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leviathans-watching · 2 years

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chaos causer | chapter 1

includes: mammon x gn!reader (no pronouns mentioned)

wc: 2.5k | rated t | m.list | series m.list | ao3

a/n: welcome to the first chapter of chaos causer!! there will be four total chapters that are all already written and one will be posted every three days. to be added to the taglist, click here, and to see links to the original craigslist ad, the series summary, & the full list of tags, click here.

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please reblog!!

I should switch to eBay, Mammon thinks as he scrolls past the tenth unappealing ad in as many minutes. Why he's even using a human site like Craigslist is beyond him, but hey, you never know when you’ll find a gem. He doesn't sell on it, preferring to stick to Devildom-centered marketplaces, but he has no qualms when buying. Humans generally have crap and junk listed, but sometimes there will be something that appeals to him, something new to add to his collection.

An ad title catches his attention and he clicks on it with an amused huff. What could this be?

Alone for the holidays? Mad at your family? Hire me to ruin the night.

I am a human magic user that has recently had a lot of time open up to me with nothing to fill it. Why not use this time in a meaningful way? I asked myself, before dismissing the idea. I’m a young adult willing to pretend to be your date for any holiday dinner or party.

Thanks to my magic, I can play any age, except child (for obvious reasons), and have no problem changing my appearance as need be. I am a skilled actor and promise to sell my character well. Your satisfaction is guaranteed.

I revel in causing chaos and making things worse so I can and will do any of the following at your request:

Start instigative discussions about politics and/or religion

Openly hit on other guests while you pretend to not notice/care

Propose to you in front of everyone

Pretend to be drunk/otherwise inebriated early on in the evening

Start an actual, physical (or magical!) fight with anyone in the family, either inside or outside of the house

Use the worst manners you’ve ever seen in your life

Be pretentious or pretend to be knowledgeable about something I clearly don’t understand

Never stop talking and overshare way too much

& other things along the same line

I require no payment aside from the free meal. This offer is available to anyone in any of the three realms, as I have experience dealing with an assortment of humans, angels, and demons. Do NOT contact me with unsolicited offers or services.

Text or call me with offers at [your number].

The ad has to be a joke. Has to be! Who would go out of their way to do such a thing, especially on a night meant for family and friends? And who would be crazy enough to hire someone to do such a thing? Mammon can’t wrap his mind around it.

He reads it once more, this time pausing to imagine what it’d be like if he were to hire you to do something like you’re describing. He can’t deny the smile that grows on his face as he pictures it. Your profile picture looks deceptively normal, with you smiling at the camera, but something mischievous glimmers in your eyes that leaves him with no doubt that you’d be able to wreak havoc in a family if you so desired.

And it sounded like you desired, judging by the ad.

Shaking his head, Mammon shuts off his D.D.D., rolling off his bed. Even as he gets ready for the student council meeting Lucifer had made sure he knew about, your ad still lingers in his head, making it hard for him to focus.

“Mammon,” Lucifer says from behind him, voice ice cold. Mammon turns slowly, already dreading the inevitable lecture. How was he supposed to have known the guests they’d be hosting would be offended by his offer to trade valuables? It wasn’t like they had said they were important cultural items! And they were totally overreacting, they could have just said ‘no thanks’ instead of blowing it all out of proportion!

“What’s up, Lucifer?”

“Your behavior this afternoon was entirely unacceptable,” Lucifer snaps. “You just ruined decades of diplomatic work in a singular meeting! How someone manages to do such a thing is completely beyond me.”

“It wasn’t-” Mammon tries, but Lucifer cuts him off, eyes glowing red.

“I don’t want to hear any excuses,” he says firmly. “I am most disappointed in you. Diavolo has spent far too much time and effort on securing alliances and relationships for you to be so careless. It's like you don’t even care about the fate of this realm. Classic Mammon,” he continues, more to himself than to Mammon, “too self-centered to think of anyone but yourself.”

“Hey!” Mammon protests. “I was tryin’ to be welcoming! Trades are an essential part of any deal and I thought maybe they’d like it if they came outta this with some bonafide Devildom treasures! They shoulda been honored I was willin’ to trade with them.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Lucifer rubs at his temples. “You were just being greedy, once again. Honestly, Mammon. I have no idea as to why you have such a hard time with your sin. The rest of us are all afflicted by such things as well and we never cause scenes like you do.”

The shot stings, and he has no retort prepared. Why is he constantly in trouble for his sin when the rest of them can do as they please with it and have no one give a damn? Why is it natural for them to indulge but selfish and bad when he does it? And bullshit, ‘no one else causes scenes’! He can think up at least five scandals caused by his brothers in the last month!

“I have half a mind to banish you from the council altogether,” Lucifer says, and ice runs through Mammon’s veins. He wouldn’t do that, would he? “Diavolo already has enough on his plate without you causing trouble. Honestly, you’re lucky he’s so kind. If I were in his place, I would not stand for one fraction of the insolence and disrespect you show to him.”

Mammon’s hands clench into fists. So Lucifer cares more for Diavolo than he does his own brother? The realization, while not surprising, is still disappointing. His brothers all think of him as Lucifer does, don’t they? Scummy and troublesome and not worth the time. Anger - it’s anger, Mammon tells himself - stings in the back of his eyes.

They think he’s that bad, do they? Your ad swims to the front of his thoughts, clear and descriptive. Maybe he’ll just have to prove them right, once and for all.

Mammon makes plans to meet you in a small coffee shop in your town. It’s probably easier for him to travel to you than for you to travel to him. When he gets there, you already have a drink, picking at the edges of the cardboard sleeve around the cup. Again, you look deceptively normal, but when he sits, the smile you give him is nothing short of impish. You slide him a drink that had gone previously unnoticed, and he accepts it gratefully.

“Thanks for meeting me,” Mammon says, a little nervously.

“Thanks for replying to my ad,” you return, brushing the cardboard flakes onto the floor subtly. “I was beginning to think no one would.”

“I thought it was a joke, at first,” confesses Mammon. “Honestly, I still kinda do.”

Your smile turns rueful. “No joke, I promise. So, want to tell me about your family?”

Mammon struggles to find a place to start. “Well, we’re a pretty affluent family down in the Devildom. My brother is close to the Demon Lord’s son, Diavolo, and he’s pretty high-strung, so any time I’m out of line, it's treated as a grave offense.”

“That sounds tough,” you say sympathetically, and even though he has just met you, his chest warms a little at your understanding. How it that you, a stranger, supports him more than his own brothers do?

“Believe me. My other brothers are annoying too, though he’s the worst. Recently, we got into a spat where he basically told me he thinks I’m the worst outta all of them. He gets on me for things that he lets slide with them and constantly is in my business because he thinks he knows best. It’s really annoying. My other brothers poke fun at me and just get on my nerves, as they make jokes about my intelligence and other things that I can’t control. I’m pretty sick of it, so when I saw your ad it made me want to prove them all right, in a vindictive sort of way.”

He fears, for a moment, that you’re going to try to talk him out of it, or say he’s overacting, or something, something that will destroy what little composure he has left, but you just nod, pursing your lips.

“Well, I can definitely help.” You grin, suddenly, light dancing in your eyes. “You’ve come to the right place. Want to tell me more about the dinner itself and each of the brothers I’ll be dealing with and what my approach should be? I find it easiest when I do it with as much knowledge as possible.”

“You’ve done this before?”

“Not this situation, exactly, but similar stuff, yeah,” you say with a shrug, as if it’s not the most mindboggling Mammon has ever heard.

“Huh.” Mammon pauses to take a sip of his drink. It’s not something he would have ordered for himself, but you bought it for him, so he’s definitely not going to say anything. “Well, the night starts off at my house, usually. We all hang out there for a while, which is where I’d introduce you and everythin’, then we head over to Diavolo’s place, where we eat and make polite conversation and all that jazz. It's not a fancy event, per se, but you definitely don’t show up in jeans.”

“Is that something you want me to do?” you ask. “Show up horribly underdressed?”

Mammon can’t deny that would be funny. “I’m not sure yet. But that would set a good tone for the evening.”

“Let me know either way,” you say, and Mammon continues on with his explanation.

“Okay, so first is Lucifer,” Mammon sighs. “He’s my older brother and the one I always get into fights with.”

“Wait,” you interrupt, “like Lucifer, Avatar of Pride? Oh shit,” you say when he nods, “so you’re Mammon, Avatar of Greed?”

“Uh, yeah?” Mammon raises an eyebrow. “Is that an issue?”

“No, no,” you say hastily, waving your hands. “You said affluent, but I didn’t know you meant that affluent.” At his mystified expression, you clarify. “Your family is kind of a big deal to us humans. You’re like, the demonic version of the Kardashians.” This doesn’t help him, so you just wave your hand. “Never mind. No, it’s not going to be an issue, it just surprised me.”

“Okay,” Mammon says slowly. “Anyway, he can be a real asshole. He’s got a big stick up his ass and makes it his mission to let everyone know. And then Levi, one of my younger brothers - I’m the second oldest, by the way - uh, he teases me when he doesn’t really have a leg to stand on, so it gets on my nerves. He’s an otaku and pretty antisocial. Then there’s Satan. He’s got more beef with Lucifer than I do, which is saying something, and he can be a real dick. Thinks he’s better than everyone, especially me.” He continues explaining the rest of his brothers, then adds on where you probe.

“Okay, now that I have a good idea of who you all are,” you say, clasping your hands, “what kind of shit do you want me to pull. I’ve pretended to be an asshole but only where my ‘partner’ couldn’t see, but I’ve also done shit right in front of them before. Depends on what the person wants.”

Mammon thinks for a moment. “Right in front of me, but I’ll pretend to be so smitten that I don’t notice. And as far as the stuff on your ad goes, feel free to do any and all of it. Wherever you see an opening, try to cause some trouble. You mentioned in your ad you can use magic?”

“I can.” Pride is evident in your voice. “I’ve got a sorcerer's license and everything. I’m proficient in many different areas, including dueling, which is why I’d be willing to get into a magic-based fight, and I have experience in most types of spells, charms, and curses.”

“Impressive,” Mammon murmurs. He’s not going to encourage you to get into a magic-based fight, not against his brothers, since that’d be horribly unfair to you, but it’s helpful to know. “We’ll see where the night takes us on that. For now, just plan on being a complete and utter menace.”

“Got it.” Again, that sly mischief is in your eyes, and it sends electricity down his spine. “I swear I’ll do my best to do my worst.”

Mammon snorts. “That’s all I ask. And as for payment, I know you said only dinner but are you sure you don’t want any other compensation? I feel bad, puttin’ you through this and you getting nothing in return.”

“No, but thank you. Seeing everyone’s faces is its own reward,” you say. “And if we’re eating at the Demon Lords’ castle, then I at least know I’m eating good. So really, don’t worry about it.”

“If you’re sure.” Mammon’s still dubious, but he’s not going to push. “Hey, feel free not to answer this, but why put that ad up in the first place? Isn’t there someone you could be celebrating with instead?” You get a funny look on your face, and Mammon suddenly feels bad for asking. He’s not prone to regret, and the feeling sits heavy in his stomach. “Ah, I’m sorry,” he says, scratching the back of his head. “That was awfully invasive of me.”

“It’s fine,” you interrupt softly. “It’s only natural to be curious. And to answer your question, not really. I have friends, of course, but I don’t wish to intrude on their holidays, and my family, well. Let’s just say they’re not a viable option.” You laugh, but it’s decidedly less mirthful than before. “I figured at least this way I’d get some fun and a good meal. Do something I enjoy rather than feeling sorry for myself.”

“Oh,” Mammon says after a moment. “Well, like you said, the food will definitely be good, and if you don’t get at least a little bit of fun out of it, well, then, we did something wrong.”

