#it's so sinister that i personally feel that my computer is as good as it can be overall and i just want it to remain

[kraniumet]

win10 sucks but I'm not switching to win11 if I can help it

[blueicequeen19]

A Million Reasons

Warnings: theft, coercion, non-con/dub-con, overstimulation, forced orgasms, face fucking, anal play, oral, creampie, the works..

I couldn’t contain my smile as I plopped down in my new comfy chair in my new shiny apartment that I drove to in my new fancy car. It didn’t matter how I’d come into the money. What mattered is I wouldn’t be waiting tables at the fucking country club anymore, serving arrogant Kooks over priced alcohol and barely making shit from tips. This was all mine now. Paid off and no one could take it from me.

I had a five year plan now and nothing was going to stop me. I was going to go full Kook and make every one of those dumb motherfuckers look me in the eye when they realized I had more money than they did. They would respect me one way or another.

I grinned as I logged onto my new computer to pull up my accounts when suddenly there was a knock on my door that startled me so bad I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was almost midnight. Who would be here? I slowly got up and made my way to the door, my gun already laying on the table. I checked the peep hole but the person - a guy - had his head down.

What the fuck? I unlocked the door and it was suddenly shoved open, knocking me back on my ass before I could snatch my gun off the end table. I moved to jump back up to my feet when I realized who was in my apartment and smiling at me.

“Hi doll, how’s the new place?” He smirked, dropping a duffle bag onto the floor and not taking his eyes off me as he locked the door back. I was too stunned to speak, let alone move. My eyes moved to the gun but he snatched it up, tucking it in the back of his fucking khakis.

“This is a nice place. You did good? What did this put you back?” His blue eyes take in everything as he side steps me and ventures deeper into my apartment. I eye the door but I can’t run. He’s here because he knows what I did. I slowly rise to my feet, hating that I’m in a pair of booty shorts and oversized shirt as I turn to face him.

“I like the car too. That had to be at least fifty grand. And I’m sure this place is well over two grand a month unless you bought the place out right. I guess I could rent it out and flip the profits if I don’t decide to stay here.” He rambles on, tilting his head back to look at the vaulted ceiling.

“What do you want?” I finally find the strength to speak, my heart in my throat as his bright eyes level on me again.

“That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? What do you have that could be even remotely worth me keeping silent and not turning your ass in?” His voice hardens, that playful look long gone.

I bite my lip, my nails biting into my palms as I fight to remain calm. There was no use lying.

“How did you know it was me?”

“That stole my card information and hacked over a million dollars like it was chump change?!” I back up, his voice growing louder as he moves towards me, that look in his eyes becoming more sinister by the second, the ruse finally fading.

“It was easy. I just followed the scent of someone with new money. Someone not being cautious of their spending and paying with big items in cash.” He lunges with a growl, cutting off my scream as his hand wraps around my throat. I fight and he knocks us both onto the couch, pinning me beneath his weight. I lash out with my nails, clawing his cheek and he snarls, shifting his weight more onto my chest so I struggle to breathe. I fight harder when I feel the bulge in his pants. The sick fuck was hard.

“You feel that? Who knew I could get so hard from someone not fawning over me?” He taunts, leaning down to press his lips to my cheek.

“Girls are always tripping over one another just for a chance to suck my dick but not you.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” I wheeze, tilting my face away when he leans in too close. It’s like a bucket of cold water being dumped on me when he throws his head back and laughs.

“Oh, wow, you’re funny. I’m going to have so much fun with you in MY new apartment.” He shimmies down my body, pinning me with weight and keeping his mouth dangerously close to my own.

“You can have it back. You can have it all back. I don’t care.” I bite out, slipping my hand out from under his weight in an attempt to slap him but he catches it and pins both my wrists above my head.

“We’re way fucking past that. Now I’m looking for payment.” His eyes rake over my body as his free hand comes up to tease my nipple through my shirt, making it harden.

“Stop—.”

“I don’t even know where I’d start. You’re fucking exquisite.” He chuckles, burying his face in the crook of my neck and inhaling deeply. I whimper, his free hand still playing with my nipple. I needed to get the upper hand. I needed him to think I was defeated.

“Ugh, fine fuck me. Fuck me and get out. Punish me, do whatever you need to do then leave.” I snap, hating the way my body heats as he sucks on the skin of my neck.

“Whatever I need to do, hmm?” A hum leaves his lips before he bites me and I cry out, my thighs squeezing together as my core tightens.

Suddenly, he’s off me and sitting on the opposite end of the couch. He’s no longer crushing me under his weight yet I still can’t catch my breath.

“Strip. Show me what I paid for.” He throws an arm over the back of the couch, spreading his legs wide and looking every bit the entitled Kook he is.

“You didn’t pay for—.”

“Strip. Now.” His harsh words have me jumping to my feet on shaky limbs and quickly yanking my shirt over my head, the cold air hardening my nipples into painful points. My skin flushes under his intense blue gaze as he eyes me like a prize. Like he’s never seen a topless woman before.

“Not too bad. A solid handful. I can live with that.” He says, like he’s buying me from a grocery store. I grit my teeth, moving to cover myself but he gives a single shake of his head.

“Don’t you dare cover up. Remove the rest.” I try to look anywhere but the prominent erection in his pants or his hungry gaze as I slide my sleep shorts and panties down in one go. I kick them away but not before he sees the wet spot my traitorous pussy left in my panties.

“Fuck you.” I growl as his smirk grows and he palms his dick through his pants.

“No, baby girl, fuck you. Spin for me. Show me that ass.” I turn away quickly at the sound of his belt being unbuckled, my skin covered in goosebumps. I was so cold but hot at the same time. My clit was throbbing painfully and I hated it.

When I face him again, he’s still wearing that smug smirk but with his pants hanging open and his dick still safely tucked away.

“I could tie you up and just play with you for fucking hours.” He practically moans, his eyes washing over me like a warm caress. God, I hated this. I was painfully turned on and humiliated at the same time.

“Would you just—.”

“Lay down on the couch and spread your legs. If you kick me, I’ll tie your legs to your chest with my fucking belt.” Part of me wants to kick him just so he can make good on his threat but I refuse to give him the satisfaction as I lower myself onto the opposite end of the couch.

I barely get my legs spread and he’s moving between them on his stomach, his hands hot on my skin as he spreads my pussy lips wide.

“Mmm, nothing like the smell of desperation.” His eyes light up with mischief and I debate actually kicking him until his tongue suddenly swipes up my slit and my brain turns to mush.

“Fuckkkkk.” He growls against flesh, his hands tightening on my inner thighs as he tastes me again.

“Oh—fuck—.” I’m trembling uncontrollably, my body on fire and no longer under my control. He keeps cursing and mumbling praises but I can barely hear him as he feasts on me like he’ll die if he doesn’t. When he sucks my clit into his mouth and curls a single finger inside me, my back bows and I see stars. My orgasm is on the tips of my toes but he stops, pulling back with a laugh.

“Not so fast. You don’t get to cum anytime soon. I don’t care how good you taste.” He stands and quickly strips until he’s as naked as I am, his cock hard and leaking with need. I try not to stare but he’s so goddamn long.. and thick. I’m almost worried. I can’t even check to see where he’s placed the gun..

“Don’t worry, I’ll make it fit wherever it goes.” My worry dissolves into anger again and I narrow my eyes, attempting to get up only for him to shove me back down and straddle me. I’m confused until he moves onto my chest, his knees holding most of his weight as he positions his cock in front of my mouth.

“Do I need to warn you what will happen if you bite me?” He says, using the swollen tip to smear precum all over my lips.

“I don’t think I can—.”

“Breathe through your nose.” He pushes his cock firmly against my lips.

“You’re too—.”

“You can take it.” My jaw pops as I’m forced to open and let him down my throat. I gag immediately around the smooth length of him, tears filling my eyes as he reaches the back of my throat and holds it there.

I can’t even push against him because my arms are pinned beneath him. It takes everything in me to keep from retching.

“Fuck, that’s not even all of it. Look at you struggling. Do you regret stealing from me yet?” His eyes are hooded and his breathing heavy as he slides partly out and thrusts back inside my mouth, making me continue to gag.

“You will by the time I’m done with you.” His words have my chest tightening, afraid of what I’ve gotten myself into as he starts to fuck my mouth like he would a toy.

“Fuck, yes. You’ll be a pro in no time. That feels so fucking good.” His breathy moan has me trying to squeeze my legs shut but he reaches back, slapping my thighs apart and starts to play with my clit. I buck beneath him, humming around his cock as I try to speak. I can’t do this. I can’t handle it. Tears fill my eyes every time he pulls back enough for me to catch a breath only to force his way deeper down my throat all while rubbing my clit.

“If you cum, you’ll regret it.” He growls, scaring me while also giving me a thrill of what if? I stick out my tongue to try and make room in my mouth but he only moans louder, thrusting harder before slapping my pussy. I cry out around his length, gagging and trying to breathe.

“Get ready to swallow.” My eyes widen and suddenly he’s deep down my throat, holding his cock in place as he cums. I gag but he only groans louder, shooting his hot cum right down my throat so I have no choice but to swallow. My vision is spotty when he finally pulls out, my face streaked with tears and my throat on fire. I’d never been face fucked before and I’m given no opportunity to recover as he quickly flips me onto my stomach and comes down on my back. My cheeks are spread and he’s licking me from front to back, my body trembling with the need for release.

“P-please—.” I croak, arching into him as his tongue penetrates my pussy. I moan into the couch, my core burning with need. When his tongue moves higher, my eyes snap open but I’m unable to stop him from forcing his tongue inside my unused hole. A broken cry leaves my lips and I try to lift up only for him to shove me back down.

“Keep begging. Let me hear it, you little thief.” His voice is thick with need as he moves up my back, his cock resting against my ass.

“Please.. Rafe..” I whine, feeling him reach between us to guide his cock to my pussy.

“So you do know my name.” He chuckles, stealing my breath as he slips just the tip inside me. My body tightens and he curses, pushing down on the center of my back.

“Remember my fucking name when you cum. I want to hear you scream it.” His threat barely registers before he buries himself deep inside me with one go. I cry out, my pussy forced to stretch to accommodate his size.

“Goddamn.” Rafe bites out, rising up on one knee and keeping his hand on the center of my back as he starts to fuck me slowly.

“You’re swallowing me so fucking good. Sucking me in nice and deep. So wet and tight.” My nails bite into the cushion, my hips lifting on their own as his pace increases. The burning quickly subsides and pleasure washes over me as I moan loud and helplessly.

I hear him spit then his thumb is pressing inside my ass, triggering my orgasm as I scream into the cushion.

“Dirty fuckin slut.” Rafe chuckles, not slowing his rhythm until one orgasm turns to two and my release drips onto the couch. It becomes too much and I quickly try to pull away, pleading as best I can but he refuses to let me go.

“We’re not done so fucking take it. I want to see you break.” Another finger enters my ass as he pounds my sore pussy, an explosive orgasm wrecking me until tears stream down my face.

“Rafe— please—.” I sob, his mocking laugh reaching my ear but I’m too far gone to be pissed off anymore. He gives me a moment to rest when he pulls out and drags me onto his lap, impaling me on his cock so I’m facing him and forced to ride him.

“I can’t..” I cry, my entire body trembling as he begins to move me himself, his cock practically in my stomach.

“Should’ve thought about that.” He smacks my ass, digging his fingers in and squeezing the flesh as he thrusts up into me. My hands tighten on the back of the couch as we move in sync, his cock stroking something deep inside me to the point I’m practically mush in his hands, his throaty moans music to my ears.

It’s not until I feel my hand brush something metal that my eyes snap open and I see the gun laying on the end table against the back of the couch.

I don’t think before snatching it up and wedging it under Rafe’s chin, making him look up at me. My lips tip up in a snarl while his form a smirk, his blue eyes lost in a blissed out haze.

“Stop.” I bite out, blinking past the pleasure deep in my core. He was so deep like this. I could almost cum again.

“Stop what? You’re riding me. I’m not moving.” Rafe says with a breathless smile. My body freezes when I realize he’s right and he groans as I tense around his length.

“Keep doing that and I’ll cum deep inside you.” Rafe moans, adding to that fire deep in my belly. There was something so hot about a man being vocal during sex.

“You like that? The thought of me filling you with cum make your pussy throb? Or is it the thrill of the gun? You could kill me right now and my cock would still be hard. One or two more pumps and I’d still finish inside you.”

“Shut. Up.” His words make me break out in a sweat, his cock throbbing deep inside me. I don’t doubt that he’s telling the truth.

“Seems like a waste to not finish, don’t you think?” Rafe’s blue eyes sparkle up at me as his hands find my hips and he delivers a hard thrust to my core. I cry out, my eyes threatening to flutter as fire ignites deep within me.

“You want me to finish.” Rafe taunts, sliding one hand up to grip my throat as he begins rolling his hips until my eyes nearly cross. He was too deep and stroking my g-spot while I held a gun to his chin. My body began to tremble as another orgasm raced forward, the gun shaking in my hand.

“Cum all over my cock. I know you want to.” Black spots dot my vision as he tightens his hand around my throat, stealing my ability to breathe and giving me the most intense orgasm of my life. The gun is snatched from my fingers then he’s pounding into me with vigor, grunting and moaning as he empties himself inside me.

My eyes barely manage to stay open as he lifts me so he can stand then my back meets the couch, his cock never leaving my pussy. His lips find the shell of my ear as I try to wrap my brain around what just happened..

“I’m going to have so much fun with you, roomie.” My body stiffens and he groans, rolling his hips and making me whimper.

“This.. isn’t..”

“You didn’t think once was worth a million dollars, did you? Because I plan on thoroughly using this pussy. Call it interest on my new investment.”

[gilbirda]

Personal coach Red Hood

Here have this as I turn off my computer to go the fuck to sleep.

Part 1 | Part 3

---

Ever since that weirdo jumped at him a few days ago, Jason couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched. He didn’t believe the woman was working for a major villain or was out to get him — she proved she could hold her ground in a fight, so she could have attacked him any time if that was her objective — but he was starting to think something more sinister was going on.

Glimpses of her long red hair on the corner of his vision, always just out of sight, but close enough to make him paranoid to check every shadow and every corner, waiting to see her jump at him with that stupid smile.

What was her deal, anyway?

Personal trainer? Mentor?

What does that even mean?

Whatever, he was going to ignore her until she gave up. It didn’t matter the reason she thought it was a good idea to follow a vigilante, and former crime lord, around the worst parts of Gotham; but he was going to make sure she abandoned the fixation on him and went back to her life.

***

She did not give up.

That woman — Jazz, she said — was relentless and inserted herself in the wildest situation just for a chance to talk to him. Was she trying to prove she could take it? That she was strong? That she was worthy?

In any case, Jazz ended up as the most consistent hostage, kidnapped, mugged person in Crime Alley. Always there, with a giant smile and her stupid notepad, like a crazy woman.

He was starting to think she was actually insane.

“But it’s fun!” Stephanie insisted one time. “It's like you have your own number one fan!”

Jason groaned. 

The others learned about the stalker and of course twisted the whole thing like it was anything other than annoying and inconvenient. Dick said it was romantic, but Damian was the only one sane and agreed that her stalking tendencies could prove dangerous.

Then… Then that’s when he started finding food.

He knew where it came from, because the woman always waited nearby and watched him investigate the containers, holding her breath, and groaning when he threw the containers away or left them abandoned.

One day he was too weak and tried one. It was pasta. He was very hungry, coming back from a long campaign to rip apart a new drug ring forming under his nose. He was injured and was positive that everything at his apartment was not edible, so he risked it. He was immune to a lot of poisons, so he was positive he wouldn’t die from this.

It was the worst plate of pasta he had ever tried.

Who fucks up pasta?

Overcooked and undercooked at the same time, and you can tell she tried making bolognese sauce from scratch, but it just wasn’t working. Also it needed salt.

He didn’t finish it and looked at the woman — Jazz — in the eye as he threw away the rest.

[animatedglittergraphics-n-more]

RIP, AIM: Remembering how we used to talk on the internet

A eulogy for AOL Instant Messenger, and how it changed the way we talk about games and everything else By Luke Winkie published December 15, 2017

Do you remember all the souls you've lost to the internet? Those incidental friendships, forged in IRC clients, Newgrounds forums, 40-man Ragnaros wipes, scattered across the globe when the web was young? They came into your life and played Fall Out Boy over Ventrilo. They came into your life and disappeared forever. Do you remember when snapping a selfie required a frustrating tangle of mechanical coercion, but it was worth it to show them your face? When real-life names were rarefied information shared exclusively through digital blood pacts? AIM shut down today, and the only thing I can think about is how all of those people still exist somewhere, perhaps exploring the same pit in their stomach that I am.

AIM belongs to all of us. As a pioneering force of internet communication, anyone born in the early '90s or late '80s has spent some time on the platform. As a 26-year old, I'm crucially aware that my appreciation for the prodigal instant messenger is colored by a nostalgia that has nothing to do with the service itself. It was simply the medium of choice to grouse about homework, The Decemberists, girls I liked, and the rest of my random bullshit. 

But I do believe that there's a special union between AIM and people who grew up playing games, or at least came of age on the internet with people who played games. The early millennium revolutions in online multiplayer pitted us together and asked us to collaborate, so of course we carried those early internet accords to their logical extremes—talking all night in lonely chat boxes about what's cool, what sucks, and how easy it is to relate. In 2017, the web feels less like something I approach for those connections, and more like an overwhelming ennui that I'm constantly trying to outrun. Boston's Kyle Seeley nailed that feeling perfectly with 2015's Emily is Away, and this year's sequel Emily is Away Too—both of which transport you back to the spongy leather office chairs of your parents' computer room.

