#probably why I failed to get into dimension 20

[amethysttribble]

I simply Do Not Understand people who don’t like Critical Role’s pacing. I mean, I do understand, on an intellectual level, but the rest of me simply doesn’t get it. Maybe it’s my love for and dedication to stupid long anime, but… the fun of CR is that it’s long and meandering and messy

I’m there to watch a live streamed dnd campaign. I don’t want the rules litigation and the mechanics questions and the side conversations cut. It’s a live dnd game, I want to watch people play dnd, which is like that, it makes it feel real. That’s the experience I came for, if I wanted all that cut, I wouldn’t be watching a live streamed dnd campaign, I’d go watch a tv show. A 12 episodes, no filler tv show at that, lol

It’s about understanding the medium and engaging with it that way. I got into CR knowing that the episodes were long and liable to be slow in places; my expectations were set accordingly. And when I see folks saying they wish CR was more streamlined, all I can think is… I’m not sure you actually like/want to watch Critical Role

[ecto42]

I think in D&D terms the typical assumption would be that a character with a chronic illness and/or chronic pain would have a low constitution score. The reality is a lot of people like myself would probably have constitution as our biggest stat because not only are we constantly staying up while fighting our bodies, we’re generally expected to ignore our own physical needs and wellbeing in exchange for being able to get things done. For example, I have been fully in the middle of a POTS episode and had to cook myself dinner, carry multiple loads of laundry up and down the stairs, etc. Like there’s such a real thing to Ashton Greymoore having chronic pain and yet their highest stat being Constitution.

I think something people are really good at acknowledging for Ashton as well as being apparent with Taliesin is that chronic illness generally means you’re stronger than people would assume, but you also blow through your resources faster and they can be just as counterproductive as they are helpful. It’s important to note that Taliesin struggles with chronic issues like hand tremors and has other chronically disabled friends like Dani Carr.

Like personally as an AMAB person with a condition that primarily hits AFAB people particularly hard, I’ve had cardiologists tell me “If anything your heart is overly muscular.” Which like, thanks dude yeah that’s decades of anxiety and years of POTS hitting and me having to stay standing up. Like I was in marching band in high school and I was the kid basically double-time marching in giant steps every show because I was the easiest to place since I’m so tall. Then when I worked fast food I had to either maneuver through hoardes of people to get back to my station or just push through them completely. In 90+ degree weather in the summer in Alabama with an anxiety disorder and a “heart condition” that’s actually just another neurological condition. Like I spent years doing manual labor and unloading trucks and pallets while exhausted on like 3 hours of sleep. You have to develop that kind of resilience when the capitalist system reinforces a world where no matter what if you want to survive as a person straddling the poverty line you have to work your ass off.

This doesn’t even get into the kind of resiliency you have to develop as an undiagnosed neurodivergent person who’s being told by absolutely everyone for most of your life that you’re doing everything wrong. Like Adaine from Dimension 20 is such a good example of that. This is also why I love the portrayal of Ayda Aguefort so much, because she really is like me having to learn everything from books because no one else in her life can explain things the same way that a book can. That is one of those things that as a late diagnosed autistic & ADHDer it’s really hard to explain personally without getting really like tragic or depressing in conversation because it sometimes is just a matter of “I’ve effectively been abused my entire life purely because the system wasn’t built for me and I had a lot of expectations I failed to live up to.”

All of this as a way to say that neurodiversity and disability are much more interesting and heroic feeling when they are portrayed by actually neurodiverse and disabled people, as well as those who love those people enough to tell stories that include them. I think TRRPGs and RPGs in general are a great way to explore this. Often times when we see disabled people in shows or movies that revolve around their disability there is a lack of agency, whereas often times with TTRPGs you have to create your own agency in the first place.

[deramin2]

My boyfriend made a great point about why Critical Role would cut in the middle of an episode where the characters are grieving:

Scheduling.

In order to get the Crown Keepers to the table, they would have had to schedule everyone in advance. Especially with Aabria going to the UK for the April 20 Dimension 20 live show. There would be no opportunity to push filming back.

FCG was not supposed to die in the Otohan fight, and certainly not like that. I don't think Sam Riegel even seriously contemplated it more than 20 minutes before it happened.

Bell's Hells were supposed to get through the Otohan fight, maybe with a few revivifies, or at absolutely worst a Raise Dead. Dramatic but manageable. And then Matt whisks them off the moon and the switch happens. No one was supposed to be that dead.

It's essentially a problem of laying the tracks in front of the train. If you can accurately guess where things are heading and when, then you can pull off an amazing illusion of efficiency. But if the train ends up barreling ahead with failing breaks it can go off the rails.

They took a big swing on a perspective change, something they've never tried before, and unfortunately an unexpected thing caused an even bigger upheaval right before that. If they had total control of the situation I think they would have pushed the cast change out at least one more week to give more opportunity for mourning while the pain was fresh. Instead they had half an episode to work with.

I do think the change over right here undercut the emotional impact a little, and that's unfortunate. But the Critical Role cast are great actors and they'll probably be able to jump right back in it in a couple weeks and process all that heaviness. Maybe with some unexpected shoulders to cry on. I'm still holding out for the buffet of sadness just a little later than I was expecting to eat

[always-hetalian]

Hetalia Characters Playing Minecraft

Italy

- plays on peaceful. he's TERRIFIED of hostile mobs

- his fav biome is the flower forest. he always tries to build there bc he thinks it looks pretty

- has a fully organised 10x10 storage room, with item frames for every chest and everything. not automatic tho

- he has a pet cat named Carbonara

Germany

- probably built a tiny hut in the mountains. it's a pain to get up and down and he kinda regrets it now

- has a pet dog. he actually takes it on walks sometimes

- "why would i fight the dragon?"

- he actually likes wandering traders

- likes making redstone stuff. most of his farms are automatic

Japan

- he has like 20 bases that he travels between through the nether

- builds nicer houses for the villagers

- he just likes building in general

- always has the worst luck finding diamonds. he could mine through 7 iron pickaxes at y -58 and still not find any

- trying to get every achievement in the game (he can actually do it)

America

- pure chaos

- doesn't even have a base, he just moves from place to place and sets things on fire

- tried to get a pet creeper, which ended very badly. anyway, he's now trying to befriend a guardian

- "enchantments?? pfft, who needs those?"

- thinks the warden is easy to kill, also died to it like 15 times

- he names every mob he sees. his current favourite is a cow he calls Jim and he accidentally transported to the nether

- leaves trees mid-air

- trying to get every achievement in the game (he absolutely won't do it)

Canada

- probably gets the worst seeds ever

- he built a village for his base but he doesn't want to kidnap villagers and bring them there, so it's kinda empty

- his most common death is probably something like getting suffocated by gravel

- he really likes endermen but he doesn't wanna go to the end bc he'd feel bad to bother them at their home dimension

- really enjoys fishing

England

- doesn't build farms, he just steals crops from villages

- went to the nether once and got killed by a piglin. he refuses to ever go there again now

- actually likes the illagers

- loves enchanting. he probably has a book for every enchantment in the game

- tries VERY hard to be a good builder, fails miserably

- has a pink pet sheep he named Mr Wilson

France

- definitely prefers pretty farms over efficient farms

- wants to take over a woodland mansion

- may or may not switch to peaceful when he has half a heart left

- absolutely loves armour trims

- digs straight down, dies, gets confused, repeat

- he thinks the warden is hot

China

- built a huge base, he constantly expands on it actually

- probably made golden tools / armour at least once

- he doesn't understand how to spawn the wither, but still somehow makes better redstone contraptions than Germany

- has a pet panda that he built an entire bamboo mansion for

- tries to get max trades with every villager, insists none of them are useless

- regularly dies to desert / jungle temple traps

Russia

- loves the snow biomes, he always builds there and says they feel like home

- kills iron golems for early game iron

- probably built a really tall evil looking tower and decorated it with flower pots and pink wood inside

