#it'd be cool if I could go back to being able to do stuff... I really didn't appreciate it enough 😭

[running-in-the-dark]

I've been having some very.. not so good days.

and I just put it together that I've also been playing a new to me game (Timberborn) a lot every day for a few days. hm. am I doing that because I'm feeling bad (= unable to do anything creative or productive), or is this (part of) what's making me feel bad?

it's probably a bit of both. but I do know that doing that for like 5-8 hours a day without any breaks definitely makes me feel worse. so maybe I need to try not doing that.

I'm going to a couple thrift stores with my mother and my niece tomorrow - that should be fun (very exhausting probably, but I think it'll be good to just go out and do something). hopefully I'll have enough energy left to do something else when I come back.

[mysteryshoptls]

R Ace Trappola - Luxe Couture Vignette

"My perception just lagged hard"

[Fairest City – Crystal Galleria]

Ace: Alright, it's finally the free roam time I've been waiting for! That brand-name shop looks good, and so does that one… But I think I'll have to pass on 'em!

Azul: Oh? You don't plan on visiting those stores?

Ace: I mean, I'm not anywhere close to being able to afford all those high-brand clothes. But you already knew that when you asked, right, Azul-senpai?

Ace: But it's not like I've completely given up on doing any shopping, though. I'm thinkin' about checkin' out some of the secondary line shops.

Azul: Ah, yes, there are many high-end brands that are developing products aimed at the broader marked instead of just their main audience.

Ace: Yeah, yeah. I did some digging after heading back to the hotel yesterday, and…

Ace: Looks to me like those secondary line shops have fits that suit me better.

Azul: Hm. And what sort of look do you tend to like, Ace-san?

Ace: I guess my likes reflect my usual getup. I dress pretty casual.

Ace: I like clothes that are easy to move around in, and aren't really high-maintenance. And I can't really deal with looks that are too stiff.

Ace: I'd probably say that most of my outfits have a splash of the current trends, but also have a bit of an edge to it.

Ace: On the other hand, I can only imagine you wearing pretty stiff and formal stuff.

Azul: I suppose. Of course, it does depend on the time and occasion.

Ace: Maaan, I know you got some real good sense about these things. It'd be greaaat if you could tag along and pick out some clothes for me～

Azul: Well, let me see… I do have some interest in how those secondary line brands develop their merchandise.

Azul: There's no reason for me to not join you as I observe their establishments. HOWEVER! You will, of course, be paying for yourself.

Ace: Tch. Guess he saw right through me. Suuucks.

Ace: Oh well, let's go, then.

Ace: Hmmm, where's the store I was checking out yesterday…? Oh, found it. Azul-senpai, it's over here.

Azul: The store does seem to have a grand appearance, yes… But I can see that the designs here are rather different from the signature line.

Ace: Looks pretty good, huh? Let's go in!

Ace: Woah, check out this stylish sweater! The shape's pretty good, and I bet it'd work with all sorts of outfits. And the price…

Ace: ONLY 30,000 MADOL [300 Thaumarks]! THAT'S SO CHEAP!

Azul: Calm yourself, Ace-san. Is 30,000 Madol for one sweater considered cheap to you?

Ace: ACK, WAIT, NO, THAT'S NOT CHEAP! WHEW, THAT WAS CLOSE～

Ace: After seeing all those Luxe prices set for the rich and famous, I guess my perception just lagged hard.

Ace: But I think I should be able to buy at least one thing from this shop with my pocket money.

Ace: Azul-senpai, I'm countin' on you to pick out something nice for me.

Azul: What do you think about that black blazer on the mannequin over there? It has a stunning silhouette.

Ace: Ooh, you're right. It's got a pretty slender and sleek profile!

Azul: Underneath it… How about this collared white shirt? It would probably look good with a striped tie, as well.

Azul: If you combine it with these center-pressed slacks and leather shoes, you would do well in any establishment that requires a dress code.

Ace: Cool, I woulda expected nothing less from something you've selected, Azul-senpai. Pretty formal and mature.

Ace: It's a pretty different look than what I normally would go for, but I guess I should at least give it a try.

Azul: I am pleased you like it.

Ace: If I were to buy everything that you chose for me… Urgh, that's over 100,000 Madol [1,000 Thaumarks]!

Azul: Well, this might be a secondary line, but it is still a brand-named shop.

Ace: Hrrrngh, maybe I'll do just this blazer… It's not really something I already own or anything.

Ace: And black pretty much goes with anything, so it makes it easy to come up with outfits…

Ace: It's a shorter style, too, so it might actually go for a casual look with my hoody and jeans.

Azul: That is a combination that hadn't even crossed my mind… Yet, I agree, I'm sure it would suit you immensely.

Ace: So that look would be like a combination of our two fashion senses, then.

Ace: If it's just the blazer, I think I could just barely afford it, but… My funds when I return to campus'll be pretty low…

Ace: Ooh, I have an idea! Can you let me work some hours at the Mostro Lounge?

Ace: I can be pretty good with my hands. You've seen that before, right, Azul-senpai?

Azul: Yes, of course. And we have a mountain load of tasks to be done. I look forward to your wonderful hard work, Ace-san.

Ace: …Shoot. Did I just put myself up for something I shouldn't have?

Ace: Uhhh… Hope you'll go easy on me～

Requested by @ordinaryanon.

[cannibaled]

situations

wanted to challenge myself, since i'm used to only writing for ocs. i thought it'd be fun doing something different with a preexisting character and self insert :3 —

☆ warnings: none, slight nsfw. mostly in language.

☆ premise: possessive felix, farleigh being farleigh

it was difficult being felix catton's best friend. much less, his younger best friend.. which, happened to only be by a year, by the way.

despite this fact, he treated you like a child. as if he was an overprotective college brother, holding control over his high-school sister. except, you both attended college. the. same. one. you were schoolmates, for gods sake.

there was a set of unspoken rules felix expected you to follow. with you both attending oxford, it only made it that much easier for him to watch you.

you could be friends with his friends, but not too close with the guys. you couldn't hook up at parties if he was there. he would make a scene, and bust the poor guys ass. it was aggravating. you were grown, desperate to explore college hookup culture with an itch that needed scratching, and despite how annoying he was, he was sweet. you couldn't just snap at him. just imagining him looking like a kicked puppy enough to scar you for years. and, he did he mean well, really. his execution just sucked.

you took a drag from the joint that hung lazily between your fingers, inhaling the smoke that escaped from your lips. loud music, muffled due to the barrier of doors separating you from the party inside, caused the large house to vibrate. it was late, and the summer air had cooled into a refreshing breeze. something you needed desperately, having felt suffocated from the hot, sweaty bodies that trapped you in.

the door opened and closed, slamming shut with forcefulness that demanded attention. you turned, looking up curiously at the person who interrupted your pity party. there farleigh start stood, in all his 6'5 glory. he quirked a thick eyebrow at you and took a seat next to you on the step, leaning back with a sort of lazy confidence that caused your lips to twitch.

"well, look who it is," the boy drawled sarcastically. "little (L/N)."

"shutup," you groaned, giving him a glare when he plucked the joint from your fingers.

he took a drag himself, playfully blowing the smoke in your face. it was always difficult, with farleigh. you never really knew if he was playing around, teasing, or genuinely being mean-spirited sometimes.

"i'm finding it difficult to understand why the hell you're out there, when the party is in there."

you didn't respond, still pouting over the joint. his lips quirked into an amused grin, and he held it back out to you.

"what? will felix crucify you for joking back or something?"

"ha ha ha." you responded dryly, snatching the joint back. you took one last drag before putting it out, slipping it back in the little case you carried around. "i'm just having a bad night, and i'm not in the mood for your bullying."

"what's up?" he was still leaning back on his elbows, but when you looked at him - really looked at him, you could see a twinkle of concern in his pretty brown eyes. you swallowed, feeling annoyed. pulling your knees towards your chest, you rested your elbow upon them and your head in a hand. "it's embarrassing."

"oh, come on. i'm not going to make it a big deal." you shot him a suspicious look, and farleigh held his hands up in surrender.

"just..it's annoying. not being able to date, and stuff. felix is really overprotective, and it's annoying. and of course, everyone listens to the tall golden boy."

"i see," farleigh tsked. "so, you need to fuck, but felix is preventing that."

you turned your body so you could smack at him, causing him to laugh and grab your wrists. "way to be blunt, dude," you hissed, cheeks red with embarrassment.

"c'mon, it's nothing to be shy about. sex is perfectly natural." your eyes flickered down to his large hands, which swallowed up your wrists. you took a shaky deep breath, but made no move to pull away.

"why am i even having this conversation with y-"

"i can help."

you blinked. "huh?"

"i said, i can help. i'll fuck you. luckily for you, i happen to be the only guy in this preppy ass school who isn't afraid of felix."

you stared at him in surprise, and he simply raised his eyebrows at you, an amused smirk on his lips. "well? you can say no."

"..fine."

you remembered every detail from that night. from the way you felt eyes burning into your back as you and farleigh kissed hungrily, almost devouring each other. from the way the feeling of being watched intensified as you and him left to his room - or, more so, how he dragged you along, and you struggled to keep up. everything was clear in your mind from the moment your lips locked once more in the privacy of his room, the way his hands eagerly but gently undressed you, to after, when you tell asleep on his chest.

that's why, it was difficult for you to understand why he was denying anything had happened. you remembered him saying he wasn't afraid of felix, so, why?

you had woke to pure chaos, alone in farleigh's bed. you rushed to your room to get dressed before heading downstairs, tired eyes falling onto a pissed off felix, and annoyed farleigh. oliver sat quietly, his icy eyes observing the two quietly.