"AIM was primarily for one-on-one conversations between teenagers. That's how I used AIM, to have a very intimate conversation with another person. Now we have texting and Facebook messenger, but you can use those wherever you are," he says. "You can use those at a concert or while driving. But when you were using AIM, you were sitting down at a computer to talk to people. You had their undivided attention." 

Emily is Away tributes AIM in the only way anyone can—spinning a yarn of disentranced high-school drama that eventually mounts into something deeply sad. The way Seeley presents an old Windows XP desktop, with the hilariously temperamental tastes of your idiot friends revealing themselves in their bios and away messages (until one day they stop logging on entirely) is immediately resonant. We've all had our Emilys. "When you have a conversation on the phone, you spend 10 minutes making small talk," says Seeley. "On AIM you talk to someone for hours. Like eight hours, 10 hours straight. You get all the small talk out of the way in the first hour, and then you're talking about these big teenager questions. Who am I? Who do I want to be? I think AIM was really good at that."

It was always difficult for me to articulate the intimacy I felt with my internet friends to my parents. There were the obvious, mechanical mistranslations; I begged my mother for early exits from countless family dinners that consistently managed to interfere with my guild's crucial Molten Core attempts. But beyond that, there was a certain shame in feeling loved and valued by people I only knew by username. A latent fear that those who did not understand might consider that affection to be false, or even sinister. That's different now, as social media has flattened out our offline/online dichotomy, but if you were on AIM, you probably remember how once upon a time those bonds felt illegal.

Years ago Nina Freeman, level designer at Fullbright and one of the foremost thinkers on love and technology, launched a flat-out covert campaign to get close with one of those friends. She spent months locked in the holy matrimony of Final Fantasy XI and nightly AIM treatises with a boy named Glenn from New York City. Eventually they met, but not before Freeman satisfied her aunt, (who she was staying with) with a fabricated narrative—Glenn was no longer a dude from the internet, now he was just an old family friend who happened to move east. "I was still in high school," says Freeman. "We made up that whole story."

That secrecy is immediately familiar to me. AIM was surreptitious, clandestine. A service that belonged to teenagers, sequestered from leering ears and concerned authority figures. As Freeman notes, a screen name was one of the few commodities a young person could fully own. A domain, an aesthetic, a communication channel you could control. It was rare to feel fully untethered from your parents, so you guarded that sliver of liberty with your life.

"I wouldn't hand out [my username] lightly," explains Freeman. "I'd only really do it with people I felt close enough with. It seems sort intimate. It was a 'thing' to add someone on AIM. The expectation would be that if we're adding each other, we're going to chat regularly.… It had a weight to it."

Cecilia D'Anastasio, senior reporter at Kotaku (and a friend of mine) went a step further. As an 11-year-old, she was already griefing in the multiplayer Flash games she shared with her friends over AIM. I don't think anything sums up the juvenile euphoria of instant messaging quite like using that power to cheat in stakes-free freeware.

"One of the Flash games I discovered was basically Pictionary, but online and with a chat room. One player would etch out an image in a Microsoft Paint-like interface while the chat would dutifully guess at what it could possibly be. It was very wholesome," says D'Anastasio. "That's why my friend June and I were passionate about cheating. We'd join a game on the same team. Over AIM, we'd tell each other what we were assigned to draw, instructing whoever was guessing to wait a solid ten seconds before revealing the answer. It was a riot. We always won."

Over the past decade or so AIM has slowly been replaced with services that de-emphasize traditional internet patois. Gchat and Twitter are all full of real names and faces instead of coded handles and custom-colored text, and logging in to most platforms scarcely takes more than a click on a Facebook icon. For the most part, this is a good thing. Anonymity is one of the scourges of online culture—a de facto institution that continues to cause a lot of people pain. Personally though, I can't help but feel like we've lost something along the way. There was a certain sublimity in typing from behind the guise of a username. It gave way to a feeling that your AIM conversations existed in some sort of permissive, alternative reality, the ideal spot to work up the nerve for swollen 3 am confessions. In 2017 there is no such thing as "IRL" anymore; your internet presence is permanently married to your day-to-day existence. Everyone on earth spends their waking hours waging wars and making peace with strangers they will never meet. It is overwhelming and insoluble, and there are moments where I wish I could get outside again.

I'm not the only person that feels this way, and there are some people working to restore the parts of the mid-aughts internet that worked. When I interviewed Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, earlier this year, he affirmed a deep appreciation for AIM, and believed that perhaps the online infrastructure might soon swing back in that direction. "When you zoom out and think about the internet and how communication is trending, there's definitely a trend to more live experiences," he said. "The internet has done so much to connect people asynchronously, so I think there's something more macro happening that Discord is taking part in. It's like we're bringing it back to how it used to be."

He's right. One of the things that's made Discord successful is how separated it feels from the rest of the internet. When you join an ultra-specific channel—for niche Hearthstone formats or fan-favorite Persona characters—it's like you're uncovering a league of obsessives that are ready to welcome you with open arms. The true solidarity of dorkiness. It's funny, but by holding back on cosmopolitan design choices (like Facebook integration or a required photo-reel), Cintron stumbled into a scheme that evokes the furtive splendor that made AIM special. This is something Nina Freeman found when she started up a Discord channel to support her growing Twitch following. "It quickly became a community, and now I have a bunch of newer online friends. I'm already cracking up at myself as I'm wondering what they look like, or what they do in real life," says Freeman. "It definitely has a similar appeal." 

If Discord doesn't quite meet your personal instant messaging standards, Citron tells me that, if enough people in the community request it, he'd consider implementing the low-res AIM chimes into the service. You know, door creak, door slam, those disruptive MIDI twinkles. "To this day, that sound still triggers my desire to hop online," he says.  

Kyle Seeley is doing something similar. Yesterday he released a piece of DLC for Emily is Away Too that reskins Steam Chat to look exactly like AIM circa 2006. He spared no expense; you can change your text color, drop in vintage, blocky emoticons, and create your own custom profile so you can tell the world that Warped Tour will never die. "It's a farewell to AIM," he says. As one gaming's foremost nostalgia artists, it'd be wrong if he didn't say goodbye.

Now the AIM generation is old enough to both intellectualize their wistfulness, and use the lessons they learned from the service to create for the today's teenagers. To facilitate affection and respect on the internet, to show them what it looks like. We were the first to taste love on the web, at a time when those feelings had no context or guidance, and I hope that AIM helped create a baseline for young people and the midnight communion with those across the screen. The liberation that comes with knowing that the internet friendships you cherish are just as valid and wonderful as you think they are—these stories matter, because they help light that path. Lord knows I needed it, and I'm sure you did too.

Luke Winkie

Contributing Writer

Luke Winkie is a freelance journalist and contributor to many publications, including PC Gamer, The New York Times, Gawker, Slate, and Mel Magazine. In between bouts of writing about Hearthstone, World of Warcraft and Twitch culture here on PC Gamer, Luke also publishes the newsletter On Posting. As a self-described "chronic poster," Luke has "spent hours deep-scrolling through surreptitious Likes tabs to uncover the root of intra-publication beef and broken down quote-tweet animosity like it’s Super Bowl tape." When he graduated from journalism school, he had no idea how bad it was going to get.

[sonicjustbecause]

About Shadow, constantly switching from cool to awful.

I wonder if Shadow is controversial for his being (in some incarnations) a gray (if not dark gray) character of for his being (in some incarnations) a poor character. He suffers for the same inconsistencies of other Sonic characters, for obvious reason (many heads work around Sonic, so this thing is completely normal). Surely, is many incarnations can get crazier than Sonic's. He's not always this sullen calico hedgehog, in some incarnation he may be even cheerful. The only consistent thing is his grim look.

Adventure/Heroes/'06 Shadow

This Shadow is the first and original one. He remembers me a lot Midna from legend of Zelda, a character with a sinister and evil outlook that turned out to be a nice person. The original Shadow indeed is nicer than he might seem at first glance and has a lot of nuances. He's not grumpy and he rarely gets angry, he is overall cool.

He doesn't start as a good guy. He debuts as vengeful, lunatic (he talks like a mad scientist and is melodramatic) and makes a fool of Eggman (Eggman doesn't realize, is funny). All of this was due to his intense unhappiness and his horrible past. He was created on the space colony ARK by Eggman's grandfather, Gerard Robotnik as a living weapon for G.U.N. and as medicine to cure his niece, Maria who had AIDS. Shadow befriended Maria and was a sort of a younger brother to her. Unfortunately, ARK was raided by G.U.N. who feared Shadow, the very weapon they commissioned, and everybody were killed, including Maria who sacrificed herself to save Shadow. One thing that I noticed is that Shadow didn't fight back when he was attacked by G.U.N on the ARK, he just tried to escape with Maria. My interpretation is that Gerard programmed him to be obedient and submissive to G.U.N.). Captured again, he was put in cryostasis. Before being killed, Gerald manages to reprogram Shadow to carry a purpose of revenge, twisting his mind. Yet the core of his personality remain the same, he saves Rouge twice, once not even knowing who she is due to amnesia (Sonic Heroes). Shadow had suicidal thoughs, he wanted to destroy the whole planet while taking also his own life.

Thanks to Amy he reveals his true (and better) colours. Shadow is a brave, selfless yet quiet guy that keeps a low profile, at first glance he may seem timid but is just cautious. When needed he shows a unsuspected boldness and he is not afraid to speak his mind, yet he has very hard time talking about how he feels, shutting off, stopping to talk when stressed. Early Shadow is not always serious. Sometimes he is a fun guy. When around Sonic or Rouge, or when there is a good challenge, he can be playful, mischievous and cocky, talking almost like Sonic, even using his same catchprhrases. He is very stubborn and never gives up, it doesn't matter what.

Shadow lighting the mood.

He is usually sad, melancholic and very lonely, not only because of his past but also because his future and because he is and will always be an outcast. He is a immortal being, halfway between a fully living, organic creature and an android (he is made of flesh and blood and has a heart but his mind and personality is programmable like the one of a computer) and not as confident as he may seem. He suffers from amnesia and PTSD, and this often leaves him confused and doubtful about himself. A misconception is about himself referring as the 'ultimate lifeform' as a badget of superiority, while he often just refers himself either as 'Shadow the hedgehog' or simply 'Shadow' to remember himself that he is also a person and as such he is worthy, too. Since he was meant to die, the sides of his personality are very compressed and complete in Sonic Adventure 2 and remain consistent in Heroes and 06, changing just that bit, according to the nature and the atmosphere of the games, showing that this version of Shadow is very flexible.

At least in SA2 it was shown he could be a good friend to Sonic. With this spontaneous gesture.

Shadow is left handed. I've read somewhere that he was meant to be Sonic twin and he looks identical to him, a full mirror image, just with different colours and quillstyle. SA2 originally was meant to reveal also Sonic's past. However I don't know if is just a rumor or if that there was this idea around.

X/'05 Shadow

Compared to Adventure/Heroes/06, this Shadow is more bold, moody and violent and way less cautious, often taking decision and acting instead of first watching, pondering and then moving like in early videogames. He is more mysterious than early Shadow from videogames. Even to himself. Not my cup of tea, he is too harsh, but he is perfect for those who love anti-heroes. He has the Jessica Fletcher/Conan Edogawa curse, those close to him always die, like Molly. poor thing. The scenes where he suffers the consequences of his PTSD and amnesia are graphic. Oh yes!

Amnesia. Shadow collapsing in pain.

PTSD. He went blank and froze, unable to do anything.

Edgelord(late '00s and '10s)/IDW Shadow

The most awful and unfortunately the most long lived and well know incarnation, this is cemented in all sonic fans. I think of this Shadow a literally anti-Mary Sue. If Mary Sues are those ultra perfect characters, devoid of flaws, loved by everybody and that are always right, anti Mary-Sues are the opposite, character with no redeeming qualities that are troublemakers. And edgelord Shadow can be a great troublemaker at times. I can't see how we got there, or maybe I do. They flanderized the flaws of X Shadow and twisted his good trait. This Shadow is selfish, extremely arrogant, grumpy, short tempered, sometimes blinded by his own ego (zombie arc docet). Whatever he does is just for his personal benefit and nothing else and his dialectic is foreseeable. Team Dark is gone, no relationship of any nature with Rouge and While IDW Shadow is shown to have a soft spot for the chao, in other incarnations of the same period is shown to mistreat them. I may continue but is all bad things, it gets boring.

Archie/Universe Shadow

He is based on Adventure/Heroes/06 Shadow but he is... warmer? More talkative (but still quiet) and slightly more open, also more bold. He doesn't go mute when stressed though he has a tendency to retreat somewhere and brood when upset. This Shadow seems a sort of perfectionist, he hates failures and put himself under a lot of pressure. Overall a softer version of X Shadow. I must say, at the start i believed this Shadow was just a melancholic Sonic. When I played SA2 first I liked Shadow and his refreshing personality, but in later '00 he started to become less and less likeable. I forgot his original personality. Rewatching cutscenes from Adventure 2, Heroes and 06, I remembered why I used to like Shadow and I realized how Archie Shadow made sense.

Chousoku Shadow

I said things in Japan can be crazier than you think, for this I'll mention this outlandish version. Dash and Spin chousoku Sonic is a light hearted comic and Shadow is part of it. This Shadow is quite arrogant, slightly grumpy at the start and a bit aloof but overall is harmless and carefree. The funniest part is when Sonic and his friend make a horror movie (they tease Eggman while doing so). Guess who Shadow plays? The Grim Reaper. Suits him.

tMoStH Shadow

The context is Amy's birthday and it happens on a luxury train. I guess the right place to fix him smootly, if they will actually do that. In fact, this Shadow start out to be close to the edgelord we are used to. You (you play as Barry the quokka, a deliberately generic character that can be whathever you want). According to you, Shadow is frightening. He quickly gets extremely mysterious with his strange requests and his tendencies to avoid you and other characters. Things take a U turn when you and tails manage to make him speak. He is acting this way to prepare a birthday surprise to Amy but you ruin his plans, when this happens he appear resigned and won't get angry at you. After this, you start to realize he is having fun too and that he actually like this place, although he is not too open about this.

Prime Shadow

After years of unbalanced edgelord, we got a more well balanced Shadow. To describle how Shadow fells there to me, I can quote this:

"Where there is light, there must be shadow, where there is shadow there must be light. There is no shadow without light and no light without shadow...Haruki Murakami 

This Shadow is ethereal and has some mystical aura around him. He is a living being and real, but when he start to follow Sonic, maybe also for his condition of being a paradox person (even more than Sonic since he can't travel among the shatterspace), he seems halfway between a spirit and a living being, as you except he might suddenly disappear bacause of his elusiveness. He is overall social withdrawn and wary, afraid people might harm him later, competitive, a bit playful and mischievous at times, but he takes things very seriously, is higly focused in his tasks and tries to keep Sonic focused too.

Whatever version you like, one thing I know is when describling a character for your story, original or fanfiction, try to feel, rather than take characters traits as single to describle them. This is helpful especially with character like Shadow (I won't trust those who say 'Shadow is easy to move'. he is not. But is true to all character.

Personality traits are ingredients of a bigger... mmmh... cake? Alone sugar tastes like sugar, milk tastes like milk, egg yolk tastes like egg yolk, but cooked togheter the result tastes like the cake you meant to get. I guess you can put Shadow in whathever situation you like and then ask yourself: 'If I was him there, what would I do?'. Don't think to Shadow as sad, as loner or whathever. Feel it. he will be perceived as real to your reader. Remember it will still be influenced by your experiences and outlook (is exactly for this we see all those inconsistencies on Sonic characters), but as long as you don't use your favourite character as your vessel, things should turn fine.

Youtube analisis are helpful to wrap your head if you have some doubts

My personal favourite is the early Shadow. For light hearted content I'll go more to Prime Shadow or tMoStH Shadow (I like prime Shadow more). If you want to go dark, you're safe with X Shadow. I would avoid Edgelord Shadow (although is the most popular) and Chousoku Shadow alltogheter.

[thealvininkwell]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘄𝗻𝗲

"I am the hero of this story. Don't forget that. You can plaster my name on as many 'wanted' posters and plaques at the Flash Museum saying I'm a murderer and a monster as you want, but it won't change the fact that I'm the hero. My story starts in my personal past, but your distant future. A paradox, I know, but stay with me, it will all be cleared up." Eobard Thawne sat in a cold interrogation room, cuffs on his hands.

"I was born in Central Cityplex, a merge between Keystone and Central City. 25th Century. My parents raised me, designed me to be a genius." He groaned.

Darryl Frye, a Central City Police Department cop sat on the other side of the glass, "Designed? Like a computer?"

"Yes, detective," He growled, unhappy he'd been interrupted, "Like a computer." He spat through gritted teeth, "In my century, natural birth is obsolete. Families choose how their kids will look, act, think, and feel. Mostly." He explained, clenching his fists, "I remember, from a young age, I was infatuated by the 21st Century heroes. Your heroes. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman…The Flash." He smiled softly, but there was something sinister about it, "The Flash was the most intriguing. Museums, artifacts from the past. In my time, it's all precious. I wanted so badly to learn about him. Eventually, of course, I did." Eobard Thawne stood up, staring into the two way mirror, "I studied The Speed Force, the Source of Flash's power, for years at The Flash Museum. I even became curator. My nickname was 'Professor Zoom'."