- he didn't kill the ender dragon and actually bridged through 1k blocks of air to get to the other end islands

- he hates acacia wood with a burning passion

[fromankyra]

tag game! got tagged by @venndaai thank you so much!

favorite colour: it's been orange for a while now, and it probably always going to be close to my heart, but recently I've been wearing a lot of really bright green as well and it looks *so good* on me

last song: I'm on my commute right now and listening to the album Bourdon by Topette!! cause they announced a tenth anniversary tour and I'm really excited ^_^ Before getting tagged the last song on my music app was Le Temps De Vivre by Boris Vian but the song that was stuck in my head this morning was Laid in Blood by the Mechanisms

last movie: it has been a while since I watched any, but I think the last one was whedon's much ado about nothing. It was, kinda disappointing, honestly, it hasn't held up super well since I got to know the play a lot better

currently reading: mostly fanfic, my brain hasn't really had space for more because of phd reasons. I kinda wanna start in the hugo packet, and Starter Villain should be pretty easy reading

currently watching: Leverage with @sersorrel , Dimension 20 on my own (Fantasy High Sophomore yr) and dr who along with basically everyone I know

currently craving: a really good cup of coffy. Kinda considering whether i can afford to go to the Nice Cafe to do some marking this afternoon

tea or coffee: ... Actually both. Why would I ever choose?? Tea is for first thing in the morning or in the evening, coffee is a wonderful process to either make or look at, and an espresso after a big meal is genuinely perfect, I love it all.

I'm supposed to tag people I wanna know better or catch up with, so let's do one of each: @vulturesrottencorpse @failed-human-being

[grayintogreen]

@spoondrifts did a general catch-all for anyone who wants to do this meme and I’m failing at life SO BOOM. FACTS.

Last Song: “King of Sin” from Leap of Faith which was hours ago judging by my post about it, which is probably why I’ve sucked at writing today. I didn’t have my earbuds in. Rookie mistake.

Favorite Color: It changes depending on what character I’m currently basing my entire vibe off of, but in general I tend to love a lot of characters associated with red or green so I’ve just decided I’m drawn to those colors specifically.

Watching: Aside from Critical Role and Dimension 20 every week, nothing. My brain is like NO. CLOSED FOR BUSINESS. NO NEW MEDIA. FUCK OFF.

Sweet/Savory/Spicy: it’s about the savory for me, but I love savory things with a little jalapeño kick.

Relationship Status: Aromantic Asexual who wants none of that, no thank you.

Current Obsession: Sorry about the Hazbin Hotel spam. In my defense, Bleach TYBW still isn’t back and I was left unsupervised.

Last Thing I Googled: I wish I had a fun answer for this but the last thing I googled was Devexian because I needed to bring up his wiki page for some fact checking for YCDHN.

I TAG ANYONE WHO WANTS TO DO THIS. Because I’m a baby bitch who thinks pinging people for silly reasons will get me shot.

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Hi! I have a few points about dates and such, so I'll just get to it:

- Miles' quiz says Decembruary 2, 2018 (but a poster later in the film says December, so that's just him playing dumb in front of his teacher).

- Jeff says Miles has been at the school for two weeks when he drops him off at the start.

- If you count the days as the movie progresses, it's about 6-7 days. There might be a few unseen days between Peter's body being found and his funeral, but if we assume he's buried immediately after, it takes place in about one week.

-The security cameras when Spot tries to steal the ATM seem to say it's July 2023. Consistency!

Anyway, the date on the quiz plus the fact that the film was released in December 2018 makes me think it also takes place then.

Thanks for your notes! I have some things to point.

I actually knew about the Decembruary detail! I watched the ITSV video from CinemaWins.

Actually, what Jeff says is that Miles needs to give it at least 2 weeks, not that he has been there for that long.

The week reference is interesting! Thanks.

Huh, I didn't notice that detail previously.

Now, with these details out of the way, what we can say?

I was right on the money about the creators not paying too much attention to dates. My original theory was that they avoided putting anything too concrete to don't run into timeline problems.

Is good to keep in mind that both the test (Miles could have easily put the wrong year too, considering he put Decembruary;) and the Security Camera are all little details that aren't really relevant to the plot; like this isn't an "if we don't do this before X date the world ends. I consider Miles Saying "And for the past year and four months" heavier proof of the time passed that what the security camera and the test had written on aren't as valuable as that. After all, if this ITSV happened on December 2018 but ATSV was on July 2023, that would mean it has been over almost 5 years for them, which has obviously not been the case.

So with the pieces of this new puzzle, what do we end up with?

New Dates

If we weigh the test Miles failed on Purpose vs the Security Camera, I think believing the Security camera makes more sense. Miles putting 2018 on a test that already says Decembruary can easily be chalked to him wanting to mess up even more.

If it has been a year and four months since he became Spiderman, and in July in ATSV, this would mean that Into the Spiderverse is happening around March.

This would mean Miles having this birthday fall between March and July, and Gwen's possible Birthday months to move from June to October.

If we continue to go with my theory of the outfits they use in the movie can count as a measurement of time, I would say March and June are very likely.

Headcanon dates for the new timeline

While I may or may not go with these dates in future stories (Which I will explain my reasoning later for those who like my fic writing.) I thought it would be fun to give some new headcanons to these dates.

Since the anomaly situation hasn't been done, my alternative number for Miles would be 24. Why 24? Because the number 42 plays a big role in his life (is the number which he won the "lottery," his spider is from that dimension, and is seen around in ITSV a lot too.) And since 42 can't be a date, 24 it is.

For Gwen, I thought it would be fun that since her universe is 65, and the month of June seems like a good lead, her birthday could be June 5 (since 06/05) I know this means there isn't an example of 15 months of difference between them, however, I think everybody goes more with the month than the exact day for these things.

I have a cousin who is roughly, 20 days older than me, but we always said "a month" while mentioned in passing because why bother with semantics.

Will I ignore this in my writing? Probably

Now, this next section is mostly there for those who like my writing, since usually, the headcanons I have here tend to translate into my works.

I will probably go with my original dates.

Here is my situation; I could believe Miles is in school in July because of the alternative universe (it seems traditionally it ends in June.) I could believe they use fluffy jackets in July because, in Miles' universe, July is colder than our own; heck I was joking with my partner that Miles probably didn't have coronavirus in his universe and the reactions to other spideys who dealt with that,

What I can't deal with, is Miles starting school in March.

While students can move to other schools all year around, the fact that the lottery part is mentioned as well as the test, makes me think this has to be at a reasonable timeline for the school year. After all, why they would host a lottery for a student when the school year ends in four months? Why Rio and Jeff would try to make Miles change school if nothing prompt them to?

Granted, this could be explained with the school year working differently, maybe they start in January, and is still early enough to do this, or start in March.

However, I disqualified the December bit (which I also discard because NO ONE HAS A STUDENT START CLASSES JUST BEFORE WINTER BREAK UNLESS THEY ARE MOVING OR SOMETHING SIMILAR.) I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to put imagine it was in December just because.

Again, this is not an important detail. Gwen's dad is different between ITSV and ATSV, as well as the fact that the situation and Peter's look are different.

(You could make the case it looks like this because Miles is imagining everything instead of being a faithful adaption. However, I firmly believe they didn't put too much time into it or stick with those concepts because it wasn't necessary. Also, this will mean Peter B maybe wasn't eating pizza instead of pushups, and I will NOT give up that.)

Why not have a different way the calendar works? Too many details to keep track of, and fics are supposed to be fun; I will not try to bend backward my writing to adhere to the canon if is not enjoyable.

Is not the only time I do this, Noir should be around 19 because of comics and stuff, but if you think I will give up the idea that Noir is in his 40s, you are dead wrong.

