#part of the idea is also he psyches himself up. assumes hes going to have a bad to mediocre time.

[jacqcrisis]

This a ramble about some thoughts I'm having while playing bg3. Please ignore if you want cause I'm only just now about to start act 2 on my first playthrough.

I wonder if due to the general rarity and more animalistic appearance of a dragonborn, if Ronan is a hard sell on the 'attraction' front for a lot of people. I can't imagine most people's first reaction to meeting a new lizard man is 'the pants are coming off', unless they are a very particular kind of person or have been around people of that race enough for the general wariness for the visual peculiarities to have worn off. Especially not in a crisis situation where if you really wanted to bone down, there's other more human options with skin and normal teeth and...lips.

Obviously, all the companions are video game bisexual and also seemingly devoid of personal aesthetic preferences in order to help facilitate you the player's personal role-playing fantasy adventure. Everyone is available no matter what race you pick in a game mechanic sense but thinking logically in a worldbuilding/narrative sense...

I understand Lae'zel wondering outloud to Ronan if she could 'ride him like the red dragons'; that makes sense for her and her...interests. She seems like a certified freak (affectionate). And I would get it if Gale had a dialogue option that implied or directly stated he'd wondered what it'd be like to be with a dragonborn because he seems like he's spent a lot of time reading weird porn inbetween simping for an actual goddess who probably can and did true polymorph herself into some fucked up shit for him. Their sex life had to be crazy if he's willing to turn himself into a thermonuclear device to try and get it back is all I'm saying ANYWAYS

But since I'm romancing him this playthrough, I have to imagine for someone like Astarion, that it had to take some personal pep talk before putting on the fawning voice and asking Ronan to sleep with him. And even more psyching himself up because in my game, it took two additional long rests after that conversation to actually get to the awkward sex scene. He had to really think about that one, literally had to sleep on it TWICE to make sure he's got his head in the right place to find out what dragonborn dick is about.

Not that hes disgusted, just... put off by the prospect on how he's going to sell this whole charming, super into the dragonborn shtick when he's just not all that much. I just cannot imagine, even outside of the manipulation game he's playing with the PC, Astarion sitting there, being like 'you know who I'd like to get rowdy with now that my body is my own again? Out of everyone at this camp? Thats right. The Lizard.'

I'm only just now about to start act 2, so I could be super off base, but that's the headcanon I'm running with right now. Vampire didn't find much physically of the big dragonborn tantalizing before deciding sleeping with him was the best course of action. The idea that this would obviously change over the course of time is compelling to me.

[microclown]

Crowley and Aziraphale's communication in the final 15 is bad, but going back through the season I've realized it's even more prevalent than I thought…

not all of these miscommunications are a problem, but they barely have one interaction that doesn't include some form of lack of communication, so I thought it was worth highlighting the pattern

List under the cut, analysis at the end

Aziraphale doesn't tell Crowley about the naked man, Nina does

Aziraphale doesn't tell him it's Gabriel, he tell him it's Jim, Crowley sees it's Gabriel

"I feel like your exactly and my exactly are different exactlys" (aka miscommunication- assuming they're on the same page when they're not)

Cowley doesn't tell Aziraphale the stakes, that he could be erased from the book of life for helping Gabriel

The Apology dance is literally dancing around the issue. He doesn't want to apologize because he doesn't believe he is in the wrong, but they never talk through it, they just move forward

"Ah, we're going to the pub!" As they're walking in the door. so Aziraphale didn't tell him where they were going, he just lead him there??

Aziraphale and Crowley don't agree on how to get Nina and Maggie together, but they go ahead and execute their own plans without discussing it further. Crowley does ask "I'm lost, am I doing a rainstorm?" but Aziraphale has already moved on and doesn't answer him. He's already decided the ball is the better option, but he doesn't communicate that. Later, Crowley tries to tell Aziraphale about his plan with the rainstorm, but Aziraphale ignores him. "You don't want to hear about my plan?" Then when Crowley tells him the rainstorm plan was a bust, Aziraphale has no idea what he's talking about.

After telling Crowley about the Clue, Aziraphle doesn't let them discuss it at all. He literally cuts Crowley off from asking any questions about it "no! not another word."

When Aziraphale asks to take the Bentley, he doesn't really ask, he's telling Crowley he's going to take it. Crowley says no indirectly "You can't drive my Bentley." Aziraphale explains that he can drive because he has a license. So Crowley says "No" plainly. Aziraphale ignores him. Crowley says "No" again, louder, clearer, slaps Aziraphale's hand away, but Aziraphale still ignores him.

When Aziraphale tells Crowley what he learned about Gabriel in Edinburgh, they never discuss it fully because Crowley cuts him off to execute his rainstorm that they've also never fully discussed.

Neither Aziraphale or Crowley tell the other that Shax confronted them. More importantly, Aziraphale doesn't tell Crowley that Shax tricked him into revealing that Gabriel is in the bookshop.

Aziraphale is very coy with Crowley while planning the ball "wait and see!" He never actually tells Crowley his plan.

When Aziraphale suggests "just talking" to Gabriel, he looks pleased when Crowley says "Actually, I will." He doesn't seems to read Crowley's tone. Crowley then proceeded to yell at Gabriel and tells him to jump out a window. Probably not what Aziraphale had in mind.

Of course, the whole scene in the ball. Crowley doesn't tell Aziraphale about the demons straight away, he leads with a seemingly less urgent "somethings wrong". Aziraphale is barely listening anyway. He's too in his own world, too caught up in psyching himself up to ask Crowley to dance.

After the demons storm the ball, Aziraphale tells Crowley he's got a suggestion, but Crowley cuts him off "I've got it."

Crowley doesn't tell Aziraphale what he learned in Heaven. He doesn't tell him about Armageddon part 2, or that Gabriel was fired for not wanting to go ahead with it. He doesn't even tell him this during their big fight at the end, when you would think it would be a convincing point towards Aziraphel staying.

Neil has revealed that Crowley never told Aziraphale that he was living in his car

And then their final argument is laden with miscommunication, (people have gone into great depths analyzing this already, but I’ll just sum it up so it’s included) - Aziraphale assumes Crowley would want to be an angel again, but they’ve clearly never discussed this. Crowley assumes Aziraphale is on the same page with why heaven is so bad, but they’ve clearly not fully discussed this either.  Crowley can barely look at Aziraphale when he’s confessing. He can’t get out the word “partner.” He can’t finish his sentence “I would like to spend…” Then there’s “nothing lasts forever” which Crowley interprets entirely differently from Aziraphale’s intention. “I don’t think you understand what I’m offering you” “I understand, and I think I understand a whole lot better than you.” And then, when Crowley has given up on trying to communicate verbally, he kisses Aziraphale as a last “Hail Mary” to get him to understand. But of course he doesn’t. That’s not communication. 

So.

If you’re still with me, what’s the point of laying all this out? Well, a couple of things. I’ll try to organize my thoughts coherently. 

 _

Crowley and Aziraphale’s communication is beyond a simple fix

It is so much worse than I originally thought. What they need is couples therapy. They both need to become aware of the broken way they relate to each other, and they need to do a lot of work on listening to each other, giving each other space to talk, and being honest with what they know and how they are feeling. We needed someone to call them out, make them aware of this, but Nina and Maggie TRIED this season, and it was not enough. Unfortunately, I’m fairly confident season 3 will not just be six hour long couples therapy sessions. I’m not sure how much room for working on communication skills there will be at all. Neil has described season three as big, loud, and action packed. I have no idea how this issue will be resolved in that context. 

_

Something horrible I realized when making this list. Crowley’s relationship with Aziraphale is beginning to mirror his toxic relationship with heaven. Aziraphale develops a plan- taking care of Gabriel, investigating the clue, organizing the ball. He wants things to go just the way he has in mind. He does not let Crowley say no. He does not let Crowley ask questions!!! And now Aziraphale is running heaven? What makes us think he would treat Crowley any differently in a real position of power? It would have been so. bad. if Crowley accepted Aziraphale’s offer. Yes, Aziraphale and Crowley are on the same page on preserving the world and humanity, and yes they love each other and want to be with each other, but when it comes to what to do about it, they don’t see eye to eye. And neither of them know how to properly collaborate or communicate. 

_

Finally, why do Aziraphale and Crowleyhide things from one another? Simply, they don’t really trust each other. I mean they do, sort of, but not entirely. They have a deeper trust. They trust that the other cares about them, and won't harm them intentionally, but they have so many deep rooted issues with trust from their past with heaven and hell that it overflows into their relationship. People have said Crowley keeps information from Aziraphale to protect him, but that also comes from a place of mistrust. He doesn’t trust Aziraphale to protect himself. He doesn’t trust him to do what he would do with that information. Similarly, Aziraphale doesn’t trust Crowley to let him do things his way. They don’t know how to collaborate! Not really. It's something they want, but were never taught. Collaboration was never encouraged in Heaven or hell.