Frye laughed a little, "Professor Zoom? That sounds more like an insult."

"I can assure you, Captain Frye, it's all praise. Let's move one from that, though, shall we?" He began to pace back and forth, "One day, I found a time capsule from your time. Inside, oh, inside, it contained his suit. I was stunned. Surely this was destiny" He stopped, turning to the right, staring at Frye, "Right?"

There was no response from the intercom, everyone was deathly quiet, listening.

"I put the suit on. The power it contained. It felt so… 𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜…" His eyes glowed bright red when he said it. "The suit had enough residual Speed Force energy to allow me to tap into it. It happened. I was The Flash. I couldn't believe it."

"That sounds a little too good to be true, Professor." Frye spoke up.

"Oh, it was. I'm getting there." He chuckled, "Then, he showed up. My hero. The Flash. Curious to observe who had come into possession of his old suit, he was eager to meet me. I showed him how good I was at saving people. Couples in a car accident, people falling from buildings. We were quite the team. He even gave me some wisdom: every second is precious."

"Then what happened? You said it was too good to be true." Chief Singh finally spoke up.

"What happened was I was a fraud. In the 25th Century, crime is at a net zero, meaning I had to fabricate my own crimes. Save people I put in danger. When The Flash found out, he, albeit understandably, turned me in." Thawne growled, "After that, I decided to turn my life around. I donated to charities while in prison. My fame and image had been forever tarnished, so I was trying to show I'd changed. Upon seeing my change, I was released for good behavior. It was then I knew what I had to do: I had to become a sidekick. I donned the suit once more, changing to, well, what you see now." He gestured to his suit with the cowl up. "I knew his sidekicks wore it, so I admitted I wasn't ready. I traveled back in time, to find Flash and show him I'd changed." His eyes began to glow red again, "And what did I see but The Flash handing a watch to his new ward, Kid Flash. Engraved in the timepiece, that piece of advice he gave me. Every. Second. Is. Precious."

Thawne could feel the uneasiness behind the two-way mirror, "Lost, I traveled to the Flash Museum for guidance. It was then I found out I was destined to be his villain. The greatest villain he'd ever faced. Don't let that fool you, for I'm still the hero. By pushing Flash to his full potential, I am truly making him a better hero, thus… well, I'm sure you can do that math."

Captain Frye sighed, "Professor, we have been more than patient. Please get to the point. You turned yourself in here. A verdict no doubt justified, but you had a reason. What is it?"

Zoom pulled his cowl down, his blond hair catching the light, "I, Eobard Thawne, confess to the torture and murder of Nora Thompson Allen and the framing of Henry Allen."

Police stormed the interrogation room and tried to restrain Thawne before a red streak of electricity zipped around the room and the cops collapsed. Thawne looked into the mirror, his eyes red and voice distorted, "You seem to think I want to go back to prison, no, no. I just wanted him to see that no matter how hard he tries, even if I come willingly, he will not stop me. Come to think of it, maybe I am the villain. And you know what? It feels really, really, fucking good." A loud boom echoed through the station as the two officers sat in fear.

[littlebigmouse]

TMA MAG 64-65

... We're getting a lot of stories about undergrounds, burials and tunnels lately aren't we. I'm sure that doesn't relate to anything at all.

Also I'm sorry, but the image of someone looking into a camera and eating an entire computer piece by piece sounds hilarious to me. Those 24 hour charity stream have really taken off, huh?

And now to the most important piece of the statement: The psychological terrorism Jon is inflicting on his coworkers I mean the office drama!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Tim Stoker did nothing wrong, ever, in his life.

And god, I love the VA's performance in this episode. Such a good job!

OH NOW Jon is suspicious of the CCTV footage. Lord give me strength.

Jon, if you really think that Tim is a murder suspect, then why are you telling him about your suspicions regarding the footage? If you think there's a chance he did it or is an "agent" of something sinister, why are you tipping your hand like that just when everyone would have reason to believe you've been placated?

Or maybe, the fact that you've been friends for so long, as Tim is alluding to here - which, I need more details on that backstory AHH - maybe you still believe in that friendship and maybe you just desperately want to tell anyone of your findings, maybe you do actually need the support of people who regularly flirt or hack their way into police files to uncover this mystery.

I know paranoia is not supposed to be rational. But I will keep yelling at Jon to please maybe THINK for a second.

Also. Tim's practically solving this mystery for me. I feel very heard. And also damn, I need to point out and appreciate Tim's social/observational skills here. Tim is aware that Jon's been having a rough time because he went through the exact same trauma, and he acnowledges that. Tim gives further support to my "Elias doesn't care" theory by virtue of having it himself. He rightly points out Martin's - at this point - harmful conflict avoidance, and he just cuts himself off when he gets to Not-Sascha.

What have you noticed about her, Tim?

Honestly, I headcanon Sascha and Tim were something like best buddies pre-and-during-season-one, since they're mentioned to work together a lot. Maybe he noticed the 180° in her personality. Maybe he feels just as betrayed by her dismissal of Jon as by Martin's, but if it were just that, he wouldn't cut himself off, would he? I can imagine he tried to reach out to her about his troubles, but due to whatever Not-Sascha is up to, or maybe because she lacks the bond/the memories of the real Sasha, she probably brushed him off.

UGh, I am so invested in this.

What's most infruriating is that just as Tim realizes that he can't leave, and Jon explains to him that the archives are trapping them - that should have been Jon's clue that Tim is being genuine here, that he didn't kill anyone, that he's trying to get out of an incredibly shitty situation that Jon is absolutely responsible for.

But instead, Jon still refuses to trust Tim. And if Jon really thinks that Tim is faking here, that he is pretending to be this emotionally distraught, that he was faking what, years of friendship? That he is that good an actor, than that means Jon also does not take much stock into their friendship, into the very real struggle Tim is displaying here. He doesn't acknowledge it because he doesn't believe it, and that's a paranoia that's downright heinous. Imagine you're having a mental breakdown and your long time friend is so wrapped up in their own shit they don't believe you. While you're standing in front of them, having symptoms and a face full of worm holes.

So yeah, our man Tim does not deserve any of this shit.

Also, Jon's absolute social inability shining through brightly here, that he thinks that Tim thinks that Jane Prentiss is his fault. Ma brother in horror podcasts, everything after is the problem, and the fact that Jon refuses to own up to it here kind of shows that even his previous apology to all of them - what, 5 episodes ago? - was not genuine.

You're an asshole, Mr. Archivist.

Do you guys think Elias knows that none of them can leave? I think after Gertrude he should have realized the archives appear to be a job for life. Has he tried to leave himself? Maybe he doesn't give a shit because he knows, whatever is going on, he cannot escape. The only think he can do is watch everyone around him go insane and or die, until the madness claims him as well.

Now that would be interesting, wouldn't it?

[arrthurpendragon]

also i’d just like to offer up my Spiderverse oc Satomi Kurosawa for a gushing session. like Satomi is quite literally a would’ve-been-great girlie and i just feel like her personality/backstory hits hard even tho i was the one who came up with it lol

im really sorry in advance when this inevitably becomes a wall of text i just really love talking abt Satomi rn, also Satomi is from Earth-42, aka Miles G. Morales universe, aka the universe where there isn’t a spiderman

seriously, the only thing Satomi suffers from is the weight of her expectations, her parents love her no matter how hard she crashed (literally and figuratively) in college, she has more money than she could ever need, and she has a few good friends that stand by her through thick and thin. yet she still isn’t satisfied and she hates herself for being so ungrateful and she knows that she should be grateful but she isn’t and it’s just an endless loop of self-condemnation in her mind; it’s fascinating how she self-sabotages tbh, but if there’s one thing she would never willingly sabotage, it’s her coding, Satomi is def not a genius, she just poured her entire heart and soul into the field bc she wanted to make her parents proud; and it is one of the reasons why she is still respected after she fell off the deep end — Satomi is literally one of the best in the field and she still has it after nearly dying in her college car crash accident. she even becomes the Prowler’s guy in the chair!! Satomi dons the name Master of Spin (or just Spin, since her full name is a mouthful) when she gets behind her specially fortified computer, and when Spin comes out, she wraps her code around the schemes of the Sinister Six and takes them out without the plans ever coming to fruition. like literally Satomi is such a cool oc i don’t know how she came into my brain, there’s a lot more to her but imma stop here bc it’s already so long lmao, i hope you like my child as much as i do Kass!!

(also Satomi has a pet turtle named Turbo and he is the bestest turtle to have ever lived <33

Love this! It looks like you've put a ton of work into brainstorming already! :)

Good luck working on your OCs! :)

[sangonohyuka]

Beomgyu being so obsessed with his girlfriend he always touching her, ALWAYS. And beomgyu is a gamer right? He even spend a lot of money for his games, the way he ready to drop his game, just for u because no matter how good the game is, u always be the number one priority. Also, maybe this is just me projecting but I think beomgyu rarely call his gf by their real name, he always have cute nickname for u!! And, you expect him to be vanila and soft in bedroom, coddling you and everything, but turn out he is mean and a TEASE. I love this dynamic and it suit beomgyu so much😆

💭 gamer! boyfriend beomgyu but the catch is he's a sucker for your existence? SIGN ME UP ANON UR SO BIG BRAIN ILY MWAH <33

warning: NSFW, sub! afab reader, use of feminine nicknames, dom! beomgyu, fluff at the beginning, degradation, praising, orgasm denial, lots of teasing, dacryphilia, dumbification, humiliation, a lil thigh pinching, mating press yass

again, wrote this at 2AM so sorry for the mistakes 😭

gamer! boyfriend beomgyu who's quite the geek for his beloved video games— always so competitive in his gameplays, setting the 'win and earn that winner title' as his top priority. but when we're talking about you on stake? simple: his choice would always be you.

no matter how important the ranked match he's competing in, he's ready to drop it there and then if you call for him. you can ask him to cuddle with you when he's in the middle of a game and he'd happily oblige, immediately shutting his computer down— sometimes even forgetting to save his gamefiles.

beomgyu is surely the sweetest boyfriend you could ever ask for! always so loving, caring, and attentive— his soft and gentle demeanor led you to believing that beomgyu is without any doubts, a vanilla person. i mean, how can't he when he's almost like the human embodiment of an angel?

oh, how naive you had to be.

of course, his sweet personality was no facade, yet it perfectly kept the beast hidden within— fooling you into thinking that beomgyu would be coddling you with his sickly intoxicating praises.

here you are now, straddled underneath with both of your hands pinned right above your head as you whimpered from the feeling of his hot breath trickling on the skin of your neck. not to mention, your entire state was a complete mess now: cheeks drenched in tears and drool, face burning red from the humiliation, and every part of you growing overly sensitive over the amount of teasing beomgyu tortured you with.

"what's wrong baby?" he cooed, voice full of innocence and faked emphaty as if he hadn't just denied your orgasm for the third time this night.

"b—beommie—"

"beommie what? use your words baby. you're not that dumb, aren't you?" he taunted in reply, satisfied with your pathetic state underneath.

nothing but incoherent noises left your throat, your cheeks heating up out of embarassment from your inability to even form proper words.

a dissapointed sigh left his lips, "not even halfway through and you're already slobbering like a dumb whore." the cruel nickname earned a whine from you, tears brimming at the corner of your eyes only for you to hear a mocking snicker from above.

"aww, is this too much for my baby?" he wrapped one of his hand firmly around your jaw, a sinister gaze boring into your teary ones.

"want me to be nice with you, hm?" he offered as he gently wiped your tears away with his thumb, the sweetness of his tone filled you with a hope that you've finally acquired his mercy. yet, you sensed something off, very off— especially the fact that beomgyu is now forcing your legs up, pushing them right against your chest as he adjusted himself infront of you.

"i asked you a question, answer me." he pinched your thigh softly, yet just enough for you to let out a pathetic yelp.

"y—yes! p-please," you begged as you felt your body aching for his touch, desperate for him to let you reach your high just for once. a laugh erupted from beomgyu, satisfied with the desperation in your hoarse voice.

with a sinister smirk plastered on his lips, beomgyu thrusted his hips in— filling you full only with a sharp thrust, going impossibly deeper as he held both your thighs, keeping them spread open. the tip of his cock felt like it's grazing on your cervix, earning a lewd whimper from you as you threw your head back from the overwhelming pleasure. with his cock still burried deep inside, his face leaned closer to yours— his lips brushing soflty against your swollen one with an unnoticeable gap between them.

"too bad darlin', i'm not done just yet with my fun."

[funnyexel]

Mrs. Wayne

Y’all know the drill. This story is meant for black women.

A/n: I was reading this series at like 2 am and I noticed I haven’t updated it in 9 months…I’ve been sitting on this part so long I forgot. Sorry guys lol

p.s. I lost the other gif so enjoy this one

Masterlist Mega List

*THIS IS PART 4*

<<< Previous Next >>>

You scroll through your phone, waiting for an important call. “Sweets, can I talk to you for a moment?” He says, moving his chair towards you. Looking up from your phone, you nod. “I read your diary.” He exclaims bluntly. You laugh hysterically. “You did what?” Your mouth slightly open as you realize what he just said to you. “You were dying, I thought-” Your ringtone interrupts his words. Looking down, you read the number and its the call you were waiting for. You ignore it and look back to him. “Please Bruce, I-” You attempt to explain yourself to him but they call again. Huffing as you’re about to hang it up, he holds your wrist. “Just answer it. We can talk after.” You bite the inside of your lip and answer it. “Hey! How are you?” You smile with enthusiasm. She cuts to the chase during the call. “Yes, of course I did.” You chuckle. “Who do you take me for?” You sigh, catching your breath from the laughter. Bruce sat next to you and leaned over, trying to hear who you’re talking to. You push him away and continue talking to her. “For sure, I’ll be in Gotham soon and I’ll help you.” You nod happily to her.

“Okay that’s great. Thanks again. Bye, Selena.” She says her goodbyes and you hang up. “Can we talk upstairs?” You request to him and you both move from the computer to a corner. “I thought I was going to lose you and Alfred gave it to me. I didn’t want to invade your privacy but I’m glad I did now. Is that really how you feel?” He whispers to you and you sniffle. “Bruce…I’m just battling myself. There’s nothing you can do even if you try.” You whisper back to him and he runs his fingers through his hair. “That’s where you’re wrong. You didn’t even give me a chance to do something.” Before you can rebuttal to his argument, Tim interrupts. “Was that Selena? Like Selena Kyle.” You mentally curse yourself. “Not now Tim.” Bruce facepalms himself. “Mom please, just this one question.” He puts up his one index finger. You practically huffed and puffed back to your seat. “Come on we’ll stop asking.” You looked to Jason. “Not you too, Jason.” You sighed, trying not to give in. “It just slipped forget I said anything.” You exclaim, trying to distract yourself with your phone.

They each stood in-front of you, Tim covering your screen with his hand. “Seriously?” You groan. “You can’t just brush pass the fact you were on the phone with Selena Kyle. Cat Woman, the one person you hate.” Tim says. “I can brush pass that.” You move Tim’s hand and glance at Bruce. “Just tell them, y/n.” He huffs, slowly getting annoyed about the slip up. “I don’t think-” He stares you down, not even attempting a protest you finally give in. “Okay, fine.” Looking over your shoulder as you turn back to your kids. “I used to be apart of Gotham City Sirens. I mean I technically still am but I guess I’d be considered more of an honorary member.” They absorb the newly given information on their mother figure. You read it on their faces that they would have never guessed that a pure hearted person like you would ever consider being on such a team. “Listen. It wasn’t the best time in my life. It was a long time ago, I can’t deny we did some questionable things but I think we did more good than bad.” Out of all of them, Jason was the most interested.

Him and Bruce, don’t necessarily see eye to eye so knowing that his mom was apart of a sinister group was more than intriguing. “What did you do?” Jason asked, stepping a bit closer to you. “Hm. That’s a hard question. Well, I was the brains of most things, I got supplies we needed and even a place to reside. When I was younger, I was very in-zone and understanding of my body. I had to be, since I was the ‘weak one’ in the group, as some would say.” Glancing at Bruce, you wondered if you should say more. Your next words, certainly being fire to his puddle of gas. “I did use guns a lot, but I transitioned to knifes and swords. I feel more in control with them. I won’t front, using guns were fun.” Jason practically beamed at your words. He wanted to rub it in Bruces face so bad but your eyes had a silent warning hidden within its gaze. “I never said I had a problem with Selena.” Bruce covers his mouth in attempt to hide his laugh. “But you literally slander her all the time.” Duke steps up. “Correction. I slander cat women. Not once did I slander Selena.” They don’t buy your explanation. “Aren’t they the same person?” Damian voices his input. “Before she retired, yes. But this new cat women makes my blood boil. I don’t know who she is but it seems Selena got herself a replacement.

Given since the video of me crushing her under my feet was over 5 years ago, I could assume she’s probably out doing who knows what.” Even Bruce becomes a little confused, replaying your words in his head he finally understands what you’re trying to say. “The past is in the past.” You shrug. “Who knew you were so cool.” Tim says. “Total cool points.” Dick says. Looking past, your kids you see your eldest walking in. “What’s up, dick.” You smile, stiffly. “Apologies on the intrusion.” Cory says and you wave her off. “No worries.” The air is pretty stiff, the tension Bruce brought with him everywhere was almost annoying. “Cool points? I think I deserve a little more than that for all the stuff I did.” You break the tension. “Yeah, a court date.” You side eye Bruce. “Don’t be a hypocrite.” They all chuckle at your banter. “Why don’t you tell us a story, just to prove the stuff you did.” Tim says as he bated you. “A story?” You say, practically to yourself. There were so much stories that it was so difficult to choose. Dick, Cory, Tim, Duke, Damian, Casey and Jason, waited for your response. “Ok, if its a story you want then its a story you’ll get.” You smirk, thinking of the perfect story. Bruce already knew which story you were going to tell by the look in your eye, so he turns and pretends to be busy. “As you all must know, Gotham was a very corrupt city. Still is but a while back things were much, much worse.” Your compelling introduction, begins the story.