“I’ll remember that,” you say, some of your spark returning. “If there’s anything else you think I should do, or if you have any other ideas, text me.” He already had your number from setting up this meeting. “And if not, then I look forward to seeing you next week.”

Because, yep, the dinner was next week. How Mammon would survive until then, he didn’t know, but excitement already crackled under his skin.

leviathans-watching's work - please do not copy, repost, or claim as your own

#obey me #obey me game #obey me shall we date #shall we date otome #mammon obey me #obey me mammon #mammon avatar of greed #mammon x reader #mammon x you #mammon x mc #mammon x y/n #obey me x you #obey me x mc #obey me x reader #leviswriting #leviswriting-obeyme #obey me swd #omswd #obey me fanfic

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daddyy333 · 2 years

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Insecurities | Eddie Munson x y/n

if you’d like you can reblog my original work, but please don’t post it without credit. if you take inspiration from my ideas please tag me, I’d like to see how someone else would write it

Word count: 1.1k

TW: INSECURITIES ABOUT PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, WEIGHT GAIN

summary: y/n is insecure. Eddie can’t believe it

"Babe! Are you coming?" He said knocking on the door. You two were going to swim in Steve's pool with the gang today. You wanted to go, but you were looking in the mirror and you didn't want to go anymore.

You switched to a different birth control a few weeks ago and it caused you to gain weight but you got an appointment as soon as you started really noticing it and you got a different birth control but you hadn't lost the weight in your thighs and hips, even your stomach and boobs.

You were used to being an average sized girl, and jumping up 3 Jean sizes and a cup size in a matter of weeks really messed with you. You bought this swimsuit a few days ago, and it fits fine, it's just that your body looks so...different.

"Babe?" He asked again and you sighed. You took a deep breath and said "I'm uhm...I'm sick," "what? You were completely fine last night, you didn't mention any start of a sickness" he said and you put your robe on.

You opened the door and fake coughed. "Yea, I feel like crap so I uhm...can't go" you said and Eddie stood there, folding his arms like a disappointed father. He sighed and said "baby, you are not sick. Come on, get your sexy ass in a bathing suit and let's go"

"I-...Ed's, I can't" you said and his usual boyish grin faded. He cupped your cheeks and said "what's wrong, baby?" "It's just...remember when I told you that the birth control I switched to made me gain weight?" You asked and he nodded.

You sighed and said "It's not all...gone, yet" "so? Who cares, if anything I'm sure you just have more ass and some thighs but that is more to love, baby" he said and you looked down.

He kissed your head and said "c-can I take your robe off?" You exhaled shakily and nodded, watching as his hands carefully untied the robe. You pulled it off and tears filled your eyes as you saw him look you up and down.

"I know it's not attractive anymore so just...just let me stay home and I'll work harder to get rid of it" you said and he shook his head. He smiled and said "no, no...god, you're gorgeous. I don't mind it, I love it actually. Don't change, please"

"Yea, okay," you said and he scoffed. He shook his head and said "seriously, y/n...I don't care that you gained a couple pounds. You look great, baby. You're fucking perfect, you always will be no matter what you look like" You sighed and said "whatever, I'll be there"

You closed the door and sighed shakily pulling on one of Eddie's big t-shirts over the bikini for now. She came out and Eddie stopped you from pushing past him completely. He sighed and said "baby...I know that such a sudden weight gain makes you feel insecure but I promise you that I will always be in a relationship with the most attractive girl in the world, no matter how much you weigh. If you don't want to come today that's fine, but I just really want you to know that you're fucking gorgeous"

"It's fine, Ed's. I'm fine" you said and got past him, heading to the van. He blinked a few tears away and ran his hands over his face. You stayed on the pool chairs, reading a book most of the time. Everyone noticed Eddie not really joining in on the fun as much, spending more time staring at you.

"Hey, weirdo what's up?" Steve said. Eddie didn't mind when his close friends called him a weirdo or a freak because he knew they were just playing around. He looked over and said "nothing...nothing, why?"

"Oh nothing, you've just been buried into the corner watching your girlfriend who's also got the same frown stuck to her face" he said and Eddie sighed. He smoothed his hair down and said "she's just...a thing happened before we left the house and it's really affecting both of us. But it really hurts her, more than it'll hurt me" "hmm...whatever grumpy pants but the rest of us are gonna get out and make some food" he said and Eddie followed.

He walked over to you and you put your book down, watching as he bent down on his knees and looked up at you. He sighed, placing his hands on your thighs as he said "why don't you come get something to eat, huh? We skipped out on breakfast, you gotta be hungry"

You shook your head and he sighed. He stood up and scooped you up, making you gasp and try to wiggle out of his arms. He only held you tighter and said "you gotta eat to live, baby. You're not getting away from me anytime soon, so stuff your face for me, alright?"

You chuckled and he sat down on one of the couches, letting you go and placing one hand on your thigh and wrapping an arm around your waist. You sighed and rested your head on his shoulder, playing with his rings.

He pretty much shoved a fruit salad down your throat and then finally convinced you to get in the pool with everyone else again. He slipped her shirt off for her and she initially wanted to hide her body, but then she heard Robin wolf whistle at her and she couldn't help but giggle.

"How the hell can you walk around with all that ass?" Nancy said and you chuckled. Eddie then clapped loudly and said "eyes off Henderson!" You hid behind Eddie a little and chuckled quietly.

"Get that shirt back on, I can't take you anywhere" he groaned and you smiled, biting your lip. He turned around and said "I told you, you're fucking perfect. Not to mention, most of the weight you gained is gone already but I loved you all the same"

"I guess you're right," you said and chuckled. He kissed your head and you sighed, resting your head on his chest for a moment. He then picked you up and ran to the diving board, jumping up as hard as he could and slamming into the water with you.

You damn near died for a second, and totally wanted to drown him for it, but instead settled for splashing the shit out of him. "Asshole!" You said and he smiled, wrapping his arms around you and holding you close.

He held you pretty much the entire time, everyone pretty much figured out what had happened judging by how much happier the two of you were now. Obviously Eddie didn't mind you with a little more to love, you were pretty convinced he preferred you a little curvier after today. God, you loved that man.

Eventually I’ll be writing for

Eddie Munson

Joseph Quinn

Jamie Bower

Steve Harrington

Robin Buckley

So just dm me the taglist you want to be added to and I’ll add you :)

#stranger things #eddie munson #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson x reader

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ashersanity · 4 months

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Hi Pookie!!! (´• ω •`)ﾉ How've you been! I hope you're doing well and things have looked up for you, I've missed our brief but sweet interactions! ( 〃．．) I've been clicking in to read some of your rambles every so often, and the rate you churn out writings is something I can't fathom! Also, I know you said your dms are open, but i'm a tinge shy and awful at starting conversations, but I just wanted to return the gesture as well and let you know that mine are open if you ever wish to chat, or if you want/need someone to talk to! (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)♡ ( ˘ ³˘)♥︎ Giving you a little peck on the head, stay healthy and have a belated happy new year!!

POOKIE ANON!! Know you’re not on anon but I still do like to call you by that name if it doesn’t bother you. So have I. Every rare times that you send an ask in my inbox, im always happily answering back in a short amount of times compared to other ones since it just feels like a short, refreshing break from this chaos of a blog. I don’t know what to call it, guess your asks just have a calming effect on me however weird that sounds.

Happy to know that your DM’s are also open and that im free to drop by to chat though im just as equally awkward when it comes to starting conversations, mostly being overly polite that I just sound like a robot. Wouldn’t want to be a bother either. Y’know this might sound really, really weird with the few interactions that we’ve had only through asks but you’re actually one of the few people on tumblr that I genuinely wanna befriend. Like a friend crush or something. I just wanna be your friend so bad or something and that means a lot. (I rarely get ‘em, even rarer online. I find most people to be disinteresting.) Sorry if this comes off as too forward or being too upfront about it. You just seem so nice.

Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily call it writing, more like ramblings since it’s like slapping my disorganized thoughts onto the screen but somehow people are reblogging my crap, tagging it #writing and #fics so I guess that’s how they see it in their eyes. That leads me to say that I’ve been getting pretty burnt out lately so I’ve decided to take a break from writing and this blog in general considering it feels more like a chore than for actual fun anymore, not originally how I’ve started. It might’ve been due to the sudden spike in followers and unexpected attention that I now feel obligated to entertain just for the sake of entertaining and I feel dissatisfied with myself.

Most of the things that are to be posted from now on are all queued unless they’re recent asks that im going to be answering if im really interested. I guess this is to say that I’ll be inactive and it’ll purely be reblogs or queued posts. Not to say I won’t come on tumblr sometimes to filter through some things but I just won’t be churning out content like this anymore.

Apologies for the overly long ramble, just needed to get that one out and you somehow hit right on the nail with the offhand comment of my quick posts. Thanks for checking up on me regardless even when you could’ve just left it at that despite it all, it’s very sweet. I hope the very same for you, read your about me status that you weren’t doing so well and I want you to know that it’s all the same for me, always here to listen if you ever need to talk.

Happy belated new year. :)

#q #queued post #this post is queued too..#fucking ironic #YOU’VE COME BACK!!#quite sorry if you find what I said #as coming too strong #get attached to sweet people too easily #my weakness #yeah…#pookie anon #asher gets asks #asher mutters incoherently under his breath

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woomycritiques543 · 1 year

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Except, this forgets the fact that…

I dont know…

Vivziepop tends to higher multiple celeberties for her work nowadays, specifically mostly comedians, a grade voice actors, and the main character for her INDIE cartoon being voiced by one of the biggest youtube creators? Hell- most of who Vivziepop herself hires nowadays for her actually indie shows are not small actors trying to make it big, she hires CELEBRITIES AND BROADWAY ACTORS to pull herself up and not actually help other creators. Because if she did, she wouldnt have tried to blacklist her workers away from being hired for Far Fetched (Because that’s what saying “Pwease dont put them on your project this is swooooo important to meh! I know that they have to pay bills and stufff but this is MY show pwease dont hire them!” is, blacklisting.), this being confirmed by Erin Frost through their archives of Vivziepop’s mistreatment, and though yes, much of the more screwed up stuff was evidence towards other artists so Erin wasnt able to share most of it for privacy reasons, and they may have actually messed up in a few places and need to work on their own behavior- BUT THE MISTREATMENT WAS REAL! There’s proof of this all over the internet, not just from Erin Frost, but multiple people who worked there, and- theres evidence RIGHT THERE just by how fast Helluva Boss’s episodes are releasing!

Also yes, she does mostly hire big name, professional, and broadway actors, as for Helluva Boss alone she managed to get:

Not joking...

Don Darryl Rivera- broadway.

Richard Horvitz- THE VOICE ACTOR OF INVADER ZIM!

Erica Lindbeck- An anime voice actor, who's also a voice actress in The Owl House and MULTIPLE million dollar projects!

Vivian Nixon- Someone who's in GREY'S ANATOMY, one of the most succesful medical dramas of all time, plays Millie!

Barrett Wilbert Weed- Who was one of the actresses in "Heathers"!

Even Erica Lutterel, just plays a background villain that's just meant for comedic releif in this show- and she's an actress that's played in Steven Universe- AND THE ORIGINAL MAGIC SCHOOL BUS!

Norman Reedus- WHO'S NORMAN FUCKING REEDUS THAT GETS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR EACH OF HIS ROLES!

Jonathan Freeman-

JAFAR.

So I think it's really safe to assume- no- to KNOW that Vivziepop outright refuses to hire mostly indie actors, and instead, pulls herself up and other indie creators down by hiring mostly BIG NAME ACTORS WORTH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS! -so to say that "she's going to hire broadway or movie actors" isnt even an assumption anymore, we already know that she does this! She could have easily replaced the Hazbin cast with more indie actors- but instead let the fame get to her head and now hires exclusively big name actors for her projects with little to no actors who havent been in at least ONE million dollar project at some point in their life.