[wander-wren]

bothers me in trc fandom when people refer to “ronan’s suicide attempt” because it was pretty importantly NOT a suicide attempt. gansey, noah, adam, they all assumed it was, which is why gansey freaks out when ronan goes missing overnight at the beginning of trb, but it is not. it was a dream creature he brought back that had clawed him up.

i’m sure you could argue that that’s just an indirect suicide attempt, ronan’s subconscious, etc (opal tells him the night horrors are him), but i don’t see it that way. ronan is angry and grieving and violent in the wake of niall’s death. the night horrors, to my knowledge, don’t target ronan so much as they target any soft, living thing they can destroy. we don’t see this scene happen. we don’t see the day or the nightmare that comes before. we just have ronan’s word, and ronan says it wasn’t a suicide attempt, so it wasn’t.

and we can talk in circles then about whether ronan is suicidal actually—personally i think he has a sort of reckless disregard for his own life (see: drag racing, dream drugs) and has internalized a lot of the ideas about him being a “bad kid,” but i don’t think he’s actively suicidal. and that’s important to me. it’s important that ronan doesn’t actually want to die. i think he’s struggling to see the point of what everyone wants him to do (school), and struggling to envision a future for himself.

if ANYTHING was going to make ronan suicidal, truly, it should have been the dreamer trilogy. he’s isolated from all of his loved ones, literally starts dying if he’s not careful with the ley lines, and also the world is ending. we can see his same thought patterns repeating (“you’re always the car crash, ronan”) and we see him struggling with reality and identity (every conversation with bryde, who remember is part of ronan’s psyche, and also the looping dream with the mirror). and he’s not suicidal in the dreamer trilogy.

we talk a lot in this fandom about “gansey kind of wanted to live.” i think we should talk about how, despite everything, so did ronan.

[egot1stical]

ramblings about how winter king is not a simon but an ice king from my insta story. no idea how much sense this makes

Not to post a serious analysis of mr oncest bait, but it's kind of... *wrong* to say the winter king is Simon? I think it's more accurate to call him an ice king who THINKS he's Simon. His whole bit is that he removed the madness of the crown from himself, but the ice king isn't just "simon but crazy". The ice king is the result of the wish crown's curse over the span of 1000 years breaking down Simon's psyche and replacing and warping and mixing it with Evergreen (specifically Gunther's warped view of him) and adding more madness and sadness till he basically experiences ego death. We know our Simon (at least at this point) considers he and ice king separate entities. They have pretty different personalities

Winter king is more like ice king than Simon:

* Physical stuff. Obviously. He's taller, has longer straighter hair, and is fucking bright blue+ still has evergreen's nose LOL. But also smaller stuff like the fact he dresses different and has different shaped glasses

* WAYYYYY more outgoing. Even before All That, Simon doesn't seem like the most outgoing guy. He would go on expeditions yes but could you imagine that guy throwing a party? No.

* Way more selfish and self absorbed. Which is in line with ice king, but now he's conventionally attractive so everyone else agrees. This is opposed to the fact Simon want to khs

* No consideration for PB. This is an interesting one, because it's the first departure from both our Simon and IK. Obviously ice king was terrible to PB LOL but like....he liked her.....because she was like betty..... And now Simon really respects her (and feels terrible about it.) while WK straight up does NOT care about her. Different from both, but closer to IK because he is a dickweed

* Deals with emotions differently than Simon. Seems to have completely blocked Betty out (assuming they were still close in this universe). And marceline bro... whatever happened there, ice marcy is the KID version of her. He has her bass, so she at least grew up and they've interacted. Maybe she saw him get "fixed" and was like.
Wow! You're not Simon!

* The name. Fionna's dream has the "ice prince", and that's what she calls Simon upon meeting him for the first time. If this was a True Simon, it would make more sense for him to be called the ice prince in universe, no? But he keeps the King title.

Simon spends a lot of the episode jealous of the winter king because he seems so well adiusted while he has the crown.

Simon has no magic, no nothing, but at least he has his brain back. The crown is very much directly linked to his loss of identity and to see WK be CONSCIOUS and LIKED and seemingly HIMSELF with magic is something he desperately wants especially at a time like this when his mental health is down the shitter while everyone talks about how much more fun he was when he was legitimately insane

The difference is that Simon spent every *conscious* moment FIGHTING the crown. Winter king is NOT fighting that shit. He says that he "conquered" it, but no you did not buddy. He is still dependent on it. He cannot survive without it. He just gave up. He's accepted that he's become one with it instead. So did ice king. Except without the madness of ice king, he can be a semi functional human being. He still gets the high of the crown and all its power, but this doesn't change the fact it Changed Who He IS.

Doesn't fucking matter rn becauee Simon hates himself and wants to be someone else but you get the idea. Winter king is just a version of Ice King LARPing as Simon. He can just do this way more convincingly even to himself because he can actually think now

Like “Betty? OH HAHA THE DEAD ONE” is an ice king ass reply and I swear to god at least part of the reason they didn’t get Tom Kenny to do his voice is because it would just be ice king’s voice again

also in regards to why candy queen is like that-Okay one, this goes with the name thing. Princess bubblegum. Normal. Candy Queen. Insane. Same as winter/ice king and ice prince. We cool?

Anyway

The Madness manifested in Simon/ice king in regards to Betty as romantic obsession. With the madness gone, CQ is the one feeling the brunt of these feelings- which would explain why Winter king doesn't remember feeling so Strongly about betty. Because Simon's feelings about her are naturally just fucking insane, it's so intertwined with the Madness that when that part is removed, so are any feelings towards Betty.

CQ is probably also obsessed with WK and "being together" because the sane part of her mind recognises that this madness is HIS and this is her fucked uo way of trying to like. Give it back.

That’s all I got

[raayllum]

Anyway earlier this month I said I had a lot of feelings about how visual framing is used in Viren and Harrow's relationship so time to talk about it, i.e.

Harrow is almost always framed as being above Viren

Now, some of the meaning behind this is obvious. In spite of their longterm friendship, the fact that Harrow was king and had the final say, and Viren very much did not (and likely went from being Harrow's closest advisor to second fiddle with Sarai, and then back again) is something that Viren concerns himself a great deal with: "My whole life I've been chasing after things I didn't have. Status, influence, power" (4x02). Due to this difference in status, Viren's plans are suggestions, whereas Harrow's word is law, and Viren each time has to present his ideas accordingly, and the framing reflects that:

We see this desire to be close to Harrow and power more generally bleed over into other areas of Viren's life, such as his obsession with the mirror. Viren assumes the proximity to power begets or informs importance/worth, and that because "the mirror was kept closest to where [the Dragon King and Queen] slept, it must be important."

This of course is a mirror (ha) to his image of himself, in which, "I thought you were going to be something special, something important!" (2x02) and exactly why Harrow's words of, "I see the problem now: it's that you believe you are special, above the laws of this kingdom."

His happiest moment with Harrow then arguably, within the text of the show, is when Harrow invites him up to be on equal standing (and also why said portrait is what inspires Viren to offer himself up as Harrow's "equal" - amid a self-importance kink, of course). When they were 'brothers', and why the dissolution of their bond undoes this framing entirely.

It's not surprising, then, that his psyche reenacts the Happy moment with the portrait with an even sweeter, cherry on top of not just Harrow's forgiveness, but his love, acceptance, and admiration, in Viren's dark magic dreams.

Symbolized by Harrow lowering himself in order literally lift Viren up from a kneel, to standing as equals, and into a hug (+ acceptance and a mutual assurance of familial connection/importance).

(Bonus points for Harrow's sword being changed into Viren's staff immediately after their hug, btw.)

But just like 2x05 with the portrait, this moment of reconciliation and happiness even inside Viren's mind cannot last forever, as he's pushed and stumbles into an even lower place than on his knees, and this part of the nightmare is over.

This is also, of course, the most overt framing to display power and control vs feeling powerless or helpless.

That said, while Harrow above and Viren below framing wise is the most consistent framing we see for the two (besides just regular shots with things like pillars and titan hearts in between them) are the ones where Viren is framed above... and it's not usually good.

We see the Standing to Kneeling to be on level with Harrow to Standing again progression as Viren makes his case regarding Zym. Like before, I think this serves a few purposes.

Viren standing at first when Harrow does not reflects their attitudes, specifically Harrow's relief that it's finally over and Viren's suspicion that it's not

Viren then moves to be on Harrow's level and this communicates how he's pleading / trying to have Harrow understand his point of view by bringing himself down to Harrow's level. This, of course, is ironic, because by doing so, Viren is bringing Harrow down to his level in terms of morality

Viren straightening up again indicates assertiveness, being active rather than passive, and perpetuating a path that offers agency, safety, and control, horrible as it is.

And it works, since as we know, Harrow goes along with and agrees to it in spite of his reservations.

However, the most interesting flip of "Viren looking down at Harrow instead" has always been this one at Harrow's funeral in 1x04, as Viren is attempting to rush things along and take his former's friend throne. All the power is there within his grasp as he stares impassively into the fire, and yet it rings hollow and reminds him ("In his final hours, he called me brother") of precisely what lies he's telling not only the populace, but also himself.

Because the only way for Viren to look down on and at Harrow was for him to be dead.

[frankencanon]

Another AU where the DonQuixote Brothers get to be Happy and Hale

Teenage Doflamingo gets caught and arrested by Tsuru whilst he is still young enough that the marines think—or can be convinced to think—that he can potentially be rehabilitated...

Doflamingo himself is of course entirely against this plan and is fighting Tsuru and Sengoku every step of the way.

But eventually Sengoku manages to drag Doffy home with him, telling him that he'll be staying with him as part of a very special, tailored specifically to him, rehabilitation plan.

Doffy thinks ew, gross and continues to struggle against him all the way up until they get to the front door and there is a young marine standing there, tall and blonde and about Doffy's age, maybe a little younger.

Wait, hold up.

When the eerily familiar marine spots them approaching his entire being lights up, from his face to his body language—he's practically glowing.

"Doffy!" He cries out, and. Wait. Wait wait wait.

Hold up. Wha—?!

"...Rosinante?!"

"I'm so happy! Dad spent years looking for you—sorry, Sengoku—and I was worried something happened to you! You have no idea how happy I was when I saw your wanted poster!"

"..."

"I mean," he chuckles sheepishly, "I wasn't exactly psyched to discover you were a pirate, but... Honestly, I was too busy rejoicing over the fact that you were alive to even bother caring about any of that."

