#presented otherwise without comment lol

[olessan]

[pettysreverie]

Sorry not sorry, but I was just thinking about Married!Price who, as we all know, is a sucker for his woman. And now, finally, she has agreed to have a baby with him. His greatest wish, now finally granted! Woohoo!

CW: Dubious Consent(?), Age-gap (college student Reader), Surrogacy, AFAB Reader, Attempt at writing out accents (lol)

They’d always talked about having a brood of their own…but whenever it got down to actually going through with it, she would have one reason or another for not quitting her birth control or for not letting him go without a condom. So really, he’s super excited and eager for this next step of theirs.

And, okay, John understands. Childbirth is fucking scary, isn’t it? Actually, fuck the childbirth part! Watching as your body slowly morphs and changes, no longer being just your own, has to be a horror movie in and of itself.

So he gets it! He’s not going to push (although…whenever he passes by a baby or a seemingly happy family, his heart does feel a tug).

But then his wife agrees to have a baby…only she wants a surrogate.

And John is fine with that, too!

Again, it’s her body and it’s her choice.

It’s not as though she is infertile or otherwise unable to carry a child, but she just simply doesn’t want to—and he figures that’s fine. So long as he gets the family that he’s always wanted. Besides, all he’s got to do is nut into a cup and pass it off to the scientists or whatever, right?

Wrong.

His beloved Mrs. Price wants to get it done the old-fashioned way—sexual intercourse.

And that…that takes John for a ride.

“Ye wan’ me ta shag another bird?”He asks her, bushy brows raised nearly to his hairline.

His wife nods her head, seeming quite sure of herself. Says something about how babies that are born the natural way tend to fair better socially or something (he’s not sure that’s backed by science…but she showed him some mommy blogs she’s been perusing, so he figures she’s done enough ‘research’ to be sure.)

But the next concern is finding some woman that will be okay with not only being a surrogate, but being a surrogate in such a…unique circumstance such as this.

And that’s when his wife tells him that she’s already found one. You.

You’re the child of a friend of a friend. A college student in desperate need of a hefty payday if you want to continue your studies.

Truth be told, John feels icky about this. Feels like they’re taking advantage of you by doing this.

(“What do you think most surrogates do this for? The weight gain and health conditions?”His wife asks him with a raised brow. And you know what…that’s super fair. After that, he feels better…if only slightly.)

Meeting you, though, is something else entirely.

You’re a bit nervous, of course, but so beautiful. The most beautiful woman that John has ever seen in all his time on earth (though he’d never admit such, at least not in front of his beloved wife).

His wife is rather militant about the arrangement.

You two are to bang until there’s a baby in your womb. She wants to be there for every session. Not to mention that she is to be in complete and total charge of your pregnancy from there on (which includes moving in with them during your pregnancy so she can "protect" you), and when the baby is born you are to give up your parental rights immediately.

It’s…it’s an intense deal.

So one-sided.

John wants you to decline. Wants you to comment on how awful the conditions are. How controlling his wife is already being. How much of a useless sack of shit he is for agreeing to this—assuming that he sees you only as a hole to dump into.

He wants you to lash out.

But you don’t.

After a few heavy moments of complete silence, you agree. You ask to read over the contract but promise to have it signed by morning. And truly, that seems to be all his wife wants, because she smiles and agrees immediately.

And in the morning, you keep to your promise—presenting him and his wife with the signed contract.

This feels like such a lose-lose situation for you and honestly, John cannot just turn a blind eye to the injustice. But…he does really want a baby.

He can acknowledge that he is far too selfish to just simply end this agreement. But he promises to himself that he will make this as comfortable as possible for you. And that starts with him getting to know you.

If, maybe, he can make this a more pleasant experience, then he will.

“We don’t have to do anything until you’re ready.”He tells you, his conscious weighing him even as he speaks with sincerity and honesty.

You smile that pretty, yet still reserved smile of yours and nod your head. “Okay Mr. Price, thank you.”

Fuck…he hopes that he’s not making some big mistake by agreeing to do this.

[scorpioriesling]

An Enticing Offer

･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *

Pairing(s): Lucien x reader

Warning(s): 18+, mdni, nsfw

Summary: Your roomate was a lot of things; kindhearted, hard-working, handsome... but, he was other things too. Messy. Maybe a little irresponsible. But, most of all -- deliciously, enticing.

SR’s Note: Oye... everytime I write smut, I feel nyyyyassty, LOL. Anywho, many thanks for @hardcoremarvelfan for the request -- I present to you, absolute Lucien filth using prompts #2, #12, #23, #71, and #74 from my promt request list. (; Enjoy.

Tags: @mellowmusings @rcarbo1 @lilah-asteria @kitsunetori @velarisdusk (inbox me or comment if you'd like to be added!)

･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *

The late afternoon sun streamed through the wide kitchen windows in your apartment, the golden glow illuminating the otherwise darkened space. Heaving the brown paper bag onto the small kitchen table, you sighed. Sure, an apartment that overlooked the Sidra was quite a luxury in your eyes -- but for the amount you paid each month to rent this place (well, paid half of), you'd sometimes wished they'd included curtains.

Add that to next week's grocery list. You kept forgetting to pick some up when you went to the market.

You began removing the miscellaneous items from the bag -- fresh vegetables, canned goods, that disgusting cereal your roomate requested -- and putting them away. When the mid-shelf in your pantry was full, you groaned in frustration; the top shelf was too high to reach, and your very tall, very able roomate would not be home until tomorrow.

Groceries on the table it is. And... maybe, a stepstool, added to next week's grocery run.

You were fortunate enough to secure a place like this, not to mention the roomate that came with it -- you'd met a few years ago and became fast friends, and living together seemed like a wise choice when you'd both finally abandoned your childhood homes.

A good choice indeed; having Lucien around brought you comfort, as you never liked being alone anyways. Not to mention, he was kind hearted, funny, and quite easy on the eyes. You tried to ignore the stir inside when he'd so casually walk around without a shirt on, or emerge from the bathroom in only a towel...

It was his place too, rather.

You groaned in frustration when you spotted the dirty pans on the stove, inspecting the residue on one as you picked it up.

If your roomate was one thing, it was messy.

"Lucien," you grumbled aloud. Tossing the pans into the dishwasher, you shoved it closed and turned on the wash cycle. How hard was that?

This happened quite often; Lucien, not cleaning up after himself. And you, trailing after him with a broom and dustpan.

You paused, listening for another soft sound over the rumble of the dishwasher. Straining your ears, you couldn't quite make it out -- the muffled, mubling sound over the running water.

Brows furrowing in confusion, a flicker of fear coursed through you. Sure, when Lucien was here, you'd never felt afraid in your apartment; but, since he'd left on a particularly gruelling mission only a few days ago, you couldn't help the irrational paranoia that made an appearance every so often.

Taking a timid step toward the hallway, you heard it again -- louder, this time. A soft, breathless sound amid the falling water. Your breath caught in your throat; someone was surely inside your home.

You walked faster, soft steps toward the bathroom door; sure enough. The water was running, and someone was inside.

Had he gotten home early?

"L-Lucien?" You squeaked. Your voice came out less confident than you'd hoped, and your hand shook as you reached for the doorhandle.

"Y/N... oh Gods, yes..."

Your outstretched palm halted. The voice was surely his, but what in the Hell was he doing in there?

"I'm... I'm coming in."

Your voice was barely above a whisper as you grabbed the doorhandle, twisting and shoving inside the small bathing room. Steam blasted against your face, and you coughed once as you waved it away.

The mumblings stopped.

And the shower curtain flew open.

The two of you shared a shout of shock as your eyes met, his face framed by his long, yet soaking, red hair. You both stared at one another in silent surprise for a beat, before both speaking at once.

"What the Hell are you doing here?"

"Why didn't you knock?"

The moment of clarity hits you, and Lucien wipes a hand over his dewy face.

"Y/N... by the Cauldron, why would you come in when I'm literally showering?" Your brows narrow, and you cross your arms over your chest. You don't miss him pulling the shower curtain in front of his body to cover himself -- but it's too late.

Your cheeks pinken.

"I... I didn't know, you were home, yet." You stammer, your cheeks deepening in color. "I heard someone in here, and you were still gone and-"

"And, what, you thought a stranger was using our shower?" Lucien chuckles. You feel your face heating even more, slight irritation bubbling beneath the surface as your friend seems to find this situation amusing.

"Well, I-"

He continues to laugh, raking a hand through his wet hair. Small droplets of water cascade over his shoulders, running down and over the exposed area of his pectoral muscles.

You huff. "If I must be perfectly clear," You glare. "I heard something going on in here other than just the shower." His eyebrows raise in an amused stare as his eyes scan over your face. Your very embarassed, face.

"Uh huh, and what do you think you heard?"

You huff, trying to look anywhere but him as his gaze intensifies.

"I-I thought you weren't even supposed to be home yet," you stammer, attempting to change the topic.

"Got back early," he deadpans. "I just can't believe you really thought it was anyone but me in here." He shakes his head, a small smile on his face.

"I suppose it's because of all the moaning and ... and, and words coming from inside this room." You try to remain confident, but falter as you notice his gaze lowering to your chest. Bad day to opt for a tank top.

"There's nothing wrong with relieving stress -- why is that so unbelieveable?" He quirks a brow.

You feel the familiar swirl inside your abdomen.

You swallow hard. "I guess... it was quite unbelieveable to think you'd be the one in here, saying, and... doing those things." He chuckles, and you catch sight of his erection pushing against the shower curtain. You quickly look away.

"More likely a stanger, than me, hm?" He tuts.

You gulp. "I suppose so."

Its quiet for an awkward moment, you trying not to stare at your half-covered gorgeous roomate as his eyes trail you up and down; so agonizingly slow.

"Y/N... you don't have to pretend to not stare." He chuckles. "In fact, you could join me-"

Your mouth opens in shock. "Lucien Vanserra! You're not seriously suggesting that--"

"Oh, I am." He grins, like a feline about to pounce on a little mouse. You shake your head in disbelief, the swirling in your stomach a full on tornado at this point.

You scoff, folding your arms over your chest once more. "What, you need me to help you?" You ask. He shrugs, moving to close the shower curtain. Taking a timid step forward, you begin to shrug off your shorts before thinking too long about it.

"Only if you're willing," he muses, his voice once again muffled by the cloth.

"What an enticing offer," you quip, glancing to the mirror at your reflection.

Your cheeks burn, the sensation in your abdomen becoming near unbearable. Were you really about to fuck your roomate? So many nights you'd spent together, doing seemingly harmless things; watching movies, reading together, preparing dinner.

Many of those nights, you went to bed with your hand between your thighs.

Pulling back the shower curtain lightly, you let out a nervous laugh as he came into full view. His back was to you, which made it easier to slip in behind him.

He turned, his eyes immediately wavering from your face to trace over every curve you had to offer. His bottom lip drew lightly between his teeth.

"Seems like you could use my help," you chatter, nerves propelling your mouth to move. "If you clean yourself as well as you clean your dishes-"

His hand gripped your waist, the other grabbing the back of your neck as he pulled you to him. His mouth crashed into yours, his lips moving and gliding along yours alike as he devoured your kiss. Your hands found his shoulders, gripping and tracing along the toned muscle there. It was only after his tongue had slipped in that you let out a soft moan, and he pulled back from you.

"Y/N... I-" His words were cut off as you reached between you two, gripping his hardened length that had been pushing against your stomach. His breath caught, and his eyes stared for only a moment where your hand held him before looking directly down into your eyes.

"Please..." he breathed out, his pupils blown wide with desire. You moved your hand up and down, how you'd fantasized doing many times before. You could feel him hardening more in your hand, and he reached one of his hands up to play with your nipple. You gasped, and he leaned back against the shower wall as you sped up your minstrations.

"I... I... oh Gods, Y/N," he breathed out. His other hand reached behind you, his fingers pressing into the curve of your ass where it met your thigh. You smirked, looking up at him in this state.

"You, what, pretty boy?" His eyes opened as he looked to you, doe-eyed and putting on a show. "Can't even finish a sentence as I jerk you off, hmm?"

His brows furrow, his teasing from earlier seeming to finally catch up with him. His one hand leaves your butt, gripping your wrist that pumps him; the other one clasps your throat.

"Don't act so innocent," he growls, and you clench your thighs, his tone sending a wave of heat straight to your clit.

"Get on your knees."

You make quick work of lowering yourself onto the shower floor, the warmed tile pressing against your knees as you sit back on them. His hand grabs your hair in a makeshift ponytail, forcing you to look up at him. His free hand yanks on his erection -- a sight worth salivating over.

