#i will draw more of them in the future and blue is to blame! >;)c

[wasteofmfzb]

something very funny to me about how there are like very overarching general design tropes / agreed upon aspects of gijinka designs in osc spaces that if youve been a fan for long enough you can like. just instantly intuit whos who without being familiar with that specifics persons designs beforehand. like yes it is incredibly samey yes it is kind of annoying but its also interesting to me idk (and im 100% guilty of it myself so im in no place to judge lollll). my favorite thing abt this tho is when people in the comments of art seem to recognize Everyone Except One Of Them…… or mistake characters for others because they happen to have similar color schemes….. i completely understand how and why this happens but also so much of the time its stuff i instantly clock as the characters they are so its just. funny to me

[kyri45]

✨SBP: Second Star Q&A! 20/05✨

Welcome to the Q&A! A space where I can answer related or similar question about the Shadowpeach Bio Parents AU Spin Off! If it’s not answered here, worry not! Your asks might have been used for a future comic or just in the queue~

@autism-autobot ha chiesto: Weird 3 AM question for you: Do the stone monkeys have belly buttons? They came from eggs, so they might not but they may have been magically connected to something or someone, so...? Bellybuttons? Sorry if this is weird, my brain has been thrown for a loop lately.

They don't

@fake-anjel ha chiesto: Kyri, I remember you liked to draw Nezha a lot (don't blame you I have a literal list of logical explanations of why he's so drawable) But I've been wanting to ask you, how you think about baby/child Nezha? Since that in the legends he's a child god, Pluss in his old movie he died and stayed in the form of a child so I believe much in the theory that he's stuck in the age of six (when he died and came back to life) forever, both mentally and physically and uses glamour to age up so people take him more seriously I want to know if you also head cannon that theory ? (just pure curiosity)

There's a lot of different version, it's interesting to see that in LMK he's kind of an adult, I like to think he did grow up a little during the millenia, or that his outer appearance reflects his mental age, so in the years he was forced to "grow up" after his father became the pagoda wielder, and so he also reflect the age he must follow to be taken seriously by his father

@elianaroselight ha chiesto: It's wild to think how long Wukong and Macaque had been gestating their little girl. They went into meditation at month 9 and meditated for 11 more. That is 20 months! Almost 2 years!

if you think about it Nezha mother's gestation period was 3 years, so they got even lucky with that.

@straightally2001 ha chiesto: I'm curious, is the baby gonna grow differently than MK. Is she gonna be a toddler longer than MK was?

yes, just a bit longer, not that much.

@the-ninja-girl-in-blue ha chiesto: Are we going to eventually find out what the baby’s name is going to be or is she not gonna have a name at all? I’m not asking for what her name is now I’m asking if we’re going to ever find out what it is or if she’s gonna have one.

yes, at the end of the spin-off

@wintzrr ha chiesto: Dumb quesiton 💔 I forgot where but i read that your gonna make 3 spin-offs of the bio parents au, just by curiously… Is one of them about spicynoodles.. I say with a hidden folder pure spicynoodles fanart from your fanfic. ON MY HANDS AND KNEES I NEED TO KNOW. ALSO I LOVE YOU ART SO MUCH OH MY GAWDD.

no

@writingamongther0ses ha chiesto: Random thought- Pigsy: *opening the shop* *monkey noise* Pigsy: *turns head* Child: *sitting calmly next to the door* Pigsy: "..." Child: "..." Pigsy: "Tannnng...it happened again!"

LMAO

@selfdestructivecat ha chiesto: OMG SHADOW POWERS!!! I’m sure that’s not gonna give the parents any heart attacks lmao I’m curious if this is why Mac’s shadow powers were going haywire while they were feeding the baby their power, while Wukong’s were greatly weakened? And if this was also why Mac seemed to be more drained by the process than Wukong, at least at first?

A little, but mostly because he died once so he's weaker

@twilight-bai-he ha chiesto: I just realized something so you know That MK and Wukong can shrink so Red son and Macaque can have a tiny pocket husband/boyfriend

This is a very important information, thank you for sticking this image in my head.

@michigo-eevee-trainer ha chiesto: For the Bio Parents AU, I do have one question. If MK had used his energy to help the child grow, would that help or hurt the child? I mean I know it needed energy from it's parents in order to grow but MK is their brother. So wouldn't that work too? Though it would drain MK badly as well so maybe it wouldn't be a good thing.

It wouldn't have hurt it, but he would have needed to be part of the ritual as well and having to be connected to them as well during the gestation period.

@lizislife ha chiesto: Will we ever see macaque truly get mad?

maybe

@coolshadowkiller99 ha chiesto: Hey. I have a question. I know a lot of people make Mac and iron fan sworn siblings like wukong n dbk but are yours? Like wine auntie pif? Also I just want to hold bby mk and the shimians and everyone like burgers cause they're so adorable! I love them! I wish they could meet my oc Alix and alis.

yes she's wine aunt

@emptystarhead733 ha chiesto: Yello. I wanted ta ask since I love your art. Would Wukong throw her, for funsies, thinking she'll just teleport back, but when she doesn't Macaque catches her, scolding Wukong for it????

that's more of macaque honestly

@imafluffycupcakey ha chiesto: Will we see the baby all grown up? By the end of the spin-off? Maybe? Pretty please?

nope

@s-p-r-i-n-g-t-i-m-e ha chiesto: what’s the baby’s relationship to Tang and Pigsy exactly? :0 uncles? stepdads? dads in law? brother’s dads? also why are Wukong and Mac so tired, baby seems pretty chill? esp. since she’s already 3ish, only cries when overwhelmed by people. is it the stress of a toddler that can portal around so they always gotta find her? she’s def not as active as baby MK lmao

they are both uncles. Pigsy is also the godfather

@drpepperlover545 ha chiesto: this is a joke question but, will she get free noodles for life?

obviously

@monika-396 ha chiesto: Is Xiaotian gonna cut his hair now that his parents are back and his baby sister is here?

it's funnier if he doesn't

I have two question(I’m sorry if it’s too much😔) 1.)Would the baby be immortal just like her fathers, or they would have to do something to make her immortal? 2.)Is there a chance that you would make another spin-off that would focus on her life? (BTW I LOVE YOUR LATEST CHAPTER🤍🤍)

They aren't 100% immortal like wukong or macaque. They can perfectly become in some way immortal like Wukong did with his 72 transformations, and she does age more slowly by default

@vivian-adhd-core ha chiesto: So iI'm after my final exams (math went bad) and the bby made my absolute day. So I wanted to ask if it's okay that I make an AU of my main Oc being her auntie? (I hc my OC as Macaques younger sister. Also I will draw stuff once I ain't grounded!) Amaizing design, love it, keep up the good job and stay safe! 💖

As long as you tag me

@astro-nomaly ha chiesto: Can I ask why the baby has that weird blank spot in her face marking? She was literally just born so it’s not a scar, so what’s going on there? Ignore me if this is somehow a spoiler lol

birthmark

@keykittygirl ha chiesto: Since you said that ne zha will be in the baby shower, I'm just curious like will he actually gonna get his own clothes changing stuff XD I mean like we have seen how the other characters got a different clothes, meanwhile the poor lotus boyo only have his armor

he mostly wear his armor cause he's able to visit between his work shifts

@astro-lmk-enjoyer ha chiesto: You think DBK picks Red Son up by the scruff of his neck like a mother cat?

sure, why not

@epicloversposts ha chiesto: Hiya! Just a little question about Wukongs and Mk's apparently shared weakness,how would red son react to finding out about Mk's weakness, would red son be flustered or would red son be devious and use it against mk to courtnap him?

i mean they already cournapped the other so- i guess only for teasing him

@autism-autobot ha chiesto: Does Mamacaque get Mother's Day while everyone else has to share Father's Day? How do they do?

he gets both

@neptune-nova ha chiesto: Would you ever make a spicynoodles comic? Just curious lol

unlikely. I have so many other comics I wanna do first.

[omaano]

SW Hades AU MAY-JUNE Update

Some links and previous updates: May - June - July - August - September - October/November - December - January - February - March-April - everything else in this AU

Would you look at that! I managed to put together an update post with more than just May the 4th Boba :D Happy Pride, happy last days of June, and please enjoy the fact that I finally added 2 more ladies to the Hades AU. Full renders will come.... eventually ^^; I feel like I'm really super overdue to one though...

We're making this a girls thing >:3

I've drawn a younger, cockier Boba in the style of Hades 2 (instead of the usual Hades (1)) for May the 4th, because I am very much obsessed with the game and I desperately wanted to draw Boba again.

It's been deeply unfair to him that I had drawn him way back in 2022 (Jesus Christ! am I taking my sweet time) and never again ever since in this style. But when he wears it so well!

I also have a surprise Leia! And Satine as well!

If you recall I'd had the hardest of time for months to come up with anything for Leia, which I can only partially blame on whatever shape of artblock/burnout/exhaustion I had been feeling recently. Then one night - BAM! I was just messing around, looking at pose references on my pinterest boards and sketching and all, and suddenly I had a "businesswoman in a rush between meetings not having enough time for your shit" pose and look for her that I was very happy with. Might have been shortly after I watched (and had a great time while doing it) The Phantom Menace. Or the end of Andor. One of these two.

Originally I wanted her to appear as if she was on a holo call with Din, projected by R2, because she is busy and in a rush (like Hermes), but I'm undecided if I will want to go through with that in the end. Mainly because I'm not very thrilled by the idea of having to draw a portrait for R2 as well for that.

I also had a surprisingly great time coming up with a getup for her!

I believe that I finally started slipping along the double edged sword of how it's both a hindrance and liberation that I don't have to come up with character designs of my own for this AU to most characters. It takes a lot of pressure off me that I can treat this as a style and coloring exercise, but at the same time it's very limiting. I think I have already bemoaned how Star Wars character designs can be so grey and same-y at times (especially in the Outer Rim, and seriously, why is everyone so blue? Or black and grey) whereas Hades is so beautifully and colorfully designed!

I did a tiny bit of research on Wookiepedia - nothing major, as this was still just a past-midnight-waste-some-time sketch - and set out to merge some design and wardrobe elements from Breha, Bail and General Organa. If you can make out my handwritten notes, you might see some of these design elements, and to whom they shall refer to (like the bracers and belt to Bail, the braids and bun for Breha and Leia's own future). Ultimately more of the "Bail" elements won out if you wanted to weigh them against each other. I feel like that would fit Leia, her fierceness, and pragmatic strictness and determination best.

I'm a little regretful about the veil, but I worried that it would be too much flowy fabric next to her sleeves/cape. Very sad.

So it really was a relief to get into some designing with Leia, and to add some more colors and intricate details to Satine.

I don't have that much more to say about Boba and Satine tbh. Mostly because Boba is still a bit of a miracle I'm still unsure how he happened and how he looks so good (although not shiny enough compared to the latest update of Hades2 where all the gods, and really all the characters, are suuuuuper shiny. like. seriously). While with Satine my only goal was to make her look less willow-y (because it drives me insane how everyone in TCW is so damn thin), and might have fallen off on the other side of the horse (I'm pretty sure that's not the actual English idiom, please excuse me), and she's got some real massive shoulders and sleeves XD also how does she keep her head up with all that on her head? ^^;

Anyways, I love her with all her faults, and I just really wanted her to look beautiful and sad, and Mandalorian, and let her wear beskar heart elements in her design.

-

.

Taglist of anyone who wants to be pinged once a month for these updates <3 If you want to be added to the list send me a message, or just reply to this post (a 👀 would do, nothing fancy required ;))

@elwinged @yeehawgeek @velsayshi @lionsaint @hastalavistabyebye

@ribbonkandy @nalase @schrodingers-cosmic-abomination

If you want to be taken off the list just message me and I’ll take you off, no hard feelings :)

[malenjoyer]

tim used to be my fav robin a long time ago but I've started to understand why so many ppl don't like him

he was an okay character in the 90s/2000s but now with all of the other characters that have been added to the batfam he just brings so little to the table. he pales in comparison and has just become white guy with blue eyes number 738393. everything that stood out about him can be found in other characters, in the other robins, but better (big brother-little brother with dick&damian, solo robin adventures with damian, detective robin with maps, timsteph with daminika, family outside of the bats with damian or maps, etc).

it's so bad that in adaptations he's the most likely to be omitted (and can we blame dc?). steph is omitted as a robin more than him but in her case it's misogyny; what's tim's excuse?

he contributed to some important aspects of modern robin but those aspects are far better utilized by other robins. and I think steph is better off as a cass cain cast character bc, although dc is misogynistic and racist, cass has far better longevity than tim as a character and I think she has so many great things to achieve. so steph becoming part of her cast is a far better option for her popularity + perhaps steph could have her own solo stuff in the future bc she also is more interesting than tim. steph even has her own hero alias as spoiler which is already far more than tim has done post-robin. I frankly can't blame dc for not knowing what to do with him bc there's not much to work with and he doesn't stand on his own as a character

I actually had a lot of difficulty liking Tim or getting started on Tim at first because of this but the Old Media Lover brain took over. I think, yeah, it’s super doomy to think about the future of Tim drake and I have pondered what could be done about him and whether they’ll let him move on.

I really do think the power of being a fan is being able to take the character you loved before and simply create a universe for them where they have that future that you want for them. My friend and I have discussed a potential future for Tim that we really like and it honestly involves an aspect that other people probably won’t like- leaving gotham and leaving the “batfamily”. It’s one of my secret projects.

I guess once you realize that you don’t have to wait for DC to give your favorite character a better ending, you can just write it or draw it, it’s easy to stay a lot more optimistic.