"..."

"I, uh... I convinced Da—Sengoku to try, uh, rehabilitating you instead of just sending you to Impel Down or something..."

"..."

"...Doffy, please... Please say something?"

"...you're alive, Rosi?"

The marine—Rosi?—stuttered, eyes widening. "I—yes, Doffy, I'm... Sengoku found me, some time after you left, and he took me in... He promised me he'd try to find you too, but he searched the North Blue for years and he couldn't find you anywhere... Not until recently, at least, when word started to spread about the DonQuixote Pirates..."

Doflamingo blinked, continuing to stare. "That...was you?"

"Eh?"

"The marines, everywhere... They'd seemed like they were...searching for something... Searching...for me?"

"You—" Rosi stumbled, "You saw them?! Then why...?"

"They were marines, Rosi," Doflamingo said, as if that explained everything. And...it kind of did? Because of course he ran from the marines; He'd just shot his father full of lead, spent a month carrying around his disembodied head, and was now traveling with established criminals twice his age.

Of course he ran, of course they ran, when they saw marines sweeping the streets, obsessively searching for something—or someone, rather.

And how would Doflamingo have known? It's not like Sengoku and Tsuru were going around advertising that they were looking for a ten year old Celestial Dragon child—that would've put Doffy in even more danger.

Even just admitting to be looking for a blonde male child with an eye injury would run the risk of having unsavory characters also searching him out, once they knew that the marines wanted him—either to use him, assuming he had some sort of talent or ability that made him valuable, or as a bargaining chip to blackmail the marines.

Off to the side, Sengoku groaned, covering his face, while Tsuru tsk'ed, frustrated. No wonder they'd never found the kid—he had literally been running from them the whole time.

But while the marines present were still stuck on that fact, Doffy was glancing around at their location. "So, why...?"

"Oh!" Rosinante startled, "This is our house. As part of your rehabilitation program you'll be living here with Da—with Sengoku and I."

"With...you?"

"Yes! Just like when we were kids, Doffy!"

"..."

"Won't this be great?! I'm so excited, Doffy!"

"...yeah. Yeah, me too, Rosi."

And, oddly enough, he was.

—

OK, this was just supposed to be an idea for an AU—I got a little carried away there, but...

Please, your honor...! I just want them happy and amicable and ALIVE for god's sake...!

🦩❤️‍🔥🐦‍⬛

[mamawasatesttube]

do u have thoughts on tim’s autism & how he masks/doesn’t mask around ppl he’s close with? personally i think bart is his vibrating weighted blanket. this ask was brought to you by me yesterday at a concert rocking in place so violently people thought i was on molly peace and love

lord i know i DO have such thoughts but most of them infuriatingly just out of reach at the moment. (<- brain nerfed by a migraine today and also for the past like 2 weeks at this point. augh) lets see what i do got.

in general? tim drake KING of masking. his masks have masks. i dont think he really does it consciously either; i think he grows up just kinda repressing facets of himself depending on his audience and assumes everyone does that. (i don't think he ever gets a formal autism diagnosis or anything as a kid, either. even if a teacher or someone clocked him and mentioned it to his parents i don't think they'd get him any sort of child psych eval. not in the "oh theyre horrible neglectful awful abusive one dimensional figures" way, but in the "sometimes parents take the idea of their kid having any mental health or neurodivergency issues as a personal insult and then sweep them under the rug bc it is easier than addressing any of said behaviors in themselve as well" way. hopefully i am explaining this ok. and you get what i mean. its not like we know much abt janet to begin with but i just dont think jack drake the republican is particularly supportive of nd kids. this is a tangent. anyway)

so to tim i don't think he ever really consciously considers it as masking. it's more of him internally clocking and cataloguing people who are okay to express certain thoughts and behaviors around, in a whole complex categorization system in his mind. very few people get to the category of "fully free expression is allowed" in his head; even his closest friends take yeeaaars to get there. like i don't think that happens until postcanon (postcrisis no flashpoint edition).

bart is def good at being a vibrating blanket. kon is really good at being a weighted blanket (ttk makes his ability to squish people godly). cassie is someone who Gets him really well and makes it easier to communicate even when he's struggling to do so. but even when he trusts them with his life i do think he has trouble actually reaching out or letting them know if he's, like, feeling overstimulated or anything. this is in large part bc he isn't really aware that not every single person has this complicated categorization system of "what can i and can't i act like in front of this person" system going on in their minds at all times.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Don't Crack Under Pressure

Written for the Phic Phight Prompt: (Not phantom planet compliant) Danny's finally an astronaut! He's somehow got through college, after barely managing to pull through high school. But after he manages to make it into a NASA rocket and travel to the final frontier, his helmet cracks. So how does he explain how he got through the entire day to the rest of the crew with a cracked helmet? (from @shadowpixel)

Chapter 2: There Isn't Much Air or Gravity There (but the stars will make your heart race)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for space and swearing]

Danny had been stunned by taking an unexpected metal hook to the face. He'd passed out from the sudden pressure change. But he hadn't died. A few minutes later, his body adjusted and he woke up again. Danny blinked, pushed himself to his feet, and looked around. Unable to see clearly through the massive crack like a glass web hanging in front of his face, Danny removed his helmet to detach the visor completely before putting it back on again. The helmet was basically useless now, but he was an astronaut, and he wanted to look the part.

With clear eyes, he looked around again and saw barren metal plains as far as the eye could see. The surface area of the asteroid 16 Psyche, which he was currently stranded on, was approximately sixty-four thousand square miles. He would never be able to find his way back to the ship on his own before the mission ended, if it hadn't already. He had no idea how long he'd been out for.

Danny checked the time indicator on the screen in his suit's left sleeve. About an hour had passed, meaning he'd gotten himself a nice little nap, and Denali would be very nearly back at the ship. Somehow, Danny had to get there on his own.

Luckily, aside from the shattered visor, everything else in Danny's suit seemed the be working just fine. Oxygen was rapidly leaking out of the open face of his helmet, so he closed the valve. No need to waste it like that. He tried contacting the rest of the crew, but the surrounding vacuum swallowed up his words before they reached his mic. He could hear them, but they couldn't hear him.

The rest of his instruments were all working too, thankfully, so he could see the direction and proximity of the ship, which was a massive relief. With the low gravity hampering his speed, though, it was too far to travel on foot. Of course, Danny didn't necessarily have to travel on foot. Danny hovered above the asteroid's surface and took off flying in the direction of the Eros. He had to let his crew know he was okay.

Once the ship was in sight in the distance, Danny took stock of what he could see. It looked like Denali had made it back safe with the probe. Thank the Ancients she hadn't been hurt. Danny was going to fly right up to them before he remembered that they thought he was human, and humans couldn't fly. Instead, once he was close enough for them to see, he landed, and started to skip towards them, since it was faster and easier than trying to walk in low gravity.

One by one, each of his crew mates looked his way. The tinted class of their visors made it impossible to read their expressions, but Danny could only assume they were happy to see him, alive and well.

'Hey guys!' he tried to say, though the words didn't reach his microphone, let alone his crew mates ears. He waved and smiled cheerfully, aiming for casual. It was then that all hell broke loose on his eardrums. He'd totally forgotten that humans also couldn't survive in space with a gaping hole in their helmet.

"Danny what the fuck!?" Denali's voice screeched.

"You're alive?!" Ivy Grace said, her voice hysterical. "How are you alive? How the fuck are you alive? Your visor is fully gone!"

"What the hell are you, and what have you done with Danny?" Simon demanded, pointing an accusatory finger. "Stay back! What the hell is going on?"

"Are you an alien?!" Denali asked. "Are you a zombie?"

'Woah! Calm down!' Danny tried, though the words didn't get to them. He waved his hands defensively in front of himself. 'It's me! I'm okay!'

The rest of the Eros crew continued to freak out. Obviously they weren't getting it. Time for charades! It looked like all those party games Simon made them play were about to pay off. Danny held up two fingers, waved them a bit, hoping the others would get it.

"What is he...?" Denali started to say, but Simon caught on quicker than she did.

"I think he's doing charades," they said. "Two words?"

Danny tapped his nose and nodded. He held up one finger, then tapped it against his arm.

"First word, one syllable." Danny made an 'X' with his arms. "X? No?"

"Not?" Ivy Grace suggested, and Danny pointed to her with one hand and tapped a finger to his nose with the other. Two fingers, one against his arm. "Second word, one syllable."

This one was easy. Danny ran a finger across his throat, and then stuck his tongue out and let his head loll.

"Not dead," Denali said, and Danny pointed at her, nodding fervently. "You're not dead. How are you not dead? You should be suffocating, and freezing to death, and bloating until you choke on your organs all at once right now." Danny grimaced with disgust and shook his head.

"So how are you alive, then?" Simon asked. Danny held up two fingers, then one, then tapped it against his head. "Two words. First word, one syllable." He made the 'X' with his arms again and they got it right away. "Not." Two fingers, he tapped both against his arm. "Second word, two syllables." He gestured to the three of them, and they looked at each other, clearly confused.

"Not... like us?" Denali suggested. "Oh wait, that's three words."

"Astronaut is three syllables," Ivy Grace mumbled.

"Not... uh—no, audible is three syllables too," Simon said thoughtfully. Danny rolled his eyes again and gestured once more. They still didn't get it.

'Alright, I guess I have to spell it out for you,' Danny said uselessly. He held out his hands, palms facing each other, with one index finger bent to it looked like an 'H'. Once they'd all seen, he switched to putting his thumbs out so his hands took the shape of a 'U'.

