#it’s not confirmed if I have brain damage but like. I can tell something is different.

[samuraisharkie]

due to Life Shit I kind of stopped drawing much about a year or two after I graduated high school bc I just kind of didn’t have the time or mental/emotional/physical capacity to fit it in, despite art being something I really want to be a part of my career. It kind of makes me sick to realize how much muscle memory I lost just from that time (I had only about a year and a half total of absolutely no art but that was enough. doesn’t help that during that time I seriously injured my hands) considering I’ve been drawing my entire life. I really wish things had not gone that way and that I could have kept going, but expectations were on me to do something else and any time I sat down to draw was treated as wasting time. There’s also something weird about recovering from severe trauma that kind of adjusts how you engage with a hobby you used as a coping mechanism, which Art very much was. I almost never drew vent art, but I used it to focus on something and make myself happy and proud of work I actually could do, and once I was out of the environments that funneled me into drawing (being forced to go to church, school, anything involving sitting down for a long period of time) I found less time to actually have an excuse. Someone bought me a single college course of art classes right out of high school, and I think that was where I COULD have had the opportunity to really get started if I had actually had the money to continue and the college hadn’t been so far away. After that course ended I didn’t have that excuse anymore. I used to draw in DeviantArt and Discord art groups, but those began to fall apart and soon I didn’t have that option either. After that I doodled but didn’t really create Full Pieces unless some friend asked it of me, and it was never a commission bc I’d never trained myself to get that sort of shit done without taking too long, so I’d always do it for free. So even that wasn’t a big motivator eventually. Now that I’m struggling for work after becoming more physically disabled after COVID, all that time I could have spent honing my art skills so I could do SOMETHING with my art really is weighting down on me. I have the option to do freelance work, illustrations, pet commissions, even things like cards and cookies. I’ve seen these avenues open up for me gradually, but I’ve lost the skills I built up that I need to actually make something I’m proud of. I’ve taken to tracing old art to try and remember my thought process and my “style”… but my memory was bad BEFORE the covid, and it’s worse now, and my brain fog makes it hard to focus even if I could get back on the train of thought. I don’t remember the construction that would be in my mind’s eye. I barely can keep a clear vision in my mind’s eye anymore, worryingly. I never had a crystal clear imagination, it was always sort of abstract, but I could see the lines, I could construct a scene. Now I have to focus hard to get any sort of detail clear in my head. It’s like if you tried to look directly into someone’s face in a dream, or put in a prompt in neural blender. So I have to adjust to performing the entire thought process physically, slowly and tediously trying to figure out what I’m imagining before I can really get started. Those old art tutorials for constructing shapes and bodies and such just aren’t coming naturally anymore so I have to dredge deep into my mind to remember which advice helped “click” the best and knowing it might not do it this second time around. It’s like if you forgot how to ride a bike. It was something natural to you, you could even get started haphazardly and distracted and still be able to tell where you were going and not fall over or trip on yourself, but now it’s like you have to focus on each step and it constantly feels like it’s taking everything you have to not crash. I’m glad I can start drawing again, but it hurts that something so huge in my life has been turned into this. I’ve ranted about it before it’s just easier to notice when you’re not sketching out people’s pets or doing super stylized doodles.

[moonstruckme]

I know nothing about spencer actually, since I never watch his series. But I read on one of your fics that spencer is germphobia?

Could I request one where spencer gets home after a case for a week and found reader sick in the bathroom?, and she's kinda locked herself since she knows spencer germphobia?

You know that kind of fever where you sweat and throw up nonstop

It's been so long after you write spencer. I miss your spencer a lottttttt TnT

Thank you for requesting! I’m not totally sure if Spencer is canonically confirmed germophobic but he’s definitely sensitive to germs, so we’ll roll with that :) 

cw: nausea, vomiting

Spencer Reid x fem!reader ♡ 832 words

You’re not at your best, shaky and sweaty, but when you hear the front door open you move quick as a flash. 

“Hello?” Spencer’s call echoes through the apartment. 

“Hi,” you say back, quieter than you intend. Still, he finds you easily, and you’re glad you reacted fast when the handle on the bathroom door jiggles. “What are you doing here?” 

Spencer’s taken to staying at your place, but when he’d called you from the jet to tell you his case was over you’d said to go back to his apartment. With what he knows about how sick you’ve been the last couple of days, you thought he’d listen. 

“You shouldn’t be by yourself,” he answers simply. He doesn’t try the handle again, but his voice sounds just on the other side of the door. “Are you okay?” 

“I’ve been better,” you admit, breathing through another wave of nausea, “but I’ll be fine. You should go home.” 

“I am home. Open the door.” 

“Spence,” you sigh. The tips of your fingers are cool against your temples, and you press them in to quell the uneasy feeling that comes with having your brain so muddled. “You don’t want to come in here.” 

“Why can’t I decide that?” There’s an odd scraping sound on the other side of the door. 

“Because you’re too nice. I know how you feel about germs.” The mutinous acid vat of your stomach revolts again, and you cough a couple of times, swallowing forcefully. 

“I’m just as likely to get sick from pressing an elevator button,” Spencer insists gently. “Seriously, let me in.” 

“Go home,” you plead. 

“I’m coming in.” 

You sigh, bending to lean your head against the cool porcelain of your tub. “What, are you going to kick the door in?” He’s told you about his coworker Morgan doing that, but you don’t think of your scrawny (though you love him for it) boyfriend as capable of such measures. 

“Not quite.” Another scraping sound, and you sit up as your bathroom door tips outward. Spencer catches it before it can fall, easing it down onto the floor before stepping over it. He’s taken the whole thing off its hinges. 

“Show off,” you say tiredly, too spent to do anything about it as he walks over to you. 

“Yeah, well,” Spencer lifts some flyaway baby hairs off your neck, cool knuckles pressing to the hot skin, “I didn’t want to damage your door. You didn’t tell me your fever was this bad.” 

“I told you I was sick.” 

“I feel like ‘sick’ is more or less ambiguous,” he says, not unkindly. His touch moves to your face, long, slender fingers laying down across your forehead. “How high is it?” 

“Dunno.” You swallow thickly. “Haven’t checked. Are you okay?” 

“I touched a dead body yesterday; so long as I shower after this I’ll be fine. How have you not checked?” 

“I can’t—find—” You cough as bile rises in your throat, bending over the toilet “—the—” 

“Okay, it’s okay.” Spencer rubs your back. Your coughing turns into retching. “I got it. I’ll look for the thermometer soon, okay?” 

You nod, tears pressing at your eyes as you dry heave. The muscles in your throat and abdomen spasm painfully. 

Spencer makes a sorry sound, his hand coasting up and down the ridges of your spine. “You haven’t been eating anything, have you?” It’s not really a question. “We need to get something in your system. You know that ‘starve a fever’ saying is an old wives’ tale, right?”

He sits with you until the fit abates, then stands and leaves the room. You hear cabinet doors opening and shutting, and before long he’s got a wet rag cooling the back of your neck, you’re sipping water out of a straw, and he’s sticking your previously missing thermometer in your ear. 

“I’ll probably have to go soon if I want to get to the store before it closes,” he’s saying quietly, free hand settled comfortably north of your knee. You’re trying really hard not to breathe in his face. “It’d be good to have some cheerios or something for you to eat, and something with electrolytes.” 

The thermometer beeps, and he pulls it close to read the screen, a frown pursing his pretty lips. 

“Are you sure you want to stay?” you ask, though at this point you really want him to as well. “I don’t want to freak you out.” 

Spencer sets the thermometer aside. “You’re not freaking me out,” he says, hands gentle as he takes the rag from your neck and folds it onto a new side before putting it back. You almost sigh. “The worst thing that can happen is I get sick, and” —he meets your eyes, mouth tipping upward as he shrugs— “if that happens, it can’t be helped. But if I went back to my apartment, and I was fine there but you were still sick here by yourself, well, what’s the point in that?” 

[disneyprincemuke]

midnights, 7 * mv1

the news is out: three time world champion, max verstappen, and his girlfriend of 6 years have been broken up since the singapore weekend.

pairings: max verstappen x fem!reader

warnings: -

notes: wow i took thE longest break from this

(series masterlist)

(prev) // (next)

max isn’t typically the type to let panic settle in. at least, that’s what he likes to think. he likes to tell people he’s not bothered but outsiders are always quick to catch up with his suppressed emotions. 

alas, his worst fears have come true. news has broken that you’ve been broken up for almost 2 months. 

he has not been able to talk about it with daniel, so he can only imagine how things will break down in austin. 

he hopes that it’s not actually that big of a deal. plenty of other drivers have gotten themselves in messier breakups — the post doesn’t seem to touch on any speculations about how yours had come about. he can only bank on the hope that journalists are empathetic enough not to bring you up. 

but you’ve been very involved in his career and the cameras on the paddocks. they never missed the chance to have you speak into a mic or have a private conversation with you. 

pictures snapped of you together are never posted, but would be directly sent to either of you to truly encompass the privacy of your relationship. the respect shared between you and everyone on the paddocks was treasured, which is probably why your presence had been notable after you abruptly disappeared. 

he sinks into his couch, phone in hand as he stares at the pictures that sparked up speculations. it’s a low-quality picture of you leaving the red bull home, head down as your hair shied you away from the camera. the second picture is of him coming out of the building, hair dishevelled as he stood with his arms folded over his chest.

“what do i do?” max mumbles, his finger swiping over the screen again and again, staring at the two pictures. as if it would change the course of things if he did it enough. “do i talk to her?”

“i don’t know, man,” daniel sighs, his face in the far corner of max’s screen. “i mean, the best you can do is to wait it out, right?”

“rumours could spread,” charles mutters, looking away briefly with his eyes widened. “if i were you, i’d want to do some damage control. but that’s probably just me.”

max sits back, staring at the empty half of his hotel bed. your absence is always noted when he’s all alone and he's too awake for his own good, once having the luxury of your company and bright smile making him feel giddy.

the difference between this breakup and all of charles' is that there is no controversy in this one. as far as he's concerned, this is all speculation from photos that are now circulating the internet and your obvious absence on race weekends.

nobody can even really confirm if it's true unless you or max say something. for now, they're just rumours. right?

unless you've started speaking to people, and gossip platforms. but you wouldn't do any of that, or at least that's what he's telling himself. but from what he can dig out of the grave in his brain, there was nothing that happened between you that can be twisted.

but what does he know?

he can only keep praying to the fact that you'll keep it as private as you usually do.

his phone is buzzing endlessly, his other friends sending him texts as the news shocks them as much as the world. lando is asking him if he's holding up fine, martin is expressing how he feels for max, and his own mother asking him why he hadn't told her earlier.

only victoria's message will be getting an answer. after all, she's the first person that found out.

"should i talk to her?" max thinks out loud, maximising the facetime call to get a good look at his friends' reactions. "she never does well with things like this, what if people are bothering her?"

charles' picture is overtaken by alexandra's face, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. "you wanna talk to her?"

max shrugs. "i don't know. maybe?"

"would that be the best choice though?" daniel tilts his head. behind him, heidi is approaching cautiously with a small smile. "babe, what do you think?"

heidi shrugs as daniel's camera slowly turns to her. "my opinion is probably not - it's been two months. and judging by the comments that i read, i don't think there's much disrespect that has to be told off publicly."

alexandra nods as charles slowly comes back into the frame next to her. "it's up to you, max. as of right now, it doesn't seem that serious."

max sighs again, this time louder as he feels everything coming down on him. he drops his head back and stares at the ceiling. "i don't know, you guys," he sighs again loudly. "i just want to know if she's alright."

"maybe not now, mate," charles answers sympathetically, frowning at him through the camera.

"just wait it out. it could die down quicker than you think," daniel says hopefully.

max nods, now suddenly feeling disinterest in their conversation. he only craves to be by himself now. "alright, i'll catch you guys in a bit," his eyes turn to the cats sleeping peacefully on the cat tree, "i've got to feed the cats."

taglist: @merchelsea @leclercdream @labelledejourr @laneyspaulding19 @lpab @graciewrote @hollie911 @thatsojasminesworld @mycenterfold @princessria127 @ironmaiden1313 @dl-yum @crlsummer @brekkers-whore @minkyungseokie @honethatty12 @barelytolerabled @vellicora @lokigoeschoki @avg-golden-retriever

[anabdaniels]

A taste of what you asked for

Paring: Agent Whiskey x Female reader

Summary: Jack decides to prove you that not only his mustache can have a porn vibe.

Word counting: 1.6k

Rating: +18

Warnings: Oral (f receiving), unprotected sex, love bites, creampie, rough sex (but not that rough), undertones of the author's polemic opinions toward some sex positions, Jack being a talented bastard when it comes to sex.

A/N: I'll not explain myself about this one hahaha. I saw a tweet of a girl complaining about her boyfriend shaving his mustache without warning her beforehand and my brain started to work.

Divider from: @saradika-graphics

Masterlist

Unworriedly scrolling your phone, you were lying on your back on the bed while you could hear Jack’s little noises while taking care of his beloved mustache in the en-suite bathroom. A few minutes later you heard the shower running and smiled as you smelled the scent of your shampoo that Jack swore you would never notice he casually stole.

When Jack came out of the bathroom only with the towel wrapped around his waist you didn’t waste the chance to take a look at him, analyzing every part of your handsome husband. Noticing your attention over him, Jack approached the bed with a smirk, crawling on the mattress to get close to you, planting a teasing kiss on your shoulder as he settled by your side.

You stopped for a moment, realizing that something seemed out of place, not realizing what it was immediately, but needed no more than a couple seconds to find out, sitting on the bed with an intrigued expression.

“No, you can't have done this.” You said in pure perplexity while touching the spot at Jack’s face where his sideburns were supposed to be “Daniels you haven't.”

“Why do you seem so surprised, sweetheart?” Jack laughed pulling you to lay on top of him “I told you I was considering doing it a few days ago, remember?”

“I thought you were just bluffing about shaving your sideburns, I didn't believe you would betray me like that.” You explained while still running your fingers on the sides of his face.

“Betray you?” Jack raised an eyebrow with a curious grin while caressing the sides of your body.

“How should I feel with you casually showing up with your sideburns shaved without giving me a single warning before?” you raised both of your eyebrows as you got comfortable on top of him “If you ever dare to touch this mustache, you'll be a divorced man.”

