#i mean this is not a shippy fic but

[piningpercussionist]

Kimona doodles!

I enjoy both versions, so I figured, why not?

[cuubism]

It’s 3pm on a rainy Wednesday, and Hob is sleepily grading student papers, when Death of the Endless appears in his flat, lies quietly down on the couch, and rests her head in his lap.

Hob stares down at her for a long moment, hands aloft in indecision, because this is not... something they do. By now he can say he calls Death a friend, and they get drinks together sometimes and chat, but this...

“Everything alright, love?” he asks, finally resting a hand on her shoulder.

“I don’t mean to disturb your peace,” Death says quietly. The TV Hob’s left on as background noise—some silly cooking show—nearly drowns out her voice entirely.

“Nothing peaceful about trying to find nice ways to tell my students they can’t write for shit,” Hob says, pushing his papers away. He can’t see Death’s face well like this, but he doesn’t like the uneven sound of her voice, not when she’s usually so level. “Disturb away.”

After a long moment in which they both just listen to the TV program host blather on about crumpets, Death says, “I am not affected by deaths.”

“…Alright,” Hob says, though he’s not convinced.

“I am…” Death continues, but trails off on a breath like a whistle of cold wind. “May I... stay here awhile?”

“‘Course.” Hob carefully pets at her head, strokes her hair. Worry is building, but he doesn’t think Death needs him to pull her words out of her the way he sometimes has to with Dream. She will speak when she’s ready. “Do you want to hear some truly fascinating attempts at historical analysis? Or is peace and quiet what you’re looking for?”

“You can speak if you wish,” Death says, still in that quiet tone.

So Hob tells her about some of his students, the ones who truly seem to have some promise in the field, and the others who he’s pretty sure are just mangling their papers together from sentences out of one of those AI things, if the originality is anything to go by. It’s disappointing but does make for humorous reading. Though really, Hob’s not sure whether to laugh or despair when he has to read lines like War has negative effects on people in an actual university academic paper. Wow, you don’t say.

He does manage to get a few chuckles out of his friend, but none with her usual humor and enthusiasm, and eventually he trails off, and they listen quietly to the background noise of the TV.

“Is there anything I can do?” Hob asks quietly.

“Can you control the future, Hob?” Death asks, a rhetorical question without any of her usual lightheartedness.

“Can’t even control the present,” Hob says. He just keeps his hands on her, one on her shoulder, one on the top of her head. Grounding, he hopes. And he thinks on what she’d said.

Hob knows that Destiny is the only Endless that operates in the future, but he has wondered, now that he understands them a bit better, if Death may not have a foot in that direction as well. She must know, some way, how to be where she must when she must.

Death has never seemed overly burdened by the past, even though history is a tower of bones a hundred miles high. Hob had asked, once — do all those terrible things ever bother you? you were there for them all —and all she had said was, “It has already happened,” with neither pleasure nor pain, just acceptance.

The future is another matter entirely.

“Is something going to happen?” he asks.

“I will not burden you with knowledge that is not yours to carry,” Death says.

So, that’s a yes.

“Maybe I could do something about it,” Hob suggests, though he suspects where that query will lead.

“You could not.”

“What about you, then?”

“That is not my place,” she says, though she sounds less certain about it than she usually is when discussing her function.

“You sure?” Hob asks.

“Were I to change fates for some, what excuse would I have for not doing so for all? Unfair things happen hourly, and always will. If I upend the balance, there is no telling how things would tip out of control down the road.”

It must be hard, Hob thinks, to be so powerful and yet so powerless.

“You did spare me,” he points out.

Death huffs, almost a laugh. “In truth, I shouldn’t have done that. Although I suspect Destiny had it written in his book for other purposes entirely.”

Huh. Well, that’s probably something Hob shouldn’t think on too hard for the sake of his own sanity.

“Well, I’m certainly not complaining about it,” Hob says, and Death chuckles.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asks, when they’ve been sitting for another few minutes in silence.

“I… do not have many friends,” Death says. Common family trait, then, Hob thinks. Not that it’s really so surprising. Death is very personable, but most of her interactions with people are, well… fleeting. And it can’t be easy to make normal friends, when you’re as expansive a being as one of the Endless.