"Spelling words out is cheating," Simon complained, but Denali and Ivy Grace immediately shushed them.

"This isn't actual charades!" Denali hissed. "This is just the only non-verbal communication we have." Danny continued, making a 'W' with his thumbs and forefingers and turning it upside-down to form an 'M'.

"H-U-M," Ivy Grace said. "Uh, humid? Hummus? Humbug?" Danny shook his head, struggling to form an 'A'. Eventually, he figured it out, steepling his fingers, with one forefinger down to form the line in the center.

"H-U-M-A," Denali said, and hummed in thought.

"Human," Simon guessed, and Danny pointed at them, tapping a finger to his nose with the other hand to indicate that they'd gotten it right. "You're not human.... How are you not human?"

Danny pointed to the ship. 'Can we go back to where there's air so I can actually talk to you guys?' he asked, unheard.

"I think maybe we should get back on the ship," Ivy Grace suggested. "That way we can maybe, you know, hear him?"

"No," Simon said. "Sorry Danny, but as the captain, I have to protect the crew, and that means not letting someone who says they're not human onto the Eros until I know what's what. Denali, go grab a spare helmet of the ship for him. Once there's air in his suit again, we can communicate through our headsets. Is that an acceptable solution?"

Danny nodded, and Denali went to do as Simon told her to. She came back a minute or so later and held out the helmet to Danny, who took the broken one off and let it fall very slowly to the ground before he took the new one. Once the new helmet was firmly in place, he opened the oxygen valve back up again, and waited a minute for the air to be pumped back into his suit. 

"Well that's much better," Danny said once his suit was once more intact. "Anyway, sorry for scaring you guys; I didn't really mean to. I thought you should know that I didn't suffocate and die when my helmet was breached."

"What did you mean when you said you aren't human?" Simon asked. Clearly they were wearing their metaphorical captain hat, judging by the seriousness in their tone.

"Right to the nitty-gritty, huh?" Danny said with a sigh. He knew this was going to happen, but he still didn't want it to. "I could give you a really long, complicated explanation, but the short version is, when I was fourteen, my parents built a device that could pierce the barrier between our dimension, and another one. I was involved in a lab accident with that device which... changed me. It turned me into what the people of the other dimension call a halfa, which may or may not be a slur; I'm still unclear on that."

"So what, you're... half alien?" Simon asked, struggling to understand.

"Sort of?" Danny said, see-sawing one of his hands in an ambiguous gesture. "The inhabitants of the other dimension call themselves ghosts, and some of them are the spirits of the dead given new life, and other's are just dimensional aliens formed of ectoplasm. It's really complicated if you get into it."

"So... you're half ghost?" Ivy Grace reiterated, and she swallowed audibly. "You're half dead?"

"Well... yeah, I am," Danny said. "I can switch between this form and a more spooky, ghostly form. Wanna see?" None of them answered, so Danny took that as a 'yes' and transformed into Phantom. Immediately the sensors in his suit whined, warning him that his heart had stopped, but he ignored them. "What do you think?"

"Jesus fuck why do you sound like that?!" Ivy Grace shrieked. "Why's your mic all staticky and freaky all of the sudden?!" Looking down, Danny realized that even though he'd transformed, his suit hadn't. At most, the others had seen the rings. Danny turned back, a little sheepish.

"I guess you couldn't really see, what with the suit," Danny said apologetically. "Ghosts mess with recording devices, which is probably where the static came from. Sorry about that. The point is, I'm fine. I've been like this the whole time, so I'm the same Danny you've always known, you just–" he shrugged uncomfortably–"know a little more about me now." He only noticed how tense his muscles were when his back started to ache from it. "So, are we cool?"

There was silence on the radio again, and even though their faces were obscured by their tinted helmets, Danny could imagine their expressions. Confused. Aghast. Disgusted. Afraid.

"Yeah," Simon said at length. "Yeah, Danny, we're cool."

"I'm just glad we're not going home three instead of four," Denali added.

"Definitely," agreed Ivy Grace, already returning to the samples she'd been collecting when Danny got back.

"I'm gonna go let mission control know that reports of your death were greatly exaggerated," Simon said. "You get started on the Psyche probe diagnostic."

"Aye aye, Captain," Danny gave a mock salute and made a beeline for the probe.

"It's good to have you back," the captain told him, and he smiled.

"Yeah, if you really were dead we were gonna have to fix that hunk of junk ourselves," Ivy Grace added. "And Lord knows I am no engineer."

"Oh, God, same," Denali agreed with a snort.

"Don't talk about Psyche like that," whined Danny, pouting as he lovingly stroked the probes solar panels. "She's not a hunk of junk! She's a lovely lady, aren't you girl." The others laughed. "Now let's see why you've been playing hard to get."

After the reveal, the crew of the Eros was a lot less anxious around Danny that he would have expected them to be. It took some time for them to really internalize the idea, and he did eventually end up having to give them the long version of what he was and how it had happened, as well as telling them all about the Ghost Zone and Amity Park. But once they finally wrapped their heads around it, they were totally chill. Things went back to how they were before.

Danny found the problem they'd been sent to find, and they fixed the probe, downloaded the data and transmitted it back to Earth as instructed. With their mission completed, the crew of the Eros started their return trip right on schedule.

The voyage home was slightly different from the trip to 16 Psyche. Danny let loose a little more, opened up a little more. Instead of simply staring out the window, Danny actually phased through the wall and flew alongside the ship, out in open space. It only freaked his crew mates out the first two times before they got used to it.

He got to show off, too. His crew mates were all incredibly jealous of his ghostly ability to mimic the effects of gravitational pull. "God, I miss gravity," Ivy Grace moaned as she watched Danny walk across the floor like he was standing in a normal room back on earth, and not a spaceship on its way past Mars. 

The four of them formed a very close bond on that mission. It was a relief that his fellow astronauts accepted him. Danny truly felt like one of them, now that he could be open with them. Once they got back to Earth, they stayed in touch. Simon sent them all pictures of their baby niece, Mae. Danny invited them all to come to a tech expo where he was going to give a presentation on ecto-energy. Ivy Grace deigned to let them attend the launch party for her book when she finally published it. Or rather, her books.

It wasn't erotica. She'd written a science fiction trilogy starring characters based on the four of them. The cheerful captain who always came through in a pinch; the loyal and kind-hearted navigator with a passion for art; the supportive, but soft-spoken scientist with a quick wit; and the talented, lovable engineer with mysterious, hidden powers from an alien source. They each got signed copies of all three books, and congratulated her profusely when they became a success.

Previous Chapter

[starwalker03]

The worst thing Bruce could do is have a Batman gambit and reveal he knows who the new Deathstroke is and didn’t tell anyone but Clark. How would Dick react to that?

So I had a good idea of what batman gambit meant but I googled it to be sure and wow. That's an actual recognised thing. Huh. Honestly that's almost funny.

Anyway. That'd be fucking hilarious. Oh my god can you imagine. Like. First of all we gotta think of the situation. Why does he have to do this? The most sense is he's atte lying to psych Deathstroke out and manipulate him into giving himself away. I have an idea where this'd likely happen in canon but all I can imagine, without spoiling, is that Bruce says it to Artemis when the league finally talks to her. And she ferries this back to Dick like 'oh my god dude. Dude. DUDE. HE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE'

Which. Oh boy that would not go well.

Part of me wants to believe Dick knows Brice well enough to see through it and recognise it as a batman gambit, because it's very much a cliche batman move. But. This would cause such an emotional reaction I don't think Dick would be able to see it. And even if he could there's be a very angry voice in his head screaming 'HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS AND HES DONE NOTHING'

Oh boy. Honestly the only way it ends is by Dick confronting him. He has so much emotional turmoil over all of this and hearing that Bruce actually has known who he is. Possibly all along. Dick now gets to analyse every small thing in hopes of figuring out when Bruce found out. Perhaps Slade told him? Or Bruce saw his face on security camera footage? Or an endless assortment of guesses. Dick has barely come face to face with Bruce over the decade because Slade kept them apart so everything he's analysing isn't even something he was part of firsthand, it's all from a third person perspective of how Bruce has behaved in the past ten years.

So yeah. It ends with a confrontation. It ends with Dick jumping him on a patrol and hanging him off a very tall building. Or it ends with Dick killing every active mobster currently on Brice's radar to draw his attention and empty his schedule so he can yell at Bruce on top of a building.

It ends with Dick screaming at him because WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU KNOW. HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN?

And Bruce realises that he's made a very big mistake because he has no idea who Deathstroke is and this is not the reaction he was expecting. He just has to bluff. But everything he says in hopes of de-escalating the situation is not working.

How long have you known? Since Slade Wilson died. (seems a recent enough time, and also would have been a lot of chaotic things happening that something could slip without Deathstroke noticing he'd given himself away) [he's known since I was free. Since Slade was gone. He didn't come for me. He didn't try to stop me from taking up the mantle. He found out and he left me]

Why didn't you track me down? Why have you never tried to speak to me? We didn't have bulletproof evidence of Wilson's passing till you attacked Red Arrow. I've seen your files as Renegade, by then I assumed you'd made your decision to follow your masters footsteps. (this makes sense. This is something anyone may think in my situation) [master? My master?? he thinks- he doesn't- he didn't want me back. He didn't care to find me. He thinks I want this]

You're a fucking piece of work Bruce you know that. Everything he ever told me about you is true. I suppose it's up to you to decide if that's true. Don't blame me for what he's done, or what you keep deciding to do. (why is he taking this so personally? Why would he call me by name? Why would Slade make a point to put dirt on my name?) [He doesn't care. He doesn't care. He doesn't care. He doesn't UNDERSTAND]

Fucking hell Bruce. How do you even live with yourself. I may be the mercenary but you're just as bad as any of them. God how do put that mask on and call yourself a hero while you drag more innocent kids into the line of fire to save you. I have never put my children in danger. You've killed two of them now haven't you? And you didn't even try to save either of them. I've heard about Jason, I know what he did when he came back. God knows how you managed to manipulate him into working with you again, he was better off dead than fighting alongside you! You have no idea what you're talking about! I HAVE NO IDEA? ME? CAN YOU EVEN FUCKING HEAR YOURSELF?! who the hell do you think you are?! I THOUGHT YOU KNEW BRUCE, HAVE YOU ALREADY FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING I-

And he stops. And he takes a breath. And he stumbles backwards as he really looks at Bruce for the first time since the start of this conversation. And he realises.