Because when you say this for Tim drake, it’s hard to not say the same thing for Batman- the incapability to move on. For Batman, it’s part of the charm, but you realize gotham will never heal, Batman will never heal, or else the story will change. That’s the consequences of being a story that must go on. Once you think about that, it all gets very depressing because you realize eventually characters have to regress or stagnate because they are a product.

My point is, as a fan even though these are valid criticisms, I don’t believe you have to lose interest in characters if you truly don’t want to. A company doesn’t have control over your imagination. You can fix him. You can give him what he needs. It’s easy to get swept up by the negativity of being a comic fan especially with other people saying the same points and agreeing with you but you are put on this earth to be happy and enjoy life. So you can give him a new path if you want

[kelliealtogether]

Challengers AU: Prologue

I'm blaming @fredddoloso and their wonderful fanart for this Rodansey Challengers AU. When the movie came out last year, I thought it would make the perfect toxic throuple situation for Gansey, Adam, and Ronan, and here we are a year later with a prologue and more to come.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this final round match will be the best-of-three tiebreak sets. To the right of my chair, we have Ronan Lynch. To the left of my chair, we have Richard Gansey. Gansey won the toss and has elected to serve.” 

Adam Parrish could repeat chair umpires’ announcements in his sleep. It was the same at every tournament. Or nearly the same. A different opponent. A different side of the net. A different winner of the toss. The stadium that rose around him changed — the clay court and tan seats of Roland Garros, the grass and green of Centre Court, the blue hard court and matching chairs at Arthur Ashe — but even those didn’t change much. Every single one of them had the same thing at its core: a net, two players, two rackets, and one small, unmistakable yellow ball. 

Today, though, he didn’t sit in a front row box in a stadium in Paris or London. He sat in New York, but he didn’t sit in Queens. Instead, he sat in a hard, white deck chair at a country club in New Rochelle, and the bleachers at his back and the chain link fence surrounding the court were the only things rising around him. It was different from what he’d grown used to, but it was necessary. A step down, but a sacrifice he was willing to make if it meant future success. 

If it meant his husband kissing the sterling silver US Open trophy before hoisting it above his head in three weeks.

“First set,” the chair umpire spoke into his microphone, drawing Adam’s attention briefly to the tall, umbrellaed chair directly opposite him at the other end of the net strung across the center of the court. “Gansey to serve.” 

Then Adam turned to his right, where a ballgirl bounced two tennis balls toward Gansey, who caught them both smoothly in one well-practiced hand. The familiarity of the gesture, then the thwack of felt-covered rubber hitting the hard court as Gansey bounced both balls a few times before discarding one, settled the riot in Adam’s stomach, but only just. The New Rochelle Challenger was the smallest tournament Gansey had played in years. Maybe even a decade. He didn’t have to win it to rise in the standings or to qualify for the Open.

But he needed to win the Challenger anyway, even if its small crystal trophy would look laughable in their trophy case back home in Virginia, even if its $7,000 purse wouldn’t buy Gansey a new watch. Because Gansey needed to get his head back in the game, shrug his confidence back on like one of his perfectly tailored Tom Ford blazers, and winning the Challenger was the only solution Adam could think of. 

“Ready,” the chair umpire prepared the two players on his court, and without pausing a beat for questions or objections, he said, “Play.”

Like he always did, Gansey brought the tennis ball to the throat of his racket, to the space just above the handle and just below the head, and Adam took a deep breath as his husband tossed the ball into the air, raised his racket, and used it to hammer the ball over the net to the other side of the court. 

From behind his sunglasses, Adam followed the ball, turning his head only as much as he needed to so he could watch Ronan Lynch dart in and send the ball sailing back toward Gansey. It began a fast, grunt-filled volley, well-placed forehands, vicious backhands, sneakers scraping and squeaking against the court as Gansey and Lynch chased and pivoted and lunged. They were finely matched opponents — though Adam was certain Lynch had only made it to the final out of spite — but Gansey took the first point of the game. Lynch sent the ball just out of bounds, and the crowd in the bleachers behind Adam applauded quietly, politely, as the  the chair umpired announced 15-0 and Gansey subtly pumped his fist near the hem of his white polo.

A decent start, but Lynch wouldn’t go down easily. Adam didn’t really want him to. Gansey needed a hard-fought win, not an opponent he would walk all over. Lynch didn’t rank anywhere near the top 150 players, and he looked like he’d gotten his gray plaid shorts and black muscle tank from a secondhand sporting goods store, but Adam had played against him once. He knew the potential Lynch had to be a great player. 

He’d just never lived up to it. 

But he did take the second point, 15-15, after Gansey faulted on his next serve, then let the ball get past him on the next volley, Lynch using a forehand to put the ball in the corner of the court just out of Gansey’s reach. They both set up at the baseline again, rackets held firm in steady hands, and the ball returned to the throat of Gansey’s racket, returned to the air, and the echo of Gansey’s racket slamming the ball across the court bounced off the bleachers and the sign-covered chain link fence as a third volley began.

At first, Adam kept his eye on the ball. Where it connected with Gansey’s racket, where it landed on Lynch’s side of the court, where it gracefully arced over the net between them. But then Adam settled his eyes on his husband. There was nothing to critique in Gansey’s footwork, in his swing, and there shouldn’t be. Adam had coached him for the better part of a decade. The skill was there. That much was evident in the power behind Gansey’s forehand and quick change to a backhand to drive the ball back toward Lynch. 

It was evident in the endorsements and sponsorships. The fan clubs and magazine features. The case full of trophies from tournaments all over the world. 

So none of Gansey’s problems were physical. Not now that his rotator cuff had been repaired and he’d successfully — wonderfully — recovered. His cracks were, and had always been, mental. 

And Adam had never been the best at fixing those. 

He patched them. Smoothed KT Tape over them. Massaged, soaked, and stretched them. But, somehow, they always came back, no matter how hard Adam worked to put Gansey back in one piece. All it took was the wrong hit at the wrong time, like Lynch using a swift slice to drop the ball too far to Gansey’s right for Gansey to get his racket on.  

“Let’s go,” Lynch roared, pumping his fist as the umpire announced the score, 15-30. It was too large of a celebration for the third point of the first game in the first set, and Lynch knew it, and by the way he stopped and stared at Adam insteading of heading back to the baseline, the shout had been to not only get under Gansey’s skin, but Adams. 

It was immature, unprofessional, and Adam didn’t expect anything less. Lynch had long made a habit of rejecting tennis standards, covering his back in an intricate black tattoo that stuck out above his collar, forgoing expensive haircuts and buzzing his own hair short, actively ignoring codes of conduct and cursing loudly on the court. At one time, Adam had liked it, the whole bad boy thing Lynch carefully cultivated, but now it was just tired. They were over thirty, and Adam had finished playing games with Ronan Lynch when they were teenagers, though that hadn’t stopped him from fucking Ronan in his same old BMW in a parking lot the night before. 

Adam would go to his grave swearing it hadn’t been for him. That it hadn’t been selfish. That it had been another sacrifice, and afterward, he had forced Ronan agree he wouldn’t be obvious about throwing the match in exchange for Adam sleeping with him one last time. Yet here Ronan was, being obvious in other ways, and — unimpressed — Adam crossed his arms over his chest, making sure not to wrinkle his blue button down more than the day’s heat and humidity already had, and turned to look at the other side of the tennis court. 

Where Gansey slowly walked back toward the baseline. Staring at Adam. 

Reaching up, Adam took off his sunglasses so he could fully meet his husband’s gaze. Gansey didn’t grip his racket so hard his knuckles turned white. His mouth wasn’t turned down in disdain, and his hazel eyes weren’t narrowed in anger. They did, however, have a darkness to them they shouldn’t have in the six o’clock sunlight of late summer. A darkness and a glint, one that told Adam the way Ronan had stared at him had struck a match inside Gansey. 

And that was a fire Gansey could work with. A fire Gansey could use. 

A fire that hadn’t burned inside him for a very, very long time.

Because in the war for Adam Parrish’s affection, for his love, Richard Campbell Gansey III had won after years of hard-fought, jealousy-laden battles, and Adam didn’t regret his choices. His sacrifices. He’d worked hard so they could have the life they wanted, a life Adam never could have had with Ronan. In that war for Adam, Ronan Lynch had come out ahead early, but in the end, he’d surrendered without much of a fight, and Adam had always wanted more than someone without ambition. Someone who never strove to be better, to be more. 

As Gansey reached his hand out for the ballgirl to toss him a fresh tennis ball, Adam smiled at him, tight and thin, and he nodded, just once. The same smile and nod Adam had given him at Roland Garros, at Center Court, at Arthur Ashe, at every Open, Masters, and Championship since Adam started coaching Gansey. 

A small show of confidence that said Adam knew Gansey could do exactly what he needed to. 

Gansey nodded back and turned his attention back to the court, and as he brought the ball to the throat of his racket, Adam put his sunglasses back on and sat back in his chair. 

He was about to watch some very, very good tennis.

[fantasyqueen502]

Popping the question...

Rated: PG (Angst and misunderstanding.)

Summary: Joel wants to ask Y/N something, Y/N gets the wrong idea.

“I wanna talk---”

“Oh, Morning Y/N.” Tommy waves coming to a stop once he hits the wall of tension.

Joel’s standing figure concealing Y/N entirely. Their expressions on the cusp of what looked to be an uncomfortable conversation.

“Tommy.” Joel grumbles.

“M-Morning Tommy.” She nods, gifting a small and quick smile peeking around the rough edge of his brother's frame.

“We need to get going for patrol.”

“I know.” Joel cuts harshly, “Give me a moment with Y/N and we can---”

“I don't mind!” Y/N bursted, her eyes telling she didn't mean to be so loud. “Be safe. Stay warm. I need to ask Maria for---” her eyes flit about searching for the right answer. “Sugar.” she nods “I need to um---ask her about some sugar.” Gathering her coat, keys before closing the door on her way out.

“What was that ab---”

“Why?” Joel breathes nostrils flared.

Tommy furrows his brows moth agape from confusion. Watching his brother pantomime with the air around him. Strangling an imaginary being before sputtering out a long exasperated exhale. Covering his face with his hands.

“You ruined it!” He sighs.

“Ruined what?”

“I…” the words escaped him. Teeth clamped down around his tongue. “...why am I such shit at this? Why am I shit at this.” He growls and stands clenching his fists by his sides.

“Joel, let's start from the beginning.”

Digging into his pocket silver ring. “I'm gonna ask Y/N to----”

“---break up with me.” Y/N mumbles with her thumb in her mouth. Chewing her fingernails to the nub.

“Who? Joel?” Maria snorts. “What makes you say that?” she asks returning to the table with two steaming mugs of tea.

“He's been so…I don't know…” she shrugs palming them warm mug with her hands. Lavender and sweet honey calming her. “I've made peace that I will never be to first person he chooses to speak with when shit hits the fan.”

“He does speak with you. No matter how small it's more than anything he's willing to share with his own brother.”

“Since Ellie moved out…empty nest syndrome isn't the right word, but we are forced to deal us, our relationship, the future. Then out of the blue he makes me breakfast.”

Maria's eyes go wide.

“I know! My reaction.” She nods. “It felt genuine, but I couldn't help, but feel like he was trying to butter me up so it will hurt less.” she blinks out a tears.

Maria sighs looking up at something behind Y/N.

“I would never.” Joel's hoarse voice speaks.

Turning in her seat to see the front door swinging opening with Tommy wheezing in an attempt to catch his breath leaning against the door frame.

“You're fast when you wanna be.” He comments resting on his knees.

“Joel?" Y/N calls meekly.

“Oh, darling.” His voice croaks, stepping over to kneel before her as she draws her head into his shoulder. Rubbing her back. Maria quickly standing taking Tommy by the arm to give the two some privacy.

Leaning back Joel holds her face begging her eyes to look his way. His heart skips a beat when she does. She could always see him. See him at his core it put him on edge at first, but after getting to know her he grew to crave that look.

“I know.” She sniffles. “You don't need to let me down easy---

“Y/N.”

“You don't have to worry about me---”” she hiccups sobs. “--I’ll bunk at the Inn---”

“I'm not breaking up with you?”

“You're not?” She asks in the cutest voices he has ever heard.

“No.” He assures shaking his head. “I'm sorry for being off and weird, I didn't think you would notice. I don't blame you for assuming. Dealing with me all these years, the “old unfeeling son of a bitch””

“You're not old.” She mumbles.

“Cause you're a saint.” he praises. “An angel among man and I am not dumb enough---at least I hope not--- to not tell you how much you mean to me.”

he turns reaching into his back pocket.

“F/N, L/N” he's trembling holding a silver wedding band out to her.

Her eyes go wide looking from the ring and to Joel.

“Is that---” she breaths.

He nods.

“Are you asking?”

He nods.

She exclaims covering her mouth tears streaming from from her eyes.

“Will you marry me?”

She sniffles sliding from her seat to kneel at Joel's level.

“Yes, yes I'll marry you.” A toothy grin never leaving her lips. Holding his face embracing him in a kiss. Sliding the ring onto her finger.

“I tried looking for something you'd like, you deserve something---”

“It's beautiful.” She cuts off admiring the shine in the light.

Sighing a breath of relief falling into her, connecting her lips in a long passionate kiss.

Last of us Masterlist

Masterlist, Imagines, and Miscellaneous Drabbles

[tacoma-narrows]

Between the Sea and the Sky!

