sip of your milkshake.  

“Don’t try that with Barnes though, the guy is from 1940s. He’s probably used to missionary only, you don’t want to give him a heart attack,” he wiggled his brows, making you scoff.

“Shut up.”

“Chloe is right, maybe you should go full on vintage on that when the time comes.”

You turned to look at him.

“Speaking of Chloe,” you said, “Anything you would like to tell me?”

Keith’s grin faded slightly and he shifted his weight, “Like what?”

“Bringing her coffee, taking her out to the field…” you trailed off, “What gives, man? I thought we had a deal.”

“We never had a deal,” he defended himself, “You slammed me back during training years ago at the academy and told me not to even think about it when you saw me looking at her.”

“No,” you shook your head, “Five years ago, in Ireland. That undercover job, the one that almost got you killed? We made a deal.”

He swallowed thickly, looking down at the milkshake before taking a sip. “Y/N…”

“Keith, you can’t,” you insisted, “She deserves a normal life, a normal family and kids and a dog and stuff.”

“I know,” he ran a hand over his face, “I know.”

“Then?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re a spy,” you said, “You said it yourself, spies die like flies.”

“Not all of them,” he said, “General is still alive. He has a family.”

“Yeah, one in a hundred,” you said, “Face it. That’s a very low possibility for us.”

“You don’t think you’ll get to grow old and have a family and all that?”

You pulled your brows together.

“No,” you said, “Of course not. I’m probably going to die in one of these missions.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“Keith, I can’t have any of those,” you said, “I can’t. I…it’s impossible.”

“Don’t you want to?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” you muttered, “I made my choice ages ago.”

“Y/N,” he sat up straighter, “Do you want to?”

With a very bad timing, your imagination went overdrive and a strange scene flashed before your eyes. You laughing in Bucky’s arms, watching two kids playing in the garden-

You shook your head, trying to shake off the thoughts.

“I could never have that,” you stated simply, “You might love Chloe and you might also be lucky enough to have her love you but…it’s not the same with me.”

“I’d say Barnes loves you.”

A bitter smile pulled at your lips and you bit inside your cheek, taking another sip of your milkshake.

“He loves someone who doesn’t exist,” you managed to croak out, “He loves my cover. He could never love me.”

                                                           ***

Spending the night at Keith’s and drowning your sorrows in gin and milkshake meant that you would have a killer hangover the next day. Unlike Keith, you didn’t have the luxury to sleep until the noon, seeing that you had a cover job to keep so for the whole day until noon, you walked around like a zombie.

Coffee helped though. Just a little.

Thankfully it was a slow day at the shop. After serving a couple of people, you had nothing to do other than seriously considering sticking your head in the freezer to get rid of the hangover.

“Long night?” Tara asked as she walked past you to put the straws into the cup and you nodded, groaning.

“Remind me not to drink, ever.”

“I make that promise to myself every Monday, does not seem to work.”

You chuckled, “Have you ever tried to mix gin into milkshakes?”

“No?”

“Don’t,” you shook your head as you helped her to move an empty milkshake container into the kitchen. “It’s a terrible idea and I’m experiencing the consequences of that mistake right now.”

“That sounds like a fun night though.”

“Fun night, terrible morning,” you let out a laugh as you walked out of the kitchen but as soon as you did, your eyes caught the sight of the man in the shop. Your smile was wiped off your face as the familiar anger filled your system.

Jesus Christ, this day sucks.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” you asked and Julian had the audacity to shoot you a grin.

“Whoa cute outfit,” he said, eyeing you up and down, “Holy shit I didn’t even know I was into this whole thing, I’m having an epiphany.”

You looked over your shoulder to see if Tara was still in the kitchen, then turned to Julian.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was craving milkshakes,” he stated, “Hey, would you recommend Lavender Macaron?”

“Get the fuck out of here.”

“I think I’m gonna go with Lavender Macaron, makes me think of France,” he said, “Fun times.”

“Fun for you maybe.”

He shot you a look, “Come on Y/N, we didn’t leave the honeymoon suite for two days. That was the greatest-“ he lowered his voice, “Mission I’ve ever had.”

“You’re putting this entire operation in—“ you started but stopped talking as soon as Tara walked out of the kitchen. Julian raised his brows for a moment before smiling at her and you went under the counter to grab his arm.

“Y/N, is everything okay?”

“Just peachy,” you said as you dragged him out of the shop, and he heaved a sigh, following you.

“No I’m serious…” he said with a chuckle as soon as you both stepped outside, then motioned at the uniform, “This is something else.”

“Why are you here?”

“I heard that it was good, I did not think it was this good.”

“I’m seriously two seconds away from punching you.”

“How come you never dressed up like this for me when we were dating?”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” you insisted and he shrugged his shoulders.

“I was around.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Believe whatever you want,” he said, “Your shop has good rating, although I’m beginning to believe it has less to do with milkshakes and more about the waitresses.”

“Julian I swear to God—“ you started but you were cut off when someone cleared his throat, making both you and Julian turn your heads. Your stomach dropped as soon as you saw Bucky watching you two with a frown and you withdrew your hand from Julian’s arm.

“Bucky,” you breathed out, “Um-hi.”

“Hi,” he said without taking his eyes off Julian, and you could almost see the wheels turning in his head.

He was trying to decide whether he was a threat to you.

“I didn’t…I didn’t know you were coming.”

“I figured I could drop by,” he said, crossing his arms, “What’s going on?”

Fuck.

Fuck, you had no idea how to turn this around. Thankfully neither of you had said anything about the mission, so it was more than likely that Bucky just knew you knew each other, but other than that, your cover wasn’t blown.

“Nothing! Nothing at all, he’s just—“ you stammered, trying to come up with an explanation, “He’s um—“  

“Oh come on Y/N, don’t be one of those secretive people,” Julian said, “You hate secrets. You’re Bucky, right? I heard about you.”

Bucky just raised his brows, his glare on him unwavering but even if it was quite chilling, Julian was a trained assassin just like you were, so he was used to it. Instead he curled his lips, looking between you before offering him his hand.

“I’m Julian,” he introduced himself, shooting you a grin as if you two shared an inside joke “The evil ex-boyfriend who’s gonna take her from you.”

Chapter 13