“Y’know I would never damage my mustache, sugar. But now you tempted me just for the sake of seeing you this mad about it.” He retorted in his cocky manner, making you roll your eyes.

“You really can’t spend a day without being bitchy, hum?” you said softly slapping his bicep.

“Jesus Christ, you’re the first woman that gets pissed because your husband cares about looking good.” Jack pinched your cheek teasingly, with that damn seductive smirk on his lips.

“I never said that.” You contradicted promptly, lifting your head from his chest to look at his face “What got me was the surprise element.”

“So you’re not that unhappy at all.” He concluded while grabbing your chin between his thumb and index finger.

“Of course not, I mean, I had nothing against your 70s porn sideburns and mustache combo, but I ain’t finding any problem with the new look.” You squinted at the moment he burst into a laugh.

“70s porn, honey? Really?” he questioned raising one eyebrow, still smirking.

“I haven’t created the concept.” You shrugged, biting your bottom lip as he rolled on the bed, letting you underneath him.

“But something tells me you enjoy the whole thing.”

“I do actually.” You confirmed while your idle hands moved to unwrap the towel off his waist, smiling satisfied as you saw his cock proudly erect.

“Then I may give you a bit of help to keep your little fantasies fed.” Jack spoke as his hands moved under your dress, lifting it and getting you rid of it with no ceremony. You intended to ask what he was planning, but he gave you no time as he flipped you on the bed and started to trail kisses down your spine, making you shiver all over.

As he did with your dress, Jack got rid of your panties, smiling at the sight of you so beautifully relaxed on the bed. Not wanting to waste such an opportunity, he squeezed your thighs and kissed your lower back, moving down to kiss your rear, only moving forward after biting one of your buttcheeks. Carefully, Jack grabbed your hips, lifting them until your knees were resting on the mattress; he wasn’t a jerk, Jack perfectly remembered how you warned him that having you on all fours was completely out of the question, unless it was for a bit of harmless foreplay, so you knew exactly how that was going to end even before you felt another soft bite on your butt.

Wanting to appreciate that great view of you spread open right in front of him, Jack took his time, kissing all over your thighs, hips, and ass before starting to approach your already wet core. He savored and covered with kisses every inch of skin from your outer lips, then to the inner lips, causing you to whine and smash the nearest pillow you could reach when his low groan reverberated against your pussy as his tongue buried on your entrance. You didn’t even try to keep rested on your elbows, letting your face and chest sink into the bed as you unconsciously pranced up your rear against his face, contorting and whimpering more at every move of his tongue.

Giving you no chance to foresee it, Jack moved ahead, sucking your swollen clit as his hands gently massaged your ass, getting you completely out of your mind as you sighed, moaned, and bit the pillow you were squeezing, feeling your heart beating on your throat and your breath messed while you concentrated on enjoy the marvelous work of his mouth on your clit accompanied by the sporadic little nudges of his nose on your entrance. You did the best you could to keep yourself together for a little longer, but Jack knew way too well what he was doing to give you a chance to keep your composure, so you followed your body’s urges, moving your hips along with his tongue, arching your back and crying out when you finally got your release, feeling your strength vanishing and your hips falling back on the bed as the effects of your orgasm spread all over your body.

You were more than ready to just lay down completely boneless for a few minutes, but of course, that wouldn’t going to happen yet, after all, Jack Daniels wasn’t a man of left a task unfinished or play at work, if you thought that his mustache alone passed a 70s porn vibe, then he would provide you with a performance that matched your opinions.

After gently apart your legs, Jack placed himself between them, resting his elbows on the bed while kissing your shoulder and the curve of your neck. When you were recomposed enough to turn your head and look at him, no second thoughts were necessary for him to go on and kiss you hungrily, moving his tongue into your mouth as his torso was softly pressed against your back. You choked on your breath as he smoothly moved inside you, the tip of his cock brushing against your cervix softly and it kept like that even with his thrusts not being precisely gentle; of course, Jack was more than aware that too much energy on his move could end up with your cervix being hit in a not so pleasant way, but he also knew very well how to manage his pace to not cause you any discomfort, even while railing you so energetically like that.

As your head leaned back for you to catch your breath, Jack couldn’t help but grin at the beautiful sight of you taken by the pleasure he was providing you with, feeling his urge for every inch of your body growing wilder. He passed one arm around the upper part of your torso, keeping your shoulders pressed against his chest while he covered you with kisses and praises, wondering how he could be so lucky to have you to call his, to love dearly every day and fuck well every night.

Even feeling like your body was out of control, you managed to move one hand back, resting it on Jack’s nape and grabbing his hair tight. He sighed heavily and rested his head against yours, only then giving you the chance to realize how good it felt to rub your face against his without a sideburn scratching your cheek. Your free hand rested on Jack's forearm that was holding you close, your nails digging into his skin as your cunt became more sensitive to his steady rough pace, making you pulse involuntarily around his already throbbing cock. As it became more common with the passing time you were married and knew better how each other’s bodies worked, you and Jack fell apart together, remaining at the mess of tangled limbs you two had become while both of you enjoyed your orgasms.

At the very moment Jack moved to lay on his back on the bed, he pulled you to rest on his chest, caressing your back and kissing the top of your head. You made sure to snuggle yourself comfortably, letting one leg on top of him. He smiled at the very moment he saw the slight mark of his teeth on your butt and caressed the spot gently, making you moan quietly and move one hand to his face, letting your fingers move along, taking a little long on the region his sideburns used to be.

“You’ll really not forgive me for that?” he questioned playfully, looking at you.

“On the contrary, I was actually planning to tell you to keep like this. I can live happily having only your mustache.” You admitted looking at him with a smile, chuckling when he shook his head.

“You’ll be the death of me someday, sugarcube.” Jack rested one hand on your cheek, leaning to give you a gentle peck on the lips before nestling you even more between his arms.

@missladym1981

[comicaurora]

These have been pent up for a while, so there's a whole list lol. Some are Aurora, some are not.

1) Can lacrimas carry out multiple purposes at once? Or will they blend them? I'm assuming that this is possible, considering that the automaton in the ruins was using a lacrima as a brain

2) Has anyone tried to make tools or weapons out of lacrimas? I'm talking like chisel that needs no hammer. Or maybe a Fire lacrima on a bow that sets your arrows on fire

3) Can you engrave runes on lacrimas to make them affect themselves?

4) Where can I read more about the Twins? If I'm not wrong they're the creator gods, aided by the Light dragon and the Void dragon to create life, but I might be getting a wrong read on that

5) Since we see Erin successfully become the first Void mage, does that now mean there's potential for him to make a Void lacrima? The dragon probably won't allow it, but still

6) What exactly does elemental corruption of each element do? Fire literally burns you up, as we saw in Arc 1. I can infer that Life likely makes you a chimera. Void corruption makes you a cave crawler. But what do the other one do? Does Earth make you a statue? Does Wind disintegrate you, Thanos style?

7) Now onto the non-Aurora questions, is your art vector or raster? I believe it's vector, but it's always better to confirm

8) What are your opinions on reading into the environment and the character design to infer things about the character themselves? In any type of media

9) Have you played Baldur's Gate 3?

10) Do you have any music that you'd recommend? I've listened to every song I liked so many times that I hate them now.

11) I'm new to Tumblr, anything that I should know? You don't have to answer this one if you don't wanna. I think I know some of the basics already. Reblog what you like, and avoid the terfs, right?

You might be able to tell that I like the idea of the lacrimas a little bit. Just a teensy bit. The artificer in me definitely isn't obsessed. I appreciate any answers you can give :3

Cheers!

Ooh, lots of stuff!

Yes, it's possible. A lacrima can be engraved with multiple spells, set in a casing engraved with commands, or some combination of the two. Typically, all spells engraved directly on a lacrima will activate at once when the lacrima is "switched on", but a spell can be quite complex, and conditional activations are possible - "if-then-else" statements, basically.

Yes, magic items exist.

Generally no. If the lacrima is disrupted or broken, the spell generally stops functioning, so a self-affecting lacrima will run only as long as it takes for the lacrima to distort or break.

There's an extra lore page about them!

He probably could if he wanted to (and the Dragon allowed it) but Void energy is very dangerous, so he likely doesn't want to.

Each form of elemental corruption agitates the presence of the element in the mage's body. Earth corruption can damage or alter bones, encourage unhealthy petrification of soft tissues, etc. Wind corruption can have physical effects but it often most obviously produces breakdowns in the person's ability to speak or understand language. Lightning damages, numbs or intensifies a person's physical senses.

Raster, I draw with CSP's digital pens. I've only very briefly experimented with vector art - I don't like how it simplifies the lines.

I think it's a fun school of analysis but, like all literary analysis, it runs into trouble if it tries to lock down exactly what the writer was thinking or intending (which is an objective fact that one can be incorrect about) rather than trying to analyze the story on its own and what meaning might, intentionally or unintentionally, be factoring into it.

Nope

don't trust my taste in music it's 90% nu metal and sonic OSTs

Like what you like, reblog what you want, generally it's considered dubious form to add a comment to a reblog unless you have something profound to contribute (commenting in the tags is fine), steer clear of discourse and callout posts and generally the sectors of the site that are constantly on fire, blocking someone for any reason is 100% fine

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; SIDE C

*NOTE; propaganda is out of order due to poll length!

Eugenides Propaganda:

the entire plot hinges on a detail he lets the reader (and every other character) assume is true. I don't want to spoil it because it's a really fun reveal but he is lying from the first second he appears on the page and you can't trust him to tell the full truth about ANYTHING related to himself and his goals. he mostly does it to keep his advantage and not have other characters be suspicious of him but it's just so fun when you realise he's been lying the whole time

Harrowhark Propaganda:

She gave herself a lobotomy and gives completely incorrect flashbacks to the previous book. Things that straight up did not happen. Gaslight gatekeep girlboss.

She’s schizophrenic (confirmed by the author) and also lives in a world with necromancy and ghostly revenants. She’s not just an unreliable narrator for readers, she’s an unreliable narrator of her own internal experience. She knows this and has to work with people around her to compensate for it. Descent into spoilerville below. Seriously Do Not Read if you want to read these books. There’s also the little matter about how she is *not actually the narrator* of a huge chunk of the story that we are initially led to believe is being told from her perspective.

(Spoilers) Holy shit she is THE most unreliable narrator. This gremlin gave herself a lobotomy so that she could forget about Gideon Nav, the most important person in her life (for magic soul-preserving reasons) so half of the second book in the series is spent gaslighting the reader about a book they just read. She comes up with an entire alternate version of the events of the first book in the series to carefully exclude any mentions of Gideon, and any time someone says ‘Gideon’ in front of her she LITERALLY has a stroke and/or an intercranial hemorrhage as her brain overwrites the word with someone else’s name. God occasionally intentionally triggers her memory revision to get out of difficult conversations. She also hallucinates ALL the time (unrelated to the lobotomy). She shows up at her frenemy’s room in the middle of the night (think little kid stumbling to their parents’ room and saying “I frew up”) to ask her to come check underneath her bed for the corpse that’s been wandering the space station. When frenemy checks underneath the bed, frenemy claims not to see anything, and Harrow is such an unbelievably unreliable narrator that it’s an open question in the fandom as to whether frenemy genuinely didn’t see the corpse or if frenemy was just yanking Harrow’s chain. Harrow is also haunted by a literal ghost that fucks up her already fucked up alternate history. Girlie will pick up a piece of paper and read from it the most violent and haunting piece of prose ever composed, when in reality all that’s written on the paper is the elementary school Superman S*. I am NOT joking that is a real goddamn scene. Harrow was created to win this poll. TLDR; she has brain damage and memory loss, she hallucinates, and is also haunted. * https://twitter.com/vestenet/status/1301012651145859072

Girl is so unreliable, she unreliably tells me events I was there for!!! She's retelling the previous book and I'm like "girlie, this is absolutely not how it happened". Also, she gave herself a DIY lobotomy, it has to impact your memory center I guess

She literally had a lobotomy, how can she be reliable

More Propaganda under cut!

Harrowhark is simply the unreliable narrator of all time. Can’t remember shit because of a lifetime of trauma? Check. Maybe lying to yourself and those around you a bit? Most definitely. Being gaslit by the survivors you depend on to orient you to reality? For sure. How about a little bit of canon schizophrenia? She’s got it all. Ghosts? Or something? Spirits that are attached in some way to your body and are not perceivable by others? Sure, sure! But how about spirits that are attached in some way to your body and are gonna use you to hijack others’ bodies and maybe kill God, too? Absolutely. Wee bit of DIY brain surgery? If it would make you an unreliable narrator, friends, then Harrowhark Nonagesimus has been there, been subjected to that!

Okay I don't know that much about this series since I haven't convinced myself to read all of the first book, but this is my blorbo in law so I'd feel bad not spreading propaganda (all of what I'm saying is something I've read, as to prevent myself from straight up submitting misinformation). So all of Harrow's unreliable narration takes place in the second book, Harrow the Ninth. Basically, without her even seemingto acknowledge it, Harrow's brain is very fucked up during this book, to the point where even she's not sure how reliable her narrative is. There's many questions left unclear as a result of her fucked up little brain, like what's real, what's fake, whether we can trust her judgement, whether even she can trust her own judgement, whether her original cavalier is dead or not (Harrow is convinced she is), etc. Let me tell you, I adore unreliable narrators who aren't even that sure if they're reliable. I have yet to eat that trope up here in this circumstance, but this poll might not run again by the time I do, so for now, here's my messed up blorbo in law.