Hi everybody! Meet the TWO new guys I made between last night and today! Their names are Tarmac (an Aeromorph dog) and Soda (a pooltoy fox), and they've filled a desire for these two specific kinds of OCs I've had in mind for MONTHS lol. They were super fun to design and draw and I'm super excited to do more with them soon!! This piece is relatively simple but more so serves as their introduction hehe

See more about them, including refs and some additional pieces/information below the cut :] (it kind of turns into a huge braindump lmao)

Tarmac is an aeromorph, although a bit more towards the furry side of things rather than the plane side lol. His design is influenced primarily by the Concorde and the Space Shuttle! I couldn't decide for the life of me which of those two things I wanted to use so I thought "why not use both?" and here we are lol. I'm super happy with his design, with the black/dark gray markings mean to emulate the look of the Space Shuttle's thermal insulation tiles and then I really like how the red and blue stand out against the gray. I really like his icon too! I wanted to make it look like a stylized depiction of a plane (mainly a Concorde hehe) breaking through the sound barrier with a sonic boon! In terms of personality, I don't have a whole lot in mind yet. Mostly that he'd be the brave, adventurous type and since he can fly both in the air and through space, he's gonna be friends with Astro too :3

Soda is a pooltoy fox! I have wanted to make a pooltoy OC FOREVER (blame my mutuals for always posting/reblogging so many cool pooltoy OCs hehe). I finally got brave enough to actually give it a shot, and I love how he came out! I was mainly just thinking about summery themes and as I was just trying out different colors and stuff, I thought about orange soda, and that's the direction I ended up going! He's got a big stupid tail [affectionate] and can have either rounded bappy hands or have actual fingers, you're free to stylize that either way! I've only ever drawn a pooltoy character once ever before, so this was something way out of my realm of familiarity, but I'm so happy with how he came out! He's so shaped I love him so much already <33

So those are my two new guys! Making two new OCs at the same time is already a rarity for me lol. The only time it's happened before was when I made Rye and Pumpernickel back in August of 2021. And then making these guys when I had only gotten Astro about two and a half weeks ago means this is an exceedingly rare event for me lmao. My friends know how infrequently I make/get new OCs, so this just goes to show how much these guys have been bouncing around in my brain lately lol.

They are definitely gonna have some sort of connection to each other, but I'm not sure how I wanna go about that yet. Since I made them back to back, they are already connected in my brain, but I'm not sure how I wanna express that in a meaningful way. I don't wanna make them siblings bc, well, they're obv very different from each other lol, but they're kinda parallels (with one being in the sky and the other being in the water yknow), so as of right now they're definitely good friends with each other. I might upgrade that to bfs at some point in the future, but we'll see how things go hehe.

Anyways huge braindump of a post lmao, thank u for reading if u did! I'd love to hear your thoughts on these guys since they're so different from all my other characters! Also if anyone may wanna do an art trade of either of these guys (or Astro as well! I'd like to get more art of him too!) let me know hehe

[shaotie]

Random Rottmnt Stuff

I just want a place where I keep the stuff I like in one spot, so here's my Random Rottmnt Stuff page (most of this is not mine; I'll be adding more periodically) 🐢💚

*WARNING* some of the rottmnt fics below are rated explicit or mature for graphic depictions of violence, discretion is advised

Rise X Epic the Musical Videos

Separated Leos aus I want to remember

Comics:

🐢 Bad Future Leo

🐢 It's My Fault pt 1

🐢 Little Kid With a Big Death Wish

🐢 Not the Greatest || pt 2 || pt 3 || pt 4

🐢 Warfare

🐢 Replica -masterpost

🐢 Imaginary Friend au

🐢 Aftermath & Good Genes - masterpost

🐢 A Dumbass Separated Leo AU - masterpost

🐢 Tizeline Separated au - masterpost

🐢 Shadows of Our Past

🐢 Residuum (**WARNING** contains explicit, graphic mature content, gore, etc. Please see author's warnings before reading) - masterpost

🐢 Prodigy - masterpost

🐢 You've Been Portal Jacked - masterpost

🐢 Mini Leo - masterpost

🐢 Empyrean Weeping & Feral Leo - masterpost

🐢 Little Baby Blue - masterpost

🐢 The Bonk Saga & Once in a Blue Moon - masterpost

🐢 Wanderer - masterpost

🐢 Battle Scars - masterpost

🐢 I Care - masterpost

🐢 KTECH || Prologue 0.0 || Prologue 0.1 || Prologue 0.2 || Prologue 0.3 ||

🐢 Vermin - masterpost

Completed Comics:

🐢 Rise of the Parallel

🐢 Stay Standing

🐢 Puppet on a String

🐢 Cass Apocalyptic Series

🐢 Lair Games Aftermath

🐢 Hair Comic, Healing Comic, I'm Sorry Comic

🐢 What are Ya Gonna do? Stab me??

🐢 Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back

Shadows of the Hamato Stuff

🐢 Logo

🐢 Character Sheet

🐢 Sneek Peek Art

🐢 Leo Art

🐢 Chapter 3 Art

🐢 Chapter 3 Fanart (mine)

🐢 Chapter 10 Fanart

🐢 Temple Training (fanvid - mine)

🐢 Chapter 14 Art

🐢 Shen Character Sheet

'Shreddy for More' Stuff

🐢 Shrednardo

🐢 More Art

'Like Father Like Son' Stuff (this fanfic will never get old)

🐢 Leo art

🐢 Live, Laugh, Love, LFLS art

🐢 angsty comic

🐢 just a nightmare

🐢 doodles and angst

🐢 I blame eternalglitch

🐢 Saturdays are for sad

🐢 doodles from discord

🐢 back to normal || part 1 || part 2 || part 3 || part 4

🐢 chapter 27 comic

'The Neon Void' Stuff

🐢 Go Out With a Bang

🐢 "I'm the Faceman"

🐢 Space Oddity

🐢 Spooky

🐢 partners in crime

🐢 ch 5 art

🐢 ch 6 comic

🐢 ch 21 art

🐢 ch 22 comic

🐢 Purgatory Paradise: Medium fancomic

Random Other Stuff

🐢 The Cost of Victory (art)

🐢 Going Home from the Prison Dimension (art)

🐢 The Square Hole (video)

🐢 Drawing the Turtles

🐢 Hold My Hair (video)

🐢 Rise Screenshots

🐢 You Had it Coming (video)

🐢 TMNT 2012 + Rise Theme Mashup (video)

🐢 TMNT Comp Top 32, 2025

🐢 The One That Left (art)

🐢 The Hat Man (video)

🐢 Rough Around the Edges (comic)

🐢 Air Jail (video)

🐢 Rise Restored - Krang vs the Mad Dogs (video)

🐢 Leo & Donnie Animatic

🐢 Fluttershy & Raph (art)

🐢 Rainbow Dash & Leo (art)

🐢 Pinkie Pie & Mikey (art)

🐢 Rarity & Donnie (art)

🐢 The Lights are too Loud (art)

🐢 Cowboy Leo Riding a Unicorn (art)

[tokiro07]

Toki Reads Shonen Jump 2025, Issue #11: Tough Conversations Week

One Piece: While searching for the key to Loki's chains, the crew is approached by Mr. Ya, Ripley's husband, who leads them to the hidden chamber where the key is stored; he is revealed to in fact be Scopper Gaban, Gold Roger's Left Hand, and challenges Luffy to take the key from him. Nice to finally know who that guy we saw hanging out with Crocus that one time was; I really dig Gaban's aged design, and I'm glad that his personality is so distinct from other members of Roger's generation

Roboco: Fujisawa encourages Roboco to start an art gallery, which becomes such an unprecedented success that Roboco tries to sell sculptures of her knees at a huge markup; predictably, this bankrupts her. The only thing I could think while reading this chapter - "Bullshit...bullshit!...derivative..."

Sakamoto: Shin confronts Ando and demands to know why he was abandoned; Ando reveals that he had actually helped Shin escape from the JAA orphanage that was raising him into an assassin, an action that would put a target on his back; while Ando may or may not have done this out of love for his son, the resulting turmoil in his life has caused him to resent Shin; Sakamoto defeats Ikari and arrives just in time to save Shin from Ando. Fans have long theorized that Shin was in Al-Kamar, and this practically confirms it; the nuance of Ando's relationship with Shin is utterly fascinating, and I hope to get more insight before Ando dies

EluSam: Tadayoshi and Moronao's conflict reaches a boiling point, and Takauji backs Tadayoshi into a corner that forces him to either concede to Moronao or commit suicide; the horny trio convince themselves that what they're planning to do to Tokiyuki is completely wholesome and totally not rape, only to find that Tokiyuki was actually waiting for them to arrive so he could discuss their future together. How the hell does Matsui expect me to get invested in this historical drama when all I care about is whether or not he's going to give me canon polyamory???

Witch Watch: Kukumi pens her first original work to submit to Shonen Jaguar with Yuri as her chaperone, but both Yuri and the editor are literally floored by how lewd Kukumi draws women; her one-shot is too lewd for Jaguar, so she literally takes a page out of To Love Ru and censors the bits with smoke. As funny as the idea that a fujoshi can only draw women if they're naked is, I can't help but feel like this is a dig at Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Spring moreso than To Love Ru

Blue Box: Chinatsu manages to finally beat Yumeka, securing her team's spot in the Winter Cup; Yumeka slinks off to cry on her own, blaming her hiatus for ruining her team's chances at Nationals and believing she doesn't have the right to cry in front of them, but Chinatsu comes to comfort her; Chinatsu's dad agrees to let her continue living with the Inomata family. Yumeka's character has been one of the biggest draws for me in this series lately, so I'm a little worried that now that it's over I won't be as invested, but we'll have to see; also, the speech bubbles weren't pointing to anyone a lot of the time, so I was VERY confused who was talking in this chapter

Akane: At the venue for an upcoming performance, Rien talks smack about Akane as petty revenge for when she humiliated him early in her career; a jet-lagged Akane is picked up by Taison, a Zenza under one of Akane's brothers (I think it's Kyoji?), who's the only one of the Zenza present to ignore Rien's tall tales. I completely forgot who Rien was, I hate this guy, can't wait for Akane to kill him

Kill Blue: Juzo's medicine wears off and he returns to his child body, though through sheer grit he's still able to overpower Oka; just as he prepares to shoot him, though, he has a vision of all of his school friends and realizes that by taking a life now, he would be officially going back to being a hitman and wouldn't be able to continue on as a normal middle schooler with everyone else; however, Noren appears in time to see him holding the gun, making the situation exponentially worse. As much as I love Juzo's dilemma, the fact that his determination to protect Noren is being directly compared to how he once saved his ex-wife from danger isn't helping him beat The Allegations

Nue: We learn that Yoshichi resents Gakuro so strongly because he was ostracized for being Impure and had to prove himself to rise through the ranks while Gakuro was simply appointed Captain out of nowhere; after passing out from his wounds, Gakuro wakes up receiving a lap pillow from a girl calling herself Kyokotsu, the name of Shiroha's contracted Spirit; Gashadokuro appears to raid the Fujino Family compound. Gakuro tricking Yoshichi into self-destructing by trying to drag a shadow clone down with him as he jumped off the bridge was honestly kinda sick, and leaves me with an overall good impression for an otherwise extremely messy fight; Girl!Kyokotsu is...interesting, but I have no idea what to make of her or the apparent cloning facility that she oversees, I wonder if actual fans were able to glean anything useful from this introduction

Kagurabachi: While debating whether or not she should retain her memories of her father or go back to her normal life, Iori witnesses Chihiro massacring a slew of assassins, finalizing her decision to forget Samura again; Hiruhiko manages to overcome the massive skill difference between him and all of the hotel staff as swordsmen and appears before Chihiro. As a reader, I naturally thought the peephole scene was sick as all hell, but unfortunately that meant it didn't immediately click for me that it was supposed to be horrifying and show the tragedy of Chihiro's life path

Chojo: Ten years after his original serialization, Samon the Summoner appears in Chinjuku to help bring people to ruin by indulging their sinful desires; after Samon refuses to grant the desire of a child who wants to stop people who are accosting animals in a local park, Chojo and Ippongi find him actually doing so in secret so as not to harm his bad reputation; Nebiros appears and destroys his business, leaving Samon as the one in ruin for Teshigawara to find and annoy with her kindness. I didn't realize how much I missed Samon and co. until this moment, that series was so good, and every cameo made me smile so much; I hope they get more crossovers, but it seems unlikely

Astro Royale: Two more of the Yotsurugi brothers, Taira and Satsuki, fight in the next round and nearly get some audience members killed, prompting Hibaru to intervene; in a flashback, Kongo suggests that Hibaru and Taira would be great friends, though now they are bitter enemies. Either Kongo's a terrible judge of character, or that's foreshadowing a Heel-Face Turn on Taira's part

Kiyoshi: After a brief rundown of the Thirteen Club's members, Tsurugi takes the initiative by attacking the whole group at once. We got a couple good gags from the Thirteen Club and a cool panel from Tsurugi, here's hoping we get to see more

Hima-Ten: It's parent-teacher conference day, and we're introduced to both Honoka and Himari's mothers; Himari's mother approves of Tenichi because he's been looking out for Himari's nutrition, and Honoka's mother offers Tenichi a cleaning gig since her wrist is sprained. Looks like we're about to get a Honoka mini-arc, hopefully Himari doesn't find some ludicrous way to steal attention from her again

Ichi: Concerned for Ichi's prophesized death, Desscaras takes a trip to the bar for a stiff drink, only to be consoled by Togeice, who in turn compares Ichi to Desscaras' deceased brother, Libro; later, Desscaras sits down for a chat with Ichi to ask how he really feels about the prophecy; when Ichi says he's the type to live in the present rather than worry about the future, Desscaras comes right out and says how she feels - she wants him to live as a member of her family. Between Desscaras' backstory, her and Togeice having gay little nicknames for each other, and Desscaras opening up so readily to Ichi about how his attitude hurts her, there is a LOT to unpack in my upcoming review!