"what the fuck is going on?" you huffed out, almost jumping when felix turned to face you.

"did you and farleigh fuck?"

"w-what? excuse me?"

"oliver said you did. he saw you two leaving together and making out."

you stared in disbelief.

"yes." you said finally, crossing your arms over your chest.

"oliver is a lying, delusional little bastard." farleigh spat, and you shot him a hurt glare.

"yeah, i find it hard to believe you can't keep it in your pants, far," felix shot back, sarcastically.

"i wouldn't fuck her if we were the last two people on earth, felix."

that did it. your face stung with anger, hot and red, your eyes burning with tears. the room was quiet and still, and the irritated furrow in farleigh's brows dropped. he knew he went too far.

"you know what - this is bullshit. im a grown ass woman. so, believe what you want, but i can have sex with whoever the hell i want. you don't own me, and you can't protect me forever."

jaw clenched, you turned on your heel and stormed upstairs, slamming your room door. the old estate shook, but all you could do was throw yourself in bed, and scream into your pillow.

you stayed holed up in your room all day. meals were brought to you, courtesy of duncan and you guessed, venetia, who felt bad and requested it. you only opened your curtains to smoke by the window, attempting to avoid the three as much as possible. you knew you wouldn't be able to stay in there forever, but you needed to calm down. to breathe. you didn't go out to seek them, and they left you alone as well.

it was late when you heard a knock on your room door, and you peeked over the pillow that you buried your face in. you were restless, eyes swollen from crying. how ironic was it that you visited saltburn to celebrate another successful year, to get away from the stress of school, and let go; but, yet, you were more stressed than the exams and studying could have possibly made you.

you didn't answer to whoever was at the door, instead turning away. regardless, whoever it was decided to let themselves in, and you sat up angrily, eyes locking with farleigh's.

"what do you want?"

"i was worried about you."

"great. you see that i'm very much alive, so... bye."

his eyebrows twitched with annoyance, but, surprisingly, he didn't make a snide mark in return. he took a seat next to you, his large body taking up most of the space in your little bed. you scooted away, as if you had been burned, curling into yourself and leaning against the headboard. neither of you said anything. you stared, and he fidgeted with the bracelet that hung loosely on his wrist.

"i thought you weren't afraid of felix." you spoke, your voice cold. he looked up, peeking over at you from beneath his lashes. you suddenly felt angry again. why did he have to be so pretty? and why did he have to look so.. vulnerable?

"i'm not afraid of him. but i'm afraid of losing him." you said nothing. you supposed that was fair.

"but," he continued, his deep voice raspy from yelling earlier. "i should've stood up to him. lets face it, you're an adult. i am, too. plus, oliver is a nosy little shitstarter." you hid your amused smile in your knees.

"you know, i wasn't even all that angry with you. i was hurt. felix and oliver? i was pissed. but, it's just, like.." you took a deep breath when farleigh looked at you, and outstretched your legs.

your hands shook ever so slightly, but you rested them under the backs of your knees. "i really like you. you're always so catty, and sometimes really mean. but i still like you and i don't know why. i mean, i know why," you scratched your cheek awkwardly, your face burning. you avoided looking at him. "i was really happy when you made a move on me last night. but i don't know, when you said what you did today, i felt scared that you just wanted that to be a one time thing."

"baby, i purposely went looking for you," he responded, just as blunt as ever. but, he was gentle. soft. he gingerly gripped your ankles and pulled you closer to him until your butt was flush against his thigh, and propped your legs over his lap. his large hands rested on your legs, rubbing circles into your skin. "it's hard for me to commit, and shit. you've known me for a while, so you know that." you simply hummed. "but, i want to apologize for being a major dick, and make it up to you."

you felt dizzy. sick, almost. resting your head on his broad shoulder, you peered up at him, taking in his pretty features. how annoyingly clear and smooth his skin was, how his lips were naturally pouty.

"and how do you intend to do that?"

"fuck, i'm not a date person, but-" you gave him a look. he swallowed, and gave you a lopsided grin in return. "butttt, i would like to take you out. okay?"

"i thought you were supposed to be making it up to me."

"yeah?"

you looked at him expectantly, and his head fell back into the wall behind him. groaning softly, he closed his eyes, his smile widening. "god, okay. please?"

"please what?"

"please, go out with me."

you hummed, pretending to think, and plucked faux lint from his shirt. he narrowed his eyes at you, squeezing your calves roughly. "c'mon."

"okay, okay. i guess i could, since i'm free and all."

"you'd be free, anyway. i'd have you make time for me."

with a toothy grin, you scooted closer and closer until you could throw yourself over your lap, pressing a brief kiss to his lips. his hands found their rightful place on your hips, before slipping down to grip your ass.

"farleigh start, you are spoiled."

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

What did you think of kataras character arc if you exclude all the shipping wars?

Did you like it

I think it's pretty good, and I like her character a lot. I'd say she was the best written female character, and one of the best written characters in general, and that's despite her not being my favorite on either category.

There were a few issues/inconsistencies, namely her going from not being as good as Aang at waterbending then suddenly she's a master, or her stealing from the pirates yet getting on Toph's case for "cheating a cheater", but overall I'd say the show handled her well.

I like that they allowed her to be one the kindest characters, yet don't shy away from making her assertive, proud, strong-willed, stubborn and even mean sometimes (because children be like that) and that is so satisfying to watch, especially compared to bullshit like the Netflix version that is fucking TERRIFIED of giving the characters any flaws, to the point of stripping them of any agency or emotion.

Even her being both a fighter AND a healer ties into that duality. If you mess with her, you're fucked. But if you're nice to her, she'll be nice to you. And if you're in trouble, even if you're are a stranger, she'll help you because she can't wrap her head around the notion of just letting an innocent suffer. And as a bonus she commits ecoterrorism and helps deliver babies. Girly can do anything! How could anyone NOT love her?

We see her compassion ties in with her morals and convictions in MANY episodes (Imprisoned, Jet, The Avatar State, Crossroads of Destiny, The Painted Lady, The Puppet Master, The Southern Raiders, etc) as a result it feels like we really KNOW Katara, to the point that it's super easy for me to forget that she's a character because she's just that believable. I don't see a list of traits or just necessary actions that move the plot forward, I just see Katara being Katara, reacting to and influencing the world around around her.

As for her arc, like I said, I do think it was strange how she went from struggling to do some basic stuff to being able to hold her on in a fight against Pakku so fast, but once the show settled on "This girl be strong as fuck" they made damn sure we didn't forget it and they were smart to tie that in with her being a super inspirational figure (and to also have continue to learn new things even after being considered fit to be the Avatar's official teacher, so it made that incosistency a bit less distracting).

Pakku calls her master and Aang calls her sifu, we see her doing lots of cool moves in fights, and she's powerful enough that Hama's bloodbending doesn't work on her, she literally held up the rain and parted the seas and, oh yeah, she brought the Avatar back to life. No fucking wonder the messiah of this story took one look at her, fell in love immediately, and said the SHE gives HIM hope. It IS pretty difficult to give into despair when you're friend is that awesome, and goddamn, it'd be hard not to simp.

I also love that the show lets her be smart with HOW she uses her powers. Even in the second episode, when she's struggling with her bending and accidentally freezes Sokka instead of their enemies, she's smart enough to think "I just have to do the exact same motion, but to the other direction", she can work with her mistakes. She uses her waterbending to lift up a piece of the floor to defend herself from Mai's knives. She even uses her own sweat as a source of water before meeting Hama and being made to think of "Oh yeah, nearly EVERYTHING has water." Her last battle move in the show even was a mirror to her struggling to freeze her enemies at the start of the series, with her luring Azula to the right spot to freeze them both, unfreeze herself and slowly chain her, showing us how using her powers effortlessly has become second nature to her.

But THE episode that shows us the key role Katara plays in the story is "The Desert." Appa is gone and can't fly them away, Aang is too emotionally distraught by Appa's kidnaping to be of any help, Sokka is high as fuck, Toph can't "see" or use her bending as much because she still struggles to use sand the way she uses Earth, and we know for a fact that Momo doesn't understand a damn thing that's going on. The responsibiliy of keeping everyone together and then getting them out of there fell entirely on her shoulders for that episode, and she handled it like a pro. And at the end, when Aang is going nuts with grief, Katara is the only one not cowering before his power and can bring him back to earth with just one look.

The show could never work without her. The creators even said she's the heart of the story. That's why her voice is the first one we hear in every episode. She introduces the audience to this world and is the one to welcome us back each time. We learn her backstory before we even see Aang, that's how central she is to the plot.

And just like her introduction was handled perfectly, her send off was the same. She is reunited with her dad, who is very proud of her and knows her mom would feel the same way. She has helped save the world, and now she can finally be a kid again. She is free from the war. Free to go home with her family, travel with her friends every now and again for FUN instead of on a mission.

And yes, she's in a relationship now, with the guy she has clearly been in love with for a while. That romance IS one part of her arc and I celebrate it because there's nothing wrong with wanting love. I was cool with it even back when I didn't care for Kataang as a ship and didn't think it'd last - because I already cared about Katara and had seen the literal YEARS of foreshadowing, set up and development for it.

That's why I don't mind it when people ship her with her someone else - but get furious when Zutara shippers claim ALL OF THAT doesn't really count as her being treated with respect, both in universe and by the writers, because she didn't up marrying Zuko and becoming his girlfriend and future wife. Like it was all for nothing unless she kisses an emo boy and/or end up being a ruler, despite never having any interest in ruling anything. Like Katara's character and arc, all that she is, all that she overcame, accomplished and was rewarded with is irrelevant if the romance is not with the "right" guy. ONE part of her arc not being what they would have preferred RUINS her for people COMPLETELY.