“Stay for a while then,” Hob says. He pulls a blanket over her and tucks it around her shoulders. “Until you have to go.”

“Thank you, Hob,” says Death, still sounding incredibly weighed down by her function, but given a slight reprieve, perhaps.

Hob rubs her shoulder and thinks about these endless creatures he’s chosen to love. Do they have anyone else to worry about them? He doesn’t think so. It’s just Hob, and he doesn’t think that’s anywhere close to enough, but he’ll just have to do his best.

“Any time, love,” he tells her, and means it.

[silentassassin21]

the bottom table makes me a lil crazy btw

[flashbic]

do 2 + 12 for le lorrain pls 🥺✌️ good morning

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

That he's 100% one of the good guys but ALSO that he's allowed to be a bit of a jerk! I love that while he says he regrets what he did to Falconi, just a few hours earlier he's right there, literally taunting him about it and being a dick. We know he still lies to ladies for attention! Despite how well that went the one time! In that other ep his dad is literally asking for his help, and sure he wants to help, but he was actually still going to say no before Cartouche stopped him because he was more focused on keeping his identity as a Cartouchien secret.

He's a nice, smart guy, and he comes off as smooth so it's not as easy to notice, but you kinda get the impression that he hasn't completely lost the asshole vibes! And i think that makes for a fun character!

(special mention to the one bit where he walks next to Demachault and messes up his wig Just For Funsies, it's so gratuitous and i just think it's funny ok)

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Bisexual le Lorrain REAL. I like the idea that those aren't feelings he ever really did anything about, because ultimately he likes flirting with ladies a whole lot and that's enough for him… but maybe he had some confused feelings for his bestie Cartouche for a little bit, and maybe that's part of what made him tag along when they first met.

In general i don't really consider that orientation as something that would've influenced the way he treated Falconi back when they were rivals; for the most part i like to think that he saw that relationship more as competition initially, and that things turned sour because he couldn't stand having someone he thought of as beneath him beating him at anything. Also i see him typically being more attracted to people who are outgoing, funny and talkative, and Falconi being generally none of those things wouldn’t have helped asdfjgk (the fun point being that maybe Falconi could've been a little bit more like that if he hadn't felt like people were constantly antagonizing him)

My other headcanon is that he’s a single child ans is absolutely a mama’s boy <3 She taught him music (canon!) and maybe spoiled him a little too much.

[givehimthemedicine]

There was a place where I used to have to stay. When I was bad.

The little room that was all cold floor. Where I would be alone in the dark for so long that I would miss people. Even though people were bad.

I would sit in the corner and try to think what a soft place would be like. I would lean my head on the wall and.. if I stayed in the same place, the tile would get warm there.

And to sleep I would try to pretend the warm place was... somebody. Like there was such a thing as somebody who would be nice to me.

I thought about that when I got in your bed that night. And you made me comfortable. And you read to me.

And I put my head on you.. and you were warm and soft and nice to me. And I was not alone.

(excerpt from do not cry because I know not everyone reads elmax fic but the sleepover scene torments me and I want to make sure you all suffer too)

[they-call-me-thewildrose]

I’ve been in the live action One Piece tag for five (5) minutes and oh my god y’all are so horny

[barlowstreet]

Hello! Just wanted to say I adore your TLOU fics. I feel like there is a distinct lack of quality Joel&Ellie fic compared to Joel/Reader fic, which I am so not into at all. Your stuff has been giving me life and scratching the itch, so thank you!!!

I need you guys to stop saying nice things about me. I really can't handle it XD

To spread the love (???? and thank you??? thank you so much) I went through my AO3 bookmarks and pulled some of my favourite Ellie & Joel fics that could use more love. Some or all of these you've probably read, obviously, but this seemed fun and like it would take the attention off me!