Shinobi: Suzume tries to play wingman for Yodaka and Aoi both through a small prank and by encouraging him to get her a birthday gift; Hachikuma reveals where the Fugitive Ninja's base is, and the team goes to infiltrate, but Yodaka's mind is preoccupied with the gift. Glad to see Suzume back in pants, and her annoying attitude makes for some fun dynamics with the team; while the tension is supposed to come from Yodaka being distracted during the mission, I'm willing to bet that the real turn is going to be when he gives Aoi the present and learns that she didn't mention her birthday because it's a sore subject

Syd Craft: Syd visits his parents to learn more about Zero Craft, but finds that Lulu has somehow become a maid for the house; the two get trapped in a room and need to solve a Twister-based puzzle to both escape and unlock a treasure; Lulu discovers Syd's weakness to women and resolves to seduce him...if only she knew how. I'm glad Lulu's going to be proactive in flirting with Sid, that dynamic is sorely needed from this cast; though the Crafts don't recognize the name Zero, I'm so sure one of the childhood photos from the treasure chest has a hidden clue to their identity, like perhaps the one where Syd is seen crying with a baby

Embers: While trying to return a wallet, Haitani's intensity gets his intentions mistaken for harassment, and he ends up in a confrontation with Bugai, the soccer team's captain; despite Haitani's lack of experience, he manages to force a draw with his exceptional defense, earning Bugai's respect; Haitani bumps into Takami, learning that his rival is now his teammate. Just cus it's predictable don't make it bad - I'm really excited to see how Haitani and Takami's dynamic shapes up from here; I'm not terribly interested in Bugai yet since his interaction was pretty similar to Takami's, but we only just started and I'm sure he'll win me over eventually

Star of Beethoven: After suffering a traumatic loss in a competition, piano prodigy Ichiro Yaso gives up music and drifts through his youth for two years; one day, a resurrected Ludwig van Beethoven spontaneously appears before him; while showing Beethoven a modern piano, Yaso runs into Kahoin, an old acquaintance, who forces him to play again; when Yaso is reluctant, Beethoven accompanies him, and they perform a perfect rendition of Beethoven's Fifth; Beethoven concludes that cosmic forces have brought the two of them together to create a new masterwork, and Beethoven labels Yaso as his new disciple. Not quite what I expected from the author of Life Liar From Hell, but I definitely enjoyed it! Beethoven's design is ghastly and intense, and Yaso's struggle with his perceived lack of talent makes him an interesting enough protagonist for now; I'm not big on the pseudo-isekai premise, but it's an interesting spin on the Hikaru no Go formula to have the mentor be a physical entity rather than just a spirit; my favorite bit though was Beethoven's reaction to being in the future - the modern piano, his legacy, and the persistent power of music as an artform; really looking forward to how this one develops!

Damn, dude, I wasn't able to sum up anything quickly this week, huh? No wonder it took me longer than usual

I'm gonna call this the Week of Tough Conversations, as between Desscaras asking Ichi not to die, Chinatsu comforting Yumeka after defeating her, Tokiyuki giving polyamory serious consideration, Iori deciding to forget her father again so she won't have to live in a blood-soaked world of vengeance, and Juzo needing to explain to Noren why he's about to shoot the principal, there were certainly a lot to be had. That said, the Week of Ghosts from the Past would be pretty apt too between Gaban and Beethoven, wouldn't it?

This Week's Top 3:

Ichi the Witch for delving into Desscaras's vulnerabilities in contrast to a few weeks ago when we saw her strengths

Star of Beethoven for how shockingly endearing I found Beethoven as a character and how much I love his design

Super Psychic Policeman Chojo for pandering to me specifically with the Samon the Summoner cameos

Overall, this was a really good issue for me, as I enjoyed just about everything this week, even including Nue's Exorcist which I'm usually pretty lukewarm on. My top 3 was hard to pick, but I do really like the balance it ended up having - battle, artistic, and gag. I certainly wouldn't complain if my weekly favorites were similarly arranged spread going forward

[rhaeverie]

Gleam and Glitter — hhj

‣ pairing: hwang hyunjin x reader

‣ genre: fluff, implied friends-to-lovers, rich-kid!au

‣ wc: 3.4k

‣ summary: You’ve quickly established that no one at this damn charity gala cares about the event’s purpose. They were just there to party. And you wanted nothing else but to leave; alternatively, in which Hyunjin saves you from your misery to see the city’s Christmas lights.

‣ warnings: lots of being annoyed at the rich (even though reader and hyunjin are rich), 1st world problems, reader’s wearing a dress and heels but no specific pronouns are used (I’m pretty sure), the pair eat some desserts

‣ an: 2nd part for my True Love Gave to Me Series! It's a little slow at first but the parts near the end are cute! Just like the Mark one, I wish I could write more for these two, I srsly think I could've done more but still,,, ENJOY!

Series Masterlist

The venue was beautiful. 

The ballroom was transformed into the party’s theme, Winter Wonderland, adorned with white, silver, and royal blue decorations. From the ceiling hung giant snowflakes, lit up with twinkling lights that glowed softly within the dim room. 

The dance floor, placed in the middle of the room, was surrounded by tables draped in pearly white table cloths, giving it all a sleek, clean look. You can tell how much planning had gone into the centrepieces—delicate ice-looking glass sculptures of various animals. Within each of them were more lights, drawing out the details of the sculptures.

At the other corner of the room, the live band had already begun their setlist. They were dressed in blue or white, or both, as it was the theme of the party. You couldn’t quite tell what song they were playing, but it sounded nice and classy. 

And guests were trickling in, entering the room hand in hand with their plus ones. You can tell that they were all in awe from the scene. I mean you don’t blame them—the scene looked like something straight from a movie. Whoever had planned and decorated the venue knew what they were doing. 

The venue was beautiful… Too bad most of the people attending were snobby rich bitches who really don’t deserve anything good (respectfully).

The main purpose of the event was to raise money for charities involving children for god’s sake—sure it was okay to go all out and grab the attention of the wealthy, but it was so painfully obvious that two-thirds of the guests didn’t give a single fuck about the charities. They were just there for the publicity, hoping to look good in front of the press and it pained you. 

It pained you because, although you barely had the capacity to have passions for anything, you did know that you wanted to use your money for good. And heavy on the good for children.

The party was now in full swing, guests mingling in practically every corner of the room. The live band had just been replaced with a DJ, party songs blasting through the speakers. A small part of you does want to join in, but you wouldn’t say that you associated yourself with any of the people here. 

There was one person who you did love being around—your best friend, Hyunjin—but you simply weren’t sure where he had disappeared off to since you had greeted him at the start of the party. 

“Shit.”

You’re not sure how you hear Hyunjin groan as he slumps in the seat next to you. He stretches his back over the chair before falling limp. 

You can’t help but laugh, “What’s up with you?” You shift in your own chair to look at him, your blue evening gown getting twisted underneath your ass.

“My parents introduced me to like—I don’t know—six old business owners?” Hyunjin mutters, “I don’t even remember a single one of them.” 

“Well, you gotta start working on that future CEO,” you joke, slapping his back, “Don’t wanna be the boss who calls his employees by the wrong name, do you?” You know Hyunjin hates when you call him future CEO, because, well, he doesn’t actually want to take over his father’s company once he retires. But being the only child in his family, it’s a responsibility that he couldn’t really get out of.

“No,” he pouts, lips jutting out. 

You let out another laugh, this time rubbing his back to provide some kind of comfort. From a nearby group of people, you hear people laughing, though it didn’t seem genuine. You echo them. 

“Y/N, they’re gonna hear you!” Hyunjin nudges your arm. “No they won’t. They’re all just caught up in their own world,” You roll your eyes. Then you dramatically say, “Oh how I wish to leave this place.”

There’s a few beats of silence between the two of you. Just by watching Hyunjin, you can tell he’s thinking, eyes darting back and forth as if he were reading a page of a newspaper. 

“Would it be crazy if I asked you to run away with me?”

Your heart misses a beat, “What?”

“Run away with me,” Hyunjin repeats. He’s almost expressionless, staring back at you as he waits for a reply. 

You blink at your best friend, utterly confused by the nonsense coming out of his mouth, “Hyunjin, you really need to be more specific with your words.”

Hyunjin brings a corner of his mouth up towards one side of his face, trying to word what he was asking of you. It wasn’t that difficult to explain, yet Hyunjin’s short on words right now because of all the introductions he’s just had. 

“Do you know what an Irish goodbye is?” 

You shake your head, “No? Is that even a thing?” 

“It’s when you just leave without telling anyone,” Hyunjin explains, “So… let’s leave without telling anyone.” There’s a youthful glint in his eye and you just know that Hyunjin’s ready to take off. He’s excited, even, just thinking about leaving and getting away from this place. You like the idea, too. 

“And do what?” Hyunjin shrugs and your face contorts, laughing, “You’re the one who’s suggesting to leave and you don’t have a plan?” 

The smile Hyunjin flashes is one that shows off his bottom teeth, brows raised and eyes widened, “Sorry, I didn’t actually think you’d consider it.” 

“Do you even know me?” you scoff, “Of course I wanna leave. Anything to get away from these people.” You scoot forward in anticipation to go, but you still really want to hear what Hyunjin’s plan is. 

Hyunjin searches the room as if it were going to hand him the answer. Then he hums and looks back at you, “Do you want to go downtown?” 

Without any hesitation you nod, “Yes.” 

Hyunijn watches as you scan the room, eyes trying to weed out your parents and his. You could guess they were speaking with people you’ve grown familiar with, so you try to pick them out, too. When you couldn’t spot any of your parents, your eyes darted in Hyunjin’s direction, eyes wide and round. “It’s clear.”

You don’t warn Hyunjin before you shoot up onto your feet, trying your best to keep discrete from any wandering eyes. The heels under your feet almost fail to support your pace, but you pay no mind, eyes dead set on the doorway furthest away from anyone’s attention. Hyunjin’s close at your tail, turning back every few steps to make sure that there was absolutely no one watching you both leave. 

The adrenaline’s causing your heart to pump above the average, and you can’t help but let out a laugh the moment you reach the door, soon finding yourself in an empty corridor of the venue (save for the doorman at the front and the woman attending coat check).

Hyunjin stumbles out after you, breathing heavily, “You didn’t even tell me you were going to take off like that!” 

Ignoring Hyunjin’s exclamations, you start making your way toward coat check, heels clicking against the marble floor. Hyunjin is unsure how you’re moving so quickly in heels, but he chooses not to question you.

“Y/N~” Hyunjin whines, “Slow down!”

“If we’re not quick we’re going to get caught,” you shoot a reply over your shoulder. You kindly ask for your coats, retrieving them within seconds before you toss Hyunjin his jacket. “Yeah, but we need to wait for Mr. Jang to come pick us up!” 

By the time Hyunjin finishes his sentence, you both find yourselves outside of the venue, cold air instantly nipping at your exposed skin. There were cars whizzing past, all probably on their way to your desired destination. Right at the bottom of the steps was a sleek black car, similar to what your family owned, and a man who you recognized as Mr. Jang, the Hwang’s driver. 

“So you did plan this!” you look over at Hyunjin. 

Hyunjin shakes his head, “No, but Mr. Jang will jump at any chance to actually do something.” The boy leads you down the steps and reaches the vehicle before you do. He greets Mr. Jang with a bow and then tugs on the door’s handle, opening it for you to hop in. You can’t help but giggle at the gesture, giving Hyunjin a look before sliding in. He shuffles in after you, smiling out of excitement.

“Where to, son?”

“Downtown, please.”

⋆⁺₊❅⋆ ⁺₊❆⋆

It’s when you both get to downtown that you realize that neither of you knew where to go. 

Sure, the plan was downtown but the city was a big place. Hyunjin should have been more specific, because right now, you were both standing in the middle of a busy street trying to decide which direction to go.

“Close your eyes, spin, and then stop when I tell you,” you suggest to Hyunjin, who’s trying to search his phone for any places you both could visit. 

“How about you do it!” Hyunjin’s brows furrow and he pouts, “It sounds like you’re going to ditch me.” 

“Now why the hell would I ditch you,” you sigh, “Just do it. I would do it, but I’m in heels.” 

You gesture for him to go on with the action, but not before he mutters a ‘the heels didn’t seem like a problem earlier’, earning him a thwack on his shoulder. 

Squeezing his eyes shut, Hyunjin sticks an arm out, using his index finger to point. Then, he begins to spin clockwise. From an outsider’s glance, this man probably looked ridiculous—he was dressed in formal attire and spinning like a top, almost taking out a few passerbyers in the process. 

You were finding this so amusing that you almost forgot that you had to tell him to stop. 

And when you tell Hyunjin to stop, he somehow ends up with his finger just inches away from your nose. You burst out laughing, your hands coming up to clutch your stomach because, for one, Hyunjin took the challenge seriously, and two, he looked absolutely ridiculous just standing there eyes closed and pointing. 

You don’t notice how Hyunjin’s eyes finally flutter open to see what was going on and how his taut expression relaxes the second they land on your bright figure just laughing, even if it is at his expense. His arm drops to his side, making a muted whap against his jacket. This catches your attention.

“I’m sorry,” you say, wiping a tear that has managed to slip out of the corner of your eye. And when Hyunjin doesn’t answer immediately, you take a step closer to him, “Hello?” 

“O-okay, so, that way!” Hyunjin’s brought back from space, head shaking. He side steps and walks around you, leading the way down the street while making sure you were following him. 

Hyunjin has no idea what just happened. It wasn’t like it was the first time he's seen you happy. In fact, you’ve always been happy around him. So, why did he suddenly freeze seeing you happy this time? 