OKAY SO REMEMBER MY GIDEON SUBMISSION? HARROW DOESN’T! SPOILERS AHEAD BECAUSE SHE LOBOTOMIZED HERSELF TO FORGET GIDEON BECAUSE THAT’S A HEALTHY WAY TO GRIEVE AND THEN IN THE ONLY PARTS OF HER BOOK THAT SHE NARRATES (THE REVISED CANAAN HOUSE PARTS) IT’S LITERALLY A ROOM FULL OF GHOSTS HER BRAIN SUMMONED TO DEAL WITH THE FACT THAT SHE CUT HER BRAIN IN HALF TO FORGET GIDEON. she also is a) haunted and b) psychotic, experiencing hallucinations her entire life of both the ghosts haunting her and less supernatural hallucinations- bells tolling, bones rattling, her parents (some of the only dead people NOT haunting her), etc! in the revised history of canaan house that her brainghosts invent, she brings along someone who knows about her psychosis to help reality check her when she tells him go! her caregiver as a child and support when she got older, crux, is a horrible man- but at one point, when someone other than harrow is in harrow’s body and tells him “i am not harrowhark, i am sorry,” his response is simply “aye, you’ve said that before too. who are you then, if not my lady harrowhark?” showing his familiarity with her psychosis and his love for the child he wouldn’t dare see as a daughter. but enough about that lets talk about her unreliable narration! she lies about her feelings of course but she also simply hides the truth from everyone, all the time, compulsively. also literally the entire section of her book that she narrates is a lie she’s telling US about a lie she’s telling HERSELF and no one understands even a little bit of the truth until like the last act of the book. queen.

[y-rhywbeth2]

I think Bhaal might actually be testing Durge in some fashion, through the first two acts.

It was something I remembered Sceleritas saying (and have since forgotten again), as well as the fact that he won't tell you about your past, even though it could possibly be helpful in getting Durge to play along?

The memory loss is due to brain damage not magical interference, which your butler will confirm, but at the same time it seems that Bhaal doesn't want Durge to remember what they are or their purpose until it's relevant: The weird thing there is that... divine magic probably can fix that? Durge gets their memories back via dream vision from daddy dearest - those that Bhaal deems important, at least (what you are, who you serve, your time and duties in the temple, "you're supposed to kill your sister-niece"). I assume Bhaal can restore the damage and is choosing not to.

Even Chosen Durge, who been Daddy's Little Villain and done everything ever asked of them is told they've always needed their butler "assisting" them to make sure they follow Bhaal. I'm not even sure that's entirely "Durge tried to resist once" (although that could be part of it), and I'm leaving off the shipping goggles; despite having them wrapped around his little finger, it seems Bhaal doesn't trust Durge an inch.

What was this? An experiment to see how strong his control over them was? His children having minds of their own was what fucked him over last time, so he compensated by making sure that Durge was under his thumb early (one child with his full attention instead of hundreds; Sceleritas shadowing them through their lives, "arranging" accidents like he does with Alfira; being possessed by the urge to slay from the beginning (sorry, dead foster family and paladin order)). So wipe them clean of any identity but the Urge and let them loose. If they come back and refuse to kneel then clearly this one was also a failure; scrap it and move onto attempt #3, who will have even less free will and self-determination than attempt #2 did.

[weebswrites]

Hmm so how professional do you think om characters would address a wound ?

Let's imagine mc accidentally cut themselves and they're bleeding , who'd be the fastest and who'd be the most skilled and like so ? I personally think beel would be the most skilled one in tending to wounds but barbatos might be the fastest.

The Demon Bros & Undatables: Addressing a Wound

tw: mentions of blood, cuts, minor injuries (paper cut, small scrape from kitchen knife, broken glass). most of them are vague injuries, and are located on the hand or arm, but please be mindful of reading below!

Lucifer

- Definitely knows what he's doing, so you're surprised to see his hands tremble as he wraps the cut on your arm. You don't mention it, half because you doubt his pride would allow him to acknowledge it, and half because you don't want to disrupt his working

- To your surprise, he outright tells you, breaking the silence as he works. He pauses for just a moment to look into your eyes, his way of confirming you'd noticed what he was trying to ignore

- "Seeing you hurt...it effected me more than I thought. I'm just glad you're okay, and that I was here to help. How is it feeling now, love?"

Mammon

- Panics for a moment (or two), but when you start to pull out your DDD to ask one of his brothers for help, he snaps into realty

- Rushes you to the bathroom, and orders you to put as much pressure over the wound as you could while running it under cold water. He grabbed the few medical supplies he had around, and then began assessing the damage

- "Gee, MC, yah gotta be careful! I hate seeing yah hurt like this...but don't worry! The Great Mammon is here to help!"

Leviathan

- He isn't the biggest fan of blood, but has gotten used to the squeamish feeling he gets seeing it through watching anime. This, however, didn't prepare him for when you hurt yourself handing out with him

- It was only a paper cut, but the way you winced and tried to hide the line of blood trickling from your finger almost had him fainted. But the last thing he wanted was you going through any amount of pain alone, so he swallowed his nerves, and took your bloody finger in his hand

- "MC, wh-what can I do. How do we stop this? Tell me and I'll get it, or do it, or whatever is necessary to heal you!"

Satan (see end for notes)

- As the torturer of souls, he hardly bats an eye when you mutter "ouch, fuck!". But then he remembers you're human, his human, and jumps from the chair to your side

- You'd been cutting yourself a snack, and grazed the side of your finger. Your fist was wrapped tightly around it as you reached for a towel, but as you moved your hand to apply it, Satan placed his firmly around the injury

- "I'll put some pressure on it, you rinse off your hand and then we'll walk to the bathroom and get you cleaned up, okay?"

Asmodeus

- You try to casually tell Asmo you'd hurt yourself, but he nearly explodes when he sees the blood. He races to get supplies, so you move to the sink he'd designated as yours and begin to wash yourself off

- He returns with what you recognize as Lucifer's emergency kit, and starts ruffling through it to find what he needs. His strategy is a little messy, but you're tended to before you know it, and very thankful for his quick help

- "MC, of course! I can't have my beautiful human being hurt, now can I? And we'll use my healing serum in a few days, too, to avoid any scarring"

Beelzebub

- For a demon who spends most of his time eating, he's incredibly efficient at addressing your wound. Your brain has hardly recognized it when he's applying pressure with one hand, other grabbing towels to absorb any blood

- Asks questions about how deep you think it went, and how clean the knife was, using the information to determine that you'd be okay (something you figured, but thanked him for reassuring you of anyways)

- "You'll be alright, MC. We'll go get a band aid for you, and in a few days you'll be nearly good as new. Now, let's get you something for the pain, too. A scrape like that has got to sting"

Belphegor

- You're glad he's awake when you accidentally hurt yourself, and even gladder that he rushes to your side and takes your hand in his before you can see any blood begin to fall

- Walks you down the stairs to the main bathroom, where he carefully washes and wraps your wound. The pain almost immediately subsides, and you're impressed at the thoroughness Belphie practiced

- "It just seemed like the right things to do. I treated you the same way I'd have treated myself. That's only fair, right?"

Diavolo

- Helping Diavolo decorate for a party seemed simple enough, until he kept giving you increasingly difficult tasks. After just a few hours, you found yourself at the top of a very tall ladder, replacing light bulbs in a chandelier

- They were old, dusty, and most of them had burnt out. Devildom technology was advanced enough that their light bulbs lasted decades, and all needed changing around the same time. This was nice, but after decades of use, the glass was weak, so you weren't totally surprised when one shattered in your hand

- "MC, fall down, I'll catch you!" for some reason, you listen, falling an incredible height, but he does catch you. "I'm taking you to the bathroom, I know Barbatos has lots of medical equipment stored around. We'll wash and get any glass out of your hand before bandaging it nicely. Don't worry, I've got you"

Barbatos

- You were spending some quality MC time in the castle when you accidentally hurt yourself. You clutched your arm tightly and found Barbatos, who you knew would have the tools and intelligence to help

- And he did. You quickly went to his office, where he pulled out a large bag of human, angel, and demon first aid tools. He knew which ones were for humans, and quickly applied them to your wound after disinfecting it

- "I'm glad you came to me, MC. Besides my extensive supply of tools, it makes me happy you came to me over anyone else when you were hurt. I hope I can help you next time, too"

Simeon

- He was showing you a book Michael recommended him when you turned one of the pages and got a paper cut. You only winced a bit at the pain, but Simeon instantly took your finger and kissed it gently

- Somehow, the pain seemed to go away, and he took a nearby band aid and loosely wrapped it around the cut. He worked fast, and you basically forgot about the small injury altogether within a few minutes

- "I get paper cuts all the time, I don't know how Satan doesn't too with the amount he reads. I'm sad that you got one from one of my books, so I hope my care helps your healing"

Solomon

- You were helping him prepare dinner when your fingers got too close to the knife, and you accidentally took a layer or two of skin off with the carrot slice. You stood in shock for a moment before grabbing a towel and squeezing it around your finger

- Realizing what had happened, Solomon quickly got the first aid kit from your bathroom, and you met him by the sink. After cleaning off your wound and applying ointment and a small wrap, he held your hand in his, a clear guilt taking hold over him

- "I'm so sorry, MC. If you didn't have to monitor my cooking so closely you wouldn't have gotten hurt. I just hope it isn't too painful, and that you get better soon" (you promise him it wasn't his fault, but he only half believes you)

--

Satan note) Something I kept thinking about with Satan is that as he tortures to kill, not heal, he wouldn't know how to address a wound. BUT I think he learns how through reading, and also he definitely does research as the two of you grow closer. So he's ready for situations like that ^

A/N: I hope you enjoy! I'm sorry if the Undatables are a bit OOC, I don't write for them often, but I tried to stay as in character as possible!

Also don't mind that Lucifer is the only one who calls MC a pet name, that's my Lucifer stan ass HCing that he calls me love (as well as other things too)

[landinrris]

Snippet following Silverstone 2023 from the current pr fic wip!

Carlos calls Lando on Monday when he’s back in Maranello, if only to hear his voice. Collapsed into the sofa, fresh from the shower after his run.

Lando answers on the third ring, a warm, “Hey,” reaching Carlos’ ears.

It’s the single sweetest syllable Carlos has heard in the last forty-eight hours.

“Hey. I didn’t tell you yesterday, but congrats on the podium. You deserved it. You looked so good up there.”

Lando hums, an evident smile in his voice despite how hard he’s trying to fight it. “Thanks. It was pretty cool, not to rub it in.”

“It’s quite the view. I remember from last year.”

“Maybe next year I’ll be up on that top spot.”

“Maybe I’ll join you.” It’s quite the thought, one that has Carlos feeling more wistful than he was prepared for. They’re overdue a podium together— yet to fulfill their 1-2 wish from back at McLaren.

“You promise?” Lando asks.

It’s Carlos’ turn to hum, letting the conversation fall into a lull. He scratches at a spot on his neck he’d nicked while shaving and mentally curses when his fingernail catches against it.

“What are you doing right now?” Lando asks. Carlos would tease him about the suggestive nature of his question if he felt like they were at a place where they could.

As it is, Carlos feels like he’s walking across shards of glass.

“Just got in from a run and showered— in Maranello for now. What about you?”

“Spending a couple of days with my family before going back to Monaco. It’s nice to kind of just decompress for a bit. Log off social media.”

“Stay off the algorithm,” Carlos adds.

Lando sighs. “Suppose I should apologize for the last few weeks. My head’s not been great, and I’m trying to deal with it.”

“Lando, you don’t have to apologize.”

“No, I do because Max has already told me off about it. I’ve just been avoiding you without telling you why, and that’s not fair to either of us. I just kept thinking about what you said about the European leg and how she was just gonna be around all the time, and it's made me sick to my stomach. Fuck, it makes me sick just saying it again. But I don’t want this to ruin us.”

“Shit…” is all Carlos can say. He’s had a sneaking suspicion, but to hear it confirmed is something else. “I should’ve been more demanding about her not coming golfing.”

“It’s not just the golfing, Carlos—”

“No, but I should’ve been more demanding. I should have said I wasn’t going and done something else with you. This has already taken so much.” Carlos knew it was doing damage, but now it's different.

Their promises to each other are coming unraveled in real time despite how much they try.

“What are you doing this week?” Lando asks, an edge of hope palpable in his voice. “I could come to you or you could come to me, and we could kind of just reset? More than Canada. Just exist a few days and forget about the world.”

The proposition sounds like one of the best ideas Carlos has ever heard. He can practically picture Lando in his bed, sitting on the kitchen counter, pressed up against the glass door in the shower.

He thinks about Monaco back in May and the utter bliss those handful of days were when it was just them. They shut the rest of the world out. It would be so easy to say yes now. It would be so easy to buy Lando’s plane ticket for him with a couple button clicks.

Carlos’ brain slams on the brakes.

“I don’t think this week will be good. I think the plan is to let everything settle before the summer break. Either of us being spotted where the other lives will only raise Caco and Guzman’s hackles.” Getting them to agree to let him have this break in the first place was a lot. The last thing he wants to do is laugh in their faces and tempt them into something.

“Yeah, sure. That’s fine.” Lando’s tone is clipped— the opposite of fine, Carlos knows.

“Lando,” Carlos begs. “We can do things together on Facetime maybe. We can make dinner together tonight? Maybe watch something together even though you will fall asleep halfway through. It’s not that I don’t miss you, cariño. It’s that I am trying to finish this as quickly as possible.”

Lando sighs. “I know. I think I’d really like to do those things. I’ll be back in Monaco tomorrow night. We can cook dinner then?”

Something inside Carlos settles. “Yeah, that sounds good. I will figure us out a recipe. I can keep talking for now though if you are okay to.”

“I know I’ve been avoiding you, but I could still talk to you forever, you know.”

Carlos smiles to himself. “That’s good because so can I.”

They stay on the phone with each other for another hour and a half until Lando’s father evidently tells him dinner is ready. Carlos is morose to eventually let him go— he'd much rather choose to stay on the phone and talk about everything and nothing.

Carlos wants to hear more about the stack of old sketchbooks Lando found in the desk drawer in his room full of sticker designs. He wants to hear more about how when this is all over, Lando wants to bring Carlos home as his boyfriend and show him around.

Likewise, Carlos wants to keep telling Lando about the neighbors in his building and the people around town. He wants to talk about what color he should paint the living room because it’s too yellow as-is. He’s been spending more time there and has discovered he hates it.

Lando tells Carlos he’ll help paint it.

When they do hang up, Carlos feels better than he has in a while. It feels like something has shifted between them the tiniest bit. Not good or bad, but just different. It’s like they’ve taken a step back for a moment to something safer, and Carlos is oddly grateful for it even if he still wishes with every fiber of his being that he could have Lando here with him.

The next few days only reinforce the shift. Like taking a hit off an inhaler, suddenly Carlos feels like he can breathe again.