And they have the nerve to call themselves "the REAL Katara fans"? What a joke. They can ship whatever they want, but they better put some respect on her name.

[bouncybongfairy]

Trick or Treat?

Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle x Fem Reader

Summary: You and Jaime have been in the same classes for a while. Casually talking, mainly due to working on class presentations together. However, it'd be a lie if you said you'd never had romantic or puppy love feelings about him. On Halloween, he asks if you accompany him to a local pumpkin patch for the night.

Word Count: 2.0k+

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Completely burned out, you continued to type away at your computer. It was Halloween and even though you didn’t have plans, you still wanted to have all your homework done. Nothing worse than being 3 shots in and realizing you have neglected your essay due in a couple of hours. Barely being able to keep your eyes open, you look away and rub the sleepiness out of your eyes. When you looked up Jaime was walking up to you. He was in your English class and surprised you with how interpretive and talented he was as a writer. Most guys don’t have much to say while discussing books like Bodega Dreams and articles like ‘Why so much aggression online these days’. Jaime was able to express his opinions and synopsis of the literature with such clarity that it made it impossible not to pay attention to him. You suddenly became insecure about your lazy day attire but before you could do anything to fix yourself up, he was at your table handing you a Starbucks cup. You were surprised that he actually got your order. 

“Aww thank you, how did you know what my order is though?” you asked, bringing the cup to your lips. 

“You come into class with it every time, I pay attention,” he said sitting across from you. You closed your laptop to show that you were interested in talking with him. 

“So uh, there’s this Pumpkin Patch that’s gonna have live music, food trucks, haunted houses and stuff and well- I don’t know if you have plans or anything but maybe I could take you tonight?” he asked, you could tell he was a bit nervous about asking which flattered you. 

“Yeah, that sounds really fun. Should I like, meet you there or..?” you asked. 

“Oh I’ll pick you up, maybe around 4? Do you still have my phone number from where we did that presentation together?” he asked, scratching the back of his neck. 

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll text you my dorm number when I’m ready,” you said, starting to stack up your books and papers. 

“Cool, I’ll see you then,” he said, sliding off his chair and walking out. 

Now you were wide awake, anticipation starting to bubble in your stomach. The fact that he paid attention to you in any capacity made you gitty. After packing all your things into your bag, you head to the dorms. It was already 2 so you were in a hurry to get ready. Luckily your roommate was gone visiting family for the weekend so you had the entire room to yourself. You jumped in the shower and stayed in until you were seriously at risk of passing out. Quickly drying off so that you can start your make-up. It wasn’t until you were halfway done with your makeup that you realized you’d never asked if he was going to wear a costume. Pulling your phone from the charger you send him a quick text asking about the attire. He texted you back pretty quickly, saying that he was wearing a costume but it was a surprise. This made you laugh and happy because this meant you could wear the fairy costume you had from last year. You put it on and inspected yourself in the mirror. It was a blue sparkly dress, the midsection was a corset that was tied with a ribbon. The top of the dress was like a tube top but had ribbon that acted as spaghetti straps. It had long sleeves but they were attached to the sides of the dress, the material was sparkly and slightly itchy but not unbearably so. You parted your hair down the middle and did two sleek, slicked-back low ponytails which you braided. You added low-rise black vans, knowing you were going to a pumpkin patch and wanted to be comfortable. It was going to be pretty cold, so you made sure to wear a pair of sheer black tights. You texted him that you were ready and you both agreed to meet outside your dorm. As you walked towards the exit the feelings of nervousness were starting to eat at you. You tried your best to push those feelings to the back of your mind. Reassuring yourself by telling yourself he wouldn’t have asked you to go out if he didn’t like you. You pushed the big steel doors open and smiled when you saw Jaime sitting in a big blue truck. He was smiling and waved at you before hopping out. You were confused as to why he got out at first but then he opened the passenger side door for you. The truck was pretty high so he helped you climb in. 

“Hey! I thought you said you were gonna ‘surprise’ me with a costume, you’re not wearing one,” you said in a playfully accusatory tone. 

“That was the surprise,” he said laughing. 

The ride there was pretty short, and was most full of small talk about class and different peers that were.. Interesting to say the least. Or teachers that you guys both thought were on power trips while they taught. Eventually, the conversations started to get a bit more personal, he started telling you about his family. Specifically his sister because Halloween is her favorite holiday and always went full out with her costumes. Once you got to the pumpkin patch, you both commented on how crowded it was. After doing the impossible task of finding parking, you guys made your way to the entrance. Watching little kids bubbling with excitement in their costumes, 

“They’re so cute, you can tell they’ve been waiting for this day forever,” you said watching two little girls hold hands, running to the line for facepaint. 

“I know, don’t you miss when our priorities were so frivolous and innocent?”  he asked, looking over at you. 

“I think everyone does, I remember one year I wanted to be Mavis from Hotel Transylvania for Halloween and my mom ordered the striped tights because we couldn’t find them in stores. The day before Halloween I snuck them into school because I just couldn’t wait to wear them but I fell and ripped both knees on them. I was hysterical obviously and they called my mom. She was so mad, she told me: well you’re just gonna have to wear them backward, I don’t know what to tell you. When my dad saw how upset I was, he took me to three different stores until we found some,” after you finished your story you both burst out into laughter which led to his own reminiscing, 

“One time, my mom had bought me a Spider-Man costume and I wanted to go but the only time she could go shopping for it was on her lunch break. So when I got home from school, she told me to try it on and show everyone. You know how Spider-Man's costume is like a onesie? Well, my mom bought it too tight so it was literally up my ass crack. When I showed everyone they all started laughing but my dad got one of my jackets and tied it around my waist and reassured me that you couldn’t tell and I ended up getting over it,” he said. 

“Oh my god, sorry I don’t mean to laugh because that’s fucked up,” you said using your hand to cover your smirk.

“No it’s okay. Obviously, it’s funny when you get older,” he said. 

After that conversation, the ice felt truly broken and both of you were getting more comfortable in each other’s presence. The first thing you guys did was check out the food trucks and decide on getting a fried caramel apple. As you guys shared that, you walked around the corn maze. You were really surprised by how big it was, if it weren’t for Jaime, you would have been trying to find a way out all night. Once you guys found the exit, you made your way to the stage where a couple of bands were playing indie music. It was really nice, you were admiring the vibe and how nice the date was going. There was a pumpkin carving contest that you guys joined, you both didn’t really care about the contest, more so playing around with each other while carving. Jaime kept putting little pieces of guts on you which caused you to do the same in return. It was a simple jack o'lantern face design but you guys took more effort in carving out your names and little doodles. You asked him if you guys could take a picture together which he agreed to. Instead of doing some stupid hand gesture or making a serious face at the camera, he just smiled really big. This really warmed your heart, it was like his smile was contagious. In the picture, he leaned over to kiss your cheek, which made you blush so hard, that you thought your makeup might melt off. 

“I know this is the first time we’ve ever really hung out officially like this, but I'm really happy you asked me. Writing and English is like, my thing and normally young men aren’t very outspoken about emotional interpretation but you are just… amazing with your words and I really admire that about you,” you said as you were waiting in line for one of the food trucks. 

“Do you really think I’m that… articulated?” he asked, tilting his head a bit.

“Oh my god yeah, this one time we were working on a project about anti-homeless architecture and you scheduled an interview with a former homeless woman and her children. Most students would never go through so much work just to get reliable information. The fact that you not only go the extra mile but also do such an amazing job at telling their stories is something I wish I could do,” you admit.

“That’s actually really nice to hear, I always thought English wasn’t my best subject. I always thought that about you. You’re so good at engaging the class and having them in the palm of your hand. The way you always make eye contact with everyone at least once, I wish I could do that,” he said, ironically he was making direct eye contact with you. His eyes were chocolate brown and seemed to catch all of the light. 

“Well you’re kinda doing that right now,” you said, moving a piece of his hair that was covering his eye. 

After getting Chinese to-go, you ended up driving to the top of a hill to watch the skyline as you ate. You guys were sitting on the bed of the truck, handing the styrofoam container back and forth. It was really nice, cold enough to keep each other close but not enough to be uncomfortable. He put music on his phone as you sat in comfortable silence, which he ended up breaking after a while. 

“Remember how I told you my costume was a surprise?” he asked out of nowhere, it was so out of the blue that you laughed before replying. 

“Uhh yeah? Why?” you asked. 

“Well, can I show you the actual surprise?” he said before continuing, “But we have to stand up,” he said which you thought was weird but allowed him to help you down from the lifted truck bed. He instructed you to cover your eyes which led to you becoming suspicious. 

“I  swear to god if I open my eyes and you’re naked I will literally ghost you and tell everyone I know that you’re a fucking creep,” you said. 

“First of all, I’m insulted that you’d think I would do something like that and secondly, you can look now,” he said. 

When you opened your eyes, you were greeted by glowing yellow eyes and the blue material of his costume. The antennas that were so life-like they looked like they were moving with his breathing. Honestly, he looked really intimidating and you’re pretty sure he picked up on that. As you were backing away with wide eyes he was slowly walking closer, holding his hands up to show that he meant no harm. 

“What, is this just a costume or something?” you asked. 

“No! I just felt close enough that I could share this part of me with you,” he said, removing his mask so that you could see his face. 