Hyunjin shakes the thought out of his head, dismissing it as the remnants of wine from the party still in his system, and continues walking down the street, just a few paces in front of you.

You and Hyunjin weave through the people walking down the street against you, hands full with shopping bags or stuffed deep into their pockets. The pace Hyunjin had taken began to speed up, as if he had spotted something over the crowd that you couldn’t quite see even with heels. 

Glancing back, Hyunjin gently latches onto your wrist, afraid that you’d get lost in the sea of people, pulling you closer before he continues to step through the occasional gaps between bodies. 

“Where are we going?” you say out of curiosity. Hyunjin’s too occupied to answer you, still keeping his grasp firm around your wrist. He tugs you along for one more block, and by then you can tell that he did have an idea of where you were. Hyunjin knew where to go.

You feel like you’re able to breathe again when Hyunjin leads you into a plaza, and you let out a breath that you didn’t even know you were holding in. There was more space for people to walk around, buskers at each corner of the opening, and restaurants decked out in Christmas lights and decorations. Some places were blasting Christmas tunes out of outdoor speakers and, from afar, you can see Santa Claus taking pictures with children. You feel your heart fill with warmth in the atmosphere, excited to wander around and kill time with Hyunjin. 

“Do you want to eat something?” Hyunjin questions. The boy halts in front of a food truck, head falling back to scan the menu. The food truck was a dessert truck—candied fruit, ice cream, cake pops, and more. You can see that they also sold drinks. 

You nod, “What are you getting?” 

“I’m thinking a cake pop… you?” The line shifts forward and you both take a step forward to follow. 

You hum and try to decide on your own treat, “Can you get me candied strawberries, please?” 

It takes a little bit to reach the front of the line and finally receive your food. When the man on the truck hands Hyunjin the food, you go to grab it but Hyunjin refuses to let you take it, pulling the treats back to his own body. “Huh?” you frown, “Do you want me to pay you back or something?” Your mouth was practically watering at the sight of the tanghulu. It was almost unrealistically red, like strawberries you’d find in cartoons. 

“It’s cold,” Hyunjin shakes his head, “You can keep your hands in your pockets… I’ll hold it for you.” Then he holds the stick up to your lips, “Here.” 

Your brows furrow and you groan, “Hyunjin, I’m capable of holding it myself, you know.” You’re quick to grab the stick from Hyunjin and give him a look, “But thanks anyway.” 

Hyunjin grins, "Alright, suit yourself." He takes a bite of his cake pop as you enjoy the sweetness of the candied strawberries. The plaza is filled with a festive atmosphere, and you decide to stroll the rest of the area while munching on the treats. 

By the time you were halfway finished with your food, you had been able to properly take in the scene of the plaza. It was actually much larger than it was at first sight, the area stretching down another block or two of buildings. It extended into a wide pedestrian mall, with shops busy on either side of the broad walkway. 

Everyone there looked happy, like characters in the background of a movie. They minded their own business, stopping to watch the street performers entertain the passerbyers, or taking impromptu stops at the local shops lined up along the mall.

And though it did seem like such a first world problem for you to want to experience this without the stress that your parents constantly impose onto you to run a company, you like to think that your feelings still count. Even just a little.

“Look over there,” Hyunjin speaks up. He’s pointing further down the road and into a smaller plaza. There were people skating on a small, man-made, ice rink. 

A gasp leaves your mouth as you when you take notice of the gigantic Christmas tree sitting off to the side of the rink. It had been strung from top to bottom in lights that occasionally changed colours. Ornaments decorated the tree with large ornaments, accented with ribbons and garland. 

It was beautiful. 

It was beautiful and you wanted to go get a better look at it. 

Leaving Hyunjin’s side, you begin walking ahead of him, long forgetting the tanghulu in your hand. And just like earlier, Hyunjin calls for you to slow down, mainly because you were charging through the crowd with a pointy skewer, but also because he cannot catch up. You paid no mind to his attempts to slow you down. You were already dead set on catching a closer glimpse of that tree.

Hyunjin reaches you when you finally choose to stop. Your head falls back to look at the tree from its topper to its base, mouth falling open in awe, “Tell me why I’ve never seen this before.” Then you turn to look at Hyunjin, who’s looking at the tree himself, “How do you think they decorated it?”

Hyunjin lets out a laugh in the form of air shooting out his nose, “Cause all we know is work and school and business. I guess we never really have the time to enjoy these things, do we?” Then he thinks up a clever answer for your second question, but fails, “And honestly, I don’t know. Maybe one of those man lifts?” 

“You’re right,” you laugh, “We need to Irish Goodbye more often if it means we get to see more things like this.” You glance around the area and find a bench nearby. Wordlessly, you grab onto Hyunjin’s sleeve and tug him along to sit. 

You can feel how cool the metal bench is through your dress, but you lean back anyways, continuing to admire the Christmas tree. It was weird because you were feeling this sort of delight growing in your chest just at the sight of the decorated tree, though if you were asked what you were feeling you wouldn’t be able to put words to it. It was like the cherry on top of the sundae, perfectly fitting the ambience of everything that you and Hyunjin have seen tonight. 

And for Hyunjin, sure the tree and the lights strung up all over the plaza were beautiful, but he was having a hard time keeping his attention on them, and instead kept taking glances your way. It was probably the fact that this happiness was different than the ones he’s seen before. It was like your inner child had jumped out, eyes filled with all the galaxies the universe held. 

The corners of his lips had stretched at the slightest, eyes following in pursuit. 

Hyunjin realizes now that if you were happy, he was happy. And he’d do anything to make it happen. 

But he wouldn’t admit that to you just yet. 

Or anyone. 

It was enough for now that he had admitted it to himself.

Feeling eyes on you, you catch Hyunjin looking at you, expression soft. "What's up with that look?" you tease, your eyes narrowing. You lean over and nudge his arm with your shoulder. 

Hyunjin feels heat rush to the apples of his cheeks and the tips of ears. He hopes that you don’t notice, “It’s nothing… just thinking about how we should actually do this more often.” Hyunjin pries his eyes away from you and forces himself to look at the tree which, frankly, wasn’t as pretty as you. 

“We should…” you nod, “This is way better than the gala.” 

Hyunjin agrees silently. 

The two of you sit there in a comfortable silence, just taking in the environment. It wasn’t everyday that you both got freedom like this and it was nice. And you can tell that Hyunjin felt the same. 

Before you finally go to speak up after a while, your phone rings. Glancing at the caller ID, your heart rate shoots up when you see it's your parents at the other end of the line. You quickly answer it to not cause suspicion, already sensing the concern in their voices.

“Hello?”

"Y/N, sweetheart, where are you?" your mom asks. You could hear your father’s voice saying something in the background, followed by another man’s voice. 

"I’m still at the venue," you lie, "I just needed to get air. Why?"

“We found the owner of—” You roll your eyes. Of course. 

“I’ll be right there, mom,” you say flatly, “Bye.” And you hang up. 

“So?” Hyunjin questions. You notice that he had shifted in his seat to look at you, “What did she say?” He didn’t want to get you in trouble. 

“She was talking about the owner of some company,” you shrug, “But that means we have to go.” 

You stand up and take one last look at the tree before you have to drag yourself back into your own reality. It was good while it lasted. 

Hyunjin frowns at your expression and gently takes your hand in his, “I’ll take you back here soon.”

You smile, eyes lighting up at the thought of coming back here again (and in much more comfortable clothes, too). “Promise?”

Hyunjin’s glad to see the joy instantly return to your previously deflating figure and nods.

“Promise.”

an: Thank you soso much for reading! Pls stay tuned for the upcoming members!

[faulty-writes]

[ Hello my dear followers and or fans. I present to you a Keigo piece, written for the Hawks Big Bang 2023. This was exceptionally fun to write, and I hope you all enjoy this piece. Hopefully, I'll come up with a few more ideas for some Keigo-based fan fics in the future. ]

[ As a support specialist, you were used to receiving attention, and it wasn’t just because you were the child of Endeavor, but you had your suspicions that might be why a certain winged hero liked you. Furthermore, it might explain why you were assigned to create his new feathers. Unfortunately, you run into a certain complication while trying to craft them. ]

It wasn’t easy being the child of Endeavor, the number one hero. When you think about your past, all you remember is how busy he was and how you constantly pleaded for his attention, especially when you came up with invention ideas.

Yes, your love of technology and keen sense of curiosity set you apart from the rest of your family. It was common for you to spend time in your room creating blueprints, drawings, or lists of the inventions you wished to create growing up.

On more than one occasion, you’d fall asleep at your desk with blueprints scattered underneath your sleeping head, half-made prototypes lying in front of you, and your hands still loosely gripping a screwdriver or wrench.

This made it difficult for your siblings to spend time with you and it was always a fight to get you out of your room and away from your passion. You recalled being dragged away by your caretaker with your nails scraping against the floor of your bedroom more than once.

But even this wasn’t enough to tear you away from your life’s purpose. The desire to change the world through your inventions led you to enroll at Yuuei, despite your father’s wishes, and though countless support manufacturing companies offered you positions after you graduated, you chose to start your own business.

Many thought this was impossible, but you knew that your inventions were unique and that potential customers would come to you for your customization abilities. The fact that you never said no to a challenge, no matter how difficult, was another characteristic that set you apart from other support item specialists.

In that aspect, you were sure you had inherited your stubborn nature from your father, but at least he had softened his attitude since Shoto had started attending Yuuei. However, despite your success, you have been unmotivated as of late and who could blame you?

Touya, your oldest brother who happened to be alive but turned into a villain, was responsible for attacking and critically injuring your father and youngest brother. You had originally thought focusing on your work would help you forget about him and the heavy overwhelming feelings that consumed you.

Clearly, you were mistaken. Your thoughts kept drifting back to the current events you were dealing with, causing your chest to ache so fiercely that you almost wished you had inherited your mother’s quirk so you could numb it and feel cold.

In any case, you didn’t inherit your mother’s quirk, at least not in the way you had hoped. Just like your father, you possessed a fire quirk and like your brother, Touya, the fire you produced was blue but…cold. Yes, you had some sort of cold flame ability, but it was nowhere near as powerful as the ice quirk your family possessed.

You weren’t as able to control your fire as Touya, Shoto, or even your father either. Although, like your older brother and sister, you didn’t use your quirk for anything practical outside of experimenting with some inventions that were powered by it.

You will always remember the first time you tried this new type of quirk-powered technology. You thought it was going to be a breakthrough, a new source of energy. Of course, you were still a support student at the time and that could have played into your naive nature.

Anyone in the support business knows that sometimes your inventions don’t go as planned and, in some cases, literally blow up in your face. This is what happened to you, instead of your quirk-powered invention doing as it was designed, it went haywire and blew up when you were within close range of it. 

As a result, your dominant hand’s thumb, index, and pinky fingers were severed and the Development Studio was off-limits for a couple of weeks while you adjusted to living with seven functional fingers. Unlike most rational-thinking individuals, you refused to have them reattached.

Rather, you saw this as an opportunity to make another version of your failed invention which is where the origin of your robotic fingers came in. Countless individuals chose to have certain body parts or limbs replaced with robotic ones and in that sense, you didn’t feel any different.

Of course, it had been tricky learning how to channel your quirk to your automated fingers and gauge just how much of your power you needed to make them work efficiently as you needed them to, but eventually, you mastered it.

Now only if you could master the ability to turn your feelings off, but you knew that was impossible. Even so, the latest project you had been given by the Winged Hero: Hawks could distract you for the time being.

Even though most would feel honored to create prosthetic feathers for the number two hero, you felt guilty knowing that those wings were burnt by your brother’s flames. Then again, maybe this was a way to help atone for his wrongdoings and this wasn’t the first time you had been assigned to craft something for Hawks.

He had been coming to you for several reasons since you graduated, and part of you thought it was because of your connection to Endeavor, who he was a big fan of. As time passed, you began to associate his unexpected visits with his desire to spend time with you.

The only problem was that you were too busy for him, and he often disregarded this. You leaned away from your work table to examine the blueprints you had created. “At least these feathers are pretty straightforward,” you tapped the end of your pencil against your lips being careful not to break it with your artificial fingers.

They were made up of three parts to give realistic joint movement, and these three parts gleamed the faintest blue color. The fingers were attached to a special device worn over your hand that looked like an ordinary compression glove but was made from a special type of metal.

As with your artificial fingers, it had a lining that glowed, and three circles across the top, and each circle was connected to one of the three mechanical fingers via a small wire. You paused when a soft vibrating sound filled the air causing you to look at the table.

You noted that the noise source was your phone. If there was one thing people should know about you, it was that you hated being interrupted when working. You sighed when you grabbed it and noticed a familiar number flashing across the screen.

“Bothering me already?” you muttered. You placed the device back down and grabbed your blueprints. “He can wait until I’m done with these,” it was standard for your customers to have your number, but you noticed Keigo had a bad habit of calling you whenever he pleased, and you didn’t have time for that.

You couldn’t even imagine how he had time for that, especially in his current state. He couldn’t even speak and needed a voice assistance device. Of course, it was only temporary and most likely given to him in the rush of everything else that was going on.

Still, you couldn’t help but think you could have made him something better. But it was time to forget about that. You glanced over the table which was currently cluttered with scraps of metal and beaten-to-death-looking tools.

“Let’s see…” you leaned over to the bulletin board that was hanging on the wall directly in front of said table and proceeded to hang the blueprint up. It was good to have a reference to look at when you were creating, although you were the type to tweak things here and there along the way.

Luckily, it never resulted in anything catastrophic. “There,” you leaned back, placing your hands on your hips and smiling proudly. “Now it’s my favorite time of the day,” you pulled your work stool out from under the table and sat down, pulling up the sleeves of your hoodie.