"Open that fuckin' mouth."

Happy to oblige, you open, laying your tongue out flat for him to see. He groans, his fist pumping his dick faster.

You lean forward, your tongue meeting the bottom of his length as he removes his hand. You replace it with your own near the base, holding him steady as you lick a fat stripe along his cock. Continuing your teasing, you trace your tongue along the vein running from the base to his tip; all the while lightly circling your hand at the bottom.

"Mmmm... 'love the way you taste," You groan, and gasp when he grabs your head with both hands.

"Don't... stop, the teasing," he pants, pushing your head closer to his throbbing dick. You take one breath before shoving it in your mouth, his tip hitting the back of your throat.

"Fuck," he grunts, as you start moving forward and back along his angry length. You hollow your cheeks, sucking him hard as his hips start thrusting against you.

"Mhm... fuck, Y/N, taking it so good," he groans, his grip on your hair tightening. You move quicker, his hips fucking his cock into your mouth harder and harder -- so hard you gag. He throws his head back with an unrestrained moan, and you gaze up at him through your tear-filled eyes. The sight of him, so vulnerable and needy like this...

You reach your free hand between your legs, your fingers finding the buzzing bundle of nerves near your core. He looks down at you once more, his length twitching inside your mouth.

"Yes... yes, play with that pussy," he gasps, his eyes squeezing shut as he tries to prolong his orgasm. "Fuck... oh, fuck-"

He yanks your hair, pulling your mouth flush against his pelvis as he releases, hot spurts of cum coating the back of your throat. You cough as he gasps, yanking his dick out of your mouth before leaning down to grab your jaw hard.

"Swallow all of it."

You do, gulping before gasping for air. He leans back against the shower wall, smirking at you as he offers a hand to help you up. You reach up, positioning the showerhead so the water hits you directly.

Bathing in the warmth for a few minutes, your breath quickens as your roomate reaches for you, his deft fingers tracing along the curve of your waist before one reaches your throbbing core. Your breath hitches, and you grab onto his shoulders as he looks to you with pure lust in his eyes.

"Lucien..." you say breathlessly. "You... you already came-"

"Mhm," he says, his tone low as he presses a kiss just below your ear. "But you didn't."

･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

[avelanlorelay]

Sorry to bother with questions but do we ever find out where Cardan was when he didn't return to bed with Jude those few nights? As he seemed to be avoiding the question when she asked. Was he with someone else?

Questions never bother me, I love to talk! I assume you're talking about that TQOF scene after Jude's presentation banquet. Feel free to disagree with me, but I think that to think that Cardan is just a womanizing boy is not to understand even half of his personality, especially when (I've already posted about this) he's the most sensitive character in the series.

In my view, it's implied in the book that Cardan's vice is drink, not sex. I'm not saying that he's a pure boy who didn't like taking part in orgies, but there are some points that show that it wasn't his priority. For example: Cardan isn't seen making dirty jokes or analyzing women's bodies like Valerian (except with Jude). He never had two lovers at the same time like Locke and Nicasia (I'm not saying that the intention of these two was just sex, but obviously there was a lot of desire for Jude on Locke's part and for Locke on Nicasia's part too).

And the main point for me, is that we see in TWK, when Jude invades Cardan's chambers at Balekin's behest, he is completely alone in bed, that is, at a time when he is worried about Jude and the situation of the kingdom is delicate, he doesn't have time to think about sex or anything like that, so to think that Cardan is still the same boy who only thinks about the pleasures of life and hasn't matured is to ignore his evident change in the second book. It's clear that in important situations, such as when the Crown of Blood is at stake, he no longer maintains the behavior of enjoying himself like a member of the circle of grackles.

It's not exactly proof, but on the same night that Jude breaks into his rooms, he confesses that Balekin forced him to take part in orgies, meaning that his perverted behavior was practically forced on him by his brother. It's no wonder that when he met a girl he liked, Cardan immediately committed himself to an engagement. And here, we all have to agree because it's obvious that he was always faithful in his commitment to Nicasia, their relationship was totally monogamous, otherwise he wouldn't have been so heartbroken by her betrayal.

Which brings me to the conclusion of your question: Cardan was faithful to Nicasia because he loved her and the two of them were engaged, in other words, they had a solid commitment. And he remained faithful to her until the engagement was broken. Cardan respects commitments, he has many faults but he is one of the few loyal characters in the books. So, throughout TQON Cardan and Jude had a real commitment, they were married by fairy law. Whether the marriage was consummated or not, I believe that he remained completely faithful to her. 1- Because he loved Jude and was completely fall with her.

2- Out of respect for their legitimate marriage.

3- Because he was too busy worrying about Jude's exile, her whereabouts after Madoc's invasion, her health and, most importantly, how to win her love. He wouldn't let himself be carried away by frivolous desires, especially when his greatest desire was her. I believe that when Jude asked where he was, Cardan didn't imagine that she might be jealous, so he answered without bothering to give details. Even when Jude expresses her feelings in words, he is still unsure and in doubt. Perhaps he was too embarrassed to say where he stood, or he was just a little slow to be objective. Someone here on tumblr already commented that he was probably in the Court of Shadows and I totally agree. And I would add that he probably spent nights drinking, playing cards and worrying about Jude's recovery and how to win her heart.

I think that sometimes, like Jude, we overcomplicate Cardan's thoughts and intentions, when in fact he is simple and even naive in his actions lol. Sorry for the long text, I hope I've answered your question 💗

[phyrestartr]

The Intern | Miguel O'hara x M!Reader

#NSFW, Age Gap (mid 20s and mid 30s), reader's a homewrecker, Miguel's a cheater, mentions of toxic marriage, male!reader, bussy loading, porn with feelings, Miguel's a bit of a dickhead, top Miguel (for now), bottom reader (for now)

Note: I can't write anything without making it into a series lol I'm writing another part right now leave me alone!!!

-- The Intern --

[ How it Started: 1/2 ] [2/2]

Miguel didn't take interns. He hated them, actually; the way they'd needle him with too many annoying questions, the times they tried flexing their unimpressive knowledge of genetics, the way they'd fail to flirt and catch his eye–all of it ticked him off, made him snap and snuff out their bright, curious flames. He didn't mean to. He didn't want to make future scientists lose steam. But he had a limit, and these day, it was hit way too fucking often.

That didn't change when the tours came through. Actually, between his wife pushing his buttons and the young, bright-eyed scientists eyeing him over, everything just pissed him off more, shortened the limit exponentially. 

And he saw you there, listening to someone with a better temper talk. You didn't look all too impressed. You were maybe a little bored, actually. Your eyes swept across the room in wide arcs, looking for something interesting to land on. That was a feeling Miguel could relate to all too well. 

But your eyes eventually landed on him, somehow. You pursed your lips slowly, like it'd make too much noise otherwise, while your cheeks lifted in amusement. You glanced back to the speaker and back to Miguel, eyebrows gesturing too perfectly: get a load of this guy, eh? 

Miguel's expressionless mask slipped for a moment, and he twitched a smirk. He shook his head and looked back to his work. 

He did, however, glance at you on your way out. You didn't look back at him. 

–

He and Dana agreed to separate. It'd be a momentary thing, a way to work out the kinks in their marriage without more random accusations and hurtful words being thrown at each other on the daily. Miguel didn't want that. He didn't want Gabi to be subject to it, most of all. 

The separation calmed things down quite a bit, down to the point where Miguel wondered why they were arguing so much in the first place; until Dana did a very Dana thing and decided, for some reason, she couldn't take care of Gabi by herself while they were separated. Probably a ploy to get them back together under the same roof. Probably a scheme to manipulate the situation. 

But Miguel could play hardball, too. 

He'd pick Gabi up every day after school, and take her to the lab, but sequestered off in the cafeteria where a security guard was always present. She'd get to snack, she'd do her homework, and Miguel could work knowing she was safe. Not ideal, and maybe a little lonely for her, but easy. 

Checking up on her was another good excuse to walk away from his work, too. And one of the times he passed by, in desperate need of a cup of coffee and boost from his little girl's warm smile, he saw someone sitting with her. 

He watched for a moment as he stirred his coffee. Then, he realized it was you, that random intern from the tour a few months back. You were sat across from her, munching on whatever your late lunch was, and nodding emphatically to whatever his little girl was going on about. Her arms gestured wide and her giggle resonated brightly in the room, drawing some annoyed glances and cooing comments, but you didn't miss a beat, matching her laughter and big gestures. It was nice. 

Miguel's shoulders relaxed a little for once. 

He saw you there more days than not. And the days you weren't there, he often spied Gabi looking around, no doubt wondering where you were. It hurt his heart a bit to see her pout, truth be told, and he started to realize he should probably get to know you if you were inadvertently babysitting his kid. 

So, the next time he found you there, he walked over. 

You were beside her this time, both hunched over her usual tablet full of homework. You were the one gesturing wildly this time, talking too much with your hands as you explained fractions and common denominations and the sort in a way that truly only kids could tolerate and understand. Miguel had to put an end to it if he wanted to talk with you. 

"So, for this one, the little bitch on the bottom is–" 

"Sorry, 'little bitch'?" Miguel interjected, smirking when you jumped and Gabi gasped in delight. "Don't think that's proper terminology. Just a hunch." 

"Daddy!" Gabi called, happily turning in her seat to hug her father. Miguel's mean smile softened into something kinder and gentler.

"Hey, mija. Doing your homework, huh?" He asked as he brushed back his girl's hair. "He's not giving you all the answers, is he?" 

You balked before interrupting yourself. "Woah, hey, no, no, no, I'm makin' her do the stuff 'n the things, don’t worry 'bout it." Woah. Okay. That was a heavy Nueva York accent. Not what Miguel expected. 

"Yeah! I'm doing all the work! Mr.(Name)'s just helping when I get stuck 'n stuff!" Gabi's brows knitted together in concern. "Don't get mad at him!" 

"Yeah, don't get mad at me, Doc–she’s a smart kid, she don’t even need me to do this stuff for her, y’know?” 

“Well, I already knew that.” Miguel smirked as you huffed. He sat down on the other side of Gabriella and peered across her tablet at you. “You’re an intern, right? You were at the–”

“The tour, yeah.” You nodded a bit and propped your elbow up on the table before resting your cheek against your palm to watch Gabi solve her equations. “Saw you, too. You looked pretty pissed.”

“Intern day isn’t my favourite day,” Miguel offered with an unbothered shrug. 

“Yeah, I figured. You looked like you wanted to light ‘em on fire." 

"I could've, but then I'd be out a free part-time babysitter."

You laughed lightly, and Miguel caught the charming dip of dimples light up your face. "Oh, so that's how it is, huh? Guess I ain't mad at that. Gabi's a good kid, reminds me of my niece." 

Miguel raised his brows a bit. A niece. "Huh. Guess that explains a lot." 

"Dunno what you mean by that, but I'm gonna hope it's a good thing." 

Miguel smiled a bit. "It's a good thing." 

You smiled, too, though a bit more smug and proud. "Yeah? Good." You glanced up at the clock on the wall and sighed, the cute tilt to your lips suddenly vanishing. 

Gabi caught on and sent a powerful pout your way. "Already?" 

"Yeah, sorry, chica. Gotta get back to work." You stood up and offered your hand to Miguel. "Didn't introduce myself. I'm (Name)." 

Hm. Miguel liked how that sounded. 

"Miguel. Miguel O'hara." But you probably already knew that, though you had the decency not to point it out. 

"Nice to meetcha, Doc." 

You shook his hand and ruffled up Gabi's hair before seeing yourself out, a sudden haste in your scrambling steps as you checked the time again. Hah. You must've been late for something. 

"He's nice," Gabi said. Miguel's eyes fell back to her. 

"You think so?" He's not bad-looking, either. "You're okay with him? You feel safe?" 

"Ah-huh, ah-huh. He's not mean." Her big brown eyes sparkled up at Miguel, then. "I like 'im! Are you gonna be friends with him?" 

Miguel glanced back your way, surprised to see you standing by the elevators and glancing back at him. You looked away when you got caught, but turned back again with a little wave, like you’d realized turning away looked awkward and suspicious and had to rectify it. 

A light smirk tugged at Miguel’s lips. “Yeah, maybe.”

–

It started with chatting at lunch. Then, it turned into light touches on the shoulder and your thieving hands plucking whatever sort of drink or snack Miguel held in tired hands. And then, well, it just got worse. 