Hitching the rope on the sturdy railing, you slide down quietly unhooking yourself from the rope. You break the glass to the tellers area, officially starting the timer for yourself. The police are on their way. Logging into the computer you wire money from the accounts needed and send them to burner accounts of your own. Erasing everything you did on the computer as if you were never there, you quickly hook yourself on the rope and allow it to pull you up. Your heart was beating rapidly. “Okay this isn’t that bad.” You mutter to yourself, breathing a sigh of relief that immediately gets stuck in your throat. The mechanism cranks, clacks then stops. Yanking on the rope, you grip on it in despair, knowing its jammed. In the desperate moment you still stay alert, hearing a sound from the corner of the bank. Drawing your gun, you point it at the spot you hear the noise. “Come out.” You say, seemingly to no one. Footsteps follow after a pause of silence. “Only point a gun if you’re ready to shoot.” He said as he emerged from the darkness. You just kept pointing the gun at him, knowing that its on safety.

“Thanks but I don’t need a tutorial.” You say with heavy sarcasm. “Clearly. Why don’t you leave. You’re halfway gone anyway.” He says and you take the gun off safety. Attempting to get the machine working again as you yank the rope, it still didn’t budge. Hearing the police sirens come closer, you finally stop pointing the gun at him and shoot the rope. Your intentions were purposeful. You knew what you were doing and it didn’t come across as wrong at any point. Not when you did it or when you were falling almost 20 feet. You did plan to catch yourself, right? But there wasn’t much choice when your being placed on a roof. It must’ve happened so fast that you couldn’t comprehend. His arms rapped around you and you pushed yourself off him. “What the fuck.” You raise your voice at him. Reaching for the gun in your holster but grabbing onto nothing. He stood there waving the gun in-front of you, then disarming it and throwing it aside. “Trying to kill yourself, wouldn’t have solved your problems.” He says and you scoff. “I was going to catch myself.” You exclaim, the statement coming out as a question.

As if you were still confused on what was happening and what you were saying. “If you must know something about me, I can handle myself. I don’t need you or anyone else trying to play hero to me. As you can see, this city is too far from saving.” You advance to him a little and hold down your hood a little. “Nothing is too far from saving, not even a criminal like you.” You chuckle at his response. “Criminal? I’m doing this city a favor.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And your companions?” He eggs you on with the annoying question. “I said I not them. Maybe criminal status fits them more.” Looking down, you see the police walking around. Opening your cloak in the slightest, you pull out a small hook and rope. “When I catch you again, you’re not getting away so easily.” He sternly warns you. “Is that a promise?” You smirk as you latch the hook on the railing. “Until we meet again, big bat.” You grip the rope and slide down it.

“Yeah, getting caught by Batman on my first solo mission wasn’t a good look with my team.” You say. “So what happened after that?” Tim asks and you scratch your mind for the events that happened after. “I, started practicing knife throwing because of how easily he took the gun and took it apart. I had a backup but he probably would’ve done the same thing. But I went home that day and thought about what he said to me. It was kind of odd, when I got the chance to think about it. I wanted to tell someone but who was I supposed to tell that Batman said I wasn’t far from saving. Most people don’t get more than a word and a good beat down. So I thought about it for a long while and by this time the team was ready to cut me off. I did another solo mission to the International Charity Museum of Gotham.” Dick becomes intrigued. “What happened at the museum?” You clap your hands and fold them in your lap. “I went as myself, no hood, no disguise, nothing and that was probably my biggest mistake of the night.”

Taking a deep breath before stepping into the museum, you straighten your posture. The body tracing black dress made you stand out but blend in at the same time. You decided to wear a black wig, why not pop out a bit. You remembered why you came to the Museum in the first place as you looked at a few paintings. Moving closer to your destination, you hear forced giggles and klink of champagne glasses. Rolling your eyes as you peek over a corner, seeing three girls and Bruce Wayne. “Not totally random.” You utter to yourself. Back tracking, you recall that interaction with him at your old job, ‘He definitely won’t remember that.’ You sigh to yourself but turn back where you came and hide in the women’s bathroom. Unknown to you, the quick clacks of your heels made you aware to him. “Better safe than sorry.” You huff, fixing your hair. Waiting another minute or two, you calmly exit the bathroom and adjust your dress. Making it look like you actually used the restroom. “I haven’t seen you around here.” You look to your left and there he was. “I’m guessing no woman escapes your acknowledgment.”

You give a tight smile and continue your journey. “You’re quite correct in that sense, especially one that I’ve seen before.” Your eyes widen but you relax. “Ah really? I think I would’ve remembered crossing paths with someone such as yourself.” You smirk, secretly wanting him to leave you alone. While walking next to you, your hand accidentally wonders to your thigh as if you had a gun concealed there and grabbed onto nothing. You cover it by itching your side. “This is nice but I must be going now.” You say to him but he stops you before you could slip away. “I’ll see you at toast, then.” He flirts and you see right through his charm. “Is that a promise?” You flirt back and go your own way. Leaving him in the middle of the hallway. Getting so close to the corridor that you can taste it. But it falls out your grasp as you’re pulled to a corner and shoved into a maintenance closet. It happened so swiftly that you didn’t know who pulled on you until you were face to face. “Not only do I recognize you from that coffee shop but the roof top too.” He claims. “What roof top?” Confusion clouds your expression. “I said when I catch you again, you weren’t getting away so easily and I meant it.” He leans in your ear and you shiver. There’s no way you can bullshit your way out of this one.

You look at him in disbelief. “You’re Batman?” You speak lowly. “And you’re a criminal, here to steal.” He states, ignoring the obvious question. You look up to him and run your tongue over your top row of teeth. “And you’re Bruce Wayne. What will you do to me? Hm?” You declare, feeling a little cocky. He can’t admit that you have him between a rock and a hard place but it isn’t like he hasn’t been in situations like this before. “I am going to steal tonight but I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.” You back up against the door, your hand resting on the handle. “I’ll catch you.” He exclaims and you smile. “I’m counting on it.” You quickly open and close the door, slickly leaving the room. Opening the door to the exhibit, you speedily walk to the incased artwork and go under your dress for a knife. Breaking off the sign that provides information for the piece and throwing it to the side. A small box was hidden behind the sign and you take it. Looking towards the window, you get a bright idea. Going over to it, you knock on it determining the thickness of the glass.

Using the knife, you trace a circle in the window and knocking it once more to make it more fragile. Taking some steps back, you run up and jump through the window. Shielding your face and holding the box close, you land on a mattress you placed there earlier. Collecting yourself, you get up and take some trash off a pile covered by a tarp. Yanking off the plastic, it reveals your motorcycle. Putting the box away in the seat compartment, you place the helmet on your head and start the engine. Your back wheel rolling in some dirty water before revving away. Weaving through the traffic, you break off from the busy roads and go through the abandoned underground tunnel. Arriving back to the warehouse you call base, once you’re sure no one followed. You parked the bike, threw the helmet to the side and took out the box. Going inside through the back door, you’re met with all of them standing side by side. Harley, Ivy and Selena. You hold up the box and smile. “Hold this.” You say to Selena while you go in the near hallway to change out of the fancy clothes and into your bodysuit and cloak. “So where are we going to break open that box?” You ask as you finish up. The hood of your cloak off as you walk back towards them.

“Y’all ready? Where’s Harle-” Your speech slurred as you get hit in the skull. Your hands craddle your head as you fall to the ground. Your eyes slowly blink open as your head pounds. The rough gravel hurt underneath your palms and as your vision gets clearer, you unwillingly watched the warehouse you worked for burn along with your bike. You stand using your hands for the extra boost and watch as they burn. It seemed unbearable but you still looked, couldn’t take your eyes off of it in fact. You needed to remember the going away present they gave you. Once the last piece of metal burned, you walk away. For now leaving that part of your life behind. Putting on your hood as you move closer in the city. Stumbling here and there. Abeling yourself to climb onto the roof of a building, sitting down to observe as the city works. You choke back tears, inevitably letting them fall down your face. Letting your head hang low as your hands gripped onto the ledge you sat on.

Was it possible for someone to feel so much pain and resentment for, not only themselves but the world as well. “what? did you come to see the pity party first hand?” You manage to say with your voice breaking. “I came for information.” He strictly says and you sigh. Moving off the ledge and on the roof, you pace yourself towards him. “I have it.” You say, pushing back the hood and reaching in the cloak for a flash drive. “I took it because I knew this would happen.” You hand it to him and he hesitantly takes it. “Thats it?” You nod to him. “Bank Routing Numbers, Records, Information in that little flash drive.” He hums, ready to leave but he delays for a moment. “How’d you get like this?” You chuckle to him. “Nothing more than time.” You turn away from him and look out towards Gotham again. “Come on.” You look over and sigh. Taking steady steps to approach him.

“There’s way more stories after that but that’s where I’m going to end for now.” They nod and hum to you. Satisfied with the stories you told. “Now, if you all will excuse Bruce and I.” Bruce walks with you to the elevator and you wait for the elevator to reach the manor. “I saved you?” Bruce asked as you both exit the elevator. “I don’t really remember it that way. You had blood running down your forehead.” You stop him in the hallway. “I was going to jump off the ledge, bruce.” You tell him. “I went from having an okay job and apartment to having nothing but a life a crime to turn to in a blink of an eye. And losing that was the tipping point for me. The last thing I had was gone. From that day on I thought I was a burden to you. Hell, I still think I’m a burden to you.” He steps closer to you. “You helped me more than I did you.” He clarifies and you shake your head.

“That doesn’t matter Bruce. We both lost in some way. You had someone. I had people getting taken away, over and over and over again. Who’s to say that one day that won’t happen to you or one of the kids?” You sigh, gathering yourself. “I finally have everything, I dreamt of having. You’d think I’d enjoy it. Live in the moment. But all I can think about is losing this moment.” You cry out the remainder of your words. “So day in and day out, I think you deserve something, someone better. Because you’ve been beat down and I know what that feeling is like.” He hugs you. “Who do you think I deserve? Describe it to me.” He lets go of you to look you in the eye. “I think you deserve someone outstanding, understanding of you and your habits, beautiful, smart and most important of all not broken. I’m broken Bruce, no matter what you do to fix it. I’ll unfortunately be the same.” He frustratingly sighs. “No amount of fancy clothes, hair or makeup can cover that. I just…I don’t know if I can be your wife.”

“Now, stop. You allowed me to put that ring on your finger so you’re marrying me. I don’t care if you’re “broken”. Have you met me?” You huff to his words. “Those words you used to describe someone I deserve, describes you perfectly.” He guides you to the staircase, sitting you down and taking a seat next to you. “You surprise me everyday with how outstanding you are. You understand me so well. Don’t even get me started on how beautiful you are.” He caresses your cheek while wiping a tear. “You outsmart me so much and if you’re broken then we’re broken. Now, when we get married and after that. Don’t you recall that before we were dating or anything of the sorts, you didn’t have fancy clothes, hair or makeup. You rarely wore anything more than a sweatsuit and your natural hair.” You frowned a little touching on your hair. “And I couldn’t have liked it more. Fell in love with you the same way.” He smiles to you. “When I proposed, you were fresh out the bed.” You chuckle at the memory. “Don’t tell me you forgot.” He teases. “Remind me.” You breathe in.

It was a peaceful morning at least before Alfred ran to you in a rush. “Y/n.” You twisted and turned in the comfort of the mattress. “Miss Y/n!” You lift up from your sleep. “I’m up! I’m up. What’s wrong?” You shove the covers off you, wide awake. “Its Master Wayne, he’s downstairs.” That’s all he had to say for you to jump out the bed and rush down the stairs. “Bruce! Bruce.” You shouted his name, searching for him. “Bruce! Where are you.” You raise your voice, Alfred close behind. “Maybe check outside.” He says and you hum. Sprinting to the patio door in the kitchen. “Bruce-” Your words get stuck in your throat, seeing Bruce on his knee with a small box in his hand. You shrink down to a stooping position, covering your face. Looking at him once more, you shriek. Alfred brings you back to your feet and whispers to you “You have to give the man an answer”. You immediately say yes. “Yes! Yes!” You jump up still looking at Bruce, holding your hand out to him once you stand still.

“Wrong hand.” He says and you awkwardly smile, giving him your left hand. He laughs as he slides the diamond on your ring finger. You never gave the ring a second glance, jumping into his arms. Holding onto his neck tightly as you kiss him. Letting yourself and him breathe, you smile. “We’re engaged!” You jump in his arms, rapping your legs around his waist and kissing him again. “I would ask if you like the ring but-” You lean back and look at your hand. “I love it.” You smile. Realizing you’re in pajamas, you jump off him. “How come you’re in a suit and I’m in cartoon pajamas.” You state and he chuckles. “The element of surprise.” He shrugs and you push him in the shoulder. “My morning breath stinks and I still have eye boogers.” You groan, walking inside and he helplessly follows. “You look so pretty.” He compliments you and you bite the inside of your cheek. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“Do you want to know the real reason why I proposed to you like that?” He asks and you nod. “I was thinking to take you out to your favorite restaurant and all that but I knew that I didn’t need that for you to say yes. I just needed you alone, even if you were in pajamas.” You hug him, resting your head on his shoulder. “If you ever feel this way again, I want you to let me know. That’s one thing we have to get straight before we get married.” You smile to his words. “We’re going to be talking a lot more.” You warn him. “Good.” He brings you closer to him. “Did I really look pretty that morning?” You question him. “Yes, you looked gorgeous, so pretty.” He appreciates you. “Besides only me, you and Alfred know that I proposed to you in your pajamas.” He says, assuring you. “That’s true, thank you, bruce.”

[lynxgriffin]

DELTARUNE Chapter 2 Thoughts!!!

WOOO OKAY I stayed up WAY too late trying to finish Deltarune Chapter 2 last night!! It took me awhile because I suck at video games, but I finally did it!

While I normally type up commentary as I play first time, I didn’t get the chance to do that here, so I’ll get down all my general thoughts here!

Unspoilery thoughts: loved it, knew I would, will need to replay soon to see what all I missed, and am excited for whatever’s next!

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 2 under the cut!!

(These are just as I think of them, not in any particular order!)

Okay overall I can see why this took two years and a much larger team to complete, the second chapter is SO much more expansive and heavy on scene-specific animations! It all looks SO GOOD

I already love Susie but now I love her even more, her expressions were SO GOOD

Susie has a (little nubby) tail confirmed?? That’s adorable

Okay this game is definitely reading the chapter 1 data, which I find interesting because I didn’t obtain it through Steam last time

But like, I gave the “Susie eats chalk” response to Noelle last time, and in chapter two she gave Susie the box of chalk, so awwww!

Also I missed Onionsan in my initial computer playthrough, so they didn’t show up this time, just got a moment of Susie and Kris sitting by the river together!

I find it REALLY interesting that while Ralsei is a Darkner, apparently he can jump around to other Dark Worlds whereas other Darkners like Lancer and Rouxls can’t so much…hmmm!

It was so nice to see everyone filling out the town now, though!

Noooo Susie probably doesn’t have her own room at home, awwww

Kris just casually jumping up to the classroom and bringing everyone back tho, perfect

Was right on there being multiple dark worlds in other locations, but honestly that part’s the least surprising to me, that always seemed like a pretty standard path to take!

The werewires were creepy and great; difficult to battle tho

QUEEN IS MY NEW FAVORITE

EVERY LINE OF HERS WAS A+

I’m so glad that I didn’t really go anywhere with Jevil’s line about the Queen in PT; nothing I came up with could’ve topped Queen being an absolute acid trip of an antagonist in this chapter

NOELLE SO SWEET

Her lil’ robot disguise! Her being afraid of mice at first!

I kinda wish we could have had her in the party more? She was super useful as a party member, honestly!

But sadly I guess we’re not gonna get more than the three-person party, awww

B E R D L Y

I cannot believe Berdly basically became incel Falco but also had a sympathetic backstory

Like I laughed a lot at all of Berdly’s expressions and dialogue while also going BERDLY YOU ARE THE WORST

Noelle’s WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? part = A+

I feel like Queen’s relationship with Noelle definitely had some uncomfy parallels with probably how she is dealing with her real mom

I AM NOT GOOD AT PUNCH-OUT AND THERE WAS A LOT OF THAT

I somehow missed the part where Susie is wearing Ralsei’s glasses??? Where is this

Also in general there was a LOT of puzzles and gameplay in the overworld map, which I was bad at but was also very cool

KRIS GET THE BANANA

The dolphin pop-up ads…

I DID NOT LIKE THE SPAMTON GUY

DISCOMFORT THE WHOLE TIME

Apparently he’s also the secret boss for this chapter?? That’s at least if the soundtrack is anything to go by. Maybe I’ll go back and try it on another playthrough, but aaaaagggghhhg

SO MANY GOOD SUSELLE MOMENTS

MY LIL SHIPPER HEART HAS A NICE SERVING AND WANTS MORE

The whole deal with the ferris wheel conversation and just awwwwuuuuuuh

Needs more Susiezilla now too (I picked the “something romantic” option because of course)

MORE PLZ, LET’S DIG DEEPER HERE

Also I cannot believe Susie has (at least) two people crushing on her and is just totally oblivious to it

There’s SO Many interesting HMM moments with Kris and that definitely included the entire acid tunnel of love scene with Kris and Ralsei

Interrupted of course by an appropriately silly Rouxls battle

But man the more we see (or often DON’T see) of Ralsei the more intriguing it gets

LET NOELLE RIDE IN THE TEACUP RIDE WITH SUSIE

I just knew going back to get that chest without Noelle would be something dumb

OKAY I ended up dying a lot to 1) the Mauswheel, and 2) the color-changing butlers?? So I ended up having to do the whole sequence with annoying dog blasting through everything in his path multiple times

I DID feel bad for Berdly during that boss battle where he was werewired; that was nice and body horror-ish

That said… “I NEED A KISS FROM A GAMER GIRL”

The giant mecha boss battle absolutely kicked my ass, though

Like it WAS badass but that took me a LOT of tries to get through

My thrash machine was very GUN’S

Overall the difficulty curve was definitely stepped up from chapter 1!