This part will be edited into the original post (since people don't tend to reblog reblogs, I prefer people will have the chance to see the corrections.) And queue for tomorrow so more people can see it.

Also, I made a mistake in my original post, I said Gwen's Birthday would be in June, when in reality it should May, sorry for the confusion!

If you read all the way, thank you for your patience! I know this is long.

[athenaholmesartistsguild]

God. I just finished watching the first spiderverse movie and ATSV really makes you forget that ITSV was just as perfect and amazing and flawless and every other good adjective I can think of (although ITSV has way fewer flashing logos at the start which was good for my beady little eyes).

It's almost 2 hours long (a little shorter than ATSV) but it really doesn't feel like it. But I think the pace is a bit different too?

In ITSV, everything is happening so quickly that if you asked me how long the movie was without letting me look it up, I'd probably say about 90 minutes. It's a super easy watch and the plot is brisk enough that it introduces 5 new Spider people (and Aunt May), gives us their backstories, and gets us emotionally invested in their lives WHILE ALSO developing Miles' coming of age story and his development into his dimension's Spiderman without the story feeling bloated or rushed. It's really impressive.

ATSV on the other hand, has pacing similar to a Breaking Bad episode where everything just keeps building and building and while it never feels like it's dragging or becoming boring, you can feel the length. The last 20-30 minutes of ATSV, I was dreading the ending because I knew we'd been watching this movie for a while and that the cliffhanger was coming up and I just wanted to keep watching this awesome movie!!!

ATSV feels like a movie that's almost 2 and a half hours long while ITSV feels like you're watching an episode of a TV show or reading a comic book (Imagine that!).

And it's so funny because ATSV is such a piece of fucking art that it made me forget that ITSV was just as groundbreaking and that it was also one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.

Also, and this is kind of off-topic, but I like that the Spiderverse movies are breaking away from this nepo-baby adjacent Spiderman that works for a big strong super hero organization and is a billionaire's successor that we're getting with Disney's Spiderman movies. Don't get me wrong, I saw the first 2 movies and thought they were pretty fun (forgettable, but fun), but Spiderman in those movies just... isn't Spiderman!

Spiderman is a normal person, that's kinda the point. While he can be a gifted student (or artist or inventor etc), he's still a middle class kid who fell into his powers. He can only do so much while having school, a job, bills, and all of his relationships to maintain. That's why Spiderman's civilian life is such a freaking mess! Well, that and I am of the opinion Spiderman is a metaphor for ADHD but I have a comic planned to explore that.

He's a vigilante, yes, but he's not like the Batmans of the world where he just bought himself a superhero identity (not necessarily ragging on Batman. I like him too).

He's a superhero for the people. Not only does he stop the occasional Green Goblin or Doc Ock, but he also helps with muggings, corner store robberies, little shit that big heroes like Iron Man, Hulk, and the like can't be bothered with. I bet if you asked Spiderman for help after you locked yourself out of your apratment, he'd find a way to get you back in because that's who he is!!

Spiderman Homecoming making a working class man who was fucked over by Stark Industries the villain feels so against the idea of Spiderman. And then Far From Home has Mysterio go from a failed actor and Hollywood illusionist turned criminal to an employee of Stark industries who has his work taken from him, literally named BARF by Stark, and is then fired. Say all you want about intellectual property rights and whether Stark legally stole this man's life's work, but the point is this series made several intentional changes to these villains that demonize the working class and glorify Stark (who is vindicated by the narrative of the overarching MCU and the Tom Holland trilogy).

Why are the working class the enemy? Spiderman is the working class!

ATSV having a super secret Spider-government that borders on being a totalitarian nightmare is much more Spiderman's speed.

Spiderman can't go at it alone, that's made clear in several of the movies and even the Spiderverse series itself ("You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"). But Spiderman doesn't need expensive equipment or the power of a government-like entity. He just needs his loved ones whether they be other Spiderpeople or the people living around him.

I just can't get over these movies man.

[ardently-queer]

I'm glad I got into critical role. I miss playing dnd and it's making me remember why I loved it.

I was introduced to dnd as a young teenager through a local youth group programme that ran games for autistic teenagers to help us learn social skills and stuff in our own way - the program was run by an autistic guy it wasn't like patronising stuff it was genuinely useful and creative.

And I think my favourite thing about tabletop storytelling games is that they gave me a space to be really bad at things, to critically fail, and for my teammates to laugh WITH me and problemsolve how to get out of the mess rather than laugh AT me, and where my successes were cheered on with equal delight.

I found that at a time I really, really needed it and it helped me so much. And I know it's done the same for others, right from the first people I ever played with.

I'm glad that it's becoming more popular and accessible through shows like CR and dimension 20 and so many more. I'm glad more people are finding these things that helped me and others, and I'm glad to have more people of all kinds to play with - there's no downside! There's literally no lose here, welcome in!

And I love that it's inspired me to pick up art forms I thought I'd lost. I haven't written songs in years. I haven't DMed in a decade because of anxiety. I don't miss who I used to be but I miss making art and it can only be a good thing that I managed to do that after such a long time.

Probably a rambly mess but it's my blog and I write the posts. I love tabletop games and I sincerely do not understand weird gatekeeper mentality, welcome new weirds, that's more people to play with! Awesome! Idfk where I'm going I guess I just wanted to share the good feelings because is it Thursday yet? Yes! But I got the time zones wrong and it's another eighteen hours!

[dukhlontales]

Resource Pacing: The Martial vs Caster Problem In D&D

The differences between martial classes and spellcaster classes in D&D have been talked to death, but there’s an aspect of this problem that doesn’t comes up nearly as often as it should, and is a crucial point of ttrpg design in my opinion. Martials and casters tend to have resources that regenerate at different paces.

People constantly talk about the versatility of spellcasters: how they have a spell for every combat, social, and environmental challenge. People constantly talk about how it is boring as a martial to “move and attack” over and over and over and over. These are valid points. The latter rings true far more for me personally because I can’t stand not making interesting decisions. If I’m not making choices that matter in a roleplaying game, I may as well just roleplay while playing Snakes and Ladders.

But the biggest issue for me in terms of feeling outshined as a martial character is that I don’t get my fair share of resources. Let’s talk about Long Rests, Short Rests, and why the division of resources in D&D5e sets martials up to fail.

The most important resource for spellcasters is undoubtedly spell slots. They let spellcasters cast their best spells! Martials tend to rely on a variety of resources, almost all of which have names unique to the flavour of the class: action surge, second wind, ki points, rage, etc. HP is also pretty relevant. The problem here is most resources that martials care about regenerate on Short Rests (and Long Rests), while the resource that casters would sell their soul for regenerates on Long Rests.

Now, while I don’t like many aspects regarding D&D5e’s design (and I’m writing about this for that very reason), I’d be lying if I said the game wasn’t designed around this. It is! You should get 1-2 Short Rests for every Long Rest. The game assumes your sessions will be paced as such, so everyone gets to use their resources to a fair extent. The game does not assume that you’ll have one combat encounter per Long Rest.

Unfortunately for the game, that’s extremely common. Unless you’re in a dungeon or some kind of fighting area, you probably have combat interspersed with all kinds of social interactions and exploration. While the game gives next to no rules to support those explicitly important pillars of play (combat is clearly the youngest child, social encounters are the eldest, and exploration is the middle child that WOTC feeds once a week), people LOVE them. I have a great time roleplaying in combat, but I’ll be damned if roleplaying in social encounters and exploration isn’t more fun.

Actual play shows really help bolster this sentiment. I doubt many people watch Critical Role or Dimension 20 for the strategy involved in their combat encounters. The roleplaying is the draw of content like this. And it’s good. But I wouldn’t watch either if it was consistently five or more consecutive combats. People like specifically roleplaying more and more.