Miguel growled into your ear as he held you pinned against the wall, his hips slamming up against yours, driving himself deep into your core. To your credit, you held your voice well, only letting the slightest peeps and squeaks out when the older man happened to hit your soft spot in his wild momentum. It’s not that it would’ve mattered, though; the Halloween party’s music blared too loudly in the cafeteria for anyone to hear you getting fucked braindead in Miguel’s office. 

“Mmmmnnn–Doc, wait, wait, ow, ow, ow–” Your thighs constricted around his waist in a panic as you hissed and dug your blunt nails into his massive shoulders. 

Miguel paused his cruel tempo and finally took a second to breathe. “I–what? You okay?” He asked, brushing some of your messy hair from your face. The corner of his mouth quirked with amusement as he was reminded of the dried fake blood trailing down your mouth, and the glue-on fangs you had set to your canines. You looked quite cute as a fucked-out vampire intern, he had to admit. 

You nodded weakly as you panted. “Y-Yeah, ‘m good, you’re good.” You tilted your head back and bonked it on the wall behind you, no doubt influenced by the alcohol in your veins. “This wall sucks. Hurts my back.” 

Ah. Miguel probably shouldn’t care. This was just a fling, some stress-relief from his frustrating marriage.

But he was too weak, apparently. “Tch. Picky,” Miguel scolded into your ear before pulling you off the wall. 

“Picky?” You repeated, clinging to him desperately. 

“Incredibly picky.” He walked a few steps, carrying you with his cock still buried deep inside of you, and rested you on his pristine desk instead. “Better?” 

You sighed and pulled your shirt down more while you both got situated. “Yuh-huh.” You looked at him with that infuriating, lazy smile and wriggled your hips against him. “Continue.” 

Miguel’s eye twitched. He couldn’t help but feel like he was accidentally subservient to you for that split second. He was supposed to be in control, not you. 

“Smug brat,” Miguel scoffed before hoisting your legs over his shoulders and pistoning into you cruelly. 

His core ached with want as you arched beautifully off his desk, and through the buzz of booze, he admired you; your own heavy cock wept against your stomach as your diaphragm stuttered with each needy dive into your messy heat. Your face flushed a captivating crimson while your eyes fluttered and shone with unspent tears clinging to your lash line. Then, your stupid costume teeth bit into your lower lip as your voice started to break free from its restraints and pushed by your bobbing Adam’s apple, letting new whimpers and clipped moans fill his office. 

“Doc,” you whined, screwing your eyes closed and fisting your hand around your length. “Doc–” 

Oh. Oh no. You were cute. Really cute in the way you started letting out bubbling praise and babbled wants, in the way your free hand clawed at his arm to just touch him and hold him while your high threatened to push you off the edge and into that endless spiral. Miguel hadn’t felt this wanted in a long, long time. He hadn’t been showered in praise, told how good he was, given someone’s full attention for even longer. 

He couldn’t remember the first time he came first, either. 

Because he did, with his teeth clenching, his thrusts breaking down into something erratic and out of tempo, he spilled inside of you. Electricity pulsed through every synapse of his nerves, bringing a wash of cool, prickling energy to his palms and curling fingers as he gripped on you harder, tighter, jamming himself inside of you with a reckless abandon. 

“D-Did you–?” You asked. Miguel caught your gaze, and another gush emptied out of him–your eyes, wide and doe-like in surprised amazement, were too captivating, too endearing. And when you realized that, yes, you’d made him cum first, you were quick to reach the same peak. 

Miguel was the one to moan this time. Your body clenched down around him in desperation to hold him still while your own white-hot bliss ripped through you. Pearly strands of white roped across your trembling hand and your stomach, one after the other, until there was nothing left to give. But with a sharp slap to your ass, Miguel found there was just a little more you could both give. 

“Good boy,” Miguel mumbled, voice thick and full where it trilled. He gave you another good spank. “Good boy.” 

Miguel slowed his hips gradually, slowly catching his breath in tandem with your wild panting as the afterglow stayed where the too-hot sear faded. His nerves relaxed with his body. His mind soon followed suit, too, which was a problem and a relief; a problem because he didn’t feel a shred of guilt, but relief in the realization of how simple this exchange was. Just sex. With someone he could tolerate.

“Shit,” you breathed. You glanced down at the mess you’d become, and grimaced. “C-Can a good boy get a, uh, a tissue or, like, five?” 

Miguel rolled his eyes. He popped open one of the drawers to his desk and pulled out a tissue box and set it beside you before, like the bastard he was, he pulled out of you without warning and watched your hole clench around nothing before glossy whiteness oozed out of you. He ignored your sharp complaints in favour of enjoying the show and meanly stuffing his cum back into you before, for a third time, giving you a slap on the rear like you were a good ol’ used truck. 

Miguel snatched the first tissue to clean himself up and tossed it away, tucking himself back into his pants and straightening his clothes out like nothing happened, before turning and walking away. 

“Hey, wh–seriously?!” You cried (or whined, or complained) at his back. 

Miguel smirked to himself before calling over his shoulder, “Make sure you clean my desk up, too. I’ll get you kicked out of the program if it’s not in perfect condition tomorrow morning.” 

But he almost crumbled under your sweet, cooing pleas for him to come back, to stay a little longer, but thankfully, a whirlwind of petty insults were thrown at his back when he reached the door. And he found the strength to keep going, to subject you to his little game. 

A cruel game of torturing his favourite intern.

[olderthannetfic]

Writing about my favorite characters as transgender has opened my eyes to how many people in fandom are able to get away with actual transphobia without other people judging them for it, and after one particularly bad experience I feel like I can't participate in fandom without constantly having to check people's profiles and social media to see whether or not they might secretly hate trans people. The fandom I currently write for is relatively small compared to others, but somehow I still manage to catch a lot of casual transphobia, especially on my higher-kudos'd works. This didn't really bother me at first since most of the comments were misinformed but rather harmless otherwise, with most asking me to write a fic where the MC medically transitions to become their "real gender" as a sequel. Those comments were written politely, but the sentiment that a person's body designates their gender bothered me a lot. I specifically present the trans characters in my fics as pre-op or non-op without dysphoria in order to feel more comfortable about my own body, and I'm really tired of reiterating the reasons why I personally won’t create a fic where the MC undergoes a full medical transition. I would be thrilled if someone else wrote that, but it’s not a concept I have any interest in executing myself.

Usually the casual transmedicalism in my comments is my only real gripe about the attitudes towards transness in my fandom, but recently I joined a major fandom discord server and found out that they had a dedicated thread for bashing my work. (Well, to be more accurate they had a bunch of threads for bashing people's works, but mine had the most messages at the time.) I should have just left at that point, but I was curious to see if there was any valid criticism because honestly I don’t get a lot of constructive feedback on my newer stuff and I wanted to see if there was anywhere I could improve. Unfortunately, it was almost entirely just really hurtful comments, with many people making assumptions about my body and offline identity, calling me a fake trans person and a chaser for the things I've written. They kept going on about how I'm fetishizing transness, how I probably just wanted an excuse to write het smut with an M/M tag on it, how I'm probably not actually a trans man but an obsessed and misguided teenage girl instead. I've been on T for over two years now, but even if I wasn’t, their belief that all bodies like mine are basically "female" was really upsetting. Maybe I just happened to stumble upon a bad crowd, but at that moment I just really felt alone. I never expected to receive that kind of vitriol in such a small fandom - I have maybe like five or so people who follow my work closely, so it's not like I'm hitting super big numbers compared to others. I understand that my work might be dysphoria-inducing for other people, but I include warnings for language at the beginning of all my fics and I'm extremely thorough about tagging all the sex acts that take place. It's easy to filter out my work via additional tags if you don’t want to see it. But no matter how many measures I take to make others feel more comfortable, they still feel like I'm taking up too much space and mucking up the tags with my fanfiction.

Part of me feels like quitting after this experience, but I'm also a spiteful bastard and I think it would haunt me forever if I stopped now lol. I'm curious to know if you or any of your followers has ever dealt with a similar situation (as in, finding out there's a bunch of people who hate your work for shitty reasons), and if you have advice on how to continue interacting with others in fandom without constantly wondering if they hate me behind closed doors. I left the server already but I'm sure there's other things I can do that I'm forgetting. Thanks for reading!!

--

There will always be people who dislike you for silly reasons, and if your fic is popular, there will be a lot of them. The only way to deal with it is to just accept that this is normal and not think about them.

[justalittlelilac]

Merry Mishaps, Tinsel, and Mistletoe

Tamarack Baumann x Athena Suzuki - Step 3

My Secret Santa Gift for the wonderful @monicaeidolith! Big thanks to @olnfsecretsanta2024 for hosting this special event!

(photo from Pinterest this isn't your gift lol)

Athena stood in Tamarack's living room, staring at what could only be described as a Christmas decoration crime scene. Tinsel hung limply in various places, a string of lights had somehow tied itself into knots, and the artificial tree was leaned precariously to one side like a tipsy party guest.

"Stellar work," she muttered, dejection thick as syrup. "You can't even handle basic decorations without messing up." The familiar weight of self-doubt settled on her shoulders – she'd only wanted to help. Her bright idea – her master plan – had been to surprise Tamarack by decorating for tonight's Christmas party, but this was harder said than done.

For weeks, Tamarack had been a walking, talking Christmas radio station, bubbling with excitement about the party. When she'd mentioned feeling overwhelmed, Athena's imagination had run wild with Hallmark movie scenarios: them baking sugar cookies while sharing glances, decorating the tree while their hands accidentally brushed, wrapping presents while sharing hot chocolate. It was all enough for her to practically melt into a puddle of holiday cozy goo. Not that she'd ever admit it out loud – she had a reputation to maintain, after all.

"I mean…I can help if you want. It's not a big deal," she'd tried to offer cooly while scratching the back of her head.

Now, here she was, trying to reunite a family of scattered baubles that had escaped from the bottom of a decoration box. The front door creaked open, and Tamarack appeared, arms heavy with grocery bags, freezing in place like a deer caught in headlights. Her usual sunshine smile flickered as she absorbed the chaos before her.

"Wow, this is… certainly festive?" Tamarack commented, her voice tinged with amusement. By this point in their relationship, she was clearly used to Athena's antics. She glided into the room, gently placing the grocery bags on a side table. 

"I swear I was trying to help," Athena mumbled with a slight smile that was more like a grimace, running a hand through her dark hair. "Look, I get it if you don't want me to help anymore. I can just leave."

Sweet as candy canes and twice as pretty, Tamarack rushed to her side without giving the decorations or her blunt defense a second thought, looking Athena up and down. "Are you okay? I know sometimes the tree can fight back. Happens to the best of us."

Athena felt her face blaze at Tamarack's close inspection and contact. "Yeah! I'm fine! I can fix it! It's just that the lights staged a coup, and then the tree started wobbling, and—"

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Tamarack laughed. She reached out and grasped one of the bent branches of the tree. "Actually, it kind of reminds me of a Charlie Brown Christmas. We could make it a theme," she offered again with another chuckle, a sound as bright as tinsel to Athena's ears.

That was so typically Tamarack – always finding the bright side. It was one of the things that made Athena's heart do little somersaults whenever she was around, like Tamarack was a spot of sunny weather on a cold day. She'd never admit this out loud, though. Some secrets were better left as a gift that a distant relative gave you that sat in the back of your closet.

"But if we're not adding onto the Christmas theme, let me help you sort this out," Tamarack continued, already moving to untangle the lights. Athena nodded, and their hands brushed as they both reached for the same strand. Athena quickly pulled back, nearly knocking over a box of granny's antique ornaments in the process.

"Sorry! I'm usually more coordinated than this," she said, though evidence suggested otherwise. Get it together, Athena thought to herself. This was supposed to be for Tamarack, and she wanted it to be perfect for the personification of holiday cheer standing in front of her. 

Tamarack raised an eyebrow, clearly remembering every clumsy moment they'd shared over the years. Her eyes trailed around the room, taking in the work they still had to do, and she sighed good-naturedly. "You know what? Let's have some hot chocolate first. I bought those little marshmallows you like."

Without waiting for a response, she headed for the kitchen, leaving behind a trace of vanilla perfume that Athena had always enjoyed. As she followed, her phone buzzed:

Qiu: Status report on Operation Christmas Party? 👀

Athena: Great! Disaster level: maximum. Tree almost became a casualty. She obviously hates me now 😀

Qiu: You're hopeless and delusional 🤦🏻‍♀️

The next few hours were an exercise in controlled chaos. Athena tried to help Tamarack bake cookies for the party, but her confidence of "no, I've got this. I've done it a thousand times" caused her to swap the sugar for salt. Luckily, Tamarack had extra ingredients to remake the dough. Then, she nearly put a hole in Granny's wall when they attempted to hang wreaths. Yet, each disaster brought them physically closer – catching each other during stumbles, reaching for the same ingredients – but Athena felt like she was sabotaging Tamarack's perfect Christmas party plans. 

