#kinda wanna do more plants native to here

[sunshyni]

big boy energy

Jisung × Fem!reader

notes: this is my first text in English, so I'm feeling nervous 😬 English is not my native language, so forgive me for any errors or mistakes like that!! And that's it!! I hope you enjoy it!!

w.c: 0,7k

tw: none

I don't even know if this is good. I write more to see how my English vocabulary is doing, but anyway!!

Good read, sweeties!! ❤️

Your older brother's getting married in a few months, and dance lessons were scheduled for the couple and the godparents to avoid any embarrassment on the big day. Right now, you have no clue who your dance partner will be because your brother keeps saying, “Her right dance partner will show up any minute”.

You're chilling in a chair, adjusting your high heels for dancing, when you hear a noise from the salon door, and your eyes immediately snap in that direction.

— Hey guys, am I late? Sorry, my flight was delayed — Says the guy standing by the door. Jisung looks taller and stronger than the last time you saw him, but he still has that same sparkle in his eyes from when you were kids. Jisung, just two years older than you, used to mess with your braids all the time.

It was tough when he left town to study and work in Korea, his country of origin. You couldn't help but miss him, even though it seemed like he didn't give a damn about leaving you behind.

You kinda resented him for that because you've always had a thing for him, but he either didn't notice or didn't feel the same. I mean, you used to like him, but now that you see him another time, your heart can't help but race.

— Jisungie! You're not tired, are you? — Your brother asks. Jisung, dressed all black, looks even hotter than usual — I've got a mission for you.

— I'm good, let's do it — Jisung says, meeting your gaze with a nostalgic sweetness. You finally stand up, and thankfully, you don't trip and fall flat on your face.

— You'll be dancing with my sister, okay? — Your brother practically pushes Jisung in your direction. Jisung smiles at you, and all you can do is cross your arms and scowl.

— I hate you both — You mutter to Jisung and your brother as he heads back to his fiancée, sticking his tongue out at you in a teasing way. The dance teacher starts the class, and you even have the chance to complain to Jisung. He holds you tighter, causing you some agitation, but all you can focus on is trying to breathe normally while his face is so close to yours.

— Did you miss me, shawty? — He asks, leading the dance with skill, not like the same boy from years ago who learned to salsa from “Shall We Dance?” while you were sighing over the charmer Richard Gere.

— I'm not giving you the answer you want, Andy Park — You say, and Jisung chuckles softly in your ear, sending shivers down your spine, but you brush them off, wrapping your arms around his neck like they were made to be there.

— I prefer when you call me Jisungie, babe.

— I preferred it when you didn't leave me alone, babe — You retort, stepping on his feet. Jisung lets out a low groan but still holds you close, dancing like there's no one else in the room.

— I'm sorry for letting you down all this time. I'm an asshole, it's true — Jisung admits, acknowledging all the times you two didn't talk when you really wanted to, even if it was just to argue, something you did a lot as kids — Can we make peace, pretty please? Go back to the way things used to be?

You hesitate for a moment before letting a small smile slip.

— Like the old times, huh?

— But this time, I really wanna kiss you — Jisung whispers in your ear, and your heart feels like it's about to leap out of your chest. You feel his cheek against yours, and if you don't answer him soon, you might just pass out.

— Andy...

— Keep calling me like that, and I'll kiss you right here, not giving a fuck about your brother and my best friend — He says, planting a soft kiss on your cheek, leaving you dizzy with his scent filling the room, making it hard to breathe. You muster up the courage to speak, looking into his eyes.

— When did you get this big boy energy?

— I don't know, but you better enjoy it, cutie.

[draconicfool]

Woah more Eros voicelines under the cut

First Meeting: "Me? Th' name's Eros, darlin', least that's what everyone calls me. If y'wanna be fancy y'c'n call me Doctor. Any aches an' pains t'day?"

Greeting: "Somethin' on y'er mind? Or d'ya jus' like lookin' at th' cute doctor~?"

Parting: "Prob'ly time I turned in...I c'n't be an effective healer if 'm sleepin' on m'feet, after all."

About Self: Botany: "I keep all sorts of plants in th' clinic's greenhouse. They're mostly species native t' Jarilo-VI f'er now, but eventually I wanna get ones from far off places."

About Self: The Clinic: "Ah, th' Bahre Family Clinic belonged t' m' Daddy b'fore it was mine. Guess y'could call it a family business, huh? Not many of those down here, I s'ppose."

Chat: Flowers: "Belobog's a land covered in snow, s'ppose if I ever got 'round t' travelin' I'd really love t' see somethin' like th' flowers in stories...like- camellias..~."

Chat: Fairy Tales: "When I was jus' a li'l thing, m'Daddy used t' tell me all sorts of stories of...knights and princesses and dragons. I remember I used t' love those stories. If I ever have a kid, I think I'd like readin' 'em those same stories."

Chat: Vidyadhara: "No point hidin' it from ya, I s'ppose. I used t' be a High Elder on th' Yuque. Through a series of events I won't get int', I ended up here on Belobog. Th' people here think 'm human and I'd really like t' keep it that way, sugar.

Hobbies: "I- play th' violin sometimes. I think s' probably pretty annoyin' hearin' all th' time though."

Annoyances: "There's a sayin' m'Daddy always used t' tell me- don't go makin' work f'er th' people that take care of ya. When people get hurt on purpose as an excuse t' come see me, it really gets on m'nerves! 'm a doctor. I know 'm cute but there are better ways t' ask a boy on a date!"

Something to Share: "Th' treats I keep in th' parlor ain't for show, y'know. I make 'em fresh every day- so feel free t' help y'er'self, okay~?"

Knowledge: "Y'know they make portable geomarrow heaters that y'c'n take with ya whenever y'er out, yeah? Tha's what this cute li'l trinket on m'belt is~! Makes it much easier to go run around in th' snow when I really don't like wearin' too many layers."

About Sampo: "Ugh, Koski..? I remember one night I had t' dig him out of th' snow b'cause th' guards were on him. F'er such a big guy, he's surprisin'ly stealthy, I c'n't believe they didn't find him-! I had t' carry him t' th' clinic by m'self."

About Natasha: "People think I don't like sharin' business with Miss Natasha, but that jus' ain't true. M'Daddy used t'say 'many hands make light work' and tha's definitely true when it comes t' people's health."

About Gepard: "Oh, th' Captain! He's a sweetheart, though he gets a li'l shy sometimes. I wonder if I jus' come on too strong...hm."

About Pela: "Such a sweet girl, y'could hardly believe she's jus' sixteen. She's so responsible."

About Bronya: "Th' New Madam Guardian's certainly interestin'. Feels nice knowin' there's someone that has our best interest at heart."

About Seele: "She's definitely got a temper, but I c'n't say I blame her. Growin' up th' way we all did- especially her- I think I'd be angry too if I were given th' chance."

About Serval: "Serval's m'go-to gal f'er any maintenance I need on m'heater since we opened up. She's a real genius, y'know?"

About Svarog: "Th' Boss of the Robot Settlement seems scary, but he's kinda like a kitten. I think y'jus' gotta know th' robot equivalent of milk t' get him t' purr."

About Clara: "Oh, m'sweet pea...she's got a good head on her shoulders. 'm sure she's gonna do even greater things as she gets older."

About Luka: "Don't tell anyone, but I do like goin' t' watch him fight sometimes...and I may or may not have talked Sampo int' not bettin' on him so I could make a li'l extra cash on th' side...do not tell him I did it on purpose!"

About Sparkle: "I think th' world needs a li'l more Sparkle. We don't agree on everythin' but she's still family-. In th' loose version of th' word, mind ya-."

Eidolon Activation: "Maybe s'best we don't dig too deep, don't y'think, sugar?"

Character Ascension: "All m'love f'er all y'do f'er me~."

Max Level Reached: "I think I could still get even cuter, y'know?"

Trace Activation: "I guess I could stand t' flex a bit~."

Added to the team w/ the Trailblazer: "Always a pleasure bein' at y'er side, sweetheart~."

Added to the team w/ Sampo Koski: "Oh now it's really a feast of fools, ain't it?"

Added to the team w/ Sparkle: "Mm, so long as we're playin' fair. No stealin' wha's mine, kay~?"

Added to the team w/ Gepard: "Are y'finally gonna admit I could be a li'l helpful t' ya sugar~?"

Added to the team w/ Natasha: "I wonder what remedies we'll be able t' cook up t'gether!"

[the-silentium]

Murphy day

Masterlist - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Pairing: Bad Batch x Reader

Words: 3726 words

Warnings: Nothing really.

A/N: This is pure madness! @shadow-hyder this is your fault! Also, this will be a 3 part story so stay tuned for what'll happen next!

Fors is an Original planet. I do not give permission to people to use it for their own fics, the planet, the animals, the Nightmares, the lore or anything related to Fors. Thank you.

Right now, you didn’t know why you ever thought that getting out today was a bad idea. Sure, it was kinda against the rules and there was a long list of reasons as to why it was against the rules, but seeing the two armored clones dangling upside down meters above the ground, their limbs entangled in the thick lianas, their whines reaching your ears, you quickly forgot all the consequences that were waiting for you if you got caught. This was worth any forced work and fine thrown at you.

You stood there, a hand over your mouth to keep yourself from exploding into a fit of laughter, hidden on a large tree branch above the two soldiers. You listened to them insulting the foliage and thrashing around like it would change something. Clearly, they’ve never come to your planet before, or else they would know that the more they moved the lianas would squeeze them tighter into their grips. 

Despite your amusement at their expense, you kept an eye out for any predator lurking around. It would definitely darken your day if they were to be attacked. But then again, Murphy day spared no one. Your hand wrapped around your hunting knife, its carved wooden handle reassuring you that you weren’t defenseless and that luck was on your side. 

You ducked under an enormous leaf when you registered a movement in the corner of your eye, but not before making sure that it wasn’t a loth wolf or something more unfriendly. It definitely wasn’t a loth wolf, but you weren’t sure if they were friendly. One of the two new clones was way too big for your liking and the custom paint of his helmet didn’t put you in confidence, as opposed to the one with the glasses.

“Sorry for the wait Sarge!” A booming voice almost made you jump and lose your balance on the branch. “We got lost for a bit there!” 

“At least you made it. Now get us out of here. Being upside down is giving me a headache and I can't concentrate.” The trooper with the half black, half white helmet answered, wriggling around to try and see the newcomers. “Those things can’t be cut.” 

You smiled to yourself, the voice of your dad echoing in your mind. A sharp knife will not always help you. But a sharp mind will. And so, you chuckled silently to yourself, before sitting on the branch, your back to the trunk and head tilting to the side so you could keep sight on the bunch of soldiers. 

One of them walked forward while typing on something on his wrist rapidly, the bigger one following suit. 

“Tech, how do we get them down?” 

“Genlisea filiformis is a carnivorous plant-”

“A what?!” The second one that dropped the sniper rifle earlier yelled. You rolled your eyes at his panic. 

“A carnivorous plant, Crosshair. Now stop moving. The lianas will continue tightening every time you move.” His head moved slightly from side to side, seemingly reading. “Oh, this is interesting. They eat their prey by dissolving the flesh with an acid oozing from the lianas. Now, you guys should be okay with your composite armor. Don’t worry.” 

You snorted, a bit too loudly. Your hands flew to your mouth, whilst the rest of your body froze in fear that someone heard. Against all odds, you were still off the radar, your sound escaping them completely under Sarge's grunts of pain and the insults of the slim guy who you assumed was Crosshair. 

“All we have to do is to find the head of the plant. The weak point of the lianas is at the base of the head, where the lianas start.” 

As he finished his sentence, you pushed the leaf covering you aside so you could be at the front row of their realization. This was going to be gold.

“Hear that Sarge? We just need t-” His voice stopped as soon as he tried to take a step forward, his feet stuck under 15 cm of the stickiest artificial resin found on this planet. 

Just to make it better, his companion spotted the head of the plant and with all his determination behind his step, he tried to lift his foot, only to lose balance when it didn't move an inch and fell on his hands in the resin. 

That's when your laughter erupted, loud enough to cover the whines of the smallest soldier, bouncing between the trees and stopping each Bad Batcher's heart in surprise. Tears quickly gathered in your eyes, almost making you fall off your safe spot when you lifted your hand to wipe away the droplets. 

"You! Get down here!" Sarge barked, causing you to chuckle as your laughter died down. 

"Are your panties in a twist, Sarge? Did one of the lianas get in there?" You sassed, putting your knife back in the side pocket of your boot and carefully jumping down your branch to another one below. 

You made your way towards them, moving from tree to tree, avoiding any liana that was courageous enough to grow that far away from its roots and stopped just where the branches ended and the mess of lianas started. 

"Hey there!" You smirked, waving innocently at the upside down trooper two meters away from you. 

"Get us down." Growled Crosshair. 

"Oh sure. I love helping people who are as abrasive as sandpaper." You tilted your head to the side, putting on your best innocent expression. 

Once again, he trashed around, surely trying to get a hand free so he could grab… something? You were too far off his reach so he couldn't possibly want to grab you. Maybe a blaster? Unfortunately for him, you saw them fall on the ground earlier. 

"Listen. I-" His grunt of pain made you frown in concern. Your father always told you that you were way too empathetic for this big bad world. "We need help. Please." He sounded out of breath and it was more than you needed to get working. 

With a nod, you walked the length of your perch, jumped in another tree, climbed down to the jungle floor and avoided every puddle of resin the kids of the village had dropped around to prank passers by. 

"She's good." The booming voice surprised you again. 

"She's native and knows what she's doing." You said, putting on your gloves and reaching for your knife. "Ready?"

The two suspended clones grunted in approval. 

You made sure they wouldn't fall head first in the resin and with a few quick motions, you slashed the head off the rest of its body, sticky pale green juices oozed from the cuts and created a small film of smoke where it touched the blade. 

Two yelps reached your ears, but you couldn't care much, instead you jumped to the nearest patch of grass where you removed most of the acid from the smoking blade. 

"Are you alright?" At the question, you turned to assess if one of them broke their neck in the fall. For once, luck seemed to be on their side as they were both seating on their ass, helmets off massaging their heads where you were sure they could feel their heartbeat. 

"'m fine Tech." Sarge answered. He looked worse than his sniper friend, who glared at you when he felt your eyes on him. 

"You trapped us." He accused, getting on his feet to make his way towards you. 

 "What? No!" Jumping backward to avoid his hand, you tumbled to the ground but quickly rolled over to get back on your two feet. "Don't touch me!" You yelled, still avoiding his attempts at grabbing you. You didn't want to threaten him with a knife because you were sure to lose and he would touch you, but your mind did think about it. 

"Crosshair." Sarge barked, calling back his sandpaper soldier. 

If possible, the grey haired clone's glare intensified, burning a hole into your head, freezing you in place. Damn was he scary. You almost regretted cutting the lianas. 

"Won't hurt you." He muttered, still glaring. 

"Says you." You circled around him so you could go back to the rest of the clones, more importantly closer to Sarge who seemed more reasonable. You positionned yourself behind him, you know, just to be sure. 

"Can you get them out too?" Sarge asked you over his shoulder, giving you a perfect view of his tattoo. You were impressed. Never did you think that a facial tattoo could look so good on someone. Seemed like you were wrong. So so very wrong. 

You nodded. "On one condition." 

Frowning, he turned around to face you completely. 

"What?" 

I wanna touch your tattoo.

"No one touches me." His eyebrow shot up in an inquisitive manner and oh damn you wanted to touch the dark ink. 

"We won't hurt you." He reiterated Crosshair's words. You shook your head. 