The resource issue in D&D5e is that martials don’t get the resources that the game expects to give them. If I’m the fighter in our one combat, I get to action surge and second wind. Maybe my subclass has a couple more resources to burn, but those are assumably balanced against subclasses that don’t. The casters get to dump all their spell slots! It’s no wonder I feel useless!

Even if I’m level five and can attack four whole times in a turn, the wizard gets to follow up their fireball with another fireball, and then scorching ray after scorching ray. My turns after that action surge are me attacking twice. I’m not just bored by the lack of interesting options. I’m being robbed of features that should make my class feel powerful.

There are a couple solutions to this issue that can get these resources back on track. You can use the “gritty realism” optional rules to restrict Long Rests. And that does work. But if you’re only having one big fight for several sessions, it’s going to feel pretty bad as a caster to have your spell slots from the last mini boss still be missing. You can also just run more combat! Play the game in a way it’s designed for that you specifically don’t enjoy. That one isn’t exactly an option. Of course, if you’re already enjoying having lots of combat and this isn’t an issue, you’re someone who D&D5e was actually designed for. That’s pretty cool.

In terms of ttrpg design though, there’s a glaringly obvious lesson to be learned here. Don’t pace resources differently for different characters! Imagine a world where the fighter gets three action surges per Long Rest. Or a world where casters get one spell slot for each level per Short Rest. A party of diversely powerful characters could rest on the same schedule!

Ironically, D&D4e already did this. But while many people disliked that edition, and it certainly has its own problems, there is much to learn from D&D4e. This is just one of them. And it’s a lesson worth learning.

In Dukhlon Tales, the ttrpg I’m designing, all characters have their resources on the same schedule. Some resources are akin to regenerating on Long Rests, and some are akin to regenerating on Short Rests, but all characters use both sets all the same. In my games with my friends, I’ve never worried about someone outshining someone else because I didn’t pace enough fights into a session. I can run as many, or as few, combats as the story we are telling requires. I don’t see why I’d want to run a system where that is an issue.

[kissbentennyson]

Can you write a part 2 of wasteland, Baby. I really liked the first part.

Of course, I've been trying to but i had almost no motivation to work on it until I got this ask. Thank you so much.

Wasteland, Baby!

Ben Prime x reader | Mad Ben x Alternate dimension! Reader

“I want to help, in whatever way I can. Whether that's helping you fix the power watches or helping free my people from their chains. I failed them once, I can’t do it again.” A look of pride fills Ben Prime’s expression, like he’d just watched his kid take their first steps. He leans forward, patting your shoulder lightly before rubbing it, as a silent gesture of reassurance.

“I’m not sure at the moment, but just having someone on the inside- on our side- helps. Is there any way you could go in and get any other information?” You bite your lip.

“Well… If you had ended up closer and this conversation was 20 minutes shorter, then maybe. I’ve been out for too long.” You look over your shoulder at the mines in the distance, his tower even farther than that, and you know that by now he’s probably pacing around- or already sent out a squad to look for you. “I wasn’t supposed to be out today- earlier today I mean. He’s extremely protective over me, and had wanted me to stay with him in the tower all of today.”

“Why?” the squeaky voice of 23 cuts through yours, and you feel your face warm. That’s not something you want to reveal to a 13 year old, or the other two strangers.

“That’s not the point. What is- is that I went against that, snuck out, then didn’t go back to the tower like he told me to- so he put me under a ‘new order’ as he calls it.” You look down at the sand below your feet as thoughts swirl between both of their eyes. Ben Prime leans down, and you look at him through your lashes.

“What is this ‘new order’?”

“I’m not allowed to leave his sight, and as he said-” you lower your voice and mimic his accent. “Even if I have to chain you to the bedroom wall.” Choking out a light laugh and trying to turn it into a joke- but it only breeds concern. “If I go back now, he actually might, or worse. He loves me, but he isn’t kind.”

“Seems right to me, putting a curfew of sorts onto his property.” Was followed by a small giggle, received with a glare from your lover's Prime counterpart.

“Quiet Psychobos.” He returns his gaze to you. “That isn’t love then, you aren’t an object. He doesn't own you.” There's a firmness to his voice. You look out at the wasteland of sand and rubble, beyond that is a kingdom of mines, and even farther is a ruthless plain where gangs roam free to kill and destroy whenever they feel like it.

“That’s lovely, really, but I don’t think your kind of love can exist out here.” It leaves you tired and worn.

“Well, I think it could.” He says with so much conviction. His green eyes locked on you, a gentle fondness behind them.

You had spent the whole night picking parts left over from the stolen truck, as instructed by Psychobos. The sun rose, and even with your pleasant company, you could feel the warlord whom you reside under anger rise with the sun. A few hours before the sun was at its highest, the Omnitrixes? Omnitrises? Where finished. The two counterparts look down at their watches, completely skeptical.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Is said in perfect unison.

“Quite safe, though I use the term extremely loosely!” There was a lot of enthusiasm in his voice, and you cringed, giving the boys in front of you a fearful look.

“Then let's hope our Omnitrix-ei…” “Omnitreses.” the younger Ben corrects, earning a slightly annoyed look from Prime. “Yeah, Omnitrixia… Omnitrixum? Lets just home the watches can get us out of here. Here comes Humungousaur.” He looks down at his power watch raising his hand, and you get more nervous, backing up to avoid an outburst. You’ve accidentally ended up on the receiving end of a few blows from your lover… no need to get it from these two.

He flips through the options before pressing down, there's a flash- but nothing happens to Prime- instead, you watch as 23 transforms into one of the big guns. An alien you’ve only ever seen used when a rival gang attacked. “Yeah, Check it! I’m Dinomighty!” The smoothie hut splits in half as he stands up, and you jerk back to avoid the rubble. “Hey! Careful!” Prime scrambles to his feet. “Quick Dinomighty- get us out of these chains.”

23 crosses his arms, a smug grin growing. “Who do you two shorties think you’re ordering around?” The two of you give each other an exhausted look of annoyance, having already spent the whole night dealing with the whiny 13 year old. Prime looks back up at his altar. “Just do it.” Reluctantly, 23 lifts the other two up by the chain that binds them- and snaps it, freeing them. Psychobos is the first to speak.

“Liberation at last! Now if you Gentlemen and...” He looks at you, but doesn't bother to address you. “Will excuse me!” Then scuttles off.

“Hey!” The younger Ben tries to follow the mad doctor, and you try to approach Ben Prime. “You should see if this goes both ways.” “Right- Hey! Just let him go! Change me into Humungousaur.” 23 reached for the symbol on his chest, turning the dial before locking on. A bright flash of green takes you off guard as his height and mass more than triples. “Oh dang, you’re Orbit Man.” His voice reeks of his intentions not to share the same alien as his counterpart. “Gravattack- That’s not who I asked for. You did this on purpose.”

The younger Ben crosses his arms with a bright smile. “You can’t prove it.” Ben Prime groans in annoyance as his younger version continues on. “You know, I’ve been thinking about which combo transformation might get us back out of here-” As he turns, Prime slams his hand onto his Omnitrix symbol, causing 23 to detransform. He lands on his backside, immediately pressing his own power watch. With a flash of bright green, prime has returned to his normal body.

“What did I say?” “Yeah! Yeah! Zero tolerance for alternate dimension warlord us’.” “That's probably the lesson your Asmuth wanted me to teach you.” Ben 23 looks back over at the two of you, lips pressed flat in an unamused expression. “Whatever, you only want to do it because a cutie who looks like your babe asked you to.” Primes face flushes a bit. “No- Not entirely. I mean, let’s just go do it. C’mon.” You feel your own face warm as you pull your hood back up. Prime walks towards the mines with a red-ish face as 23 gets up and joins you.

“That is the reason.” he whispers as the two of you begin to follow prime, you having to stifle your laugh.