Athena was completely beside herself. The more she tried to help, the closer she got to Tamarack, the more her heart would race, and she'd end up fumbling something. She couldn't help the sinking feeling that this only proved to Tamarack that they could never be more than friends. Athena could barely help with a party; how could she ever measure up to being what Tamarack needed?

"Maybe I should just stay home for the actual party," Athena suggested after accidentally breaking one of Granny's favorite ornaments. It was useless. She just kept making everything worse. Tamarack was probably better off without her around. It made sense… 

"What? No way! The party wouldn't be the same without you," Tamarack interrupted Athena's thoughts before they could spiral. She looked genuinely hurt.

"But I keep messing everything up."

"Are you kidding? This has been the most fun I've had preparing for Christmas in years. Usually, I just have Granny help, but I'm really happy you offered to do it this year." Tamarack said firmly, gathering the broken pieces. "Besides," she added with a mischievous smile, "this one needed to retire anyway. It had my seventh-grade school photo in it. You did me a favor."

The evening and the party had arrived, with a fresh blanket of snow outside. Athena was working on preparations, determined not to cause any more chaos. Guests arrived one by one, and eventually, the party was in full swing, filling the Buamann's home with Christmas cheer straight out of a Hallmark movie.

People milled about with cranberry punch, chatting and dancing to the holiday music. The whole house was draped in a golden glow from the obscene number of twinkle lights Tamarack had insisted be hung on every wall. Athena had to admit, it was cozy, especially the smell…that had an acrid odor on the tail end of it. 

"Uh, Athena? The smoke coming from the kitchen isn't a feature, is it?" Came Qiu's voice next to her. Tamarack did a double glance, and her eyes widened as big as ornaments on the tree.

"The cookies!" She exclaimed, rushing out of the living room and down the hall. Athena followed, with Qiu trailing behind. She cringed when Tamarack yanked open the oven door to release a plume of black smoke and reveal cookies resembling more like coal pieces now than holiday treats. 

Athena had forgotten to set a timer, distracted by Tamarack telling her the history of each historical Christmas ornament Granny had. "I'm so sorry," she started with a groan. "I can't believe I–"

"Hey, no," Tamarack cut her off, waving away the smoke with a dish towel. "I forgot, too. Besides, we have enough food to feed three parties. It's not your fault," she assured brightly. Except that it was. If Athena had been paying more attention, she wouldn't have added this stress on to Tam. "Let's get this cleaned up before the fire alarm goes off." Undeterred and with the brightness of a star, Tamarack continued on. Athena only shrank more. 

The party was back in full swing later when the electricity flickered once, twice, and then went out completely. The whole living room was plunged into darkness. A few people gasped and pressed together for safety. Athena nearly fainted when she felt Tamarack jump and grab onto her arm.

"Nobody panic!" Tamarack called out cheerfully in the darkness. "I have candles somewhere..."

"I've got it!" Athena pulled out her phone's flashlight and headed for the kitchen where she'd seen the candles earlier. She didn't notice Tamarack had the same idea until they collided in the doorway, sending them both stumbling.

"Sorry!" they said in unison, steadying each other in the darkness. They stood close enough for a moment that Athena could smell the cinnamon and vanilla from Tamarack's holiday baking.

"Um, candles," Athena remembered, reluctantly stepping back.

Together, they managed to light enough candles to create a warm, cozy atmosphere. Tamarack's grandfather descended into the basement to investigate what had gone wrong. Rather than ruining the party, the power outage had transformed it into something magical. Guests gathered in small groups, sharing stories and singing carols by candlelight, laughing all the while.

As the evening progressed, Athena found herself relaxing. Maybe she hadn't ruined everything after all. Tamarack and her stood in the living doorway, observing the Christmas cheer they'd created.

"See?" Tamarack whispered to Athena. "Sometimes the best moments come from things going wrong."

Athena's eyes drifted down to her friend. Tamarack looked upon the scene with a twinkle in her eyes. The golden hue of firelight danced in them, making them look warmer—like coals reheating your bones on a chilly winter day. Her rosy cheeks were even more flushed from the raised temperature of the room or maybe something else; Athena wasn't sure. She smiled brightly, returning her gaze back to Athena.

Their eyes locked briefly, and something else flickered in Tamarack's ruby gaze. Athena couldn't quite place it. Still, the moment shrunk to just the two of them. The room's chatter faded, and the candlelight blurred in the corners of Athena's eyes, focusing entirely on Tamarack. 

The house lights flickered back on, breaking the spell. The two blinked rapidly like they were waking from a dream.

"Fuse went out," Mr. Baumann said bluntly while shuffling past them toward the tree. "Yep. Just what I suspected. Tamarack, you can't plug all this into one outlet extender," he explained while leaning down and systematically unplugging extension cords and strings of lights, each one blinking out around the room.

Tamarack cocked her head to the side, confusion furrowing her brows. "Huh? I didn't–"

"Sorry. I thought it'd be easier if we plugged them all in at one place." Athena averted her eyes, feeling defeated. 

To her surprise, Tamarack burst out laughing, tinkling like sleigh bells. A few others joined in, and Athena raised her head in surprise.

When she dared to look at Tamarack, she found her watching Athena with humor. Her eyes flicked up above Athena's head, then softened.

"You know what's funny?" she mused. "I was just thinking how memorable this party has been."

"Memorable as in traumatically scarring?" Athena asked dryly.

"Memorable as in perfect. Think about it – we now have the Great Decoration Disaster, the Cookie Catastrophe, the Blackout of 2024..." She counted each event on her fingers. "These are the stories we're going to tell for years."

Athena couldn't help but laugh too. "When you put it that way, it sounds almost planned."

"Exactly! And honestly..." Tamarack hesitated, looking slightly nervous for the first time that evening. "I've kind of loved every minute of it. Even the mess ups–especially the mess ups, actually, because they meant spending more time with you."

Before Athena could process those words, Qiu's voice rang out from the living room window. 

"Hey, everyone! It's snowing again!"

Guests rushed to the frosted window to watch the snow fall, leaving the two in the archway.

While watching the scene unfold, Athena felt warm, soft lips grace her cheek, only to pull away quickly, taking the scent of sugar cookies with the sensation. Tamarack giggled, her cheeks flushed more red at the befuddled look on Athena's face.

"Look up," Tamarack whispered with a bashful smile.

There, hanging in the doorway, was a sprig of mistletoe that Athena definitely hadn't put.

"Merry Christmas, Athena," Tamarack murmured. "Thanks for making this the best holiday party ever – mishaps and all."

Athena touched her cheek where she'd kissed her, a smile spreading across her face. "Merry Christmas, Tamarack."

The two joined the others, standing close enough that their shoulders touched, surrounded by the warm glow of the remaining Christmas lights and music. Qiu looked over their shoulder, giving Athena a knowing smirk and thumbs up. 

As they watched the snowfall, Athena realized that sometimes the best gifts don't come wrapped in perfect packages – they come wrapped in chaos, tied with tangled Christmas lights and decorated with burnt cookies. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

Ahhhh!! I hope you like it, and that I represented Athena well! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

[teardrop-scales]

Matchup for @babulejka

I match you with...

Douxie!

I think you'd be a very adorable and healthy couple.

Your dynamic could be interesting and cute, since you're pretty cheerful and kind, but also polite and lady-like, while Douxie tries to be this cool "emo" dude that every girl simps for but in reality he's quite a dork lol.

And he can be a bit clumsy and reckless, although he means good, so if you could keep an eye on him that would be great.

For some reason I think he'd either enjoy/be impressed with your dark and morbid sense of humor or be concerned. Like, if you throw an especially dark joke around him, I can see him not commenting on it, but thinking to himself in concern "are you okay?" Lol

You're cheerful and bubbly while Douxie is a more calm and less cheerful/energetic person in my eyes (or at least the more modern, current version of him, not the one from Camelot), so I think you two would balance each other out well.

You two would be quite pleasing to the eye and aesthetically pleasant couple- just imagine, you with your long, blond hair and your super awesome and unique clothing styles and him with his black hair with blue streaks and his kinda emo look. You and Douxie would look amazing together imo.

He'd try to be there to watch your ballet performances. He probably would not always make it because of his jobs and other duties, but he'd try! He'd love to watch you dance so gracefully and beautifully. That'd be one of the moments when he'd think how on earth did he get so lucky to have you.

Horse riding dates <3 He may not be a professional at this like you, but we have seen from Wizards that he knows how to ride a horse more or less. Besides, you could always give him some tips and pointers, right?

And of course most importantly; your shared love for music! He'd be already in love, but if you told him you play instruments and write songs? He's absolutely whipped.

I can imagine you two having a sort of music sessions when you play your instruments and try to compose and write songs together (as a fellow music lover, I think it's super romantic).

Generally I think he'd find all of your hobbies very interesting and unique. Some of them may make him feel nostalgic because of his time at Camelot, like archery or your interest in herbal medicine.

He'd love how artistic you are, not only with music but in general and think you're very cool for being so talented, knowing how to sculpt, paint and do other artistic things.

I think he'd appreciate and share your interest about the world around us and the universe. Also, he'd be absolutely delighted to show you and impress you with some of his magic.

Douxie would eat anything that you cook and/or bake, he'd absolutely love it. Tbh, he'd eat anything as long as it was made by you, even if it was burnt to a crisp, because he's just nice and considerate like that <3

You like reading? Well, you're in luck. We know he worked in that bookstore. I think Douxie would let you borrow any book without actually buying it or just straight up give some to you.

Obviously, I can't just write about Douxie and not mention Archie, right? ^^ I feel like he could be wary at first, but after seeing that you're genuine and that you really care about Douxie, he'd warm up to you and start to love you. He'd probably be grateful for not being the only one to keep Douxie out of trouble anymore. He'd love all the pets and scratches you'd give him (although he'd probably claim otherwise). Douxie wouldn't know whether to be jealous, amused or to find it adorable lol.

A.N: I feel like this isn't my best work, but I hope you're satisfied anyway! This isn't proofread and most of the time I couldn't decide whether to write in present tense or "he would", so it may sound/look weird, apologies for that and for any possible mistakes.

[aalinaaaaaa]

WTW Power Prompts — Day One: Origin

As a response to the prompt event hosted by @/welcometowriteblr, where said event concerns all things magic!

For this whole week, I'm doing to delve into various aspects of my world's magic system, though with a specific focus to what's relevant to my current wip, A Healing for the Birds.

Today's edition, as the title suggests, is about the origins, the beginning :D

(Also you may see reblogs from my art account, talking about the inspiration behind the day's banner 😆)

Anyway, it's about time I actually started lol

—

Magic, within the entire domain of Emariya, is a naturally occurring biological substance in the world. Not all plants, animals and other organisms have it, but for those that do it is embedded into their genetic code, yet is simultaneously fluid and malleable to environmental factors. Otherwise most living things have a tolerance for it.

As a nebulous force, it is understood as something that is just “there”, akin to energy in the real world. However, what is not fully understood is why it manifests the way it does. Why can words be shaped to carry and implement magical intent? Why can people manipulate the elements? Why can some people do other things, like shapeshift, teleport, weave souls? Why do certain things block magic and/or cause harm to those with magic?

These and other questions are things that some have set forth to answer. Some attempt to do so scientifically, while others explain it through mythology, religion and general speculation. Raikaliç (the main religion of Seldaika), explains this through the idea of magic being the connection with the world, imparted by Galista to all who were born on its soil. This concept gives an explanation as to why not all mortal humans have magic, because they are originally from a different world, so therefore they lack the connection.

Meanwhile, a common belief for it in Helinda is that magic is the essence of the old deities, spilled through the world once they passed. A theory spread by a small minority is that the more people/faeries present on the land, the more divided the pool of magic. In other words, they believe there is a fixed amount of magic and if it is split between five people, it is more potent than magic split between a few million. This theory is rather unpopular for a number of reasons, one of the most notable being that large families are a status symbol.