LOTS MORE DARK WORLD AND KNIGHT LORE FROM RALSEI HERE

And lots of talk about Noelle being pretty important to it, too!

I’m glad I got to bring Susie on the walkaround this time around town!

I AM GOING TO BE YOUR WACKY ROOMMATE NOW

King and Queen’s entire conversation was so hilarious

King just slides over to suck on that sweet, sweet giant hamster water bottle

BUNKER STILL BEIN SUSPICIOUS

Aww the pizzeria is not a creepy mascot Chuck-E-Cheese’s style, tho

Confirmation that Gerson was Alvin’s father! And I feel like there’s a lot we’re missing there, too

Still not allowed to see Papyrus…

Catti’s parents…

I wasn’t expecting this at all, but it feels like they may be introducing way more Lightners to the Dark World with each chapter, since both Noelle and Berdly ended up there?

And if that’s the case, I feel like it’s hinting that Catti and/or Jockington may be next

SUSIE STAYING AT KRIS’S PLACE FOR A SLEEPOVER WAS SO SWEET

IMMEDIATELY UNDERCUT BY KRIS GOING FERAL AGAIN

Like I dunno the whole scenario somehow managed to be both REALLY sinister and very funny at once??

Susie and Toriel are busy laughing and making a pie together, meanwhile Kris just sneaks the hell out and slashes Toriel’s tires because it’s KNIVES OUT TIME

Please let Susie watch more giant monster (and giant human) movies with her friends, she needs this

THAT SAID, THAT ENDING

HMM HMM HMMMMMMMMMM

SO THIS SEEMS TO BE INDICATING THAT KRIS IS THE KNIGHT

Which like…is in fact making SOME KIND OF SENSE in my head overall, but I definitely need more context to see how exactly

Like I’m all “THIS FEELS RIGHT BUT I DON’T KNOW WHY, I NEED MOOOORE”

Considering Ralsei’s reaction to Noelle and Berdly trying to make a new fountain, this definitely seems to be setting up some kind of future confrontation between Kris and Ralsei, which! HMMMM

I THINK IT’S TIME FOR THIS GIF AGAIN

Basically I HAD A GRAND TIME, I NEED TO REPLAY, EXCITED FOR THE REST WHENEVER IT COMES

[iwantescapism13]

You know what’s unsettling to me? The weird feeling that each dialogue that Dark Marcy says is from a different Leviathan ancestor / Amphibian scholar. It almost feels like... they treat Marcy’s body like some kind of car that they can just take turn and drive. Thus, the dialogues sounding like it’s from different personalities.

Let me run through two things:

1) their handful of lines and who are “taking over”

and

2) how Marcy is going to be saved

Go on and read the details under the cut if you’re interested in this theory.

----

1) Dark Marcy’s lines

The very first dialogue of Dark Marcy already sounded sinister, which was understandable since Marcy just got possessed.

Sounded darker than the first dialogue - a Leviathan ancestor most likely.

Now, this is where I had a bit of suspicion. It didn’t sound as sinister as the previous dialogues. In fact, it sounded more like... they enjoyed(?) taking Marcy’s phone apart and finding it fascinating(?) that they didn’t find anything useful in it. Like... a scientist, perhaps...

Could be the scientist again or another amphibian, judging by how casual and informal they spoke.

A different sound again. Someone who’s intrigued by something foreign to them.

Yet a totally different sound, even adding a hand gesture to complete the dialogue.

Someone who’s cruel this time, who have no sense of consideration for the original host.

It’s back to the scientist again.

Someone who went through Marcy’s memories and took in the teenager slang, as well as knowing that the body needs sustenance.

This is the dialogue that made me start thinking about this theory. The formality of the dialogue... the way the words were enunciated... this is definitely from a Leviathan ancestor. Probably a former princess or queen.

The amphibian controlling now seems like of a noble status, the way they sounded when making such declaration.

A dialogue that followed after Marcy’s body fell. Yet another Leviathan ancestor / Amphibian scholar that doesn’t give a shit about Marcy’s body. To top it all off, they don’t seem to sense any pain.

Probably taken over by the scientist again. Or it could be another Amphibian scholar that somehow sounded very robotic with all the computer terms.

From systematic-sounding terms to informal dialogue like this? Someone else took over again.

Someone sarcastic took over. May not necessarily be the owner of the first 2 Dark Marcy dialogues.

Someone who treats King Andrias like a child. Probably a teacher...? Or probably a relative that knows King Andrias when he was young... 

And this nails the theory right in my brain. Former King Aldrich took over Marcy's body to say the line to King Andrias.

So now that all have been analyzed, I’m gonna explain the 2nd point:

2) How can Marcy be saved?

As mentioned above and by Fomer King Aldrich himself in the episode, The Core consists of the consciousness of the different Leviathan ancestors and Amphibian scholars - whoever were considered “smart”. With different consciousness means that there exists different idealogies. Sure, they all share a common goal and that’s to make sure that their legacy continues and Amphibia prospers. However, their way of working is surely different from one another.

Who knows how they’re maintaining order at the moment, allowing control of Marcy’s body one at a time like they have some kind of queue system.

But that’s precisely their downfall.

Two words: Internal. Conflict.

If they focus their efforts onto deciding who should be the main controller of the body, this will give Marcy a chance to escape the room that she’s trapped in and finally take back her own body. After that, she can use her powers to forcefully get them out of her mind.

However... that will depend on whether Marcy wants to escape the room in the first place.

If the theory about Marcy being in an endless loop of good memories with Anne and Sasha is true, then this is her way of coping with stress and her escapism.

Why would she get away when this is all she ever wanted - to be friends with Anne and Sasha forever?

And that’s probably why...

...it’s ‘The Hardest Thing’.

Marcy Wu needs to face reality.

Once she wakes up, she would have to agree with her parents to move away.

Once she wakes up, she would have to face Anne and Sasha and properly apologize to them for everything that had happened.

Once she wakes up, Anne would have to give a piece of her mind.

Once she wakes up, Sasha would have to give a piece of her mind.

Once she wakes up...

...she would have to accept that she’s worth saving.

And that she’s forgiven, no matter what.

[imaginingmanyfandoms]

Paul's Lullaby | part one

| next>

"Sam?" Paul was, he was in pain. He respect Sam and Emily's privacy, but he needed to talk to Sam now.

Paul wasn't angry, he was in pain. He felt like the world had opened up and swallowed him whole. He ruined his own life, and he didn't know where else to turn.

"Paul?" Sam asked, opening the door. Emily was behind him, face covered in concern.

"I imprinted tonight," Paul said, "but she hates me. She really, really hates me."

"I'm sure it's nothing you can't fix," Sam said, ushering Emily to come closer.

"Sam, I'm not exaggerating, she told me that she hates me. In fact, she should hate me." Paul looked at his feet, but only to try and hide the distress on his face. "If anyone treated her that way I used to, I'd rip them apart."

"Paul," Emily said, reaching out. Paul flinched back.

"I don't deserve your sympathy. I just, I don't know what to do."

"Be patient. Maybe you just have to prove you're a different man now," Emily offered a sad smile, but it was the exact thing Paul didn't want. He shouldn't pitied, he didn't deserve it. He could feel his heart bruise and falter. He broke his own heart and has no clue on how to fix it.

Emily had to go back to sleep, but Sam sat up with Paul for a while longer.

When Paul finally left, it was almost two in the morning. He took off running through the woods, shifting when he knew he was hidden by the tree line. He tried to outrun the heartbreak, but obviously it didn't work.

You were sitting at your desk, staring at your computer. You wanted to work on your writing, but you were so angry at the audacity that Paul had.

You had done everything you could to avoid him the last couple years - and you managed to make it to the first day of summer after graduation. You'd run into him on the beach.

He was just such a jerk, acting like his words had no effect on anyone. Like he could just laugh behind your back and it wouldn't hurt.

But he used to tell people nasty rumours about you. Until nobody really wanted you around them. And then he had to take it that much farther, when you were both fifteen, he took you on a date, acted like he'd changed and grown. And right before he kissed you he said, "I know you fall for it."

That date alone triggered years of trust issues. You'd felt alone ever since.

Back to the beach, he was blocking the trail you needed to head down to get to work on time. You'd hoped that putting your head down and just trying to slide passed would work, but he recognized you. He tried talking to you, but you ignored him.

After taking a couple steps down the path he said, "don't be like that."

This made you look up, astounded that he would even say something like that. Until you finally looked into his eyes, and you recognized how beautiful he was. He also looked stunned, like he'd run into a glass door. He reached out to you, but recoiled, dodging his touch like he was on fire. Somehow, you'd felt even lonelier than ever.

One look at his face and you felt like you were missing something. You tried to keep your cool but you just couldn't. Tears brimmed at your eyes, and his friend Jared Cameron coughed, before walking to the water just to give you two some space.

"Y/N," he said, his voice low and hesitant. Making you panic, thinking he was toying with you again.

"Stay away from me," you warned, taking a defensive step back.

That hit Paul harder in the heart than you would ever know. His soulmate, his imprint, recoiling away from him defensively. He found the person he was supposed to protect, to be needed by, and you couldn't stand the sight of him.

"Just wait a second," he begged, not moving towards you again. He didn't want to scare you.

"I hate you," you whispered, and then louder said it again. And louder again. Until you had screamed it, and the tears had taken over your cheeks. Every time you said it was an arrow to Paul's heart. He nodded, and let you turn around to run off without another word.

You didn't notice him run into the woods, followed by his friend.

You called work saying you had a personal emergency, and then went back home for the night.

Back in the present, you were tearing up at the memory of it. You were sick, you think. Addicted to red flag behaviour because there was no way you were thinking of Paul's hurt face, and feeling bad for causing it. He should feel bad for all the pain he caused.

You looked at the clock, it was almost three in the morning, but you were too caught up in all your feelings to send yourself to bed. You walked to the window, and noticed some kind of animal by the tree line. You lived in the middle of the woods, in an old cabin your grandma used to live in. You moved in when she got sick but never moved out. You liked it. It was cozy. It was private.

Finally relenting, you crawl into bed and did your best to sleep.

The next day, you were walking along the same path on the beach. You offered to cover the shift of the girl who had covered yours at such last minute.

Paul was in the same spot, but alone this time. You tried to walk passed him without acknowledging him, but something stopped you. You didn't want to see him sad again, it hurt you. And it made no sense why, you'd spent two years hating him.

You were only a few steps passed him, so you turned around, gripping the end of your sweater sleeves in each hand.

Paul had his head down, but looked up when he heard you sigh. You were standing in front of him, looking so terrified to speak to him. Paul could've started crying.

"I'm sorry about yelling at you like that yesterday," you said. "I should've just walked away so... sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he said, a flash of excitement crossed his eyes, and you mistook it for something sinister. You tried to remain calm, but you were feeling lightheaded. You just couldn't trust his motives. "I deserved it."

Now that, threw you for a bit of a loop.

Fool me once, you thought.

"I still think we should just keep our distance," you said. "You kind of broke my heart."

"I'm really sorry about that, I was trying to impress the seniors. I was a tool. An idiot."

"Finally we agree on something," you said. He looked at you, and you both let out a small smile. He pushed some sand with his foot. His bashfulness made you want to believe him. "I work just up the hill. You can walk me if you want."

"Can I walk you home when you're done?" he asked, quickly falling in perfect tandem with you.

"No," you said. "But you can walk with me right now."

"I'll take it," he said.

"Why do you want to talk to me anyway? I thought you hated me," you said.

"I could never hate you," he said. "I do hate how I treated you though. Not my finest hour."

"I think your finest hour remains to be seen."

Paul stayed quiet after that. And you were oddly comfortable in the silence. You're not even sure why you invited him to come along, but some sick part of you wanted him to. You wanted to reach out and touch him. His arms just looked so welcoming, and the way he stretched his hand open and shut made you think he wanted the same thing. But you couldn't let him in, not after one day.

"Have a good shift," he said, putting his hands in his pocket.

You smiled at him ,and thanked him for walking you. When you smiled, he smiled. And you caught onto that.

Paul had been standing in the same spot every day to walk you to work. Out of curiosity, on one of your days off, you snuck close to the spot to see if he was there. And he was, leaning against the same railing, in the same spot that he waited for you everyday.

You got comfortable in a cozy little spot in the trees. You wanted to see how long he waited for you. You dozed off before you could get your question answered.

You woke up hours later, when the sun was already setting. You hated walking through the trees in the dark. You started walking on your own, but you had a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach. So you swallowed your pride and called someone you knew would answer.

Paul was sitting at Sam and Emily's table, enjoying the dinner she made while waiting for his turn to go on patrol. It was Jared and Quil out there now. Paul could hear Seth snoring on the couch, making him laugh. Things that used to annoy him, didn't really seem to annoy him anymore. Not since you started letting him walk you to work. He even got Sam to let him change his patrol times to make sure he could be there every day.

His phone rang, and with a mouthful of food checked the number. He almost chocked on his food when he saw your number. He answered, hitting his chest to dislodge the food.

"Y/N, hi," he said, big grin on his face as he stood up and walked outside. Behind his back, Emily and Sam shared a knowing look, and he leaned in to kiss his wife.

Paul noticed Jared sitting nearby with Kim, and didn't think too much of it with you on the line.

"This may sound stupid," you said, "but can you walk me home? I don't like to go in the dark."

"You never let me walk you home," he said.

"If this is a bad time, it's okay," you said, disappointment clear in your voice.

"No, no... where are you? I'll be right there." He stepped back inside the house to grab his shoes, but the sound of you gasping stalled his movements.

"I'm by our meeting spot," you said. His grin returned when you called it that. "It's so dumb, I wanted to see if you went there when I didn't work and fell asleep."

"You were spying on me?" he asked. You were silent on the other end and he laughed. "I'll be right there."

"Who are you?" you asked.

"Huh?"

He heard you scream, as did Sam and Emily who's cheeky glances turned to concern quickly. "Y/N?" he asked, panicked. He was already running outside, Sam on his heals.

"Jared!" Sam shouted, "Why aren't you on patrol?"

"Seth said he'd do it!" Jared yelled back. Paul dropped his phone, and shifted, running top speeds to where you said you were.

Never in his whole life had he been this scared. He could hear Jared apologizing for the mixup in his thoughts, but Paul didn't really care what he had to say. If you were hurt, Paul would die. Paul would simply die.

He needed you to be there safe.

I knew something was wrong, Embry thought. Paul didn't even see him show up. Sorry I didn't act on it.

Shut the shit up and run, dammit!

When he got to the meeting point, you were gone, but your bag was abandoned nearby. Paul sniffed it, getting your current scent memorized. He took off when he found the trail. He also smelled a retched, filthy bloodsucker. It wasn't one of the Cullens. No, this was different. And it started at the water, that's how it got passed their lines. Not that they had enough people around.

Paul howled, the pain in it was evident for anyone around. It was him saying get here, or suffer the consequences.

I don't smell their blood, Jared thought.

You don't get to talk about them. This anger didn't derive from a bad temper, it was fear. It was just fear talking.

Paul kept running, catching a fork in the scent trails. One way was Quil, Leah and the bloodsucker. And the other was you, all alone. Alone but alive. If he couldn't hear Leah or Quil think, that was a good sign. Meant that they'd changed back, and Leah would never do that unless she killed them.

Go to her, we'll find Leah. Sam nodded at Paul.

You were crying as you ran, clumsy feet stumbling over tree roots and your own blurred vision totally betrayed you. Someone had come out of the water, eyes red like rubies. And they were so pretty that you just had to look at her. Until the showed her teeth, forcing you to flee in fear. She was faster than you, but you think she was playing with you.

And then if that wasn't scary enough, when she was jumping down from a tree to kill you, a wolf jumped from the shadows and grabbed the woman. And it was her turn to flee. Another wolf jumped out, and you were sure you were a goner.

But it just chased after the other two. Leaving you alone and confused.

You stumbled back to your feet, running as fast as you could towards your cabin. You would be safe in there. Maybe. It was the best you could do right now.

You cried harder when you thought you heard more rustling in the trees. You were at your door, struggling to get your keys out and unlock the door. When you did, you slammed it shut and locked it behind you. You dove over the sofa and kept your eyes on the door, as if that's all it took to keep you safe.

Your phone was lost somewhere in the woods, but you could still hear them. Out there. Maybe it wasn't real.

There was a feverish knocking on your door, and you couldn't peel yourself away from the couch.