-

In the mine, a slave collapses to the ground from exhaustion and dehydration. Pacmar slides down deeper into the mine with a bucket full of water, jokingly offering it out to the close to dead miner. Almost an hourly occurrence in the mines, nothing but cruelty from all superiors. “Customers who can pay.”

“Please…”

“Give him a drink.” The voice of Ben Prime booms over the entire mine. “He said please.” “And while you’re at it, any chance of getting me a smoothie?” Pacmar’s scream rings out as he runs off in fear and tripping over his own feet, just like before. You’d call him a coward, but you aren’t much better.

“You’re fools for coming back here- You! You’ve been with them?” Rook says as he spots you behind your new allies, and it takes everything within you not to shrink into yourself and hide.

“Yeah! And they’re done being on the wrong side.” His brows knit as he points to the guard next to him, then you three. Signaling you as the targets. Guards run forth as slaves run away for cover, guards dropping to their knees and beginning to fire. You close your cloak around you as ben prime looks over at 23. “You ready? Here comes Big Chill!” Slamming his hand down on his omnitrix, his counterpart explodes with blue light- becoming a white and blue moth-like creature.

“Oh, Freeze Ghost.” “Freeze Ghost? Really?”

Prime looks over at you, and you nod.

“Turn me into Wrath.” “You got it!”

As that interaction happens, you slip away coming to the other side of the mines. Sliding down into a crowd of terrified slaves running every which way. “Alright, this way! This way!” you say in a- well, more of an inside voice then an outside one. A lot of them pause- and you recognize them. They were the sector you had been held with before being ‘taken under Warlord Tennyson’s wing’. “Come on, out of the fire, you might get hurt.”

Even with their distrust in you, they listen. Letting you herd them together and away from the gun fire, hiding behind rocks and mining equipment. They all watch as the guards are then taken out, and Rook is frozen by one of the Ben’s aliens. Midair, both of their transformations time out and they fall straight onto the man left behind. They quickly jump off of him out of pure shock, letting out a yelp as they do so. He points up to the water tower, his overworked body shaking. Both Bens rise to their feet, looking up at the tower.

Are they… going to open the tower up? They are!

They both turn each other into different aliens, Prime lifting 23 up to the water tower. As 23 punches a whole through the metal, prime shifts his arms into a ramp for the water to roll down into a reservoir- which is also wart of his alien body. The water bursts from it’s container and flows forth, Earning you a glance from all the people you had just gotten out of the way. Obviously they were asking for your go ahead- but you’re not sure why. You glance around before gesturing forth.

“Um, it’s alright. Go ahead, you’re safe.”

With that, they run to the water. Drinking more in one sitting than they have in years, You just stand at a distance while Pacmar yells and cries in defeat. You didn’t need it at all, what you needed was to make sure they got all they needed. That past year and a half you had been offered spoils every waking moment, and that is why you didn’t understand them looking to you. You had left them for a warm bed and a higher position while still living under the same boot. Even though that boot allowed you to kiss it and sweetened your mind with loving falsehoods.

Once the people had gotten their fill, Prime shifts out into the alliance form’s normal shape. “Can we try to go home now?” Is all that comes from his younger counterpart. Prime's eyes shift to you for a second, and you offer a small smile as a thanks for what they’ve already done, then back to his counterpart.

“Not quite yet.”

-

The next 15 minutes were spent by you and Ben Prime breaking the chains and shackles of the previously enslaved miners. The last one thanking Ben before they all begin to walk off. Deep down, you were worried for them. There was a chance they’d be caught by a squad sent out by the warlord, and even if they managed to evade them… How long until they die for other reasons? Getting attacked by wasteland gangs, heat exhaustion, starvation, dehydration. It’s a high likelihood of many of these people- that you had known- becoming vulture food. You wanted to speak up, to say something- anything, but you know how little your voice actually means.

You look over at Ben Prime, and you both make eye contact. It seems he is also not thrilled at the idea of them just running either, similar thoughts have probably crossed his mind as well. In that moment, he takes your hand, gently pulling you with him to the ledge overlooking them.

“Hey, hold up a sec!” They all stop, looking back at the two of you. At that moment you wanted to vomit, even with nothing in your stomach. “You guys are welcome to run, but that won’t change anything. You’ll all just wind up in chains again. The way to win is to stop Warlord Ben once and for all.” Ben has their undivided attention, and you have no clue what you should be doing at this moment. He looks over at you, letting go of your hand. It is then it dawns on you that he expects you to say something- anything to get them motivated. You look out at the crowd of tired and overworked, honest people… and it’s then you can feel just how dry your mouth is.

You look at the hero in front of you with a pleading look before taking a few steps back and out of view of the people below, shaking your head no. You are probably the last person they want to hear from right now. His shoulders go slack and his brow curves with, not anger, but disappointment. It is then that he looks out at them again. “You stand together, you can do anything. Anything.”

All of the sudden, you feel a hand on your arm. Looking down, you see 23 with a worried look on his face.

“Dude, Bad move.”

At first, it seems like Prime’s attempt to rally them didn’t work, leaving everyone in an awkward silence before a shout of ‘I am!’ comes from the crowd. Seemingly all at once they begin to agree and cheer. Raising their mining tools in an act of alliance. And just like that, there's a flicker of true hope in your chest.

“And what do we have here?”

That oh so familiar voice spoils your empty stomach like curdling milk. You all look in the direction it was coming from at once, turning on your heels and looking up. There’s a smug grin on his tanned features. His eyes lock on you immediately, and that smile fades into a snarl-like baring of his teeth. You knew your visions were correct, you couldn’t doubt yourself. His other dimension’s counterparts were fated to bring him down, but the angered look is one you have come to fear so deeply. In the almost zero percent chance you were wrong, your head is more than his.

“There he is! That one destroyed Pacmar’s business! Have you ever heard of such a thing?” The warlord breaks his gaze from you, instead switching his focus to the head guard currently trapped in ice.

“You fool!” He says, being handed a blaster, aiming it at the Ravanagander. “Can’t leave you alone for a minute, now can I?” He says as he takes the shots, the ice exploding and freeing him. The Ravanagander looks around for a second before running and joining his higher up on the ledge.

“I will make it up to you.” Is said before he is handed the blaster. Primes turns, looking at the crowd of newly freed people and gesturing up to their enslavers.

“What are you waiting for? You’ll never have a better chance to take him down than now.” The crowd immediately bursts into a loud yell, charging up the planted mine walls. They bare their weapons ready to fight, but you feel that hope inside of you flicker out. They have no more than their wills and mining tools- the guards all have blasters that- legally- shouldn’t even be on earth. With a smug grin, your former love activates his power watch- turning into an alien you had yet to see. A spiked metal suit with a red glow from the inside.

“If you want me, come get me!” From the face grate of the suit comes a large blast of a red heat. It doesn’t directly hit any of the workers, but causes the ground to explode. In shock, everyone begins to scream, turning and running back in the direction they came as more blasts are sent their way. “But I promise you, it won't be easy.” As people run past, you know that it wasn't directed at them- but at the three of you. When you look at the other Bens, Prime has already grabbed 23’s arm- turning himself into a more animalistic alien, and then 23 into something else. And just like that…

They leave you there.

You watch them run up the mine wall, yelling things at each other- and all you can do is stand there. You stand there, completely alone and having no idea where to go. Do you run with the other workers and make sure they have a safe place to hide, or do you hide yourself and disappear… like you always do. That feeling, that realization washes over you that you aren’t anything more than a puppet, you are useless on your own. You need someone to tell you what to do.

It is then your Ben’s transformation times out, immediately transforming again. Your gut sinks as his new form towers over everything- even some of the mining equipment- with a loud roar. You’ve only seen this one once before. He had used excessive force on a outland gang that had tried to steal slaves. And what happened to those gang members… Well, you hope their poor souls are at rest now. Another feeling begins to overwhelm you. Even if his target was his counterparts, with this new size he could injure and even kill someone else in the process… even if he didn’t care about that, you did.