Things you can read if you've only watched the show up to episode 4:

Try Not to Get Attached, Joel by faeverett

On the Road by IgnorantArmies - This is a WIP but the 4 chapters of it stand pretty well alone and I want more so go tell them it's good XD

Spoiler things:

and our souls, they blend by fallingraine85

somewhere in the desert there's a forest by wmthackeray

A Bad Day in Ohio by blue_calico

My Heart Reconciled by altschmerzes <- Probably my personal favourite, and it shows

Where Rainbows Never Die by Joels_revolver

Puns on tour also by Joels_revolver

We Really Don't Need to Talk About This by thalius

The World Entire by BrennanSpeaks <- This one makes me cry every time

Winter by AccidentalAccount <- Also a fave, I love a winter fic and Ellie POV. This one really nails her voice, imo, and just how hard Winter was for her.

[jamietxrtt]

like roy doesn’t even really have any friends besides jamie. keeley says “don’t you ever want something more than just the yoga mums?” and roy says “nope this suits me just fine” but c’mon we know he’s lying. his only friends are people who know nothing about him. and that’s how he likes it, he claims. so he can remain guarded and stoic and keep everything under control. having friends who know nothing about you is Better Actually because then nobody really gets you and if nobody gets you then nobody can hurt you.

AND THEN JAMIE COMES ALONG, jamie who is so similar to roy’s past self that it makes him want to scream sometimes, jamie who has so many parallels and shared life experiences with roy that they Get each other even if they don’t Like each other, and jamie decides “i want to be friends with roy now” and By God Nothing Will Stand In His Way, not even roy himself. so it’s just jamie going “hey can we be friends now :) can we be friends now :) can we be friends now :) can we be frien” for like a whole season straight until roy is finally like UGH. FINE.

and now they will be besties who got all of their hatred of each other out early on so that now they just Get each other. they get each other and they get how to keep each other in check. and jamie is the only one who could ever draw roy out of his shell! because of course he could! he gets roy out seeing the sights of amsterdam and teaches him how to ride a bike and takes him to see a windmill! you know what roy would’ve been doing if not for jamie? sulking for hours on end and that’s it. and that’s what he usually does at home too. but jamie JAMIE is the only one who can fucking pester him enough into going outside and Actually Enjoying Himself For Fucking Once. partially because roy just doesn’t wanna put up with jamie’s Persistence if he says no but also after a while i think it just becomes habit to, if jamie wants to go out and do something, just go with him. he might grumble and complain on the way there but he’ll be smiling on the way back :)

and from jamie’s perspective. HOO BOY. i mean hello roy kent??? childhood hero roy kent??? on the poster on his wall for 10 years roy kent hello???? there’s a reason jamie’s been trying so hard to get through to him. roy laughs at a joke jamie said once (1ce) and jamie is On Fucking Cloud Nine for the ENTIRE rest of the night. literally Beaming for hours on end.

and also i think just like. with his teammates and all that, jamie loves them, but he’s still often very concerned with how he comes off to them. he’s still trying to be very considerate about Being A Good Teammate, and being Cool, and being One Of The Lads. he likes the lads and hangs out with them but i think he worries about what they think of him a bit too much.

but with roy.... like he and roy were at each other’s throats for fucking months. they know how to handle each other’s bitchiness. jamie lashes out and says something mean to sam and sam will just get all sad puppy dog eyes until jamie’s guilt crushes him. but jamie says something mean to roy and roy is just like “fuck u dick” and jamie knows to shut his mouth and that’s that.

roy’s hated him and tolerated him and held him sobbing in his arms. they’ve both seen each other at their worst and ugliest and weakest. jamie doesn’t need to pretend to be nice bc roy knows hes a prick and jamie doesnt need to pretend to be “tough” because they’ve both seen each other cry before. so there’s no need to pretend anymore, there doesn’t have to be any work to keep up pretenses. there’s no more reputation left to burn!!! they know each other too well for that!!! which is very freeing for jamie i think as someone who’s so so obsessed with his image.

i just. roy jamie friendship has such the potential to heal them both SO SO MUCH and i need it. i need it for my soul. thank u

[hirazuki]

*pops in* Hi, again! For the Kiss Asks...

I'm going to be greedy and predictable so risking everything: would you do something with 8 or 12, feat. either Sauron-Maeglin or Sauron-Eönwë, please?

I definitely don't have an agenda to get more written interactions between these characters

…in secrecy. | Sauron & Eönwë

•────────────────────⋅☾ ☽⋅────────────────────•

"That, I cannot grant."