"Y/N! Are you in there," Paul shouted. Oh my God, thank everything, it's Paul.

"Paul, I'm coming," you struggled, fighting through your tears to answer. It killed him, but he was so happy you were okay.

You opened the door, and cried even harder when you saw his face. You couldn't hate him now, now when he came running for you. He ignored his usual boundaries and pulled you in for a hug. He was so warm wrapped around you. Your arms were still tucked into your chest. And his totally encompassed you.

"Just breath, honey," he said, rubbing his hand up and down your back. You tried to take his advice, but you couldn't focus.

"You came for me."

"I always will, you can always call me. I will always come running," he said. And you believed him.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" you asked, pushing yourself away from him enough to look up at his face. His features were uncharacteristically soft as they looked down at you.

"Of course," he said. He kissed your forehead, and you felt the instinct of pushing him away - but you ignored it this time.

"On the couch," you said.

"Sure, honey." He brushed his hands up and down your biceps, helping you take a few deep breaths. "I'm not going anywhere, don't worry."

"I don't understand what happened," you said, pushing yourself away from him. "She came out of the water, and then she..."

"It's okay," he cooed, "you don't have to say anything."

"And this doesn't change anything," you said. "I trust you with some things but not other things."

"Some things?" he asked, more amused than anything.

"I trust you with my life, not my heart."

"We'll work on it," he said, pulling you in close for another hug.

"Yeah," you agreed. "We'll work on it."

[requested] [part 2?]

I kind of love this?

[ysljoon]

Personal Business|CEO!Jeon Jungkook x Assistant Reader

This fanfic is mature so please avoid if you are not 18+ this is also a yandere fic so there are sensitive topics. 

Warnings: Yandere themes, noncon sex, public sex, crying, fingering (f receiving), dirty talk (jungkook has a filthy mouth christ), creampie, assault?

Being the personal assistant to Jeon Jungkook definitely has been a rollercoaster of experiences, but after working with him for about 2 years now you’ve gotten used to his erratic behavior such as mood swings and unreasonable demands. Everyone in the workplace has admired how long you’ve stuck around, but the paycheck you receive every two weeks is too pretty to pass up. You saw the listing for the job on a job search website and the pay per hour almost had you pass out, but once you came into the office you realized you were getting paid so generously almost as a test to see if the money could keep you around and it sure has.

Today Jungkook was in an extra gruff mood for the day because he had plenty of meetings to go through and not enough time for proper breaks and that’s the least ideal day for him. He loves breaks as much as any other person, but just tenfold. Everyone in the office is allowed a 45 minute lunch break, but since Jungkook is the CEO he will disappear on 2 hour breaks and not a single person knows where he goes. Not even you and people don’t understand how since you’re practically his right hand. You pay no mind to his whereabouts since it doesn’t affect and busy yourself with whatever tasks Jungkook left for you to do. Today he left no tasks for you since he’s been cooped up in his office occupied with other business officials. You haven’t been able to meet with him to get a briefing for the day so now you’re talking with Taehyung at his cubicle while you share a small pizza he ordered for lunch.

“Taehyung, I’m telling you right now there is no way that Joon and the receptionist don’t have something going on! They’re always eyeing each other up and Namjoon is always requesting for her to come to his office. It’s highly suspect.” You explained your reasoning to Taehyung exasperated and took another bite of your crust.

“Listen Y/N, all I’m saying is that it’s way too obvious for it to actually have any worth. Anyways you know how Mr. Jeon feels about workplace romance; he absolutely abhors the thought and would probably fire people on the spot if he ever found out.”

You continued to have your disagreement with Taehyung for a little while more, but what you didn’t realize was that Jungkook was done with his meeting a while ago and was watching you on his laptop through the camera system and was frowning deeply watching you fraternize with your coworker. He was tired of watching you practically throw yourself at Taehyung when you were his and only his. Jungkook got up from his desk and strode to Taehyung’s cubicle to stop this foolishness immediately.

“Mr. Kim, is there a reason why you are holding up my assistant from her work and why the expense report I asked you to do isn’t done?” Jungkook had a look on his face that he wanted to wring Taehyung’s neck and he was very close to, but he didn’t want to scare you off. He had to have you in his possession before he got rid of anybody that even tried to look in your direction so for right now this was his version of playing it cool.

“I-I’m very sorry sir it won’t happen again and I’ll get right to it!” Taehyung quickly turned to his computer and fervently typed in his password to get to work immediately. Jungkook then turned to you and grabbed you by the arm to drag you to his office. You were shocked and stunned by this action because sure he had talked to you roughly, but had never put his hands on you. He swiftly pulled you into his office and slammed the door. He even fully shut his blinds. This started to have you scared. He had this look in his eyes that made your body start to tremble. “S-sir I’m sorry for not working! I just wasn’t able to get the daily briefing for today so I tried my best to get work done. I had a lot of free time so I thought to spend it with Taehyung. I’m sorry if that was wasting company time you can deduct it from my pay!” You were heavily breathing by the time you were done with your panicked spiel. Jungkook chuckled at your anxiety and strode towards you till you were backed up into the wall and at this point you thought he could feel how fast your heart was beating in your chest.

“Darling, if you really want to make it up to me you can kiss me.” He purred in your ear and it sent sickening shivers up your spine. Your head started to spin when you felt him plant his lips on the column of your neck and work his way up to your jaw. You tried to shove him off, but naturally he was able to overpower you and he used his leg and chest to trap you between him and the wall.

“My dear Y/N, I hope you cooperate with me if you know what’s good for you.” He slyly grinned against your skin and started to passionately kiss you. To really show he was in charge he bit down on your bottom lip with force you have never felt before. It had you cry out in pain, but you were quickly silenced when you felt your boss reach under your skirt and start to trace circles against your cunt. He placed a hand against your mouth and gave you a threatening look you have never seen. It was so sinister it had you squirming away from his touch. You thought you could have gotten away but by the time you were able to slide past his body he was grabbing your wrist and slamming you down against his desk which sent things tumbling down to the floor.

“Jungkook, please stop, I'm so sorry!” You didn’t even realize you were bawling at this point, but he ignored your pleas and sobs and continued with his sinister acts. He grasped your wrists in one hand and with his other he slid your panties off and inserted a single long finger into your cunt. “Fuck baby, you’re so tight and wet for me.” He kept pumping his finger into you until he felt like he could insert another one into you. Once the second finger was deep in your hole Jungkook started to pick up the pace and you couldn’t even cry out to what he was doing to you. You felt numb and helpless and wanted him to stop, but your efforts were useless.

“Kitten, I want to hear you. I want to hear how good I make you fucking feel. I want to see you get dumb on my fucking fingers and cock that you don’t even know what to do with yourself. I want you to beg to have your dirty cunt stretched out.” Hearing your boss talk to you like this makes you speechless, but you listen to him because you don’t know what other worse things he can do to you. You let your body succumb to what he’s doing and you let out small moans and whimpers and this makes him let out his own grunts and groans in response. Before you can assess what’s happening when you feel his fingers slip out of your soaked pussy, Jungkook is shoving his cock balls deep into you and you gasp for air feeling the heavy pressure between your legs. He doesn’t give you any time to adjust and starts to pound into you. You cry out in both pain and pleasure from hearing skin slap against skin. You feel close to an orgasm and tears are rolling down your cheeks from desperation. “Sir please let me cum! I need to cum so bad! Please let me cum all over your cock.” You can’t even process the words you’re saying, you just want to have your release so badly. Jungkook slaps your ass and groans a ‘fuck yes baby’ and just seconds after that action you’re creaming on his thick cock. You feel your walls pulse around your boss and this brings him close to the edge and he’s losing control over himself. He starts to wild slam into your cunt and after a few more pumps he’s spilling his cum into you and you feel delirious from everything that had just happened. You hear him adjusting himself behind you, but you can’t bring yourself to even move at the moment. You hear his steps come close to you and you just lie there motionless while you wait for him to speak. “I can’t wait to bring you home with me princess.” After that sentence all you can recall is a blunt object coming in contact with your skull and nothing else.

Notes: thank you so much for reading I’ve been on a pretty solid hiatus and will crosspost what I have written on AO3 on to here too because I have some fics there that I haven’t posted on to Tumblr! If you enjoyed please like and reblog it really helps and you can also give me a Kofi.

[disciplesofmalcolm]

A GLOBAL EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: Comparing The World Of Texhnolyze With Ours: 2 Different Nightmares

The world of Texhnolyze is depicted as a hopelessly depressing nightmare where suffering never ends in the underworld and sinister-like, purpose defeating complacency, extinction, and fantasy thought dooms the surface world. Based on my experience and observation, our world is in a terrifying category of its own.

Despite taking steps forward in technology, humans have stepped backwards in spirituality; where it matters most. In the west, just to point fingers, people are dependent on machines, phones, and computers. Hundreds of years ago these people could have survived perfectly fine in the wild and have the necessary skills to survive. In modern times, Westerners have proved that humans are becoming more useless and skill-less than ever before. People are so lazy and ignorant it would not surprise me if these people started to move backwards in evolution. Put this together with a system of social media that has drifted people apart rather than bring them together. There are those who have thousands of friends, but feel lonely and miserable because they don't know any of them personally. All those clicks and likes give them a hollow sense of validation that becomes addicting yet unsatisfying in the end. It's a degenerate dependency that promotes feelings of depression and further isolation.

They work jobs that they can't stand, are taken advantage of and abused as workers, and dare to say, "I can't complain," or "it could be worse." Self-defeating foolishness. The system in place is designed for most people to fail. That is a necessity. It is a necessity to the power structure for most to fail. Who else will fill in the majority of those harsh and slave laboring positions? Automation and cybernation is still moving to replace these people, and when it does, will the richest still have a need for the poorest to exist?

Why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people? Why are all those corrupt, evil, and murderous rich politicians living such luxurious lifestyles while the good and poor live and die miserable ones? Living a hell on earth because you'll go to heaven after? You've been tricked into believing that. Your life here matters to.

But Texhnolyze isn't all about doom and gloom. It warns us and advices us to find meaning in our lives and in others; to find meaning in our humanity and in others. It shakes us into realizing these terrible emotions as a wake up call. The characters in the series, despite losing limbs and taking heavy damage, they continue to go on; they refuse to give up. Their extreme passion to continue despite their problems is an inspirational message to those who are in a similar situation. And I felt empty at the end of the series; but that made me see things more clearly. As they say, "only when it gets dark enough can you see the stars." Though it looked unfortunate for Ichise in the conclusion, there was a sense of satisfaction and optimism in his smile; he never gave up and kept going. Though Yoshii didn't live long enough to finish carrying out his mission, he too left us with a smile; he never gave up and kept going. There was a sense of satisfaction in the end.

This is a savage world. The only way to be able to face that and overcome it is to look directly at it. Don't look away or bury your head in the sand. Look at reality, not the way you want to see things. Most people will runaway and stay in their dream like world. Thus, they lead a meaningless, aimless, and false existence. Most people will grow up believing immature and unrealistic fantasies as children, and die never growing out of that. Their minds never quite mature. They grow physically but not mentally. The education system has taught you what to think and not how to think. What is happening to revolutionary thought? Have you noticed how Fascism is moving to completely destroy it? And yet, People on the brink of self destruction seem to always turn towards religion as their last mental crutch in the end to help them keep some sense of hope. Take a look at your friends face, and though there may be a smile, what have they got to smile about? Smiling through a lonely life that progressively loses meaning and direction, but feeling grateful and satisfied. "I can't complain." "It could be worse." the grin grows bigger. For these generations who aren't as fortunate, they suffer a death of the spirit. This is the type of delusion that reminds me off the surface world in Texhnolyze. The desperation of living in poverty in broken down and exploited cities left abandoned by the rich and the world to rot shows that our underworld is also there, sometimes right across the street.

But there are people who learn to overcome this. Those who see the situation clearly, who question and find out that everything is backwards, and who plan and go to make a move similar to why Yoshii felt he had to. And I have to. To give meaning back to humanity. Those of us who see things more clearer need to help others see it too. You can't convince all the people all the time, so don't feel unmotivated if some don't listen. There are those who naturally flock to the truth. The more you see this world we live in the uglier you'll see it gets. The little that makes it beautiful is slowly slipping away and being killed off. What do you want to accomplish?

In the end, will you smile?

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

Season 3 left feel salty about Alucard not getting his happiness. So may I request for post season 3 imagines please about Alucard meet a empathetic, intelligent human lady whose is a herbalist (not a witch. Something that Lisa does) (whose personality and appearance is like Belle from Beauty and Beast) and their relationship being like Beauty and the Beast.

A/N: I’m ALIVE!!!! School has tried hard to vanquish me but it has FAILED! I HAVE RISEN VICTORIOUS!!! At least for this semester. It was a big challenge transitioning to fully online courses so I must apologize for the hiatus in writings. Being on the computer for school for 8+ hours straight, the last thing I wanted to do in my free time was to stare at another screen with a deadline weighing on my shoulders. But I’m back baby! And with 21 pages for this ask, holie-molie!

OH, AND I HAVE A KOFI NOW! I know times have been hard and money has been tight for everyone, but if you like what you’ve read here, please consider donating to my virtual tip jar here: [x]. There’s no obligation. Right now I answer asks and write Imagines for fun. That might change in the future, and I might open up on more of a commission basis, but that’ll depend on my schedule and how everything goes. 

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

The winter winds were much worse than expected. Shivering, you tugged your cloak even closer to your body for what must have been the hundredth time that day. Beneath you, your horse whinnied at your constant wiggling. The sky was crystal clear when you had set out earlier. The weather shouldn’t have changed this fast. 

You weren’t incredibly well-educated on the seasons, but you knew enough about them as an indirect consequence of your area of expertise. You were a herbalist and had studied the properties of plants- both native and foreign- for years. Of course, more often than not this included information on the seasons; certain plants were to be sown and harvested at very different, but specific times. Your family had belonged to a long line of experts in herblore who had taken up studying the gifts of the earth for centuries. As a result, you were very adept at utilizing the natural environment around you. 

Unfortunately, in this unexpected icy-tundra, you feared your knowledge of natural properties would do you no good. Something was haunting about the snow that fell here, you could just feel it. The air itself was well below freezing but the snowy droplets themselves were almost warm to the touch. You sensed a sinister atmosphere behind such circumstances. It felt as if someone, or something, from above intended to punish the beings in this realm. A part of you wished to flee, to distance yourself from whatever entity was suffering retribution. Even then, a strong resilient voice inside your heart told you that you were no quitter and certainly not a coward. So, despite the feeling of dread looming over you, you trekked on. 

You had received a mysterious letter a little over two months ago from an anonymous sender asking you to come at once to a certain clearing in Wallachia. If you weren’t mistaken, the land once belonged to a prominent family, some tens of years ago. You heard the rumors of how they had been either killed or driven out, but this letter insisted that some new person, or people, had seized occupancy of the place. You knew your family was known within many secret circles, and this letter insisted that this former great family, the Belmonts, belonged to one such circle. 

The letter suggested that once again, your services were needed. Although what for, the anonymous sender did not say. You supposed it was safer that way. If this family was indeed persecuted long ago, it was better to be vague in their instructions. Perhaps it was an attempt to reunite each of your families’ services with one another? In exchange for medical aid and advice, you would be equipped with holy weapons and knowledge of supernatural creatures. And with the recent happenings in Wallachia, you concluded that it was a more than fair arrangement and set out just under a week ago. 

You didn’t live far from Wallachia but the journey was anything but quick. So many people required your assistance on the way, and despite the principal objective of reuniting with the great, long lost Belmont family looming over your head, you had chosen to stay when necessary and help in any way you could. It was just that the people you’d met were living in such pitiable conditions, you refused to leave them unaided. You had become so invested in herbology for its abilities to help people. You made a promise, many years ago; not to anyone in particular, but a promise nonetheless to never turn your back on anyone, or anything in need- ever. You weren’t foolish enough to believe your efforts would make an impact on the overwhelming cruelty of the world, however, you stayed dutiful to your cause. Just because the world was cruel didn't mean you had to be. 

Pulled from your train of thought, your body was wracked with shivers again. 

‘Did the winds suddenly pick up again? Or perhaps,’ you wondered, ‘Was it something more?’

You pulled your mare to a stop. Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes and focused on the feeling. 

“Sadness.” You realized. 

You were not so alone in these woods. 

There was someone, something out there all alone, suffering. Perhaps if you located the source, you could help them. They could be hurt. And even if they were simply lonely or scared, some company might do them good. 

‘Or,’ a cynical voice in your mind interrupted, ‘They could just want to be left alone.’ 

Nevertheless, you had made a promise to help, wherever and whenever you could and this time would be no exception. 

“Come on.” You urged your horse alone. You were going to find the source of that sadness and put a stop to it. 

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

What you found was not at all what you were expecting. You had anticipated some sort of humble cabin or cave-dwelling, certainly not the incredibly ornate castle which now stood before you. 

‘Perhaps the builders of the castle are the ones who sent the letter?’ 

Briefly, you considered the fact that this might be the work of the living descendants of the great Belmont family. Then again, an uneasy feeling told you there was much more to the display here than what met your eyes. 

If the Belmont’s had only recently come out of exile, why choose such an ostentatious place to reside? Surely a more understated abode would be less suspicious. Why on earth would they go and invite trouble in this way? It seemed to you like a foolish oversight. 

Still, unwise decision or not, the sight was impressive. You wished the weather wasn’t so harsh so you could stand to gawk another moment or two. However, as the biting winds picked up, you could feel another one of your digits grow numb with every passing moment.