“Honestly until I see you flying around the sky like Superman or something, I won’t believe it,” before you could even respond, he took you from under his arms and shot himself into the sky while you were in his arms. You buried your arms in his shoulder, in shock and scared of the sudden take-off. He was trying to get you to lift your head but you were stubborn and didn’t want to uncover your eyes. Once he finally was able to get you to look out, you were amazed by what you saw. You guys were so high, the moon looked closer to you the ground. The entire city was twinkling and sparkling in such a magical way. Every now and then you could see a couple of fireworks going off. People who were partying at a glow-in-the-dark rave. 

“And she was a fairy,” Jaime said referring to the TikTok sound and your costume which made you both break out into laughter over the night sky.

[rw-ascension-au]

Information.

Greetings, Invenot. I come bearing important information.

Have you found the Artificer or something?

You have guessed correctly. I do have a question, though. What happened to her to cause this karma affliction?

It'd be better to ask her yourself.

Another question, if you don't mind - could the 'rot' Hunter speaks of return at any point?

Sorry, Saint. I don't know. Missions are usually too short for it to come back, so even if it will affect her again, I have no idea.

I take it this is the longest mission you've given them, and by extension, me included?

Yeah. They wanted to go on a big adventure or something. I enjoy seeing them happy.

Very well then. Take care.

Bye!

----

(continued under the cut, this is rather long)

Hunter, are you comfortable with answering a few questions about the rot?

Uh, yeah, go ahead.

How long did it take for the rot to develop?

Well, I don't have a clear starting point, but not very long. Why?

I am simply... collecting information. How long do missions usually last?

... Saint. Are you implying something?

Until I have enough information, no.

I've already ascended. I won't rot again.

You seemed upset upon being asked by that weird overseer.

If I start rotting, you can just ascend me.

Invenot said that they removed the ability for whatever reason. My only hypothesis is that they want us to increase the Artificer's karma ourselves.

...

---

Go bug someone else with your questions.

Before I can do that, we most likely should find shelter. Where are the others?

Hunting.

We can meet them in the den. They will understand what to do.

You can go. You're, uh... annoying me.

If that is your wish.

---

Rivulet? Gourmand? What brings you here, before the others?

Riv thought it'd be a good idea to try and do that spinny-spear thing Spearmaster does.

I almost succeeded! Plus, I have a cool bandage thing now! I look tough, right?

It is not up to me to define it. Though I would say that you have been through your own hardships and still retain a high level of optimism that only colony slugpups would carry. That is an impressive feat.

...oh. Cool. Is that yes or no?

It depends on your personal definition. Anyway, if you're both here, I would like to ask something.

Go on.

Do any of you have experience interacting with rot?

Oh! I do! I had to get a rarefaction cell from a rotting iterator! Five Pebbles!

Do you believe hunter could re-gain the rot during our mission?

...

...

I was the medic for my colony. I wasn't trained in dealing with rot, though. That's a specialised kind of medic, whereas I was more trained for helping with general stuff.

Would Hunter be able to endure a journey to a colony, whilst rotting?

I don't know. Plus, rot is never cured, really. Mostly just... delayed.

That might be able to buy us enough time to get to the Void Sea.

The rot might not even happen.

That is our hope, yes.

---

[survivor] We're back!

Where is Hunter?

[survivor] She said she wanted some time to reflect on something.

[monk] Artificer, can I get down now?

Ah, yes, Artificer. May I ask what happened to your karma?

I don't know. Probably something to do with the explosion thing. Or the scavengers. I don't really care.

You need to care in order to ascend.

Why would I want to do so?

You have achieved all you have wanted to, correct?

...mostly.

What is your final goal?

Either to kill every last scavenger or to see those two again.

Which 'two' do you speak of?

My... my pups.

That explains a lot regarding the way you seem to have adopted Monk.

[survivor] and me, kind of.

We should start eating.

And what about Hunter?

I was gonna save some for her.

Do you have fruit of some kind?

I do! I carry some blue fruit in my bag.

I accept the fruit with gratitude, Gourmand.

---

It can't come back.

Right?

[beanghostprincess]

What do you think happened when Shanks, Roger and Rayleigh they realized what the hell that Fruit allowed Buggy to do? There is always the idea that the poor kid got embarrassed and started coming apart causing the whole gang to have to chase floating body parts around lest they float away, which I think is the funniest. However, while not perfect, Opla going with the more body horror element to that kind of power makes me imagine that the first time the power happened it wasn’t exactly fun haha times maybe, it could have been scary. Maybe Shanks had to watch his favorite person get bisected but pop back together then again before someone got them out of the situation. Or like oh, your comforting your son, oh he’s literally falling apart in your hands. Rayleigh or Roger watching Buggy’s head literally roll off. Maybe that’s too dramatic but yknow just kind of spitballing.

Apologies for the post. Have a good night/day!

Nonono, don't apologize! This is actually such an interesting concept and situation to talk about. Devil Fruits are cool and Buggy's is definitely useful, but let's not forget that his power is, after all, inherently scary and related to body horror.

I'm a fan of angst so I think that while Buggy tries to pretend he's okay with it (the only thing he complains about is not being able to swim and the map etc etc) but it must be damn traumatizing for him to see his body being literally dismembered like that. It's not only scary because he's a kid, but also because, damn, it'd be scary and grotesque for anyone. Roger and Rayleigh I'm sure are used to seeing stuff like this, but nobody is ready to see their kid... Like that. And Shanks? He's also a kid and despite not being guilty of what happened, Buggy does put the blame on him for this, so of course, if you add guilt to seeing your best friend do stuff like this... It is a bit shocking (in a bad way).

I don't think it's easy for anyone to see these things tbh so I'm pretty sure they had to get used to it!!

[cerastes]

Was thinking about the hypothetical Arknights action game stuff from awhile back again, what enemies/story characters do you think would make for some sick boss fights?

Oh, I like this one. Just to name a few:

Patriot: The first that comes to mind is Patriot, as an enemy that would push the game systems of an action game to its limit. In concept, I like to imagine it in the way the true final boss of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon goes: You have your playable character, which I would like to say is Amiya for this case, and your big damage opportunities come from interference ran by Rosmontis clashing with Patriot and Rhodes Island Snipers and Casters barraging him by Elysium's instruction. Patriot is also perfect to load a ton of mix-ups onto by virtue of him being able to do both gigantic, slower attacks and barrages of quick lunges. He could be a setpiece boss and a straight up skill check boss in equal measures.

Bishop Quintus: Yeah, man's Yamcha as far as bosses go, BUT in the context of a character action game with tight movesets and mechanics, a gigantic tentacled boss that can spawn more and more tentacles from everywhere in the arena, has laser attacks, and was explicitly Devil May Cried for a while by Specter when she was literally air comboing it by leaping from falling rock to falling rock as she unleashed a Sexy Smokin' Style kinda beatdown on him? Yeah I would very much love to control an Abyssal Hunter in a fight against this thing.

Faust: Hear me out. In the context of a full on high impact high speed action game, Faust would be heaven to fight. Between the ability to shoot a hugely powerful bolt, the ability to turn invisible, the turrets, and imagining him hoping around for a stylish mix of melee and ranged combat, yeah, I'm a believer. I like to imagine a scripted part of the fight where he hides and starts charging a truly massive shot, with the Arts humming from the sheer power. In the arena, there's also a lot of his snipers to run diversion and make it harder to find him. Normal people will find him and hit him out of the charge. COOL people will find him, taunt to trigger a MUCH faster charge, and then use a counter to catch the supercharged shot and return it to him a la Nero Buster counters in DMC4.

Full Power Big Ugly Thing & Eunectes: Remember Full Power Big Ugly Thing? No, not the one running on emergency fumes and jury rigged power sources, the actual fully geared version, powered by the airplane engine? The one that sent Gavial flying into the sky Team Rocket style? That one, that one should be some sort of secret fight. An actual brickhouse of immense, unfair power, only for the gamerest of gamers to cut their teeth with, punctuated with a final, high impact duel with Eunectes herself as the burning wreck and the originium fires make for a makeshift ring.

FrostNova: Legitimately, I think FrostNova would make That Moment in an action game. That Moment, That Boss, the one everyone remembers. Her skill set and aesthetic is supreme, the way ice can be used for both style and gameplay, alongside the actual emotional beat of throwing down with FrostNova as her life literally evaporates. Creating ice weapons that break with each attack just to have another one ready for the next swing, diverse moveset, dangerous at all ranges, highly mobile due to sliding on ice, giving the player high mobility as well (I love when boss gimmicks also can be used by the player in some way), there's just SO much one could do with a FrostNova fight, it'd probably my dream fight if done with love.

Endspeaker/Amaia: The concept of an ever-evolving boss with multiple forms has so much potential, TOO much potential, it's hard to fill those shoes, but if you do, imagine. In my dream of dreams, each phase/form of Endspeaker would grow resilient and even develop specific counters to your habits, in the shape of better dodge maneuvering against specific, high usage moves, and even counterattacks if you use some too much. The best way to go about this boss is to actually use your whole moveset, and even then, you want to ration specific parts of it depending on the phase. Plus, the latter forms of Endspeaker/Amaia are legitimately wicked looking and I think would look eerie and breathtaking in motion, with all those flowing parts constrasting with its sharp, long claws.