Look at this cast-

LOOK AT THIS!

Should we even still call this an "indie" project anymore if it's a mainstream, million dollar show that has a corperate movie level cast in multiple episodes?! This looks like something i'd see on the average Disney movie- not a indie show, this is far from indie at this point. More than eight people, one of which literally is in the cast of a Disney film! So "It's A24 so she's going to hire mostly indie people" MY ASS! She is not going to hire mostly indie, even for her actual indie project she didnt hire mostly "indie" and instead hired million dollar actors who's been in multiple big name movies! Also- of course, I found this from someone who reblogged this from "PetitPrincess1" because as usual, since this person tries to manipulate the public and attack people, on a daily basis. Petit posted this manipulation tactic to get people not to see the fact that Vivziepop has now hired multiple million dollar movie actors! Sick of this manipulative crap-

People, if you see someone reblog random Twitter posts- DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE REBLOGGING! Because before you know it- you end up being manipulated into not seeing something like this!☝️Dont fall for it, even if it's a tweet from Vivziepop- dont fall for it and do your research before trusting someone, anyone! That you see online.

#hazbin hotel #helluva boss #helluva critical #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #voice actors #disney +#corperations #Helluva Boss basically isnt even indie anymore... wow.#Yet despite not being greenlit and on Youtube... it still has mostly just broadway and movie actors.... goddamn. Impressive. but also sad.#since that means that youre less likely to be hired as a indie voice actor- IN A INDIE PROJECT! What the heck?!

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inklessletter · 1 year

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Hi there! It's Vane (or Bane) speaking, thank you for coming by. I'm in my thirties, I'm from Spain (English is not my native language, so if you see something odd, you know the reason now), I've got the laziest dog in the world and I'm currently hyperfixating on Stranger Things, especifically on steddie, so most of my posts will be about that, even though the original intention was it to be more generic. Joke's on me. I should just cut the crap and just use an ST icon, I'm not fooling anyone, I'm in love now.

I've been drawing since I was a little girl, but I've had some sort of traumatic experiences showing my stuff online lately, and I'm trying to make peace with that, so I made this blog with the intention to actually be bolder and share the few things I do. I expected it to be more drawings than fics, but I guess I keep surprising myself, so, yeah, I'll embrace the change. I've realized that writing fics is healing my soul in ways I've not expecting, so, you know, I'm kind of my own target audience, but if you like what I do, feel free to comment or share my posts, or to engage in a converstion about common interests, my asks are always open. I'm always happy to meet new people and I'm glad to interact with anyone.

Above all, this blog is a hate free space. We are all here to have fun and respect each other, so, if by any chance there's someone who doesn't like what is posted here, I politely invite them to just leave. Keep the hate away, please and thank you.

Also, I must say that I'm not aiming to post +18 stuff, but I am also not aiming to stop reblogging things for adult if I feel like it, so, you must be warned about this. This means, that at some point I could post NSFW, always specifically writing down a warning, even in the masterlist. By the way, I must ask minors to not interact if in such posts or else you will be immediately blocked. This goes for blank accounts and accounts that might be suspiscious to me, too.

I feel the need to please ask people to NOT post my pictures as their own (reblogging the post is always welcome, but reposting is NOT), and if you want to use any of my drawings, please ask for permission first to know how to use it correctly. Respect the artist, please.

That being said, I'm going to proceed to make a MASTERLIST of my posts (I'm fascinated with all the talent in this site, I keep reblogging amazing things and then I'm having trouble finding my own stuff). Most of my works are on AO3 so, please, read the tags there if you want!

Fanfics

Faith, should I take a leap? [oneshot - steddie]

Back when I was living (for the hope of it all) [oneshot - steddie]

I think I've seen this film before (and I didn't like the ending) [oneshot - light ronance]

Is it chill that you're in my head ('cause I know that is delicate) [oneshot - steddie]

Laughing on a park bench thinking to myself (hey, isn't this easy?) [oneshot - steddie]

It's a love story (baby, just say yes) [chapter 4/6 - steddie] ONGOING

You drew stars (around my scars) [oneshot - mike w. & steve h.] Bonus scene!

All I can say is it was enchanting (to meet you) [oneshot - steddie]

Fanarts

Steve Harrington B&W [digital art - FINAL]

Steve Harrington B&W [digital art - WIP]

Eddie Munson B&W [digital art - WIP]

Robin Buckley [digital art - WIP]

Steve Harrington Scoops Ahoy! [digital art - FINAL]

Steve Harrington Scoops Ahoy! [digital art - WIP + LINEART]

You're dangerous, Harrington [lineart color final]

It was very metal, what you did. That's all I'm saying [digital art]

Are you real? [sneak peak lineart grayscale final]

I'm not sure if you're mine, or if I'm yours [sneak peak lineart grayscale final]

Harder, Munson [sneak peak lineart final]

Is this shit recording yet? [digital art - FINAL]

I will keep updating this list. Thank you very much, and I hope you have a great day!

(By the way, if you haven't guessed yet, yes, I'm a swiftie, too).

Love,

Vane

#inklessletter #welcome post #masterlist #fanfics #fanarts

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ultraericthered · 4 months

Text

Hmm? Oh yeah, this one blogger gave a big response to both me and some other user who was saying stuff in the notes of her post. Seeing as she was decent and sensible enough to recognize that if we want to live and let live with our differing opinions, she probably should've at least done so behind a different tag and thus away from fans of the thing she was railing against, I in turn will put my rebuttal in this separate post on this blog and I will try to tag it appropriately.

That said, WOW. There is quite a lot of whinging to unpack here.

But, thanks for not bothering to actually listen to my argument, so let me go through your own:

"Not bothering?" It was not due to a lack of trying on my part that I failed to actually listen to this person's argument, I was legitimately confused and trying to make sense of what she was even saying.

No. I’m not saying Disney adults shouldn’t enjoy crap that was clearly made for them. Believe me, I knew some of that was already the case with Wish and I was excited for it being made for us…and I was disappointed by it. I wanted to like Mirrorverse but it just kept feeling wrong to me and the og post is the wording of what and how it was wrong to me.

Pulling out the term "Disney adults", even if applying it to herself as well, is an automatic alarm for me. It's a term that's very cynical and partonizing in origin, conceptualizing the idea that all things "Disney" are things that a person is expected to outgrow once they've reached adulthood, as though Disney produces things only for children. And sure, they make things that are purely for little kids or at most geared more towards them than to an older crowd. But primarily, on the whole, Disney content and the quality they most strive for are what we call "family friendly" rather than "kids stuff", and to assume that such content is kiddy fare that's meant to be outgrown by adults is completely against the spirit and the words of Walt Disney himself.

"I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty." - Walt Disney

"We believed in our idea - a family park where parents and children could have fun - together." - Walt Disney

"Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors. Well, I won't do that." - Walt Disney

Yeah, you should get the picture by now.

I’m saying I find your uncritical devotion to the company, not the writer behind the projects, the company, is sad. It’s self-destructive.

Oh sure, I am uncriticially devoted to this mega corporation. So uncritical in my devotion am I that I've tagged posts or reblogs that address erorrs, poor quality content, and even harmful practices of the company as "Anti Disney" and have even likened the corporate side of Disney to their newest movie's villain many times at this point.

I really hate this kind of attitude towards fandom+online criticism as a whole. This 100% unironic “if you’re negative = HATE” attitude...that I can at least get because even the most pissy of us don’t wanna be surrounded by rage all the time. But, your complete lack or willing to consume any media critically? That’s annoying.

Reminder of how OP began their "critical" post: "I hate Disney's Mirrorverse so much." Please forgive me for where, how, and why I might've possibly gotten that "negativity = HATE" idea from here.

That literally was NOT what I was saying at all hon. Official merch is fine and a lot is great. Like, a lot. I don’t consider official merch itself a threat to fanstuff; what I consider a threat is the higher up of Disney wanting to snuff out fantasy-fan made merch.

Where was it confirmed that the higher up of Disney were specifically aiming to snuff out fan-made content with the very creation and release of Mirrorverse? I must've missed that press conference!

ALL I see with that game is creativity of individual people wasted on a corporate IPlords who wants to crush smaller artists inspired by them, and even their own workers. Disney does not care about you. Disney doesn’t even care for it’s own people. Disney wants to own fanworks so that they can profit off you even more than they already do. And, to me, that’s just kind of horrifying.

In other words, King Magnifico. Yeah, I already got that.

Are you saying you don’t have an imagination? Because A: no. You do have one. Obviously. Liking what some people may think is “cringe” =/= no imagination and I SINCERELY hope you didn’t take that away from my post.

Yes, obviously I have an imagination. I am unsure what it was that made this person think I was suggesting I didn't.

And then she starts getting more hyperbolic and a bit conspiratorial.

We are in a late stage capitalism apocalypse. My argument isn’t that Disney DARE'ENT be what it is but that you should use your brains when it’s pandering to you and not just like it because 'poepl worked on it whichm means it’s good.

"Poepl"? "which?" Slurred words sure do look weird in text form.

You are not mandated to like something and your attitude, to me, frankly feels like that’s why you do like Mirrorverse. Disney is telling you to like it and you’re blinded by this delusion that the company itself is on your side simply because it has Disney fans as it’s own writers and artists working on it. I want to be proven wrong on that and believe you’re like my friends who also like mirrorverse and the modern crossover disney stuff - people who like the ideas within because yeah, that can be fun, and whom I just disagree with, but given your attitude. I don’t see it.

.....Huh??? For as inappropriately big and powerful a company as Disney is today, I do not think they have the authority to literally mandate that people must like their products and that they then must consume them because they like them. Disney has put plenty of stuff out on the free market that they no doubt wanted people to like (because otherwise why even make anything at all? People liking thing made by company = people spending money on that thing and company profiting), but I've not cared for or not even touched, no matter how many sincere, well-meaning people might've worked hard on making the stuff. Mirrorverse caught my attention way back when it was first announced and still undergoing development, and when I ended up liking it, it wasn't because "Disney was telling me to like it" or that I was blinded by any delusion of the company being good or "on my side" - I like it because I JUST DO. It appeals to me and my tastes, sensibilities, and ideas of what's good, clean, creative fun, not to mention being another Disney epic crossover property to fill the void left behind by the now garbage tier Kingdom Hearts series. And even then I'm far from uncritical in my liking for it: it existing as just a mobile app game puts some limitations on it, and the combat part of the game looks like ass and doesn't play quite as well as it could've, especially compared to the polish of other app games like Disney Heroes: Battle Mode and Disney; Sorcerer's Arena. (Now, my attitude may well have gone too far beyond disagreeable and came off as too hostile, confrontational, and uncivil in my dissent against your take, so for that I apologize. I'm sorry, that really was my bad. But given all this rambling, your attitude is now worrying me.)

Fan merch is not perfect or even all that good, but it comes from a point of passion. My point was never that fan made = good. My point was I think Disney the company wants control of even that and, when they are hiring the artists who have genuine ideas about crossovers, are exploiting them. It’s *cute* of you to call me entitled when you sound like one of the most entitled people ever through your message.

I fail to see how I come off as "entitled", as though I was saying that Disney the company has every right to control imaginative fan ideas and to hire and exploit artists with similar ideas just for profit. I was not; I was saying that I'm not in agreement with this paranoid belief that this is what prompted the existence of Mirrorverse to start with. Most of the driving ideas behind why the game came to be seems to have come from the creatives who work for both Disney and Kabam, with Disney merely signing off on it becoming an officially lisenced thing because the company is so ceaselessly hungering for profits that they can never have enough app games or console games that bring their beloved IPs together in a single fantastical new canon.