Well, okay. It was Natsuo’s hoodie, and you might have stolen it out of his closet without permission. But he had a million more and as much as you hated to admit it, the simple piece of clothing did bring some comfort.

You cracked your knuckles before leaning over to grab your work computer that was resting against one of the legs of the table and opened it. A few clicks sounded and seconds passed before a building program popped up on the screen.

Yes, even support item specialists used building or modeling software, and if you wanted to create prosthetics, feather prosthetics at that, you had to build a 3D structure that you could work with. However, unlike when you crafted things by hand, certain programs used to create more specific support items needed to be precise.

This also meant you had to spend hours and hours perfecting each little detail based on the hand-drawn blueprints you created before moving on. It wasn’t uncommon for you to get so caught up in your work that you drowned out the world around you. Noises such as your phone vibrating were deaf to your ears.

“Mm…” Keigo frowned, shrugging his shoulders. His yellow-golden eyes were fixed on his phone screen. Since he couldn’t talk right now, he wasn’t sure why he was calling you. However, his concern was heightened with every attempted call as they all went to your voicemail.

Tsunagu, more widely known as “Best Jeanist” noticed the distressed state the younger hero was in. He narrowed his eyes and approached, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. As expected, Keigo glanced up at him. “Perhaps it’s best you leave them be,” he suggested.

While he would normally support a fellow hero and their pursuits, he didn’t think it wise Keigo continue bothering you. It was evident that Endeavor was still recovering from his physical injuries, and his family was suffering emotionally now.

Keigo blinked and refocused his attention back on his phone, seeming to disregard the elder man’s words. He closed his eyes and after a few seconds, looked at Tsunagu again. His thumb quickly glided over the screen of his phone, and he typed out the message, “I need to check on them.”

Tsunagu sighed, pressing his hand against his forehead. He had his suspicions as to why Keigo wanted to see you, and it wasn’t just because you were assigned to create his new feathers. He didn’t want to see a fellow hero go down the dead-end path of romance.

At the same time, he knew far too well that he could not tell another adult, much less another hero what to do and in that sense, he could not rightfully refuse Keigo’s request. “Very well,” he replied, trying his best not to sigh and turning to walk to his car.

“Finally!” you leaned back, grinning at the 3D model of a prosthetic feather on the screen. “Now all that’s left is to print it,” you dragged the mouse over to the ‘File’ button and scrolled down. You were about to click ‘Print’ when you heard something.

“Hm?” your head turned to look at a small monitor nestled in the corner of the room, it was activated by a motion camera and much like a phone notification, it chimed when someone approached. You narrowed your eyes when you noticed the individual standing in front of the door.

His ash-blond feathery hair caught your attention first, followed by the medical bandages that were wrapped around his head but still exposed his face. The next thing was the respirator mask he wore, and the black button-up shirt he had on.

In his right hand, he was holding a small device which you assumed was his phone. The only thing that was missing was what you were currently working on, those beautiful bright red feathers that made up his wings. “What the?” your eyebrow twitched, and you clenched your jaw, immediately feeling annoyed by his presence.

‘What is he doing here!?’ you thought, balling your trembling hands into fists. ‘Well, I’m going to find out!’ With that, you stood from your seat and marched over to the door just as a few knocks sounded. You roughly pulled the door open, ignoring how it smacked against the wall.

You glared at the injured hero. “What do you want?” you demanded, crossing your arms. Yes, most wouldn’t be rude to pro heroes especially when they were as injured as Keigo. But, in your defense, he should know better than to bother you while you are working.

He stared at you, and you weren’t sure if he was in shock or disbelief over your words. “You ignored my texts” he replied. You furrowed your brow. “Texts?” you repeated. With a pointed artificial finger, you said, “You didn’t text me!”

You expected him to make a smart remark, but silence followed, and his attention was focused on your finger. In response to the glowing blue finger, his body stiffened and memories of the flames that had stolen his wings and voice came flooding back to him.

You noticed the blue-hued reflection of your finger in his eyes but quickly turned to march back to your work table and snatched your phone off it. After unlocking the device, you looked to see…you were wrong. There were several text messages from him and a few missed calls, but you weren’t sure if all of them were from him.

“Told you,” a robotic voice said. “Ah!” you jumped and turned around, swinging your fist at him. Even in his weakened state, he was quick enough to block you. “Whoa there,” his facial expression softened as if he had enjoyed the fact, you almost punched him. “Didn’t mean to scare you,” you rolled your eyes, looking back at your phone.

Part of you was curious to see what Keigo’s text messages said while another was annoyed that you were wasting your time, you had work to do! You clenched your jaw, lowering your phone before snapping, “Why are you always bothering me!?” Keigo leaned back, his eyes widening.

You could only imagine the shocked or disbelieving expression that was hidden underneath that respirator mask. He blinked once or twice before typing into his phone, “I wanted to see you today.” Well, that didn’t answer your question.

You sighed, placing your hand against your head and being careful not to let your hair get stuck in the small spaces of your robotic extremities. Keigo stood there, his eyes shifting ever so slightly as he absorbed each detail of you.

Even though he could see Endeavor’s anger and stubbornness in you, it was more charming, even cute coming from you. Yet, it was still hard for him to accept that you were the child of his favorite hero. “Look,” he immediately shifted his gaze to your face when you spoke.

“Your feathers aren’t finished yet, and you’re distracting me, so leave now!” you demanded, pointing to the door. You turned your back to him. “Jeez…” you muttered, slamming your phone back onto the table. You couldn’t fathom why he had wanted to see you, since you didn’t see yourself as interesting.

In addition, your life was consumed with work. There was always something to be done. Day in and day out, inventing, fixing, and creating. It was a miracle you even had time for your own family, let alone others. Keigo frowned, although he knew this was how you’d react.

He assumed Endeavor taught you to keep to yourself and to keep everyone at arm’s length. But that only made him question what were you trying to hide or was it that you were afraid of what would happen if you let someone in? He understood how that felt, given his neglectful and abusive childhood scars.

There was a part of him that wondered if life had led him to you only to remind him that he was nothing more than a villain in disguise and that his effort to dirty his hands to keep yours clean was all for nothing since he could never reach you no matter how hard he tried.

He curled his free hand into a fist, hearing the gentle cracking of his knuckles. But heroes and villains had one thing in common: they never gave up. So, damn the world because he’d keep trying, and with everything going to hell in a handbasket, now was the ideal moment to capture your heart and fuck the consequences.

His eyes lingered on you, once again taking in every detail. Although he was struck with curiosity when he noticed the hoodie you were wearing, it looked a bit too large for you and he swore he had caught a musky scent earlier that contrasted your typical fruity but spicy fragrance.

His suspicions were heightened and frankly, he didn’t like the fact that you were wearing another man’s clothing. He intended to disregard your wish, not that he would abide by it anyway, and he anticipated how you would react when he leaned forward, pressing himself against your back.

“What the-” You tensed up and lifted your arm, fully intent on elbowing him in the stomach, but once again he was too fast for you. The sound of his phone hitting the table echoed through the room. “Hey!” he grabbed your left wrist and pinned it against the table.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” you demanded, feeling him pin your right hand against the table as well. It was a tad odd to feel the cool metal touch of your artificial fingers against his. Part of him wondered if you missed the sensation of being able to feel or touch.

After all, even you couldn’t invent something that brought back the nerves that were taken away after that incident years ago. Yes, he knew about it, and he was still at a loss for why you didn’t choose to simply reattach your fingers.

Then again, there was a chance that even if you did, they’d hold no or very little feeling at all. But flesh or not, nothing was going to stop him from tightening his grip and enjoying how his fingers fit perfectly between yours.

When he rested his chin on your shoulder, you tensed up in response. He tried to get a glimpse of your face before he moved your wrist closer to his phone and used the bottom of his palm to keep it pinned against the table while his fingers typed out another message.

“Whose hoodie are you wearing?” The question threw you off and you looked dumbfounded before knitting your eyebrows and the sound of your growling filled the air. “Why do you care?” you replied, glaring at him from over your shoulder.

An expression of distant longing filled his eyes, and he offered no words in response to your question. “Huh?” you froze when he released his hold on you and stepped away. Although he knew it was dangerous, he didn’t care since he had nothing left to hold back.

The moment you saw him reach up to remove his mask, your eyes widened. “Wait!” you cried out, grabbing his hand to force it away from his face. “What are you doing? Are you crazy!? You need to keep your mask on!” you exclaimed, almost hating yourself for showing that you cared about him.

Your words were met with silence, and his eyes remained with that distant look as if he didn’t comprehend what he was doing or what you were saying. Although your robotic fingers might be digging into his flesh and causing him discomfort, you tightened your grip.

After a moment, however, you took a deep breath and dropped your hand. “Fine,” you said, crossing your arms. He almost hated the frown you wore, but he knew you needed to hear his voice even if it physically pained him to speak.

“Do what you want!” you yelled, latching onto your lip, feeling embarrassed that you had let your emotions slip. Yes, maybe you did care about Keigo, a little, but he didn’t need to know that! He lowered his eyebrows and resumed removing his mask. “Mm…” you glanced back at him, dropping your arms instantly.

Your eyes widened and your mouth hung agape. The left side of his face was marked by a jagged scar, which ran down to the side of his neck. It was red and in the process of healing. You wondered if it still required treatment, but his hardy and struggling breathing distracted you from any further thoughts.

“You…wearing another man’s…clothing,” his voice was barely audible, “makes me jealous.” Your eyes began to water at the sight of the damage left on his skin and at the sound of his vocal cords straining to speak. Stepping closer, you said “I-It’s Natsuo’s hoodie,” and cursed yourself for trembling when you spoke.

“Mm...” his eyes narrowed as if he were debating whether you were telling the truth or not. “Is…is that what you really care about right now!?” you growled. “You are so…” you wanted to call him stupid, an idiot even. Instead, you swallowed and looked at him, with a few stray tears running down your cheeks.

Your hand came to rest on the side of his injured cheek, and you almost wished you didn’t have these damned metal fingers so you could properly brush your thumb over his skin. Your compression glove’s cool metal texture made him recoil and at the same time, a sense of sadness filled him.

He would have much preferred to feel the touch of your warm palm, of course, then you wouldn’t have the use of a thumb period. “Did Touya really do this to you?” he frowned at your question and reached up, clasping the side of your face. It was apparent that your tears were now streaming over his hand and down his wrist.

Although most tears felt warm, yours were cold and left faint red lines on his skin. He quickly assumed this was because your quirk was cold enough to burn and partly wondered if your tears would leave a kiss of frostbite or at the very least, leave his skin feeling cold for a while. Not that it mattered.

He almost wanted to laugh, because unlike your brother, who shared that his tear ducts were burned, yours seemed to work just fine. Seeing a hero in such a fragile state, one that everyone looked up to, was always hard to accept.

But this was reality, and he didn’t fear showing you his weaker side, he just wished you’d do the same. Although you were already going through a lot emotionally, he felt a tiny bit guilty that he was only adding to it. At the same time, he felt hopeful that he was getting closer and closer to tearing down your walls today.

As he cradled your face in his hands, he gently moved his thumbs, collecting your chilly teardrops and wiping them away. You latched onto your lip, feeling your heart speed up at the caring and gentle gesture he was performing.

You were typically someone who bottled up their feelings and if you had to cry, you usually did it in private as you believed it was a sign of weakness. But it seemed that you and Keigo were both weak and needed to lean on one another for the time being.

The answer to your earlier question was obvious, and frankly, you didn’t know why you had even asked it in the first place. “Damn it…” you hissed under your breath and tried to turn your head, but Keigo refused to allow you to look away from him.

His noisy and raspy breathing made you cringe, and you hoped that he wouldn’t collapse. Your eyes closed and you pressed your teeth together, you couldn’t take any more drama. A soft hitch of breath came when Keigo stepped closer and pressed his forehead against yours.

Tears continued to trickle out of your eyes, possibly a sign of all the emotions you had been holding back until now. Silence filled the space between you, apart from the man’s continued breathing and it was only in this moment that you noticed the unfamiliar heat coursing through your cheeks.

As he cautiously stepped closer, his hands slipped down to your shoulders, drawing his breath against your face and you felt the warmth of his lips so dangerously close to yours. “I’m...not a good...guy,” he said, struggling with his words once again.

“What?” you asked, your voice barely above a whisper. You lowered your hand from his face, how could he say that? Yes, you were aware of what he had done. Your brother had told Japan that the Winged Hero: Hawks had murdered Twice, the villain.

However, you knew from your own experience that heroes aren’t always heroic. Your father was a prime example of that, but as of recently, he aimed to improve himself, despite the hatred the world now held for heroes. You could only assume that Keigo was following in his footsteps.

His hands brushed over yours and he took them in his grasp, holding them to his lips. As he kissed each one of your knuckles, he closed his eyes, taking another breath. “You…make me…feel like one.” Tingles ran through your body, and when he opened his eyes again it felt like those golden orbs were staring directly into your soul.

Yet, you felt comfortable for a moment. As if all the troubles you felt were suddenly lifted. Your eyelids lowered and you squeezed his hands, almost unconsciously pressing yourself against him. The tiniest smile came to your face, and Keigo’s eyes softened when he returned that smile. It was good to see you in this state.

Maybe now he could…he paused, releasing your hands and instead, wrapped his arms around you. His fingers almost possessively dug into your back, and he leaned forward. A soft coo escaped him as he carefully nuzzled against your neck making you tremble in response.

It was hard to tell if you were shocked by the way he embraced you or by the bird-like noise he made. Of course, you should have expected it given his quirk. Your hands remained at your sides, and you thought, ‘Should I hug him back?’