Sure, making dinner in parallel with each other feels silly, especially when Lando can’t get the peel off the garlic clove and he refuses to smash it with the knife because the instructions stated he has to slice the clove, and he can’t slice it if it’s crushed. If they were together, Carlos could help. Now, he just groans.

He feels less silly when they’re both lying in their respective beds the next night, the only light coming from each of their bedside lamps. Lando looks swamped in his hoodie, the hood pulled up and pushing some of his hair down onto his forehead.

“I want to kiss you so bad it makes my chest hurt,” Carlos murmurs. It feels like he’s shouting.

Lando gives him a sleepy smile. “I want to kiss you until my lips are so bruised it hurts. And then I want to keep going.”

“I want your name to be the first one I say when I wake up and the last one I say when I go to bed.”

“I want everyone to look at you and know I’m your other half.”

“I think the grid already does if I am being honest.”

“But I mean everyone. I want some random fan to think: Carlos Sainz? Oh yeah, he’s Lando Norris’.”

Just the idea sends a shiver up Carlos’ spine.

They go back and forth for an embarrassingly long time. Carlos doesn’t wish Lando was there any less. He wants to trace the dimples in Lando’s cheeks and on his chin. He wants to kiss each and every freckle and mole and memorize the pattern of color in Lando’s eyes.

Lando falls asleep on the call, his bedside lamp still on. If Carlos was there, he could turn it off for him. Instead, he just watches Lando sleep until his own eyes grow too heavy to keep open.

[ladylooch]

The Spiral [Lio Meier] - Part 4

A/N: One more part after this! things are starting to turn around for our Lio 🤭

Word Count: 5.3k

Warnings: allergic reaction, lots of medical talk, angst, childhood trauma themes

ICYMI Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The morning after his concussion, Lio thinks it would have been better to have been crushed by a garbage truck. His head hurts so bad, worse than any hangover headache or migraine he’s had in his life. But worse than that is the fog that has settled into his brain. Details of last night are fuzzy- the game, Lucie, their conversation. He thinks things are better, but is worried about facing her this morning.

He rolls over to his back, tentatively opening his eyes. The world doesn’t swirl like it had been last night. But he feels like the front of his forehead is going to explode off from the pressure. Is that normal? Fuck.

Slowly, Lio adjusts his position to sit up. The smell of something baking hits his nose. He smiles. Lucie is still here. It takes awhile before Lio can get out of bed, changed, and hit the bathroom. By the time he is done with that, he feels like he could go back to sleep. Instead, he drags himself towards the kitchen. Lucie is at the stove, a large stack of pancakes to her left. As he gets closer, he can see the rainbow sprinkles poking out of the cakes.

“Lucie pancakes.” He chuckles, approaching her.

“They still hit even as an adult.” She shrugs.

“Doesn’t Stell think these are her creation?”

“Yeah because of her dad.” Lucie rolls her eyes. “Connor thinks she created everything, even though I made these all the time when I was pregnant with her.”

“So he thinks because she was there, she made them?”

“He thinks she created the craving for me, so it’s from her.” 

“Your mom could set that straight.”

“Mmm, I don’t think anyone can set that man straight about his sweet girl.” Lucie takes off two more pancakes. “Sit down and eat. You look awful.”

“Thanks.” Lio mumbles, resting his head delicately in his palm. He sets his elbow on the counter watching as Lucie slaps two pancakes on his plate. “Still hate syrup?”

“Yep.” Lio confirms, picking up his fork to cut into a pancake.

“I heard from Ben. He wanted you to check in when you got up.” Lio nods, grabbing his phone.

While he eats small bites, him and Ben talk about how Lio is feeling. Ben is concerned about the intensity of Lio’s headache. He wants him to go to the hospital for a CT scan. 

“Can you send a car? Lucie needs to go home to her family.” 

“No, I can take you.” She says, waving away his worries. “Con is taking Stell to the rink for practice. She is loving her mommy-free life right now.” Ben and Lio chat more. The team doctor is going to meet them at the hospital and they will know more after the imaging is processed.

Lucie and Lio finish breakfast, then head into Newark. Lucie waits while Lio is being scanned and afterwards while they wait for the radiologist to do a quick read. Everything looks good. Lio’s brain isn’t showing any damage, but he does have one hell of a concussion. The news is good. Lio feels like he can breathe and be more at peace with where he is at.

“You’re going to have to take it easy.” The doctor reminds him. “At least two weeks before you do any exercise.” Lio agrees. He can’t imagine getting on the ice right now with how shitty he feels.

“Is it okay if I drop you off and head out?” Lucie asks Lio when they are back in the car. “Connor is going to the Children’s Hospital to see some of his kiddos. I need to get home before he leaves again.” 

“Yeah, I will be fine. Thank you for staying with me. And.. um tell Connor thanks too. I appreciate it. Know he isn’t my biggest fan.”

Lucie drops Lio in front of his building, then heads back towards her city. Lio’s doorman greets him warmly, opening the big door for him.

“Thanks, Charlie.” 

“Tough one last night, Mr. Meier.”

“Hey, boys pulled out the win tho.” Lio waves as he walks through.

“Your mama is waiting for you in your apartment. She was mighty frazzled this morning.” Lio stops in his tracks. There are two people who have unlimited access to his apartment besides him. One just dropped him off. The other lives in Switzerland. 

“Ah, thanks. Moms…” Lio trails off with a shrug. 

Lio seriously contemplates sprinting out of his building. Doctor’s orders be damned. The only woman to ever love him unconditionally is upstairs and he is not ready to face her. Not ready to see her after the horrible things he said to her. Not ready to face his own shame and self-hatred. It’s why he left Switzerland without seeing her even after telling his dad he wouldn’t do that. He doesn’t deserve her or her love. 

But she is here. Already. He knows how many hoops she must have jumped through to get to him. He senses his dad’s involvement as well. The strings Timo Meier would have pulled for her are unlimited. So Lio Meier gets into the elevator and rises the 6 floors to his awaiting fate. Outside his apartment door, he takes a deep breath, then puts his key in the lock. He pushes the door open, not seeing her on the couch like he expected. 

“Mama?” He calls into the apartment. 

“Lee?” He hears her call from deep inside. She comes rushing out of his room. With zero hesitation, she grabs him and wraps him into her body for a hug. “Oh” She sighs, holding his head against hers. She sucks in a deep breath then lets out a relieved sigh at having him close to her. “Are you okay?” Her brown eyes are deeply pained. Lio closes his eyes, unable to see more. 

“Um, well, I guess but also no. What are you doing?”

“Your laundry.”

“Of course.” He chuckles, shaking his head. He has been grown for awhile, but she still insists on taking care of him. It makes Lio less worried for whatever is to come.

“Well, I was very anxious waiting for you. I had to do something.” She insists, waving a hand in front of her face. “Now, go sit down. I have lemon water, hot oatmeal and toast ready for you.” She gently guides him forward. “And vitamins. You need extra nutrients to get better.”

“Mama.” Lio sighs when she turns to head back to the kitchen. He feels like such a piece of shit with how she is jumping right in to take care of him. The undeserving suffocates him, tightening his throat until he struggles to breathe. “Don’t do this.” He finally chokes out. “Don’t double down and love me harder right now.”

“Lee.” Emma comes back to him, putting her hands on his cheeks. She kisses his forehead, right over where his head aches so badly. “I am never going to stop loving you hard or taking care of you. I’m your mother.” She runs her fingers through his hair, then moves back into the kitchen. His blue eyes follow her.

“Is dad here?”

“Yes, of course. Boys are with Uncle Neeks and Auntie Lex, but Livy is coming this weekend.”

“You both didn’t have to come and Liv needs to stay in California. She has school.”

“Mmm, but we did.” Emma looks over her shoulder at him. “We needed to see that you were going to be okay.”

“Dad isn’t here now?” Lio looks down the hall towards his bedroom.

“No, we felt like it’s you and I that need to talk. Not the three of us.” Lio looks away. “Don’t be mad at daddy. It was me. He didn’t want to do it.” Lio’s blue eyes find her again in the kitchen.

“You don’t get to tell me to not be mad at him.” He whispers.

“Probably not. But I love your dad very much and if I can save him from your wrath, I want to.” 

Lio goes to the couch, sitting down, laying his head back on the top. He is exhausted from his morning. He feels the air of his mom coming around the couch. She puts her hand on his forehead, smoothing the wrinkle of distress there. 

“What’s the news?”

“Concussion.” Lio mumbles. 

“Is your brain okay?”

“Yes.” Emma sighs in obvious relief. Her hand drops to his shoulder. She strokes her hand there, quietly contemplating where to go next. When Lio opens his eyes, she begins.

“Lio, daddy and I love you more than I even know how to say. I never thought I would have to find words to express how much and I’m deeply sorry that you’ve been so hurt.” She sighs, running her hand through her hair, then looking out the floor to ceiling windows to the city. His apartment is only a few blocks from where her and Timo lived when she was pregnant with Lio. That feels like so long ago, but she tries to go back to who she was then to give Lio more insight into their life.

“I was the one who wanted to fudge your story. I know daddy told you that this summer, but he doesn’t know all of the things that went into that. You and I had experiences when you were a baby that made me feel very protective of you. People judged. They were horrible and social media made our life so accessible, even as Daddy and I tried to hide you. But this was never because we were ashamed or didn’t love you.” Disgust and substantial disagreement scrunches Emma’s nose. “It was the exact opposite.” Emma puts her hands on her cheeks for a moment, then continues.

“When you were 10 months old, the Devils were playing in the Eastern Conference finals. Daddy was hurt. He was playing through it as he always does, so he wasn’t performing very well. People were upset.” Lio watches his mom become increasingly uncomfortable. “You and I were out at a store after the Devils went down in the series. There was an incident in public where someone came up to you, a little baby, and called you that name…” Emma closes her eyes. “They went on to literally blamed the entire playoff situation on the fact that you were born out of wedlock. Daddy’s play as well. We were being punished for our sin of having you.”

Lio can see how much this still hurts his mom decades later.

“I’m sorry, mom.” He says sincerely. 

“That person got to me.” Emma shakes her head. “I felt you deserved a better story. A more picture perfect story because of how much joy and purpose you brought to our lives. I..” She sighs. “I felt like we ruined your childhood before it had even really begun. I tried to fix it the way I knew how. Instead I hurt you.” 

“But Lio, please know, I have loved you since the moment I knew of you even when I was crying on a bathroom floor. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I had to figure it out for you. When I got up off that tile, whatever decision daddy wanted wasn’t going to shake my decision. You were coming because I wanted you. It would be me and you against the world.” Emma stops, looking at him, then she chuckles. “But daddy wasn’t going anywhere. He was all in. He loved us so much. You’ve seen the videos from when I was pregnant with you. Nothing about that was forced.”

Lio remembers the one of his dad laughing hard as a three week old Lio tried to latch onto Timo’s big chest. The pictures of him on the ice at The Rock for the first time in skates that looked massive on his feet. Tons of videos of Lio and Timo napping together the year of the Devils first cup run. He looks across his apartment at a picture of his parents and him with the cup. It was only Lio and them at that time. Well, his mom was pregnant with Livy, but they barely knew that. Although the most difficult to win trophy in sports is right there, his dad’s hands are on a young Lio, engulfing him and his mom in his sweaty equipment.

“It felt like a lie.” Lio hears himself say. He gestures to the picture. Emma follows his gaze. “Like it looked like that. But then you and dad would make a comment about wanting me so bad you couldn’t wait and my whole life felt like a lie.” Emma swallows hard, nodding.

“I see that now, Lee. I’m very sorry. But that was real. That was our life, baby.” She reaches for his hand.

“It hurt me.” He whispers. Emma winces, then runs her hand up his arm to squeeze his shoulder.

“I know. I am so sorry. I hope you can forgive me.” Emma purses her lips together, then looks at Lio with tears in her eyes. She brushes her thumb over the hairs behind his ear. “So loved. So wanted. Never a mistake.” Lio nods, then reaches to hug her. They hold one another tightly. 

“Love you, mama.” Lio inhales heavily. “I can see how you wanted to protect me.” 

“I love you, Lee. So much sweet boy.” When they pull apart, Emma stands to grab Lio more water, then comes back to the couch.

“She wasn’t even pregnant.” Lio confesses. “False positive.” 

“Oh.” Emma blinks. This is the first time she is hearing this. “How does that make you feel?”

“Relieved.” Lio answers honestly. “More than any of the other reasons I said this summer… I just don’t want kids, mama.”  Emma nods. She has suspected so for awhile. 

“It’s your life. You get to decide. But you need to be more careful because at some point, it becomes not your choice.” 

“Kay, pot.” Lio jokes with a light-hearted smirk. Emma tisks, chuckling and smacking Lio’s leg.

“Don’t slut shame your mother. You didn’t see how good James Bond looked that night.”

- - -

A brisk and skin drying wind has picked up on the East coast in the middle of November. Old man winter is roaring its way to the East coast with a winter storm warning in effect beginning tomorrow. With the impending weather, things are sure to get dicey in the booming metropolis of New York City. Despite the lingering effects of his concussion agitating him today, Lio is currently being dragged from room to room in the Bubble Planet by Stella Wood.

“This way! This way!” She yells, struggling to pull his heavy weight with her little body.

“Stell, I’m coming. Just chill.” He laughs.

“She doesn’t know that word. She’s three.” Lucie jokes back to him. 

They weave through room after room, each one more exciting than the last. Stella is having the time of her life, especially when she is on Lio’s shoulders, getting to touch the bubbles falling from the ceiling.

“Mama, this is the best day! I wish daddy could come!” Lucie and Lio avoid looking at each other, just like they avoid the giant elephant that is Connor Wood between them.

Although Lucie and Connor have discussed more about what happened this summer, he is not ready to move on. It got particularly heated when Lucie asked if Stella could see Lio. Connor questioned Lucie’s motives, worried about the implications and confusion Stella would have about Connor not being there. These were fair and valid points, but her inquisitiveness hurt less than her tears about missing Lio.

“Baby, you do what you need to do, but I’m not interested in spending time with him or fixing this. I’ve made concessions along the way. This is where I am at. Stell stays here with me.” 