Another major question is the matter of the divine relics. There are a few particularly bespoke items scattered across the world, such as the mirror buried within the castle in Therae, Kerras. This mirror is said to enable communication with the seafolk, and perhaps even the deities and the dead, but no one is known to have cracked it. More commonly, people report to have seen dreamscapes and nightmares, with some stories alleging that the mirror sucks people in without return. Some believe it was forged, others think it is some naturally occurring (or divinely gifted) phenomenon that the castle was built over.

—

Another matter is the Allaitri Chalice. It is the holy relic of Helinda, able to purify water and grant it healing powers. Prior to Helinda’s founding, it was stored in a grove situated within the mountains between a few provinces. Seven nymphs guarded it, and they allowed other faeries to drink from it in exchange for a major sacrifice, such as a pound of flesh or severing a major relationship. One day, it went missing. No one knows where it disappeared to nor who stole it, only it is gone. Every so often, someone will allege that they found who stole it and a series of petty feuds occur. Sometimes this escalates to civil war. Other times it exacerbates ongoing conflicts or it's just a collection of petty feuds.

Various other magical phenomena occur across the world regardless of explanation, some major and others small.

Tagging the General taglist for this (ask/comment/reblog, etc if you'd like to be added or subtracted): @mr-orion @the-ellia-west @guessillcallitart-deactivated20 @thereadingfoz @glassstardust22124 @honeybewrites @ashirisu @drowsy-quill @oliolioxenfreewrites @theglitchywriterboi @seastarblue @gioiaalbanoart @rae-butter @corinneglass @oros-ash3s @jacqueswriteblrlibrary @rainbowsnowflake @fourwingedwriter @oddcryptidwrites

[silent-neutral]

About SH2 Pyramid Head symbolism and the remake PT.1

--mentions of sexual violence, suicidal themes and just overall mental illness-- please PLEASE DON'T READ BEYOND THE CUT IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY THIS GAME BUT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SILENT HILL 2!! There will be spoilers in this ''essay'' and I don't want to spoil such a great game for anyone starting fresh and blind, because that'd be the perfect way to start this game imho - your feeling toward this game will be heightened without knowing too much, plus forming your own view and having questions about it is also cool.

(***Had to cut this down into parts after watching 10+ hours of the remake and so much watching gave me a headache that felt like a literal hangover the next day ugh I felt like James lol otherwise it's too many topics and words in 1 post. This way it might be easier to organize them. )

------------------------------- My mind was blown recently. Ig I'm posting this to clarify more to myself than anything, but I had to search up Ito's recent comments about certain scenes with Pyramid Head. (ahem, the first cutscenes specifically). I've always had my own ideas and guesses about specific details playing as James, but after some clarifications on Ito's part about Pyramid Head.. it kind of jarred me, but at the same time explained other things and now my initial view of this game and its characters are validating my assumptions.. And if you knew about this already, well good on you.... Ito tweets so much sometimes, info like this gets buried and I had no idea until a week or so ago lol. So in light of SH2R releasing, I conveniently found out about some crucial details that would *also* inadvertently explain my (petty) gripes about SH2R. I watched the entire playthrough and my views have slightly altered (mostly positive, as this game was actually very faithful to the original imo). but for now I give you...a very wordy analysis on some themes of SH2. Excuse my rambly thought process though, it's very hard to organise them sometimes, I say to future self re-reading this later lol.

We know the monsters all carry symbolism relating to James. Specifically speaking, the series has a lot of sexual undertones present. Man.. Idk where it all started but I'm pretty sure we all assumed it was true when every Silent Hill source or fanpage over decades would bring up James' sexual repression. It made sense because of how things appeared, plus Angela's trauma and her demon....that James even fights... Well.. Ito hates fans saying James 'sexual repression' being symbolised in the monsters are canon. He doesn't mind people forming their own opinion, but he hates when fans say it's canon lol. At any rate, there was a lot of confusion from what I read at first (and the language barrier didn't help, but I think I got the gist of what he meant). --------------------------------------------------------------- Talking specifically about the mannequin scene, Ito says PH is *not* raping them. Ok sure, tbh it looks too vague to label it something extreme like that. But it became something of a meme and Ig it ended up being believed as true. Kinda wish this sentiment was quashed many years ago and not in 2020/2021 gah... So, what's happening in that scene is actually far more deeper than simply to traumatise James.... Pyramid Head is a manifestation of James' guilt AND unconscious desire to be punished for killing his terminally ill wife. James is called to Silent Hill via a delusional letter from Mary he created in his mind.(A made up one to ignore the real one). He's suffering from some kind of selective amnesia throughout the game, hence why everything is there to remind him of his pain. Obviously he's traumatised by what he did that his mind has blocked it out to the point it seems he has remembered a false timeline of events... but his soul is yearning for judgement. Ito says that, therefore, James is suffering from many delusions, that's what's creating and manifesting his inner demons (true for all that come to Silent Hill). Pyramid Head himself is manifested as the executioner, tasked with punishing James, and so.. He is actually attacking James' delusions, trying to remove them:

*o* And Ito goes further! Right after PH kills those mannequins, he stalks over toward the closet James hides in (also meaningful, lmao, but okok it's not about sexual orientation). Apparently, PH's appearance is shifting. Ito says he modelled and animated all the monsters in the original, so I trust him when he says that the front left panel in the corner of his helmet is peeling/flaking back and a tongue-like appendage protrudes from the hole. Although.. he admits it might be too dark to see in that scene, but it's there supposedly. I'm paraphrasing, but Ito implies that PH is impacted by James' delusions in that James *thinks* he sees a tentacle come out of the helmet and thus manifests that. And that's when James shoots at him - He shoots at his own desire to be judged when it attempts to remove his delusions that are keeping him from the truth of his reality!! James can't face reality at this point - those delusions are keeping him somewhat sane and distracted! It hurts too much this early on for PH to attack those delusions so he stops it...this is why he is 'in the closet'. James continues to keep those 'skeletons' there, for now. It makes PH look like the true good guy - an angel.. like Valtiel (interesting to note they have similar body design). Because of learning this, I very quickly noticed how throughout the Remake, you will find plenty already downed enemies.. and it was easy to think ''PH was here''. After James realises the truth from the tape, the Hotel reveals its true appearance (not sure when it burned down or if that has something to do with Alessa, er wait I remember in Origins it was in her house.. well anyway! this could explain James' sketchy memory of events, especially when confronted by Laura having only met Mary and received the letter a year ago in-game.) Anyway, the point is; if James is aware, then the delusions begin to fade. So after watching the Remake, I hoped that the monsters wouldn't appear/be weakened and lo and behold! Bloober was paying attention! The monsters after you watch the tape are weak and limping, can't attack or are already dead and I was delighted! It means Ito was consistent that the delusions the town creates makes up the core theme of Silent Hill. In the original, there are only 2 lying bodies before the PH fight. (I forget the meaning behind them but it has something to do with James' helplessness.) At any rate, Remake did the 'dying vision' symbolism much better here and the explanation is so so fascinating that it led me to rethink the concept behind PH. Side note though, about that hole in PH's helmet. I was always so damn confused about it for so many years!! I used to draw it as a rectangular hole (some art by Ito actually depicted it like that iirc), and then eventually to a gunshot hole since James, well, shot at him, so I assumed that's what it was from. and NOW it's actually a triangular shaped hole from the paneling being 'turned upward' due to how James' is perceiving him in the moment. What a revelation, I cry. Ah.. and note on other design aspects.. Apparently Ito never designed PH with a mass of flesh under the helmet (just a perpetual shadow and the neck bag thing at the back) and he doesn't even know who conceptualised that, but I think it's due to all the cameos and appearances PH has made in many games since SH2. And he looks slightly different each time so.. yeah, interesting that.

Even the figma has that fleshy mass (and gunshot hole!) but I'd say it is accurate on nearly everything else:

It is a very nice figure though. I can't blame all these figures ever released that *weren't* supervised by Masahiro Ito himself, because lmao, Ito just admitted that PH is subjected to changes depending on how James views him, and that explains why details are vague and hard to determine let alone see bc the game is so dark. Take this little gacha figure of PH for example, from a cute baseball game called, I think, Konami Dream Stars (Pal Pro kun?) Yeah, I got Snake as well lol:

...and yes, shameless little peek at my nerdiness on display, all the Capcom stuff is directly below it lolll

------------------------------------------------------------------ So! Having learned what I did, I ofc had to question the next obvious thing; the cutscene just before the first boss fight. PH was without a doubt molesting the Lying Figure/Body which was moaning suggestively the entire fucking time - no one is about to gaslight me into thinking THAT wasn't sexual! And yes, Ito admits that scene was intentionally made to appear sexual (as opposed to the mannequins) and yet he says it has no sexual meaning....wtf does that even mean?! Well, I think I got it. Again, language barrier is most likely to blame, but... To apply the last explanation for the mannequins; James' delusions are making him *think* he is seeing something intimate to the point it manifests right then and there which is so disturbing he recoils and tries to go back through the now-locked door. And so.. it would seem that to PH, he is just trying to destroy the delusions and he can't help how James perceives that; it's just going to manifest accordingly. And while Ito hates 'sexual repression' as somehow being canon to some fans (the majority actually), well, bruh... can you really blame people for coming to that conclusion? The flesh lips, nurses too, are on the risque side. Now, idk how it doesn't indicate something sexual if it's not meaning to be but I am aware of Ito's art style tending to be quite sexual and suggestive, featuring a lot of bdsm themes in his artwork and he is quite obviously inspired by at least HR Giger's work. So making the nurses, for example, look the way they do may be a stylistic choice, but I highly doubt it doesn't also have a symbolic purpose other than referencing Lisa's image or something (This is Silent Hill though ffs, everything is symbolic, it HAS to be). I'll reassess the meaning of those for myself, but specifically I'm addressing PH (and soon in another post, the other elephant in the room: Abstract Daddy.) Initially, I always saw PH as trying to remind James of his sins, jolt his memory, to wake him up to reality. (Which is interesting considering it's not clear if Silent Hill itself is even rooted in reality, the alter dimensions I mean. Another topic I want to address soon.) I also noticed the mirroring effect PH/Maria were doing in relation to their human counterparts; PH is James, and Maria is Mary; James killed Mary, and so PH kills Maria. But.. If PH is actually also trying to destroy the delusions, (which also appears to reflect the fact James is trying to overcome his guilt, his mental blockages that are causing his selective amnesia)that inadvertently means PH will need to destroy himself in the end as well, and that is exactly what happens..

Coincidentally, this would also reflect James' suiciding.

But first, PH attacks the monsters that are manifested and represent different aspects of James' trauma/psyche. Then he is constantly confronting James by killing Maria, or James having to return to a dead Maria. I thought he was basically tormenting James by showing him what he'd essentially done to Mary. "This is what you're guilty about, this is what you need to accept'' I think that idea still holds water (pun very intentional), but now I feel it adds another layer because Maria is the ultimate delusion... and thus, PH must destroy her. Now when she says 'I'm not your Mary, but I can if you want me to be' makes more sense to me what she is. She too is subjected to James' delusions because she keeps shifting the perspective she talks or thinks in, Mary's or Maria's? But she knows she is not Mary, just a manifestation of an idea. And James deep down knows she is holding him back (like all the other delusions) and that feeling calls PH to thus kill her. When James can't escape the reality of his past, he finally accepts the truth, the memories revived by the tape, and confronts PH after stabbing Maria a final time. 'Stop denying/ignoring your guilt, and stop trying to cover it up with distractions like Maria'. James finally doesn't need to be told anymore, he has punished himself (fitting, seeing as PH is an extension of James anyway) and thus PH, the final delusion/illusion kill themselves and disappear.

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

OK so that's PH! Now to compare that with the remake

My main gripe was that the game is way too saturated in colour and too bright in certain parts, but it improves that as you delve deeper in the game thankfully. Kudos to Bloober for changing James' face to something more 'unaware' and disassociative. Gripe number 2: I do wish they cut out the 'hand rubbing' in the opening scene or at least tone it down bc that kind of foreshadowing is too damn obvious, sorry. Not needed. Especially not right at the start. Not even for old fans playing it, we know what happens, but cmon...It makes James too aware of *something* and his selective amnesia is what gives rise to his own customised demons...if he is even slightly aware of what he did, then what is the point to seeing the monsters, let alone PH attacking them, now that we know what Ito had intended? Wouldnt that change their appearance, or rather, remove them altogether? sigh, anyway. I find PH a bit too bright, not dirty enough and consequently, not as disturbing. Partly for that was how they clearly removed the lying body scene from the boss fight. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but now with much needed context, this now makes sense...