You were never one to express your affection physically, but it seemed the two of you were already past that. “Mm...” you hesitantly slipped your arms beneath Keigo’s, allowing your fingertips to graze along his back while remaining conscious of not harming him with your robotic fingers.

Your eyebrows knitted as you felt two distinct bumps on his shoulder blades and quickly realized they were the remains of his wings. ‘Oh right...his wings…’ you thought bitterly, glancing to the side. ‘I should be working on his damn feathers, what am I doing!?’

Despite your rational thoughts, your body didn’t listen. ‘Why…why can’t I move away?’ Was it because this felt nice? His body was warm and comforting despite being bruised, beaten, and fragile. Your eyes began to water again, and you tightened your embrace.

Your fingers, or at least the flesh and blood ones, were trembling. As soon as he noticed this, he drew back but kept his arms around you. He noticed your watery eyes first, followed by your frown and overall look of hurt across your face.

He wanted to ask what was wrong, but words were useless. Maybe he should show you that everything was okay or as okay as he could make it at this time. Pulling back his hand, he lightly grasped your chin and grazed his thumb along your bottom lip. The moment he leaned forward, your heart pounded faster.

What was going on? Was he going to…and why did you want to? Your eyelids lowered, and your lips parted, prepared to feel the warmth of his against them. However, the door opened right as your mouths touched, and both of you froze. Then a familiar voice came, “Y/n?” 

You instantly pushed your hands against Keigo’s chest and glanced past him to see your father. What was he doing here, shouldn’t he be in the hospital!? Well, unless he got discharged. But if that were the case, then Fuyumi should have informed you. Then again, you weren’t exactly paying attention to your phone today.

You expected him to react with anger, but instead, he frowned and lowered his eyebrows, confused at what he was seeing and why Keigo was so close to his child. “Apologies,” Tsunagu’s voice came and seconds later you watched him squeeze past your father.

“I attempted to explain to Endeavor that you were currently engaged in conversation with Y/n, but it appears he favored disrupting regardless.” Well...in addition to ignoring your phone, you realized that if someone was preoccupying your attention, you also ignored the chime of your motion camera. Lovely. “However, they are his child and I believe we have interrupted Todoroki family matters enough,” he was somewhat concerned as to why Keigo hadn’t turned around yet. But knowing the young hero, he was more than likely attentively listening to and acknowledging the two men now present in the room.

In addition, due to his years of conditioning as a hero, it was also likely he was continuing to shield you because he wanted to make sure you and everything else were safe. Enji glared at Tsunagu before shaking his head and looking back at you and Keigo.

Though he didn’t say a word when he walked over, his eyes burned with an intimidating gaze that made you tremble. “Uh...hi Dad?” you awkwardly said and, with some regret, stepped away from Keigo. Without warning, he grabbed your wrist and pulled you away.

You were surprised that he said and did nothing given the fact that in the past he had no trouble laying his hands on Keigo and threatening to turn him into fried chicken. Maybe double-fried chicken in this case. You shifted your gaze to Tsunagu as you passed by, and he merely shrugged.

“Mm…” your cheeks were flushed, and Enji loosened his grip on your wrist when the two of you got closer to the door and instead, took a secure grip on your hand. As he yanked it forward, three distinct snaps echoed through the room.

You paused, realizing that he had unintentionally taken your artificial fingers off, but luckily that was part of their design. It enabled you to replace whichever finger you wanted or fix them if necessary. He paused and looked to see three metal appendages now in his palm. His eyes widened, and he looked back at you.

“Shouldn’t have pulled that hard,” you said, holding your hand up. The metal compression glove remained, but the three wires that connected to your fingers were hanging against it. Judging by your father’s frown, it was difficult for him to see just two flesh and blood fingers because it reminded him of his shameful past.

After losing your fingers, he should have been stricter with you and consulted you about what you needed to do. He curled his hand into a fist and grabbed your wrist with his opposite. “Let’s go,” he finally dragged you past the door, leaving the two fellow heroes behind. 

Upon hearing Keigo fumble with his respiratory mask, Tsunagu asked, “Is this what you meant when you said you needed to check on them?” Keigo ignored his words and grabbed his phone from the table, briefly glancing at your computer which was left open.

He noted the odd program you had displayed on the screen and the strange feather-like image on it. He turned to Tsunagu, “They’ll be back later,” he typed out. “Endeavor wouldn’t distract them for long, after all, they’re obsessed with their work,” he noted before walking past the fellow hero.

“We need to make sure to lock the door, I don’t want Y/n’s possessions to get stolen,” he paused in the doorway, focusing his gaze on a black vehicle pulling away from the building in a hurry. It was safe to assume that it belonged to Endeavor.

Your hands curled in your lap when your father finally got you into the car, though it was a tad odd to see the three stumps where your fingers used to be. “Hi Y/n,” Fuyumi greeted but only received your glare in response.

It must take a lot out of her mental health to have to force herself to remain optimistic over everything she does, and part of you hated her constant positivity even when there was none to be found. You shifted your gaze to Natsuo, who, like your father, had a temper.

But he was at least honest with you and expressed his opinions without remorse. He saw the truth in everything and accepted it no matter how hard. Shoto seemed to be missing, but you presumed that his injuries would take more time to heal and further presumed that your mother was with him.

“Mm…” you turned to Enji, holding out your opposite hand and he hesitantly handed you the metal fingers. After clicking each one into place and ensuring they worked properly and that the wires were firmly reattached, you muttered, “Thanks” and looked out the window.

You’d be lying if you said you weren’t annoyed that you were once again being distracted from your work. Enji frowned, staring at the back of your head, and contemplating his next words. “Stay away from Hawks,” you looked at him in disbelief.

However, your reaction was not surprising to him, and he remained with a stern expression and crossed arms. “What?” you hissed out, your eyebrows slanted, and your teeth bared as if ready to pounce on him like a hungry animal after its prey.

“Wait…” Fuyumi said, her voice full of concern. “Hawks visited you?” she frowned and pressed a hand against her chest. ‘That must be why Dad was so upset,’ like your father, she was unphased by your glare and her facial expression reflected her concern and loving nature.

She cared about this family as hellish as it was and wanted nothing more than to take care of her younger siblings, especially in the absence of your mother. Granted she decided to come back into the picture quite recently, which was yet another emotional toll you had to deal with.

Like Shoto, you kept a distance from your older siblings, and no matter how hard they tried to connect with you, there never seemed to be anything in common between you and them. You preferred to stay indoors and often refused to play with them growing up.

This, of course, was a result of your passion for support items which drove you to confine yourself to your room where you spent hours creating, fixing, or making blueprints of inventions. You paused and glared at her again, was she really asking such a dumb question?

You turned to Enji. “He’s not that bad you know. After everything he’s been through because of Touy-” a deep growl rumbled from his throat. “I know very well what happened,” he remarked, anger seeping from his words.

Guess he didn’t want to be reminded of the awful deeds his own flesh and blood committed. Natsuo sighed, pressing the tips of his fingers together. He felt hopeless that he couldn’t do anything about Touya. He glanced at you, crossing his arms before pressing his back into his seat.

“Lay off Y/n,” he demanded, now glaring at your father. “It’s not their fault that Touya ended up the way he did,” he noted, ignoring Fuyumi’s hand on his shoulder. “Don’t say that Natsuo,” she urged in a quiet whisper, why she always felt like defending your father was unknown.

You sighed, glancing out the window again. “What did he want?” Natsuo asked, catching your attention. “Hm?” you responded, not fully catching his question. “What did he want?” he repeated, slightly annoyed. You knitted your eyebrows and huffed. “Nothing,” you replied nonchalantly.

Natsuo narrowed his eyes, with the way you were dragged out the door, he didn’t buy it. Before he could inquire anything further, Enji said, “So it was Hawks who initiated it then.” You stared at him silently as you pressed your lips together.

He narrowed his eyes, returning your stare. “I’ll have to have a chat with him later,” he stated, it wasn’t in his interest for Keigo to have a romantic relationship with his child. “What?” you replied before pressing your hands against the empty space between you and Enji.

“No, you won’t! Nothing happened between us, he was just…” Your words faded into the air, and your eyes shifted back and forth. “Just what?” Enji asked, daring you to complete your sentence. “W-why does it matter?” you replied, knowing you were acting like a love-sick teenager.

As you stared out the window yet again, you took notice of the clouds passing by. “Y/n,” Enji snarled possessively. You sighed. “What?” you asked, glancing at his reflection in the glass of the window. He was wearing a frown, and his eyes held a hurt expression.

“I want to protect all of you,” he stated, once again attempting to show his softer side. You heard Natsuo huff in response while Fuyumi remained quiet. You lifted your hand to brush the cool metal tips of your artificial fingers against your lips, ignoring the blue-tinted hue that reflected off the window.

You recalled the feeling of Keigo’s breath against them and the faint butterfly kiss of his mouth against yours. ‘What would have happened if Dad didn’t interrupt us?’ You weren’t sure if you wanted to know, but one thing was clear.

“You can’t protect someone else’s heart,” you replied, your voice soft but audible. That hurt expression on his face deepened, but you didn’t bother turning your head or looking at his reflection any longer. Instead, you were more concerned over the realization that maybe, just maybe you liked Keigo after all.

[zagreusbutgayer]

The Jeynes

Wanted to experiment with a more painterly style and wound up with these two Jeynes; Jeyne Swann and Jeyne Westerling! They haven't made their official debut yet but they're Cassana's two ladies in waiting, and both I and she love them :)

(This Jeyne Swann is NOT the canon Jeyne Swann who got kidnapped by the Kingswood Brotherhood, just a distant cousin who happens to share the same name. Likewise Jeyne Westerling isn't exactly the same as canon since this version is PROBABLY not Sybell Spicer's daughter, cause fuck Sybell)

Also wanted to experiment with different regions' styles + some funky medieval headdress references I've had saved for ages, and I had fun doing it! For Swann I mainly went with the 'bridgerton' era fashion but tried to incorporate heraldic dress elements, while Westerling gets the Cersei-esque kimono style wrap dresses, and a similar head wrap thing to what I gave Jeyne Farman. Her 'hat' thing wound up looking unfortunately like a pie (I mostly blame the colour) but we vibing. I'd like to push concepts more and incorporate a wider variety of historical references in future, but for relatively quick/easy sketches I then decided to finish up, I'm more than pleased with it :)

(I gave Swann blue eyes on a whim + to contrast with Westerling, but they wound up so vibrant I decided its just canon that the Swanns are descended from Baratheons via the daughter Prince Duncan refused to marry. The black hair gene faded but the blue eyes are still going strong)

(and yes i am aware that i've somehow wound up exclusively drawing jeynes, at this point im honestly contemplating just leaning into it lol)

[coffeelovesdramasalatte]

LITA Ep. 5 Rewatch Thoughts Pt. 3

Ok so I have literally watched this part 37 times all the way through for the purposes of this rewatch thread. People needs years of training to reach the single-minded peaceful state I reach when I see these two kiss, but it also means when the scene started I kept forgetting to take screenshots. Here we go!

Starting off, I love how slow they took this. It wasn't an immediate "ok we're together now, let's kiss so hard we knock teeth!" - every move is so deliberate and so gentle. If it's possible to have a comfort kiss, it's this set of ones.

I continue to see triangle imagery that may not even be real. Let's take a close look at these kisses. This one looks a lot like their first one, where their mouths are closed and their lips just fit together. So very sweet!

They let go for a beat, and then press together again with their mouths slightly open. This kiss has a bit more force.

Rain pushes forward for the third one (and who can blame that eagerness?) - to be honest I'm mostly looking at the way Phayu's hands fit so completely around Rain's neck here.

Someone REALLY wants more kisses right now - he's gotta wait, Phayu's stroking his face first.

Phayu then delivers the "you can be my wife or I'll be your husband" line, and then we get this absolutely adorable and besotted expression on Rain.

This is just so aesthetic okay? I love the where it started, where it is now we're getting with the triangle glass case in the blurry foreground and them peacefully kissing in the background, along with an abundance of yellow+navy blue imagery..

Yeah I'm honestly melting rn I don't have a lot more to say here. I continue to love the microphone placement because you can really hear when they separate from this kiss.

Rain calls Phayu out on his choices that aren't really choices (I'm just saying, if someone like Phayu wanted to give me these options I wouldn't have a hard time picking). RainPhayu have such lovely hand-related imagery when it comes to their relationship. Whenever Phayu wants to apologize to or assuage Rain, he does the hand kiss, and when whenever Rain wants to calm Phayu down he does the forearm grab plus adorable look up at him.

Look at his face

This is the face of the man who is planning future mischief already

I can think of other, more positive reasons he might cry Phayu, why did you go with embarrassment?

... We all saw the word cum in there and did a double take, right? My head wasn't even in the gutter at this point but it was so unexpected.

Hi, universe? Can I have one of these please?? I could use some help on my future thesis, just saying...

Yas Rain, own that man! Rain is probably good at riddles, huh? Idk I just feel proud of him rn

The way Phayu/Boss says laina (cunning - i'm sure I spelt the Thai romanization wrong but that's what I heard) the sheer fondness in his voice and on his face hit me so hard. Literally am a puddle rn please look at this brain altering shot. Phayu just wrapped his arms around and pulled Rain almost into his lap. That must be so warm and cozy ahhhh

Tell him Rain!!

Ok the little aaa sound Phayu makes to draw out the affection in this sentence will live rent-free in my list of most favorite sounds forever. It's so important to me (and Rain). Rain's besotted again

Their faces are making a heart - I'm not coping well

Rain's little intake of breath when Phayu starts whispering in his ear and the slow blinks are also so important to me. I don't think I understood the term molasses-like atmosphere until I watched this scene.