Lucie respected that. She dropped it completely. But suddenly the next morning, Connor had given her quiet permission for her to bring Stella to breakfast with Lio. That was a month ago. Connor heads to the rink on days when his girls are meeting up with Lio, always having an excuse about training or treatment or nutrition. Lucie kisses him extra hard on those days, wanting him to know she loves him deeply and understands so much of this is difficult for them.

Now, as she watches Stella up on Lio’s shoulders, all she can fathom is the immense hole Connor’s absence brings. 

“Baby, are you getting hungry?” Lucie asks her daughter as they bop out onto the New York avenue.

“Yeah.”

“What do you want?”

“Mac and cheese!”

“You had that for dinner last night.” Lucie laughs.

“She is a good Swiss girl!” Lio nods approvingly. 

“Her favorite is Kraft.” Lucie points out.

“We’ll work on it. She’s three, ya know.” He jostles Lucie’s shoulder, then immediately regrets it at the way the world swirls upright for a minute. “Oof.” He rubs at his temples.

“Careful, Lee. No setbacks.” Lucie cautions, gripping his shoulder.

The three of them head a few blocks down to a diner, settling into a red booth with huge, plastic menus and a coloring page for Stella. Lio sits on her side of the booth, taking turns coloring a troll in a field of daisy. 

“Not pink!” Stella scrunches her nose, pushing Lio’s hand away.

“What? You said I could pick any color.”

“Yeah, any one but pink.”

“You love pink?”

“When I was two.”

Lucie and Lio both snort, attempting to pursue their lips to keep their laughter in. Stella Wood is an absolute hoot. 

“Can I share a milkshake with you?” Lucia asks Lio.

“I was gonna share with Stell.” 

“Oh, I see how it is.” She raises her eyebrows then looks away with a smirk at her menu. She decides on a simple Strawberry shake. “Stell, do you want to share with uncle Lee?”

“Yeah.” 

“Which flavor?”

“Reese’s! His favorite!” 

“No, you can’t have those, baby. You’re allergic to peanuts.”

“No peanuts in there?”

“Yes, there is peanut butter.” Lucie calmly reminds her.

“Sorry, Uncle Lee. I get sick.” She pats her little pot belly. 

“It’s okay. I was thinking chocolate.”

“Oh yes.” The little girl sighs happily.

The waitress comes and takes their orders. The adults grab cheeseburgers with fries while Stella happily exclaims she needs Mac and Cheese. The waitress practically swoons out of her Keds at how sweetly Stella thanks her for going to get their food. More coloring is done and a quick few games of hangman using three letter words like cat and dog and hat. Stella is getting so good at her ABCs. The milkshakes come out first. Stella watches in awe as the shake is split between two cups for her and her uncle.

“You gonna be able to finish that?” Lio asks. 

“Mhm.” Stella nods enthusiastically. With one hand she grabs the glass while the other helps her balance on the table top. She sucks up the milkshake quickly, then sputters, coughing. 

“Oh, that was a big sip. It’s cold, huh?” Lucie chuckles, handing Stella her water glass. She holds it up to the little girl’s lips for a sip.

“Ah!” She exclaims. “Mmmm.” She sucks up more of the thick liquid. Lio and Lucie chuckle, watching Stella enjoy her ice cream. Lio leans back farther in the booth, looking across the table at his cousin.

“I’ve had so much fun with you today. I missed this.”

“Me too.” Lucie murmur. Stella coughs again, loudly, then seems to gag. Stella sits up straighter, looking Lucie in the eyes with wide orbs. “Are you okay, baby?” Lucie straightens. Lio sits up as well, reaching out for Stella. She makes a wheezing noise, then sticks her tongue out. 

“Oh my god. Stell?” Lucie covers her mouth, watching a red, angry rash begin to form on Stella’s face. Lio grabs Stella as she begins to sway backward.

“She is very warm.”

“What is going on?” Lucie whispers, she looks around the table then she smells it, the faintest whiff of peanut butter coming from the ice cream in the glass Stella was drinking. “Oh my god. Peanut butter.” She reaches for her purse, fumbling around. “Um.. ohmygod.”

“Do you have an Epipen?”

“Um.” She nods vigorously, beginning to pant herself. Her stomach tightens, fear dashes down her spine. She rips her hands through the contents of her purse, looking for the injection she always carries with her since the first reaction Stella had a few months ago in Switzerland. But it wasn’t like this. It was nothing close to this. 

“Luc, come on.” Lio calls to his cousin, picking up Stella into his arms. “You’re okay, baby. It’s okay!” He tries for a cheery voice as Stella being to sob. “Luc, dump the purse out.” Lucie picks the bag up, emptying it from the handles. Lio sees the EpiPen immediately, tossing the cap off hastily. He does the injection, pausing to watch Stella’s reaction. Her wheezing gets tighter, but she can no longer speak to him or even cry. Lio’s heart is racing in his chest as he watches her struggle.

“Do you have another one?”

“No! It’s with Connor at home.” She shakes her head frantically. “Oh my god. Someone call an ambulance!” Lucie sobs out to the restaurant. In the haste of dumping her purse out, her phone fell underneath the booth. But she is frozen in paralysis. She can’t move. She can’t breathe. She is forced to watch her baby struggle.

Adrenaline takes over Lio like he was injected with the epinephrine. He calculates out where they are in the city, the amount of time it will take for an ambulance to get there and he knows Stella’s chances of making it are slim with how much she is struggling even after her first injection. He has seen this before with a kid in school when they still lived in Jersey. 

“There isn’t time for the ambulance. I’m taking her to Children’s.” The hospital is at the end of the three blocks they walked from Bubble Planet, close to Lucie’s car. Lio secures Stella to his chest and begins to run from the restaurant. He leaves Lucie at the table to scramble her things back into her bag. He runs as fast as his body will go. Stella jostles against his shoulder, going limper and limper and Lio quite literally races against time. 

“You’re going to be okay, Stell. it’s going to be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He promises the little girl in his arms. 

Tears blur his vision. His concussion rears it’s ugly head, pulsing against his temples and making the sidewalk shift with his blurred vision. He can’t let that stop him. Stella needs him. He pushes his injured and weak body to go harder the next block, dodging pedestrians and cabs in walk ways and dogs on leashes. He hits the emergency entrance of the hospital, screaming for help. 

“Help! Please! My nieces is going into shock! She was exposed to peanuts!” Nurses swarm him, snatching Stell immediately and taking over. 

“Did you give her Epinephrine?”

“How was she exposed?”

“Is this her first exposure?”

Lio answers the questions as best he can. Yes, ingested and no. He looks over his shoulder, wondering when he can expect to see Lucie. But then they are taking Stella away on her bed. Another nurse holds him back as they rush down the hall with her. 

“Sir, I need you to wait in the lobby.”

She is right. He needs to wait for Lucie anyway. But that doesn’t make it easier to turn around. He heads to the doors he just sprinted through, avoiding the gazes of curious onlookers. He walks outside into the cold air. His chest tightens immediately and he turns to the side, looking for something he can vomit into. But then he sees Lucie Wood, rushing down the sidewalk, clutching her purse to her chest, sobbing so loud he can hear every inhale and exhale of her shaking body.

“Luc, they’ve got her.” Lio calls to her. He opens his arms up and Lucie collapses into his body. His shirt is immediately wet from her face. Large hiccups shudder her frame against him. He squeezes her tight, smoothing her hair down. “It’s going to be okay.” Lio whispers to her, hoping that maybe if they chant that together, it will make it real.

Several minutes pass. Lucie continues to sob into Lio’s body, even after he moves her inside to get out of the wind. The doctors come out looking for him, finding him and Lucie together. Stella is stable. They can go see her, but she will need to stay for several hours for monitoring as they had to give her two more injections. Lucie heads right into her daughter’s room, curling up with the little girl who looks drugged and exhausted in the center.

“Mama is here. You’re okay.” She cries to her daughter. Stella is upset and shaken from the ordeal. She clings to Lucie like a monkey, balling her shirt up in her little fists. 

“LuLu, do you want me to call Connor?”

“Yes.” Lucie whispers, barely able to get the word out of her shaking lips. She reaches into the back pocket of her jeans, handing her phone to him. “If you call he won’t answer.” She says simply. Lio tries to brush that off like it doesn’t hurt, but it stings as bad as the wind biting his cheeks during his sprint to the hospital. 

Lio takes a deep breath, then clicks on Connor’s contact. His heart is pounding in his chest like he’s about to take a face-off in the final minute of a trailing game. He licks his lips, leaning agains the wall, waiting on the call to connect.

“Hey baby! I’m just about to leave.”

“Ah.” Lio coughs. “Hey, it’s Lio.”

Silence.

“Where is Lucie?” A definite snap tightens the words through the line. 

“She’s with Stella. She asked me to call you and tell you what is going on.”

“What? Are they okay? What..” 

“Lucie is okay.” Lio starts.

“Stell? Whats wrong with her!?” Connor’s voice is beginning to escalate. “What did you do, Lio?” Connor snaps. Lio closes his eyes. 

“I didn’t do anything. It was a mistake at the restaurant.”

“Fuck!” Connor yells. “Where are you?”

“At Children’s hospital off 34th.”

“You have to tell me what happened, Lio.”

“I’m trying to, but you’re not letting me get much out here, man.” Connor sighs. Lio takes his silence as compliance. “We were out grabbing lunch and she had an allergic reaction and we had to bring her to the hospital. Her Epipen wasn’t enough.”

“Fuck, I have the second one. We usually have the two together, but Lucie and I had plans the other night and…” Connor’s voice is distraught.

“It happens. But you should get down here. They need you.”

“I’m on my way.” 

Lio removes the phone from his ear, looking at the lock screen of Lucie, Connor and Stella. Lio took that photo of them this summer in Switzerland, before everything happened. He sighs heavily, then comes back into the room.

“Connor is coming.” Lio assures Lucie. She doesn’t take her crying eyes off the little girl in her arms. She sniffs and nods in acknowledgement, continuing to touch her daughter’s face soothingly. Lio can’t tell if it’s for Stella or Lucie.

Connor Wood arrives thirty minutes later with squeaking sneakers on the tile floor of the hospital hallway. Lucie and Stella are dozing in an overwhelmed sleep. Lio sits in the chair next to them with one hand on Stella, rubbing her arm. Lucie’s hand clings to his wrist, needing comfort in one of the worst moments of her life. 

“I’m a terrible mom.” She had told Lio tearfully.

“You’re not. It was scary.” 

“What if you weren’t there?”

“It doesn’t matter. I was.”

“Luc! Stell!” Connor rushes into the room then locks in on Lio. He shifts his worried eyes to the bed, seeing Lucie and Stella curled together. His lips pull into a deep frown, then his eyes seemingly dim when he takes in Lio in the place he should be.

“They’re resting, Lucie is pretty upset.” Lio says as he slowly works his wrist out of Lucie’s grasp. “I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to see me. I’ll leave now, I just didn’t want to leave the girls alone before you got here.”

“What happened?” Connor asks. Lio can see the way his chest rapidly raises and falls beneath the Rangers logo on his chest.

“Stella somehow got a peanut butter shake at the diner. Wrong order. She had some and started having a severe reaction.” Connor’s face gets ghostly pale. He puts his hand on his head over his blue hat, waiting for more. “Um, Luc, She… she panicked. It was all scary. Truly awful. But I gave Stell the injection, but it didn’t do enough. She became mostly unresponsive.” Connor closes his eyes, bringing his hands to his face in anguish. “There wasn’t time to wait for help, so I grabbed Stella and ran here with her.” 

“You ran?”

“Yeah. Stell didn’t have time.” Lio reiterates. If he is mad at Lio for that, then so be it. Maybe it was reckless, but Lio had to make a judgement call and Stell is going to be okay because of it. Connor stares at Lio. Then suddenly he steps forward around the bed. Lio stands up taller, preparing for anything. Connor wraps an arm around Lio’s shoulders to bring him into his body. Lio brings his hands up, clasping Connor’s back as they share a deep, sincere hug. 

“Thank you.” Connor whispers, tears coating his voice. Lio squeezes Connor tighter, not wanting to let go of his best friend. Suddenly, it hits Lio. How close they were to losing Stell. How dire she had looked when he ran through the doors of the ER. How Lucie had every right to be that terrified at the table. It had been bad. Horrible. Worst case scenario. 

Lio can’t help it. He begins to sob. Everything that has happened the last few months weeps out of him. From losing Savannah, to screaming at his parents, to only having his little sister, to losing the three people in this room with him. His concussion… almost losing Stella on that New York street.

“It’s okay, Lee. She’s going to be okay.” Connor puts his hand on Lio’s head. “You saved our girl.” Lio nods, shuddering as he pulls away. Both men wipe their faces with their hands, then look over to the two girls laying in the bed. Stella has a sleepy grin on her face, watching them.

“Daddy!” She giggles, reaching out to him, flexing and unflexing her fingers for him to come closer.

“Hi baby.” Connor smiles brightly, leaning down to kiss her cheeks. “Can I lay with you and mama?” 

“Yeah.” Stella yawns as she says the word. 

“Sleepy.” Connor chuckles, kissing her again. He curls her and Lucie into his body, trying to be careful not to wake his wife. Lucie jolts up at the feeling of his hands on her. “Me, Luc. It’s me.” She visibly relaxes when she sees her husband. “I’m here.” He brushes her cheek with his thumb. 

Lio watches from the end of the bed, then anxiously rubs at his forehead. He clears his throat, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Um, well I’ll head out so you all can be together.”

“No, don’t go.” Lucie shakes her head. 

“It’s okay, Luc. I’ll see you later.” 

“You should stay with us.” Connor says softly. “We want you here.” The insinuation of the we has the corners of Lio’s mouth sliding up.

Lio makes his way back to the chair by the bedside, sitting down in it. Him and Connor share a look of understanding. Lucie trails her nails along Stella’s back as another big yawn stretches her little mouth. 

“Uncle Lee?” Stella murmurs.

“Hm?”

“You gonna be here when I wake up?”

“Yeah, Stell.” He sighs. “I’ll be right here.”

[mistress-lou]

Neir Automata charachters react to meeting a human (you)

Requested by me self indulgent writing :)

9s

Let's be honest the first time you two meet he probably shrieks

And not a small one like a really high pitched excited bird screech

After your ears were finished ringing and you could finally hear him he bombards you with questions and at first you answer them politely to the best of your ability

"So is it true humans don't rust?"