You are assigning shit to me that I did not say/mean.

For that, I apologize. Please stop doing the exact same thing to me. Two wrongs do not make a right.

I’m upset on the part of the writers and artists at Disney (btw can you please maybe list some of them out? The mirrorverse artists could probably really use the revenue you’re so quick to only attribute to Disney as if Disney itself is the writer of these works.)

But you can find them all right here.

I believe Wish was made/written with love. Every Disney project is made with love and creativity and I think it’s horrible to imply that Wish was AI-generated because it’s writing came up as lackluster, if that’s what you’re trying imply of me.

Dunno why Wish is suddenly getting brought into this. Was it my current icon being King Magnifico that put it into focus?

My issue with Wish, with Mirrorverse, and with a lot of modern Disney projects is at this point the same I am having with Illumination entertainment; and that’s not ever that “capitalist = bad”/“idea I don’t like = bad writer”. For as annoyed I still am at Princess and the Frog, you really go that feeling the the writers were trying and the project as a whole wasn’t geared by executives telling the directors “no. You have to do x, x, x, and x because then it won’t sell.” Mirrorverse had a soul. Wish had soul. Bob Chapek stole both these properties’ souls and you’re using hardworking artists’ work as an excuse to continue promoting the craphole who’s overworking them.

Bob Chapek is long gone from Disney at this point: Bog Iger is still dealing with the aftereffects of the damage Chapek did while making his own mistakes and dealing out his own share of damage to the overworked artists, writers, directors, imagineers, and all creative staff members who give their hearts and souls to Disney productions. I'm not using the artists' work as an excuse to promote or grant any lenience to corporate Disney. It's actually the very opposite: I don't want them and all the effort they put into realizing these properties to go overlooked and unappreciated due to some instinctful (and oftentimes reasonably justified) dislike and dissatisfaction directed at the company whose brand name the properties get released under. That's something akin to "collective punishment", and it reaches toxic levels when it is also applied towards the punishment and shaming of regular people; of fans who engage with the products and express any sort of enjoyment and appreciation for them. Like them doing so is an objectively morally wrong thing to do and is playing into the big bad company's hands.

My issue is that the fans (artists, creators and writers of these works) care. Disney does not. Disney cares about exploiting you even in the smallest ways and even on small matters like bad bootleg merch that’s in no way a threat to them. Because it isn’t.

This is an issue I have with Disney as well. I've said so ad nauseum.

My issue with the two of you is that you hate criticism and see my post as some kind of threat to your special interest. No. It’s not. I never even tagged mirrorverse. This is a rant meant for me and for other likeminded people like me. Speaking as a woman who’s defended and still will defend Frozen all these years - YOU are coming off as the most entitled, zealous people. You are creative. And you love Disney and obviously like Mirrorverse and Wish where I don’t; unlike the artists behind these products, you don’t have room to complain about being disgarded or treated like AI cuz I don’t like your writing or Disney’s handling of your writing- you’re just a butthurt fan.

More hyperbole. There was no "threat" detected in her post. There was only an opinion I read as a bad faith poor take and I responded to it with a rebuttal like this social media platform allows us all to do. By getting so up in arms and defensive about the rebuttal that rather than try to clear the air with a post that only clarifies what she was meaning to convey in the OP and that if I still don't find it agreeable we can hopefully agree to disagree, she goes on a whole whopping tangent? This strikes me as "butthurt fan" behavior. I'm sorry, it does.

Presuming the both of you ever read any of this, I don’t like the insinuation that my own bitching and moaning it hurting the hardworking writers and artists personally just because the fans of these overall products love them and I don’t. I really don’t like my personal criticisms being hurled at or treated like an attack on the people who are real artists. I know that’s not what I’m doing. You could have just blocked my blog or chosen to just not read the post the moment this post opened with “I hate mirrorverse”. You didn’t. You engaged and now I’m engaging to tell you that I disagree.

Yes, let us dispell that insinuation. You are hurting no one by bitching and moaning in a post put out on a public social media venue on the internet, not the writers and artists, not the company. I'd not meant to insinuate as much, and anyone who would make that insinuation would be a fool to do so. Thank you for acknowleding that you led with "I hate Mirrorverse", which made the negativitiy and criticism easier to mistake for hatefulness. I make it a rule to typically not block blogs as my first response to seeing something I disagree with, which is sadly more than I can say of other users who've disagreed with me in the past. I decided to engage you, then you engaged back, and now this is me engaging back in my own space to save your's the trouble of being too cluttered up with this dispute. If you happen to come across this and read it through, I hope you can try to take time for contemplation and understanding of where I'm coming from here, and I'd so the same in turn for you should you give a civil response. But given how I'm tagging this, chances lean unlikely.

#Disney #Mirrorverse #disney mirrorverse #haters #opinion #criticism #defense #hatedumb #misaimed fandom #completely missing the point

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thefirstknife · 2 years

Text

@aislinavalbane

Aislin. Hello. I would talk to you like adults that we are, but you have made your essay statement and blocked everyone who may disagree with you, despite openly saying that you welcome people "tearing it apart." I will be as brief as possible and focus on a few points only so I will not be tearing it apart. You're lucky that way.

You've given me no choice but to post this in the tag so all of D2 Tumblr will know your shit.

First of all, I don't think you've read The Callout Post(TM) with adequate reading comprehension or perhaps you've read it and didn't fully understand the issues with things me and another user brought up. Reminder.

But let's move past that one. In your essay, you have stated the following:

If there was someone I was interacting with who showed they were racist, bigoted, transphobic, or even fascist (I see that last one being used quite a bit and I don’t think you all are using that in the correct context, but I digress) then I would simply stop interacting with them and block them.

Really? Okay, so you didn't notice any of the bigotry in the actual post that you claim you've read. Maybe I just wasn't pedantic enough. But by the Traveler, can I be pedantic. Thank you for giving me the chance.

Transphobia 1 (anti-puberty blockers and gender affirming healthcare for trans people and youth in particular, paired with the "REEEE" which is often used as an ableist shortcut to mock autistic people, for good measure.) Transphobia 2 (reblogging a post celebrating the ban on trans women in sport and specifically being rude to one particular trans woman for no reason other than pure and utter hatred, calling trans women "men," anti-puberty blockers.) Transphobia 3 (supposed "gotcha" over how kids should not be allowed to express gender dysphoria when they're young because minors can't buy guns. Stay classy at the time of yet another mass shooting that happened in your country where elementary school children have been killed.) Transphobia 4 (just one of the posts supporting Gina Carano, a known transphobe that I have written about in my original post. Just as an addition, here's some stuff about Gina Carano being antisemitic. Ice in the tags noting that Gina was the only good actress in Star Wars. Really? The antisemitic transphobe?)

Is this enough proof of transphobia or do you need more? Is there a specific number of transphobic beliefs your friend has to agree with and spread around for you to acknowledge she's transphobic?

Homophobia (literally for no reason saying that people calling characters like Din, Luke or Han gay is "the stupidest crap she's ever heard." Why are these headcanons bothering her? Answer quickly. Here's Mark Hamill, Luke's actor, affirming people's HCs about Luke being gay if they so desire.)

Asking if supporting Attack on Titan makes her a Nazi (yes.)

Phew, that's a lot of tough topics to go through. Let's take a break with something light. Here's her anti-Crow post that's actually related to Destiny where she keeps calling him Uldren and saying she hasn't done any quests "helping Uldren" and she doesn't want Bungie to force her to side with him. As far as I know, you support Crow. This is a minor nitpick, but I am being pedantic after all.

Xentari is currently doing the same as you, supporting Ice-6 and claiming there's no bigotry involved anywhere and you're all a nice little support group who support other bigots. And I thought you all just support each other no matter what, but Xentari answered an ask tonight and this was reblogged by one of you who made a sideblog specifically to engage with this discourse and be transphobic. Transphobia in the tags, Xentari liked the reply so I will assume she agrees with the transphobic reply and transphobic tags. This person, whichever one of you it is, has called trans women "men" before and was already transphobic before.

Xentari has been particularly bothersome and outright stalking one of my friends despite my friend not wanting to interact with them. Xentari said my friend is "hiding behind the block button." Curious. Aislin, you're doing the same. This will be a tough one for Xentari to parse through: on one hand, hiding behind a block button is bad, but on the other hand her bestie is doing it too.

Extremely suspicious that both Xentari and you went to dig out stuff posted by trans people, with you, Aislin, specifically not just clipping bits of text but also implying the text wasn't AI generated. And then defending yourself by saying you wrote the person "claimed" it was AI generated. It being AI generated isn't a claim. It's a fact. OP didn't claim anything, he stated a fact. The text is AI generated.

You don't find it funny, whatever. It's not your place to police trans and LGBT+ people about which jokes they will make about themselves. You don't care about that at all. You only care about a post making fun of Cayde because falsely accusing Cayde, a fictional character, of sexism is worse than your friends supporting human rights being taken away.

Your next point I want to address:

Post to donation sites for those who have the means to and may like to contribute to. Especially for those in the US and Ukraine, cause things are crazy and scary right now all around and backing organizations and people who want to make a real difference and help people is far more helpful than going after random blogs on Tumblr.

Oh things are scary in the US right now? I see you're pro-choice so I will assume you are referring to that.

The person you're willing to die on the hill for is not.

Anti-abortion 1 Anti-abortion 2 Anti-abortion 3 Anti-abortion 4

For as long as you support people who actively made this happen by voting against abortion, you are at fault for what is happening. Whatever little posts and statements you're making about being pro-choice are futile for as long as you're coddling people who want human rights being taken away and chalking it up to "different opinions." This is what "different opinions" on human rights have done. Really "crazy and scary."

Don't fucking dare say that you can still be friends with people who have "different opinions" when those "opinions" are literally about whether or not human beings should have bodily autonomy and the right to choose. Human rights are not an opinion. You cannot be friends with people over this. Different opinions are about what's your favourite colour, not whether or not millions of people will die because your bestie is voting for their rights to be taken away.

I hope I have provided you with sufficient evidence at least for transphobia and anti-abortion stuff. You have explicitly stated that you will stop interacting with and block people who support any kind of bigotry and I believe I have given enough links and explanations and links for further reading to prove this.

If you still can't see transphobia, you are a transphobe.

I will wait with bated breath to see you publicly denounce your friendship with transphobes and transphobe supporters that you are currently very friendly with. As per your own admission that you will.

I also hope that you are hardcore donating to those organisations since you've spent a lot of time coddling people who are responsible for this happening to your country. Links to these organisations that Bungie promoted, for your ease of access:

URGE

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation

In Your Own Voice

Trans Lifeline (hope you have a huge donation to this one in particular given the scope of transphobia exhibited by your (hopefully former) friends)

#destiny 2 #discourse #tw transphobia #tw antisemitism #tw gun violence #tw homophobia #tw anti-abortion #long post #I apologise to everyone who just wants destiny content but i can't in good conscience ignore bigots in our community #i want these people to be blocked by as many people as possible #to make their d2 tag as desolate and barren as their regard for human rights #however if aislin actually does what she has promised to do she is welcome to stay. though i am not going to fault anyone for not forgiving

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thotsforvillainrights · 4 months

Note

This was originally going to be like many paragraphs long ab how I appreciated the post ab how u try to respond to every comment since u know what it feels like talking to a brick wall and etc

But yeah just wanted to say that it made me feel seen <3

You're all good even if you DID decide to send the paragraphs! For me, it comes from a weird place yknow.