"Not like that. I don't want your bad luck on me. Because clearly, you guys" You gestured around them with your both hands. "emanate bad luck." Your hands fall to your side. "The baddest bad luck I've seen in my life." 

"We don't have bad luck! We are lucky! We have a 100% success rate!" Bigger guy in the resin barked before laughing. 

"100% success rate eh? That's bad luck." You took a step back for your sake. Too much success always bite you in the arse one day. Looked like their elastic broke today. Lucky them. 

"You know that superstitions are not true, right? It's irrational." Smaller dude who removed his gloves to stand told you. Tech, if you heard right.

Wait. What? 

"Do you guys know what planet you're on?" You were baffled by the lack of knowledge they had on your planet. For sure, you would have thought that they would get as much information on a planet before getting there and running around? 

"Fors. A jungle planet of the Outer Rim. Rich in resources but not exploited because of the thick and dangerous flora." 

You nodded. "So you should know that here, what you all call superstitions are the real deal, right?" Your eyes found Sarge's brown one and you sigh at the lack of recognition. "Ok. If I were you, I'd get away from Fors real' quickly. You're all wearing black which represents death and your perfect success rate very probably attracted the curse of evil eye on y'all. Plus, we are today." 

You walked to a nearby tree, crouched to search the ground around its roots for a particular cavity. 

"What's wrong with today?" Sarge finally got on his feet, fetching his fallen blaster in a bush. 

"Today's Murphy day. The 13th day of the month. Usually there's a good balance between luck and bad luck. But today, it's only bad luck. Laws forbid anyone on the planet to get out of their home for the whole day to prevent accidents and other stuff." 

After your third tree, you found the hole you were looking for. Without a thought, you stuck your hand in the hole, searching around for the container the kids always leave near the traps. 

"So you're breaking the law." Crosshair pointed out, to your exasperation. 

"Exactly. But I don't intend to get caught so I should be fine." You huffed. "Thank you."

"You don't seem affected by bad luck." Tech quirked. 

"Knock on wood!" You said while knocking the trunk of the tree you were searching. 

Your hand found the bottle and pulled it out with a victory cry, the dark blue liquid shining in the sun like the night sky illuminated by its stars. You grinned, shaking the bottle. 

"Now, do we have a deal? Keep your hands to yourselves and I free the two remaining dudes from the kids' trap." 

With his hands slightly in the hair, Sarge nodded. "We won't touch you. Go ahead."

"Okay! Let's do this." Taking a deep breath, you opened the lid and dropped half the bottle at the big one's feet, the other half on Tech’s. 

The resin started dissolving on itself at the liquid's contact, freeing the troopers in under a minute. You backed off so they had room to join the rest of their squad. At a good distance, you allowed yourself to breathe again. 

"Thanks miss! I'm Wrecker." The biggest guy lifted his helmet a bit so he could wear it as a hat, a smile almost splitting his face in half. You immediately noted the scar on the side of his face as well as the cybernetic eye, but something inside your mind told you he wasn't as bad as you initially thought. He seemed too childish to be bad. 

"Nice to meet you Wrecker. The name's Y/N." You waved with a smile of your own. 

"I'm Tech." He removed his helmet, a smile of his own curving his lips. The name definitely suited him to a T. You waved back.

 "Sarge and Crosshair, right?" You asked, pointing to the remaining ones. 

"Sergent Hunter." He corrected as the other merely grunted in response. "Thank you for helping us." It wasn't a complete smile, but the corners of his lips perked up so you'll take it. 

"You're all very much welcome. I hope you all get back safely to your ship!" You put back your knife in its pocket and turned around to climb back into the tree next to you. You jumped to the closest thick branch, used your strong arms to pull you up on it and stand without much of a problem. You climbed a bit more until you found a branch big enough to walk its length. 

"Have a nice Murphy day and good lu-" The words died in your throat, instead morphing into a surprised yelp when your foot didn’t quite go where you wanted it to and caught in a tiny branch that totally refused to break, interfering with your balance. Your hands flew to your face to protect yourself from the smaller branches and leaves scratching at your skin, a quick peek informed you that the ground was coming way too quickly for your liking, your eyes closed in anticipation of the inevitable face plant impact. 

The pain wasn’t quite as you imagined, instead of hurting your front, hands, face and very possibly your spine, strong arms caught you in the air, the abrupt stop causing you to hit your chin onto a hard piece of armor, clattering your teeth together in the process. Thank the Maker, you didn’t bite your tongue off.

Confused, hurt and out of breath, you tried to comprehend what happened by looking around at the best of your capacity, being trapped between two arms as large as trunks. Concerned mismatched eyes met yours, seconds before the ground finally touched your feet delicately. Your eyes went wide as soon as your brain finally registered what happened and who cushioned your fall, panic making you push the large chest away from you so suddenly that you fell on your behind in a patch of tall grass. Wrecker tried to catch you in your fall again, missing your arm from an inch. 

“You okay?” He retracted his arms and stood tall again, Tech and Hunter approaching behind him, concern written all over their faces. 

“Yeah”. You sighed, letting your head roll backwards. Shooking your head, you watched the treetops, all the leaves and mazes of branches, the rare brave birds still watching you from above. Maybe they had the answer as to how you could survive this day. “Thanks for catching me Wrecker.” One of your hands massaged your aching chin.

“No problem Y/N!” His smile came back as soon as he was certain that you were fine, although it was short lived because you soon let yourself fall onto your back in defeat.

“This day starts so badly.” You muttered. You remember leaving your home at 6, early enough that a very few people were awake, but late enough so you could use the first rays of the sun to guide yourself. “I should’ve stayed home.” You snorted. “I’ll probably die from something very stupid.” 

“Well, if you hadn’t come out today, we would still be trapped, so the least we could do is help you  survive the day. How does that sound?” Hunter’s gravelly voice almost made you shiver. 

You shot back up, immediately extending a hand toward the Sergeant from your seated position. “Very fair. Deal.” 

With a nod, he grabbed your hand and pulled you up to your feet. Maybe he was used to pulling up his brothers or he simply miscalculated, but the amount of force behind his pull was unnecessary, propelling you right into his armored chest where you hit your face. 

You yelped in pain, hands reaching for your nose in a hurry. No blood. No broken bone. You sighed in relief.

“Sorry for that.” He seemed so confused it was almost hilarious. You definitely would have laughed if only your nose wasn’t ready to explode.

“It’s fine. ‘s not your fault. It’s today! You lose control of yourself a little and end up creating accidents all around you.” With a last check up that your nose wasn’t bleeding, you took a step aside to create a bit of space between you and the rest of them. “So, where’s your ship?” 

“Latitude 45.400972. Longitude -75.79851.” Tech answered while typing on the screen on his wrist. 

You were deeply confused despite having completed all mandatory classes in your village school. He was speaking a whole different language, you were sure of it. Did clones have a language? They were the first ones you ever encountered, not a lot of people liked to venture out into the Outer Rim where the planets weren’t very significant to anyone. Now that you thought about it, you’d love to see a battle on Murphy day. You were sure it would be catastrophingly funny to watch. Minus the fact that people would really die. Okay. Not so fun after all. 

“About an hour of walk this way.” Tech clarified, his eyes scanning your too deeply thinking face. 

“Okay!” You turned in the direction he pointed and started walking, jumping over the resin puddles. "You made it this far, I'm sure we can all make it back there without dying on the way!" You said, crossing your fingers. 

"Stop talking." Crosshair growled beneath his helmet. 

Duly noted. At the rhythm the day was going, you knew he'd regret his comment at some point. All you had to do was wait. So with the fakest smile you've ever had to use on your face, you turned around quickly and mimed to zip your lips before turning back around to watch your steps. 

Maybe it was a bad idea to follow them. You didn't know them until 10 minutes ago, they were four trained soldiers with blasters and military training, three seemed friendly enough and the last one was as cuddly as a porcupine. On your end, all you had to rely on was your excellent knowledge of the environment, your hunting knife and your precious tap. 

You tapped your pants pocket to ensure that it was still in your possession when quick steps alerted you of a clone keeping you company. 

"Don't listen to him. I'd love to know why luck has that much importance on this planet." Tech joined you at the front, helmet back on his head. "If you don't mind." He added when he met your questioning gaze. 

"People really don't know much about us, do they?"

You didn't blame them though. Who would want to venture on a planet where you didn't have the power over yourself, but something as volatile as luck did? 

"I'm afraid there aren't much more information on Fors other than datas about the minerals that can be found in underground caves."

"I'm not surprised." You scoffed. Your planet was extremely rich in precious minerals that the republic and the separatists would love to have to help found their war expenses, if it wasn't of the dangers passing as defenceless flora, adorable killing creatures and bewitching deadly smells. 

"Okay. Where to start…" You taped your chin, disentangling the different events and remembering your history classes. "You see, Fors is alive, like any other planet, but the difference is that it feeds on beliefs. It eh… apparently it's a field cast a very long time ago that enveloppe the planet and would cause all the luck, bad luck stuff."

Your hand shot up to push back against Tech's chest just as he was about to step in a prank trap,  falling in with him anyway when he tripped on his own feet. With a yelp, your other hand flew out, wrapping tightly around the first thing available, meaning nothing. 

Fortunately for you, Tech fell first into the phosphorescent mixture, saving your front from a disastrous quantity of disgusting liquids to come in contact with your body. You got away with only your pants in the mixture, so all in all, this was a good outcome. Although, with a silent gag, you hurriedly pushed yourself off the completely covered clone, away from the nasty smell and the oily prank. 

"What is in that? And why is there so many traps here!?" Tech yelped indignantly once he was on his feet, removing the most of the pale yellow thing out of his glasses. 

"Believe me, you really don't want to know what's in there. And for your second question, the kids love to trap strangers!" You pulled on a big leaf behind Hunter who dodged out of your way so you could remove a layer of the substance from your pants. 

"What's in that?" Whispered Hunter once he moved to your side, slightly bending to be closer to your ear. Wrecker's roaring laugh drowning his smaller brother's curses. 

"Phosphorescent bird poo mixed with loth wolf puke." You snickered. Poor Tech. It would have been much more hilarious would it have been the glaring tooth prick who fell in the trap. On the bright side, predators should stay away from your little group now. 

"R.I.P." You finally exploded in laughter. 

This was going to be the best yet the worst day of your life!

[inkandpen22]

Shared Minds and Shared Souls (8/?)

Pairing: Spike x reader

Warnings: smut, swearing, arguing (mild)

Word Count: 2.4k

Part Summary: Y/N and Spike discover what happens when they kiss. Now, they start to wonder what may happen if they push the boundaries.

Masterlist

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Spike checks on me in a panic.

“Never better!” I jump up and down as I pace about the crypt.

Spike holds out an arm to me, “Y/N, maybe you should sit-”

I squeal, the world feels so new! “I could climb a skyscraper or better yet, Mount Everest!” I clasp my hands together.

“That’s great, but-”

“I want to go to Europe!" I determine. "I’ve been, you wanna go? Let’s go!" I jump up and down. " You’re English, you’re old, you’ll know your way around! Natives won’t fuck with me if you’re around! All you have to do is go ‘roar,’ show your fangs a little, and-” I curl my fingers to mimic claws.

“Y/N!” Spike shouts. I stop immediately, a pout appears on my lips. He sighs, guilt etching his face. “Sorry, I-”

“No, you’re right," I nod calmly. "I don’t know what came over me there." A nervous laugh escapes me as I comb my fingers through my hair.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” He asks again, not convinced considering my frantic state.

“Yeah, kinda lightheaded," I admit. "But that’s probably from the sudden energy boost. It’s like having one too many cups of coffee.”

“Do you want me to drive you and Dawn home?” He offers, placing a hand on my shoulder.

My eyes nearly pop out of my head, “oh shit, Dawn! I’ve gotta go!”

“Wait,” spike grabs my forearm and spins me back around into his chest. He presses lips to mine and the glorious, all-encompassing feeling pours back into my body. Before I have the chance to fully enjoy it, Spike breaks away. “I’ll come by later.”

I nod, still kind of dazed and confused by the suddenness and intensity of the kiss. “Okay.”

Spike snickers lightly, letting me go. I exit the crypt and the chill of the night’s breeze courses over my skin. Maybe I shouldn’t drive? I’m still a little loopy. No, I’m fine, we’re fine! Plus, the sooner I get Dawnie home, the sooner Buffy will be done yelling. The sooner Buffy is done yelling, the sooner I can escape to my room, and the sooner Spike can come over. Yeah, I’m better than fine.

_______________________________________________

After all the dramatics, the Scoobies and Giles come over to discuss recent events with Glory. Oh yeah, she’s back, great right? I sit around the dining room table with them absentmindedly, struggling to conjure up an excuse to leave and head upstairs. It’s not as though any of them will let me fight Glory again because I’m ‘too weak to take her on.’ I check my watch and it’s well into the night. Spike could be here any minute, he could be upstairs waiting for me, this sucks.

Giles rambles on about his and Anya’s discoveries, “she’s far more powerful than we originally imagined. She-”

A thud from the ceiling interrupts the Watcher and makes everyone peer up.

“Okay, what the heck was that?” Xander questions sharply.

“Maybe it’s Glory and her minions!” Willow gasps, causing panic.

Starring at my lap absentmindedly, my eyes go wide with realization. Nope, it’s not Glory or her ugly trolls. More likely than not, it’s Spike landing in my room from the window. I accidentally leap up from my chair more noticeably than intended. Everyone’s attention turns to me and I laugh nervously under their intense stares.

“I left my crystals charging in my room and I must’ve lost focus. You know how loud they can be when they fall,” I stumble out an explanation as I cross the room to the foyer. “I’ll be right back!”

Sprinting up the stairs, I ignore their faint exchanges of curiosity. So what if they thought that whole thing was strange? When is anything in our lives normal? Xander is dating an ex-vengeance for Lord’s sake!

I swing open the door to my dark bedroom, nothing but the moonlight lingering in from the windows illuminate the space. I enter cautiously, seeing no sign of Spike. I start to question whether there was really a thud, but everyone heard it too. I couldn’t have imagined it.

The door behind me swings shut. Before I have the chance to look, arms wrap around my waist and I’m yanked back into someone’s chest. I gasp, panicking that its Glory or one of her minions.

“Hello, Love,” Spike whispers in my ear.

I relax, my heart pounding in my chest. Then, I swat his leather-covered arms. “You’re such an ass!” I laugh.

“Sorry Pet, I couldn’t resist,” he chuckles, releasing his hold lightly to stand in front of me. His hands remain on my waist with a squeeze as he plants a quick peck on my lips. “I missed you.”

“I miss you too,” I grin, leaning in to kiss him again.

“Ah, ah, ah,” he shakes his head. I frown and Spike is quick to explain. “Wouldn’t want you to go all Zeus on me again.”

I roll my eyes, stepping out of his embrace. “Tease,” I name call jokingly, well... partially.

He’s like a drug dealer who gets you hooked then drops you. Leaving you wanting more, so much so that you’re willing to go mad for it.

“Shilly-shally,” he fires back in a grumble.

My jaw drops as I whip my head around. “What did you just call me?”

He pouts, avoiding my gaze as he focuses on the floor. “Nothing...”

“No, say it!” I challenge, laughing breathlessly. “What did you call me?”

“Alright fine!” He straightens up and closes in on me. “I called you a shilly-shally person! An indecisive fence-sitter! One minute you’re yelling at me- like right now- and the next you’re on me like velcro!” His face softens, “which I don’t mind by the way, but it’s all kinda confusing. I wake up asking myself what version of Y/N am I getting today?” He mumbles the last bit.