[egg-witch]

As usual I am thinking too hard about the biology of fictional characters so. Thoughts I am compelled to share about Boothill below

Canonically he has synthetic, blue blood. This would cause his skin tone to seem quite strange and greyish. Extra so if he's as pale as he is in-game but this would still be apparent with most darker skin tones as well. Man's gonna be looking a bit like a zombie

The intent here is debatable but I also choose to interpret that same line to mean that he does *not* have a synthetic heart - the original's still in there, just running on new juice

Related to this and also the fact he can seemingly have a bullet explode in his mouth without serious repercussions I am going to assume that his skull and whatever else would be left of his skeleton have been enhanced or replaced (having human bone marrow in there making new blood cells would likely mess with things if they replaced that whole system)

This is very funny to me because it seemingly means instead of just putting his brain inside a whole synthetic body the doctor went to the trouble to keep his original face, despite replacing/augmenting his teeth, eyes, tongue and, one can extrapolate, his entire damn skull. He was ready to give up everything except his pretty complexion I guess...

(Unless his face *is* synthetic and intellitrons just have no desire for a realistic human face with the capacity to emote? The rest of boothill's body seems flexible in a way that would suggest a good synthetic equivalent to human skin, so... it's plausible)

Speaking of, I really do not subscribe to the idea that he can't feel anything from the neck down. Do you know how hard it'd be to do anything as a human with a meat brain (or even as a robot for that matter) without any haptic feedback? If they have the technology to make him a whole new body that has equal or better mobility and general function than the old one then they can make it feel things, I promise. Probably not in all the same ways human flesh can feel things, especially if a lot of it is rigid plating, but it'd still be conductive to heat and electricity at least

I know the reason his model is that way is bc it's just a different texture on the same default character model, hence it bending and stretching like a soft body - building, rigging and animating a humanoid body that truly moves like a rigid machine would be an absurd amount of work and also limit the visual design, his canon design straight up would not be able to move or work if all those parts really were rigid no matter how you approached it lol. but it is very hot and looks cool which is what really matters. so I've settled on most of the "plating" being tough but still somewhat flexible, not actually metal but an advanced synthetic material of some sort. and then material more like an artificial skin between joints and in the parts that need extra stretch and flexibility. he's harder (and heavier) than a human but he's not a tin can

Based on screwllum's dialogue that he can and does eat regular food (but the phrasing implies that he could also eat other stuff? And there's that exchange from one of the light cones where ruan mei makes a joke about him having to drink machine oil) and the implication that the doctor who gave boothill his new body was an intellitron, I think boothill must have something similar - he can still eat normal food but also process other things. Idk if the fuel hatch on his back is a redundancy then or what. Could just be that nobody anticipated he'd think gasoline tastes good lmao

(side note while it's kinda implied in game that his weird tastes are a result of an augmented mouth and tongue I like to think he was always like that. He was eating rocks out of the garden as a kid and licking rusty old coins and stuff u can't convince me otherwise)

(also this is getting off track but this guy clearly has some kinda fixation on like. machinery. I think even though he did it for unrelated reasons he thinks his cyborg body is very hot and probably also has a little bit of a thing for intellitrons ngl. which is interesting given his history and the associations one would first assume he'd have with that kind of technology and aesthetic, but. can't fault a guy for knowing what he's into)

Whoops this got super long

Stay tuned for the sequel, "KC analyses boothill's personality way too seriously"

[gin-juice-tonic]

i think itd be interesting if leaving a bit of zombie in a person would effect their life span. would they live longer or shorter lives? will they ever truely die, or would they turn back to being a zombie instead?

also think itd be a really cool thing to explore just overall. would laboratories pick it up? find a way to test for it? find a faster/safer way to neutralize it? maybe even make vaccines for effected towns so people are less likely to be effected. or would you even be able to do that since its not actually a virus?

Im gonna answer this under a readmore because it got long.

I talk about my zombie lore stuff a liiiiitle more in this post:

https://gin-juice-tonic.tumblr.com/post/704995046015041536/gin-juice-tonic-part-of-something-the-little

But for specific answers to your questions:

1) If you have more not-zombie in you than zombie in you, all major zombie operations in you are supposed to cease, so I'd be inclined to say nothing special about your life span would happen. (The bit about vegetarians having a hard time after being cured was more of a joke.) If something WERE to still happen though I would say it'd increase your life span a little, because of zombies ability to stay together despite their whole... everything. But hopefully that wouldnt happen.

I guess I sort of implied that humans with zombie in them can drink formalin and be okay... until they cant anymore. That's the only perk you get.

2) If you die and you have zombie in you at the time, your body becomes a zombie. But your life force isn't in there anymore, so you can't really say it's still that person anymore. That's the zombie's body now. Cures will no longer do anything at this stage

3) In journal 3 Ford says he analyzed Soos and could tell he survived being a zombie "Due to evidence of autolysis". I did bad in biology in high school but I'm still pretty sure that doesn't make any sense at all lol. Maybe we're to assume that like, a minimal amount of his cells are still self-digesting in a unique way but not enough to affect him as a whole. Which lends credence to the idea that there is no perfect cure, i guess.

4) In my mind the only test for it is "Is the person looking or acting like a zombie", and its about as an exact science as the blood test from the movie the Thing (1981) lol. But as noted up in point 3, Ford I suppose tested Soos somehow. Perhaps one could take a sample of blood and use the titration method I described earlier on the sample until the all cells in it are no longer killing themselves. But then you'd have to make some assumptions involving the ratio of zombie to human based off that tiny blood sample if you wanted to try continued curing at a larger scale. Ford doesn't mention trying to cure Soos further or anything, so I'll just go ahead and claim it's too dangerous to attempt, even for Ford.

5) The thing that kills the zombie force also kills normal humans, so I'm inclined to say a vaccine wouldn't be possible. Who knows though

[gotham-daydreams]

Ooooh can't wait for your isekai fic, speaking of isekai what's your perspective of it? I feel like there's two form of isekai that's popular with people the first is thrown away by magical object to another world and given mission to go home the second one is full reborn into another world the term isekai truck come to mind when we talk about isekai reborn....

Maybe just a niche of mine but what do you think of isekai reader that doesn't know jackshit about world or universe they got it? The don't know anything about this people might as well destroy the plot for shit and giggles for all they care

Oh I definitely agree that the whole "i got hit by a truck, died, and now i'm reincarnated into this thing i'm crqzy about and know everything on" is suuuuper popular at the moment, and honestly before i looked up the term I thought it literally meant just "reincarnated into a diff world" and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't! I haven't seen too much of the "object sends you to a diff world and you need to head home" kind of story, but I'd like to, honestly!

Also, I love your niche because that sounds funny as hell, and honestly more people need to write stuff like that! I'd read the hell out of it.

Though, maybe it's because I love psychological horror and such so much, and just delving into the mind and people's thoughts... but I honestly wish that more was done with the genre? Not even from a horror aspect or anything. I just sort of wish I saw more main characters that wished they got to go home, or back to their own world (without being certain if they are even able to). Or characters that are having a genuinely hard time adapting to the world because - even if they are familiar with it, it's just so different then what they're used to. Or where, even as they are going along - they kind of miss their old life, as shitty and boring as it was in comparison. Or not even their life, just the world. They miss the ocean, the forests, and the kind of subtle peace they knew they could have there if they wanted to take a break. It wasn't perfect, and it didn’t have magic, but... it was still their world, y'know?

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the idea and I think it can be very interesting! But for the most part it's definitely very power-fantasy... and just generally very fantasy esc, which- there's nothing wrong with that! Sometimes reading something like that just feels good, or its so silly and a good way to lift your mood- or just generally just fun to read!

I think I just kind of wish that sometimes more was done with it? Since, I'll be honest, a lot of stories feel like that, and I wish that someone would try to do something a little different?

I really only mentioned psychological horror earlier because I believe it could get a darker if anyone really ever does try to kind of delve into an unwilling protagonist- which is a up my alley a little more, but is that really a surprise when I write yandere content? LMAO

On a lighter note I'd also like to see characters that just like... come from completely different world, going to another??? It's both hilarious and so interesting to me, genuinely.

I mean- technically I'm doing that with Clover? And hell, I'm also kind of doing some of the more existential stuff with another yandere fic of mine that isn't Batfam or DC related at all- but that's nor here nor there. I'd still like to see other people do it, I think it'd be really cool! And I don't mean like, fantasy world to modern world (even if that is a semi-good example), I moreso me just, like, alien world -> completely different alien world. Or even like, fantasy world -> world with totally diff magic + apocalypse? Just cool things people could mess with, really!

On topic of a character not knowing anything... maybe they do but just can't even interact or even apply half the knowledge they have? Like, either they're in a magical setting but still can't use magic- but everyone can. Or there is a system they just can't use (another idea of mine that's completely unrelated the Batfam/DC, actually), and so on and so forth!

Or they don't know and are just stumbling around, trying to find a way back home... and are either completely ruining everything or actually making things better without that even being their full intention. Broski just wants to go home, and they're just making the world a better place/destroying the entire universe by pure chance and accident.

Also like, what if people just accidentally stumbled into these worlds? Or random people are being brought there for... whatever reason? (I've seen that done a bit, and I'm also kind of doing it myself, but again, not going to dwell on that too much!) I don't know, I'm just throwing things around here, haha!

Tldr: I don't mind the idea and actually find it really interesting, I just wish more was done with it and I saw more experimentation with the subject! I do find it very fun, though :]

[moodymisty]

It's longpost anon, here to drop another novel in your asks! (If this isn't welcome, just say so and I'll stop, no hard feelings!!)

All the Sanguinius content lately had me thinking about him having a daughter.

What spurred this on: I was grocery shopping this morning and there was a mom with her young daughter in front of me checking out. The kid would excitedly tell everyone "Nice to meet you!" when they walked past, and it was the most adorable thing ever. She was just so happy to see people and be out and about.