With a newfound motivation, you turn and run in the direction that every one else did. Knowing that some people were still hiding in the mines. Behind you, you feel the earth shake as he tries to crush the other Bens by stepping down into the mines. You gut twists as others peak their heads out from their hiding places. You were right. Their eyes lock on you behind their goggles and masks.

“Come on, go! You’re right in his warpath!” You screech, and they seem to take you seriously. Getting up and running with you, some even out running you. There is one who seems to have a similar speed as you, but worse coordination. He stumbles over his feet a few to many times for you to feel okay. You grab onto the back of his shirt and keep him up and running. The ground shakes, the warlord chasing down his prime counterpart- well, he seems to be doing more of a lazy walk in order to keep up with the much smaller Ben Prime.

Suddenly the sound of metal being ripped cuts through the air like a knife hot with panic. You look over your shoulder to see the crane having been torn off, metal parts flying everywhere. And one large one in particular, flying straight towards you faster than you’d like. You push the man you had a hold of forward and into the group of people in front of you, causing them to run a little faster and out of its path- you however drop and roll in the opposite direction. It lands a foot away from you, causing the ground to shake even more.

You sit up with heaving breath, completely not believing that actually worked. As you survey the mine you spot some of the places people had hidden- some of the caine part and landed exactly there- people could have died. All of the sudden you're hoisted up by someone asking if you were okay. You give a startled nod, realizing that the entire group and stopped to make sure you were okay.

Behind you all there was still a battle going on, and even with your ushering, they pulled you to the edge of mine floor. It is then you are able to watch your Ben chase his younger counterpart after completely destroying one of the watchtowers, like a fucked up game of tag. But instead of 23 being it, he would probably end up dead. He suddenly stopped, letting out an exclamation of pain and grabbing at the side of his head. He begins to stumble back, his hands at his head in pain. With whatever forms his power watch provides, Prime must have transformed into something small enough to enter the large alien's head.

“You terrible insect, out! Get out of my… head!” The last part is drawn out as his large form stumbles even more and begins to fall straight back- onto the shredded remnants of the crane. The miners press themselves to the wall of the mine to prevent getting in the way on any of his limbs. The crane being crushed under the sheer weight of his body, sending dirt and bits of debris flying everywhere. You all shield yourselves from it until the dust clears, revealing your warlord- laying weakened on the floor of the mine.

Everyone begins to cheer around you as his transformation times out. A group of miners- completely separate from your group- grab a blaster from an incapacitated guard. Pointing it at Pacmar and few other guards- causing them to surrender. You and Rook happen to look at each other at the same time, and in that second you both are thinking the same thing. Both of you in a silent agreement for what has to come next. He heads down and towards the weakened lord, and you follow not too far behind.

The warlord himself gathers himself to his feet, and above him, prime times out as well- standing proud at what had just happened.

“You cheated.” Your Ben says

“There are rules to this?” His Prime counterpart retorts.

Rook joins them before you can, earning a very annoyed former warlord. “What are you just standing there for? It’s time to end the madness!”

“I couldn’t agree with you more.” The Ravanagander grabs his arm, slapping a cuff over the power watch. Ben Grunts, looking down at the cuff in shock and anger.

“Remove this thing immediately.” But Rook doesn’t, he just stands there. “What do you think you’re doing!?” Ben’s voice is louder, and he thinks that if he continues to yell that he will get his way. Just like before. But, that is far from the truth.

“Precisely what you asked of me. I’m putting an end to this madness. You’re not fit to rule this world-” You join him- but slightly behind him. Even without his weapon, Ben is still stronger than you. He continues. “Without your power watch, you're nothing more than a petty little thug.” Ben struggles with the cuff for a second as the words process.

“Little? Little!?”

“It’s time the people were allowed to fend for themselves, and time for you to pay for what you’ve done to them.” Everyone rises at attention, looking down at the former warlord. You can tell just how small he feels, how small and weak he feels in this moment- just like he made you feel the entire relationship. His orange eyes shift over to you.

“Aren’t you going to do something? Help me!” A pang of fear fills your gut as he targets you, but is overwhelmed by your own feeling of pride. There’s so much weakness in his voice, even if he’s trying to masquerade it with anger and fake confidence. Even he knows how weak he looks.

“You want my my help? After everything you've done?” It comes out thick and bitter, you are angry- you are bitter and rightfully so. “I’m not doing anything for you ever again. You deserve what's coming to you, and I wouldn’t stop it if I wanted to. This is your fate, I've seen it.” His teeth grit and grind against each other, he takes a step forward but so do you. "You can't change fate."

“You traitorous brat, this is all your fault! You’re nothing without me. I’ll-” Two workers come up behind him- chains in hand. They latch the shackles over his biceps and pull him back and away from the two of you. “This ain't over, I’ll be back to make you suffer. Every one of you!” He struggles against the chains and the two of you just watch as he explodes in on himself. “You haven’t seen the last of me!”

“If there's any justice in the world, we have.”

-

After everything with Psychobos, everyone- Psychobos, former guards, Pacmar, and the former Warlord himself were rounded up and sat waiting for their imprisonment.

“There’s room in Warlord Tennyson’s cell for you too.”

You stand beside Rook as everyone is shackled together, you felt relief that your prophecy has come to fruition- but now had no clue what to do with yourself. From behind you, there is the friendliness of a familiar voice. “Nice job.” You both turn to Ben Prime and Ben 23, and you greet them with a friendly smile- which Prime reciprocates. However, his attention is turned to Rook. “You know, as these people start to fend for themselves you’re gonna be one of the major… um… fenders.”

“Come again?” This obviously doesn’t make much sense to him, and you have to admit it didn’t make much sense either.

“Trust me, you’re a natural born piece keeper.” Prime’s hand rests on Rook’s arm for a second before falling back. “But if you wanted to sound more like an authority, I'd drop the contractions.” Rook smiles a bit.

“Thanks I’ll- I will consider that.”

Prime looks over at you, his expression softening.

“Hey.” “Hey.”

“How are you holding up?” He asks, to which you shrug. You knew he was leaving soon, and you almost didn't want him to. He was the reason this all happened, and you haven't seen this far. Even then, what do you do now?

“I don’t know. Honestly, after everything, I think I should be with them. I don’t deserve to be free after abandoning my people.” You say in a low voice, enough for the welcomed company to hear, but not the unwelcomed one. “All I’ve ever known was working under someone, doing everything asked. I don’t know what to do on my own.” You felt vulnerable, but he makes you feel safe enough to be vulnerable.

There’s this disbelief in his green eyes. “Maybe the old you was like that, but think of what you’ve done in the last 24 hours. You’ll be alright.” He says as something else pops into your mind.

“What would I- er- Your me do?” You ask, watching his eyes fly wide. Then, he smiles gently at the thought of the you in his universe, a pinkish tint rising to his palace face.

“Well, they would do whatever they wanted. You- they’ve got a big heart, and even though they can be overbearing sometimes, everything they do is because they think it’s the right thing. Which it usually is. That’s in you, I know it is.” He looks at Rook then back at you, and his smile grows wider. “Y’know, where I'm from the two of you get along really well. You two would make great partners.” Ben patted your arm gently as you looked up at the Ravanagander beside you, and he down at you.

The two Ben’s look at each other, the younger making the first word. “We're out.” Before the two of them turn into another set of aliens unknown to you. They combine and create a huge ball of green light before streaking off into the sky. However, as you look a little a little farther- you see they just landed somewhere in the old mines. But a minute later, not too far from them a very brightly colored building- that looked like some of the Mr. Smoothie remnants- appears. They both run towards it, leaving for good this time.

“Farewell, alternate Ben Tennyson’s.”