My chest rises and falls rapidly as Spike towers over me in such close proximity. There it is again, the electric pull to him that overwhelms my mind whenever we’re in the same room. When we’re apart he’s still in my head. My eyes land on his lips and I can’t look away.

“Y/N...” Spike whispers.

“Yeah?” I mutter, distracted in my own head.

I feel his hand appear on my waist, gliding across my shirt and down my back. He glides closer to me, my chest pressed against his.

“We shouldn’t do this,” he states wisely, but his actions say don’t express the same amount of self-control.

I nod, “We shouldn’t... it would be wrong.” My hands run down his chest and I can feel the ripple of his muscles beneath the fabric of his shirt.

“We should stop,” he whispers, hovering his lips over my neck.

I hum, I know he’s right, but I can’t break free. It’s if I’m in a trance. “Spike?”

He hums and I can feel his warm breath against my neck.

My eyes fall shut as I ponder the feel of him against me, his hands wondering my body. “I need to do something for me.”

“Don’t need to ask me twice,” he growls. In a swift motion, he grabs the back of my legs and guides them around his waist.

I land on my bed with a yelp and Spike hovers over me. His lips smash to mine with such an intensity that I stop breathing for a second. Spike’s hands claw at my body and I can’t ignore the glowing light that appears when I close my eyes. It’s the same sort I saw in the crypt. My fingers comb through his hair, forgetting everything and just enjoying the sensation.

Spike breaks from me, gasping for air, “you really want to try this?”

I hum, nodding my head frantically. I don’t care about what happens, all I know is that I need spike now! Like right now, this moment! I lean up to kiss him again, but he cowers back subtly. Hesitation consumes his features, “but what if-”

“I don’t know what will happen!” I confess. “But I know I don’t care!”

Visibly, Spike faces an internal battle. His hand hovers over my cheek, he’s so close to touching my skin, but he stops himself. I slip my hand over his and his eyes grow wide as I guide it down to my cheek. I nod, giving him full permission. I want to do this.

I close my eyes, focusing hard on myself and internalizing so I don’t slip away. Spike slips his hand under my shirt and grips my waist. His touch is cold, yet warm at that same if that’s possible. My attention slips to the sensation and I feel drawn to him. No, no, I have to focus on myself. I hear my breathing, I feel Spike’s hand and the bedding beneath me. Steadily, Spike begins to glides his hand down and unbuckles my jeans. My cheeks become warm as they blush.

“Spike,” I mutter, feeling myself becoming distracted.

Ignoring my warning, he continues his pursuit. His fingers slip into my jeans and rub against my core. I inhale sharply as he picks up his pace and deepens his pressure. Spike is making it hard to focus as all I want to do is touch him and be consumed by him. His fingers glide up and down my core at a steady pace. I shift in my position slightly, my back arching off my bed. Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to remain focused.

Hurriedly, Spike breaks away from my lips and towers over me. Gripping the hem of my jeans, he tugs them off my legs. Already needing more, I wrap my hand around the back of his neck and bring him back down to bring his lips to mine. He continues his motion against my core as he deepens the kiss. He’s not playing fair. My fingers comb through his hair and I find it impossible to not want more. He removes his hand from me to shake off his jacket. Using my magic, I press my hand to his back and remove his shirt. Spike snickers against the kiss at my actions.

“You couldn’t do that to your bloody pants!” he snickers against my lips. “Think you could help a boy out and return the favor?”

I giggle and mentally remove my shirt. In a blink it’s gone, along with Spike’s pants, kill two birds with one stone.

“Can you do that trick more often?” He insinuates.

“Spike!”

He laughs and presses his lips to mine hungrily. It nearly takes my breath away. The addictive sensation of his kiss and a gift from the Devil himself. I roll my hips subconsciously, wanting us to be closed somehow. Spike growls and I feel the vibration against my lips. I’m too weak to deny my want for more. I want everything from Spike.

Then, I start to sense my attention slipping as more of our skin comes into contact. I want to give into him, forget trying to focus. Yet, I’d slip into his mind and would lose control. I’ve never heard of two individuals ‘in the moment’ and sharing a mind. We would be experiencing the same exact thoughts and emotions. I mean, there’s no greater form of being intertwined! We would be physically and emotionally entangled... we would lose individuality altogether. In that supernatural world, that has to have side effects.

“God, I want you, Y/N” he moans.

The sound pushes my willpower over the edge. Oh, screw it! I give into him and toss apprehension aside. All I know is that shagging Spike is all I want. The bright light that I experienced in the crypt is returning. It’s shimmering white and blue shades encompass my sight. The beautiful sensation of electricity coursing through my veins overwhelms my body and soul. I lose myself in the drug-like feeling.

My awareness returns to me in a jolt as Spike enters me. I gasp for a second as I experience the moment fully attached to my body.

"Are you okay, Love?" Spike checks, gently brushing strands away from my face. "Are you still with me?"

I hum as a wave of complex bliss rushes me entirely. Spike continues, and I feel myself slipping away into the angelic, heavenly, warmth that draws me.

"Bloody hell, Y/N," he whispers. His warm breath brushes against my collar bone and he leaves trails along the path. “You’re so beautiful.”

I feared intimacy as it posed a risk, yet how could this possibly be bad? I don't even feel human anymore. I feel... other-worldly! Swiftly, I change the pace, switching positions with him. My strength is magnified as I pin Spike down to the bed by his wrists. He peers up at me with amazement in his eyes. Clearly, he's not used to having someone be strong enough to challenge him. In my defense, I'm not used to holding this much power.

I roll my hips, feeling the pleasure build up in my core. Spike digs his nails into my hips as he squeezes his eyes shut and arches his neck back.

"Y/N," he pants, sounding like warning.

I love the sound his voice, especially now. I can’t imagine my world without him in it. I break away from his lips and start a trail down his neck. He shifts under me as this breathe quickens.

The power he grants me is too great to refuse. I continue my actions, wanting him to hit his climax because of me. All I want is to make him happy, grant him every pleasure the world has to over. The idea of that only excites me more and makes me quicken my pace. There's a powerful charge of foreign magic channeling through my body. My spirit has never been higher.

"Holy shit," I gasp as the feeling of my climax coming into reach.

Who's ever described an out of body experience, I get it now! Every touch, kiss, it's all intensified. Everything I'm experiencing is magnified. The glimmer behind my eyes explodes and my eyes snap open.

"Y/N?" I hear a voice angelic voice speak my name. “Y/N!”

I've never experienced anything like this before! All I see is a bright white light in front of me like I'm at Heaven's gate. Chills travel over my skin and a wave of warmth breezes over me as I approach the bright light. It shimmers and waves of blue glisten around me. All I have to do is reach out and touch it. I hold out my hand toward the light and my hand escapes in it. The light travels up my arm and toward my chest. A glimmering crystal blue lighting bolt like thread pierces my chest and I gasp. My eyes fall shut and the world around me goes dark as I slip away.

"Y/N!" I hear Spike voice fades out like a distance breeze.

_________________________________

Masterlist

Tags:  @mx-pibbles​ @hexmancia​ @it-was-all-a-beautiful-dream​

[thiswasinevitableid]

for mermay, 24 indruck nsfw?

Here you go! 24 was Lighthouse, and I made it a continuation of this space mermay fill. NOTE: this fill contains oviposition.

Communication Log between Lieutenant of the Amnesty and Chief Astrobotantist Duck Newton.

Joseph: Storm is forecasted to last four days at least. We won’t be able to land on Atlantia to pick you up until it passes.

Duck: Roger that. We should be fine here; ‘Drid says the storms are dangerous for spacecrafts and travel but not for buildings. I’ll keep testing the specimens we found in the meantime.

Joseph: if it gets too dangerous, let us know and we’ll try to get an emergency retrieval ship to you.

Duck: Will do. Duck out.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Atlantia, one of the four moons of the planet Oceana, is off limits to most. It’s home to precious minerals that the residents of the moon Aquaria have been known to go to war over, fighting to see who controls the territory in which the substance resides. To avoid these conflicts, the whole moon was declared a public resource, and all but the native Atlantians must acquire elaborate permits to visit. Outsiders are practically forbidden.

Unless said outsider is married to one of the most valuable individuals in the whole lunar system and said individual is suddenly very willing to throw his weight around for the sake of his beloved’s research.

Indrid’s negotiations were only able to secure permission for him and Duck, not the rest of the Amnesty, and so Duck spent the better part of two weeks scouring the plant life and trying to discern if the mineral make-up of the soil produced plants more likely to contain the curative properties he’s searching for. When the storm picked up, rendering the surface of the moon unsafe, Indrid apologized profusely for not foreseeing the change in the futures. Duck pointed out that it was sudden enough that the two of them had already arrived at the pick-up spot before the storm turned violent.

Of places to be sheltering during a storm, an Oceanic Beacon is at once an excellent and terrifying choice. It’s a combination of a lighthouse and landing strip, alerting travelers to the presence of land and the location to dock their craft. Because light from the beacon has to reach a massive distance into the sky and across the waves, the building lives beneath a dome of specially engineered, see-through glass. A storm has never so much as cracked one. But it means that Duck has a perfect view of the gigantic waves washing over them which, while awe-inspiring, makes his lizard brain certain he’s about to drown.

So he spends most of his time in the terrestrial rooms researching to keep his mind off the weather. Except for when Indrid swims up from the heavily fortified subaquatic portion of the lighthouse to visit him. Then he devotes every last bit of his energy to his husband. Most of the Aquariads he meets are shocked to discover he’s not only happy to be married to the eerie, formidable seer, but that he actively misses him when he’s out on his missions.

“The others are not too worried I hope?” Indrid swims to him as he comes down the stairs from the communication pad.

“Nope.” Duck pulls off the top of his uniform, “once you knew we had food to last over a month if we had to, I got a hell of a lot calmer too.” He drops into the pool, water carrying a hint of heat, as Indrid curls the celestial expanse of his tail around his waist. Duck is a strong swimmer, but Indrid’s ability to carry him to and fro without getting so much as winded makes him want to feign helplessness and spend his days in those undulating scales.

“In that case, sweet one, care to join me for a swim before dinner?”

Duck smiles, “You know it, sugar” and draws the alien in for a kiss as the lights of the beacon make gemstones of the salt spray on the glass.

--------------------------------------------------

Two days down, two to go, and Indrid wishes he could enjoy their little impromptu second honeymoon to it’s fullest (he’d taken Duck on a proper one his first visit back after joining the others on their expedition). His body has other plans; it seems to have caught on to the fact his partner keeps coming and going, and that if he wishes to have offspring with said partner, he needs to be ready (never mind that he and Duck cannot have offspring through any sort of biological means). So when Duck’s scent fills his nose and his laugh floods his ears, his body decides to fill his ovipositor.

Thus, he’s spent the last three days increasingly uncomfortable, the weight noticeable in his abdomen. His initial plan was to excuse himself early in the evening when they got home and masturbate until they were all released. But the beacon, while spacious, has very few rooms closed off, and the water is so clear that there are a high number of futures in which Duck catches him in the act.

Which is why, as the human sleeps a very safe distance from the edge of the pool (“‘Drid, if I fall in the worse that’ll happen is I get a hell of a wake up call” “yes but I cannot bear even the slightest risk of you drowning”), Indrid is squirming in an attempt to get comfortable. He doesn’t even realize he’s chirping in frustration until Duck murmurs his name.

“It, it is nothing sweet one, go back to sleep.”

“Darlin, your spots are goin’ green.” Duck indicates the flickers of sickly chartreuse in the water, “you feelin sick?”

“No. Or, ah, not in the sense you are thinkingoh, ohhh” he sighs, rubbing his face against Duck’s palm as the human gauges whether he’s feverish, “but I am achy and restless.”

“And hot, christ ‘Drid, there are med supplies here right? I mean, I got some in my bag, but they’re for humans-”

“I am not sick. It’s this” He rolls onto his back so Duck can see his cock straining to emerge.

“Sugar, you know you can ask for help with that any time.” Duck’s smile is sweet sin.

“No, it’s” Indrid whines as the tip emerges, the bulge of the first egg painfully obvious.

“Oh. Huh. Kinda figured you weren’t due for that again for a year or so. Not sure why; guess I just assumed Aquariads had a matin season.”

“Unfortunately it can happen quite often. If, if you do not mind, I will excuse myself and deal with it. It’s to the point where the eggs need to come out sooner rather than later.”

“Sure. Or, uh, if you want, I could, uh, help you out?”

--------------------------------------------------------------

The widening of Indrid’s eyes and the shock of orange that travels up his tail and fin suggests Duck has just done something remarkable.

“Surprise you, sugar?” He tucks a strand of silver hair the behind the aliens fanned out ear.

“Yes. There, there were no futures where you offered, why in the name of the deep did you?” His colors have turned nervous, but Duck spots occasional bursts of desire.

“Because” He sits up, patting his lap so his husband will rest his head in it and let Duck rub the knots in his neck, “you’re my ‘Drid; I wanna help you out, make you feel good too. And uh, I gotta admit, I been a little curious about it. Plus that holo-porn compendium you sent me while I was gone time before involved it a lot and it seems like it could be fun.”

“So you did watch it” Indrid looks up, grinning.

“Course I did. Gotta learn how to please my Aquariad husband.” He teases, kissing Indrid’s forehead.

“You need no help in that area whatsoever. I could not ask for a finer husband, human or otherwise.” Indrid kisses Duck’s belly through his thin shirt, then pauses, “you are not offering this out of a feeling of obligation, right?”

“Right. I want to do this with you, ‘Drid. Cross my heart.”

Red eyes skate up to his face, “In that case, disrobe and get in the water at once.”

Duck sinks into the clear depths the instant he’s naked, Indrid swimming back only long enough for him to get in before crowding him against the edge of the pool.

“My love.” Indrid purrs, kisses so languid and gentle they almost disguise the heat in his fingertips as gropes Duck’s ass, the force with which his tail forces his legs apart.

“You know itAHhh, fuck, fuckin love that” he groans as the tendriled tip of his cock teases Duck’s own, “so, uh, this gonna be that different from the way we normally do this?”

“For starters, I will not cum until all the eggs are deposited.” Indrid’s fin flickers pink, “and it will be more intense on your end, not only because of the stretch but because I have to be rather, ah, vigorous in order to make sure they all come out.”

“As opposed to all those times you don’t fuck me like there’s no tomorrow.” Duck snickers, wrapping his legs around the dark scales to help ease Indrid’s cock into him.

“It’s not my fault you are the most delectable, ah, ‘piece of ass’ I have ever seen. Did I use that correctly?”

“Yep” Duck tips his head back, allowing Indrid to kiss it as he pauses his thrust so his tendrils can stroke his G-spot before continuing deeper, “you been watchin earth porn for ideas?”

“Indeed. I also found some featuring an actor who looks rather like you, and watched it an embarrassing amount during your absences.” He chirps as he bottoms out and Duck toys with the sensitive band in his fin as Indrid positions them so the bottom half of his tail is flat against the wall, which lets him keep Duck pinned to it.

“You are going to squirm, and I do not want you doing so and coming off my cock.”

“Seem mighty confident you’re gonna get that reaction.” Duck nips his ear.

Indrid’s sharp-toothed grin takes on a hungry glint, “The futures tell me so. But since you seem to doubt them…”

“AhFUCK!” Duck’s back bangs into the wall as Indrid pulls halfway out and then drives back into him, “fuckyeah, sugar that feels so fuckin goodOHwhatthefuck” the bumps in Indrid’s cock are moving, the ones towards the base of the shaft grinding on Duck’s dick as they do.

“Nmmmm, I told you I was pent up, oh, oh yes, yes sweet one, get ready to take the firstAHhhnnn.”