HOWEVER....If my guess about James' assuming something sexual was taking place in that scene is what manifested it to begin with, then what is there to say about the remake?... So the simple act of hand-rubbing (awareness) really DOES make a difference, huh?! >:O it took away our favourite PH scene! 😂💔..

We can talk about DEI and stuff like that affecting certain themes in this game.... but Ito saying 'it doesn't mean it's sexual' would explain why it's taken out of the remake. Ito has supervised the Bloober design team on this, so they would have so much more context and info from the man himself... Still, it appears to conflict with James' psyche, bc it is through his very perspective that we are perceiving the town and how it presents itself to James so ofc if James sees something explicit, so are we the player. We are seeing the town and monsters through his eyes. And there is much to say about whether or not the other characters are even seeing the same town, but I'll get to that too. There is also the possibility that it's just 'creative freedom' on Bloober's part. It sucks, but overall... the game's pros outweigh the cons. Symbolism for Silent Hill is a very strong trait though, so I'm a bit conflicted about those changes. In the end, PH being a punisher and attacking the delusions of James' traumatised state of mind is fundamental, so as long as that is present, then I can't really say it's so inaccurate ig. It does imho, take away from PH's menacing persona and tones the disturbing factor down which consequently, in my humble opinion, makes him less scary. Intimidating, perhaps.. but less so. He looks very cool though lol. Especially how he breaks the walls during the chase and the final PH battle, I was super impressed with it! I didn't really like how PH was animated in the cutscene in the first fight (the way he turns around, idk..) but I love how they both throw the spears at you! This fight definitely improved upon the og version. Ah, and the sound of his heavy footsteps are wonderful as well! There was another creative thing Bloober did with PH's knife where you have to pick it up to advance through the tentacle wall thing. I realised this was a manifestation of James mental blocks since he starts holding his head in pain. But I thought "oh cool! James is gonna use the Great Knife to cut them!" But sadly, no.. but.. those tentacles would peel back, afraid of the presence of PH's knife... they are delusions after all~

Oh btw.. I didn't realize this before, but as soon as you attain Angela's knife, PH appears with the Great Knife - before this, he is unarmed. In Remake, right after you get her knife, you can hear PH's infamous screeching coming from dragging the Great Knife, reiterating that he is James. Subtle but very cool! I can't believe I didn't make that connection myself lol bah.

A bit more gripes to mention though: his strange janky movements that were imitated in remake made it look like a sad parody of the original scene, which was much more disturbing. I think it would have been better had they not added that part, it was random to see when he was moving as normal as one does trying to apprehend the mannequins, then calmly and slowly assessing the room only to suddenly flail about and strike random poses barely reminiscent of what he does in the original...and then just stand there as if James never shot him 🤨 not to mention, James looks so unbothered in this scene, he doesnt look at all anxious like in the original..the whole 'interaction' looked awkward. The original scene was paced better giving PH a kind of build up to those strange movements. I also dislike the lack of reaction and bad pacing with several of Remake's cutscenes as it toned down much of the intensity in crucial moments of the game, like in this one with PH. Yet... improved on others that I think were made better than the original's by elaborating on them.

Anyway I will touch on this and add more criticisms on remake in another post, this one is long enough lol; i just tried to get my thoughts on PH in one post but if I missed something I'll just add it in the PT.2.

If you actually read this, you must be as obsessed as I am (thank you)! Feel free to add your thoughts if you want, I love talking about silent hill symbolism or the ideologies behind The Order.

[soo-won]

Akatsuki no Yona chapter 24 magazine vs volume

Hi everyone! Like promised when I did the same for chapter 60, here I am today to share the differences between the magazine and volume version of chapter 24! This chapter is compiled into volume 5 and was first prepublished in Hana to Yume issue 21 in 2010.

(The truth is I don't have this first page anymore so this one scan is not by me. I can't find the source of it at all, sorry. the rest is from me when it's the magazine)

There's nothing special between magazine/volume on it. As you can easily find elsewhere the editor text reads "Who do you think protecting Yona is the role of...?". Something I find interesting here is the use of "Yona", though. It could be a question asked by an outside narrator and not Hak since as we know Hak doesn't call her "Yona", but! This chapter is one chapter /before/ the scene where Yona asks him to keep calling her Princess. So this is entirely possible that it was intended to be Hak saying it, except the editors (nor Hak) knew that the way he calls her would be important yet. I think it's very fun to have a glimpse into a time where these aspects that are obvious to us now didn't exist yet. The series only was 1 year old by then, after all. Also volume 3 was the latest volume released and was receiving good feedbacks!

Behind this color page you can find a detailed summary and presentation of the characters so far that you can see here (this blog is a goldmine and a blessing, I really recommend checking it out if you need to find any detailed info about the Hana to Yumes). There's nothing new or of note I can say about the descriptions in themselves, but if you're curious just ask and I can translate them too! (I love how Suwon always has "He thought of Yona as his little sister" in all his descriptions lol...sweet).

I didn't scan it, but Kusanagi's author comment in this chapter is : ヨナ３巻発売中です！今回は少しだけど描き下ろし漫画もあります！良かったら見てやって下さい～。or "Yona volume 3 is out! This time I drew some bonus manga pages too! Please check it out~" referring to the few pages at the end of volume 3 with the wind tribe and the Iksu-Yun sketch.

Otherwise, I haven't found changes between the magazine and volume version...that is until the very last pages.

Indeed, Shinah's eye in the first panel was inverted. Weird and very specific thing to edit, isn't it? Trying to find the reasons why, I have two theories (that can work together).

First theory: It's for better coherency. In the page that comes right before that Shinah's face is towards the left in the panels at the bottom, so it works better if his face isn't suddenly towards the right just after. I also think the edit made in the volume guides our eyes better towards the text bubble than in the magazine. Shinah then turning towards the opposite direction at the end of the page shows how he leaves behind something better too.

2nd theory : To avoid repetition. As you can see on the same previous page, there is already a drawing of Shinah's eye of around the same size and same angle at the top left of the page. It's something we can easily forget when we read the manga digitally, but in the magazine and volume these two pages are actually next to each other in the same double-page, and the manga is drawn with this parameter in mind.

I took pictures of what it probably looked like with the magazine in your hands (since as far I know this aspect of the pagination never changes between magazine and volume) and how it's like in the physical volume for reference. They convey something a little bit different I think! Without overinterpreting, to me in the final version it's a bit like Shinah is saying goodbye to two different sides of his life, one negative and the other more positive that he sees from two different eyes, so it makes more sense to me this way. It's probably not that deep but now you know this is thing ahah.

Lastly the final page! Which has an editor text this time. It translates to "How long has it been since I last held someone else's hand? How long has it been since I last felt something that is not "despair"...?" ...sniff.

I don't have any more of those, but if someday I can get my hands on more of these I'll compare other older chapters again!

[hellhound5925]

HERE IT IS 🙌🏻 THE MOMENT LONG AWAITED

Cyare Verd

*OC Raven x Hunter

A/N: Welcome back! I apologize for taking so long but ☝🏼 I edited my original story up to the fourth chapter only to decide I still didn’t like it so guess what I edited the same four chapters again 😅

I’ll start by saying, yes it still follows the season two storyline of The Bad Batch (unoriginal I know) but I did change it up quite a bit. If your looking for Omega (lol) shes gone 👋🏼 I was never a huge fan of her so I wrote her out 🫣 otherwise, I hope you enjoy the new version of my fic. I will be taking it off Wattpad and AO3 in the meantime so I can finish making edits.

Oh, one last thing. If you would like to be tagged please drop a comment or send me a message ☺️ Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking time out of your day to read this. It means the world to me.

Anyways. Without further ado 🤲🏻 I present to you my updated fic 💖

Prologue/Background

Raven (If you see this. It’s the Pov for the following)

​Before order 66 went down, I spent my time on Kamino training new batches of clones for the Grand Army of the Republic. I met many of the troopers who lived there during the time including Sargent Hunter of the infamous Clone Force 99. Our interactions were usually quite brief but there was a certain charm about him I enjoyed from our very first encounter. However, I was there to perform my duty to my clan and that always came first.

​It was an honor to continue the legacy my father - Kal Skirata - left behind. He and my brothers - the Null ARC’s - have been off trying to thwart a plot they didn’t realize would lead to order 66.

​During that time, Kal’Buir had asked that I stay on Kamino not only for intel but also to get out any defecting troopers.

A friend of mine, who is another Mandalorian by the name of Aspen, posed as a supply ship for myself. She would drop off supplies or bring me an array of random items I asked for to validate her being there. Aspen would then smuggle troopers to Mandalore where they were to live out their days as they wished. A part of our clan. Clan Skirata.

When order 66 did finally happen, my brother Ordo had warned me to prepare for something big that would be happening soon. Whether or not he knew exactly what I’ll never know.

For the first few days, I lingered on Kamino waiting for any one of my brothers or Kal’Buir to contact me but it didn’t come. About a week later a droid appeared in my quarters with a message. ‘Get out now. You’re in danger Sen’ika (little bird).’ Kal’Buir was the only one who ever called me Sen’ika - mostly because I hated it but he could get away with anything.

Shortly thereafter, I packed my things discreetly and called for Aspen. She came within a rotation claiming the usual - that she was here to deliver supplies for me - and to my surprise they let her in.

The minute I was on her ship, the two of us left. We ended up on the planet in the mid rim. Where Ord Mantell became our temporary home.

Chapter One: Cid’s Parlor

Raven

Standing out in the busy streets of Ord Mantell, the sun beats down on my beskar fighting the darkness that rests on my shoulders. I will my feet to move it’s as if this weight is too much for them to carry.

My irritation radiates off me as the thunderous pitter patter pounds in my head each time a citizen passes by - must be nice to live so carefree - I think to myself. Yet they pay me no mind, even though the very nature of my armor is intimidating.

The dull black shein of a well-worn helmet that sits upon my head, with the infamous T shaped visor. The rest of the plates are the same color with a few iridescent feathers poking out from underneath. Ironic right.

This armor is my pride and joy. It was a coming of age gift - if that's what you want to call it - from my father. Kal’Buir was by far one of the greatest Mandalorians in the history of our people - though my opinion might be biased.

A wave of sadness washes over me at the thought of him, my family, my brothers, and my best friend Aspen. Shaking the thoughts from my mind I tell myself they wouldn’t want me to sulk. Aspen would smack me if she were here. Unfortunately, the two of us had to go our separate ways after getting into some trouble. What else is new?

Aspen has always been the friend I can count on for anything. We met as kids on Mandalore and practically grew up together. Once we were old enough, the two of us would drink - a little too much - and run our mouths. Sometimes I’d come home with a black eye and Kal’Buir would say ‘I hope the other guy looks worse’. With a osik (shit) eating grin he knew I could handle myself.

Eventually that trouble caught up to us. When I had been on Ord Mantell before, she and I got into it with a group of merc’s and Cid saved our skin. Usually I didn’t pick fights we couldn’t win but that time I did.

That was just after our home was bombed by the Empire. My family. My clan was there as far as I know. Rumor has it the surface is no longer safe. The blast destroyed everything and killed everyone. Grief does funny things to people.

Since then Cid feels we owe her every time she calls. Aspen was smart enough to ignore her but I can’t leave business unfinished. I don’t like owing people anything.

Bitterness courses through my veins and I find my feet moving through the doorway.

Hunter

Cid's Parlor is loud and crowded - as usual. Which for enhanced senses is why I prefer the solitude of the ship. Let’s not even get into the stench of hot bodies and alcohol might put me over the edge.

I take a deep breath to steady myself and push out the overwhelming sounds and smells, in an attempt to tune back into my brother's conversation. Echo and I were discussing whether or not the Marauder needs maintenance. Which is true it does. However, we don’t have the credits.

One glance over at Wrecker and its obvious Tech is beating him - again - at dejarik.

With a sigh and a gentle swirl of the pint in my hand, I watch as the amber liquid spins like a world pool. The sickly-sweet smell of blood orange and yeast reaches my nose. I let myself get lost in it for a moment, the scent totally washing over me.

The weight of the things we have had to endure begins creeping in. My men. Their safety and well-being are my responsibility. Crosshair.

Before I’m sucked too far into the void, my senses pick up something that wasn’t there a moment ago. Dark, sweet raspberry, rose. I’d recognize that scent anywhere after the hours I’d spent committing it to memory.

Lifting my gaze from my glass, it’s pulled like a force of gravity as a Mandalorian female enters the parlor. A warmth washes over me mixed with a little relief at seeing that all too familiar T-visor. I can’t contain the shock that creeps on my face at her presence or the memory—

‘Alright everyone, today we go over the basics.’ Her voice is crisp but not cold, giving orders and yet…silky smooth. I could listen to her speak to the regs all day.