"Well no but we go through something similar called 'aging' pretty much our bones become more and more fragile over time our skin begins to sag and we have trouble moving around and we usually have little to no energy by the time we reach our 40's."

"Wow you guys have it rough! But can't you all avoid the effects of 'aging' by doing routine maintenance and replacing all of your the parts of you that are irreparably damaged?"

You have to explain that while yes keeping up to date with your body to keep it healthy and doing your best to get rid of all of the impurites inside your body can help you can never really stop the effects of aging

He doesn't really get it but is both surprised and happy to know that your body can heal minor injuries on it's own. But still keeps a close eye on you anyway

Reads all the codex that he can find on humans no matter how small it may seem he doesn't want to risk it especially after knowing you can't just replace all your broken and corrupted parts like other androids can

Starts to carry a small notebook around with him where he writes your conversations, your personal interests, allergies, eating habits, sleeping schedule, and even your bathroom breaks (yes gross ik but he wants to know when him and 2b should take a break from adventuring so you can relax)

Definitely likes to gossip with you about other YoRHa members and especially how much of a pain their commander is (which is often quickly silenced by 2b)

Ask about 2b and he'll talk for hoooours

Like he won't shut up about her goddamn you'd think he'd at least have filter and stay a bit more quiet when she's only like 5 feet away

Poor guy obviously has big crush on 2b

Although he does sometimes make some flirty comments to his operator too so maybe that's just how he is?? Or maybe he just likes those two in particular because he's close to them

Although he never really talks to you that way but that's fine though!

And 2b never says anything about it so maybe she's just not paying attention or maybe she likes it.....? Your not sure androids are hard to read especially 2b even though you guys are relatively close now

2b

Just no

The moment she saw you she literally turned on her heel and walked the other way

9s had to grab her and literally beg for her to hear you out because she just wanted none of it

After a few minutes of convincing she agreed to listen to you she thought you were a runaway android at first so she wanted to leave before she might've recieved any orders to bring you back or (slight spoilers) execute you but she decided to hear you out for 9s's sake

Was very surprised when you told her you were a human she didn't believe you at first but after telling her what year you were from, details of the day machines attacked, and a confirmation from YoRHa, she finally decided to beileve your story

Was very annoyed when her new mission was to escourt and protect you while she there on earth completing her main mission

Most likely only kept you around because of 9s and 6O's begging

Very quiet anytime you ask her questions she gives very curt short answers

"So...how are you doing today 2b?"

"All my diagnostics and sensory functions are all green."

"Err..okay how about mentally are you okay?-"

"I don't get tired and all my core and brain functionality are working fine."

"O-oh okay well how about-"

"Machines ahead get back with 9s!"

"But they're like 100 ft away we can just go the other way- wait!!"

"...ugh"

Everytime you complain to 9s that you think 2b just hates you he just constantly reassures you that 2b is just like that and to just give her a little more time to warm up to you

And after travelling with her for a bit it seems like she was starting to warm up to you

For instance any time you tell her she's going to fast she'll slow down, and if your hungry she'll go fishing or go hunt a boar, if your sleepy she'll turn around and head back to the resistance camp.

If you bring it up she'll say she needed some more supplies or she needed some repairs

Won't admit it but she likes having you around because you make 9s smile so much. She loves overhearing your guy's conversations where you guys just laugh and talk (lmao mommy 2b)

Although she hates when you both gang up on her and beg her for a break or to go fishing (totally not an excuse so you and 9s can go play in the water)

She always agrees though (she's a softie and she can't say no to you two)

If you ask her to carry you she will mostly because she knows how much less durable your body is than hers

9s will most likely get jealous and ask for one too and she has no problem with it she'll just pick both of you up and walk off to the resistance camp for rest (although she does find your guy's constant giggling annoying)

A2

If you thought 2b was bad A2 is something else

The moment she saw you she thought you were a member of YoRHa and tried to take your head off you were lucky and somehow managed avoid her attack by a hair

You frantically explained that you had no idea who YoRHa was and that you weren't an android but a human

She of course didn't beileve you and turned around and left you there ignoring your pleas for help and explanation of what was happening and what happened to earth

Although something was telling her to stick around and watch to see if were telling the truth

So she did she tailed you watching as you scurried away from machines and hid from androids because according to what she heard you say "they're both the same all gears and metal."

Which did secretly tick her off because: How dare you compare us (androids) to those machines!!

After a while of watching you she couldn't tell if you were just reallly dedicated to your role or if you were actually telling the truth

But your luck had to run out eventually

You tripped while running away from three small stubby machines and a goliath biped it was because you were extremely underfed and dehydrated mostly because you could barely find any places to fish or get any fresh water without their being an android or machines watching it and you could never rest more than thirty minutes because you could always hear the loud shuffling and bangs from the machines walking around

So as the goliath raised his arm for the final blow you closed your eyes finally relieved that your days of scavenging and living in constant fear was over

However the end never came you heard a loud thud and whoosh of wind around you as if something had blocked the attack from the biped

Who would have the power to do such a thing?

You heard a series of more loud bangs and slashes and then eventually you heard 4 loud thuds and then silence except for footsteps walking towards you and stopping a few feet next to you

You kept your eyes closed and played dead in the hopes for whatever killed them wasn't very bright and thought it killed you too

"...."

"...."

"Hey I know your not dead I can see your eyes twitching get up or do you want me to leave you here for more of those things to come?

"N-NO!!"

"Then get up"

You did as you were told and followed her back to an abandoned building in the forest close to where you first met her and she was surprisingly kind and told you to rest while she kept watch over you maybe it was her seeing how exhausted you looked (or maybe how slowly you were lagging behind her on the way here gave you away)

But you took her offer gratefully and quickly fell asleep

After waking up the next day with what felt like the best sleep of your life you saw a2 standing over you with a make shift plate made out of bark with moose and boar meat and a cup of water in the other

You gratefully accepted them eating your food rather quickly (choking a bit a few times) and left with A2

After a bit of questioning she explained why she attacked you and (eventually) that she had been following you and you in return told her how you woke up and then accidently ran into her

Your journey with A2 was quiet but fufilling in a way...?

You guys avoided YoRHa members and she taught you how to look for traces of life and where to find running water (sorry but i see her being kind've like a nomad she has to get water somewhere right?) and you told her all about your life in the human world before machines

Like 9s and 2b she keeps a close eye on you and makes sure that your always well fed and well rested so you won't accidently hit anything to hard or cut yourself then fall over and die

And while you explained to her you dont die that easily she'll still make sure you where away from anything sharp and dangerous

Mosst of the time she just grabbed you by the back of your clothes slinging you over her shoulder and just walking around that way

oh how romantic!! 💓 (your pretty sure you say this to cope with idea that she might see you as baggage or worse a pet but you do you)

Operator 6O

Let's be honest the only reason you'd end up in operator 6O's care was if 2b couldn't handle you anymore and decided to kick you out and send you to the bunker

Which says a lot because she never fails a mission (wth did you do???)

But it's not all bad if anything you have it a lot easier you don't have to walk and walk till your feet feel like they'll fall off, you don't have sleep on the cold hard floor (if you were too far from the resistance camp), and no more life and death battles with the machines

Well not you, you just stood there and watched as 2b and 9s did all the work but you where a great source of emotional support :)

But the bunker was pretty nice if you liked being swarmed and bombarded with questions from all the YoRHa members in the bunker and maybe sometimes subtly touched and groped by them

Thankfully 6O is a little more calm than the others and she'll always ask for your permission before she touches you

But like 9s and the rest of the androids she'll still ask you a ton of questions

Her favorite things to talk about are flowers, animals, fashion, makeup, and skincare

If you know a lot about these topics than hallelujah!! You guys are going to be the best of friends!!

Pretty much a girly girl and if she was born in our modern world she would most likely be a very popular influencer or makeup artist and with her bubbly personality she'd probably have a few thousand if not million followers

She's really good company and she even teaches you how she does her job and you even help around when the other operators are compromised or sick (undergoing repairs) at the moment

Plus androids hearing your voice helps boost morale so it's a win-win

2b is also a favorite subject of 6O's because she considers her to be one of her closest and dearest friends (even more so after she sent her a picture of the desert rose and she does talk about that a lot) so complaining to her about 2b wouldn't do anything she'll probably do the same thing as 9s or just change the subject

And while operator 6O and you were talking another operator came over and gave something to 6O something about a 'gift from 2b'

And inside was a small pouch of makeup!! Goodie

A few 100 years old but hey it's still there!

While she was excited for the gift she didn't know how to use it so of course she looked over at you and gave you the saddest most desperate puppy eyes you'd ever seen

"Hey Y/N can you help me put this on please??"

"Err i'd love you too but i don't think that's safe it expired- well a few hundred years ago.."

"It's okay I'm sure it'll be fine our skin is really durable so it's fine!!!"

"That's not point-"

"Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease please-"

"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!! Geez..."

Doesn't matter if you have a lot of experience or no experience with makeup she still wants your help

But don't purposely make her look bad please it'll break her heart :(

And after your done helping her apply her makeup (which looks pretty good) she is absolutely ecstatic she loves it and then she insists that it's your turn to do your make up

You do your best to try and explain that your skin wasn't like hers and that it could probably cause a lot of damage to you if not kill you

She'll be really disappointed but understand and she'll just sadly put it away

After a few more days of seeing her eye her makeup and then your face you eventually decide to give in and let her put makeup on your face but only if she helps take care of you if things go wrong and she happily agrees

She did really good actually but you only keep it on for about thirty minutes before you feel your face getting extremingly itchty and take it off to see it gave you a really bad rash (but thankfully that's all it did)

She kept her promise though and she had managed to make some rash cream after finding a recipe in the YoRHa database

And even better the cream was really effiective your rash disappeared in about a week but you told her you'll never be putting on century old makeup again and she wholeheartedly agreed this time

[strawbrygashez]

ALL THE TIMES DUDE HAS BEEN SUGGESTED/ALLUDED TO NOT BE STRAIGHT!!!!!!!! Feel free to add or correct me if I get something wrong!

First I will start off with things RWS has said themselves and the most obvious example of Dude basically being confirmed to be NOT STRAIGHT. This is from the official Running with scissors Twitter!

And here is a post from the RWS tumblr where they reblogged a post and added this comment

Just in general if RWS or Destructive Creations comments under Nottemdude fanart it’s always more than likely them being positive about it. The RWS tumblr hasn’t been active in 7 years so it’s not just a ‘new’ thing also. I would post more pics of these times but there is a image limit to posts so unless someone wants me to show specific examples….😐 But anyways, they have alluded to adding Nottem to Postal under a piece of nottemdude fanart before if I’m remembering correctly. They also support Dude being shipped with Duke Nukem as well, having retweeted ship art of Duke/Nottem/Dude. Also there is fanart of Nottemdude and just other works where he’s seen being 🏳️‍🌈 or just wearing all kinds of different pride flags on their offical website on the fanart page. And if you take all of this as them being cool about it (fanart and ships) and not minding it and being a ‘good sport about it’ then okay. Sure. But to say that RWS doesn’t encourage or support it would be veryyyy odd.

Before I get into my list of a couple moments Dude is alluded to being bi, I wanna add that If you wanna get technical, the Postal Dude according to RWS can be ‘anything you want him to be’ so while he might not have a totally confirmed sexuality yet or hasn’t been seen being with a man, he is more than likely never gonna be confirmed as straight and if you headcanon Dude being anything other than bi then that’s fine but the baseline seems to be that he’s into both men and woman.

Anyways, here is some moments that come to mind for me.

————————————————————————•In postal 2, You are able to let him kiss another man at the kissing booth on Valentine’s Day

•Most of Dudes dialogue to the other Dude in Brain damage has a flirty tone to it. Dearie & handsome are words Dude uses to refer to the other him. (Which sure, you could say he’s just flirting with himself but be fr for a moment. You wouldn’t be like 🤨 if you heard a man irl calling a clone of himself ‘dearie’?? And the tone Dude uses to tell him not to go and to come back???)

•In postal 4, one of the first things you do is write a sign in hopes to find work. No matter what you choose to write Dude adds something along the lines about being willing to ‘do dirty work’ with men. HE SAYS TO MALE NPCS THAT THEY CAN TAKE HIM BACK TO THEIR PLACE!!! How much more obvious-

•His whole thing with the drag outfit in postal 4. He really didn’t have to wear that if he didn’t want to or really felt uncomfortable with it. Wearing drag doesn’t make someone a certain sexuality but I just wanted to add this part because some people still view Dude as this manly man or this guy who sticks to only stereotypically masculine things?? When he wears drag, makeup & high heels.

•In postal brain damaged, there is a place in his mind specially for Doomguy. And not just in a “ohhh hes so cool and manly 🤩” way..there is full on pictures of his bare ass in Dudes brain. Why would a straight man have a secret part in his brain saved for another man’s ass????

•In BD again, there is a scene where in Dudes dream, buff men are standing behind him set up in a meme reference, suggesting that Dude is about to have sex with them all. Here is the pic 🫡

(And would you look at that. He’s smiling!)

•Lots of d*ldo jokes in postal 4 and BD. A used one is seen on his floor in the opening cutscene for BD. (Again you can just say it’s for the laughs besides the used one but why would a straight man own that many?)

•Dude says “it’s like taking it up the bum” in BD…how would u know how that feels like sir? 🤨

•In postal 2, Postal 3 Dude uses a certain kinda…tone and way of taking sometimes with p2. For example the “Short tempered today, are we?” line. Im sorry but that is such a oddly flirty teasing way of talking to another man. Also p3 Dude felt the need to remind p2 that he wore ‘skin tight leather’ and maybe it would rejog his memory wearing it again.

•In postal 4, dude has a line saying something about how no one has it harder than a “white cis man”. What’s interesting to me is that he didn’t throw in that he’s straight too. You’d think he would do to the nature of that sentence.

•Postal 3 dude is oddly insecure about his masculinity and or is not confident in his sexuality. He’s worried about being seen as gay just for riding some kinda scooter and hopes none of his friends sees him like that. I dunno to me I feel like people perceive Dude as a ‘no fucks given’ kinda guy but he’s whining and complaining about riding some scooter.