“Jesusfuck” Duck bucks his hips as the first egg pushes into him. It’s not hard like a birds egg, more soft and squishy, but all the same his body convulses as it registers something inside him. His brain, however, sends a moan from his mouth because as alien as the sensation may be, the fact it’s Indrid doing it makes him wetter and harder than he’s been in weeks.

Better still is the look on Indrid’s face, his head tipped back in bliss as he fucks him. It’s only when he looks down that Duck sees the tears threatening his eyes.

“You, I, I’ve, you are letting me lay in you, letting me mate with you, no, no one has ever let me do this before.”

The heat spiking through him on the word mate changes to fierce affection at the thought that Indrid was denied such closeness, or any closeness, for so long.

“Oh darlin, c’mere” he guides the alien into a kiss, then moans as another egg presses into him. Indrid swallows the sound down, keeps Duck in the kiss until the pressure has subsided.

“Such a lovely little mate.”

“Do my best.”

Indrid rubs their cheeks together, “That is why this has been so frequent, you know. I am so very enamored with you that the primal parts of my system want nothing more than to fill you with my eggs, keep you here pampered and fucked out until we have a whole little school swimming about the house. I, ahhhn, I could even look after them on my own while you are away. Or, or if we decide that is not for us I want to lay in you every day so no one else will ever dare to think you could be theirs.”

“Not a fuckin chance, fuck, darlin” his thighs tighten around his tail as another egg pulses out of the tip, “it’s so fuckin hot when you talk like that.”

“Really? I was afraid I was babbling. OhOHohdear, ah, this is unexpected.”

“Uh-”

“Not in a bad way, but I am so aroused the eggs are going to start coming out more quickly. Which means, my darling husband, I suggest you hold on.”

“Way ahead of youUUUshit, fuck” his hands switch from gripping Indrid’s shoulders to thrown around them for dear life as Indrid bounces him roughly on his dick. There’s not pause between the fourth and fifth egg and he’s starting to feel full, squirms when the sixth egg almost pushes Indrid’s cock free.

“I, I told you so.” Indrid purrs, hands holding tight to Duck’s ass as another egg emerges, “but you are not going anywhere, little human. You are, nnng, staying right here, taking every last one of them, because you are my mate and if I want you full to burst you will be.”

“Holy fuck, ‘Drid” Duck buries his face in his husbands neck as his cock shifts backwards. The tip opens wider, covering all of Duck’s folds as the tendrils return to his dick, “fuck, fuck, sugar I’m gonna cum.”

“Yesss” Indrid growls, tail rippling as he forces the next egg into place, “that’s it, sweet one, cum for me, cum while I stuff you full, my perfect, perfect, wonderful one.”

Duck can’t even get words out as his orgasm races through him, muscles spasming in new ways around the eggs. He whines as Indrid continues bouncing him, eggs shifting and keeping his muscles from relaxing, tendrils keeping a rapid tempo on his dick.

“Oh, ohohohoh I am close, ohyes, Duck, my sweet Duck, you take me so well, take a little more, be a good mate and take the last one, take my cum, you are going to hold all of it until I am satisfied that you are mine AH, ahhhhyes” he trills and Duck grunts as he’s stretched wider by the last egg and flood of cum. Indrid clings to him, chirping and trilling as his tail twitches, until his cock retracts. Then it’s just the storm and the sound of their joint panting as Indrid swims them weakly backwards to a shallow section of the pool.

“Here” the alien guides Duck to recline half out of the water, “if you spread your legs and relax, most of them will fall out on their own.”

“Gotcha.” Duck can neither keep his eyes open nor stay upright, so Indrid adjusts so the human is resting atop him, back against his chest. One by one, the eggs slip out dissolving in the water after a few moments. The last two prove stubborn and Indrid massages his abdomen, cooing about how wonderfully he did, until they too slip away.

“Thank you.” Indrid murmurs, nestling his chin on his shoulder.

“Any time, darlin. Or, uh, maybe not too many times back to back. Not sure my junk can take it. Still, better we did that than tryin it up my ass. Woulda lead to some awkward med records and my crew never lettin me live it down.”

“Do not be so sure. I suspect Joseph would have been envious.”

Duck snorts a laugh, looking over his shoulder in surprise.

“I read his sexual preferences on those forms they made you each submit.” Then he smiles like a sunrise welcoming Duck home, “but I think I made the right choice, don’t you?”

“Yeah, sugar, I do.”

[magniloquent-raven]

Fic Writer Questions

i was tagged by @cherry-toxic and @gideongrace ty both 💕🥰💕

How many works do you have on AO3?

15

which is a relatively small number but sometimes im still like, holy shit i finished 15 whole fics lmao

What's your total AO3 word count?

68,299 (time to post a 701 word fic and then never post again i guess)

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

well this is about to get mildly embarrassing lmfao. ive only got harry potter & stranger things fics on my ao3 and tumblr but if you want a full list, as a teenager i posted a shitty borderlands self-insert fic on quizilla, and hiccup/jack frost fic on ff.net.

and if u count fics that never got finished or published anywhere i dabbled in teen wolf, supernatural, dragon age, star wars, left 4 dead 2, skyrim, good omens, the mcu, buffy, wynonna earp, plus like, general disney/dreamworks crossover fic. and i started writing shameless fics recently, we'll see if i actually finish any. aaaand...i think that's it?

so...15?

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Wait for you, Burn for You

2. Find Our Way

3. Something to Hold

4. Room for One More Troubled Soul

5. Don't Know What I'm Gonna Do (About This Feeling Inside)

all harringrove fics except #4, which is probably only on the list because it's been on ao3 the longest lol

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

oh god, i used to. i did when i was starting out, but then i just. i get self-conscious about what to actually say & leave shit to sit for too long. and suddenly ive got like 100 comments i havent replied to and i want to respond to them so bad but ive left them so long i feel weird about it now and it's a problem 😥

i want to start responding to them again, and every time i get a new one i tell myself im gonna but i never do cuz im fuckin awkward lmao

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

i......don't really do angsty endings. like, most of my fics end with smooches and/or love confessions lmao, i don't like leaving things off sad, even if it starts depressing as hell.

maybe this one? it still ends soft but without resolving the thing billy was angsting about, so.

Do you write crossovers? If so what's the craziest one you've ever written?

hahahhha.............i don't really do them anymore, but i already said i was into the whole animation movie crossover thing, so. yeah, i did lol. it was when i was in high school so of course i did one that was like, every disney character ever and they're going to school together. which really isn't that crazy a concept, but it was a lot of movies to write in so maybe that counts

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

nahh, not rly. i don't get around enough to attract anti attention lol, tho i did get one of those "👎" comments when someone was going around doing that, which lbr, is so low effort it barely counts 😂

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

yea sometimes. i do get the occasional horny idea lmao. mostly "what if touch-starved character + tenderness" or someone having lots of feelings while they're fucking. someone is usually billy lbr. i've also got a couple "what if someone got tied up and treated right" ideas but i don't think i've actually published any of those lmao

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

don't think so?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have not

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yea, kinda! a collab with a friend of mine for fun

What's your all time favourite ship?

i...don't know? i get emotionally invested in characters more than the relationships themselves lol. i don't even know what ship i've been invested in for a long time, most of the shit i shipped as a kid i don't give a fuck about anymore lol.

except fuffy, actually. i've always shipped buffy/faith

and if we wanna go with fandom i've actively stuck with the longest it'd be harringrove. cuz ive been here and writing shit for yall for over a year now when i usually would've cycled thru a couple fixations by now lol

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

that's a mean question lmao how dare you. i honestly don't know, i have a lot of wips and i want to finish all of them. i know i won't but there isn't one specifically that seems less likely than the others so idk

What are your writing strengths?

uhhhhh.....i mean i've been told that my characterization is good? like, ppl being able to picture the actual characters when they're reading n stuff, so that's nice. and i could write introspection forever, u don't even know man, i get in the zone. i love getting in a character's head and picking apart their emotional state

What are your writing weaknesses?

writing dialogue really trips me up because i get picky about word choice lmao. i can be writing uninterrupted for twenty minutes cuz it's all a character's inner monologue but the second they gotta speak out loud im sittin there like ok what words sound natural and how much would they be willing to say etc. etc. suddenly it's an hour later and i've written three lines of dialogue. plus i tend to edit as i go so i'm always stopping and going back and rewriting stuff instead of just finishing the damn story

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

no thoughts head empty

lmao for real tho idk? i mean there's that one trope, when someone says nice stuff in a language the other person doesn't speak because they're pining and not sure if they're allowed to say it outright, that shit's cute. im sure all the google translated dialogue has been annoyin as shit for native speakers lmfao but yeah

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

probably harry potter but i literally have no idea. i started writing fic in my early teens and that time of my life is a big fuckin blur lmao

What's your favourite fic you've written?

ngl i think my fav fic is one of the multi-chapter wips i haven't published lmao

BUT. if i gotta pick something yall have read, this one. just a lil guy. plant dad billy and domesticity. it's cute and i like it. maybe also this fic that i wrote for valentine's day. i wrote basically the whole thing in one day and i was really proud of myself lmao, and i just really like headcanoning backstory for billy & that fic is rly just about him growing up, so

tagging @rvspberryjvm @wingedbears @paperbodiesamongthestars @platypan

if yall wanna! 💕

[mst3kproject]

Invasion of the Star Creatures

I promised you guys something truly awful this week, didn’t I?  Well, how about a space invasion ‘comedy’ (big emphasis on the air quotes there) produced by Samuel Zarkoff to be a double-bill with The Brain that Wouldn’t Die?  The closest thing it has to a star is Frankie Ray, whom MSTies might know as the writer of Laserblast.  He also wrote Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, which I really, really need to see one of these days.  Film Historian Bill Warren described Invasion of the Star Creatures as ‘so helplessly bad it’s almost unwatchable’.  Let’s find out if he was right.

Fort Nicholson is the world’s center for atomic research, despite apparently being staffed entirely by idiots.  The two biggest idiots are, unfortunately, our main characters.  Their names are Philbrick and Penn.  No, I don’t know which is which.  No, I don’t care.  I’m gonna call them Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice.  The first ‘comedic’ sequence involves Rick With The Squeaky Voice sitting in a barrel pretending he’s going to space, and getting his ass set on fire.

That sets the tone for the whole movie quite nicely. It’s stupid and it’s not funny, and it never gets any better.  In fact, as we shall see, it gets significantly worse.

For some reason, Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice are assigned to a mission to explore a cave recently exposed by a nuclear test.  This turns out to be the base for two seven-foot space women, Tanga and Pona, and their tuberous minions, the Vege-Men, and the entire party is soon in their clutches.  The aliens say that they have come to save humanity from destroying ourselves through nuclear war, but naturally the army isn’t into that.  Rick With The Squeaky Voice discovers that kissing the women puts them into a daze, allowing the two idiots to escape, but of course nobody back at Fort Nicholson believes their story.  Is it really up to these two to stop Tanga and Pona from heading back to their home planet with their report?  We’re doomed.

I don’t remember which review it was, but I once invited you to imagine a movie in which every character is Dropo or Watney Smith.  This is that movie.  This is proud of being that movie.  The aliens try to read the two Ricks’ minds and one is completely empty while the other is full of superhero fantasies.  Pona calls what she sees ‘completely illogical and infantile’, which is a fair description of the whole movie.

There’s a sequence where one of the army men shoots a rattlesnake that was about to bite one of the Ricks, and then cries because ‘he might have had a family’.  They try to lampoon the thing in old movies where the characters walk through the same set from different angles by doing it without cutting away or changing the camera angle, but it just looks dumb.  The Colonel gives a long-winded speech about the merits of getting straight to the point.  A forced march stops for a lovely picnic and wine tasting.  A guy gets his ass kicked by a Vege-Man and declares, “that’s the first time a salad ever tossed me.”  There’s a running ‘gag’ about fans of ‘Space Commander Connors’ recognizing each other’s secret decoder rings and immediately going into a full-on geek-out.

None of this is funny, much of it is downright embarrassing, and the worst part is that the writers have no idea how to include their attempts at comedy in the story.  Rather than the hijinks advancing the plot, every time something that’s supposed to be funny happens, the whole thing comes to a dead halt.  This gives the impression that the movie is stumbling around in the dark with no idea where it’s going.  It finally seems to settle on a plot when we find out that the spaceship is about to leave and must be stopped.  After some bullshit the Ricks convince the Colonel (and only the Colonel) to help them take on the aliens.  At this point I was thinking that this movie was pretty terrible but it hadn’t actually pushed me to the point of being tempted to turn it off…

And then it got racist.

The last ten minutes or so of Invasion of the Star Creatures are a downward spiral in which it seems like they gave up trying to be funny in favour of being actively offensive. First, they encounter what’s supposed to be a group of Native Americans on horseback.  Rick With The Squeaky Voice tries to get their attention by saying “hey, Kemosabe, I wanna buy some blankets!”  The Natives don’t speak much English but they do a lot of grunting, and threaten to kill the Colonel because they think he’s General Custer (?!).  Then they kidnap everybody and force them to smoke the peace pipe and drink firewater and the white guys only escape once the Natives have passed out.

Holy shit.  Not only is this repulsive, it is, as previously noted, irrelevant.  It has no effect on the plot other than to waste time.  The Natives do not help them defeat the aliens and neither does the Colonel, who is also in a drunken stupor.  And then, just when we think this can’t possibly get any worse, the defeated alien women declare that they must throw themselves on the mercy of the Earth Men.  This turns out to mean marrying them, and the dialogue specifically likens marriage to slavery, which Tanga and Pona seem to consider a point in its favour!  The end of this movie left my head spinning.  It’s like I watched a guy get ‘comedically’ knocked over by a punching bag for forty-five minutes and then he suddenly turned around and punched me in the face.

(Hey, I just realized… remember how I said the cave was exposed by a nuclear test?  The dialogue emphasizes how this whole area is irradiated and dangerous – and then totally forgets about it.  It’s never mentioned again and the characters take off their protective gear and never put it back on.  So… that was useless, too.)

There is stuff in this movie that could have been funny.  The secret decoder ring stuff almost got a smile out of me once or twice, because the characters seemed so earnest in their love for ‘Space Commander Connors’ and his lore.  The ‘Vege-Men’ also had potential.  We get to see a greenhouse room where they’re grown to be the women’s slaves, and the seedlings are hands or feet sticking out of flowerpots with a few leaves around them.  This is fairly amusing and I could see it being the juvenile form of a sentient plant on Star Trek TOS.  Adult Vege-Men are actors in stupid carrot costumes that they obviously can’t see out of very well, which should have been funny just because it’s so terrible, but Invasion of the Star Creatures is so bad you can’t even laugh at it ironically.

The idea of using a bumbling idiot as your main character, let alone two bumbling idiots, frankly baffles me.  Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice are supposed to be the guys we, the audience, identify with.  We’re supposed to like and root for them and to perhaps be able to imagine ourselves in their places, but the only thing I feel for them is contempt.  Why would anyone want to see themselves in these guys?  Perhaps it’s an attempt to say that anybody can be a hero, but the two Ricks don’t even qualify as that.  When they save the world, it’s basically by accident.  The ending, which rewards them with promotions, medals, and beautiful wives from outer space, actively makes me angry because they didn’t earn any of that!

Invasion of the Star Creatures works very hard at being pointless, and there’s very little in it that comes anywhere near a theme.  If any such thing exists, its in Tanga and Pona’s insistence that they’re here to save humanity whether we like it or not, and how the humans react to that idea.  The women say it would be a shame to see a young civilization destroy itself because nations were too stupid to work together.  Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice reject this entirely, which is supposed to be a joke: these guys are in the army, so if humanity transcends the need for conflict they’d be out of a job.  The rest of the plot then seems at pain to emphasize that humans cannot work together, and do not want to.