At the same time I know I'm not entitled to a response or interaction from creators. I know that at the end of a day I'm still a complete stranger and they don't owe me anything. That's okay too. But still, it feels nice when you have interaction every now and then. I know I'm forgetful or maybe sometimes I get lucky and there are too many comments to count (very rare lmao), but I still wanted it to be known that I see them and I care.

And in case I don't say it enough to everyone, I'll say it again here:

Whether you're here every day or just passing through, I genuinely appreciate everything. Thank you for any likes, any reblogs or comments, and sometimes just thank you for even reading my crap. It means the world to me and I appreciate it with every fiber of my being💚💜

#mun speaks

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delightful-mirth · 1 year

Text

Browsing through a hard disk, I stumbled upon an old edit I did of Hogwarts castle with many Pride flags on its spires. Now I’m going to tell the story behind this picture.

Back in June 2020, after Harry Potter’s author started vomiting her anti-trans rhetoric, I found a nice picture on Instagram of Hogwarts castle from Universal Studios Park in Florida with many Pride flags photoshopped on it. The message was about Hogwarts always welcoming anyone, no matter what HP's author says. The trans flag stood out higher over the other flags to show particular support to the group that was, and sadly still is, being targeted. Since I liked it very much, I shared it here on my Tumblr blog, crediting the people who made it (as I always do whenever I share something that it is not mine).

The thing is the Lesbian flag was nowhere to be found, but I honestly didn’t notice when I posted the picture. Why the authors omitted it, I can’t tell. Probably their focus was on the Trans flag, or perhaps they just forgot. Whatever the reason, they surely had nothing against lesbians: they included the Lesbian Pride flag in other edits they made.

After I published it, the post went literally ablaze, with an incredibly large number of interactions that just kept skyrocketing by the minute (which is unusual for a blog consisting mostly of reblogs like my own). While the picture and the message were generally appreciated and understood, a lot of people were vocal about the missing Lesbian flag, accusing me of omitting it on purpose and, long story short, of being lesbophobic (no matter how I clearly specified that I merely shared and didn’t make the edit).

Out of rage and concern that some trolls might go on Instagram and harass the original creators, I impulsively deleted the post. What made me particularly angry was both the accusations of discriminating against Lesbians, whom as a Gay man myself I actually see as sisters in this heteronormative world, and the fact that none of those folks who complained had never bothered to reblog any of the important articles and petitions about LGBTQ+ rights I shared on my blog. A missing flag in an edit I shared caused much uproar, but LGBTQ+ people (including Lesbians) being persecuted and killed was treated as an inconsequential matter here. And this is the issue with many toxic tumblrinx, who see themselves as experts and activists of LGBTQ+ rights, when all they do is shipping same-sex fictional characters, prioritizing them over actual LGBTQ+ people.

Someone commented that I shouldn't use the “big tags” (I guess they were referring to #transphobia and #trans rights), for “this crap.” Well, whenever I used the big tags for really important matters, this person never showed up; I know because those posts usually get three reblogs at best.

There were even people who took the time to make memes about the missing Lesbian flag. Again, they had time for this, but they could never spend a few seconds to reblog important posts I shared. But also: they opened Photoshop to make those memes, but none of them thought about using it to add the missing flag.

I suspect that maybe not all but certainly some of those people who stirred such a shitstorm were transphobes, who tried to shift the concern on transphobia to something else.

The specific Gay/Vincian flag was also missing in the picture: since I am a Gay man myself, was I self-discriminating?

So, after I took down the picture, I made an edit of my own with my limited Photoshop skills. Not only I added the Lesbian flag, I added even more Pride flags that were absent in the edit that caused so much controversy. Of course, not every existing Pride flags as that would be impossible, especially considering that more and more orientations and gender identites are costantly identified (mind you, I said “identified” not “invented”). But of course, all of them are valid and identified in the Rainbow Pride flag and its variants.

At the time I didn't post this edit of mine, because right after finishing it, I believed that Tumblr simply wasn't worth it, given what had recently happened. And if I believed that it was possible to separate the art from the artist then, I'm not exactly sure about it anymore in Harry Potter's case. I think that the whole series is tainted by the author's hateful views, and that just keeping it relevant, even without buying official merch, will still fill the author's pocket. However, to give some sort of closure to this matter, here it is:

#trans #trans rights #LGBTQ+#LGBTQ+ rights

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katieskarlette · 6 months

Note

You might have seen it already but, there's an official Wrathion plush now!

I saw. He's adorable and I'm sorely tempted. I just wish they'd made him years ago when I was really obsessed with the character. Oh well, I had a very cuddly dragon plushie (the "Merlin" one by Douglas Toys) that was "my" Wrathion.

I should probably update this blog with the status of my interest in WoW, since it's been a long time.

I wish I could say I'm back in love with Warcraft, but I'm not. My subscription ran out several months ago.

TL;DR version of the part below: Not feeling the WoW love anymore. Wish I was. I'm not really on this site much these days, either. This blog will continue to exist, just with very few updates unless I suddenly feel the spark again. I've been doing original writing instead these days. Hope everything is well out there in Tumblr-land.

Due to changes and crap at my job I didn't have any PTO left to take like I normally do for Blizzcon, but I'm just kind of numb about the franchise these days so I honestly don't think I would have taken it off, even if I had the option. Which is depressing, because that was a tradition for me as long as Blizzcons have been livestreamed.

Shadowlands just plain killed my love for the franchise to such an extent that even a dragon-centric expansion couldn't revive it. I wanted it to so, so much, but if that didn't do it, nothing can. Maybe I shouldn't blame SL completely, though, because I'd been playing since vanilla and that's a long time to be deeply immersed in any fictional universe. Maybe it was just time. I don't know, but it still makes me sad that I can't get dopamine from WoW anymore, when it was a sure-fire supplier for so long.

I'm not 100% ruling out that I'll get back into the game at some point in the future, but I'm not feeling it these days.

This blog isn't going anywhere. I have literally thousands of posts, hundreds of screenshots, and many years invested here.

However, my motivation for Tumblr kind of fizzled at around the same time my WoW love did, so I haven't scrolled through my dash in ages. I sometimes will search for a topic or see a post I like as I pass by on my way to update the blog for my original universe, @kavrillia, so once in a while I reblog something to @skarletterambles, my off-topic/multi-fandom catchall blog, but even that's pretty dead these days.

I've spent most of my leisure time writing, editing, and drawing for my original universe these days--which I'm enjoying a lot, but nobody else is familiar with it so I'm basically doing it all for myself.

*insert self-deprecating joke about how not many people read my WoW fics so what difference does it really make*

Anyway, sorry if this post is a downer. Like I said, I wish I still got the enjoyment out of the Warcraft franchise that I did for so many years, but I can't force my brain to feel a certain way. I hope if anyone actually read this far that they're still having a lot of fun with WoW. Thanks for following my blog!

#ks answers questions #blogging about my blog

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grumpygreenwitch · 7 months

Text

Fanfiction 6-7-8-9-10

AS A WARNING, there is the implication of violence and abuse in this part. Originally posted 9/5/23.

Please don’t forget that reblogs give me life. Though if you wanna throw a coupla bucks in the teacup I’m not gonna say no.

This is probably the longest chunk of chapters you’re gonna get. I didn’t want to leave a cliffhanger for a whole week. This is also where you can see where my problem is with the Guild Hunter universe.

Buy me a Ko-fi?

1-2-3 + 4-5 + 6-7-8-9-10 + 11-12 + 13-14 + 15-16 + 17-18-19 + 20-21 + 22-23 + 24-25 + 26-27

Alyss found New Hampshire nearly impeccably run, barring a few stray peccadilloes he suspected came from Gracie’s staff, not the vampire overseer herself, but he ran into an immediate problem when he started looking into the Vermont books. He went looking for Gevaun and found the man in a large, sunny gym, overseeing the combat training of most of the house staff. Kliman’s Second still made the time to move over to a corner to attend to the accountant at once.

Alyss closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and scrunched his wings close to his back as rigidly as possible. Jean was on the far corner of the gym, working on a machine that allowed him to look out of the ceiling-to-floor windows; he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt that fit him like a second skin and his arms were doing things that made the angel’s neurons squeal like teenagers. It took a tremendous amount of effort to focus on Gevaun. “The Vermont books I have are copies. And I suspect they’re fakes.”

Gevaun’s eyes went wide. “All of them?”

“They look good, all of them. And I probably wouldn’t be able to confirm until I got the hard copies. But you hired me to dig, so I went digging. I think I found the originals. They’re in an entirely different part of your cloud directories, locked up tight.”

The Second scowled. “Show me. Jean, take over, would you?”

“Alright,” the other vampire looked briefly startled to be called on, but he obeyed readily enough as Alyss led Gevaun out of the gym and to his office.

Gevaun talked to Kliman, who talked to someone called Evie, who acquired the services of someone else. Within an hour Alyss had access to the original books and someone called Alistaire was in deep trouble, which kept getting deeper the more Alyss dug. He begged leave to skip dinner as he worked, printing out copies of the information he’d already saved in a separate drive. When the knock came to the door he didn’t even look up. “Come in.”

“Holy crap.” Jean’s voice was low and surprised. “Isn’t accounting supposed to be organized?”

Alyss looked up, startled. He was sitting on the floor once again, surrounded by a sea of printouts, a red pen in his mouth, a blue one tucked behind one ear, and a yellow one stuck to the collar of his shirt. He spat out the pen to speak. “Oh, this, I mean, it is. I am! Organized. It’s just a very particular sort of organized.” He stared at the office. “It makes sense to me,” he finished weakly.

“That’s what matters,” the vampire replied evenly, and the angel felt a little better. “But I brought dinner and I don’t think you got anywhere to put it down in here. It’s quick food,” he assured Alyss when the accountant looked at all his work. “And Chere’ll be mad if I have to take it back. The last person you want angry at you is the one cooking your food.”

“I know, I know.” Alyss stretched. His spine and his wings both felt kinked and cramped. “I guess I can break for a bit.” He followed the vampire into his room, and Jean set the tray he was carrying on top of a small, decorative desk. Before Alyss could protest, Jean sat on the bed, which left the accountant to take a seat before the tray.

“Can I ask what you’re doing, or is it hush-hush?”

“Some of it is, but yes, you can ask. I’m running five-year audits on everyone who works for Kliman. This just got a little more, erm, complicated because I keep finding things wrong.”

“Alistaire stealing from Kliman?”

“I don’t know what he’s doing, exactly, but it’s not nice,” Alyss declared primly, making Jean smile faintly. The angel found two sandwiches and a tremendous wedge of egg custard pie on the tray and started making short work of them. “And there’s so much of it that he couldn’t just hide it, he had to make a whole other set of books to try and pretend it doesn’t exist.”

Jean tried to focus on what Alyss was telling him but it was hard. Was it ever hard. The angel, so guarded and shy, burst into life like a sunflower when he started speaking of his work, his gestures and his voice full of animation. The delicate features, usually so pale and still, glowed with life, and the dark brown eyes filled with light. He did this thing, the vampire realized, where one of his wings twitched when he made a particularly energetic point, where someone else might have gestured sharply with one hand.

“I’m sorry, I’m probably boring you.”

“You’re not. Just not sure I’m following all of it. You make it sound like you can’t hide anything when it comes to business.”

“Oh, you can hide so many things, so many. You just have to work at it, and it’s twice as hard, but -” Alyss drew himself up sharply, and went so profoundly red that Jean could see the color creeping over his face by gradients. “Which I would never ever do, of course, not ever.” He stuffed a giant bite of pie in his mouth.

Jean couldn’t help a low, rusty little chuckle, and Alyss stared. Gaunt and exhausted as the vampire looked, when he smiled, which was so rare, and when he laughed, which he’d only heard twice, his eyes came to life like spring coming to the world, green and vibrant. “Don’t need to worry about me, Alyss. Not gonna sell out your trade secrets. I’m just… It’s weird. Never heard of an angel wanting to be an accountant.”