-

“I remember this joint.”

“I bet you do, It’s professor Hokestar’s special dimension hopping Mr. Smoothie.”

-

After dropping off 23 and a whole lot of explaining to grandpa Max, Ben only had one thing left to do. Rook had told him how you had been left in the home dimension because he didn’t think it was safe enough for you to come. Which meant you were at your apartment worried sick- and that’s exactly where Ben went once he was off the hook. Straight to your apartment. Not only did he not want to go home and explain what happened to his parents yet, he has a few apologies to make.

The spare key to your place is hidden on your windowsill under a fake succulent. It’s fake because you’d forget about it and it would absolutely die. Your words, not his. He opens it with a knock, sticking his head in. “Babe? You home?” There was a good chance you were at work, after all keeping an apartment as a teenager wasn’t the easiest. He takes a step in, and is greeted by the sound of feet on the hardwood floor.

“Ben!”

You throw yourself at him, pulling him into a huge hug. He stands there in shock for a moment. In situations like this, he is so used to being greeted with frustration that he half expected you to yell at him in anger. You never have before, but he’s seen people change so quickly… it’s hard to tell. Slowly, his arms wrap around you in a tight hug. His nose buried deep into the side of your head, taking a deep breath in and smelling your shampoo. There it is. There you are. Slowly, you rock from side to side and he starts to hear your shuddered breathing.

“I was so worried. And I know, I know you’ll always be okay.” You say with a cracking voice, holding him just a little tighter. “You always come back alright- but I get so worried. You just disappeared. No one would tell me what was going on… Everyone just told me I couldn’t go.” You start to rub circles in his back, feeling the tension in his muscles. Letting out a shaky breath, pulling back and taking his face in your hands. He looks so shocked, but he melts into your hands. “I’m not mad at you Ben, how could I ever be mad at you for something that isn’t your fault. I may not know the details, but I just know that this isn’t your fault.” You feel him relax in your hands, and slowly he leans forward, pressing the bridge of his nose to yours.

“Thanks babe. I missed you too.” You let out a small chortle, closing your eyes and enjoying the knowledge that your boyfriend is- not only here with you, but alive and okay. He sighs against you, and against his own ego and big-headedness, he lets it out. “I’m sorry. For everything.” You pull back, looking at him with a confused expression. You open your mouth to speak, but he keeps talking. “I’ve been ignoring you.”

You squeeze his face gently with a small smile. “You've been busy.” Pressing your nose to his again. “And if you're worried about me putting up with you, I do it because-” You rub the tip of your nose against his. “I love you, Ben Tennyson. I. Love. You.”

Months Later in the Wasteland Dimension

You took a deep breath of the cold night air, leaning against a sign poll that has been bent into more of a railing. Looking out at the empty mine, you let out a sigh. There was nothing. The sound of nothing. Around this time of night a few months ago there would have been the sounds of metal tools hitting rock and the groans of overworked bones. But now it was nothing more than the gentle winds out in the wasteland past. That’s pretty funny. You’d never have expected yourself to ever call these lands gentle, but they have been as of recent.

When Warlord Tennyson was overthrown, you had truly expected everyone to leave on their own or become greedy and selfish- but they didn’t. It took a while to separate yourself from the views of the boy who used to have such a hold on you. When showed that kindness can exist, humans thrive. They build and rebuild to their needs. They discover how to live better with the resources at hand- and boy have they.

Many buildings had been designed and were currently being built, or the remnants of the previous Bellwood had been used as residence when needed. The minerals in the water had been discovered to help certain patches of soil gain back it’s nutrients- the parts that weren’t sand and clay of course. Some seeds of fruit previously lost to the devastation of the world were found in a shortage area of a building that had been uncovered. With regular care, they had started to grow as planted.

In the ruins of Benwood- No. Bellwood is a community that is in the middle of being built, and you can not believe you didn’t it's possibility before.

“There you are, I have been looking all over for you.” You smile, letting Rook join you. He looked out in the same direction you were, but there was nothing but the empty mine. It was a tragic place, why would you ever want to look at it? “Is everything alright?”

You look up at him and give him your warmest eyes and a smile. “I’m alright, really. I’m sorry if I worried you, I just got woken up by a vision.” As it sunk in, you watched him get obviously worried. Under Tennyson he had seen you during a few of your visions, none of them had been good. Your body usually reacts violently, and you were always in a state of shock afterwards. “It’s okay, I promise. For once… it was good.” After you speak, he - very awkwardly- leaned on the pole with you.

“It was?” He asks, and you give a small but genuine nod. “If you do not mind me asking, what did you see?”

Your smile grows wider.

“I don’t mind at all.” You look over at where everything is being built, not at the moment of course. You two are probably part of the only few awake at this hour. “I saw a town. Not yet a city- but thriving with life and trade. Even gangs coming through to trade and buy with their flags down. I saw the start of peace, of a life more than fear and war.” You let out a small laugh, looking down at your feet. “I- I’ve never been wrong before, but maybe it’s too unrealistic.” You look up at him again, to see a genuine smile there.

“No, I think that is possible. Afterall, you have not been wrong. You can't change fate.” You both laugh, but it’s obvious he believes you. Looking him over you realize.

“Hey, you’re not wearing your head covering.” Everyone had ditched the edgy punk spikes a while ago, but a lot of people had maintained their head and face coverings to protect from the sun. But, you had never seen Rook without his head covering.

“Yes, I… Took it off for the night.”

“You look nice.” You say in a whisper, looking down at your hands. Fiddling with the wrapping on them. With that you didn’t see just how flustered he had gotten, not that it’s what you had meant to do. Clearing your throat, you look back out at the mine. Every so often glancing over at him, and the both of you seemed to be in the same mindset- your eyes locking every so often. After a while, you two find solace in the quiet and with each other. You personally find enjoyment in the silence. In the presence of another person. In him.

And like that, you rest your head gently on his arm, and he does nothing to stop it.

Wasteland, Baby! I’m in love, I’m in love with you.

That’s it.

[circethegoblin]

STAYING ALIVE MASTERPOST, FROM A BROKE TEEN WITH ADHD

here you go. some down to earth tips on how to not die metally nor physically.

tired of those "drink three liters of water everyday uwu" and "wake up at 5 am" and "buy a bath bomb and a fec mask and some other things you don't have the money for" shit? i'm here for ya.

1. NOT DYING

eat at least three meals a day, one of which m u s t be warm and above 300 kcal (it can be istant ramen with an egg added if you have to)

you technically should shower everyday, but we know how it is. A change of clothes is sometimes enough.

DRY SHAMPOO AND BABY WIPES!!!

keep bottles with water everywhere. On your desk, near that spot on the floor you always end up sitting on, near your bed, basically whenever you know you spend a lot of time. No need to get up and go to the kitchen will help. Obviously change the water in the bottles as often as you can.

Get some form of physical activity. It doesn't have to be much, you can for example replace scrolling on tiktok by walking around your room and scrolling on tiktok! Brilliant, isn't it? Obviously, running or doing those 10 minutes workouts from youtube is better, but you are still getting like an hour of walking.

Buy blankets. Steal blankets. Summon blankets from other dimensions. Just make sure you have a lot of warm, soft blankets in your house. You will thank me when you won't have the anergy to wash your sheets (just take them off and throw some blankets on your bed), or when the power goes out.

If you have pets, ALWAYS keep spare food that'll last for a week for them.

things to always have in the kitchen: milk, eggs, flour, rice, pasta, yeast, cheese, oil, a leafy vegetable, onions, tomatoes, apples, patatoes, some flavourful sauce, sugar, salt, spices and an emergency chocolate bar. You can make a lot of food with those. Just make sure you won't eat the chocolate too fast.

Have a lot of spare batteries. A lot.

Get urself a flashlight, a lighter, and a pocket knife.