After all, the two Ricks’ attempts to summon help come to nothing.  The Native Americans never understand that these men want assistance, and the Colonel thinks it’s all a Space Commander Connors game before sliding under the metaphorical table, having never done anything useful.  The Ricks themselves spent most of their time arguing and complaining and in the end succeed only through good luck on their part and poor timing on that of the invaders.  Usually a story that begins with ‘aliens want to save primitive humans from ourselves’ would end with ‘the aliens were wrong about us’.  Invasion of the Star Creatures seems to want to say the aliens were right the whole time!

So there you have it – Invasion of the Star Creatures.  It started off kinda bad and not funny, then swirled down the cinematic toilet into outright offensive, racist, sexist drivel.  I’m trying to think of some small thing I can say about it that’s nice, but I’m having a very hard time.  I guess I kinda liked the rumbly noises that represent the alien language – that was more fun than just having the actresses spout random gobbledygook.  Other than that, I’m at a loss.  The actors suck, the sets suck, the effects suck, the costumes suck, and everybody involved was a bigoted dickweed.  Fuck this movie.

[paperstarwriters]

Transformers Fantasy AU

So, I’ve seen a few things on here starring human bots in a medieval AU where Optimus is king and Bumblebee or someone else is prince and I REALLY like the idea, but consider:

A medieval fantasy AU where Bots lived with humans.

In this world there were a wide variety of creatures. Dwarves who lived in the mountains to mine precious minerals, Elves who lived in the forest and learned from the plants magic, and the Cybertronian race with keen psychic magic and lived along with Humans.

Humans were to the Cybertronains (Who’s names were shortened to “bots”) as Dwarves were to Elves, the latter group skilled in magic and seemingly more advanced than the former. Dwarves and humans were not blessed with magic the same way bots or Elves did, but they were still highly competent, Something you were determined to prove.

You had spent years learning your own hand in mental magic, willing yourself to catch up to what the bots were born with. From there you spread to Elven magic, and spread what you learned in your small town. Today, you were before Cybertron city gates and you were going to study with the great, with other magical scholars. It wouldn’t be your first encounter with snobby stuck up scholars, but it would be your first with ten foot tall metal ones.

The bot at the gates appraised your papers, giving you time to eye the black and white colors of his metal the bots you’ve seen so far were so multicolored, some glittered with the colors of the sea while others burned with reds and yellows like the bright noon sun, yet in contrast their eye colors, (or as your studies showed optic colors) were very limited. Either red, blue or occasionally gold.

The soldier bot gave a mock cough, bringing your gaze back to the papers in his hand which he was currently waving in your face. He muttered something in his mother tongue (something undoubtedly mean), before he switched to your language.

“Your papers are all clear human, it seems I will be seeing you in Iacon later today.” He made no clear expression of joy or distaste as he nodded, and opened the iron gates.

It moved smoothly, unlike the wooden gates of the less magically inclined human cities. The metal making a resounding thud as it opened like the jaws of a beast. People milled about the colors of the people especially bright against the plain grey of the city buildings. You had to lean back to see their tall towers searching for one out of many that may house the great hall of records. Eyes so high in the sky, you didn’t realize the more pressing problems on the ground.

It was an acknowledged fact that the heightened mental ability of the Cybertronian race and the metal their bodies were made of allowed for them to morph and change their body. According to many articles the true source of this ability and most of their magic is from a part in their body which they call a transformation cog. It allowed some to transform into a creature that could fly without flapping their wings, or carriages and carts that would not need to be drawn by horses.

You barely dodged the red blur of a bot, driving along and cackling, another bot following after, this one however seemed more kind to unfortunate bystanders. Stopping right in front of you. It gave a series of irritated beeps in a language that you did not know. It didn’t sound like Cybertronian and it certainly wasn’t a human language.

“Bumblebee!” a deep voice called out. You glanced behind you to check if the red car would respond, but it was long gone. Instead, the black and yellow bot transformed to a height of at least seven feet tall. That made sense, they were colored like a bee.

Your Jaw dropped as a large blue and red bot approached in it’s ‘alt-mode’. The current leader of a Cybertronian group known as the Autobots, and a well renowned scholar before he was given his position. Optimus Prime. Apparently, a prime was the equivalent of a king for humans, and he stood before you by the city gate, far away from any castle. He unfolded himself transforming into a more humanoid figure and towering high above you.

Bumblebee made a few more beeps, which he seemed to address to you before he turned to the Prime. He nodded his head in understanding, while you remained confused. You were rather sure one of the abilities of the bots’ magic was that they had the ability to automatically translate, like the Elves had learned to do with animals, and sometimes even plants.

“Human, we apologize for the inconvenience. Bumblebee was in pursuit of a decepticon, and was calling after them, I assure you he was not upset with you.

You bowed, unsure if it was the same meaning of respect for the bots. “No problem, your majesty. It was my fault for not paying attention.”

The Prime tilted his head. “Majesty?” Any other comment he would have had was quickly swiped away as bumblebee chirped up once more, a series of energetic chirps and beeps that Optimus was quick to respond to. “Yes, that is a good idea Bumblebee. Human, to make up for the accident, would you mind if we took you to your destination? It should be safer than wandering around, not all bots are so quick to stop as Bumblebee is.”

“Oh, sure, thank you,” you cut yourself off from repeating the majesty statement. Perhaps it did not work the same way.

Nonetheless, the prime nodded, speaking up once more as Bumblebee transformed. “My name is Optimus Prime, although you seem to know that.” he smiled at you, a very faint quirk up from the corners of his mouth, before he folded himself up into his alt mode. “Where would you be going today?”

“I was informed there was a magic lecture at one of the schools here?” Your meek reply was met with a torrent of enthusiastic beeps that made Optimus chuckle in response.

“It seems we have the same destination. However, as the lecture will be later in the day, Bumblebee is proposing that we go and show you around Iacon for awhile, unless you would rather wait at the school?”

“Oh no, a tour sounds great.”

---------

A few notes:

so yeah, the magic system for Cybertronians is psychic magic which allows them to have better control over their own body than most other races. I like to imagine that Shockwave is a Magic Scholar who is learning to channel their magic into another person’s mind. The civil war with the Decepticons is definitely still going on, it’s just not as bad in this moment. Optimus is cautious and alert against any possible threats, but he didn’t see Knockout steal anything or harm anyone (besides you) and while he did not brush off the event he’s killing two birds with one stone- keeping the human safe and going on patrol.

Also, yeah, as stated above, The ability to invade someone’s mind is not yet present but the spell to alter and translate language is. I think the spell is mostly focused around the head, and even though the person is speaking their native tongue, others hear it in a language they understand. In Bee’s case however, he isn’t speaking the right language to allow the translation spell to work properly. Since it’s made by Cybertronians it is attuned to their language.

Now when it comes to vehicles, I tried to avoid using the term car or similar ones as that clearly does not exist yet, but the Cybertronians are in their original alt modes, not copies of human vehicles, but the type they had on Cybertron.

Yeah, that’s all I’ve  got, I may continue this little story, but I’m open to do headcannons, character or world wise for this au, and try to answer some of the questions. If you have an Idea though please send it my way.

This work is more fitted to TFP (but i did slip a bit of prowl there) so if you have info for the other continuities feel free to fill me in, or make your own take on this. Just tag me, though I wanna see

I saw a bit of @milagrosen‘s royalty au for bumblebee and that’s kinda what this was based off of. Really love their art

[the-awkward-outlaw]

Can you do 184 with Arthur and a female chubby reader?

So I know that this one was from the NSFT writing prompts, but it turned out to be SFT, so no smut ahead. Also the ending took a very different turn from what I was expecting. 

Read my works on AO3! 

You stand on the edge of camp, not wanting to be around anyone else. You’d been out riding your horse alone earlier today. You’re used to riding alone, even capable of taking care of yourself. You and the others are all like that. It’s one of the requirements of running with the Van der Linde gang. Living the outlaw life comes with a lot of risks. Today, you faced one of them. 

You’d been riding back to the gang, your horse’s back draped in pelts and your satchel heavy with stolen goods, including a fancy watch you’d found in an empty cabin. On your way back to Horseshoe Overlook, you’d been stopped by four other riders. They tried to rob you, but seemed rather new to the whole process as they weren’t frightening at all. 

The leader of the four demanded you surrender your goods. “Fellas, you don’t wanna rob me. Trust me, nothing good will come of that. If you value your lives, you’ll let me be.” 

“What threat could you be to us, you fat pig!” one of them hollered back. 

The insult stung, of course. You’ve always been self-conscious about your weight, but you tried to pretend like it didn’t bother you. “I’m not going to warn you fellas again. Turn around and let me pass.” 

“We got four guns on you, you goddamn whale!” he yelled again. “You’d be smart to just give us what ya got, you’re much more likely to survive.” 

“Fine,” you sighed and put your arms up. The man came over to ruffle through your pockets. Just as he reached towards you, you grabbed him, wrapped an arm around his neck and squeezed. You then planted his back to your front and pulled out your revolver. 

“Back off, assholes!” you scream at the other three who point their guns at you. The man in your grasp claws at your arm, trying to relieve the pressure around his neck. “Put your damn guns away and leave, otherwise your buddy’s gonna get a bullet in his brain!” 

The other three trade frightened glances. “Shit, she ain’t worth this,” one of them says. He holsters his gun and runs off, followed by the other two. The man in your arm is gurgling, his face turning purple. When his friends are out of sight, you release him and shove him down into the dirt. 

“I ever see you again, I won’t hesitate to slit your throat!” you growl at him as he gasps for breath. You mount up and ride off, not looking back. 

The attempted robbery hadn’t shaken you up, and you’re not quite sure why the man’s comments about your weight bothered you so much. You went to Valentine afterwards to get a drink to simmer down, but when you were in the saloon, you felt like everyone was staring at you, judging your weight. You got a single shot of whiskey and then went back to camp. 

You’re at the cliff overlooking the river below, wanting to be alone. Of course, you know the others in camp don’t judge you for your weight. They’ve got bigger problems to worry about and it’s not like you don’t do your share of work. You always have. In fact, you’ve tried to lose weight. You certainly live an active enough life to lose it, but you just can’t seem to get rid of it. 

As you stand here, you don’t notice Arthur coming up from behind. He’s been your best friend for many years and the only reason he hadn’t been on the ride with you this morning was because he was hunting some bison with Charles. He’s one of the few people you trust with your deepest secrets as you’re secretly in love with him. You’ve been in love with him for a long time but have refused to let him know in order to protect your friendship. 

“There she is,” he says in his way of greeting you. 

You turn and smile at him. “Hi, Arthur. How was your hunt?” 

Arthur tells you about the poached bison and how he and Charles found the hunters. Charles killed one of them but Arthur let the other one go to spread the word that to poach bison and frame their work on the natives would result in their deaths. 

“Well, I’m glad you let him off easy,” you say with a soft smile. 

“It weren’t an easy decision. Charles wanted me to kill him and I kinda wanted to. I might be a bad man but at least I ain’t takin’ money to frame the Indians.” 

You smile again and then look back out to the river. You’re still not really in the mood to be around people, not even Arthur. He shuffles his feet for a moment. 

“You doin’ a’right? Ya seem a little down.” 

“I’m fine, Arthur. Don’t worry about me.” 

He sighs. “Ya know ya can tell me anythin’, right?” 

You look up at him. You feel silly for how you’re feeling about the whole thing. Why the hell should you care what some asshole who tried to rob you? 

“It’s nothing. Just somethin’ stupid.” 

He tilts his head a little. “Stupid or not, will you tell me?” 

You sigh and nod. Maybe it will be nice to have someone else’s input. You tell him about the attempted robbery and the rude things the man said. You also tell him how you sent the men running off with their tails between their legs. 

“I don’t know why it’s bothering me,” you say, not omitting the things the guy said. “It shouldn’t, he was obviously trying to scare me.” 

He sighs. “He was, and sounds like you certainly gave him the scare of his life. I imagine he won’t be keen to try robbin’ anyone anytime soon.” 

You smile a bit but you still feel down. “I don’t know why I care so much, Arthur,” you finally admit. “I mean, I know I never been pretty or even decent enough looking for people to want me around. I… I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.” 

Arthur looks at you, his eyes soft. “I think you’re pretty,” he says. 

Your stomach clenches tightly. “Arthur, you don’t have to lie.” 

“I ain’t lyin’. Can… can I touch ya, darlin’?” 

He’s called you “darlin’” on a few occasions, mostly during tender moments like this when you’ve needed a boost. It always gives you butterflies when he does. Not only that, he’s never asked to touch you before. You’re not the most touchy person, in fact you’re more averted to it. However, you know he’s touch-starved but is good at hiding it. 

“Why do you want to touch me, Arthur?” you ask softly, not able to look at him. 

“Because it sounds like ya need it. Here.” He holds out his arms and approaches you slowly. You let him come close and then go into his arms; he folds them around you. It’s a bit awkward at first as you’re not used to being held, but after a moment you start to relax. You press your face into his chest and his left hand starts rubbing your back while his right holds your head to him. He’s warm and he smells good, smells like home. You hear his heart pounding in your ear. 

“Yeah, you’re okay, sweetheart,” he says softly in your ear. 

You look up at him and he smiles at you and then places the softest kiss on our head, making your chest swell. 

“Arthur?” you say so softly you almost don’t hear yourself. 

He smiles and leans down, pressing his lips to yours. After a few seconds, he leans back. “Sorry, darlin’. I… I been wantin’ to do that for years.” 

“Really? Arthur, I’ve… I’ve had a crush on you for years!” 

He chuckles. “Me too.” He leans down and kisses you again. 

“About time you both finally admitted how you feel about each other!” Sean laughs, coming over to you both. You and Arthur break apart, your faces red. Sean stands between the two of you and drapes an arm over your shoulders. 

“I cannot tell ya, if I had to hear ol’ Morgan say how much he wanted ya t’know how he felt, I was gonna shoot meself!” Sean says with a laugh. 

“Maybe ya should go ahead and do that anyways, save us all the trouble!” Arthur growls. 

Sean laughs, joining the onlooking crowd. You put your hand over your eyes, but you’re laughing too. You take Arthur’s hand and pull him down close. 

“What say you we go somewhere else and try that kiss again?” you ask. 

He squeezes your hand and then leads you off. You giggle again as he takes you, looking forward to kissing him. You don’t even care that you might get carried away and end up having sex with him. You certainly won’t end up regretting it. In fact, that’s exactly what happens. 

However a month after you and Arthur finally got together, you make a life-changing discovery. It terrifies and excites you. That night, you pull Arthur into the tent you now share with him, telling him you have important news. He looks worried as he comes into the tent. 

“What is it? Is somethin’ wrong?” 

“No, at least I don’t think so.” You wring your hands for a moment, terrified of telling him. Finally, you swallow hard. “Arthur, I’m pregnant.”

[pallanophblargh]

So, I don’t do resolutions. Mostly for maladaptive reasons, but I feel lately it’s lead to massive amounts of slacking on my part (at least, it feels that way) so I really need to at least do some soul-searching and positive productivity this year. Nothing big or grand or brag-worthy, because that is certainly not me, but things I can genuinely feel good about, and maybe even be good FOR me. 

That said, I have a hard time even seeing if I’ve made any progress/accomplished anything over the past year, or even decade. But I’m told really searching for anything positive at all is good. So I’ll start there.