She continues barking out orders which I recognize as the basics for hand-to-hand combat. I stop listening about half way through just to commit her to memory.

Covered head to toe in dark black beskar, her visor drifts over the group of men before her. The small frame is quite a contrast to the 6ft Clone troopers in formation. She has such a commanding presence, exuding confidence. My eyes roam over her curves and stop at the dual westar -35’s attached to either side of her thighs. For a moment I swear my heart might leap out of my chest—

Raven Skirata.

My trousers suddenly become constricting forcing me to shift uncomfortably. We only ever ran into one another a few times on Kamino. Mostly casual conversation about war efforts. The sound of her laugh when I told her about some of the things we’d improvised on missions, is one my brain never lets me forget. I never did get the courage to ask her about herself.

Raven crosses over to the bar and my eyes follow her every move. It’s only now that I notice she’s skinnier than I remember. Her complexion is quite pale in comparison to the dark circles under her eyes. The sight causes my chest to tighten. What the hell happened?

"Long time no see. I was starting to think you wised up" the Twi-lek bartender says by way of greeting. There's a long pause as the Raven drops her shoulders considerably.

"Unfortunately, I'm a little low on rations to be wise" she shoots back, that silky smooth voice taking on a sarcastic tone.

Having caught the attention of a rather large man - whose been talking loud enough for everyone in here to hear - he leans over to speak to her.

"Wow, that must be real beskar.......Wonder what kind of price someone would pay for th-that...." He slurs a little at the end.

In one smooth motion, Raven ejects her vibro-blade from her vambrace - the steel practically sings - slamming his head into the bar top with the other hand. A loud thud follows. Some of the patrons stop talking to stare while the Twi-lek laughs.

Pressing her blade to his throat she leans in close she sneers, "Try to take it from me and I'll find out how much someone will pay for your head.”

The man proceeds to mumble and she cocks her head at the bar tender as if in annoyance. Letting go of the man he slumps to his knees before getting up and stumbling away, hand pressed to his temple.

I have to work had to suppress the smile that threatens to creep onto my face, the corner of my mouth twitches anyways.

"Don't mess with Mandalorians" Echo chuckles, drawing attention. Raven glances our way tensing. Mentally I command myself to look away but I can’t. For a moment I swear, even through her visor we make eye contact.

Raven

After I’m satisfied I’ve put this man in his place, I let go and he slumps to the floor. Comments fly from over my shoulder but there’s that voice I’ve heard thousands of times that stands out.

I can’t help but turn and that when I see them. The red and white plastoid. Thanking my ancestors for the helmet, I roll my eyes at just how ironic it is they are here. Sargent Hunter and the Bad Batch. He and I have spoken a few times on Kamino but the others I’ve never officially met.

Frozen in place, I stare for a second. The Sargent doesn’t take his eyes off me with an unreadable expression. If I’m lucky he won’t recognize me - I think to myself. Forcing myself to move, I turn back to the bartender with a finger in the air, signaling I’d like a shot.

My gloved hands make their way to my helmet and gently slide it off, letting my messy blonde braid at the back of my head fall. Lately I find myself caring less and less about what I look like.

Placing my helmet on the bar top, I take a breath to steady myself before taking the shot. The burning liquid a welcomed punishment if nothing else.

The bartender nods over my shoulder and I sign knowing what's coming.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes" Cid says, throwing an arm over me like we are old pals.

I roll my hazel eyes "I'm not here because I want to be. Lets get on with it" I grumble.

"No 'Hi Cid, how are you?'" She asks.

"Nar'sheb (shove it)" I say in my native tongue with a polite smile on my face. She has no idea what I said to her but there's a snicker from someone close by.

————

"Remember what happened last time you threw your attitude around like that? " Cid scolds me as we enter her office.

Picking dust off my flight suit I sass, "I'm not here to discuss my 'attitude'. What's the mission?"

Cid moves behind her desk and crosses her arms "Fine, I need you to help out a group of fine gentlemen." She starts to explain, her tone a little too...chipper.

I raise a brow, shifting my weight and hum my dissatisfaction.

Cid immediately gets defensive, “Look it’s not my fault you mandos like to find trouble. You’re just lucky I was there to bail you out. Besides, these guys could really use someone with your skills. Dooku's private stash is being relocated by the Empire and I want you to help them get as much as possible".

The fact that she said Empire had my attention and attitude immediately shifts.

"I thought you might like that and I promise I'll give you 20%" she continues noticing my mood lighten.

"30 and it's a deal" I counter.

"Hey! I gotta pay those other guys too. I feel I'm being quite generous.”

I guess for considering who I’m speaking with… "Fine 20%, Now who are these guys?"

"They call themselves the Bad Batch. Wait here I'll go get them" she doesn’t give me a chance to respond before she heads out the door.

For a moment I stay where she left me and contemplate my next move. I can either play it like I don’t know them and take the chance their Sargent will recognize me or…

With an annoyed sigh, I stride over to her desk and set my helmet down before scanning the book shelves. Most of these I’ve read during my ‘spare time’ when Cid let me crash here before. Not surprisingly, there’s nothing new.

Leaning my back against one I take my gloves off and unbraid my hair. The blonde waves fall loosely over one shoulder ending just below my breast. It’s a wonder I ever let it get this long but a part of me just can’t bring myself to cut it.

I make myself comfortable at her desk, leaning back and kicking my boots up on it, When Cid flings the door open and scowls at me. My stomach ties itself into knots but I try to seem disinterested by playing with my hair.

There’s a chance these guys decided like the others to side with the Empire. But the odds they did and they are here? Slim but not zero.

Pushing off the desk I stand and stroll around to the front, leaning against it. A few golden strands fall into my face with the movement. My hands naturally side down towards my blasters holstered at my sides. A defense position that’s become muscle memory. The Sargent eyes follow my every move.

"Take it easy there Mando these are the good guys."

Cid rolls her eyes after seeing my body language. Once again in typical Cid fashion she hid this from me, likely knowing I wouldn’t come.

The largest one of the 4 pushes past.

"I'm Wrecker! I like to blow stuff up!" He says very loudly, sticking out his hand. My body is further tensing.

I hesitantly shake his hand, which compared to mine - even with gloves on - looks like it could easily crush it.

"Wrecker, I feel that last part was not necessary" says the one holding a datapad.

"I am Tech by the way.”

Nodding by way of greeting, I quickly glance over at their Sargent. Had I blinked I would have missed the split second of recognition before the mask of a leader slid into place.

The one with a socket arm glances over at him. Probably from the tension radiating off of me. Those amber eyes see me for exactly who I am.

My breathing picks up, but I quickly get it back under control. The former doesn’t seem to notice, not taking his eyes off me.

I decide to meet his gaze with a challenging one. Hoping to hide whatever it is he sees.

Shaking his head like he’s having a difficult time dragging himself from thought, introduces himself.

“I'm their Sargent-well was their Sargent...Hunter and this is Echo" he gestures to socket arm.

Echo waves at me with his socket and a soft smile. I nod slowly and clear my throat.

“I know who you are.”

Tech lifts his eyes from his datapad to look at me once again. Before he or anyone else can I say anything I continue,

“Raven. Raven Skirata.”

————

When I start towards my ship - alright so it's not really my ship, I stole it - I was so deep in thought I almost didn’t hear someone call out to me.

"Wouldn't it just be easier if we all went together?"

I stop not bothering to turn around "How do I know you won't leave me behind?"

If these are the clones I’ve heard so much about, there’s a good chance I can trust them. However, my instincts are telling me not to. Echo, almost like he is reading my mind says,

"You can trust us, we aren't like the others".

The sorrow in his voice fills the space between us, making me uncomfortable. I roll my shoulders, hands flexing at my sides.

Without saying anything I head up the ramp to my ship, gather a few things in my pack, and come back out to see Echo standing where I left him. The rest of the group must have gone to their ship. With a small nod he leads the way.

As we approach, I stop for a moment before heading up the ramp to admire the hull before me. An Omicron class attack shuttle but it’s been modified. It’s just as impressive if not more so in person. My brothers - specifically Mereel and Jaing - would have loved this thing, I can practically hear them fighting with even Ordo for who would pilot.

With a few steps up the ramp, I peer inside and it’s notably clean. Briefly I take in the surroundings noting the others up front in the cockpit area. Echo glances back at me sensing my hesitation.

“I’ll show you around”

I tip my visor towards him appreciatively, without saying a word.

————

Echo finishes the tour with the bunks, two on the left and two on the right. He gestures to the right, showing me which one is mine and offers me a gentle smile. With a quick glance I realize there are only 4 of them.

“Hunter usually stays up in the cockpit. You get his bunk.”

Great.

I nod my appreciation again and take my pack off my shoulder. The only things in it are a couple changes of regular clothes and some rations. I've not got much to lose that isn't my beskar these days.

Placing my pack on the lower bunk, the mythosaur skull on the back of my gloves stare back at me with hollow eyes. It’s almost like they know. Our people are gone. For a moment I wonder if anyone will even remember what it means.

I forgot Echo was still standing there until his throat clears. He says carefully, “Your father is Kal Skirata.”

My heart starts to thunder in my chest at the mention of his name. I finish settling my pack before I turn to face him. A part of me wants to answer but it feels like my mouth is full of cotton. I mentally thank my ancestors for the visor between us.

“He was one of my instructors. In my early days I mean. He was always really good to us. I heard about what he did...he got some of us out.”

Silence fills the space. I slide my helmet off, tucking it under an arm. Unable to look him in the eye, my boots seemingly interesting all the sudden.

“He’s gone.” My voice almost doesn’t sound like my own. Distant.

“Too many good people have been lost because of the war. I’m sorry to hear that.”

In his kind words, the galaxy feels a little less lonely. I finally lift my head and meet his gaze, seeing the loss there.

“I’m sorry for your loss too.”

Echo only offers me a somber smile in response. My walls go back up and I decide to change the subject. It comes out a little sassier than I had intended.

“So, you all have enhanced something or other right? I mean I was on Kamino and spoke to your Sargent a few times but mostly what I know is what I’ve heard.”

”Each of us had a unique quality. Wrecker is brute strength, Hunter has enhanced senses, and Tech is really smart.”

”Wasn’t there another member? Crosshair?”

Another sad look from him, “He chose the Empire.”

“Ah” I nod my understanding. “How do you fit in here?”

He rubs the back of his neck and chuckles.

“I was originally with the 501st under General Skywalker. We were on Skako minor and I was blown up. Captured by the Techno union and they made me mostly a machine.” Echo lifts his socket arm as a reference.

“My Captain. Rex. He and the Bad Batch rescued me. I owe them everything.”

That name. Captain Rex. It sounds familiar. ”No offense but you just met me and you trust me enough to tell me all this?” My sass once more evident.

He smiles and says “Your father spoke highly of you.”

My throat closes up at the same time pride washes over me. When I don’t respond he continues.

“I’ll leave you to get settled in” and with that he turns and heads toward the cockpit.

I watch as he reaches the others and takes a seat. Unable to do anything else other than process what he just said.

————

It takes me a while to recover from the conversation. A part of me hesitates to comm Aspen but I can’t risk compromising her.

Instead, I take my time to check my weapons (two blasters at my hip, vibro blade in my vambrace, and the various blades stashed in my boots and under my back plate). No one bothers to check on me, which is just as well. Finally, I end with checking the HUD in my helmet - which seems to be functioning fine.

Discarding my helmet on the bunk, I head for the cockpit where the others are chatting quietly. The hushed tones likely to prevent me from overhearing. Hunter stiffens as I approach which only confirms my thought.

The four seats at the front were taken up by each of the members. Leaning against the doorway I cross my arms over my chest plate.

"We don't have a reason to trust each other but once this mission is over and I'm paid, I'm gone. You won't have to worry after that.” The annoyance plastered on my face is visible to all.

They all glance at one another except Hunter, his eyes fixed on my face like he’s trying not to look anywhere else. He almost looks hurt at my comment.

"That seems reasonable" Tech says very matter of factly.

”Great. So, what's the plan?”

“Get to Serenno and scout the area." Hunter says turning his attention to space zooming by at light speed.

I sigh, "That's not much of a plan but I can improvise."

Wrecker chimes in, ”Ahaha you’ll fit right in!” Awkward silence fills the space before I break it.

“Right. Well I guess we should all rest up so let me know when we land.” Spinning on a heel, I head for the bunks.