“I’m the only one I know of,” Alyss agreed. “My parents are very disappointed.” When Jean’s brows shot up he shrugged a little. “I guess they wanted me to follow in their footsteps.”

“What do they do?”

“As far as I’ve ever been able to tell? Nothing. Be adored. They go from lover to lover, have them pay for everything and then flit away to the next person when they get bored. I’m sure it’s a very fun life for them, it’s just not the life I wanted.”

“They had you, though. There must be something there.”

“I was an accident. They weren’t nearly as interested in the baby as they are in the, er, baby-making,” Alyss declared primly, sipping at his tea and flushing faintly. “They’re complicated people.”

‘Complicated’, Jean had long ago learned, was what one called the people you desperately wanted to care for you, even if they never would. “I think their disappointment is their loss,” he said simply.

Alyss nearly choked on his drink. “Ahm. Well, what about you? Where are you from? Wait, is that alright to ask? You don’t have to answer.”

“It’s fine."Jean figured the questions would come, eventually, and he’d rather they come from someone like Alyss, someone who seemed truly, honestly nice. "Mississippi, a long time ago. If you mean the angel, you wouldn’t have heard of him. It was in Africa, very small little place.” He rolled to his feet before Alyss could think of any more questions to ask. “I’ll take the tray if you’re done -”

“Oh, you don’t have to, I can -!” Alyss scrambled to his feet and grabbed hastily for the tray. He moved so abruptly, so unexpectedly, that the end result was to have the vampire nearly crash into his back, between his wings, so close that the warmth of him rolled like a summer breeze over the feathery down peeking out of the angel’s shirt.

Both men froze. The wings twitched once and then went rigidly still. Jean was close enough to see a deep blush against the pale skin of the angel’s neck; he could also see the quick beat of his pulse there. He could smell the old book and ancient library scent of him. There was not even an inch between his fingers and those amber-colored feathers, and for a moment he wanted nothing more than to sink his hands into them and find out if they were as fine, as silky, as soft as they looked. The vampire suddenly realized, in a blaze of enlightenment, that Alyss would likely not stop him.

Alyss closed his eyes. He hadn’t had anyone this intimately close to him in well over a decade, and even then it had been more awkward than enticing. But the spicy scent of Jean, mingled with the faint smell of the woods and a passing hint of soap and aftershave, felt cataclysmically erotic in ways he couldn’t even begin to understand. His hands were shaking and he took them from the tray before the clatter could give him away, but he didn’t dare move in any direction. He could barely breathe as it was.

“Alyss.” His name spoken by that low, calm voice felt newly minted to the world and loaded with decadent, unspoken suggestions.

“Um,” was all the angel could croak out and he could have kicked himself for it, eyes closing and head lolling down minutely in embarrassment. He heard that low, rusty chuckle, brief and ephemeral, as if Jean were only just learning how to make the sound, and his head whipped around, only to find himself dangerously close to the face of the much taller vampire. His breath caught.

Jean blew out a slow breath, saw it touch the angel’s lips, saw Alyss lick them automatically, and knew he’d been right.

Alyss saw the vampire step back. And then he felt a touch, as delicate as a kiss, along the leading edge of one of his wings.

“I’ll take the tray. You’ve got work.”

“Okay,” the angel managed to strangle out, knees gone wobbly at such a tiny, tiny gesture. He stepped aside somehow, watched the vampire pick up the tray and head out without another word, and crashed down to sit on the bed not knowing what to even think of the new shape of the world.

How was he supposed to get back to work after that?!

After a week, Alyss realized Alistaire’s crimes were infinitely worse than falsifying his accounts. Things had escalated so that he was giving Kliman a nightly report, usually with Gevaun and Lilah in attendance, if the latter wasn’t traveling.

“Call in Rook,” Kliman told Lilah after one particularly convoluted and vicious bit of business. “This only gets worse the more I hear of it.” As the liaison nodded and left the room, the older angel turned to her accountant. “Alyss, you have new directions.”

“Yes, ma'am?” The young angel drew himself up straight.

“Do what you can so Alistaire’s successor can get past all of this,” she waved her hands over the documentation the accountant had brought her, “and anything else you discover, and get things back on the proper course.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

She waved him away and Alyss picked up his papers and fled the room. He was just past the door when he heard Gevaun’s voice rumble.

“He’s going to run.”

“He will try,” Kliman said icily. “Rook will make sure he does not get far.”

Alyss rushed down the hallway and up half a flight of stairs, and that was as far as he got. He leaned against the wall, shaking, holding onto his paperwork as if it were a life raft. He didn’t know anything, not the warmth of the house around him, not the rainy view outside the round window off to one side of him, only the hammering of his heart.

“Alyss?”

The angel nearly jumped out of his skin at that familiar voice. When he spoke, his words were shaky with relief. “Oh, Jean.”

The vampire moved closer, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, well, um. I think I just killed someone.” Alyss tried to shrug, it came out a shiver. Tried to smile and it came out terribly wobbly.

Jean’s brows shot up, and he moved closer still. He’d have expected any number of reactions from an angel who admitted to such a thing; Alyss’ was not on that list. Instead of saying anything he touched, very lightly, the back of one of those white-knuckled hands. “Alyss -”

“I’ve been working on the Vermont data, I mean, you know I have, everyone knows I have, of course you’d know, and I keep finding things wrong, and more and more wrong, and of course I report everything to Gevaun and Lilah and Kliman, so they have to do something about it, but I got so used to everyone being happy here, everyone’s happy here, and I didn’t think -”

“Alyss,” Jean said a third time, and put a calloused thumb over the angel’s lips.

Alyss cut himself off with a squeak.

Jean had to very sternly talk himself into pulling his hand away. “Did you put a gun to Alistaire’s head? Did you force him to do whatever it is he did?” When the angel shook his head meekly, Jean shrugged. “He’s a grown man, Alyss. He’s nearly two hundred years old, and he’s worked for Kliman all of his free life. He knows the rules. He’s the one who chose to break them. And when he could’ve come clean he chose to go in even deeper.” Very carefully, very pointedly he added, “his crimes aren’t for you to carry.”

When the angel drew in a stuttering, uncertain breath, his brown gaze skittering away, Jean had to accept a realization he’d been shying away from. “You’re not used to places like this, are you. Kliman’s house. Where everyone’s… happy.” God, more and more the vampire was being forced to accept that the accountant might actually be a decent creature.

Alyss shook his head. “I’ve seen such things, Jean,” he whispered. “They aren’t fair and they aren’t right and no one does anything about them because they’re vampires.” He huffed. “’Oh, they’re just vampires’,” he mocked a snooty tone, then scowled. “We made them that. We made you that. And then everyone just, just -”

“Hey.” Jean caught the accountant by the shoulders and shook him lightly. “Can you change Alistaire?”

“No. I mean… No, I don’t even know him.”

“How far back do your records go?”

“Oh, I’m anywhere between five and twenty years in for some of them and I’m still -”

“I know it’s different for angels, Alyss, but for normal people twenty years is an eternity. People can change so much in twenty years, if they want to. He just got worse. Was he going to stop if you didn’t catch him?”

Jean watched that sweet brown gaze dart this way and that, running from reality, trying to find an answer other than the truth. In the end the angel sagged down, beaten. “No.”

“God.” The vampire looked at nothing in particular for a long moment before giving Alyss his attention again. “You’re nicer than anyone deserves, you do know that?”

“I’d like to think I’m the normal level of nice,” the angel replied in a mutinous murmur.

Jean had to grin at that. “I’ll help you to your room.” When he saw the amber wings twitch, the vampire reconsidered. “Have you been to the sunroom yet?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Come on. We’ll drop off your stuff and I’ll give you the tour I guess no one gave you when you got here.”

The weather shifted to crisp, chilly and sunny autumn days; the change, as much as the shift in the direction of his work, helped Alyss shake off his glum.

Much of it, he had to admit, had to do with his conversation with Jean. The vampire hadn’t been cruel but he’d been blunt, and honest, and calm. Alyss might not like it but he knew Jean was right, and to a certain degree so were Gevaun and Kliman. He couldn’t, wouldn’t ever approve of the casual, gleeful cruelty he’d witnessed against other vampires, but Alistaire was not the sort of vampire that would respond to kindness. To him it was simply a weakness to be exploited.

It made Alyss mad, though. Alistaire’s attitude was precisely why no one cared when other vampires suffered at the hands of their angels. One horrible rotten apple, ruining life for everyone else in the barrel.

The Connecticut angel arrived early next morning. He was very much what everyone expected of an angel, tall and powerfully built, young, with sharply defined features and piercing eyes, short brown hair and red and brown wings serrated with white. He suffered a hug from Kliman which he stiffly tried to return, shared a strong, friendly handshake with Gevaun and ignored the fact that the entirety of the house staff was peeking out of every window. When they were introduced he examined Alyss for all of three seconds and immediately dismissed him. The accountant gratefully scurried back to his office, where he stayed until dinner time rolled around and he was told Kliman’s enforcer would not be joining them, having already gone on his way. He still spent dinner listening to the staff swoon and gush over the Connecticut angel, fleeing as quickly as the excellent chicken pot pie allowed it. Listening to other people list the many ways in which he himself was not a noteworthy angel wasn’t his idea of a good time.

If it weren’t utterly unthinkable, he would have put something terrible in the Connecticut books just to be horrible and petty and mean. But it would have been… well, horrible and petty and mean. And dishonest, which was something Alyss tried never to be unless he were specifically hired for it. And even then he was always very dubious about taking on that kind of job, because it unfailingly got complicated and sticky and unpleasant.

Besides, as he paced restlessly through his office and room, staring at his tablet, he was already wondering if he hadn’t ended up embroiled in precisely that kind of situation.

Maine wasn’t adding up.

Maine was run directly from Kliman’s home, directly by the angel. Chere ruled over the kitchen, yes, but part of the reason Kliman had a liaison was so she could oversee her house and her state personally. Every decision that might have caused the books to be wrong would have to go through her. Could it be a test? To see if Alyss really was as good as he claimed? Could it be a trap? The discrepancies weren’t terribly big but they were there, needling him.

Alyss snatched a cloak and threw himself out of the balcony, circling once and gliding down to the short, lighted path that followed the perimeter of the pond. He had to get away, had to clear his head. He needed the silence of the woods; he regretted his choice almost immediately, when the cold of the season, compounded by the proximity of the water, slammed into him and left him shivering. He wrapped his wings around himself as best he could and clung to the cloak, muttering very unkind things about his inability to ignore the cold.

In the dark and the silence, the distant sound of an unfamiliar engine came to him on the breeze and for a moment he fancied he heard Jean’s voice. It shot a pang through him and he realized he missed the vampire; he hadn’t caught a single glimpse of him through the entire day. Shivering, he hurried in the direction of the sounds. He found himself going through the dark woods, on a road he didn’t recognize and could barely be called one, and pulled his wings even closer to himself, wary. The road brought him to another side of the marshlands that dominated a good third of Kliman’s estate and to an entirely unexpected sight.

Across perhaps fifty or sixty feet of still water he could see the wooden walkway that ran along the other side of the marsh. There was a boat there, the shallow-keeled type, engine humming very quietly in the still, cold air. Three people were already on it, two of them huddled down as close to one another as they could, the third minding the engine and holding a violet-tinted, very small light. There were six more people on the walkway, and even as he looked Alyss recognized one as Gevaun. Kliman’s Second was wearing dark, comfortable clothing, and even as Alyss looked he saw the vampire pick up one of the other figures and set them down gently on the boat, holding on until the new passenger had found their footing. By his side, someone else in a dark, heavy lined jacket handed over a small bag.