[lale-txt]

♡ Mihawk introducing you to his parents Rayleigh & Shakky

a/n: OKAY LISTEN. i know it's not confirmed in canon that Rayleigh and Shakky are Mihawk's parents but it's by far my favorite theory and i will die on this hill. THERE IS NO WAY THEY ARE NOT. now please imagine being Mihawk's s/o and meeting his parents for the first time. it killed me on the spot, please enjoy my messy and horny headcanons. now raise your hand if you want to fuck your way through the family tree ╰(▔∀▔)╯

never ever would you have thought to meet the love of your life at the farmer’s market, but apparently sometimes dreams do come true

you were enchanted. the dazzling white frilly shirt he didn’t bother to button up, showing the fruits of hard farm work (and pirate work, how you learnt later on), his beard as sharp as his eyes that lingered on you while you checked out his potatoes (and his elegant hands – was he really a farmer?)

it is fair to say that it was love at first sight and it only grew ever since, just like the plump tomatoes he laid into your bare hands like an offering

you started dating and quickly learned that Mihawk did not play games. he was committed to the max and you never had doubts that it was you, only you 

after a few months into dating, he asked if you would like to meet his parents, since things were getting more and more serious between you two

you knew little about them, except that they lived in Sabaody together and Mihawk called them regularly like the good son he is

when the day came, you didn’t have time to overly check yourself in the mirror because Mihawk was to busy covering your face with kisses, telling you over and over again how stunning you looked

his parents lived in a small house on top of a hill with his mother’s bar on the ground floor (you figured that’s also where he got his passion for good wine from)

sure, you were a little nervous, hoping they would like you but with Mihawk by your side you felt brave enough to face every obstacle

until they opened the door and your brain overheated within 0.3 seconds

in front of you stood Mr Gilf Of The Universe 3000 and Mrs Step On Me Please, giving you their brightest smiles

you can feel Mihawk’s worried eyes on you when you forget your own name, just shaking their hands completely starstruck, stuttering out a shy hello

Rayleigh just pulls you in a hug against his broad chest, skipping the formalities, while Shakky is lifting your face up with two fingers, mustering you with a smirk, complimenting Mihawk for such a good catch

y/n.exe has stopped working

Mihawk gives you a house tour and sits you down in his old teenage bedroom while the parents continue their dinner preparations

he looks at you both amused and concerned, squatting down in front of you and reaching for your hands, asking you to tell him what’s the matter and why you’re unable to form a complete sentence ever since you got here

“you could have told me your parents are the embodiment of sex appeal but i should have known considering…” (vaguely gesturing up and down towards Mihawk)

how bad is it to lust after your partner’s parents? not just one, but both of them? the things they could teach you at their age… 

at this point your heart might just jump out of your chest, your head spinning

there was NO WAY you could sit down for dinner with them and hold a proper conversation without your thoughts drifting to unholy things that could be done on that dinner table instead

it also made you aware how hot Mihawk will look at their age

damn, you got lucky

Rayleigh and Shakky are super nice to you because they’re probably used to their son’s partners having temporary brain damage in their presence and just make sure your glass of wine is constantly full to the brim

you have Mihawk’s hand in a death grip under the table, holding onto him for dear life to prevent yourself from saying or doing something stupid like twirling your hair, batting your lashes or straight up asking if they would do you the honor of spitting in your mouth

but you behave for the sake of your relationship and future meetings with your potential in-laws

at the end of the night you’re only shaking slightly when Shakky kisses your cheeks to say goodbye and Rayleigh hugs you so tight as if he was about to crack your spine like a glowlight

you link arms with Mihawk as you walk to your accommodation, leaning onto him with a dreamy sigh

he sat through the meeting like a champ, happy that you had a fun night and got to meet his parents, another milestone in your relationship with many more to come

here’s to hoping one of said milestone won’t be you railing his parents because you can’t give him your words for that

[topazpearl]

So remember my big sbg theory doc? forget that existed, heres the new one

Discusses up to Ep 61. Fast-pass spoiler FREE

Content discussions about death, mental illness, sui.cide; yknow. Heavy Thriller webtoon stuff (tm)

[Hamilton chorus voice] NUMBER ONE: Giant freakin phantompedes and how to escape them

-I was right about the football field lights to try to kill them idea yippee

-HOEWVERR, theres so many attacking the school rn and its freaking collapsing?? I literally dont know how they’re gonna get outta this

-Unless (unless) my Phantom Ashlyn theory is relevant, ashlyn can talk to them and tells them to go away and they… do! idk lol it's stupid but maybe ash has enough girl boss energy to convince them. or theyre so shocked by a human talking to them theyre like "dang ok". Could still happen! 

NUMBER TWO: Phantom Transformation Theory

So it’s Basically confirmed: 

If you die in the PD, you start to turn into a Phantom.

Of course we wont know for sure until we actually SEE it but like, Aiden’s creepy af smile and basically coming back to life in ashlyn’s arms after DYING it’s like, basically confirmed. 

Ash wonders why Aiden snapped out of his seizure so fast compared to Tyler. Severity of injuries could definitely be a factor (tho like, im assuming Aiden got freaking blunt force trauma brain damage which, to me, is just as bad as being impaled). Another factor could be that Tyler died only about 30 minutes into the Time, while Aiden died almost right when it ended. And… we saw how fast Aiden started to “turn”. Red technically never shows us Tyler during those hours after he died. He very well… may have completely phantomized, but when he woke up in the real world, the transformation reverted. I'm very scared abt what Aiden’s gonna be like next night.

SUB THEORY: The Power of Human Connection and Phantom Reversal

Remember how Jasmine (the gang tour girl) asked if it was alright that all the kids got sucked in w/ ashlyn? This implies that 

1. They usually expect 1 person/their target to get sucked into the PD

2. The origami gang has never dealt with a group being sucked in at once

- I believe (and the evil gang doesnt know this) that the kids being together is an integral part of their future survival. Tyler snapped back to consciousness in the hospital after Taylor had her PISSED moment. This moment was similar to Logan’s freakout, in that it tugged the phantom world to the real world, for a second. I think these intense emotions (taylor’s specifically out of anger and worry for her twin), pulled tyler’s “soul” out of the PD and into the RD. 

- Now, you may ask, “what abt if a random person got into the PD and died and went into a seizure/coma? Why couldnt their loved ones “bring” them back?” thats a good Q idk. Perhaps the kids all being in the PD together is what creates this flow, a two-way street, between the two dimensions. 

- Anyway also while Ashlyn and co didnt didnt get into an angry freakout moment when Aiden died, but we all know Ash and Aiden got something developing/going on thats special ♥, and thats what tugged Aiden back (its cliche but its the power of love there i said it). 

- Also NOT saying that the other kids’ concern over their friends doesn’t matter or count (Ben and Aiden are Fam too), but like, i’m wondering if it needs to be a REALLY INTENSE love (familial/romantic/whatever) in order to basically bring someone back from the dead. idk

-interestingly, ty WAS essentially in a coma-like state, like how the spy said, which supports that it’s expected that ppl die in the PD eventually, and go into comas. I’m wondering if those who normally get sucked into the PD and die, theyre dealing with it by themselves, have no one to “pull them back” like taylor and/or ashlyn did, and they stay in a coma. 

-rlly hope the boys arent like “possessed” or smn. Maybe the soul is like, tainted? Those big black eyes man… (ALSO THAT PREVIEW IMAGE WITH LOGAN AND THE BIG BLACK EYES??? WHAT??)

-going off the dead PD ppl turn into phantoms theory>> If a phantom is killed, their connected person in the RD who was in a coma dies fr permanently

NUMBER THREE: Ashlyn and the Phantoms (cool new band name) 

we know the kids are getting influenced by the PD, making phantom noises (further supports phantoms were people theory) but with Ashlyn's "really strong" connection to the PD, she's in special danger. If one can turn into a phantom without dying, it's gonna be her. Ryan the spy said that "the girl" – assumingly ashlyn– should be "especially" at risk of danger. This could be bc she was the one who interacted with the rift, or bc she already has a higher level of phantom influence on her. 

-when ashlyn told the phantom to let go, and her friends to calm down, both times she spoke with a black speech bubble WITH PHANTOM NOISE LINES NEAR IT. this is different than characters who have also spoken with black bubbles (aiden, logan, taylor). obviously these have been with threats/malice, but they didn't have the red lines. These times ashlyn has spoken, the phantom acknowledged her voice, and her friends' spell-like violence trance was broken. Theory: ashlyn not only can hear phantoms, but she can speak their language sort of

-when ashlyn was born, a phantom like touched her in a blessing/cursing sense which is part of the reason why she can hear phantoms and her strong PD connection. possibly even possession???? 

-tldr i want ashlyn to enter her monster girl era 

The evil gang seems confused why the kids have lasted so long. maybe Ashlyn's PD connection goes both ways. she provides a strong anchor to the RD. Maybe the PD is USUALLY all desolate with the pillars that we saw in the finale (maybe it's even an afterlife of sorts?), but Ashlyn makes a huge radius (~30 miles! (assuming kids were driving at least 60mph for 30 minutes)) of the PD around where she wakes up mirror the real world, creating a safer space for her and the kids. meanwhile a normal person that gets sucked into the PD gets thrown into a desolate hell world different from the RD (also maybe stuck there permanently), causing them to die much quicker. 

-maybe this influence is even part of the reason why RD tyler is awake (And aiden)

-Ashlyn's influence extends to jamming the recording devices like some kind of weird phantom static.

-Broke: Ashlyn's parents wanted her to learn self defense and have a knife bc they're in the military. Woke: they want her to be able to protect herself after the phantom scare when she was a baby

-Also THANK GOD she’s finally acting on her intuition. Sm times she’s been like “this feels bad!” and doesnt do anything. Almost makes me wonder if it’s a supernatural intuition based on phantom stuff. Like shes WAY OFF from the hospital and the drama and is like “HMM! Smn going on” 

NUMBER FOUR: Origami gang and Co INC. 

-The gangs symbol is an origami crane (orizuru). the crane in East Asia has longevity as one of its symbolisms, with some myths saying it flies souls up to paradise. there's the popular myth that if you fold 1000 cranes you get a wish.

Heres where the evil twist comes in. The gang boss believes that if he traps 1000 people in the PD as like, a sacrifice, then he'll get a wish and he'll ask for eternal life or whatever. this gang is a cult and he's tricked everyone saying that they'll also get a long life but really it's probably only gonna be him 🤫 So they go around to different haunted places in America and pick ppl they sense can open these shadow rifts and get sucked in. the phantoms may be ppl they trapped in the past and they've turned into phantoms

-Ryan, the guy who's spying on the kids, maybe is ALSO "Mr. thomas". he just puts on a wig and is a good actor lol. this is the reason why he asks about "Mr. Thomas's" fate. What goes against this is that Ryan seems to know all about the PD mechanisms, which doesn't fit Mr. Thomas being confused abt ashlyns hair. Unless he wasn't expecting it

– or "Mr thomas" could just be Ryan's friend or brother or smn. A low ranked guy in the gang that got stuck with roping Ashlyn into Savannah, but doesn't know the truth/details about the PD. 

-the gang mentions that "both sides" are trying to track them. either the government and a supernatural hunting group, or even some force in the PD like some Alpha Phantom like the devil who's like "Where's my dead people quota hello?" or better yet "you're messing with MY domain and I'm gonna Get You". 

-This is based solely on the Boss' appearance and smiling countenance: the gang Boss is Aiden's uncle, his dad's brother, his weird, estranged brother who's also evil probably. I'm really hung on this idea don't mind me 

-you have to be able to make a paper origami crane from memory to be an official gang member /hj 

NUMBER FIVE: Gen story/Character arcs and futures

-ready for a “power of love and friendship” aesop. these kids are gonna be so Bonded now after these traumatic experiences

-i had come up with an elaborate “death order” but thats now completely jossed now so im ignoring that

-PRAISING THE FREAKING LORD THAT ALL THE PARENTS KNOW NOWAND THAT MIKE BELIEVES THEM AND IS HELPING HIS DAUGHTER. DAD OF THE YEAR AWARD. IF ANYTHING AHPPENS TO HIM IM SUEING!!!!!

- SO NOW that all the parents know, and like, have seen all the phantoms and everything and BTW WILL PROBABLY GET SUCKED INTO THE PD AT SOME POINT because they felt the shift like the kids did, they help the kids get to Savannah yippee!! a cool Big family squad force they all hop on a working school bus or smn and drive there. PLs

- the families getting sucked in would be HUGE cause they arent prepared. Logan’s grandparents and Lily are top targets 😭

So the kids are gonna get kidnapped. that's definitely gonna be a thing, either mid S2 or ending. up in the air whether the kidnapping is successful or not. (assuming the gang would be smart enough to get rid of the kids’ phones when they get them)

-actually I'm placing my bets now S2 finale will be them getting kidnapped and it just cuts off there for another awful cliffhanger.

-since it seems Mr thomas will be involved, he'll ask the kids to stay after school to talk abt their failing grades or smn, and then maybe they're hit with knockout gas??

OR the gang has been spying on them so they pick a time the kids all separated and jump them. 

-maybe this is when aiden knowing where ashlyns dance studio is is actually plot relevant!!?? like he (and Ben probably cuz they're always together) are able to escape their attackers and Aiden goes to help ashlyn cuz he wants to make sure she's OK. and she's either fine cuz she's a girl boss and can kick butt, or he saves her oo la la 

–lol imagine kidnapping is successful, gang tells kids why they were kidnapped, (if Evil Boss Uncle theory is true this helps facilitate this) but Ashlyn "goes off" on Aiden yelling and "attacking" him and stuff saying he's part of the gang, he planned it all along etc, but it's all a ruse to have the gang think she'll cause another energy spike (and Aiden gets this and plays along) so assuming the kids are locked up, the gang opens their cell to stop ashlyn, and that's when they escape lol

so like, i THOUGHT ashlyn/aiden was gonna be a slow burn but HAHAHA. i mean not as freaking slow obviously as like Miraculous love square lol, but like slow for thriller standards? But things are gonna be heating up between these two 😏 watch ashlyn be ~conflicted~ and ~in denial~~. And meanwhile poor aiden is a confused boy who doesnt know what ash wants like “b u told me to give u space and now here u are grasping my hand like ur life depends on it” 

Sorry back to character arcs:

Ashlyn: Learn to trust and connect with people, make friends, lean on others. Could be nice if she accepts and admits the kids are her friends by the end of S2, leaving the next season for Aiden/Ashlyn dev specifically? More development about her connection with the PD, which could put friendship to the test. [already getting this with her dad and Aiden so this is great]

Also she has the freaking GUILT like i expected! Watch her think tay hates her for like a week before tay is like “no?? I hate the ppl who did this to us instead” and then they hug it out 👍

Taylor: Willing to bet money the twins are unhealthily codependent on each other. She is on the edge bro. Unhinged feral. Is probably gonna be more angry in general despite it being a bad idea, like the top has been blown off. Bottled up emotions~! 