Next Chapter here.

Wattpad link here.

Taglist: @cloneloverrrrr @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @idoubleswearimawriter @savebytheodore @savebytheodoresnonjosestuff @jediknightjana @techs-goggles9902 @clonethirstingisreal

Lemme know if you wanna be tagged in the future!

[frumfrumfroo]

I hear and agree with all you've got to say (I've been following you for six years this year and check your blogs like the newspaper), but one does wonder if like-- if "this", that is, video game EUification SW, is what SW is in its perception, its cultural status, can one make appeals to Lucas' Original Trilogy (and to some degree, Prequel Trilogy) ethos? At a certain point, once a work becomes canonical, it becomes more than itself, and I guess I just wonder if I'm beating my head against a brick wall with this, lol.

But on the other hand, it's that very ethos that gave it that cultural canonicity. Being able to identify it is the only way you can make SW a property which regenerates, otherwise you end up with the slag that is CGI Luke. Maybe I've answered my own question, but I'd love to hear what you think.

I really think that if SW were solely what the video gameifying fans wanted to make of it, it would not have the indelible cultural impact that is has. The reason it is so huge and enduring is because of its bold and deathless narrative. It's very basic, but it's mythic storytelling with emotional verisimilitude and that's something that taps into the human psyche in a very profound way. The challenge it presents with its unconditional idealism, the defiant hope it proffers in the face of popular cynicism, these are the things that make it so distinctive and memorable. Pop culture is not offering stories like this for a general audience any more.

The reason why the EU type stuff can keep proliferating and expanding in esoteric directions is because they have that solid archetypal foundation to build on. If the foundation weren't there, these would be niche nerd things for a niche nerd audience. And as the foundation has been damaged the tributary constructions have stagnated and withered. Lucas's fairytale gives people a universalist platform, a shared reference point, but inevitably a lot of that huge audience is going to latch on to incidental aspects or want to subvert the story. People who create transformative works are a tiny minority of the audience and it's important to remember that most people experience stories in a passive way without critically analysing or wanting to engage creatively. The EU type fans may be the majority of the fandom (not sure they are, but I don't know if there's really a way of judging that), but that doesn't in any way mean the majority of the audience doesn't read the story more or less in the way it was intended.

But like, any fandom is going to wear down the edges of the thing. They're going to apply the lens of their own preferred worldview to it and reshape it in their own image. They're going to simplify the characters and make the themes less challenging because that makes it easier to have the fun they want to have with their fanworks. It's not a conscious process, but a big group processing something is going to make that thing more generic in aggregate.

I don't think we should take what's popular in transformative fandom (and the old EU was simply a curated transformative fandom) as a comment on what a work means to its cumulative audience or what its cultural legacy is. Probably it's not really controversial to say that the most iconic single element of SW is the revelation of Vader's identity as Luke's father, and thus grappling with the implications of that will always be at the forefront of our collective perception of the story. No matter how much lorebros and Force kata people muddy the waters, the inescapable moral challenge at the heart of the saga remains THE thing everyone knows about it.

[workingchemistry]

After rambling paragraphs in your comment section I have come on Tumblr to write more lmao. Seriously I wrote 4 journal pages of thoughts about your au it's very good!

Ok so first, I love how the fight dynamic is: jump Fox when he is being stupid -> 17 breaks up fight -> profit. Except now everything's all wrong so they had to call 17 over to fix things in post. Just hilarious and good continuity.

Your manipulative Fox is excellent show don't tell. It's honestly really hard to write a smart dude without being basically psychic or actually failing a lot. So like even though a lot of people love manipulative Fox it's hard to show in such a low stakes fashion. Usually wr just see him blackmailing people or otherwise winning instead of slowing gathering intel and influencing someone. The pacing and POV just makes it work.

Ace!Fox and Allo!Bly solidarity is hilarious. It cracks me up that the Kaminoans somehow didn't realize that most of the clones are ace spectrum. Like i question if the whole defective CT for CC batches worked even once as intended when every CC is only interested in adoption. "Natborns are obsessed with sex" indeed. Fox knows what's up.

Fox being more genuine with Bly and 17 and even Laruk was adorable. Especially with 17 where we got to realize that all the cadet style military discipline is affectionate with 17. Feral!Fox and his barely older dad my beloved.

I love how the deterministic gene editing totally matters but also doesn't matter much at all. Like all it really did is make a hierarchical family dynamic. Alphas will absolutely parent solo because they are competitive. CCs are big on being at the middle level of parenting and ori'vod-ing because they are only as competitive (for affection) as necessary to get the primary position in a cuddle pile. CTs are totally comfy with looking after younger siblings while still being looked after by the CCs. Ultimately they are all chomping at the bit to create a found family irrespective of genes.

Satine and Fox are so interesting because Satine cares that he is bleeding because of her principles not because she is being kind. Fox likewise pretends to be nice constantly so that she doesn't die on his watch and he gets blamed. Like him expressing understanding over natborn women being uncomfortable with men is just so he can do his job. He gets it but he doesn't really care about a stranger's hypothetical trauma.

Caring about your appearance is absolutely not a baseline experience for clones. Choosing to deviate from regulation at all is a huge expression of individuality even if you still present as a man.

Also like, Satine they are not soldiers by choice. Why would they have a culture that values violence above all else when they don't choose that life. As Fox was explaining in the creche, violence between vode is about love and survival, bot bloodthirsty bloodthirstyness or glory.

Also yeah, Satine will be totally offended by Fox's philosophy on death and murder. "The only deaths I care about are my brothers and they die all the time. If the purge was real I would fix the overcrowding in the senate dome no problem."

lol. They had a Method. It’s always a struggle when your younger brother is both smarter and dumber than you are. Usually beating him up and getting lecture by the only person he listens to is effective but then they tried to beat him up without Seventeen being there and it just didn’t work as well.

Ahh. Thank you. 😭 Fox is so fun as an unreliable narrator because he’s being purposeful about what he tells people when and even what he lets himself thing about but it makes me so nervous that I’m showing too much of my hand lol.

😂😂 I’m just too obsessed with the idea of the clones being ace mostly because I’m ace and so I love the idea of a culture where being allo is met with confusion. I don’t think the Kaminoans thought about sex drive at all until the trainer pops up saying it’s a problem. They give the CCs a CT and they seem more pliable so I guess it must have worked. Meanwhile the CCs are losing their minds over having a new tubie to take care of and mother hen. The CTs on the other hand are dubious but willing to be babied bc they’ve gone from living under the threat of decom to being protected by the most feral clones they’ve ever met. 😂

Seventeen acts a lot more aggressive than he really is. He’s not against thrashing his kids to make them behave but he always does it with affection. I just love to think about like Kenobi and company realizing their commanders and troopers are actually the semi domesticated version when they start digging into things and see the kinda shit that Fox and the Corries pull off unsupervised.

That is such a perfect description. 😭 the Aureks are extremely possessive and don’t really trust each other while the CCs don’t really trust outsiders. The CTs on the other hand are comparatively easy going despite what natborns think. They see these men doing crazy things on the battle and think they’re insane but actually CTs are very affectionate and willing to adopt everyone into their found families. They’re just also more willing to listen to a no. Aureks Will Forcibly adopt anyone from the younger series and CCs will latch onto anyone and dig their teeth in until they’ve subdued their targets.

Satine is so much fun to play against Fox because they’re kind of the same subset of person but with different ideals. They both come across as very helpful and caring and it’s not that they aren’t but they aren’t altruistic—even though Satine values altruism, everything she does is to further her ideals and people so it’s not actually good for good’s sake. Satine cares about Fox’s wellbeing because she feels responsible for him and Fox cares about Satine’s wellbeing because he is responsible for her. She wouldn’t be more sad about him dying than she would any rando and he would say good riddance to her if his family could get away with it.

The clones in other battalions get to play around with their appearance at least, but Fox can’t let his Corries even do that. Too much hinges on them being interchangeable. Those with identifying scars get pulled off of Senate duty and when he got his facial scar he had a whole breakdown because it meant he couldn’t step in and pretend to the others anymore. So that means what little individuality he can give to them is extremely precious and if that’s just which pronouns and names being used, he will fight for them. If they are already too identifiable with scars, he lets them grow out their hair and dye it as long as they leave enough undyed roots so it can be shaved off in an emergency. Makeup and nail polish and accessories are shared freely and used by everyone regardless of gender identity within the barracks.

The love/violence and inaction/hate culture clash is so fun to me. Like hurting your brother so that the trainer doesn’t do it is love as far as the vode are concerned. Standing aside and not correcting a mistake is setting your brother up for a decom. Satine’s preconceived notions about war and the reasons natborns fight doesn’t fit when these are just men who aren’t allowed to anything else. Like sure they enjoy killing sometimes. They enjoy getting a job done and they’re desensitized to murder. It has nothing to do with the actual killing. Later this will be highlightened when we get to see Fox doing the bare minimum to protect a natborn compared to Rex, Cody, Wolffe, and Bly all nearly killing themselves to protect their generals. Inaction vs action is a huge thing for them. Fox quite quit his job years ago. He’s just keeping his men alive at this point. Fuck everyone else.

Fox really said if the terrorists wanted to be harder to catch that would be great actually. Oh no he’s accidentally dropping the plans to the senate dome. If he could guarantee that no one would be alive to retaliate afterwards, he’d commit a murder spree, take his troopers, and book it out of there.

[shiraishi--kanade]

Hello!

I’m just here to discuss about whether or not An is on the know about Mizuki’s secret.

See here’s the thing.

An and Mizuki are like my favorite characters within prjsk so far! And part of it is due to how much I absolutely adore their friendship!

So I’m on the camp of An being very aware and supportive of Mizuki’s secret. And even tho An doesn’t like secrets as much, An is first and foremost kind and understanding.

Hints are pointed out this when during the Kami School Fes Event story, An specifically reassuring Mizuki that they wouldn’t stay out as much during the event. There’s also a couple of side stories where An is supportive of Mizuki.

For instance in the side story within Mizuki’s “Feelings That I’ve Realized” Mizuki was showing A some pictures of some haunted places (because Mizuki knows that An would be scared of them and they like to tease An lol), but then a couple of students within the hallway was whispering about Mizuki saying things like “You’re right. I can’t tell” in reference to the way Mizuki dress.

Mizuki tries to ignore them, however, An notice the students glares at them, causing the students to run away scared. In which Mizuki is shocked about but is really appreciative of An. Thanking her for it.

Another hint of An being in the know is that during the Hermit Event, where VBS ran into N25 on the streets is that when Ena asked An what’s Mizuki is like in school, An deliberately looks at Mizuki and decides to tell Ena about Mizuki’s impressive grades and tease them a bit about their attendance. Keeping Mizuki’s secret.

This is confirmed to be intentional by An’s part in Mizuki’s Hermit card’s side story. An looked at Mizuki as a way yo reassures Mizuki and that Mizuki is really glad for An’s kindness.

Basically… I love An and Mizuki’s friendship so much! I hope we get to see them interact more in future stories!!!

Hi anon please believe me when I say tumbrl literally didn't sent me a notification for this and I very rarely check my askbox (it's almost always empty) so I literally didn't see this until now. I wasn't ignoring you!

Otherwise presented without comment because I have nothing to add, you can take the spotlight on this post. I agree with you and I respect the sheer dedication to An & Mizuki to remember all of those details!

[thebarontheabyss]

I do find the Raven a bit.. too present. He does not need to comment on every second sentence xD

He can be annoying in a bit more subtle way ;3 Maybe steal someone's shoelaces or get into other Raven specific shenanigans that don't involve talking, that would make it easier to get immersed in the story, the other characters and the chemistry between them as well!

Otherwise I got no criticism towards the characters, just the Raven xD

And a random question, but... Have you ever seen Death Parade? While the only commonality here is "Bar after Death", the concept itself did immediately remind me of it. Also the show could provide some nice inspiration, if you don't know it yet! It's pretty short too.

Hi there! 1. You know, I wondered the same thing about Raven's presence a lot! The reasoning behind making him so... reactive.... to the player was that in the first chapter, he's basically acting as our only guide to this world, and without his commentary, some choices could feel more isolated, I guess? I found his chatty personality endearing in a way, but I'll go through the 1st chapter again to see how I can balance him lol. 2. I recently heard about Death Parade when someone else in COG told me about the matching concepts! I'll give it a try to see how similar it is, but from reading the plot online, it definitely goes for a very different vibe from my story, haha :D If there's any anime i took inspiration from, it's the works of Hayao Miyazaki. Thanks for the feedback!