It's a batman gambit. He's bluffing.

He's bluffing.

He doesn't know.

And he just starts laughing. Quietly chuckling until he's leaned over his knees and holding his gut because he has to laugh or he'll break into even more hysterics because BRUCE DOESN'T KNOW.

What the hell are you laughing about? You don't know. You don't. You're bluffing. This is all a bluff, you don't know who I am. Oh my god how did I fucking fall for that? Jesus Bruce you're a real piece of work.

What gave it away?

And Dick would stop. And look at him. And just shake his head with one final laugh. And he'd take off his mask.

Bruce doesn't recognise him for a moment. There's a few seconds of silence as it dawns on him. And Dick watches as it does, hurt by the fact it takes so long, and waits for Bruce to react.

Bruce has no words but he has to make sure. He has to know. He has to hear him say it-

Dick?

Rethinking anything you've just said?

I- I didn't-

You're right. You didn't. You did not. You had no idea, you just hoped it would go your way. And I guess it did, now you do know. Congratulations. Hope you're happy now.

And then he'd leave Batman gaping.

[atthebell]

This isn't really prompted by anything but this fandoms obsession with angst I think it's from how dsmp ccs made their characters suffer to get idk the best reaction from fans even tho it didn't really make sense narrative wise

What gets me with the qsmp tho is you would get your angst but also be rewarded for it. Like for example cellbit focusing on a puzzle which eventually tells us more about the federation or bagi using clues to solve a mystery, fit and foolish having their own roles to play within too. Felps being kidnapped but saving him lets in the audience on what the feds are like (and tbf it was the first kidnapping so it felt p new)

Egg disappearance arc tho is where I've had enough angst (I don't think there was really a plan like why did eggs leave on their own, who's this guy with the single eye etc etc)

finally at my computer so i can answer this okay i disagree somewhat with your first point and i'll explain why. also this might seem more aggro than i mean it to be i just like talking and swear a lot

first thing: i dont think dsmp ccs were making their characters suffer just to get a reaction out of fans. i think this is a deeply pessimistic and just obviously untrue take on the server and the ccs. it is VERY clear that several of them just deeply enjoy sad stories and that's where they wanted to go with things.

also think about this outside the context of minecraft roleplay for a moment. the dsmp narrative is a story that, from the outset of genuine quote unquote lore kicking up, involved a war; everything that followed, as lore became more and more serious, had to then take the implications of that seriously. war is a deeply awful and traumatizing thing. do you want them to have not taken that seriously? do you want people to never tell dark or tragic stories and talk about the real effects of certain events on people's psyches and relationships? because while i am not an angst enjoyer, as i've said many times, i do think people have the right to tell dark and sad and raw stories. my issue is more the fandom obsession with angst that goes beyond my tolerable level and becomes overwhelming, which i'll get into later in this post; not an issue with sadness and tragedy being portrayed in mcrp (or any story) at all. do i like constant tragedy in my media? no. but for the dsmp and qsmp both that isn't the case, so it's not relevant here really.

i in part understand where you're coming from here, in that fans were SO obnoxious and because interactivity was so much more present in this type of medium, fans had way more influence on the narrative than is typical of fiction. so there were definitely times where people had to change their plans due to how they thought fans would react, although i would argue this was more common with like. women on the server trying not to piss off inniters rather than tommy deciding that fans would kill him if he didn't have c!tommy try and drown himself. like sure i think there were plenty of times that ccs went "ooh, fans will eat this up," but they probably would've done it regardless. i think it's just really uncharitable to assume that it was more due to wanting a good reaction from fans than ccs' genuine desire to take their characters in that direction.

and i'm gonna be real i don't think the fandom obsession with angst actually does come from the canon itself. i think these canons are not overwhelmingly sad, even dsmp, and that the idea that they are is due more to the tragic circumstances surrounding their endings and their controversies than about the actual events of canon. qsmp is not actually a tragedy, in terms of narrative (i'm ignoring the stupid final ending shit i truly don't understand why anyone accepts that as canon; they needed to write a send-off that would wrap things up enough but wasn't overly complicated. it worked for what they needed, which was a goodbye, but otherwise it's narratively stupid and irrelevant). the tragedy is more in how it all fell apart in real life than the story of the whole things itself. and individual ccs deciding to make their character's stories into tragedies does not make the larger narrative (which does exist and matters) itself a tragedy. and the dsmp also isn't a tragedy or an angst fest; there are certainly deeply sad moments, but it's not all doom and gloom.

again my issue is fandom obsession with angst, not the content of the smps themselves. and the biggest reason beyond personal annoyance that i'm confounded about the obsession with angst is that it's completely disproportional to how it works in other fandoms. if you're a longtime fandom person you're probably aware of this, but the angstier a story is, the more likely that the fandom is obsessed with fluff and magical fix-its that solve everything and make sure everyone stays alive. this is the case almost universally, but mcyt, apparently, is a huge exception. people are OBSESSED with ruminating on the tragic parts of canon and then creating even sadder situations to put characters through. it's bizarre and weird and i do not understand it one iota. where are all the fluffy everyone lives and gets ice cream together fics????? why are inniters addicted to putting that child through even worse torment??? why is no one writing happy endings for their ships????? what is with like insane amounts of DD:DNE fic where it's just the most miserable non-ending lack of catharsis imaginable?? THAT is what's weird to me.

and on that last point i've talked about it a lot before but catharsis is really what's missing for me when it comes to angst in this fandom. i'm not a huge sad stories/tragedies fan personally, but i am willing to read them, and when i do, what makes a really good one is catharsis. there is something to a sad story that hits all its beats and makes you feel like you've just cried it out and can finally breath again that does, on occasion, hit for me. but that's something completely missing from the angst in this fandom. there is no catharsis. there is no breath of relief. it's just stress and stress and more stress, all leading up to nothing, leaving you unsatisfied and depressed.

listen, people can do whatever the hell they want forever. i'm not telling anyone they should personally stop writing angst. i'm just baffled as to why so many people are obsessed with it in this fandom in particular and as a fluff enjoyer i am in constant misery.

anyway, on your other points: i think you're right on the point about reward, although i would frame it more as the catharsis that i'm talking about as missing from fandom angst. qsmp had sad moments, and frustrating moments, narratively, but those moments (when the writing was actually good) often led to bouts of information, new relationships, a shift in the story that would take it to new places. it was devastating but it was exciting. and the ccs knew what to do with those moments, as talented rpers, and how to dig their character into a hole and then find a way to get them out again. like, if qcellbit's whole story as a character had just been him getting nonstop bodied by the federation, that would've sucked. that would not have been fun to watch! but that's not what it was. he had moments of victory, even with losses he found out information, like you said, and that was important! even with the stupid fucking reprehensible minimes event, which is the MOST negative i ever saw cellbit about the server (still not that negative, he never complained very much and was very polite despite being, like myself, a serial complainer), he still learned a bunch of information! they learned what the federation did and didn't know about the eggs disappearance, about forever's trip into the nether, about some of the inner workings of the federation. AND despite how stupid it was, cellbit, as a very talented rper and writer himself, managed to spin it into a great character moment.

the eggs disappearance was just fucking evil i will never forgive all of that. i remember on fucking SEPTEMBER 10TH (2 days in!!) i was like hey do they have like. a plan, or what.... and then we found out later no they did not. so. that's a great example of angst via negligence and stupidity. at a certain point it was more tiring than sad because it was just ridiculous how little information anyone had. i will curse that arc til the day i die seriously

[pb-dot]

Word Find Tag

@dyrewrites tagged me to particpate in one of these. I haven't done this in forever, but His Impossible Brushstrokes should be a good hunting ground, as it is mostly done.

The words I'm looking for is: tight, blur, trap and sweet

I tag @owlsandwich @caffeineaddict980 @bard-coded and @amandacanwrite

Who'll be looking for point, rich, stage, and strange

Words and snippets below the cut:

Tight

In the kitchen, a wide open space outfitted with the fanciest kitchenware money could buy, Tomasz was preparing something fragrant and, presumably, delicious. The smell of what I came to understand to be some sort of tomato-based sauce made the hunger I had apparently been hiding storm out in the open, but that was secondary in my mind to the sight of Tomasz working on the food. In the lack of a better word, he seemed to have reached a higher plane of awareness. His eyes were open and alert, but there was a focus on the task that made me wonder if he had even heard me come in. The gas fire flickered, the sauce puttered, some sort of meat sizzled on a pan, and a pot of what I assumed was pasta boiled with quiet intensity. There was a poetry to the whole scene I realized, but it was not inherent. This was all Tomasz, it was his will that shaped this beautiful moment, perhaps in the same way his will shaped the art that had grasped my mind tight when I was a young man and just never let go.