I’ll also acknowledge it feels a little funny putting something so deeply personal here, but I have a feeling plenty of people will relate, so there’s that.

Accomplishments (no matter how small) from 2019!

-Didn’t stop doing art! Also did more plein air painting this year!

-It took me a whole year to manage it, but compiled 10 pieces for a small gallery show (Watershed Gallery at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN for any local folks!)

-Bought a new bike, and made a habit of riding the full 14+ miles to work at least twice each week. (Weather permitting) Almost got in shape? Honestly loved it.

-Continued the work in progress that is my Yard from Hell, including dozens of new native plants.

-Attempted yet another terribly messy vegetable garden. More tomato success.

-Getting better at curbing the houseplant collection bug. Plants did pretty well.

-Started going to therapy for depression/self-esteem/anger/anxiety issues. Still going, determined to keep making progress and hold myself accountable while learning better coping mechanisms.

-Paid all my bills, still working on paying off student loan debt.

-SURVIVED.

And now, for Kinda Sorta Goals 2020:

-Keep doing art! Push out of my comfort zone, make time for experimental pieces. Finish all owed art in the mostly timely manner possible.

-Keep an eye out for freelance opportunities and flesh out the portfolio.

-Get my broken/now kind of frozen shoulder back to fully functional!

-Go on that California vacation I’ve been rambling about for months now. Do it!

-Keep working on myself, and make amends to those who need it.

-Find a way to get involved in citizen science locally.

-What do I wanna do with my life (that doesn’t involve going back to school)?

-Figure out what I want to do with the pallanoph project.

-Keep on gardening/developing a space suitable for native species!

-Read more/learn something new every day!

-I kind of want to learn cross-stitch?

-Small house remodeling projects: bathroom from hell.

-Make more time for friends!

-Compost the rich!

And lastly, apologize for how long this post ended up being.

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

It’s week three of my Global-Pandemic-Induced decision to rewatch all of Supernatural, and so I’m still attempting to make this watch more productive than the last show that I binged.

So I’m on disc two now - that’s episodes 5 - 8 for those of you watching on Netflix. By the time we get to this disc, we know the basic formula for Supernatural as a series - Two Hunks + Fighting Evil to the Power of Acceptable Levels of Gore x Missing Dad = Ratings Gold. Or at the very least, good enough ratings that we’ll give you a season (or fourteen). And then...well...then.

Episode five is “Bloody Mary”, easily the scariest episode of this first season and, based on the nose dive that the formula takes after season 1, probably the entire series. Maybe it’s that the Bloody Mary legend was one that really got me as a kid, maybe it’s just that I don’t do so hot with ghosts, but guys this episode still made me turn on all the lights and avoid all my mirrors. I accidentally turned this episode on at 9pm and regretted it immediately. I walked away at one point to go clean my kitchen to strategically miss some of the spookier points and I walked back in during an even spookier point. I was mad that there were no commercials at the commercial break cut-to-black! The first time I watched this episode, I’m pretty sure I watched it through my fingers. This most recent viewing, I ALSO watched it through my fingers. Guys, THIS EPISODE. 

I will say it a-hecking-gain: This episode scared the SHIT out of me.

AND THEN, THEN! Then this show has the gall to go ahead and drop a major season/character plot point right there in the middle of all this content that I am actively trying not to look at: SURPRISE! Sam has premonition powers and sorta kinda knew that his girlfriend was gonna die a terrible death weeks before she dies. Because sure, why not? 

Ohmiglob the DRAMA.

I’m gonna take a moment to say that, yes, technically this piece of plot gets dropped within our first six episodes, so we can still safely say that, you know, they’re still setting up the story for the rest of the series. It’s not like a sudden twist they drop half way through the season, it’s being laid down as ground work. And I know that this turns out to be a MAJOR issue for the next four seasons at least, but can I just say: Kripke, you’re really throwing a lot at us. I mean, OK. here’s what we’ve got - 

The Winchester’s lost their mom at a young age to some evil thing. Cool, got it.

THEN they have daddy issues with C-minus Single Dad John Winchester. Alright, that seems logical. 

The brothers hunt bad guys looking for the thing that killed their mom. Ok still on board. 

There’s family drama, relatable. 

Dad’s gone missing and we gotta find, ok ok ok. 

Also Sam’s girlfriend dies in a fire, alright, so we’re looking for that thing now too. 

OH! And now Sam has magic powers. 

I mean, it’s a lot, right? We got a lot of layers here. That’s all I’m sayin.

So “Bloody Mary”, right? Big episode, big bad guy, they kinda loophole their way into defeating her but I’m not mad. Big reveal at the end, so kind of an important lore episode. And then...well...then we get the following episodes:

“Skinwalker” - gross-out fx, establishes Dean as a lonely asshole with a lot of APB’s out on him

“The Hook Man” - takes the Urban Legend angle of the show and dials it up to 11

“Bugs” - Does what it says on the tin.

Now to be fair: all three of these episodes have at least ONE shining moment that reveals a little more about the characters we’re working with, and that character development plays out in important ways in the rest of the season/series. But all three of them are arguably---

FILLER EPISODES-ODES-ODES-ODESSssssssss. 

Alright, maybe that’s unkind. Maybe we should call them standalones or self-contained. A Filler is an episode designed to “fill out” your season. It doesn’t necessarily move the overarching story of the season forward, although it may contain some concepts or revelations that are important later. I’d argue that Supernatural has only ever had two kinds of episodes - Series Arc and Filler. Not that that’s a bad thing -  I like a filler episode now and again. Depending on how heavy your season gets (and by all accounts Supernatural gets pretty heavy), they can be a nice breath of fresh air - also known as a Breather Episode. Or they can be just for fun. I’mma reference “Once More with Feeling” again because sure, why not throw in a musical episode in season 6 of a show about vampire slaying, that’s fine. I wanna reference something from Community here too, but honestly anything after season 2 could probably be called filler or self contained, so who even knows. I’ll point at the Voltron episode where they spend a day in the mall to gather some unobtainium for the ship and wacky shenanigans ensue. Point being, they can be times to break the mold and experiment and have fun with what you’re writing. Or they can be ridiculous nonsense. Mileage may vary. 

The crazy thing about these episodes is that they most closely resemble what Kripke intended the show to be in the first place. Kripke wanted a show that revolved around characters investigating American urban legends. What is more quintessentially urban legend than Bloody Mary, the Hook Man and curses from ancient Native American burial grounds? These were stories that I as the viewer was already sort of familiar with because I’d heard of all of them before. What I appreciated, specifically about the Bloody Mary episode, was that they a) acknowledge the fact that these are Urban Legends (capital letters and all) and then b) acknowledge that the legends vary wildly so a part of their job is figuring out what is true and what is rumor. I guess you could also call that a cop out but when I was a kid, I was told that Bloody Mary was the ghost of Queen Mary of England who was sister to Elizabeth I and was also violently anti-protestant. WHERE did I get this story? I have no idea. But I also have no idea where Sam got the “mutilated bride” story from either. 

In an old article I found circa season 2, Kripke actually talks about preferring standalone content to mythology/lore episodes in television. Both as a creator and as a viewer, he wants a show where people can jump in at any time and “join the party” wherever they are. That’s the beauty of procedurals - you don’t need to start from the beginning to enjoy them.

But what really got me personally hooked on the show was the mythology, was the season long arc to find John Winchester and whatever killed their mom. Those mythos episodes were where the meat of the show was for me - it usually involved a lot of feelings and a lot of character development which is still mostly my jam. If I’m obsessively watching a show, it’s because I’m connected to the characters and watching them struggle through the challenges in their path, not because I want to see what monster they kill next. 

And again, I’ll reiterate that each of these episodes contains an important nugget of character. In “Bloody Mary”, easily the least likely to be called Filler, we find out that Sam has weird magic powers that are the real source of his guilt over Jessica’s death. 

In “Skin”, we find out a lot about Dean’s inner landscape from the DopppleDeaner, who reveals that Dean is probably most afraid of people leaving him (be still my 19-year-old heart). 

Wasn’t mad about this bit...

Coulda done without this bit tho...

In “Hookman”...alright, you kinda got me on “Hookman”, but we do get the first appearance of the rocksalt shotgun and Sam talks with a girl about her dad issues which is really Sam talking about his own dad issues in the language of tv shows. Also, he maybe starts to move on from Jessica???? It’s unclear, and also a little weird but I guess he’s only 22 and that’s not that far off from 18/19. 

Really, WB?? Sneaking into sorority houses?

And then in “Bugs”, yes, even in “Bugs”, we get juicy little bit of tension between the brothers as they advise some teen boy about family dynamics. The fight shows a lot about what each character feels about their own experiences growing up the way they did, how they manage the expectations from their own father, and how they believe those family dynamics should exist. I mean I guess you could also argue this is the episode that plants the seed for Wincest, but I don’t really want to go there, let’s not talk about it.

This kid’s like, “This is...not a conversation about me and MY dad, is it?”

So they could be worse. I mean the last two definitely aren’t great, and we’ll see how they measure up to the Monster Truck episode later in the season, but they’re not bad episodes. 

So let’s flash forward to Now again - have we seen the end of Filler Episodes?

As I have mentioned in previous posts and will probably continue mentioning in future posts, the 22 episode season is not the norm anymore. A lot of articles I’ve read point to Breaking Bad as the first American show to really break that mold. Breaking Bad released only 7 episodes in it’s first season in 2007. When you’ve cut your story down that much, there’s no room for filler - you’re basically producing a 7 hour movie. 

Now notice I said American TV show. I’m pretty sure for most of the rest of the world, 22 episodes is way outside the norm, but really I can only speak to UK TV. Seasons in the UK do not last as long as seasons in America. Doctor Who, one of, if not the, longest running show on BBC, aired its first season with 42 episodes, which is mind boggling. But since the series revived in 2005, it hasn’t had more than 13 episodes in a season. Spooks/MI5 never had more than 10 episodes. The IT Crowd only aired 6 episodes per season. Broadchurch had only 8. And because I must complete the Superwholock trifecta, Sherlock seasons were only 3 episodes a piece. These are the shows that spring to mind while I’m writing this, but you get the idea.

So why does American broadcast TV have such long seasons? Well, the answer is: moneymoneymoney.

We live in an age of “prestige” TV. Some throw around “Golden Era”, but there’s been like, a Golden Era of television every 10 years since tv’s became household commodities, so that phrase basically means nothing. TV today is more similar to long-form film making than it was a decade ago. We associate terms like “film” with other terms like “art”, and sometimes we forget that television is, and always was, a business. It’s a business that’s making a lot of money entertaining you for hours on end, but a business nonetheless. I’d argue that it doesn’t mean it’s not art, but I don’t think we can separate the art and entertainment value of tv from its actual monetary value. 

Strategically, the 22-episode season was to get a show to a magical number of total episodes - 100. Once you hit the 100th episode, somewhere around season 5 (thanks math), then you can sell the show in syndicated reruns. This is also referred to as second-run syndication or off-network syndication. When a show is syndicated, that means the production company that produces the show can now sell the right to air episodes to other channels. Think channels like TBS or TNT or even USA Network - they don’t really dabble in producing their own content, they just repackage content from other networks to plug in to empty slots in their programming. And because these channels can air episodes 5 days a week, 365 days a year, that means the production company can actually make more money by selling the show in syndication than when they sold the show to the primary network. The more episodes you have in a season, the faster you get to syndication, and sometimes that means a show that’s on the brink of cancellation due to poor numbers may still get greenlit for another season or two if they’re closer to that magic 100th episode. For a show like Supernatural, that has a very procedural, not-super-heavy-mythos, structure, you can do very well in syndication. Just cuz another network agreed to air your show doesn’t mean they agreed to air it in order, so procedurals work better in syndication than your season-arc shows do. And that’s why we have episodes like Bugs, that have nothing to do with the overarching plot of the season and also phone in some questionable CGI. 

Apparently they DID use real bugs to shoot this scene and everyone got bit to hell but the bugs didn’t show up good and they went with CG anyway?!?

But these days, you don’t have to hit 100 episodes. Sometimes only 80 episodes will do. Sometimes, you run a streaming site and you don’t have to worry about reruns at all because your revenue isn’t generated from air time or even ads, but from subscription prices. Honestly, when you think of it that way, it makes way more sense to greenlight shorter seasons so that you have the budget to buy more and more diverse shows that will appeal to a broader audience of viewers. 

So if Supernatural was produced today, would we get these off-shoot, self-contained episodes that have little to do with the plot of finding Sam and Dean’s dad? It’s hard to say. Knowing what I do about Kripke’s original plans for the show and his thoughts on procedural standalone episodes in general, its possible that he’d still try for a traditional season aired on a traditional TV network. But in that same interview I quoted above, he also mentions that the only way to get into a show with a heavy mythos is to buy the DVDs. We don’t need DVDs anymore - we have Netflix. And Hulu and Prime and any number of other streaming services that pick up any show they can get just to have a larger library of content and attract new viewers. I think a good indicator of what Supernatural would look like if it aired today is Hulu’s Helstrom - a show about two siblings with a childhood marked by strange and terrible happenings, who spend the season trying to defeat an evil demon. This show is a Hulu original that dropped all 10 episodes on October 16, 2020, and damn if that doesn’t sound familiar. I told a friend, “it’s like Supernatural but more emotions.” (Her response was, MORE emotions?!?!?) And before you dive down the rabbit hole, the characters in Helstrom made their debut in a Marvel comic back in the 70’s, so you can just chalk it up to nothing new under the sun. 

Big Mood, guys. Big Mood.

I’ll close this one by reiterating I don’t mind a filler episode. Some fillers can be weird and great and wonderful. I’d say “Tales of Ba Sing Se” (Avatar the Last Air Bender, Season 2)  is a great example - with the possible exception of Appa, the vignettes presented in “Tales” are basically side quests that have nothing to do with the main quest of season 2 and only serve to develop characters. The stories are sweet and touching and also light and fun.

I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying! It’s ok, I’m also crying. 

 And the longer a show runs, the more likely you are to run into these fillers - episodes that take a break from the main action to bring something that’s new and out of the box and possibly/probably writers getting bored with the every-day formula of the show. I think season 1 of Supernatural does a decent job of balancing the two styles of episode so that neither gets boring. In fact, I’m pretty Supernatural was what taught me the difference between the two episode styles in the first place. And the first time around, I was hyped for those season arc episodes, because back in the late 2000’s, I hadn’t seen a lot of TV content like that. Now, 15 years on and mired in a sea of seasons that stick mainly to a season arc story with little to no room for breathing, I think that if all TV became nothing but season arc episodes...well, it’d get pretty boring. 

[alfys-pigeon-house]

Boo, Bundled, Hearth, Intricate, Rain

aaaa i finally have time to answer this!! im sorry it took so long!!

(also i found the ask,,, it just magically appeared again jsjcwha so i decided to add it here, too! thanks so much for sending this in again!)

——

Boo: Ghost or witches?

Witches!! I’ve always, always loved magic and being able to do magic. Not that I doubt ghosts being able to do them too, ofc. But, witches have a soft place in my heart and I’ve always loved them since when I was a child.

Bundled: Describe your ideal date

Movie night, bundled in blankets and eating snacks. Just laughing or screaming at something we’re watching. Or a walk outside in the early morning or late afternoon. Or maybe a picnic somewhere where the skys cloudy and we’re just relaxing. Or maybe even just stuck at home and we’re building a pillow fort!

Hearth: Ideal home

Ohhhh aaaaaaa. Uh. A kitchen, definitely. Big enough that it’s easy clean and bake. A biiig but comfortable bed,, a living room where I can play games with friends and fam, a backyard where I can plant flowers. Uh. mostly I want it to be homey, like a cottage, maybe? And a library where I can just read in silence, or maybe to the chirping of birds or rain.