TMI but I'm at that point in my cycle where I was trying not to cry in public from the cuteness lol. (I've got baby fever, send help 😭) On the drive home, I started thinking about Sangy's daughter meeting all her uncles for the first time, and her trying to shake their giant hands with her tiny little ones and saying "Nice to meet you!" It would be so precious.

Then I started thinking about the mom being too kind for her own good, seeing Konrad lurking at the edge of the room alone and quietly asking him, "Do you want to meet your niece?"

It'd be like all the air got sucked out of the room. Sanguinius would just be tense as a board. Everyone is mentally screaming "Are you crazy?!" at her in their heads.

An aside: I've just read Konrad's primarch book, and while it shows why he is genuinely truly terrifying, there is also so many sad things.. Like how he doesn't hate any of his brothers (except Corax) despite them absolutely loathing him. Despite Fulgrim shattering his trust. Despite Sanguinius basically being the better alternate version of himself. I don't think the average person could be treated the way he was and not hate their family at least a little bit. I feel so badly for him.. I don't think he would hurt one of his brother's offspring pre-heresy. Maybe I'm just deluded though lol.

Anywho-

Everyone is just on edge, ready for Konrad to show even the most microscopic indication of aggression.. But he just kneels down, silently holds his hand out to the girl and she shakes his hand as best she can, giving him a cheery "Nice to meet you!" the same as she did for her other uncles. He just stands up, stares for a moment, and then silently leaves.. (He spends the next 72 hours trying to process the 12 different emotions he got blasted with in that moment.)

Also! Sangy's daughter being weirdly attached to one of the primarchs who is not particularly good at socializing with normies is really funny to picture. Like she gets SUPER hyped anytime she gets to see uncle Guilliman, and nobody knows why because he is honestly kinda boring to talk to. (It's because when she asks him a million questions about mundane things, he genuinely tries to answer every. single. one.)

Fulgrim trying to be the cool fun wine uncle but never being able to truly capture the kid's interest lmao. He's quietly seething like, why does she like paper-pushing Roboute?! (Fulgrim gets his time in the spotlight when she's a little older and gets super interested in art)

And the Blood Angels interacting with her would be so heartmeltingly sweet. Little mini Sanguinius asking for uppies from a captain because she wants to be Really Tall. He's just like, "It would be my honor." and hoists her onto his shoulder.

When the kid is still a toddler, the mom offhandedly asks her guard to hold her daughter for a second while she does something and just kinda shoves the squirmy toddler into his arms despite his protests. He's internally having a meltdown because he is so scared of hurting her accidentally and is still as a statue the entire time. The first time the mom refers to them as the girl's brothers, there would be no going back. Like, "Wave to your brothers!" as they're both watching the Blood Angels train. If it was even possible for them to adore their 'sister' any more, it would happen in that moment.

This is all super fucking cute. Especially the stuff with Konrad. And you are somewhat right; we have to remember that as fucked as Konrad is, he was largely under the impression that he was doing justice and only killing those deserving of it. I doubt he would think Sanguinius’ child was evil, at least at first. He has no reason to hate his child afterall, he never hated any of the Primarchs ‘cept Corvus.

Funny note I first read this while really tired and my brain skipped lines, and at first I thought it was Konrad asking people if they wanted to see their niece XD like he had a secret child. 💀 I’m dumb

[jellybeanium124]

maybe it's time for me to make a post about izzy's redemption arc as a jar guy who's been a fan of the bastard since season 1.

prior to season 2 airing, I was redemption arc neutral. I thought that a redemption arc could be good, but a "get even worse" arc could also be good. my ideal izzy ending was him leaving ed to go be a pirate on his own after realizing that they couldn't fit together in any healthy way. I wrote a fic about this.

anyways, they completely fucked the redemption arc up. I don't have too much of a problem with 2x01-2x04, despite the major issue of izzy suddenly understanding his feelings for ed and being able to physically say out loud to ed "I have... love, for you." I mean, it's a fantastic line and con delivers it perfectly, I just wish it hadn't happened in the first 15 minutes of the season. like imagine placing this line somewhere else? what if it was in 2x02 instead, aka The Edizzy Episode Ever aka The Episode That Made Me Interested In The Edizzy Dynamic. like ok ok ok ok. ed gives izzy the gun. he goes and stands like jesus in the light on the cross. izzy shakily holds up the gun, but then he laughs. he laughs and then cuts himself off and then he chokes down a swallow and says "I have... love, for you, Edward." imagine being ed in that moment. isn't that super fucked up? isn't it glorious? imagine hearing that when all you want to do is die?? like WAUGHHHH right?

anyways, moving on.

I do like 2x05. I think it's a just a really fun chill episode and my exact flavor of TV that I like. I call it "11 short films about the Revenge" because it's structured in a series of loose snippets and scenes. I do enjoy the izzy & stede stuff in this episode (izzy slaps stede's ass lmao how could I not enjoy it?) but it's really the episode where issues with how izzy is redeemed start to come to light.

why is he so good at not being an asshole? izzy, for the most part, doesn't fall back into old habits. he'll make the occasional uncomfortable comment, or walks up to wee john looking like he's gonna say something homophobic, but he doesn't. sure, he can't move as fast or as well as he used to, but he used to have no issues pushing the crew, and he never trips up. he's just so goddamn open too! I get that accepting the leg is like, a metaphor for accepting the crew, but it'd be cool if izzy had trouble actually doing that. in s1 izzy is so socially awkward, and he clearly is not a people person. Why didn't he struggle with being accepted, an entirely new feeling? Why didn't he try to remain a loner, just a little bit? HOW ON EARTH DID HE GET TO THE POINT WHERE HE COULD DO DRAG IN PUBLIC??

my favorite flavor of steddyhands in fic, and I promise this is related and I wouldn't say that if it wasn't relevant, is the kind where stede and ed conspire to flirt with izzy and izzy is a complete dumbass who doesn't know what's going on. izzy in these fics is trying to be better, but he doesn't know how. he constantly struggles to voice his feelings, he struggles to change his old toxic thought patterns, he struggles with openness and vulnerability. how come izzy didn't struggle with that in the show? he spent 50-something years being closed off to the world, and now he can open himself up with no issues?

that's how you "redeem" izzy and keep him fundamentally izzy. he's trying to be less of an asshole, but he's not really great at it. he wants to learn how to open himself up, but he's never done it before. he's still a loner at heart. he's still socially awkward. he still has toxic assumptions to work through. my izzy, my ruthless bastard rat man, was replaced in the show with a clone and then that clone was killed.

I understand that doing this right would require more time. I wish they got that time. and I wish they did something different with the time they had.

[shadykazama]

Genji Shimada

So I asked my friend which Overwatch character I should do my next alphabet headcanons about and they said Genji! So I'll be doing Genji next, probably later today.

However while I was thinking about him the thought of his cybernetics came to mind and I went off on a full blown tangent about it so I figured I'd post my thoughts on how much of Genji is a cyborg before I do his relationship stuff.

This is blackwatch, Genji, I don't know if this is canon or not but for the sake of this I'm saying it is. So as far as body parts go he's definitely missing his legs knee and under. I think he's wearing armor over his thighs though, he has intact femurs. He's missing his right arm and there's some kind of internal damage in his upper chest.

His eye piece comes off seperate to his mouth piece but that doesn't mean his mouth is robotic, I just think he takes the mask part off less often. His head and heart are all intact according to voice lines and evidence from skins.

Now might I direct your attention to his canon skins. We know from the short "Dragons" that those green circles on his upper body have a release mechanism meaning they manage pressure of some kind within his body.

(We can also see there's less of them in his OW2 design so it's a possibility they got upgraded to be more efficient.)

Now I'm about to lay down my biggest actual headcanon without much evidence besides speculation and "it'd be cool" to back it up.

I think Genji has robotic lungs.

WILD TAKE I KNOW BUT HEAR ME OUT.

He can eat, heard in the voice line about him being able to handle mercy's coffee, so we know his mouth is intact, along with the rest of his digestive system. I think the mouth part of his mask is to help him breathe. I think there was major damage to his respiratory system to the point where they had to make the choice to give him mechanical replacements, hence the need to release pressure when he exerts a LOT of energy (like after his fight with hanzo in the cinematic).

He breathes in game, so we know he needs lungs. Which makes sense if most of his main organs are intact. If the main damage was to his lungs, they could give him robotic ones. And my claim of them not giving him a lung transplant is supported by the fact that Mauga was given a second CYBERNETIC heart instead of a replacement when he was critically injured.

Also in the Doomfist origin cinematic when he threw Genji into a car he started sparking and held his chest, which I know may just be "oh he's a robot of course" written off, but it'd make sense if it was his lungs!! It would put him out of a fight if he can't supply oxygen to the rest of his body. Plus it would hurt him in his chest!

Going off of this, he can definitely breathe without the mask and obviously would need to take it off to eat (he has a lot of scarring on his throat I think, and maybe his jaw) but the mask hides the scar tissue and helps regulate his breathing more naturally. Now I'm not a doctor so this next part may make no sense, and let me know if it does but maybe the mask is connected to his lungs in like a nervous system kind of way? Since they wouldn't be connected to his nervous system entirely? So when he takes the mask off he has to manually breathe. Like the mask regulates it for him so he can do it subconsciously but without the mask it's a conscious manual breathing situation.

And my only real arguments for him not having a robotic heart instead of lungs is his voice line that says "The heart of a man still beats inside of me." Which of course could be metaphorical, "I'm still the same man, just with a different body." Kind of thing, but also he just never takes off that freaking mouth piece so I was thinking it had to serve a purpose!

Lol I'll get to work on my headcanons now but let me know what y'all think of this 🙏

[perpetualexistence]

Sea Monster AU: Poor Unfortunate Soul (2/2)

(Why this cover in particular? Mainly because the thumbnail is cool. Also, annapatsu's covers always slap without fail.)