They are so close to each other right now, emotionally and physically. The little nod of agreement Phayu gives when Rain asks if he really means what he just said is so lovely.

One other thing I love about EulBoss' depiction of PhayuRain is how happy they are to be together - you can see Phayu clearly smiling as he goes in to kiss Rain, who is smiling himself.

The tentativeness of this kiss that comes right after the important thing that Phayu just told Rain (we don't officially find out what he says until later but we can assume it was a confession of some sort based on Rain's question and obvious happiness right after it was said) is a beautiful indicator of how vulnerable they're being with each other rn.

After a few seconds they start pushing a little harder against each other - the amount of movement is super pleasant to watch!

To the next part for more sweetness!

[cavortingjorkingit]

Untitled Cartoon Villainess RPG: Psychic Star Force!

I decided to use @toskalain's Untitled Cartoon Villainess RPG to make the storyline for a space epic featuring psychic powers and strange planets. It was good fun, although as always it ended up longer than I imagined it would. Here's the starting point, and the actual episodes are below the cut.

The Setting:

In the far future, the many branches of humankind are scattered over countless worlds, connected only by occasional starships that provide trade and communication. Some say that once there was a great human empire ruled from the homeworld, Earth – others that that is all just wishful thinking. Many blame the downfall of the ancient human civilization on psions, individuals occasionally born with great powers.

The Heroines:

Ellesen: Blue-haired amazon with tactile telekinesis. Adventurous, kind, dreams of exploring the stars.

Mabali: Short, red-skinned pyrokinetic young woman. Abrasive, short-tempered, loyal.

Tori: Black-eyed, horned young woman of unknown heritage. Emotion and empathy powers. Insecure, pessimistic, desperate to know her origins.

Klem-Knam: Four-eyed, green-skinned woman with insectile vibe. No psionic powers, but a genius with technology, enthusiastic and curious but often careless.

The Villainess: Lady Ashen. Incredibly tall, aristocratic bearing, seems like nothing fazes her. Has a persuasive and seductive manner but quick to escalate to cruelty if things don’t go her way. Long dark hair, pale grey skin, long black dresses. Various psionic powers. Leads a small army of identical-looking and very skilled soldiers in faceplates and figure-hugging bodysuits.

Episode 1:

On a trading planet of small islands surrounded by orange oceans, Lady Ashen is attempting to acquire a valuable ancient artefact. At first, she plans to simply bid for it at auction, but if she fails to get it she’ll have her forces steal it.

The heroines: The heroines are all on the planet for different reasons, and after first encountering each other they stumble upon evidence of Lady Ashen’s plans to steal the artefact. They’ll attempt to reveal this to the authorities if they get the chance.

Results:

First flip: Tails. After the authorities ignore their warnings, the heroines manage to prevent Lady Ashen’s theft of the artefact by using their powers to escalate the theft attempt into a general brawl that draws in the local policing forces. While Lady Ashen’s forces wipe out the police and devastate the city, the heroines manage to acquire the artefact – a cocoon that hatches into a small spaceship that seems to have it’s own sentient mind aboard. The heroines flee in the spaceship, getting away from Lady Ashen and her squadron of ships.

Second flip: Heads. The heroines attempt to uncover more of the workings of the ship, but the Shipmind rebuffs them, saying its memories have been corrupted by the tampering Lady Ashens’ forces did before the heroines drove them off.

---

Episode 2:

Lady Ashen travels to Lurben, which has significant industry in orbit and ancient ruins in the five-mile-high cliffs on the planet below, an starts an archeaological dig with the consent of the planet’s ruling industrialists. The loss of the ancient ship was a setback, but there are many sources of knowledge about the ancient in the galaxy, and she only needs to find one.

The Heroines travel to several different planets warning the inhabitants about Lady Ashen and her squadron of ships. When they arrive on the planet Lurben, they find Lady Ashen’s squadron already in orbit around the planet, which has significant industry in orbit and ancient ruins on the planet below, where Lady Ashen is leading some kind of archaeological dig on the less settled continent of a planet.

The Heroines: After travelling to several different planets to warn the inhabitants about Lady Ashen and her squadron, the Heroines arrive at Lurben to find Lady Ashen already there. They learn about Lady Ashen’s friendliness with the planets industrialist rulers and her archaeological expedition during a visit to the space-docks for supplies, and the Heroines decide to stealthily descend to the planet below to find out what Lady Ashen is trying to do.

Results:

First flip: Heads. Lady Ashen finds what she was looking for – an ancient database recovered from a ruined and buried city. Shipmind tells the Heroines that it is from the same era it is, and pushes the Heroines to steal it, but Lady Ashen’s forces are prepared for them this time and the Heroines find themselves outmatched in the ruined city.

Second flip: Heads. Lady Ashen successfully compromises one of the Heroines. In the brawl, Tori encounters Lady Ashen. Lady Ashen proves immune to Tori’s emotion powers, and persuades her not to fight. The villainess claims she knows how much cruelty Tori must have received because she is a psion; Lady Ashen received the same, and now is trying to end that once and for all. She reaches down to caress Tori’s cheek as she asks Tori to join her and help her… before Ellesen arrives, interrupting the moment and helping Tori get away. As the Heroines retreat from Lurben, Tori stares out the window of their ship, uncertain.

---

Episode 3:

Lady Ashen has spent years encouraging the technologist elite of Kasperon Prime, who live in floatig cities above the dangerous jungles below, to focus their efforts on developing psionic interface technologies, and encouraging the psion community on the planet to revolt. She intends to reap the rewards, securing the prototypes and a number of psion prisoners.

The Heroines head to Kasperon Prime, the most technologically advanced planet any of them know of, hoping to fix Shipmind’s memory banks and learn what Lady Ashen is planning. They arrive, only to find themselves in the middle of a civil war. Conflicts within the team build, as Tori and Mabali wish to support the psion rebels, Klem-Knam wants to aid the Technologists, and Ellesen is caught in the middle. Then Lady Ashen arrives to take advantage of both sides when they are distracted and steal what she needs from them.

Results:

First flip: Tails. Although Lady Ashen manages to acquire one of the psionic interface devices from the technologists, the heroines uncover evidence that Lady Ashen has been double-dealing both sides with the aid of Q1D2, an symbiotic psionic being that is the basis for the psionic interface devices and who makes friends with Klem-Knam. Showing it to the leaders of the two sides, they manage to broker a peace, and working together Lady Ashen is driven off, although at the last second she manages to steal Klem-Knam.

Second flip: Heads. The new power-sharing rulers of Kasperon Prime can only offer minor help, such as providing the Heroines with supplies. They’d both like to contribute to hunting Lady Ashen down but don’t trust the other side enough to risk it. Frustrated, the Heroines resolve to taking on Lady Ashen on their own.

---

Episode 4:

Lady Ashen needs more Psions for the last stage of her plan. With little left to lose, she becomes more ruthless and starts to kidnap psions from wherever she can, bringing them to her secret space-station base in an empty star system. Meanwhile, she prepares for her ultimate goal – an expedition to long-lost Earth…

The Heroines, with the aid of the Kasperons, manage to track Lady Ashen’s raiding parties. They decide on a plan to use one of their group as bait and track the raiding parties back to Lady Ashen’s base. Tori volunteers for the plan.

Results:

First flip: Tails. Tori is ‘captured’ by some of Lady Ashen’s forces, and the heroines track the ship back to Lady Ashen’s base. When Lady Ashen finds Tori, she attempts to persuade her once again; Tori is almost convinced, but feels the fear and rage of the imprisoned Psions and rejects Lady Ashen. Meanwhile, the other Heroines attack the space station. Shipmind’s advanced weapons prove a significant threat to Lady Ashen’s ships, and they rescue both Tori and Q1D2. Lady Ashen decides not to fight and instead to launch her expedition to Earth, no matter the danger. Her flagship, loaded with captured psions with their interface devices engaged, starts a warp-jump towards Earth.

Second flip: Tails. The rest of Lady Ashen’s forces are defeated, but Klem-Knam can’t make sense of what she was planning, and despite Mabali and Ellesen’s best efforts, none of her soldiers (who, it turns out, are all younger clones of Lady Ashen) will talk. The group renew their friendship and vow to follow Lady Ashen to Earth. However, as they warp towards it, they feel a terrible psychic pressure upon them which they struggle to hold at bay. Unable to shield both themselves and Klem-Knam, Q1D2 bonds with Klem-Knam, strengthening the Heroine’s psychic shield enough to make it to Earth. When they land (very roughly), Klem-Knam and the amorphous Q1D2 are inseparably linked, and Klem-Knam is a Psion as well.

---

Final Episode:

Landing on the dead world of Earth, the Heroines track Lady Ashen to a ast facility where the only energy readings on the planet come from. There they discover what really happened to the ancient Empire of Earth; psions began to appear where previously they had not existed, causing civil strife. An anti-psion faction developed a Suppression Device to gather psionic energies from across the galaxy, suppressing psionic powers. But the backlash from activating the device rendered warp travel impossible for centuries and killed huge numbers of humanswho had weak psionic powers, bringing down human civilization.

As they find Lady Ashen, she explains to them why she did what she did. The psychic pressure they felt as they approached Earth was a barrier created by the device; she needed the ancient database to guide her to earth, and the psions and interface devices to shield her expedition from the barrier. She intends to destroy the Suppression Device, freeing psychic energies and sparing humanity the millenia it would take for the device to stop working on its own. No more psions like her will suffer at the whims of cruel and superstitious baseline humans – instead humankind will enter a golden age of psionic growth and enlightenment.

Results: Tails. The Heroines resolve to stop Lady Ashen, not because she is wrong but because they have no idea if destroying the Suppression Device will collapse human civilization again. In the ensuing fight, Lady Ashen and her forces are beaten. Lady Ashen refuses to surrender and launches a last-ditch assault, during which the Suppression Device is damaged slightly. A wave of psionic energy floods out into the galaxy. Mortally wounded, Lady Ashen gets to feel her psionic power swell and dies with a smile on her face. In the aftermath, Klem-Knam and Q1D2 determine that the

Suppression Device will stop working slowly over the next few decades, and the Heroines decide to help the galaxy adjust to the growing power of psions as it rebuilds.

[adventuresinneuropharm]

June 13th

Smuggled a blanket into the office

ED appointment

Read 10 more papers for my lit review

Sorted my database and software access with my professor

Counselling appointment

My coworkers included me in conversations today which was really nice of them, and made me feel happier. I also had a nice walk in the rain through the gardens.

Counselling, however, made me feel really uncomfortable with the questions asked. But also I feel guilty that I feel uncomfortable like maybe I did something wrong or I encouraged those questions. Basically, he brought sexuality, sex and relationships out of the blue (I'd been discussing my summer plans). I tried to dismiss the topic awkwardly laughing and saying it wasn't really something I'd considered much. However, he wouldn't drop it, asking more invasive and personal questions, and I was made to feel like I should be somebody different or that it was a joke at my expense. I'm still feeling pretty uncomfortable now and don't know how to feel about it. He's generally been an ok counsellor, even if not very politically correct, but I'm now really not sure if I want to continue seeing him. However, I don't want to cause trouble by asking to change counsellors and drawing attention to the situation. I'm partially blaming myself like maybe if I was more confident in either myself to tell him I wasn't comfortable and to change the topic, or more confident in my sexuality so I felt happy answering his questions and challenging him on them, then I wouldn't be in this position.

My head is pretty screwed up now. He also was making me name my "best feature" of my body - I literally have an ED which he knows so like no, discussing my body is not a smart idea unless you want a fucked up answer. I also got told I have pretty hair and called out when I was visibly uncomfortable with the comment.

The session ended over 3 hours ago yet my brain keeps playing it over and over again.

Context: I'm aroace/bi, person dependent so demi basically, but generally aroace and repulsed by even the idea of someone touching me - hence the comments and questions about and pressuring towards physical intimacy and even non-sexual contact making me feel particularly disgusting. Also, most people who are allo don't understand this, even if they're queer so I don't think he would have accepted it.

Anyway, in fun news, I'm feeling a lot more settled in at the lab and have got a meeting or two tomorrow to help with that too. I'm really enjoying even just being around it all and hearing about the data coming out of their experiments, some of which is really significant for the future of this area of research and crosses a gap in our knowledge highlighted in the papers I've been reviewing.

I also submitted Mastermind for tonight's Eras Tour performance and booked a shopping delivery because I've fallen in love with sun-dried tomato feta couscous salads with falafel. I may be late to work in a morning but it's worth it! However, I'm out of couscous and falafel because I was eating it too frequently.

🌲 6 hours

🎧 good luck, babe - Chappell Roan

[5577v]

so you are more worried about your drawings being stolen than accesibility for people who are visually impaired?

firstly, one can care about multiple things at once. i am a professional illustrator, so yeah, i AM quite worried about my images being scraped for A/I! at the same time, i still care about visually impaired people as i have them all around me and in my family.

but secondly, i've already explained that i'm unsure what the point is. i am not a meme artist or someone telling a story - if i made comics, jokes, etc, i would fully understand. but i want to work more with aesthetics now and in the future. i want my style to be seen, my effort to be acknowledged, and not reduced to a chunk of text, because quite frankly i'm having trouble understanding what anyone gains from a description like "3 girls laying in a cluttered room with various pop culture references around them". that seems more like it's content to be consumed rather than an illustration i spent three days on? admittedly, i couldve added a description to the few meme drawings i have, but i just forgot and they dont even have any traction anymore at all

lastly, i don't even know why you're bringing up a discussion from... 2 months ago, but i would be more willing to hear you out if it wasn't for this passive-aggressive tone. and why am only i being blamed instead of artists much bigger here who post much more often? i already only post once in a blue moon T__T