The burners of the gas stove clicked off, dispelling the mesmer like a hypnotist snapping his fingers. Tomasz started plating up, his concentration was still intense as he arranged pasta, meat, and sauce on two plates, finishing the presentation with a single leaf of some herb, I assume fresh basil. Once the food was ready, Tomasz himself appeared to come back to my plane of reality.

Blur

Charles coughs, at first once, then two or three more times, I can see there’s blood in his spittle. It’s at this point I’m becoming aware I haven’t blinked for what feels like minutes.

“So I just start trying to rip the thing apart with my teeth,” Charles sounds almost resigned. “It hurts almost right away, but I can’t stop, and I keep trying and trying and at one point a tooth shatters against the wood and I keep going until a couple more break and the sharp shards of the thing still attached to my roots starts scraping against the wood and I just don’t get anywhere. I think the security guys get to me before I pass out from the pain, but it’s all… a bit blurry I suppose.”

I nod, gravely. I want to throw up, but I have to keep up the facade. “I understand,” I say, it’s just about all I can manage. I take a minute to silently choke down the bile in my throat. “And did you succeed in damaging the painting?”

“A bit I guess,” Charles shrugged. “From what I could see, the worst of it was actually from when I snagged it off the hook, a bit near the lower right corner got ripped on the canvas. It didn’t really change much?”

Trap

I wasn’t afraid of elevators, I told myself. I had no reason to be afraid of elevators and I certainly wasn’t going to have a panic attack on account of my journey in the vertical aluminum coffin, even if I did feel a slight coating of sweat on my forehead from the experience.

There was also the question of what would await me at the top, of course. If I were to design a trap to ensnare myself, I probably would make something like this. A mysterious, un-googleable club or society dedicated to the thing I am most passionate about, plant the idea and an invitation with a known collaborator of mine, and then make sure it happened in the most isolated place you could conceivably lure me to. A penthouse law office at night would be a pretty good place for this sort of thing. There were some points I’d improve, perhaps getting Mara to actually urge me to go would have me arrive more at ease and thus easier to jump, or maybe psyching me out was part of the plan.

Sweet

Oscar, I know you’re probably excitedly kicking your legs in the air and scribbling Gildebrant’s name in your trapper keeper or whatever it is you do all day, but please listen to me when I say this. The next text promised yet another link in the chain, so I waited while Mara crafted whatever devastating missive she was going to deliver next. I know you’re excited to go meet Gildebrant, but please don’t go all doe-eyed on the guy. This isn’t really my speed normally, but if I’m honest, I have a bad feeling about this whole setup. I don’t know if there’s actually anything to this whole Gildebrant Psychosis thing, and I don’t know if the man himself has anything to do with the thing if it’s actually real… but please be safe. The world’s a stupid place, but it’s just a tiny bit better of a place with you in it.

This was an unexpected track from Mara. She wasn’t what I’d call emotionally open under anything resembling normal circumstances, and while these definitely weren’t normal circumstances, it still felt weird. I let the whole message hang between us for a little while before I replied. Aww Mars, that’s sweet of you to say.

Fuck you, MN boy. Why don’t you clean your ass with that disgusting potato liquor you love so much!

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

SangYao Horror(Ish) Ideas, Part Two

Soulmate marks that evolve as the other person changes.

When Meng Yao is legitimized as Jin Guangyao, Nie Huaisang wonders if he was wrong to assume Meng Yao was his soulmate because his mark doesn't change accordingly.

Then after Nie Mingjue is murdered, it does.

Also, you can't physically harm your soulmate, even indirectly. But emotionally? Oh, buddy.

Jin Guangyao is fully aware that the only reason Nie Huaisang hasn't buried a knife in his ribs is because they're bound. But that seething miasma of love and hate and pain that boils around the younger man is thick enough to choke on.

It's horrible. It's fascinating. He can't stay away, happy to drown in it because it's proof that they are indelibly etched into each other's psyche.

For better or worse, there is no one in the world who feels as much for him as Nie Huaisang does, and it's beautiful. 

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

When Jin Guangyao is legitimized, he has to undergo the same summoning ritual as the rest of the inner family. Before he even enters the chamber, there are snide cracks about how he'll surely fail, being only a bastard son.

Anger simmers in his nerves as he uses his blood to activate the sigils surrounding the main array, and then the array itself.

For a moment, nothing happens, and the fear that the mockery was right starts to flood him-

-and then it's chased away by the feeling of slender arms resting lightly around his waist and a soft, sweet voice in his ear from behind.

~Be at peace. I will help you.~

The feeling vanishes and he opens his eyes to find a bird sitting on the pillar in the middle of the array. Size-wise, it is barely equal to a crow, hardly impressive compared to the eagle of his father or the peacock of his half-brother, but it's a stunningly pretty creature, all dark iridescent green with gold and cream accents.

And though there are the inevitable rude comments from his family and the other disciples, he quickly discovers that what his companion -'Huaisang' the sweet voice in his head insists- lacks in physical presence, he more than makes up for with his deep magic well and clever mind.

And not being very big makes for an ideal spy, too.

Even with his father's derision and the madam's rage, perhaps it won't be so hard to navigate this snake-filled labyrinth of a sect after all. (Fun Note: while all familiars can speak to their owners, Nie Huaisang is the only one in the Jin sect who can actually take human form because his magic is stronger.)

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

Over the course of several lifetimes, Nie Huaisang and Meng Yao always seem to get together, but it always, always ends with Meng Yao leaving Nie Huaisang for someone else and then things going to hell, mostly for Nie Huaisang. It doesn't matter whether they start out as enemies or friends, whether one or both or neither is a villain. Even in the lifetimes that should be simple and comfortable, that's the one constant.

Eventually, the memories start carrying over from lifetime to lifetime for Nie Huaisang. Weird senses of deja vu or impending danger.

And then, in lifetime fourteen, it all comes crashing in on him.

He starts trying to avoid Meng Yao, but it never works. Somehow their social circles remain intertwined and they always run across each other.

He tries not to fall in love, but that seems to be impossible too.

His sanity fraying with each lifetime, he comes to the conclusion that the only way to break whatever curse has been laid is for one of them to die early.

He can't bring himself to kill Meng Yao, but he's okay with killing himself as many times as it takes.

It’s lifetime number thirty-two and he's just met his brother's new PA. Excusing himself from the business party, he makes his way to the roof.

Someone grabs him before he can step off the edge, and he cracks, struggling and begging to be allowed to break the curse before he has to live all that misery again.

---

Having had to drop out of college to work for his mother's medical care, Meng Yao took up a job as a tester for an experimental new VR game, both for the extra money to help his mom and because a few hours of escapism a week is nice.

It's an otome/time princess-style game where the player can hop into different time periods/fantasy worlds and set up a storyline using a "toybox" of character templates. It's supposed to be the most immersive game ever designed.

And now he's watching one of the AIs apparently have a psychotic breakdown because something has gone terribly wrong and the poor thing has been loading all of the different scenarios he played.

He should report the glitch, but that might result in the AI being removed, or even destroyed, and after seeing that it -he- has become sentient, he finds he had become attached.

-----------

Very-slightly-dark sangyao where Meng Yao manipulates Nie Huaisang just a little bit to find out how genuine his crush is/how much he values Meng Yao’s advice. 

He "confronts" Nie Huaisang about how much of a cuddly touchy-feely person he is, and while he doesn't outright accuse Nie Huaisang of taking advantage of the help the way, say, Jin Guangshan flagrantly does, the implication that that's what people think he's doing is there. 

For the next several weeks, he observes as Nie Huaisang, appropriately troubled by the idea that he's been trampling everyone's boundaries and they've just been putting up with it because they have no other choice, begins drawing back to the point it almost looks like he's isolating himself. 

The other fortress staff are confused and concerned by the sudden distance, since they always found his cheerful affection endearing, while the disciples are pleased that he's finally “matured” enough that he’s no longer bothering them when he should be training. (the latter response causing him to retreat even further.) 

Satisfied by the results, Meng Yao decides to "clarify" their last discussion by gently reassuring Nie Huaisang that he does like him, they just can't risk being all that close with their differing statuses and the outside opinions that come with them. 

Once he's been legitimized, Meng Yao promises, that can change, and he is further satisfied when Nie Huaisang agrees to wait. 

The murder of the captain, of course, throws a wrench in the gears, but knowing that Huaisang tried to plead his case further cements the fact that his feelings are authentic. 

But are they strong enough to survive a war and the physical distance between them?

When they meet again at the victory celebration and Nie Huaisang smiles and shyly ducks his head in greeting despite otherwise clearly not wanting to be there, Jin Guangyao knows he's got him for good.

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

Meng Yao nurtures that little seed of darkness he sees within Nie Huaisang, looking for a kindred spirit, only to have it backfire on him because it turns out Huaisang's dark side is even more yandere-flavored than his own. it's fine, a little attic wifing will be good for him.

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

Timeline where the Sunshot forces win, only to discover that both Wen Ruohan and Nie Mingjue are dead. 

Meng Yao swears it was because he was too late to stop the former from forcing the latter into a fatal qi deviation and he was only able to salvage the situation by killing Wen Ruohan while he was distracted gloating.

(He is, in fact, telling the truth, though there are some that don’t believe it.)

Nie Huaisang is now sect leader at eighteen whether he wants to be or not (and he really doesn't, because it means he can't grieve his da-ge in peace while all the celebrating and rebuilding is going on.)

The two of them meeting up at the victory banquet. (Or re-meeting, rather, since this would use their live drama backstory.)

Newly renamed Jin Guangyao offering his apologies and condolences to the newly ascended Nie-zongzhu.

And getting struck hard by Huaisang’s Tragic Gothic Ingenue Aura in return.

Whatever manipulations his father has in store for the other sects are his own business, Jin Guangyao decides.