So! It's been a while! Partially because this chapter ended up longer than anticipated. Partially because I got distracted with other AUs because the ADHD mind takes me where it wants to take me. I think it's just going to be safer to not have a set schedule for when these come out because that's apparently just not how my brain wants to work. But I could never forget about this AU! Bit by bit, it will get done, as you can see here!

But here we are! Welcome back to Noah making drastic life choices because Alejandro is a toxic manipulative bastard. Drastic enough to warrant more content warnings.

Content warnings: Murder, cannibalism, toxic relationship, body horror

Once more, the asterisks return for the most gruesome bits. I've got a safer summary of what happens in the asterisks at the bottom.

If you ever think I need more content warnings, please do let me know and I'll add them immediately.

Without further ado, time to dive into Noah's further exploration into magic!

<- Prev | First | Next ->

With gills, Noah can now begin with proper magic. There's the spell that would make Alejandro smaller that he still needs to find in his book. There's also the problem of needing a back up plan. If he fails to shrink Alejandro, then Alejandro will kill him. He won't be able to talk his way out of it. He'll need the ability to fight back.

The book can sense his desire to defend himself. It flips to a page that promises a ritual that will grant his body the ability to do just that. It will even make magic easier to perform. Perfect. His only problem is the lack of details on the outcome. Try as he might, the book always flips back to how to cast the spell, and away from what happens after. Considering what happened the last time he tried to force something out of the book, he decides settling for this spell will be easier. The book throws him a bone with mention that this won't be as permanent as the gills, so that's something.

Noah's reading through the list of things he needs for the ritual. Rune knife, check. A bunch of salt, weird, but whatever. Flesh. At least a whole body's worth. The closer the attachment, the better the results. And to finish it off?

Consume the heart.

Noah's frantically looking at the alternative for flesh. He'd essentially need to alchemically recreate a human being. How many more ships would he have to sacrifice to make that happen? Countless, probably. People are already noticing the disappearances. There's no way he'd get all of this before he and Alejandro get caught. If Alejandro gets caught, people are going to go after him. Innocent people, sailing to their deaths because they have no idea about how Noah's been fighting to keep them off the menu.

So flesh it is. Time to kill a person. It's not like this is anything new. He already killed Chris. Even if that one was in complete self defense. And this one would very much be calculated. It'd be easier if he could just sneak away a corpse from one of Alejandro's feeding frenzies. But Alejandro's his ride there and back. There's no hiding a corpse from him.

So he's going to have to kill this one all on his own. In cold-blood. With his twig arms. At least he semi-knows how to defend himself.

Before he got Chef killed, Chef had insisted on teaching him self defense. Said his scrawny ass would have to worry about people just as much as monsters. Forced him to carry stuff with him. Noah did start noticing a difference, however small. Chef was gruff about it, but he did acknowledge it. All in all, Chef was pretty decent. He wasn't completely unreasonable. Not like Chris. Maybe-

No. Noah can't afford to go down that line of thinking. Chef loved Chris. He'd do anything for that man. Maybe Chef did know the true plan, and was still helping Chris. Even if he didn't, he never would have rested if he was allowed to live. Noah couldn't risk revenge killing. Chef had his uses, and now it'll make this job a bit easier.

He needs to kill someone on land. It has to be someone who deserves it. The closer, the better. Thanks to recent events, there's one person who comes to mind. The loan shark who has been hassling his family for years. He's back in town now, and Noah doubts anyone will miss him. He could use his hacking abilities to try to narrow down his exact location. Still, can't walk into a lion's den. He'll be really lucky to take the loan shark down. More than that? Absolutely not. Noah needs to isolate the loan shark, and have him come to Noah. That's going to require tact Noah doesn't have.

But he knows the perfect teacher.

Alejandro is incredibly pleased when Noah tells him that he wants to learn more about hunting. It seems that any concern about what he had been doing with Chef and Chris get quashed when Noah leans into murder. He has to lie about how it felt to kill Chris. Not as much as he thought he would. Chris had it coming. Noah just has to pretend the anger comes less from how he would have sacrificed the town and more from how he would have brainwashed Alejandro.

It's not like he's really lying about it per se. He would have felt bad to completely steal someone's autonomy away. Even if it had been Alejandro. Still, that doesn't dispel the worm of guilt as he swears he recognizes appreciation and fondness in Alejandro's eyes.

There's a part of him that wants to reciprocate. There is. It's the part of him that remembers that Alejandro is the first person he ever got close to and vulnerable with. That recognizes that their relationship has to be more than that of convenience. Why else would Alejandro insist on learning everything about Noah and hanging out even when not hunting? He gushes over romance novels and is jealous of Noah's dog, for fuck's sake. Neither of those things would obviously make him more endearing to Noah if that was Alejandro's goal. It's why they are so endearing.

Yet here Alejandro is. Gushing over his newfound appreciation for the craft of killing. How the yacht incident is forgiven. Forgiven? Like Noah was the one in the wrong for saying no to Alejandro one time? For having a nice night out with people that weren't Alejandro? My god, it wasn't even about the no, was it? It was that Noah could have a positive interaction with anyone except Alejandro. Enough to prioritize himself over pleasing Alejandro. The eel is possessive, and he got jealous, and innocent people had to die for that.

Noah is an object to Alejandro. A pet, if he's feeling generous. He's made that very clear. Alejandro will accept nothing less. So Noah can't give him that choice. He'll shrink Alejandro, and make him the pet instead.

It's the only way he anyone feel be safe.

So he plays up the monstrous version of himself that Alejandro wants. It's easier than it should be. Good. That makes it more believable. He uses the fact that his relationship with the loan shark is personal to excuse wanting to do the kill and take care of the body himself. He never outright says it, but he implies Alejandro as an inspiration for his change in tune.

He takes solace in the fact that all of this is still a lie. It has to be.

He gets in touch with the loan shark through nicking his mother's phone. Not one of his prouder moments, but that ship has sailed, sunk, and rotted away long ago. With the added guile he's learned from Alejandro, he's able to trick the loan shark into coming to a place near Chris's beach house. He's going to pay off the rest of the debt in person to make sure they don't have to do this ever again.

Noah is going to bring a suitcase full of cash that he's saved up from selling off his stolen goods. He needs a reason for the man to get close enough so Noah can stab him with his ritual knife.

Noah would love it if he could just put a bullet in the man's brain without having to get close to him. There are multiple problems with this. One, Noah would need a gun. Two, knowing how finnicky magic is, Noah would have to make a gun. Three, Noah would have to learn how to use the gun. Four, Noah might be searched for weapons. It's a lot of time and effort that Noah's not willing to spend.

The nice thing about magic ritual knives is that, once attuned, they can be summoned at will. So no worry about being caught with a weapon. So, time for the actual stabbing. It's not too hard to find the motivation. He remembers the time he called his oldest sister 'mom'. He was only about four or five at the time. He only knew his mother existed in theory. She just used home as a place to sleep in between jobs. The eldest siblings had been forced to pick up the slack of parenting by necessity. He didn't understand why his sister had sobbed and run to their mother. He could hear the words they shared. But he wouldn't process a child mourning the loss of their childhood until years later.

He knew their father was the one truly to blame for leaving them all to this situation. Noah would twist the knife into his father's back if he could. He'll settle for doing the same to the leech that took advantage of their situation and was still attempting to suck them dry.

***

He's more present for this murder than he was for Chris's. It feels like he's watching someone else in his body, but he's aware enough that he is controlling his own body and remembers this. He wants to remember this one.

Once the loan shark gets close enough, it's a knee to the groin. Noah's fighting to win. A summoned knife to slash him across the neck. Noah misses. The shark didn't fall as fast as he thought he would. The shark uses two hands to grabs him by the wrist and attempts to pull the knife away. Not good, Noah can already feel himself losing that battle.

With a flick of his wrist, the knife glows. It switches from his right hand to his left. He goes for a stab into the side. With luck, he can puncture a lung. He's not used to using his off hand. He doesn't hit a lung, but he does get him in the side. He pulls the knife out quick. Blood pours out from the wound Noah just made. The shark is bleeding now. Not enough for Noah's liking. Noah notices his knife glow, and sees that the blood is being sucked into the runes. That's concerning. But Noah doesn't have time to process that.

Not when the shark takes advantage of his self-made distraction to tackle Noah. Noah goes down quick. He drops the knife in the tackle. The shark is strangling him while he still has the strength to do so. Made even worse by the fact that the shark's fingers are digging into Noah's gills, too. He's gagging, and choking, and he needs to end this now.

He tries to wrestle the shark's hands away from his throat. It does nothing. His strength was never going to be a match for the shark's. He can feel the shark's nails dig into his gills. Now he's choking both on air and his own blood. Spots are dancing in his vision. They're broken by a soft glow. The knife. The knife!

Noah stops trying to stop the choking. Instead, he summons his knife to his hand once more. This wasn't how Noah wanted the bastard to get close, but it'll do. He's right on top of him. The shark is so focused on Noah's throat that he left Noah's arms free. He uses both his hands to make the knife pierces the shark right through his neck. The shark slumps over Noah. Shock? Death? Noah's not sure. He isn't taking chances.

He wriggles out from underneath and stabs him in the throat again. He swore he saw a twitch. Again. The breath of life attempting to work its way through the hole in his throat. Again. Glassy eyes reflect a face Noah can't recognize as his own. Again. Noah's throat feels raw. Was it the choking or is it his screaming? Again. Laughing, or crying? Again. It doesn't matter. Again. It must be done. Again.