Intricate: What’s a subject you have random knowledge about?

This is hard because I don’t really think about the random things I know, it just comes out if you talk to me, yknow? Uh. But hmm. I’d say politics but that’s a given and not at all random. Maybe psychology? I love psychology. Oh, what about the scantalating world?? Like, did you know there’s an unspoken rule whenever a group wants to translate a manga? Especially if their aren’t licensed or been given permission to by the author. One of the things I know is that, they consider it sniping or stealing from a group if you translate a manga that has been updated in the course of less than 3 months. But if it hasn’t been updated in three months—or if the scan team/person explicitly said that they weren’t going to continue it—then it’s first come first serve.

Hmmmm,,, maybe about my native language? So, Filipino has many, many dialects!! Each differing depending on where you’re from, Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao, and then differs much mroe on what province/city you’re in. The three isalnds is symbolized by the three stars on our flags! I’m from Luzon, specifically NCR or National Capital Region, I won’t say anything more specific than that, but just knoq that NCR is big as hell. Anyway, I know Tagalog! Which is boring haha but it’s known as the capital language??? Kinda?? Like, it’s the ver of English here. If you wanna go to like, say, Metro Manila, you need to know Tagalog because there’s a low chance of people knowing a dialect from where you’re from. So technically this isn’t a random knowledge from a subject, but I thought it’s interesting to know haha.

Rain: Favourite type of weather?

I like rainy weathers because it’s very soothing to listen to, and sleep to. But at the same time, we only have two weathers here haha and I’d take anything over a sunny one.

Frost: Anything you’re looking forward to?

ANIME! Aaa I’m looking forward to BOFURI season two (IF it’s even coming huhu, and if it does I think it’s coming next year or year 2022) AND Horimiya anime!!! I love Horimiya so so much, I’ve been following it since forever and I’m so glad it’s gonna have an anime. Same with Wotakoi, too, but I’m pretty sure it’s been out for awhile now? And ofc, the day Covid ends but, uh, that’s not coming for a long time here, I’m p sure. Another is that I really, really wanna get started on cross stitching since I bought a “how to” book and some materials already but I’ve been too nervous to get started on, so I’ll probs do it tomorrow or when I’m for sure free. After, I might look into crochet, too!!

(AND writing some stuff aaaaa i wanna write so so bad, but school took over ;-;)

Leaves: Favorite candle scent

OH okay, we don’t really do candles here but boy do we have a lot haha. I really like the Sakura scent and the skittles one! I’ve never seem a vanilla candle scent but I’ll for sure like it, too!

Pie: What’s your favorite type of pie?

Aaaa, man, I’ve only ever really had apple pie and egg pie before so I can’t really say. But uh, I don’t really like apple pie, and I really like egg pie!

[charlioak]

HOWDY!

I don’t think I’ve ever uploaded my plantfolk ocs onto here! which is a big shame because I’m absolutely in love with all these guys from back when I made them (circa 2018), so here’s a BIG collage of all my current plantfolk!

they all inhabit an old western town by the name of old rootwater. not really sure what I wanna do with this idea, all I know is designing plant people is super fun

all info about each of them below the cut!

sheriff clint -  a rowdy boy, except not really bc HE'S A FRICKING SWEETHEART and is so soft, so gentle.. is baby.. nobody can take him seriously most of the time and it kinda makes him super duper mad. small and angry. but it's okay he's still a baby.

wildflower -  wildflower is a milkweed farmer out in the country side, but still resides within the old rootwater province. she's a lil grouchy, but can warm up to whoever she feels like.. big ol dork, and care's about her milkweed a lot more than anyone she knows

tumbleweed russel -  tumbleweed is the epitome of bad luck.. every time he walks into town, he leaves with them deserted behind him. only because everyone knows a petty omen is headed their way if he so much speaks in their direction! can't even cross the street without someones horsenettle running off. not a real threat to society, just an unfortunate dork that is just so happening to take advantage of his little quirk of being a middle school bully

desert rose -  based off saloon dancers, this traveling gal is pursuing dreams of making it big elsewhere as a professional stage dancer. also the desert rose is an exotic variation of plants not really native to the old west as far as i know research wise.. therefore my idea is that she migrated from her home to old rootwater (old west based therefore american uhhh history history blahblahblah) and will then go from there! i support her

madam carnation -  she's a very rambunctious character! eccentric, gaudy, yet highly friendly. she's of higher class than most of the town, nor is she a lifelong resident. she kinda swooped down from another country entirely! i wanna draw the rest of her family eeee she is Baby! she's a very rambunctious character! eccentric, gaudy, yet highly friendly. she's of higher class than most of the town, nor is she a lifelong resident. she kinda swooped down from another country entirely! i wanna draw the rest of her family eeee she is Baby!

stonecrop -  stonecrop is old rootwater's blacksmith, usually repairing old weapons for the townsfolk as well as manufacturing tools, equipment, and accessories for em too! he may look all stern and grumpy, and to some extent he is, but he's very easy to warm up to once y'all get down to brass tacks. very helpful, smart, and soft..

plush -  plush on the other hand is an eccentric horsenettle breeder! only breeding and caring for the top notch horsenettles in the old rootwater province. however, he's easily criticized in paper in public due to his chaotic dumbass energy, and he's very prone to rage induced breakdowns and rants and what have you. opposite to stonecrop - seems nice and friendly, actually a real grump!

desert hawk -  based off of the creosote bush, a notorious plant known to grow up to 6ft tall and become an aggressive resource hog toward other plants. very territorial and bossy, just like her >:^) the only redeeming quality is the little yellow flowers they sprout in the spring! hence her daisy crown. desert hawk is also one of the only and most powerful bandit leaders surrounding the old rootwater province. she's highly aggressive and intelligent, always looking into new and creative ways of capturing her prey...

[talk-geek-to-me]

All the ones you didn't do in the last ask!

So I’m finally getting around to doing this. and you fUCKING HATE ME. This is gonna be hella long.  (she asked for all of them)

This is for the WaterColor asks that I posted last night

Zinc White: how are you really feeling today? I’m very tired tbh like all i wanna do today is sleep rn. very tired

Cadmium Yellow: When you think of the word “happy” what's the first thing that comes to mind? ummmmm probably my boyfriend and the very funny moments you and i share

Lemon: What’s your comfort food? Ben and Jerry’s Brownie Batter Core Ice cream. that shit makes me feel better immediately

Hansa Yellow: What’s your guilty pleasure song? honestly idk, but i will tell you the song that I cant get enough of and its All Time Low by Jon Bellion. like i honestly cant get enough of it rn

Yellow Ochre: Name an artist/band whom you just discovered and cant get enough of. right now its the song that I just said in the last ask. but the band? shit ummmmmm, idk but i’ve been listening to anything in my liked playlist from spotify. so it varies

Naples Yellow: where do you feel most at home? uh, i dont really know. I moved to Idaho so i haven’t figured that most yet

Raw Sienna: with whom do you feel most at home? my boyfriend. I miss him so much and I honestly cant wait till i see him next

Golden Ochre: describe the relationship with your closest friend. JESS *insert random thing that im currently screaming about*

Golden Deep: what’s your favorite season? fall, i can wear converse and hoodies and be comfortable

Cadmiun orange: What do you like to do on your days off? i love to do things that have to get done. like today, i did more homework than i thought i was gonna do and cleaned my bathroom. it’s been a good day.

Orange lake: do you have anyone you can turn to when you’re sad? I listen to music and not do my homework, just focus on me

Titans: do you prefer slow mornings or relaxing evenings? tbh i think i prefer slow mornings cause im not a morning person so that gives me time to sleep in

Shaknazaryan Red: are you currently binge watching anything? CRIMINAL MINDS

red ochre; are you more right-brained (creative) or left-brained (analytical)? i think i’m a bit of both

burnt sienna; is there a painting that brings you peace when you look at it? not really theres a picture i really like tho. here’s the link! https://www.pinterest.com/pin/46865652355803785/

english red; what animal do you relate to most? honestly, a raven

vermilion; what’s your favorite accent? british, like tom holland and tom hiddleston british

cadmium red; do you have a “type” when it comes to a significant other? ....jess you know. but for those of you who don’t know, its the bad boy type... seriously, bucky barnes, loki, and according to jess its the dark-haired, chiseled features, built af, don’t worry, she made a point, like all the famous people im attracted to... all contain the same things that my boyfriend contains. my boyfriend is dark haired, chiseled features, thicc 

scarlet; describe your current crush/es. DARK HAIR, CHISELED FEATURES, BAD BOY TYPE BOYFRIEND

ruby; what does your ideal first date look like? honestly, i dont have one

carmine; what does your ideal second date look like? dont have one

madder lake red; would you ever kiss someone (or accept a kiss) on a first date? considering i kissed my boyfriend within the first hour of meeting him, sure

rose; what’s something really positive going on in your life right now? im actually keeping up with school rn and im fairly proud of myself

quinacridone rose; what’s something you’re really looking forward to? sleep

violet rose; what does your dream house look like? windows. so many windows big kitchen, comfortable

violet; is there any place in particular you’d like to settle down? not really, i’d settle down anywhere as long as im with the man i love

blue lake; what would you like to do/accomplish before you settle down? traveling

cobalt blue spectral; what is the most beautiful place you have ever been to? honestly, i havent been there yet

ultramarine; when was the last time you were in a good mood? do you know/remember what sparked it? ummmm, im kinda always in a good mood?

blue; what’s the most recent dream you remember? [redacted] [redacted] [redeacted] [redacted] [redacted]

bright blue; what does your dream family look like? any kids or pets? how many of each? 2 or 3 kids, 2 dogs and hopefully a cat. married to my boyfriend

blue cobalt; do you like your name? would you give yourself a different name if you could? NO it’s too common, its why i prefer people call me meg or megs. i hate my name.

prussian azure; what’s your favorite scent? vanilla

azure blue; what’s your favorite type of tea, if any? lipton pure leaf raspberry tea, and it has to be cold

turquoise blue; if you could start a garden, what would you plant? literally anything that i could water every once in a while and it still be alive

cerulean blue; if you were guaranteed to have a viewership, would you start a youtube vlog? no, my life is really boring

glauconite; describe your body without using any negative adjectives. curves, well built, purple red hair. honestly, im super comfortable with my body

yellow green; picture yourself walking in a field. what do you see & hear in this scenario? ya know that scene in vampire dairies when Damon is comforting Rose as she’s dying? yea it looks like that

green light; are you in a comfortable place in life? if not, what do you think might make it better? im pretty comfortable with it, just wish my boyfriend was with me

green; name three countries you want to visit; do you have any actual plans in place to visit any of them? ready? you’re gonna laugh jess, Romania, Ireland, England

emerald green; do you speak any languages besides english? are there any additional languages you want to learn? so my mom is from Chile, and she’s native in spanish, but im native in english and cant speak a lick of spanish, but i have been doing the duolingo spanish lessons and its like my latina side has woken up, but i cant speak spanish, i can read it and hear it and probably translate it for you

oxide of chromium; what’s your favorite book? Stalking Jack The Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

olive green; are you currently reading anything? how do you like it so far? no, im too busy with school and work that i dont have time to read anything and its making me sad. but i always have a book in my backpack just incase

mars brown; what’s a movie that always puts a smile on your face/makes you laugh? the first Avengers

burnt umber; what’s something you plan to do before the day is over to take care of yourself? clean my fucking greasy ass face

umber; have you drank enough water today? nope, thank you for reminding me tho

voronezhskaya black; what or who is your go-to outlet for when you need to vent? you, cause you always provide the best advice and make me feel like my emotions matter to you too

sepia; name five things that always make you happy. Superheroes, music, my boyfriend, my friends, and books, etc

indigo; what’s the best/sweetest compliment you have ever received? today, i was sitting in my car ordering my drink from dutch bros and someone told me that they liked my hair even tho he couldnt really see the color of it. But i get a lot of compliments from my boyfriend about my eyes

payne’s gray; describe your aesthetic? shit, uhhhh, superhero murderer? 

black; post a selfie because you are so beautiful! I’m gonna share with you the one that has my boyfriend going crazy 

[vaultsexteen]

i stole this meme from @couriers-mile because i want to flex my writing muscles and introduce you to Misha Gomez because i love her and you’ll love her too...

Rules:

1. Choose an OC.

2. Answer them as that OC.

3. Tag 5 people to do the same.

What is your name? Misha! Misha Gomez! That’s G-O-M-E-Z! Remember the name!

How old are you? 25. Or - wait, 26? ...When’s my birthday again...

What do you look like? Uh, my mom always called me the skinny one... And I’m the tallest in our family! I got this hair that sticks up a lot, I dyed it green ‘cause green looks good. Oh, yeah, I also got a super bitchin’ robot arm and eye!

Where are you from? Where do you live now? We’re from Tondo, but we left ‘cause pirates were giving us trouble. Right now, my family runs a rest stop on the EDSA River, but I pretty much live out my boat - not ‘cause I don’t wanna stay home or anything, but I gotta make a living.

What was your childhood like? Pretty fun! I grew up with four younger sisters, and they were the best playmates I could ever ask for when they weren’t being little shits.

What groups are you friendly with? Are you allied with any factions? Oh, I know loads of ‘em! I do a lot of jobs for a lot of people. The Fenghuang are my best customers - they pay good and they’re nice!

Tell me about your best friend. That’ll be Cheng from Cheng’s Garage down at the Little Manila Docks - she’s the one I bought my mods from, a real swell lady. I owe her a lot of thanks, ‘cause she sold me them at dirt cheap! She’s also a real good drinking buddy... she can almost drink as much as me, heh!

Do you have a family? Tell me about them! Oh, yeah! There’s my sisters, and then their kids, and then there’s our mom! I love them all to bits! Mom runs the rest stop, and all my sisters and the older kids help out. I really hate being away from them for so long, but, you know... work.

What about a partner or partners? I mess around from time to time, but, uh, I’m not really in the market for that kinda thing? I got other stuff to worry about, haha.

Who are your enemies, and why? The Maharlika guys don’t really like me right now... probably had something to do with the fact that I, uh... messed around with someone I shouldn’t have, haha.

Have you ever heard of The Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them? Who’s that?

What about The Enclave? Nah, they don’t ring a bell.

How do you feel about Super Mutants? I don’t - oh, wait, I know mutants! Yeah, I know a couple of muties... their big-ass eyes freak me the hell out, but, you know, they just look like people. If people had scales and fins. Anyways, the green ones are real nice, they barter fish and weird plants and scrap and they leave you alone. The brown ones... well, uh, they’re, uh. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t fuck with the brown ones!

What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in? AH, shit, when was that... You know about the time pirates took my eye? (Author’s note: Misha always lies about how she lost her eye - the truth is, she lost her eye at age 15 when she accidentally shot it out with a pistol.)

Have you ever fought a Deathclaw? What’s that? Is that like a Bakuwaya? Bakuwayas are fucking scary... it’s how I lost the arm, man! (Author’s note: Misha is 100% lying - she was simply born without her left arm.)

Do you like fighting? Hell yeah! It’s fun! ...As long as I’m winning!

What’s your weapon of choice? These guns! (proceeds to flex) But, uh, yeah, I like using explosives - dynamite, grenades, C4 - just, anything that blows up! If I don’t have ‘em... I can always just use a lead pipe.

How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, some combination? (a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L?) As long as I got this (taps robot eye) and this (flexes robot arm), I got everything I need to make it! (She has a low INT of 3, but her END is a whopping 8 and her STR is 7. She’s proficient in Explosives and Melee.)

Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think about them? Yeah, I’ve done some scavving in those old vaults down south... They’re creepy as fuck, but they got some good loot if you know where to look!

How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it affected you? Uh, don’t swim without a suit... Actually, don’t swim at all, if you can help it. Get your ass inside when a radstorm’s going on. That’s everything my mom taught me, and it’s pretty good advice I think. Lots of kids in my neighborhood are all fucked up - they’re born missing limbs or their faces are all smushed up and they can’t breathe, and they get sick easy. I guess I’m, uh, lucky that I turned out pretty okay?

What’s your favorite wasteland critter? DOGS! They’re just so cute and nice and -

What’s your least favorite wasteland critter? Dalabaw. They stink! (Author’s note: Dalabaw are the two-headed carabaos native to the Metro Manila wasteland.)

How do you feel about robots? They make for good scrap!

How many caps do you have on you right now?  Enough to buy us some drinks on me!

Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla? I’ve never had the second one, so I’ll go with Nuka Cola!

Do you do chems? Uh... Not, like, a whole lot. I’ve, uh, done rugby, but I don’t... not anymore.

Do you ever think about the Pre-War world? I dunno, sometimes I wonder what all these buildings used to be. A lot of the ghouls say that the world didn’t use to be all water and shit, but I have a hard time believing them...

What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently? (shrugs) I dunno, nothing comes to mind. (crosses arms) ...Maybe I would’ve picked another job, if I could.

What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve? (she thinks for a minute) I just wanna make enough money for my family to live, you know?

What do you want for the future? For yourself? Your friends? The world? I want my family’s business to do super well, and I wanna make enough money so I can quit and be able to spend more time with them... That’s it!

i tag @kourumi, @the-desert-dancer, @turianosauruswrex, @catboyrights, and @yuuzhanbong, if y’all want

[cheswirls]

tether notes 3/3

attached links

reference maps

pt 4 drawings

pkmn team graphics for 5 char

big bang art one / two

timeline

[this is very loose and only goes chronologically, so some points may happen years apart from each other]

caesar, under the family, begins research on creating an artificial arceus

the river from law’s village becomes polluted, and lami gets sick

everyone in law’s village dies. he travels to alola

corazon, the ula’ula kahuna, gets wind of caesar’s experiments

law joins the family in alola

law meets corazon, and shortly after embarks on an island challenge

after getting a special material on poni island, law meets with corazon, who tells him he was planning to turn the family over to the international police

corazon dies, and law escapes the family with one type:null

law ends up in the kalos region

luffy meets shanks, and learns about aura

luffy leaves for the sinnoh region to train with shanks for the first time

ace and sabo set off on a journey through the kanto region

luffy is given his second pokemon, a buizel, by shanks, to help cope with the loss of his brothers

sabo and ace return to travel kanto once more

sabo’s accident occurs; he’s hospitalized, but convinces ace to continue traveling

ace dies in an accident; sabo takes striker, his charizard, and leaves the sevii islands

luffy starts his journey looking for sabo

a band of pokemon poachers begins to grow more prominent in sinnoh; it’s led by caesar, who escaped capture at alola all those years ago

dragon’s group arrives in the sinnoh region

marguerite, a close confident with the sinnoh champion, goes missing

shanks sends luffy a letter; law boards a boat for sinnoh from kalos

the sinnoh champion, boa hancock, contacts shanks about marguerite

dragon arrives at snowpoint and meets with kokoro

aisa goes missing

tama goes missing and, catching word of this, shanks heads to tsuru from his meeting point with luffy

anana goes missing

luffy arrives in the sinnoh region

chimney goes missing, and shanks sets off to go look for all the missing girls

luffy migrates to jubilife, thinking it was veilstone; law arrives in the sinnoh region

shanks is captured and loses contact with boa hancock

dragon separates from his group, going off on his own

law and luffy meet in jubilife

-

the battle zone’s real-life location is a formerly-japanese-but-now-russian island called sakhalin. the lower half, specifically. the other island on the map where the pokemon league sits is based off a chain of japanese-owned islands that i can’t remember the name of and am too busy to look up right now. sakhalin is pretty barren, pretty remote, and pretty unpopulated. it’s also colder than hokkaido, being further north, but bc the pokemon-equivalent has an active volcano, the climate balances out.

i spent more time researching sakhalin on google earth than i did actually writing the entire travel part of part 4. like, an absurd amount of time. more than i needed to. but the result is a good portrayal, and an accurate, effortless one. here’s some geography stuff.

1. the squatty plants on sinnoh’s route 225 are probably stone pines. i say probably, bc i still came away unsure, but this was my best conclusion. i cross-referenced sakhalin flora with what i was seeing on google earth, paired with what was most common since these trees are everywhere in the battle zone. specifically they’re japanese stone pines, so more of a squatty bush than an actual tree. (also called dwarf siberian pines, or the genus name of the dwarf version, pinus pumila) in pokemon verse, i chose aguav berries as the pine’s fruit since the seeds grow in pink bundles, like an aguav plant in-game. also, an unripe pinecone is greet, so there’s that too. 

2. southern sakhalin, that i can remember, doesn’t actually have black-sand beaches. there’s one in platinum off the base of stark mountain, but since that’s aniva bay area of sakhalin, it doesn’t match up great. the only thing similar is in northeastern sakhalin, off the sea of okhotsk, where dark mud will collect on the coast and turn the beach dark. i wrote it off as a game mechanic, saying ‘it’s from the ash from the volcano’, or something like that, and then referenced beaches in iceland that are actual black-sand beaches and really pretty. 

3. aniva bay is southern sakhalin, essentially. it’s a fork, and in the middle is where the black sand beach is in platinum. in actuality, aniva bay is not that big. there’s a lighthouse off one fork, not tall or anything impressive, but it’s there. at one point i wanted law and luffy to sail in (i saw sail, i mean like surf on a pokemon okay) past the lighthouse, and go through the bay, and stop on the black sand beach. this was before i knew most anything about part four, though, and soon the idea was scrapped as i deviated towards the cargo ship taking them to fight area. also, aniva bay isn’t deep enough for whales to flop around in, and i realize since i called it a bay in tether that that should also hold true, but i did say it was a wailmer so let’s jus forget that inaccuracy and say its okay bc the whale is tiny.

4. stark mountain was a challenge i spent. so long. so so long. trying to find the  mountain range it was based off of. pokemon wikipedia was no help, bc sakhalin is huge. if i was gonna do anything for the pokemon community, i’d wanna go and edit articles to include real-life landmarks that in-game ones were based on. i think the closest thing i found to a once-volcano was more into the northern half of sakhalin, so after spending too much time looking into it, i jus wrote based on screenshots of stark mountain, and on my own intuition. also, yea, i used video game logic the closer they got to the volcano. please don’t depict characters holding cloth over their mouths to protect from sulfur ash if youre going for accuracy, bc thats not going to help. 

5. the survival area and the ainu village. i wrote a little about the ainu in part one, while exploring law’s village. my main amount of research went into the ainu’s of sakhalin, though. it’s all sorta the same culture, since they all got kicked out migrated to hokkaido anyway, but there are a few differences. the sheer rock cliff is part of a sakhalin photoset i referenced, so it does exist, somewhere. yes, there are bears in sakhalin, perhaps even more than hokkaido, since it’s less-human-populated. but, again, also colder. i realize survival area is a settlement in platinum, but also.. its really small? and kinda nothing, tbh. so i transformed it into an ainu village, since it’s so outta the way of the other two areas down on each fork of the bay, and it’s closer to the volcano, where the fire goddess resides.

the ainu are the indigenous population of japan. i mentioned before, if you’ve read fma or one of arakawa’s spreads, you’ve probably heard of them. in fma, they’re the race that the ishvalans are based off of. nowadays, they reside in hokkaido, and a while ago they used to reside in lower sakhalin. i couldn’t figure up a creative name for tether for them and i was in so much of a time crunch that in the end i didnt bother, sue me. researching the ainu was most definitely one of the more time-consuming tasks. i spent a long time reading. i watched, after a good recommendation, all two seasons of golden kamuy (an excellent portrayal of hokkaido!ainu, btw, jus not exactly what i was going for) and all one season of sirius the jaegar, where i got the most help from. marking maps and writing the outline (and making myself remember why i dont ever outline. ever.) were definitely time-consuming, but ainu research was by far the most hours i spent on a task for tether (besides like, writing it.) 

i still don’t feel like i did enough research, so the cultural things i did include i tried to keep vague to keep from portraying wrong. the bear ceremonies, the signs of summer through salmon (finneon) hunting and huki harvesting, the bear cub raising, the ripping of clothing in a funeral procession, and the kamuy (ainu gods) are all real things and part of ainu culture. woman tattoo their lips, yes. the patterns of the clothing are distinctive (also warm, bc they’ve always been This Far North, and tether!law is a bastardization of forgotten ainu culture pls dont look at his sleeveless top next to his wooden earrings i beg you) there are lots of things i could go into, but im jus gonna leave it vague again and say if you’re super interested, go find an article or watch golden kamuy. 

there wasn’t a lot of pokemon depicted in the wilds of the battle zone, and for reason. at this point i really wanted to keep true to sakhalin, so i stuck with the fauna native there, and the pokemon native to sinnoh, and if i didn’t include any pokemon that actually appear in the battle zone in platinum? oops. my house my rules. anyway so horses, dogs, wolves, bears. rapidash, eevee, luxray line, ursaring line.. that covers it, right? oh, and fearow. okay, so i did include one pokemon from platinum’s battle zone. also wailmer, there was a wailmer. 

why did you include baroque works into dragon’s group?

so. i wrote tether while the vivre cards were coming out. specifically, right before i was supposed to have started writing part 4, the alabasta pack came out, and i was so taken with goldenweek’s real name that i re-read little garden and stuck her into the story. bentham was.. k, no lie, in my mind he’s like a pseudo-rev member? i jus associate hm so heavily with ivankov, and i read a fic once where he was iva’s student and since then i’ve jus always had to include him in rev stuff so that’s why he’s here. plus i love him. good enough, right? and those two are the only ones, so it’s not entirely baroque works. i don’t rly consider bentham bw anymore, like i said, he’s kinda a pseudo-rev. and i jus rly liked marianne’s name. also her, now. tether!marianne is cool. 85% of the story’s sass.

april 9th is both caesar and marguerite’s birthday. i think in the beginning i was searching for characters that share birthdays for a plot point, and when i settled on caesar i settled on marguerite eventually for this reason just so i could make the whole ‘it’s not his bday its mine!!’ joke. and then i formed the whole story on it being late march-early april and based the weather off that.

law’s sixth pokemon. see, i told you revealing it was strategic! you all were expecting null, right? and then out pops silvally. well, it’s been so many years, so it’s natural they would’ve figured out love and trust and such and breaking the mask and evolving. still! aaaa, that felt so good to write. 

there’s more of a metaphor with silvally, even more with umbreon, that i was going for. something along the lines of a captured being being granted escape, bonding with someone, coming back to get due vengeance with the old captor, showing how much more they had become. with umbreon, it was more thing-i-protected-grew-into-something-that-now-protects-me aka her helping law through his nightmares, being a generally supportive and kind pokemon like someone law knew wink wink. also literally protect, with the whole casear thing.

okay mind control time. i reread pt 4 real quick before writing the notes, and im still not completely satisfied with how shanks broke free. i tried to hard to research good mind control depictions but i was more interested in figuring out how the mind control ended rather than the state of being, and there weren’t many promising results other than the victim dying, which wasn’t helpful. i knew i didn’t want it to be the whole i-love-you-so-snap-out-of-it thing, thats so cheesy and kinda ridiculous tbh. i think luffy confronting shanks’ inner self directly and convincing him to step out is nice, but if you pay attention closer to the scenes and how they match up, you might notice something that aids this.

so, it wasn’t just luffy. i know a lot goes on in latter half of pt 4, and all the scenes are disjointed. law and umbreon and silvally defeat gengar before shanks awakes properly. it was luffy, yes, that convinced him everything was going to be okay, and to not falter. but since gengar was knocked unconscious, the control over shanks was already waning to begin with. it was more like, he was already fine, and out of the cycle, but the trauma kept him from realizing it until luffy came. does that help? so basically, it wasn’t luffy talking alone, it was defeating gengar, like luffy had thought of previously. and then it was helping shanks thorugh it, because you don’t just bounce back from that. thats why i wrote shanks Like That in the remaining scenes.

while not in the best conditions as lab 3, labs 1 and 2 were fully-operational and secure facilities, so if you were questioning why sabo and law (mortally injured, mind you -two stab wounds, ow) would just leave the people and pokemon next to a burning lab, it’s because it was secure and the fire contained. the base was inside a volcano, guys, there’s no way the rooms werent airtight to prevent an accident. imagine being That Guy that fucked something up and led to the active volcano erupting. of course they took precautions. also, sabo had been working in the base for a bit, so if he thought the people were gonna catch fire, he wouldn’t have left them.

koala having aromatisse was purely for plot purposes, for it’s hidden ability. i needed a psychic type, and if i haven’t mentioned, dragon’s group are based in kalos, so it had to be from there. it fits though, maybe, right? anywa, yea, that’s why sabo has a delphox and salamence after he fucks off for two years, because he was in kalos. (this is what i’m referring to, if you haven’t clicked on any of those links.)

Law takes Luffy’s hand and leads them backwards, until they’re out of sight again

and, finally, my favorite moment of tether, when lawlu graduates from arms to wrists to finally holding hands. /cries so proud

k but what’s with that ending?

fun fact time i always knew how i wanted to end tether. from the moment of its conception, even before i finished writing part 1 (before i started, really, back when i was gathering material) i knew it ended with dragon in front of the statue of giratina. insert obligatory sequel joke here marianne mentions, before the trio ventures into the base, that her group’s leader wouldn’t appreciate having to halt his own agenda to help them with taking out the hunters. giratina was this agenda. 

originally, before i started on pt 2, i thought abt law/lu taking a different route. i wanted them to go north, up through eterna forest and to eterna city, and examine the statue of dialga. then go east from there, still taking them through coronet, but then through celestic town and seeing the cave painting of the lake guardians. i also really wanted them to go to lake valor, since it was the only lake they could conceivably go to on their way to veilstone. i thought about switching pastoria for snowpoint and encountering sabo at lake acuity. none of this worked out, but it was all supposed to reference back into dragon and giratina and sinnoh lore. instead i turned it fully into a travel fic and then a rescue op, at the end. it’s still interesting to think how the story could’ve changed, had they gone up to eterna before crossing through coronet. 

in all honesty i wanted to end the story on a surprise note. almost like a goosebumps ending, where everything is resolved and then at the very end there’s a quick scene that leaves you grasping for more, leaves you questioning. (also like certain op chapters leaving you with zero answers and more questions than you started with, fuck you, oda) it wasn’t until i was almost done with part 4 that i started to kinda miss tether, even tho i wasnt done yet but my outline had been done for a bit so i kinda was? and then i remembered back in november when i created concepts for ace and sabo before i even wrote that one scene in mt coronet, and i remembered thinking so much about their story, and their travels, and sabo’s accident. and then, not long after i finished with part 4, i had a startling idea, and i had a first line of a maybe sequel, and i started to put a little more thought into it.

if you’re looking for confirmation, this isn’t it. this is saying i have an idea i’d like to explore. maybe. tether took a lot of work, and a lot of time. it definitely doesn’t have as much feedback as i would like it to, for me to invest in a full-fledged sequel. if i start this, if i ever do, it’ll definitely be more lax, and a chapter-by-chapter sort of thing. i guess it just comes down to how many people are actually interested in it.