But he will be the one to look after the Nie sect and its beautifully grieving new leader.

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

(this next one is under a cut for implied war prize rape, not by either side of the ship)

Lima/Stockholm syndrome SangYao, either with legitimized Jin Ziyao or fully adopted Wen Yao. 

Jin Guangshan throws his sect's lot in with the Wens and the Sunshot Campaign is crushed with both Nies being taken captive.

Wen Ruohan would give Nie Huaisang to Wen Yao as an indulgence. 

Jin Guangshan would give Nie Huaisang to Jin Ziyao as an insult.

Either way, he knows that Nie Huaisang is behaving well only so that his brother stays alive, but he can't help finding him endearing anyway and treats him accordingly.

When they first meet, Nie Huaisang has been visibly beaten and barely has any clothing left, which is also damaged. He's barefoot and bound up and clearly terrified.

But Wen Yao/Jin Ziyao (still haven't decided which) notices that he's also paying attention, as in he's committing the faces of each of his abusers to memory without any of them noticing. He finds himself oddly pleased by this revelation, and accepts his "gift" with thanks.

Nie Huaisang doesn't fight him when he finishes the disrobing to heal up his injuries and bathe him, but he's wary and nervous and Wen Yao/Jin Ziyao can feel him shaking, which is more evidence against the guards who'd captured him.

He finds himself thinking that when Nie Huaisang decides to get back at them, perhaps he'll look the other way.

Meanwhile, Nie Huaisang has no idea how to deal with his new jailor. He's been bruised, had bones broken, been starved, and... other things he desperately doesn't want to remember. He knows the only reason he's alive is as a hostage to ensure his brother doesn't try to escape.

And now here's this person speaking to him as if he's a rescued kitten and handling him like he's made of porcelain.

This can't last. 

He knows it can't. 

It's a ruse, the carrot to the stick.

But Wen Yao/Jin Ziyao continues to treat him like a beloved pet rather than a prisoner. If it weren't for the fact that he can't leave, it would be akin to a courtship. 

He isn't even punished when his jailor finds the notes he made for his brother -for the resistance still hitting-and-running at outposts on the edges of the expanded Wen/Jin territories.

What the fuck is going on? 

And why is he starting to like it?

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on EOTW 14-18

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

Mo's nicknames are abandoned so quickly, along with everything else about this book. I suppose it justifies the Wondergirls, in particular, using false names later, but it feels so tacked on to me after this many reads of EOTW.

Ishy tries way too hard.

"Rand, if we get out of this alive, if we ever get back home, and you hear me say anything about leaving Emond’s Field, even to go as far as Watch Hill, you kick me." Oh, Perrin, hon, you really have no idea how far you'll go.

Min's predictions. All the way to the eye on the balance scale. A few are slightly less clear, sure, but on the whole, top notch. Just vague enough to make you wonder, just clear enough to be recognizable when they happen. The beggar's staff for when he's wandering just before Veins of Gold is a nice touch.

The Pattern guiding Rand through his encounter with the Whitecloaks is fascinating. At least, that's what I'm guessing it is. Part the Pattern, part an early instance of LTT bleeding through, since Rand has now started channeling and RJ intended for the madness to progress pretty quickly until he realized this was no longer going to be only 6 books long…

When Thom glares at Rand and Min while Min tells Rand what she saw about Nyn, I'm pretty sure this is the only time Thom and Min ever meet? Ever even have the chance to meet, really.

Nynaeve's arrival kicks off so so many events and poses so many more questions. Of course she tracked them, but she also still has the healing connection to Egg, at this point.

Cheeky working in of the Heroes of the Horn. I know I probably don't need to point out every little thing that I see as setup for later, but it's part of what makes the reread so much fun, so I'm gonna keep doing it anyway.

Sneaky to use the scar-faced man to cast suspicion about who called the Fade, when Rand was all eagerness to tell Fain last chapter.

I like the idea that it was just some trick of air that let Moiraine appear to do… whatever that was in leaving Baerlon, but I don't think that RJ had his whole magic system worked out yet at this point, or the limits he would soon put on it. So, I have trouble really believing that that's the case.

OK, so, one of my biggest issues with how the fandom treats Mat is that there's so much misinformation about his memories. For one thing, assuming that his war cry was a reincarnation-memory. Not only is this directly contradicted by what Moiraine says, it would be silly. You wouldn't statistically end up in the same place you lived and died before on any kind of short time scale, and even then, Egg wouldn't have felt the same memory tug at her if it was just that Mat was, like, Aemon reincarnated. Second, of course, is the 'Finn memories, which Mat himself says later are from people who went to see the 'Finn in their lives, they're the memories the 'Finn had available to patch his holes with, they are not something buried in his soul's psyche or whatever. Now, the way the show is changing this, I don't have a problem with as long as they're internally consistent about it. But, a lot of people took some really weird ideas away from the books' explanations, perhaps because they can seem so vague and the pieces of the whole picture are so far scattered apart that by the time you find the next puzzle piece, the whole puzzle in your head's been disturbed so you have to start all over with the pieces you can still find in there. Okay, that metaphor got away from me, but I stand by my point, and I might as well get it out there this early.

[wetbloodworm]

a zenith post!

talked about this in call briefly but it's fun to me to think that the zenith of now (having been in the material plane for about 6 months) is noticeably Less Weird than the zenith that first popped into the plane, considering he showed up having never actually seen the plane outside of dreams depicting it. all his understanding of how things work and how people behave came from 1) watching dreams, 2) talking with sleeping people who might not realize they're interacting with something real, and 3) talking with other far realm denizens about what they know. so no direct experience, and the kind of research he could manage was limited since writing isn't really a thing in the far realm apparently.

zenith was aware that dreams aren't accurate depictions of reality for the most part, but not like... to what degree. there are enough repeating themes and images that he could get a very rough idea of what things are like, but no clue what the difference is between 'repeating theme because this is how things work in reality' and 'repeating theme because brains are weird', for instance. is grass actually green or does that Mean Something to the psyche? is running actually really difficult/slow? how much of a threat are sharks? zenith has no way of knowing. i'm sure they'd ask dreamers stuff like that during their chats but there's only so much they can cover.

so just about everything was a learning experience. which was very exciting!! zenith loves it!!! it just meant that a lot of his early interactions with people often sent up red flags that he wasn't a Normal Person. he tries very hard to keep that he doesn't know things to himself and just kind of rolls with what people say, but that works better for not knowing how much things cost and less for not fully understanding how gravity and physics work on an everyday level. not knowing what day it is isn't too weird, not knowing what year it is or what a year even is will raise some eyebrows. general social expectations are another area where he had a lot to learn, but while people often don't LIKE it when people don't follow social norms and cues it's more common than not knowing super basic things about like. life. i feel like people are also more likely to not comment on it when a stranger is awkward or weird if it's in an inoffensive way and the person is polite enough, but it can be harder not to show surprise or ask questions/etc when someone doesn't know stuff like 'letting go of something in mid-air is going to send it crashing to the ground'. so a lot of zenith's social weirdness hasn't been corrected (he tends to stare a lot, for starters) but he HAS been asked stuff like 'are you serious' or 'why did you do that' or 'do you really not know' etc, which now activates his equivalent of the fight or flight response lmao. zenith gets asked what he's doing and he's immediately on alert like oh no i did/said something weird and now i have to defend it.

good thing for zenith is that he's very intuitive and a decently quick learner, and his glimpses into dreams and conversations in dreams with the locals DID help somewhat. just had a lot of work to do figuring out what's real and how the rules of the plane work and such. once he determined that things in the material plane are much more static and follow specific rules pretty consistently, it was just a matter of learning what the rules ARE. one issue he does continue to run into is experiencing something one way and then assuming it ALWAYS works that way. or at least that what he's experienced is normal and common. like in-game where he asked for water at a bar, got real murky water back, and didn't think anything of it because he assumed this was normal. hearing people discuss talking mushrooms and assuming mushrooms can always talk. little things like that. experiencing/hearing about abnormal things and thinking they're normal because he's never experienced/been told otherwise.

while it doesn't cover EVERYTHING, zenith's common excuse is that he was very sheltered up until recently and hasn't had much experience out in the real world. his fake backstory is that he's from a small coastal town and he was homeschooled by strict and protective parents and didn't get to leave home until they passed a little over six months ago. it explains a lot of his weirdness and lack of knowledge to people, as well as his general excitement to see and learn about things. it's also something he doesn't really need proof for. sounds reasonable enough, and it DOES explain things about him, and why would he lie about something like that? most people don't dig much deeper. the town is a real, tiny, very isolated town that zenith visited once early on, so he can describe where it's at consistently and doesn't have to worry too much about running into people ACTUALLY from that town. and on the extremely off chance that he DOES, i mean. people do lie about shit sometimes. that's not going to make people think he's not from this plane, it's just going to make people think he has shit to hide about his past, which is common and preferable to him. he can work with that.

this post is a little all over the place. it's fine. my posts often are.

ANYWAY... my original point. zenith still strikes a lot of people as weird and he still doesn't know a lot of stuff, but he passes as like. a person native to the material plane much easier now. he knows enough everyday shit that he can get through the majority of conversations without completely throwing people.