His arms tire. The deed is done.

Clean up feels like it takes forever. Still, for all this work he's put into this, he can't afford to be sloppy now. He drags the corpse back. It was a risk hunting his prey so close to his beach house. But the farther he has to take it, the more he'd risk being spotted. So close it is.

Some tension leaves his shoulders once he's inside. But it's not over yet. He drags the corpse all the way to his cove. He dumps the sack of flesh into the water. He dives in after it.

The cool water soothes his aching gills. Right, he'd forgotten about that. He takes a moment to run his hands gently across his gills. At least his scarf will hide the bruises. He cleans the blood off. He hopes that'll be enough because that's the extent to his knowledge on how magic gills work.

Now for the ritual proper. The water is salted, the circle set, incantations spoken. Now, for the body. It's in the center of the circle, but that's not enough. He has to commit one more vile act to see this through.

No time for holding back. He's doing this so no one else has to. At least the earlier cut makes it easier to cut through and reach the heart. He cuts it out and holds it in his trembling hand. There's no going back after this. Then again, there never was.

He closes his eyes and bites into the heart. It feels softer than he expected. Leftover blood bursts onto his tongue. The iron taste makes him gag. He rips away the bite. He chews. He goes for another. His teeth are sore. This one feels easier. His teeth are sharper. The iron loses its sour tang and becomes sweeter. He'd be lying if he said he was never curious about why Alejandro always insisted on eating Noah's kind. He thinks he gets it now.

Oh god. He thinks he gets it now.

He consumes it as quickly as he can manage, before the rest of his thoughts catch up with him. Everything glows, and his body is racked with pain. He passes out in shock.

***

When he comes to, the circle is empty. His body feels heavier. He kicks his feet to try to get back to the surface to gather himself...but he can't. He looks down to see eight tentacles, amber with rings of blue and black, where his legs should be.

On instinct he tries to swim away, but he's not used to wielding eight lower limbs rather than two. Most of them smack at each other in an attempt to replicate legs to swim. Noah's fucked up. He's fucked up so bad. 'Won't be permanent' was a lie that he fell for and now he's given up the humanity he was struggling so hard to keep and why can't he just have his own fucking legs back-

And suddenly he's looking at his legs again. He blinks as he processes the new yet familiar sight. Okay? Okay. This is, maybe that was some kind of stress and magic induced hallucination? They had looked so real though-

And the tentacles are back. Of course he wouldn't be so lucky. At least the 'won't be permanent' thing wasn't a complete lie. He just has to learn how to control the changes. And control the tentacles. Just like the gills. And just settle into his new life as a half-octopus. Cecaelia? Merfolk.

Like Alejandro.

Oh. A body to defend himself.

Well.

He can work with this.

[Noah fights against the loan shark. He wins, and drags what remains back to the beach house he 'inherited' from Chris. He performs the ritual successfully and passes out due to shock.]

[mellonyheart]

This is the most self projecting thing I've ever written because guess what my body gave me for Christmas? Yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy. Fuck my life. I still had to cook Christmas dinner too.

Mammon x Reader, first person pov, sfw, swearing because fuck is my favorite word today, slight angst, probably poorly edited. Edit: forgot to add 'reader is fem bodied. Whoops. Edit2: Actually gender is meaningless here and Reader could just as easily be suffering from menstrual cramps or a chronic disease/condition. So gn? The point is Reader has cramps. It's not specified what kind. Only that they hurt bad enough to not be able to enjoy going out.

Fuck.

This wasn't how I wanted to spend my Christmas.

I was supposed to greet the boys at breakfast. We'd eat and hold back our excitement (some better than others) about the coming festivities. I was going to help with Christmas dinner. I was going to bake a truckload of Christmas cookies! We were going to decorate them together. It was going to be a chaotic blast! It wasn't supposed to end up like this....

Owww....

My body seemed to have other ideas as I was now confined to my room by cramps. It's not fair! As if it wasn't bad enough I can't be in my (real) room but the boys were out spreading Christmas cheer for the rest of Devildom without me. And I was really looking forward to it!

It was hard to fight the tears as I remembered how Solomon left early to help out in my stead. I hope they can keep him away from the kitchen. That would be a disaster. Were the brothers missing me? They were right?

I missed them. I missed the present. I missed being a part of their wild world. I miss Mammon.

And now I really am crying. In no small part from the pain in my belly as much as my heart. My phone was suspiciously quiet too. Were they busy? Did something happen? Crap... you never know in the Devildom. Something is always coming up. I wanted to be a part of it. Why was fate so cruel?

I rolled over, still dwelling on my miserable thoughts. The pain killer was barely working. If I ever find this Nightbringer person (demon? Angel? Whatever...) I'm going to give them an earful. Not that my current situation was their fault but it makes me feel (infinitesimally) better to blame the entity that put me here.

Knock knock

Nope. Don't even think about it Solo. I'm asleep and I'm not eating your "soup".

Knock knock

I'm sleeping. Go away.

I could have sworn I heard a curse on the other side of my door but it was too quiet to make out. Weird. Solomon didn't usually curse.

Bzzt

?

I got a text message.

Hey.

You awake?

It's cool if you're not.

The Great Mammon just thought it'd be a good idea to check in on ya. You should be grateful I'm such a nice guy.

Fuck!

Anyway...

Just thought I'd say Merry Christmas.

"Wait!" I shouted as I threw open my door and there was Mammon halfway down the hall looking back at me with a startled expression.

...Just in time for another cramp. Ow.

"So ya were awake! Hang on... are ya okay?!" Mammon rushed to back to me, likely noticing my distress. He helped me back to bed and as he tried to take a step back I held his sleeve. Such soft fabric... if I wasn't miserable right now I would complement his santa outfit. It was perfectly... him.

"Thanks Mammon. But uh... what are you doing here?" I had to know. Why couldn't I let myself just be happy that he was here?

"Is that any way to greet someone who came all the way here to see ya?! And look at ya... fallin' over and stuff. Wait. Does that make me a hero?"

"Sure. My Christmas hero. Doesn't answer my question though." How is it that he can make me smile so easily? That has to be a super power. Maybe he is a hero.

"Do I really need a reason to see ya?! Gimme a break would ya?!" He huffed. I could guess what he was really doing here. His golden heart was always clear to me.

"I'm glad you came. Thank you. I was actually getting pretty lonely." Honesty was easy with Mammon. Even if he couldn't be honest himself. He was blushing and looking away from me. Damn he was cute.

"Y-yeah... well I figured you'd be lonely without me. I mean... well it just sucks ya got sick on Christmas. It ain't right." And by all things holy and unholy he looked at me like he meant it. He did mean it. Mammon really could be ridiculously sweet. Maybe too sweet because I can feel the tears coming back.

"H-hey! I didn't mean to... I wasn't tryin' to..." Poor Mammon. He was panicking. I really did try to explain that it wasn't that he said something wrong. It was just hormones going a bit overboard. But talking is hard when you're trying not to sob because the demon you love is too sweet for his own good. So I just hugged him. Hard. If he wasn't a demon, probably too hard but how else can I express that I love him so much I want us to meld into one person? I'm emotional. Don't hold it against me.

Mammon tried to calm me down. He hugged me back and kept saying anything he thought would be soothing in his own Mammon way.

"Hey. Ya good?" He asked as I finally calmed. My eyes hurt.

"Yeah. I'm sorry Mammon. This probably wasn't what you had in mind when you came over." My face felt puffy and I could really use a snack and some hydration.

"Don't worry about it. Are ya sure you're okay?" Anyone who says Mammon only cares about himself is an idiot.

"Yes. You're the best Mammon. I really need you to know that." I wiped my face and attempted a normal, definitely not wet, smile.

"Come on... don't get all sweet on me. Oh! I almost forgot!" Mammon suddenly dashed back into the hallway. After a moment he came back with a small festively colored bag and a thermos. "Here. I got this for ya. I uh... wanted to give it to ya before the others got here."

"Hold on... the others?" I asked, bewildered.

"Aw crap... that was supposed to be a surprise! Ya gotta pretend to be surprised when the others call ya down. I was supposed to check how ya were feeling so we can throw ya a party downstairs. Ya know, because you probably don't feel like walkin' to the House of Lamentation or the castle. And then Solomon said you didn't want to teleport so..."

I should have known. I love them. All of them. And they love me. Of course they would try to plan a surprise party so that I didn't feel left out. I feel like the luckiest human of all time. Dumb hormones can't stop me from having a good Christmas.

"Mammon?" I interrupted him from his rambling.

"Huh? What is it?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"H-huh?! H-hold on! You haven't even opened your present yet!" Fuck he's cute when he blushes.

"Can I kiss you after I open my present?"

"S-sure, whatever you want! Just open it already!" Mammon pressed the bag in my direction as to put as much distance between it and himself. He looked at me expectantly.

Inside the bag was... cookies. Clearly handmade. They certainly weren't made or decorated by Luke or Barbatos. One was a touch burned.

"You made me cookies?" I asked.

"Tis' the season right? Look! That one is you and that one is me. I threw in a couple Christmasy shapes too. Ya gotta try 'em though!" He looked nervous despite sounding so excited. I bet he brought these privately because his brothers made fun of his amateur baking skills. And he made mini us!

I took a bite of a Christmas tree.

"It's good."

"Yeah?! I mean I tried extra hard to get the shapes right and Luke had to help me with the decoratin' but they look good right?!" He smiled like the first sunrise in Devildom. So I kissed him.

Then as he got flustered and admonished me for the surprise attack I made cookie us kiss too.

Marry Christmas.