The pronouncement falls with the finality of a blade so cutting that Mairon is almost surprised when there is silence in its wake, instead of the familiar dullness of body hitting ground.

"It is not within my power to pardon those of my own order," Eönwë says a moment later and his voice is colored glass, stained with reproach and that infuriating tint of self-righteousness. "You know this."

Oh, he does; the one-time Maia of Aulë -- forge-bound and rusting, who used to tarry on the high balconies of Ilmarin, a living flame against white stone (painfully simple for eagle-eyes to pick out once the day's duties were done) ever seeking a glimpse of beyond, of more -- knows this intimately. But, amidst the flood and the fire, the carnage and the breaking of the land, the wreckage of an Age -- what else was he to do? Ever has he licked his wounds in private until they are well-hidden under remorse, smoothed like wolf-skin in the glistening light of repentance. It has worked to his advantage, at times; at others --

"Return to Aman and receive my lord's judgement."

Come with me, he hears, the soundless words beating loudly in the still air of the tent, near-frantic, as heavy as he knows the wings of Manwë's herald to be.

The hollow hammering in his chest -- roaring at the certain promise of confinement, of humiliation; of limitation; of malaise -- is louder.

Mairon remains where he is, low-eyed and shallow-lunged and bone-chilled, kneeling on the coarse carpet. (It is deep blue, and shot through with gold and silver thread, rolled out in futile emulation of now-empty quarters across the sea.)

With the last shreds of strength left to him after the fall of Angband, he had dressed himself in a different face and different colors -- unremarkable features easily lost in a crowd, another Maia among the hundreds -- and slipped into the encampment to gain access to Eönwë's ear and favor, shedding his guise only once they were alone. The commander of the host of the West had not raised the alarm at his baring himself before him; just as Mairon had anticipated.

What he had not anticipated had been the resistance.

Eönwë has always been obstinate, but this unpleasant inflexibility is new. It is rigid and brittle like cast iron, clearly a result of being steeped for centuries too long in the dogma of the unchanging, and highly unwelcome: it renders him unresponsive to Mairon's devices.

A worthless endeavor, then, all this abasement; stifling the injury and the ire in his heart in order to demean himself, forcing his tongue to placate and stroke and gloss when all he wants is to bury his teeth into supple throats, to feel the give of flesh under pressure and soak himself in the subsequent warmth, as rightful consequence for laying hands on what is his.

He hears rustling.

Mairon does not raise his gaze from where it is studying the woven patterns under his knee, but he does not need to; Eönwë is finished with him, and most likely turning to go. And still there are no calls or bells or horns; a curious thing, given this failed reunion, but he has no intention of waiting around until the nets are upon him. Gingerly, and with the sickly taste that worry breeds, he casts his senses out: the Elves are numerous, but of little note; how many Maiar are between him and the edge of the camp? If he runs, in his current state, can he --

The prick of curved claw-tips suddenly dances along his jawline, the only notice he receives before a kiss is pressed to his forehead, hard and unyielding.

It burns; a scorching brand wrought of figment and fancy, a life that never was, neither in the lamplit air of Almaren nor in the treelight beneath Aman's sky, seared into his skin by lips incapable of ever understanding their own capacity for atrocity. It burns, so bright and unforgiving and sudden that he has to blink back tears, before they can fall and become misconceptions in someone else's story.

He recognizes it for what it is, of course: an attempt to soothe, and to sway. Poorly done, even if one were to discount the stench of blood, freshly dried, under the herald's dark talons; how he reeks with the recent ruin of everything Mairon held dear.

Mairon knows what he will find but tilts his face upwards all the same, letting hot breath and downy feathers trail their way along his skin until they fall off the edge, their softness as misleading as that of any beast of prey worth its salt.

He meets eyes of Valinor's blank splendor, violent as the devastation of the noonday sky, and drowns in their incomprehension.

[22degreehalo]

Me: Ahhhh, I love slow burny type romances so much, where you can just Feel every tiny little incremental bit of growth in their relationship from strangers to closer than anyone...!