[crqelsummer]

also i do not have a plot in plan to get the kids actually involved in the fallen angels arc. i have no idea if nagant is dead or what but i do need an actual head of the org, because while chisaki is smart beyond his years he only leads the yakuza portion of the org. hitomi is just a pawn in his game, but gou is a pawn in whoever the fallen angels have at their head.

also! while im on it. gou is. gou is someone. im slowly developing monica (elle's mama), but im not sure who gou's second parent is yet. he can scramble people's brains but it takes a lot out of him, so people usually assume he's quirkless.

he was with kai up until he was about six (so just abt the same age as eri), and kai was a surprisingly decent father to him. estranged, sure with the family business, but he made sure gou never had to go without. made sure gou was always safe, no matter where he went. when his quirk did eventually come in, kai was quick to help him control it (though this was mostly because of the shattering power that came with it). gou got more of his other parent's quirk, something akin to mind control/etc, but the overhaul gene meant he was capable of completely destroying the psyche without much physical damage to the brain itself.

when eri came into the picture, i think even gou was aware of the shift in his father. then one day, kai walked away with eri in his arms and gou was being dragged away by someone else. he doesn't remember who, he just remembers scrambling their brain out of fear so they'd let go and chasing after kai. eri is passed to someone else, kai gets down on a knee and doesn't know what to make of his son -- sobbing and on his knees after he tripped running.

there are big fat tears rolling down his cheeks that kai is careful to rub away with a thumb. it makes his skin crawl, children are naturally messy, but gou usually doesnt incite the feeling in him. and he feels a part of him break off when he opens his arms just enough to let gou come barreling in. he holds on so tight that if he were any bigger, kai fears he'd strangle him. gou's begging him not to leave, to stay with him, after his parent left he didnt have anyone anymore except kai.

"please! don't leave me!" as gou's smaller hands are gripping the back of his jacket, "not again, not again!"

kai can hear the rumbling outside already. gou needs to leave. he needs to leave now. originally gou had only existed so he would have a bloodline after he died, but now? now looking in the amber eyes they share, kai doesn't know what to do. this is his son, and he's leaving him behind? he can't let the heroes get their hands on him, he'll die before he lets that happen.

he loves gou more than he knows what to do with himself.

"dad!" kai picks him up for what he thinks is the final time, and quietly pulls his mask back over his face. his tiny hood back over his head to hide the sky blue hair. hes never felt threatened by his son's quirk before but he's more than glad he'd shoved the gloves back over his fingers. kai's already walking to deposit him back with another handler. and he stands there, long enough to watch gou and the other yakuza member leave, gou kicking and screaming in the other man's arms, "dad!"

-

i think eventually gou learns what happened that day. about kai. about the heroes. about eri. really learned about eri. i think he holds some resentment against her, knowing she's most of the reason that kai was gone.

idk if kai's dead in canon. but in the au that he is (or assumed is), gou is jaded by those events as a kid. he's given a new name, new identity and sent across the country to live a new life. kai's final gift to him, a normal life without being chased down or constantly in danger, with a similar enough jacket being the only thing gou has of him. gou grows into it, eventually. no one believes him that he was the son of chisaki, and for a while it drives him nuts trying to convince people of his past life. around 13-14 he gives up on it and takes on the life he's been given, skating by for years. his quirk is deemed 'scary' by other students, he's bullied for most of his life because of it. isolated from his peers and intimidating them without even trying, it isnt surprising that after graduation he drops off the radar.

he gets caught up with the fallen angels because they offer him a place as a 'scary' quirk user. somewhere he's not feared, somewhere he's respected. and he climbs the ranks here insanely fast because his quirk can destroy so easily. everyone worries so much about their bodies but never about their minds. he lays the groundwork for the resurgence of the shie hassaikai (under new management) and begins his plan to start the cycle of quirk enhancers/trigger all over again.

hitomi comes in a little later, around when he's 34ish.

[wallflowerimagines]

Could you maybe write something with an s/o that is super hands on? Like, if they wanna see Moreau's cool teeth or Heisenberg's scars they'll really get all up in their business, grab their faces and take a look? They're not mean, just curious and handsy

PS, this Anon sent an update for all 4 Lords plus The Duke!!!! So first time duke imagine add on, let's get handsy!

Alcina Dimitrescu

Please keep your hands out of her mouth, Darling.

Alcina is... barely tolerant of this behavior, but also a little amused. You are fascinated by her canines, despite the fact that they aren't particularly sharp or pointed like you keep assuming they are. You have this image of "vampires" I your head, and while Alcina is close to certain stereotypes, she doesn't meet all of them-- specifically the sharp teeth. You cannot seem to get over it, no matter how hard you try.

She will occasionally indulge this little habit of yours, but it's mostly because she loves you. Keep your hands clean and your nails clipped, or else she'll flick your fingers away.

Still, as much as she loves you, Alcina does have her limits when being poked and prodded.

She will only let you do it in private. Alcina won't let you stick your fingers in her mouth in public-- it's not appropriate or befitting of her station.

If you're too enthusiastic, she will playfully nibble on your fingers as a warning, and lick up the small bead of blood that comes from the cut. Is that vampiric enough for you? After all, you taste divine, Darling.

If you're so fixated on the fact that her teeth aren't as long as they are "supposed to be", well, Alcina is happy to show you the error of your ways💕💕

She will definitely use your fixation as an opening excuse for intimacy. I hope you're ready for it...

Donna Beneviento

Not okay with it.

Donna's veil isn't just for mourning-- she's also cripplingly self conscious of the scar on her face, and the Cadou mutation did not help her self esteem at all.

If you try to run your hands over her mutation, especially without warning her first? Donna will just shut down. Normally Donna and Angie will both chat and spend time with you, but after this Donna will completely back away from the relationship, and let Angie take over for her completely.

Angie is her safety net, after all. And you've just crossed a boundary she was not ready for, or even aware that you wanted to cross.

You have to explain that you mean no harm, but even then it's not a great scenario. Donna regresses almost completely if you don't warn her beforehand. You're back to communicating through Angie until you give her a genuine, meaningful apology.

You really need to push the idea that 1) you love her unconditionally and the scar will not affect that, and 2) you were only interested in touching it because you love her so much and you want to be familiar with every part of her.

Essentially: Always, always ask for consent with Donna before you go poking around. She can be alright with it in specific circumstances, but never assume, and never engage unless you have explicit permission. She needs to psych herself up beforehand.

(Still, if you ask and then press a kiss to the writhing mass that she hates so much, she will absolutely cry. There's something about that gesture that really gets across how much you adore her. It's... reassuring. Safe. It makes Donna feel adored, unconditionally. You love her to pieces, and this a gesture that reaffirms that.)

Salvatore Moreau

You... want to mess around inside his mouth? That's a little--WAIT HOLD ON NOT YET!!!

You have to warn him first, for your safety.

Moreau's mouth is full of acid, and as much as you want to get all up in there to check out his neat chompers, you have to warn him first so he can make sure you can examine him safely.

He's proud of his mutation, to a certain extent. The fact that you love him not only despite it, but because of it? It strokes his ego a little bit.

Still, he wants you to be safe. No sticking your hands in there without warning! Moreau would never forgive himself if he hurt you, so do give him a heads up if you want to take a dive in his mouth.

If he's feeling brave, he might actually use this as an excuse for intimacy like Alcina. He might wrap his tongue around your fingers or pull you in for a kiss if he wants too. You've got this focused expression on your face, and it's entirely centered on him... Salvatore couldn't resist even if he wanted to 💗

If you choose to mess around with the growths on his back, it's a little less romantic. They are very painful some days, and unless you are giving him a massage he will say no. It's not because he doesn't trust you! But Moreau needs to manage the pain, and depending on how bad the pain is on that specific day, that means you can't touch his back. Just remember to ask beforehand, and you're golden 💛

Karl Heisenberg

Hell YES

Heisenberg isn't self conscious about his body at all, to be honest. Sure he has scars, and while not All of them have good memories associated with them, he has a surprisingly healthy mindset about them. The scars are there because he's alive. He survived everything life threw at him, and he's still going strong.

While he won't tell you all the stories behind his scars, he will share the more palatable experiences. Some are from dumb mistakes he's made while doing metalwork, and he's more than happy to tell you the less painful stories when you have your hands all over him.

Because, yes, that is the best part about this whole thing. You cannot keep your hands off of him, and it is EXCELLENT. Karl loves it. He's a pretty handsy guy himself (to the point where you're starting to suspect he's a little touch starved), so he does not mind that you return the favor.

You trace his scars with this focused expression that's just so entirely absorbed, so fascinated, Karl gets hit with this weird mix of fondness for you and pride in himself. Seeing you so absorbed in him and his body makes him really want to do the same with you. He wants to return the favor.

The light touches you give his torso are so delicate... It makes him feel important and valuable to you.

Honestly, it's almost intoxicating. Heisenberg will absolutely trail off in the middle of a sentence if you run a hand across his chest. The feel of your hands on his body is so, so good. He likes physical contact with you, but if you specifically trace his scars? All bets are off.

9 times out of 10 he just can't hold back and pulls you in for a make out session. The last 1 out of 10 has a tendency to... escalate😈

The Duke

More than happy to indulge your impulses.

You being handsy is something that the Duke actually really enjoys. He likes to keep you nearby, and when you seem so obsessed with running your hands all over him it's much easier to keep you close and safe💖

You're the most focused on his hands and fingers because...uh...whoo... something about him with all those rings just really does it for you???

It's really nice to weave your fingers in between his, giving little kisses to the inside of his wrist or the tips of his fingers, and the Duke is always happy to oblige.

It's very charming, watching you coddle his hands like they're something precious. He feels a little overwhelmed by the reverence in each gesture, so he does his best to repay the favor.

The Duke will definitely smooch the tips of your fingers to reciprocate any affection you give him, and the kisses will continue up your arms, past your shoulder, and climb up to your mouth. It's a half silly, half romantic, but 100% genuine.

He loves you, and it's always entertaining to watch you squirm in anticipation as his kisses slowly approach your eager lips. The waiting is half the fun💕