Kicking your mare into action once more, you instructed her to trot around to the rear of the castle. A place this intricate was bound to have a nearby stable. You were still some distance from the actual entrance itself, not even having cleared the tree line of the adjacent forest, but you assumed that along with a stable, a place of this size ought to have more than one entrance and exit. 

You patted the side of your horse’s chest reassuringly. You would give the place a more serious inspection once your horse was safely out of this weather. 

Unbeknownst to you, had you ventured nearer to the front entrance, you might have noticed the two frozen corpses resting on spikes at the foot of the front steps.

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

The stables were easier enough to find and, just as you’d thought, were absolutely gorgeous to look at. Everything was painted in rich, dark colors. It certainly looked like a stable worthy of royals. However, you couldn't help but notice no other horses resided there. Perhaps there was a second stable you missed initially, or perhaps the family living here didn’t have any horses. 

‘That’s odd,’ you mused as you secured your horse within a stall. 

The closest town was Argesh, but even that was miles away. Once again, you found yourself judging this family’s actions as rather foolish. At the very least, they ought to have invested in a horse for travel in the harsh winter months. 

No matter how you chose to look at it, the situation remained quite baffling to you. You supposed you would just have to ask the inhabitants what their reasoning was before you leaped to any more conclusions. 

You left the majority of your belongings still attached to Honey. There was no way you could carry them in all at once, and besides, even if you could, that was presuming too much. For all you knew, the family inside the castle wasn’t keen on having their company stay in the main house. You had heard some well-off families could be funny about those kinds of things.

Giving your mare a final brush, you temporarily ventured back out into the cold. You knew you should have run around to the front door, knowing for certain there was an entryway there, but it was below freezing and the longer you remained outside, the bluer your lips turned. Yes, it might be considered poor manners but in these circumstances, you would rather have a quick entrance than a proper one. 

After a few cold seconds of searching, you came to a simple door with a wrought iron frame. Hastily, you tugged it open, flinching at the loud screeching noise it’s hinges made. Whoever was inside was certain to have heard you. But you supposed that was for the best. After all, you were a guest in their home; to simply walk in without warning would be rather rude. 

“Hello?” You hazarded a cautionary greeting but was met with silence. Was anyone home? Or maybe the reason there were no horses in the one stable meant that whoever had been living here cleared out long ago.  

Without any reply, you were lost to the maze of stone hallways and lush red carpets that greeted you. The muddled architecture outside did not do the inside layout justice. The interior was even more unclear. It seemed that certain hallways ended without warning and others began out of nowhere. You assumed at the very least one or two main hallways would make themselves known, but as you ventured deeper into the bowels of the castle, the more confused you became. You spotted a lone staircase to your left and hesitantly began to climb. Voices carried farther, the higher up they were, right? 

“Hello?” You tried again. “Is anyone home?” 

You racked your brain and tried to think back to all the fellow travelers you had met while on the road. Did any of them speak of an abandoned castle? A building as showy as this one was bound to be a noteworthy landmark. You could only recall a half memory of a story a Gresit fruit vendor had told you. 

You were stopped for the evening, and enjoying some food and drink when you heard the story of their local legend. 

‘A savior,’ they had said, ‘the antithesis of Dracula himself once slept under Gresit. He was the one to thank for the end of the night horse attacks.’ 

Or so they thought. 

At the time you thought it was nothing more than a sweet story, a fairy tale complete with a happy ending. But now, as you stood small in the vast maze that was this castle, you had a creeping suspicion the story was true. 

‘Oh my god,’ you thought. ‘This was the infamous Dracula's castle!. This place must now belong to the saviors of…’

A flash of red at the corner of your vision caught your attention. Clusimly, you tripped on the last step, the blunt stair ledge landing directly at your ribs. Hissing, you sucked in a sharp breath through your teeth and pushed yourself back onto your feet. 

“H-hello? Is there someone there? Bel-Belmont?” You once again announced your presence with a question. “I apologize for using the rear entry, but I had just come from the stable.” You cautiously ventured out into the large hallway at the landing’s level. “My horse, Honey, I put her there, I hope that’s alright.”

You tried to keep your voice light and steady but inside your chest, your heart was pounding. “I received your letter.” 

“‘Letter’?” A harsh voice rasped out from beyond the shadows. “Do you think I’m as foolish to fall for that?” 

You blinked in confusion. “B-but, I brought the letter with me, it’s in my pocket.” You went to reach for it, but the stranger’s serious interruption gave you a great pause. 

“If you wish to keep living, I suggest you put your hand back down.” 

You froze. You had met hostile people before- not everyone believed in nature’s medicine. But on those occasions, you had come prepared. Here, like a fool, you rushed in blind, believing the person who resided here to be an ally. What had this person so upset? So untrusting? 

“Who are you?” You asked. “Why would you send for me only to threaten me?” 

“I did not send for you.” The man’s reply was quick and deflective. “I am no longer in the practice of accepting the aid of humans.” His words echoed around you rather annoyingly. You could get a much better read on the individual in question if he only showed himself to you. 

Who was this mysterious stranger? And what did he mean, ‘humans’? 

“Step into the light.” A momentary rush of brevity overtook your speech. “You threatened my life, the least you could do is show me your face. I have a right to at least see my would-be killer.”

You scanned the hall from left to right. Nothing. Until...

“I am Alucard Tepes,” a hot breath whispered on the back of your neck, “And I did not ask for any visitors.” 

You were momentarily seized by fear, but more powerfully then, by indignation. 

You were a kind person who only sought to help people. Whoever this person was, you were sure they had reasons for being adversarial, after all, the world was a harsh place. But still, that gave them no right to speak to you in this way. 

You waved away the heat of this stranger’s breath and walked forward. You intended to put some distance between the two of you. 

“My name,” you said displeasedly, “Is (F/N) (L/N) and I have done nothing to warrant this behavior from you. I received a letter asking for my help, and that is all I have come to do.” Despite this man’s earlier warning, you reached into your pocket and withdrew the correspondence in which a mystery individual requested your presence. You held it out in front of you, as far as your arm would go. 

“This,” you said, sounding very self-assured, “Is what I received. I wouldn’t have presumed this much otherwise. Now,” you huffed, “Would you mind explaining why someone sent for me?” 

The man, Alucard, regarded you suspiciously for a moment. Seeming to have decided you weren’t currently a threat, he snatched the letter from your hands quite rudely. 

“Damn that Belmont.” He muttered under his breath. “Now you bother to think of me… How untimely.” He looked back up to you, clearly annoyed by your presence. 

You did your best to hold your ground. You narrowed your own eyes back at him.

“It seems,” he began, “You were brought here under false pretenses. My compani… an old acquaintance of mine must have written this letter shortly after he left. The person who requested your presence is no longer here.” 

“Alright.” You furrowed your brow. “Well, did he mention when he’d return?” 

“No.” Alucard seemed more frustrated than you were. “You’d be better off looking for him elsewhere.” 

“So I’m not welcome here, then?” Alucard tilted his head at your question. 

“You don’t intend to leave? I said the person who requested your services is no longer here; therefore, he does not need you.” 

“And what about you?” 

“Me?” 

“Those look awful.” You gestured to the scars on his wrists. They seemed to extend up to his forearm, but you couldn’t see beyond the sleeves of his shirt. “If you’d like, I could try and minimize them, make the scarring less obvious.” 

This ‘Alucard’ stalked menacingly towards you. He didn't seem to appreciate your observations. In fact, he seemed to become even more agitated.  

“You can stay in the stables until the weather clears but I doubt Belmont will return in that time, providing you don’t disturb anything. But I will be watching. But I will not hesitate to kill you, should you do anything suspicious.” 

You gulped. 

“Then I’ll just avoid being suspicious,” you replied, matter-of-factly. “But under those conditions... You’ll allow me to stay?” 

Alucard waved you along. “If you want to amuse yourself, dying at the hands of a monster, I won’t stop you.”

You once again found yourself blanching at his words, but began to follow him down the hall, nonetheless. 

“So a monster is kept here then? Is it one of those night creatures?” You presumed. 

“Something of that nature,” he responded, quite dryly. 

“Well, is there anything you can do for it? Um, them?” You asked, earnestly. 

“What?” Alucard was taken aback. “You want to, what? Feed it? And take it for walks as if it’s the family dog?” 

“No, of course not,” you replied, hotly. “I mean, in terms of treatment, is there any way you can…” You paused, struggling to find the right words. “Can you save them?” 

For the third time since you met, Alucard looked at you deeply. He seemed to be remembering something from long ago and searching for it, somewhere in your eyes. 

“That,” he said after a moment’s pause, “Has yet to be seen.” 

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You discovered, by process of elimination that this was indeed, The Alucard, son, and antithesis of Dracula. It seemed so obvious once you put two and two together, you almost didn’t understand why you hadn’t seen it immediately before.

He had put you up in a stall in the stable with Honey. Well, he had been so gracious as to let you choose a stall. You did thank him for proving a straw mattress and bedroll but that seemed to be the extent of his hospitality. You didn’t mind so much. You were used to traveling and sleeping outside on the cold hard ground. Compared to frozen mud, the stone ground of the stable was a luxury. The stable was heated and shielded you from the howling winds and whipping torrents of snow outside. Truly, you couldn’t ask for more. 

Well, to be perfectly honest there was more you wanted to ask but it had absolutely nothing to do with your accommodations. You wanted to speak at length with the Alucard. You wished to ask him questions about Dracula, about the castle, about Belmont, but most intriguing of all, you wanted to ask him about his heritage. 

You knew his father was Dracula and that his mother was a human woman. But that still left so much to the imagination. How did she and Dracula meet? Why on Earth would he choose to have a child with her? Was it a consensual relationship? Or perhaps she was his prisoner? 

Briefly, you recalled hearing about the church wronging Dracula by accusing his wife of witchcraft. At first, you had assumed the church persecuted an innocent woman, completely unrelated to Dracula but had chosen to do so in his name. It wasn’t until you arrived here, that you realized the woman they burned at the stake was indeed the true wife of Dracula and most likely, the mother of Alucard. 

You felt awful. Your family often faced persecution as well. But more often than not, it resulted in your ancestors being driven from their homes. You could count the total number of times on a single hand that someone in your lineage was sentenced to death for herbology. 

You had been very close to your Mother. If she had died in that manner, you weren’t sure you would have had the strength to continue. Luckily for you, it was merely old age that claimed her in the end. When you were younger, you used to feel angry that she had chosen to have one last child so late in life, knowing full well her chance of seeing you grow to have your children was slim at best. As you grew older, however, and learned more about reproduction, you supposed thinking of when she would die was probably not something your mother considered while conceiving you. 

You shook your head, swearing away such sultry thoughts, and thought back to the problem at hand. You were physically safe from the elements in the stable, but still, you were quite lonely. And while you had no problem foraging and hunting for meals, your curiosity got the better of you: you wanted to know what Alucard had in his kitchen. After all, he was part human. You were so engrossed with the idea of a half-human’s/half-vampire's diet. As a student of herbology, you knew food was not only necessary for survival but often had impacts on mood and behavior as well. At least, that’s what human physiology told you, you had no clue if it applied to dhampirs as well. But you were determined to find out. 

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

You waited well into the evening to once again knock on that back wrought iron door, him being half-vampire and all. You expected it to be bolted shut ever since you entered through it without prior permission but were pleasantly surprised to find that it was still unlocked. Gently this time, you opened it.

“Alucard!” You called. “Can you hear me?”

You did your best to retrace the steps you took the first time you entered. As you finished ascending the staircase, you expected to find him waiting to ambush you in the hall like last time. Except when you reached the top step, without falling this time, no one was in sight.

“Alucard?” You called again. “I wanted to ask you something… Are you here?”

No answer.

‘Well,’ you supposed, ‘In that case, as long as I’m not suspicious, it should be fine to walk around.’

You continued to stalk down the long hallway, admiring the paintings and armors that adored it. This place was filled with so many things, things that must have had such interesting histories! Briefly, you wondered if Alucard knew about any of this stuff.

Coming to a turn, you found yourself at another hall, this one much darker than the previous. The beautiful magic lanterns that illuminated the path you trekked were dark here. And the surrounding air felt much colder than before. Was this part of the castle not used much? Your curiosity got the better of you and you decided to investigate.

You slowly stepped down yet another stair and emerged out from under its arching molding to find yourself across from a matching staircase. Where the two sides met in the middle was a smooth platform, and in the center of it, close to the front edge, rested a grand throne. The chair was massive and tall, much taller than any human you had ever come across. A chill ran up your spine. There was only one being you could think of that would have had use for such a chair.

‘Dracula.’ You thought to yourself. ‘This must be Dracula’s throne room.’

On the platform, and beyond it to its left and right was a blood-red carpet. You tried not to think of the irony in the color choice. Instead, you opted for walking down beside the throne, to further inspect the stone carving on the divider in front of it.

It was so intricate, and very well carved. You wondered if Dracula had produced the work himself, or if he had someone else do it for him?

‘Perhaps, oh what were they called again? Oh, yes! A thrall!’

For all you know, he forced his thralls to complete this architecture. I mean yes, he was Dracula, but still, this place was huge and there was a lot of ground to cover by oneself. As you continued down the side of the divider, you found your attention transferred to the absolute mess that was this hall’s floor. Shattered glass from fallen chandeliers and chunks of tile and wood littered the scorched carpet. Something dreadful must have happened here, you could feel it.

You could feel so many memories and energies in that room, it was overwhelming. There was this strong, serious aura of purpose and destiny. Wrapped around it was this bright aura of energy and a fiery spirit. A third, equally strong energy brought a chill down your spine: it was determined, like the first, but much more distraught. Whoever those three individuals were, they all felt like it was necessary to be there, but how it took an emotional toll on each of them was a different story entirely.

You wondered if Alucard was one of those auras. He probably was, after all, it was he and this ‘Belmont’ who fought to defeat Dracula. And the third spirit seemed to be with them, so they most likely picked up a companion along the way. Their companion seemed to be the most lighthearted out of the bunch. How you wished they chose to stay here with Alucard. If anyone could use some lightheartedness right now, it was him.

However, one more thing troubled you: this battle must have taken place here was months ago! Why hadn’t all this debris been cleared away? Why were some spots of the castle so immaculate while this huge throne room and hall remained littered with rubbish? You were seeking too many answers again.

‘Speaking of questions,’ your mind drifted back to the task at hand, ‘I was supposed to be looking for Alucard.’

Oh well. You didn’t think that obvious snooping was something suspicious. It was apparent as day that you had been gawking at everything here since you arrived. There was nothing sinister or sneaky about that. You hoped Alucard would regard it the same way. After all, you were still technically under his rule as a guest in his home.

‘Home,’ you thought. ‘How sad to have to come home to this. Perhaps,’ you supposed, ‘I could help tidy the place up. Yes! That ought to cheer Alucard up a little. And then maybe,’ you hoped, ‘He might start talking to me.’

You had made up your mind. First things first, you were going to find yourself a kitchen. And second things second, you were going to brighten up this dreary place, even if you had to drag out all this broken furniture yourself. Just because Alucard wasn’t in the mood for talking to you, didn’t mean that you couldn’t talk to him. You just had to uncover a creative way to communicate. And your plan in mind looked like the best way to do it.

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

The kitchen you had managed to find easily enough. And you were pleasantly surprised to find it stocked with bottles of wine, dried herbs, and grain. It appeared half-vampires, such as Alucard, did eat human food. You still had no clue as to how often he ate or how much. Or if he needed blood in addition to human sustenance. You supposed you would learn in time. At the moment, however, you were mainly focused on the rich drink. The sweet wine pooled heat in your belly and with it, you felt ready to begin to tackle the daunting mess in the throne room. 

Normally, you wouldn't have been so forward in your actions, but a part of you was growing desperate. The longer you thought it over, the longer you sensed Belmont had sent for you knowing his friend would be quite lonely by the time you arrived. It was clear to you Alucard had large emotional wounds left from the falling out between him and his father and the tragic loss of his mother. At least, those were the wounds you knew about. Then there were those two mysterious… guests staked out at the castle’s front. Alucard told you nothing about them, other than you would be wise to not end up like them. It wasn’t much to go on. 

As you mulled over all of these thoughts, you put your body to good use. You used one of the torn and bloodied drapes as a tarp and went around collecting pieces of tile and ceiling. By the time you had squared away the larger chunks, the sun was rising. Huffing, you took a moment to sit at the foot of the grand staircase. You supposed you may have been a little manic in working for so long, but you were so rapt up in thought, you didn't even notice how much time passed until the morning light caught your eye. 

It wasn’t a grand gesture by any means, but it was a start. You figured the more work you did, the less time Alucard could keep pretending you didn’t exist. The more of the castle you brightened up would force Alucard to either acknowledge your help and by extension, your residence here at his home. Or at the very least his frustration with your changing things would prompt some sort of confrontation. You had initially assumed, based on the way he reacted when you first met, he would be an aggressive sort of housemate, but instead, his presence was like encountering a ghost. 

There were moments you could feel him nearby; his aura had a distinct sorrow to it, but for the most part, you couldn’t get a solid read on him. The deep, cold, sadness emanating from the castle was practically all-consuming. If you were to get anywhere with him, if you were to truly understand him,  the first thing you needed to do was change that.

And so you did. 