Alyss knew that jacket. That was Jean. What was going on? The whole thing had the feel of something clandestine and dangerous, but Gevaun and Jean were… well, maybe not friends but they were good people. Gevaun was the sort of person that came to mind when the angel thought of the word 'stalwart’. And Jean, well, Jean was Jean.

Skirting the edges of the marsh and hoping that he wouldn’t run himself into any more horrible spiky briers, Alyss inched closer to the strange little gathering. He paused at the very edge of the woods without setting foot on the walkway, knowing that if he did he’d be far too visible, even if the vampires didn’t scent or hear him. He was honestly surprised they hadn’t heard him already; to the accountant his passage through the woods had sounded only a little quieter than an avalanche.

He was close enough to hear Jean speak in that low, calm, steady tone he knew so well to one of the other people, a smaller figure than most of them there, though the angel was still too far away to make out the words. The vampire then picked them up, careful and slow.

There was still a muffled cry of pain ringing clear over the marsh.

Alyss gasped out loud and surged a step forward before he knew what he’d done, driven by an instinct older than the world. He froze almost immediately, but the heads of both the vampires had whipped around as if they were starving predators who’d scented blood. The angel groped blindly behind him for support that most obviously wasn’t there, backing away from the scene. He turned to run.

A painfully strong grip caught his shoulder, spun him around and slammed him wings-first into the nearest tree. He cried out in surprise more than pain, reaching out to try and grab onto his attacker… and froze.

A knife, a long hunter’s blade keenly sharp on a weathered wooden handle, was pressed against the skin of his throat, just under his chin. Alyss froze, disbelieving and terrified, a tiny chirping sound of panic escaping him.

Gevaun’s eyes went very wide when he realized who he’d caught. His expression, which had sharpened to nearly wolf-like lines, crashed into chagrin, and he very succinctly summed up both the situation and everyone’s feelings about it. “Well, crap.”

“Walk, Alyss,” Gevaun commanded, turning the accountant around to face the walkway, his tone brooking no argument.

“I’d rather just go -”

“Matt has a rifle, Jean has a shotgun, I have a lot of knives and you’re just getting to your third century. Walk.”

Huddled miserably in his cloak, his wings dragging behind him and his whole body shaking in incomprehending fear, Alyss dutifully walked up to the little scene he’d spied on the walkway, his feet occasionally catching on the uneven planks.

“Alyss.” Jean’s tone and expression were both stricken. Behind him, three figures huddled closer at the sight of the angel. Alyss could all but smell the fear in the air, thicker even than the unmistakable scent of the vampires. He could also smell blood, and it made his feathers shift restlessly. “What,” Jean demanded, “are you doing here?” He was having trouble accepting that he might have misjudged the angel so badly, or believing that Alyss could indeed be a spy. He didn’t make that kind of mistake, he never had.

“My head was full,” Alyss muttered, and there, before the vampire, the person that he’d come to trust above all others in Kliman’s house, it was as if a dam had broken. “It was all numbers and chaos rattling around and I couldn’t get it to stop because it’s all a mess that I can’t, I can’t fix because it’s these books, for here, for Maine and those shouldn’t be wrong but they are and -”

“Alyss.” Jean lifted a hand to quiet the angel, to soothe him as he had before, and Alyss jerked away, fear in the rich brown of his eyes. The vampire froze. It was a gesture he was far too familiar with, that flinch. His life had been full of it for the past few centuries. But he’d never been the one to provoke it on someone he knew, someone he cared for. He stepped back, his features graven in stone. “Gevaun -”

“I have no bloody clue what to do,” the other vampire admitted in Berber.

“He’s not a spy,” Jean matched the language.

“Jean, I know you like the sunflower but he was there. Hiding in the woods, looking at us. That’s normally called spying.”

“He’s not a spy!”

“Even if he’s not, now what? We cut him loose and hope he doesn’t tell anyone? His mouth runs, you’ll have noticed!”

Jean had no response to that, the very concept seeming so utterly outlandish to him, so he switched tacks. “What do you want to do, kill him? Somehow? He’s not old, but he’s old enough to make it hard. And how do we explain that when the Refuge comes asking after him?”

“There’s no one who’d come asking for him,” Gevaun replied ruthlessly.

Jean saw the flinch a second before Alyss joined the conversation in the same language. “I speak Berber, you know.” He sounded tired and defeated.

Everyone went quiet once again. Behind Jean, one of the huddled figures started shivering so hard their teeth were clacking. Alyss automatically threw his wings back and undid the clasps on his cloak.

“What are you doing?” Gevaun demanded.

“They’re cold,” Alyss murmured, slipping the cloak off and stepping forward.

“What,” Gevaun tried to step forward between the angel and the three figures, but found his way momentarily barred by one of those amber wings, “are you doing, get -”

“They’re cold!” Alyss nearly shouted at the vampire before moving forward.

The shivering figure was a young man, absolutely beautiful, with very pale skin and refined features, eyes gone wide with terror at the sight of the angel. He was so cold in the bleak New England night his lips were turning purple, but he didn’t move. His fear went to confusion, and then embarrassed gratitude, when Alyss threw the cloak over his shoulders, to cover the flimsy embroidered tunic and blousy black pants that were all he wore. “Gracias.”

“De nada,” Alyss replied automatically, stepping back and whirling to face the two vampires. “You’re both wearing jackets. You’re both old! He’s a baby, and you didn’t think to give him one? To bring a blanket or something for him? For the rest of them?”

The silence lingered before Jean admitted, “We don’t speak Spanish, neither of us. We didn’t know who was coming, only that -”

“Jean!”

“- only that they were coming,” the vampire finished stubbornly, and he and Gevaun glared wordlessly at one another.

“Oh, for the love of prime numbers!” Alyss cried out, turning once again, his voice gentle and his question pointed. One of the other three, a woman, spoke to him in a different language, and he switched seamlessly to match her.

“Oi,” the vampire at the boat’s rudder suddenly called out. “I’m sure this is a problem for you lot, but I need to get them out of here quick.” He threw in an extra incentive. “Van’s heated.”

Jean turned around. “Alyss,” he called out, and gestured to the third woman, who was wrapped up in a fine woolen blanket stitched with ribbons and exquisite embroidered edges. “Tell her I will help her into the boat, but it’s gonna hurt.”

“Why is it -” The question withered in Alyss’ mouth as the truth, finally, bloomed to life in his mind.

Runaways. They were all runaways.

He turned to the woman, who was staring sightlessly at the marsh, and began gently asking questions, rolling through every language he knew. She twitched at one point, and finally turned to not quite face him when he translated for Jean.

“It’s only pain,” she murmured emotionlessly, her Finnish without accent. “I will try not to cry out this time.”

“She understands,” Alyss told Jean, his mouth dry with the new, growing horror of it. He turned to the other woman waiting on the dock. “You’re all… This is… You could die, you know, you could die if they catch you,” he told her in Polish.

She scoffed. There were bruises like shadows all over her face, and scars all along her neck; as a vampire she was young enough that she wasn’t healing quickly, and her healing was not clean. Either that, or someone had made an effort to make sure she got no benefit of either. “Better to die than to go back to that life,” she replied, and her conviction was ironclad.

“Is that… why you’re here? All of you?”

“No.” Her gaze darted to where Jean was carrying the Finnish vampire onto the boat. “No. Some of us are here because they would have never let us die.”

That thought, Alyss found out, was even more horrifying than the possibility of a cruel death.

He shook his head when the young man offered him the cloak back and stood there, watching while they all boarded, and then as Jean and Gevaun shoved the boat away with long poles until it was clear of the cattails bordering the walkway. Someone lifted an arm and waved before the boatman turned off his light and the darkness swallowed them all.

Alyss automatically waved back and heard Gevaun sigh, saw the Second rub at his face. Well, as far as the angel was concerned there was really only one thing he could say, and so he said it. “Your accountant is absolutely terrible and hasn’t bothered to hide all of the money you’re stealing for this at all.”

Gevaun turned very slowly to stare at the angel, his expression full of disbelief. “You audited us?”

“Of course I did!” Jean saw Alyss’ wings twitch with the angel’s exasperation. “You hired me to audit you!”

“To audit them!”

“To audit New England! Which you’re part of! What, were you expecting I’d do a terrible job?! Or, or, or not do my job at all?!” When Gevaun, caught off-guard by the very obvious counter, sputtered, Alyss barreled on. “And it’s lucky it was me and not someone from New York because your books are the worst mess, no one’s made so much as an effort to hide the fact money’s going missing everywhere, I can’t imagine what something like this costs, except obviously not enough to buy blankets or, I don’t know, have something warm to drink when they -” Alyss trailed off, another piece of the puzzle clicking into place.

Hot cocoa and warm croissants, always ready in the kitchen.

Gevaun looked sheepish. “Chere was asleep when we got the call.”

Alyss covered his face and made a wordless, high-pitched sound of impatience.

“We weren’t expecting this many of them!”

“Then you make plans for when it happens, because it’s going to happen! Things always go wrong. Always! That’s one of the first things you learn running a business, that’s why you make plans, and contingencies for the plans, and contingencies for the contingencies, and you don’t very well leave them lying around on your documents for when the Guild comes calling, which honestly I’m astonished they haven’t -”

“Kliman happens,” Jean pitched in, voice quiet, arms crossed.

“What?” Alyss lost track of the conversation, turning to face the other vampire.

“If the Guild comes by, Kliman happens to them,” Jean repeated. “She shuts down their skills. Part of her power.”

“How’s that going to help if someone in Manhattan decides to go over your books electronically? Or if they send in angels or, or, or the Consort? Couldn’t you at least, I don’t know, pretend like you aren’t getting runaway vampires to safety? Did you go to the cheap bin for your accounting? Do you even have one?!”

“We do, b-”

“Well, then I want to talk to them,” the angel demanded, drawing himself up, an effort to look commanding that was entirely ruined by the fact he was shivering in the cold. “I want to talk to your accountant,” he declared primly, and it almost sounded like a threat. Almost. Except for the part where he tripped on the walkway once again when he tried to stalk off into the dark.

“Let him go,” Jean’s voice was very low when he spoke to stop Gevaun, who’d whipped around to follow after the angel.

“But -”

“But his mouth runs?” The vampire’s brows went up. “He’s an accountant, Gevaun. He’s been an accountant to hundreds of angels and vampires, most of them the kind no one else wants to touch. And nobody’s heard a peep of the crap he probably found and fixed on their books, have they?” He clicked his tongue, walking sedately away. “His mouth runs,” he mocked. “We better go wake up the, uh, the cheap bin accountant.”

Alyss went to his room and paced, and flailed, and argued with himself a great deal.

On the one hand, he couldn’t disagree with what Gevaun and Jean had done. Yes, vampires were dangerous, predatory, horrible. Yes, many of them were no better than Alistaire. At the middle ground, they were no better than Andrew, content to coast through life doing the bare minimum. Or Gracie, clueless and happy to remain so. And the threat of losing control to their hunger for blood was always there, always.

But at some point the burden of Alistaires meant that everyone had stopped looking closely at the matter. The angels, the Guild, they had given up the entire vampiric population as a loss, blood-thirsty fiends without will or thought, bent merely on greed and destruction. The Guild had even made a concerted effort to render the VPA toothless, unable to protect those like the Finnish woman. They’d been so busy wanting free reign to hunt the monsters that they’d set up the victims to be trampled in their wake. Bloodlust was treated as a noose around their neck, a sword forever dangling over them. Alyss had long ago given up trying to understand the sheer stupidity of that way of thinking, because it didn’t affect him. It didn’t touch him.

That night, it most certainly had touched him.