Still thinking she’ll get close to Ben too (whether anything romantic develops on top of it is debatable, but I can see it. theyve already got a cute little closeness going on)..

Tyler: Get this boy some ~THERAPY~ help he’s so depressed and angry. Learn to have hope again (like ben 😭). He has so much negativity inside him, i dont think that’ll help with whatever is going on with him rn like, hes probably in the THICK of the PD influence. He’s kinda like ash, needs to learn to rely on others.

Logan: Seems to be overcoming his fragility well if the arcade scene is any indication. Still has self-worth issues to overcome due to his parents' abandonment. Maybe we'll learn more about that in S2. That could be a rumor and the real reason he lives with his grandparents is that his parents died but idk why that'd be hidden unless their death was suspicious (like, drug ring?? His gpa got the GOODS APPARENTLY). 

Ben: Still needs to find a new passion for life, i suspect playing musical instruments like the guitar will be the answer (thank you tyler). Tho maybe learning to love his altered voice could happen? (tons of dudes have a rough/husky singing voice that ppl love) But this is probably unlikely.  

Aiden: Good Lord like, Aiden being (most likely) suic.idal in the past (and possibly even still NOW?) has floored me. I figured his loneliness and suspected parental neglect was bad but IT’S BAD. Dude wants to feel alive and not depressed… frick. AIDEN ARE YOU going to therapy??? Do your parents KNOW??? Is that why your parents finally settled down?? Guh. this on top of probably untreated ADHD.

–I’m assuming now Aiden started dying his hair to try to get any fragment of serotonin. 

– Kinda wondering if he grew up in a "toxic positivity" mentality home, where his parents are like "we're so privileged we shouldn't complain" ?

– im actually THIS close to beating Aiden’s parents with a stick.

NUMBER SIX: Miscellaneous predictions, wants, musings & hypotheticals.

-guessing now that the twin’s dad had cancer or smn

-hey uh what about the photo Logan took of the phantom back at the sorrel-weed house?? surely he still has it? can he show the parents?? will they be able to see it?

-Logan saw the whole Aidlyn hug from the roof from his snipper position, change my mind.

-Another “death” will happen in S2, possibly even two deaths. (GOD I WAS RIGHT)

-Mr thomas switches sides and helps the kids, gives them info

-Ryan (the spy) switches sides and helps the kids

-the tour lady Jasmine and the Boss are a hot evil couple 

also kinda want them to have a Rourke & Helga dynamic where he throws her under the bus at the last moment and she's Bissed 

-I want the boss to die by his own evil plan. 

–i doubt a redemption arc will happen but I'd be down for it if done well.

-*grabs your shoulders until they bleed* listen. Aiden saved ashlyn, now I need her to save him. I need this. 

-Taylor and Ashlyn girl time please!!!

-Logan and Aiden becoming closer would also give me joy. big Freckle and Rocky energy. 

-this doesn't have to happen but I think it'd be really funny if Aiden somehow gets the IDEA that Logan has a crush on Ashlyn when Logan doesn't, causing a stupid silly short jealousy arc.

-actually I really need a "can skydive from 10,000 ft but can't confess to the girl he likes" Aiden Clark 

-I've got a bad feeling smn will happen to Ashlyn's parents, specifically her dad

-if any of the gang/cult members hurt the kids or their fam fr irl im gonna >8) lose it

-the Origami gang fails to kidnap the kids and they accidentally create a huge "energy spike", making phantoms appear everywhere in town.

-if the kids DO get kidnapped successfully, I want Ashlyn to be an awesome girlboss and use her knife shoes to help them escape.

-if my puppy fic became Canon that'd be swaggie actually.

-let Ashlyn have a dog 2023

-pov you're in Georgia in the fall and a hurricane hits, knocking out solar power for a few days. what then? :)

-when all this garbage is over and they hopefully all live in the end, I want them to have a fun stargazing party led by Logan cause they can finally enjoy the night (And maybe aidlyn have their first Kiss?? 🙈)

-If there ISNT a "group goes to see Ashlyn in a ballet performance" scene then I'm WRITING IT MYSELF 

-At the end of all things, Aiden and Ashlyn will become a couple, or at least have reciprocal romantic feelings. This is not just my shipper heart talking. I feel it in my brain, in my soul. 

-So we know one or both of Aiden’s parents are writers. If anyone knows if that trophy Aiden’s dad is holding in that photo is a real award, hmu

-a kid going into an angry protective phantom mode to protect another(s) 😳 (aidlyn on the brain but it could be anyone)

-if I had a nickel for every time I've imagined Aiden dying in Ashlyn's arms, I'd have many nickels (IT BASICALLY HAPPENED! GREAT! 👍😭)

-what if having a good singing voice ran in Ben's family? haha jkjk…unless??? but they don't sing like ever cuz they don't want Ben to feel bad 

-man what if an sbg kid “died” by a phantom pushing them down a set of stairs.. 

-Rlly hope that Aiden's parents don't get scared seeing phantoms in their house and hearing other families having phantoms in THEIR houses and thinking the whole town is haunted, and they consider moving which they don't wanna do bc Aiden finally has friends but what else can they do!? angst. 

-John 15:13 for Ashlyn with the others except it's not permanent (I'm not saying ash is a Jesus figure tho WHWKEJEJDJ)

-I rlly wanna see ashlyn laugh

-Taylor actually using her mechanic skills. like maybe the jeep gets damaged [HAPPENED] and she fixes it. I dont want that jeep gone bro its already iconic (update: it’s probably gone bro.. sad)

-might be nice for Logan to have a reflection moment where even though all this horrible stuff is happening some good came out of it like he's not a slave to bullies anymore 

-I want to see Ben happy. well actually I want them all happy pls

[bullet-prooflove]

Got You: Cyrus Lupo x Reader

Tagging: @darqchilddaydreamz @words-and-seeds @infinity-mars @malindacath @tkappi @proceduralpassion @crazy4chickennuggets  @kmc1989 @oureternalbond 

Cyrus doesn’t expect to see you waiting for him at JFK, the same airport the two of you said goodbye in four years ago. It gives him a sense of déjà vu, because you were wearing the same expression back then too. A mix of sadness and propriety. You don’t like to wear your emotions on your sleeve, he knows that he’s to blame for that.

“Hey.” He says quietly before his eyes flicker to Detective Green who stands alongside of you.

He doesn’t know what you’ve told your partner, so he hangs back because things like this have the tendency to get awkward and he doesn’t want that for you. He’s done enough damage over the years.

It doesn’t matter that he wants to embrace you, that he wants to bury his face in the curve of your throat and take comfort in your presence. He lost the right to that when he took up his posting with the Intelligence Division.

You let Green take the lead while you buy the three of you coffee. The truth is you don’t know what to say because the Tommy that you knew wouldn’t have gotten involved with hookers and dope, he was a family man through and through. You see the blow land, the disbelief in his features. Cyrus looks to you for confirmation, and you incline your head just enough for him to read it as a nod.

“That’s not my brother.” He reiterates, shaking his head. “He wouldn’t cheat on his wife; he wasn’t a weak person. He beat cancer five years ago.”

“When was the last time you talked to him?” You ask him, your fingertips toying with a sachet of sugar. You don’t take it, but you need something to do with your hands because this situation feels like it’s devolving. The more information you give, the more you can see Cyrus withdrawing into himself.

“I don’t know.” He hesitates before taking a sip from his coffee. “He called me a few weeks ago but I was seeing to a situation, I couldn’t ring back.”

There’s guilt there, you can sense it under the surface. He looks at you and then looks away, swallowing hard. You suspect that he did the same thing to Tommy that he did to you four years ago. One phone call when he got to Morocco and then it was like he disappeared off the face of the earth.

“If it wasn’t a paid date or a girlfriend who else would have wanted your brother dead?” Ed asks him and Cyrus purses his lips together into a grim line. You can see the cogs turning in his brain, that steely glint in his eyes as the mood starts to shift.

“Hey.” You say tapping the back of his hand with your fingertip to draw his attention to you. He tilts his head; his jaw clenching and you fix him with a fierce look of your own. “Do not even think about it. They won’t let you work on this case Cyrus.”

He says nothing, he simply picks up his cup of coffee stares straight ahead. You already know that your words have fallen on deaf ears. Nothing is going to stop Cyrus Lupo finding out what happened to his brother.

***

Cyrus causes problems from the outset. It starts with using Green’s name at the M.E’s office to confirm his theory regarding Tommy’s cancer and continues to him challenging Van Buren regarding the classification of the death. He practically begs the Lieutenant to work the case.

When you hear the details of what he’s been up to abroad, you feel your heart stutter in your chest because you can see his self-destructive tendencies playing out in an international arena.

Lupo broke some big cases in some unfriendly parts of the world, and he did it with no back up, no warrants, no weapon, Van Buren tells you. Your gaze strays to your ex-lover on the other side of the glass and part of you wants to strangle him. The police officer in you wants to commend him. He’s still managing to cause conflict in you, even after all this time.

His persistence and stubbornness pays off. With the additional death it’s decided he’ll work that part of the case alongside the two of you. Green resents it and you pinch the bridge of your nose because already you’re getting a migraine from the potential ramifications of having Cyrus back in your life.

When the videos show up, you see the moment that he starts to fall apart. The bullpen is empty, there’s just the two of you seated at the same desk watching Driscol’s suicide as Nolan interviews him. When the cursor hovers over the next file, you place your hand on his arm to stop him. He looks at you, and you already know that no matter what you say, he’s going to watch Tommy’s video.

You watch it with him. Tommy as he sits there, hooked up to the machine, the moment he presses the button, the second the light dies in his eyes. You tilt your head towards Cyrus as the devastation hits him, his shoulders start to quake, and he sucks in deep shaky breath and then another trying to compose himself.

“Come here.” You say softly and he complies burying his face into the hollow of your shoulder as he clutches onto you like a lifeline.

The first sob vibrates through your entire body, you can feel his anguish as his hands grip your shirt the emotion forcing it’s way through his system. There’s no protocol for grief, it’s violent and gut wrenching, it tears at your insides, eviscerating you and leaves your guts spilling out all over the floor. Your fingertips run through his curls, a soothing motion from a time he used to wake up beside in the throes of a nightmare, tears staining his cheeks and his heart pounding in his chest.

“I’ve got you.” You whisper as you cradle him close. “It’s alright, I’ve got you.”

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[thedarklightcrypt]

Kaos analysis if ya can! Literally just anything about him :0

Maybe his skills? I am truly curious about his position as a dark portal master.

ooh! kaos happens to be one of my favorite characters, and you bringing up him being a dark portal master... I do not own every piece of skylanders media, but I will do my best to summarize his skills in a detailed manner. within spyros adventure. he has control over various elemental spells, which range from doom sharks to lasers, his mechanical suit also utilizes these spells and I assume them to be built into the suit, he also seems to be able to summon his minions at free will. its never stated whether his giant floating head is via technology or something else, the closest we get is him telling glumshanks to turn it off after trailing off. in giants. the only skills hes seen using are directly connected to the iron fist (summoning arkeyans, eye lasers, the healing-damage-spell contraption), though I do not know much of it is due to the iron fist or his own built in magic. swap force, in VV nature, features a different set of capabilities for him. he uses petrified fire in one cutscene without any prior build up, and as super evil kaos can create shockwaves or bring his thoughts to reality. I must say that I was... unimpressed, back when I saw he didnt use anything relating to petrified darkness... but I am getting off topic. trap team, which was of course done by TFB, gives him a new super powered form. when affected by the stinkocity, he appears to... be able to see through dimensions? as he can see you (the player) through the tv screen, his vision also became faux psychedelic which I feel is relevant enough to mention. as his traptanium form he sprouts wings, gets crystal blades, can make... black energy? I dont know how to describe it, amongst some other things. superchargers has an interesting spin... which I quite like! he seems to be getting a power boost from the darkness, and actually utilizes some of his own spells (to my understanding, I am unsure if its been confirmed anywhere), such as teleportation + fake copies, crystal swords and hands. I think this is a really wonderful change of pace compared to his usual per-game super powered form. imaginators, I feel is the weakest. he lost his connection to the darkness after it was destroyed in superchargers, so instead we get mind magic and... super saiyan final boss...? imaginators is an extremely short and unfinished game to my knowledge, so I will not dwell on it for too long, but I believe mind magic lets him imagine anything into existence. though you can argue its not actually him whos using the magic as I believe it comes from brain. its extremely easy to make a joke about kaos only being a threat when he has outside forces assisting him, but to me that is a massive disservice to his character. it has been a bit since I read the novels, but in those he uses a wide variety of spells from teleporting individuals with the snap of his fingers, lightning, flying flower pots, lightning that drains your energy, as well as various contraptions like a miniature portal. the novels have a strange habit of switching back and forth from him being a threat and a joke, but the skylanders rarely face him head on due to him backing them into corners with his own skills & tactics, which I enjoy! upon acquiring the mask of power, he can steal the skylanders powers, though I feel this is unnecessary to further go into. one thing interesting about kaos is that he is extremely tactical while being horribly impulsive, so he ends up in a strange situation where he has the cards to win, but his emotions get the better of him. he is also someone who uses a lot of technology in his plans, and its not uncommon to see his spells accompanied by a contraption, that is typically implied to be created by him (or, that is how I have always seen it), he also created & brought the wilikin to life as a young portal master. I am sure there are pieces I have missed, due to not owning every book. but if so those who own those books can likely provide.