Not overnight of course, but little by little, you dedicated several hours a day to tidying up a room or dusting off old collections of statues and books. On the rare occasion, amid your nesting, you’d feel a chill run up your spine. That’d be how you knew Alucard was watching you, how you knew he was close. Half of you felt incredibly satisfied to have piqued his interest, and the other half of you was downright terrified. You were like an innocent little rabbit, hoping to catch the eye of a sly fox: it was a dangerous game for you to be playing. 

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

Alucard felt that danger too. 

He was so unbelievably angry. He was angry at his father for declaring war on humanity, angry at Dracula for betraying his mother’s final wish, for forcing him to fight against his kind in the way he had. He was angry at Belmont for leaving the stupid Belmont trove as if it made up for him and Sypha running off to live happily ever after only god knows where after leaving him alone to rot alongside all those other long-forgotten artifacts. 

He was beyond angry at Taka and Sumi for betraying his trust the way they had. It had been too intimate, too personal, too awful to look back on the way he was made to... If they only had threatened to kill him the way most people would, with a stake aimed at his chest after a long fight on the battlefield. No, they had chosen to hurt him in his bed, in his own home after… Just the very memory made his dhampir blood boil. Or perhaps he had willed his blood to boil to not have to feel the ache in his heart and the weight in his stomach. Those two had hurt him most of all. 

And then there was you. 

When he had finally grown comfortable with the silence, with the all-consuming loneliness of his castle and the Belmont hold, you just had to let yourself in. Yes, Alucard was angry at you, but not for the simple act of intruding, oh no. He was angry for the way he longed to be near you. He was angry over the way his mind begged to speak to you. He no longer wanted to be the cold, cruel master who you avoided like the plague, he wanted the freedom to enjoy your company and have you enjoy his in return. It was a dangerous desire, one he didn’t know how to approach. 

It felt like it had been years since he knew how to speak kindly, how to think kindly. He had chosen to forget in order to protect himself. But thanks to your unexpected arrival, Alucard wondered if the emotional walls he had put up were too high for even the most insistent of herbalists to climb over. He supposed only time would tell. 

‘Or,’ a voice in his head supplied, ‘You could push things along.’ 

Alucard stared intently at the flames raging in the fireplace of his father’s study. He had been sitting, quietly pondering what to do about your current situation. 

“How do you suggest I do that?” He spoke towards the fire. He knew it was juvenile. He knew he wasn’t talking to anyone other than himself. Still, it felt... nice to use his vocal cords after all this time. 

‘You could offer her more permanent lodging.’ 

“She hasn’t made any complaints.” 

‘True. And she won’t. She’s too polite.’ 

“Looks can be deceiving,” Alucard replied dryly. After all, he knew all too well. 

‘Yes. But I do recall a certain brother-sister duo asking you about moving the castle rather early in your relationship.’ 

“It was not a relationship,” Alucard hissed. 

‘Acquaintanceship,’ the voice acquiesced. ‘They asked for things- repeatedly. She has asked for nothing. On the contrary, she has done things for you, without being prompted.’ 

“The cleaning, yes,” Alucard sighed. “It has continued to a point where I can ignore it no longer. She’s done more than sweep up the remaining shards of glass.” 

‘Perhaps it is time you do something for her, without asking. See how she responds to such kindness.’ 

“What exactly do you have in mind?” 

‘Invite her to dinner. At the formal long dining table.’ 

“Why is where we eat important?” 

‘It shows you value her presence. Women appreciate that.’ 

“And what do you know of women?” 

‘Well, your Mother always appreciated it when your Father did it for her.’ 

Alucard paused. 

Briefly, he recalled a time before his Mother’s death, before their move to her home village of Lupu. A happy time when his family would sit around in the formal dining room, just the three of them grouped at the front of it.

His mother always did appreciate his Father’s melodramatics. She adored the way Vlad made everything fanciful and over-the-top, even when such fanfare wasn't needed. She claimed she found it rather charming. Lisa swore she never needed anything fancy, as long as she had the two of them, she would say, she was happy. 

Alucard pensively rubbed his thumb and pointer finger together. “Do you think it will work?” 

‘Sure, it’ll work. You just need to be subtle about it.’ 

‘Subtle?’ Alucard thought. ‘I can do that.’ 

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

You had finally settled in for a nice nap when a strong chill ran up your spine. You jolted up into a sitting position. There in front of you stood Alucard, the Son of Dracula, the Savior, and the Prince of Wallachia. 

“I, uh,” you stammered. “The sun is up.” You pointed at the rays streaming through the stable’s doors. 

“I am only half-vampire. I can withstand sunlight.” 

“Alright then.” You thought for a moment. “What about garlic?” 

“You’ll see when you join me for dinner tonight,” Alucard answered rather stoically. 

“Dinner? You’re asking me to eat dinner with you tonight?” 

“I am not asking.” 

You crossed your arms at that. “Is that so?” 

“Yes.” 

“What if I don’t want to?” 

“Excuse me?” 

“Maybe I only eat meals with people who haven’t taken every opportunity we speak to be demeaning and rude.” 

“I have not been rude.” 

“You threaten my life when I first arrive here, then you avoid me at all costs, and now you demand I join you for dinner.” 

“I told you, I do not appreciate visitors, especially unexpected ones.”

“It’s not my shortcoming that your friend failed to mention my impending arrival. If you want my company, ask nicely!” You huffed.

Normally you would maintain your composure but there was something about this conversation that irritated you so much. You wondered if you were picking up the annoyance Alucard was feeling himself. 

Alucard rolled his eyes before sighing. 

“Fine,” he gritted out. “Would you please,” he added an emphasis on ‘please’, “Join me for dinner?” 

You smiled. “I’d love to. But I won’t have you preparing the meal all by yourself. It wouldn’t be right.”

“I did not ask for your help in cooking.”

You nodded, pulling yourself to a standing position. “And yet, I’ve offered it anyway. I was planning on hunting some hare. I saw a handful of them scurrying around yesterday.” 

“You don’t have to. It would take you ten times the effort and time than if I were to do it.” Alucard wasn’t trying to boast, it just came off that way. Sensing his words had unintended consequences, he quickly added, “If you truly wish to help, you can prepare the vegetables.”

That piqued your interest. 

“You have fresh vegetables?” 

Alucard smirked. “There’s a garden house deeper in my castle. I took the liberty of cultivating a few species before the autumn frost.”

It almost pained him to admit, but a part of him was relieved that someone other than himself would be eating the food from his garden house. He had taken to planting seeds when Sumi and Taka were…. Well, when they were staying. The surplus had been just another painful reminder of his foolishness, but now, thanks to your stomach he supposed, he would no longer have to regard his extra efforts as a mistake. 

“Could you-? I mean, if it wasn’t too much trouble, do you mind showing me this ‘garden house’ of yours?” You recited the new term carefully. “My family has studied in herbology for years, but I’ve never heard of such a place.” You were very much intrigued. 

“It’s nothing spectacular, I assure you,” Alucard promised as he gestured for you to follow. “It’s just an indoor room that mimics the elements of certain growing seasons.” 

Your jaw practically dropped. “You’re saying it can create summer indoors and it’s not spectacular? Does it make rain?”

Alucard nodded. 

You were flabbergasted. “It practically sounds like magic!” 

“Not magic, just science. Irrigation systems have existed for hundreds of years."

Alucard brought you around to a hidden entrance you hadn’t seen before. Noticing your look of curiosity, he explained, “It was built for the stable hands to be able to ready the horses at a moment’s notice.” 

“Oh, I see,” you commented. “But why haven’t I noticed it before? It’s much closer than the entrance I’ve been using.”

“There’s a glamour that normally protects this door from prying eyes. I temporarily disabled the runes that powered it.” 

“Are you going to try and tell me that’s science too?” 

Alucard paused for a moment, letting your words wash over him, before letting out a hearty chuckle. 

Inside, you were beaming. That was the first smile to grace Alucard’s face since your arrival. He looked so beautiful, with his head tossed slightly back, his eyes crinkled shut: almost like an angelic oil painting come to life. 

“That,” he said, shutting the door behind the two of you, “Was most certainly magic.” 

❀    ⭒    ❀    ⭒    ❀

It had been two weeks since you and Alucard had sat down to that formal dinner. Although it was much more lavish than anything you’d experienced, you were mostly flattered and only slightly uncomfortable. It was an odd happenstance, to go from being completely ignored to becoming the sole subject of his focus. Even so, you supposed it was better than the silent treatment, even though there were occasional moments now and then when you missed your privacy.

It wasn’t that Alucard was nosy or too forward, oh no; it wasn’t like that at all. It was so clear he was just very lonely and desperate for human interaction. Even though he still verbally denied that desire existed, you knew he was lying by how often you’d find him joining you in a study or the garden house. And while you couldn’t deny you enjoyed the attention, there was a certain desperateness to it that concerned you. You hoped Alucard’s fears, and anxieties would lessen the longer you remained, but at times you believed it was causing an adverse effect.

It was as if your familiarity caused him more fear than your alienness. You wondered if perhaps his sudden closeness was in fact part suspicion, not mere neediness. All you could conclude for certain was those two skeletons out front must have done a serious number on him. For all you knew, they played the long game and waited until Alucard’s guard was down to strike. You had met people like that on the road. You just couldn’t understand it, the effort it took, to pretend to care with such force, waiting it out to reveal such nefarious intentions.

You wished to ask some questions about the two corpses but kept those morbid curiosities to yourself. After all, you had only recently been welcomed to stay inside Alucard’s home. You didn’t want to find yourself back in the stables if you were to suddenly offend him. You sensed his soul was very raw when it came to that subject. And speaking of raw...

At the present, you were reading over some old tomes of a small study right off of the castle’s garden house. You were working on a surprise salve for Alucard’s scars, and you intended to combine your own knowledge in herbology as well as the castle’s collection in order to make it. This particular collection pertained the most knowledge relating to plants and their properties, which is why you frequented it so much.

You were illustrating the flowering buds of a Hypericum perforatum in the blank book Alucard had gifted you when he entered and took a seat on the bench across from you.

The prior pages contained illustrations on the fundamental steps of honey harvesting. Honey was one of the main ingredients of your concoction, and you figured it was as good a time as any to record your knowledge of the process. Thankfully, the castle had its own stored honey to take from, seeing as you were out of the supply you kept on your person. Plus, you had some time before the weather warmed and spring arrived, meaning you would have to get on without fresh honey for a while.

You had even gone so far as to ask Alucard if he believed it was possible to transport a hive into the garden house once the more pleasant seasons brought the local bees out of hibernation. You were immensely pleased that Alucard found your idea agreeable. You would always enjoy a swell of pride every time he complimented your knowledge or found your ideas plausible. And you weren’t the only one who beamed every time the two of you had a similar idea.

Alucard would get this little twinkle in his eye, as if he was remembering a happier time from his past. There was an awful lot of apothecary equipment and scientific instruments in the castle. Perhaps he used to practice herbology among other things prior to his mysterious heartbreak. At any rate, you were extremely pleased to have such an important aspect of your life in common.

You glanced up from your journaling to send Alucard a soft smile before returning to your work.

“Hypericum perforatum?” You heard him ask. “I do hope you don’t intend to ward me away with that.”

You chuckled at his comment.

“Yes, well,” you started, “I doubt it would be effective seeing as how you were the one to sow and harvest the castle’s Hypericum perforatum prior to my arrival here.”

“Yes,” Alucard mused, picking up a dried stem and twirling it between his fingers. “It would appear useless against me. However, up against a fully-fledged vampire, of course, who knows?”

You shook your head. You could tell from the glint in his eye and the light tone of his voice that he was being playful.

St. John’s Wort may have been rumored to have supernatural expelling properties, but you knew that was all it was. Back during the Crusades, knights would rub their blades down with the herb for good fortune and protection. From there, the rumor surrounding the name, St. John’s Wort, as well as the idea of its holy properties only grew.

The plant did possess other useful properties, however, much like most herbs. You were hoping to use the Hypericum perforatum in your salve, along with lavender as well honey. You hoped the inflammatory reducing properties of both the Hypericum perforatum and the lavender would work to reduce the bright redness around Alucard’s scars whereas the honey would help speed up any healing.

However, you weren’t sure how to broach the subject of treating Alucard’s scars, recalling how infuriated he was the first time you mentioned them. Then again, that hostility could have been because you had just trespassed into his home. Either way, you figured if there was to be any chance of Alucard accepting your gift, the salve would need to have already been prepared.

“You’ve been interested in ailments of the skin as of late.” Alucard’s observation shook you from your train of thought. “Why is that?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “Just working through the body, I suppose. The skin is the first step.” You tried to joke in a manner reminiscent of Alucard’s own playfulness not moments ago. But from the looks of his unimpressed expression, your humor missed the mark.

“I told you it would not do you well to lie to me.” Alucard’s voice suddenly sounded so much louder, even though the distance between the two of you had not changed.

Either that or the new sound of your heart pounding in your ears made his words all the more menacing.

“I will give you one more chance to answer truthfully.”

Crap. You’d been had. You bit your lip and prayed that Alucard would not take offense to your actions, once he learned the true intention behind them. You took a deep breath before speaking.

“I wanted to make something for you.”

Alucard’s eyes narrowed. “Pardon?”

You tried again.

“I wanted to give you something, a salve to try and help reduce the prominence of your scars. I know I mentioned it when we first met but, you didn’t take so kindly to me then. It’s just you’ve been very kind to me as of late, and I appreciate all that you’ve shared with me and I wanted to be able to share something with you.”

Alucard stood up, wordlessly.

Your heart sank. “I didn't mean to upset you!” You started. “Please, forgive me!”

“Forgive?” He spat. “You don’t know the enormity of what you ask.”

“I’m sorry if I crossed the line or presumed too much,” you felt helpless. You didn’t want to go back to dead silence between you two. “I just wanted to help.”

Alucard froze. He had turned to leave but something in your voice, something about the way your body language suggested you resigned yourself to whatever fate he saw as fit, struck a deep chord within him. You weren’t trying to argue, to protest. You didn’t get angry or defensive, you just sat there, with your head held in your hands.

There had been times before, times in battle, times of anger when Alucard truly felt like a monster. He thought he had crossed that line, finally descended into that madness the night he put Sumi and Taka’s bodies out on stakes. He had told himself it was over; the battle inside him was won by the beast, and from that moment on, he would have no regrets or qualms about it. He was a dhampir, the son of Dracula; that was the horribly lonely fate he resigned himself to. That was… Until he heard your apology and glanced back to see your small, vulnerable form, ready for whatever consequences your surprise aid had unleashed. It reminded him, you reminded him of his mother.

His mother, who just wanted more than anything to help people; his mother who even with her dying breath, begged for her murderers’ forgiveness. His Mother was a saint, and the people persecuted her for it. And there you were, much like her, simply trying to help, and suffering for it.

He was the one making you suffer for it.

Yes, there had been moments of absolute rage and madness within Alucard, but until that moment he had never felt as much as a monster as he did looking down at you.

‘What have I done?’ Alucard’s hands began to tremble.

His own mother’s final wish was for him to be kind to humans, it was the reason he fought his Father’s war; it was the reason he staked his own Father, because of her last wishes. He had sworn to uphold his promise to her, to get along with humans, to be better than his father was. And yet, in just a few months, as the result of a mere two people’s transgressions, he had allowed a cold wall of disgust to build between him and humanity, solidifying the distance between his vampire half and his very own humanity. How could he have allowed it to get this far?

You were awaiting shouting, or a blow, some sort of violent outburst on Alucard’s behalf. You sat still, hoping he’d be quick about it, hoping you could take whatever anger he dealt and start again in repairing the relationship between you two. You never intended to offend him; you just wanted to help. You waited, the silence overwhelming you like how a storm’s wave overtook a ship.

And then… amidst the silence, you found yourself listening to the sound of someone sobbing. You were embarrassed until you reached up to your eyes and found them dry. So if you weren’t crying, that left...

“Alucard?” You straightened up to ask, absolutely unprepared for the sight that awaited you.

You had always thought Alucard was beautiful, angelic almost. There was this air of royalty around him; he always held his head so high, always seemed so sure. He looked the complete opposite now.

Before you, Alucard’s form was doubled in half, his lovely golden locks obscuring his face from your vision but you could tell from the shakes that wracked his body that the sobs were coming from him.

“Oh, Alucard,” you quietly rose from your seat and approached him slowly. You didn’t want to startle him. “I’m so sorry, for whatever happened to you. You didn’t deserve it,” you said, kneeling down to be on par with his eye level.

“How could you possibly know that? You barely know me. I’m a monster.”

You reached out to place a supportive hand on Alucard’s shoulder. “You’re the savior of Wallachia, and you’ve welcomed me into your home. You’re smart and proud. But I know enough to tell when someone’s been hurt, Alucard. You’re not a bad person for doing what you had to in order to survive.”

He turned to look at you. “So much has happened, so quickly. I’m not used to feeling…” He sighed. “I suppose I don’t have much practice when it comes to these kinds of things. I can recite any one of these books in several languages. I was raised by a Doctor and a polymath. I am knowledgeable in most sciences, but when it comes to emotions… I don’t suppose you have a remedy for that?”

You smiled, letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “I don’t have anything instant or magical, but I think I have the next best thing.” You straightened yourself up to a standing position, pulling Alucard up with you.

“Oh?” Alucard allowed you to brush some of his hair back behind his ear. “And what’s that?”

“A good hot cup of herbal tea.”

Alucard shut his eyes, momentarily, taking in your suggestion. "I think," he started, "I think I'd like that."

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A/N: @mightyarsh Again, sorry for months-long delay, but I’m back!

And @ the rest of yall.... once again, please consider donating to my Kofi, if you enjoy my work and want to see more.