Also me, trying to write the earlier stages: okay so this is when they become desperately attracted to each other, right

[advestager]

I feel like saying Josuke doesn't have any daddy issues whatsoever isn't entirely fair (I've seen some fic and comics go further into how he and his mom might have been treated due to the circumstances of his birth that were pretty compelling) but people who act like he grew up without any father figure are definitely off base imo. Every single adaptation and extra material have always had a focus on his close relationship with his grandpa for a reason!

see, that's precisely the thing. it is literally impossible to be a grown up human without having internalised some sort of illogical Feeling about oneself or the world – but fandom as a whole tends to just assign arbitrary ones to characters based on stereotypes rather than what they actually are like.

i do think josuke feels some sort of way about his lack of a father growing up, but that's as inevitable as joseph himself (or giorno, or jolyne, or even jonathan) having feelings about his own dad, and yet somehow jorge's absence does not get brought up despite joseph and josuke's fairly similar upbringings. the fact is that most of western fandom tends to view the JJBA characters through a (white, usa-centric) lens that simply does not lend itself to a fair or accurate reading when most of the cast is either POC or from an entirely different cultural background. that's why i'm so resistant to label josuke as having 'daddy issues'; the term means something entirely different to me than it seems to do to most of the fandom, based on all the fic, comics, and discussions i've seen (and had) about the topic. it's not exactly like the organised crime aspect of VA, but it fills me with a similar kind of frustration. i don't think one needs a degree in cultural studies or history or whatnot to enjoy a silly series about people punching each other with slutty soul-ghosts, but it's exhausting to see the same thoughtless, very specifically westernised takes being regurgitated over and over as Absolute Truth until the characters are so flanderised they seem nothing as much as a caricature of their original versions. i love transformative works as much as any other fan creator, but i also happen to like the source material. it is infinitely more interesting to me to think about what kind of relationship josuke might have to his heritage as a mixed-race person, or his identity as the son of a single mother or the obviously cherished and spoilt child of a family such as his own (especially in a place and period like canon's late-90s/early 00's japan), than to hear yet another iteration of 'haha, josuke has daddy issues' where the person saying it has no intention of analysing that premise beyond the puddle-depth obvious.

at barely sixteen years old, even as interested in high-end fashion (and as very much part of a working class family who could definitely use the nest egg) as he is, josuke's immediate reaction to being told his missing father is incredibly rich and wants to take care of him is to say that it's not necessary, and he's fine as he is. sixteen. i worked as a teacher with kids as young as a year old and people as old as mid-seventies; that kind of ease of mind is one-in-a-million and not something you'll find on someone who fits fandom's definition of 'daddy issues'. he's not angry at joseph, he's not grasping for money, he hardly even wants to find out more about the missing part of his origins. his only thought is to wish he wouldn't be the reason other people were hurt, and to protect his mother once there is a risk she might find out and be distressed about it. his entire morality system is (from what i remember of canon) mostly based around the question What Would Grandpa Do?, with some leeway allowed for the temper he clearly got from tomoko and for the fact that he is, again, a big and slightly spoilt sixteen year old.

so yeah. it might not sound fair to say he doesn't have daddy issues, but i don't think the terms fandom's operating under are fair to start with, so i'd rather recuse myself (and my interpretation of the character) from it all til we're playing the same game. the sandbox's wide and wild, and the block and mute buttons are there for a reason, so i'll just stay in my corner writing about higashikatas wielding their feelings like sledgehammers til my mum says it's time to go home.

[emphasis-on-the-oopsie]

The fact that at least 2 of the devs of rhythm doctor know about Me Specifically writing fanfic for their game is. Hm.

[trixibebe]

[oc x canon]

Better than breakfast?

@ariesfaeries Enya can keep him with the back tat and Kori gets to have the one with the shoulder tattoo 🤭

[zombolouge]

A Hundred Years in the Making Chapter 48

art by @peachcott

Chapter 48: Unwanted Kinship is now live!

Hm, wonder what's happening in the desert?? Also, Mipha arrives at the castle and Revali is having a grumpfest.

[reploidbuddy]

Sending love to all my readers, y'all getting me emotional in the best way

[druidgroves]

re: blp playlist: as much as I can, I write ahead of published chapters so I have stuff ready to post, but I add the songs of future chapters to the playlist anyways, so if you ever want hints for what's to come...👁👁