On the other hand, every mortal who wished to become a vampire chose to do so. They chose to accept a hundred years of servitude. They were given the contract to read, to consider, to sign or reject as they saw fit.

But a contract did not excuse the abuse he’d seen on the Polish woman. Or the horror he hadn’t seen on the Finnish woman.

He was, Alyss realized, losing the argument to a part of himself that was heavily implying that rules and laws were more like guidelines, really, arr. And he didn’t know what to make of it. He was an accountant. He lived his life to bring numbers to order by following a very specific set of rules. Certainly he could twist them, bend them, but he had always done his best to abide by the rules and to do what was right. Never before in his life had the two principles been so diametrically opposed.

There was a delicate knock on the door he’d locked, and he dug the heels of his hands against his eyes. “Please, Chere, I really don’t feel like eating!”

“It’s not Chere,” a cheerful woman’s voice replied. “I’m the accountant.”

Oh, this was a fight Alyss was more than ready for. He stalked to the door, unlocked it and flung it open. “Do you realize -”

His voice strangled to a delicate whine. There was a sword tip brushing his throat, just above his Adam’s apple. It was a fine burnished length of steel, both edges sharpened, without guard; it was done in the old Etruscan style. The pommel was wrapped in leather, utilitarian rather than decorative.

Kliman, wearing a pair of very comfortable hiking pants and a soft pink knit sweater, smiled thinly at the younger angel. “Hello, Alyss. You wanted to talk to me?”

Alyss had automatically thrown his hands up. He looked at the older angel in stunned disbelief and swallowed against the lump of terror in his throat. It refused to budge.

“Back.” The smile vanished, Kliman all business. “My house doesn’t need to deal with this potential ruckus.” She herded him back into the room, the sword never wavering, and closed and locked the door behind her. “Now, there’s always the balcony,” she admitted. “But if you run I’m going to chase you. And I’m the one who taught Rook everything he knows.”

“I won’t,” Alyss breathed.

“Eh?”

“I won’t run, ma'am, I promise.”

“Mm. Unlike Gevaun, I’m willing to believe you.” She dropped the sword and sheathed it on a half-sheath resting across her back. “Now, you had a speech all ready to go, didn’t you.”

Alyss opened his mouth. Closed it. “I forgot it,” he admitted hoarsely.

She had to chuckle at that. “Well, how about I give you some facts and you can give me the salient points of it. Yes, I know what Gevaun is doing. I am, in fact, the one that started him doing it. I’m not ashamed of it. No, Jean was not supposed to be involved and I’m very cross at them for it. Yes, there was supposed to be a departure tonight. No, half those vampires weren’t supposed to be there but one of the safehouses along the pipeline has been compromised. Yes, all of my staff knows; most of them come from the pipeline. No, I’m not actually an accountant but I had no one I trusted to do the book-keeping, considering…” She waved he hand at the balcony.

Alyss pressed his hands close, trying to decide which of his inner halves ought to speak to this new, terrifying version of his hostess. All things considered, he wasn’t terribly surprised when Guidelines, Arr-Alyss won out. “You can’t do that, ma'am. Respectfully. Everyone forgets to write down things, and in a big household like this money’s bound to get lost, but you’re financing an entire, uh… pipeline. And it shows. Does it ever, ever show.”

One of Kliman’s golden brows went up, though she wasn’t about to admit to Alyss why it had done so. Instead, very mildly, she replied, “It’s that bad, huh?”

“It’s… It’s… It’s somewhat blatant,” Alyss explained as diplomatically as possible, unaware that his struggles had left Kliman trying not to laugh. “I’m just saying, it’s not hard to hide what you’re doing. It’s not easy but it’s not… If you’re trained it’s not outside the realm of possibility.”

“Hm. Well, that’s delightful to know. When can you get started?”

Alyss choked. “Excuse me?”

“You were terribly angry at me before that door opened. You are still angry, you’re just more scared than angry. But you know what I haven’t heard from you, not once?” Kliman’s voice softened. “Disapproval. It’s not even a consideration for you.” Some of her amusement shone through. “You’re upset that I bungled the books, which is fair. But you don’t disapprove of what we’re doing here, do you.”

Alyss felt the argument within him grow to a crescendo, and finally crown a winner. “No. It needs doing, and no one else seems to care.”

“We care.” Kliman moved closer to set a warm, gentle hand on Alyss’ shoulder. “I care. Please, help me, help us, keep on doing this.”

Alyss sighed shakily. “Well, I didn’t really have anything lined up after this job. I guess I can stay a little longer.”

“Wonderful.” Kliman beamed at him, whirled around and headed out of the room. “Now come with me.”

“Come where?”

“To make sure Jean hasn’t killed someone.”

“He… what? Excuse -” Alyss hastily trotted after the older angel. “Excuse, excuse me, he, why would he -”

“Child, you can’t be so blind not to see he does more than endure your company. Have you seen him suffer any other angels?” Kliman wasn’t slowing down. She led the way to her office and threw the doors open to the vast space, full of rosewood furnishings and ancient Etruscan and Hittite art that would have made a museum curator weep. The room was warm, airy and during the daytime it would likely be brightly lit, even without lamps. At the moment, only one half of it was lit. There, Gevaun and Lilah were struggling to keep a snarling Jean pinned down against a desk surrounded by debris. “There! Here he is, safe and sound, now you can stop being so dramatic,” Kliman said tartly. “Let him go.”

Gevaun and Lilah stepped back and Jean sprang up and away from them, fangs momentarily bared in an entirely feral reaction. Alyss had stopped at the double doors, a hand stretched out, his face frozen in a stricken expression as, again, too many bits and bobs of information came together in his mind.

The fact it took both Gevaun and Lilah to hold Jean down meant the one vampire he’d thought to be the youngest of the three was actually the oldest. And very, very old.

Jean’s not staff. He’s a guest and he’s currently recovering.

A runaway. Memories flickered through Alyss’ mind, the way the young Spanish-speaking vampire had frozen in terror at his proximity, the way the Finnish vampire had not even been able to look at him.

Have you seen him suffer any other angels?

No. He wouldn’t even join Kliman’s dinner table.

“Jean, are you -” Alyss tripped over the wrong words for the right question. “Are you hurt? Are you going to be alright?”

The entire room came to a stop. Jean’s mouth had opened but whatever he’d meant to say, the younger angel’s question had trumped it. He swallowed hard. “I’m fine,” he gritted out and slowly, very slowly, he reached out for that outstretched hand. Alyss clung to the warm, calloused touch of it. “Are you hurt?” The vampire laced his fingers through Alyss’, moving closer with a slow calm he was not feeling but refusing to do anything that might make the angel flinch again.

“Well, my pride, my dignity and my belief I’m halfway-clever are all quite dead,” Alyss replied meekly, “but no, I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.”

“Alyss has agreed to replace our cheap bin accountant,” Kliman informed the room dryly, and the other angel went red to his ears. “Thank goodness, because I hate the job. Now, exciting as this all has been, I think everyone should get some rest tonight and tomorrow. Time enough on Friday to face the world once again.” She stalked out of the room, and when no one followed her she snapped, “Gevaun, you’re already on my shit list, you might want to do something about that.” The vampire hurried after his mistress.

Lilah paused at the door. “Alyss?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you.” She was gone without waiting for a reply.

Whatever well of righteous indignation had carried the accountant that far chose that moment to run dry. He threatened to go down with with a startled, puzzled little sound, and he’d have crashed face down on the rich knotted rug if the vampire’s powerful arms had not caught him and steadied him against his body. “You’re fine, you’re fine, I got you.”

“I can’t feel my knees,” Alyss declared dazedly, too dizzy to worry that he was clinging to Jean.

“That’s fine.” Jean shifted, and Alyss was suddenly up, cradled and carried in the vampire’s arms. “Not a fighter, are you?”

“Numbers don’t threaten people with knives and swords and things,” Alyss protested. “And I think I’ve done quite well, all things considered.”

“You did,” the vampire assured him, carrying him away from the office and heading for the accountant’s rooms. “The adrenaline wore off, that’s all.”

“Could I have some from the kitchen, please? This is very undignified. And you shouldn’t have to carry anyone if you don’t want to.”

Once again, Jean couldn’t help but feel a smile tugging at him. “Chere’s fresh out, I think.” The door to Alyss’ room had been left open; Jean expertly shoved it closed with a foot once they were inside. “I don’t mind carrying you,” he admitted at last.

“Why? You’re like them. You’re -” Alyss looked up, and there was so much worry in the sweet brown of his eyes that the vampire felt it like a physical blow. “It had to be worse for you, so much worse, you’re old. You’re very old.” He went limp against Jean’s shoulder. “It’s not fair. You’re so nice. Only nice things should happen to you.”

“And that would be the triple-f crash talking,” Jean said, his voice gone rough with emotion at that sentiment, so vast and so simply, so easily offered to him.

“I don’t swear,” Alyss protested primly.

Jean blew out an amused breath as he set the angel on his bed. “Not that kind of 'f’, Alyss. Fight, flight, freeze.”

“Oh.” Alyss suddenly clung to Jean’s shirt. “Stay? Please? I just - Tell me they’re gonna be alright. Tell me they’ll be safe. I keep seeing them and, and -”

Jean touched a thumb to that runaway mouth, frowned, and fought with the entirely too gleeful part of himself that pointed out that those words totally counted as an invitation to the angel’s bed, and from there it was a short hop, skip and jump to doing things the vampire had become unacquainted with over the past few decades. The touch of that wing, like silk and sunshine, lingered in his memory, made his fingers tingle.

He slipped onto the bed, kicking off his boots, but he kept a safe distance between them that threatened to kill him out of sheer inadequacy. “We’re just a waystation, a safehouse. Boston sends them to us when they come from overseas, and we find them a life elsewhere. Kliman makes sure they have a way to start over. Evie and her people make up new doc -” Alyss pressed close against the vampire’s side. “- uments.”

“Everyone has a job. You must have done this so many times.”

“No. Twice a year on a good year. Once is the norm. Getting a vampire away from this sort of situation isn’t easy, sunflower.” The nickname slipped out before he knew what he’d done and Jean could only be glad that the angel was too close to sleep to notice it. “Not if you want them to get away clean. Not if you want to make sure they really need to get away; that they’re not rogues looking for an easy way out of their contract. I guarantee at least two angels are going to come sniffing by after tonight. Or they’ll send the Guild after us again.”

He felt Alyss shiver, mostly asleep. “No. I’ll erase everything, they’ll never find anything they can use, not a thing, not a number, not a single decimal.”

“You do that.” Jean was silent, waiting. He was rewarded after a few minutes with the steady breathing that announced Alyss had fallen asleep, exhausted by having to do things very much not in an accountant’s repertoire.

And yet he’d been fierce and determined, staunch to a fault even in his terror, and it had been very much been terror - the vampire had smelled it on him like fire licking the walls of Alexandria. Jean knew then that he’d been right: Alyss was a truly good person.

He sighed, wanting very much to stay where he was, knowing he should leave. He shifted to try and slip away -

An arm slid over his chest, followed a moment later by one of those amber-colored wings. Jean froze. “Alyss.”

“Mm.”

“Alyss, I can’t stay here.”

“Why?”

A plaintive voice inside Jean was indignantly asking the same question. “They’ll think I’ve slept with you.”

“But you are sleeping with me,” came the drowsy reply.

Jean realized there was absolutely no way he could explain the semantic differences between what each of them was saying to a bird that wasn’t really awake anymore. He tipped his head back and chuckled soundlessly. “I suppose I am,” he drawled, admitting defeat, and settling down under the angel’s embrace.

#alyss and jean #angel #vampire #nalini singh #guild hunter #fanfiction #my writing #male on male #urban fantasy #modern fantasy #fantasy #implied abuse #fantasy violence

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