Remember the apples? eat one a day. if you don't like apples or you can't eat them for any other reason, you can take a kiwi, banana, orange, basically something that will give you vitamins and non processed sugar.

do the dishes before your sink starts developing it's own ecosystem

drugs from that one guy around the corner = very bad time

2. NOT DYING INSIDE

Open the damn window.

Don't watch so many commentary videos. You are probably not even checking the sources, so you can easily make unjust judgement, and like. did you even hear of half of those people before?

make a discord server just for yourself. get into the habit of writing little things that happened to you there. rant about the fanfics you read. or the movies. vent there if you don't have anyone you can vent to. write your ideas there, write e v e r y t h i n g. make a section for passwords, for quick ideas, for your to do lists. you won't lose it as you do with sticky notes or notebooks. there is no risk anyone will see it. oh, and when you'll have a strong impulse to tell emily that you hate her? write that message in your private server and list all ur arguments. look at tat the next day and decide if you really mean that.

life sucks. come to peace with it.

cuddle ur pets if you have them

1 hour a day without a lot of sensory input. if you have to, reduce to half an hour.

if you find yourself scrolling endlessly through social media, make sure it's pintrest (just don't compare urself to the people here; if you have issues with that, tumblr may be better)

delete. twitter. from. your. phone.

influencers are lying to you; maybe not even intentionally. remember when you were watching that cute-aesthetic-productive morning routine, and you were wondering why your life isn't that pretty? why your room is a mess? why you cannot for the life of god be aesthetic 24/7? its the filter. don't worry about it, their lifes arent that nice either.

realize there's actually nothing stopping you from screaming as loud as you can right now. like there is no physical barrier. think about it. realize there's no actual physical barierr to many other things.

your body is your body. you can decide how it looks like; just remember it's in your greatest interest to keep it healthy.

3. BEING A LITTLE BETTER THAN JUST ALIVE

If you wear make up, take it off before you go to sleep.

moisturize your body; everything is better when your skin doesn't feel dry

have a one brand of cosmetics that you love and buy things mainly from it. they often have sets of products that complete each other. i like ziaja. it's a polish brand, it's surprisingly cheap and has nice quality

cleanser, moisturizer, face mist

of you can, change your sheets once every two weeks

do the dishes before your sink starts developing it's own ecosystem

do a deep house clean once a month (don't beat yourself up when you don't tho)

keep your workspace organized (it doesn't have to look organized to other people, remember)

sunscreen

cook your own food

keep a calendar

no money for scented candles? got ya. make a simmer pot: throw some apple peel, a couple of cinnamon sticks and whatever spices that smell good you have into a pot, add some water and simmer. boom. your house smells good, and you haven't spend 20 dollars.

If you really like candles, buy scented wax melts. it's cheaper.

Buy urself scented mists. they're pretty cheap and will make you feel A LOT better.

keep your clothes clean. if you aren't sure if that shirt thats on your chair is dirty or not, throw it in the washing mashine anyway. better be sure.

if you can, make your bed right when you get up

wear clothes that make you feel good. put some effort into your outfits. really.

4. OTHER PEOPLE

be nice to essential workers.

if you have money, give tips.

remember, you do not owe anyone love; it is not something you can force. even if they saved your life. even when they helped you in your darkest time. if you don't love them, you don't.

you don't have to be in a romantic relationship to be happy.

if you want to, date! date everyone! date girls, date boys, date nonbinary people! date people completly different than you, date people from different countries, date them!!! just make sure they're kind and won't kill you. even if you don't end up in a relationship, you can learn a lot.

don't be afraid to piss off people that deserve it

smile to strangers :)

5. NOT FAILING SCHOOL

heard of dark academia? check it out

romanticize the heck out of studying

do not let your studying be just reading the same partagraph over and over again. it won't work. believe me.

seterra for geography, quizlet for everything else

try to make yourself intrestet in whatever you are studying (watch veritasium, listen to podcasts about weird history facts)

notes are for you and you only; don't worry about them looking pretty. doodle on margins, make weird metaphors, squeeze in as much info as you can.

when you're studying, listen to music without words/in a language you don't understand.

chew gum while you study

get the forest app, get attached to the trees, focus.

don't feel guilty for taking breaks

grades aren't everything, but they are important.

eat something in school

don't just use the cheapest pens. invest a couple dollars in something that will make writing enjoyable and smooth

those study with me videos? they're great

if you like to argue with the teachers, take care of your grades becouse. they may not like you afterwards.

be nice to your classmates and help them with homework. if you don't do your homework they'll help you

executive dysfunction won't let you study? been there. sometimes it's better to wake up ealier tommorow and do that homework then.

don't feel guilty for failing a test

go to the goddamn class

don't pull all nighters oh my god don't especially on weekdays

6. OTHER LIFEHACKS

don't get involved in the crime, and if you do always have a believable explanation why you were doing it

have different alarm sounds for every day of the week

set a daily limit of money that you spend

great hobbies that don't require a lot of money; urban exploration, writing, hiking and learning other languages

thrift stores

don't eat grapefruits while on meds

nail polish removers dissolve most strong glues.

if you have a cut on your skin, desinfect it. do it. please just do it.

always have pads with you. even if you don't get periods, at least one of your friends probably does

sign up in your local library. its free

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #150: Merlin

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re finishing the last build in Observer on Timeless Temple, the man who broke the meta, Merlin! I’ll be honest, I really wasn’t expecting we’d make it this far. Anyway, you’re a Divination Wizard, because no shit. You’re a wizard, you can see the future, you kinda cheat at life, everything else just falls into place. You’re also a Fighter, because you also keep a shortsword stashed in your staff in case of emergencies.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: A dimension-hopping bisexual. That’s not a phrase I ever thought I’d say, but I’m glad I did.

Race and Background

Merlin’s half Incubus, giving him immense magical power. Thankfully we can match that lineage one for one with the Abyssal Tiefling, an old UA that gives you +2 Intelligence, +1 Charisma, Darkvision, Abyssal Fortitude for half your level (rounded down, minimum 1) in extra HP, and Abyssal Arcana. That last one’s a bit complicated, so give us a second. 

Each long rest, you randomly get one of six cantrips by rolling a d6 (aside from the one you just had, you have to re-roll if that happens). You can get Dancing Lights, True Strike, Light, Message, Spare the Dying, or Prestidigitation. You can cast that cantrip like you would any other cantrip at your disposal, although awkwardly enough they never mention what ability score you would use to cast it. (I would assume Charisma, but feel free to argue with your DM.) After you finish another long rest, replace the old cantrip with a new one.

Being stranded on the other side of the world makes you the premier Hermit, giving you proficiency with Arcana and Religion. 

Ability Scores

You know literally everything, so make your Intelligence as high as possible. You also don’t have much difficulty avoiding the consequences of your actions, so it’s safe to say your Dexterity is pretty good too. You managed to catfish a not insignificant portion of the human race during the Goetia Crisis, so your Charisma is up there as well. Your Constitution isn’t as strong, you’re pretty much unkillable but I’ll be damned if Quetz didn’t try. Your Wisdom is rather low- you thought betraying the second sun was a good idea- but we’re dumping Strength. You are wizard, no big surprise.

Class Levels

1. First level wizards get proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saves, as well as History (you were there for quite a bit of it) and Insight (you watch people long enough eventually you notice patterns).

You also learn how to cast Spells using your Intelligence. Like all wizards you get an obscene number of spells, so we’ll just mention the ones that are very important to the character here, though the character sheet has a full list.

Mage Armor, of course is super important for any wizard, as is your caster balls (Magic Missile). I’d also grab Charm Person to make the whole Magi Marie thing a bit easier. You can also get Find Familiar, if you really want Cath Palug that badly.

Lastly, you get an Arcane Recovery, letting you regain spell slots with a total level equal to half your level rounded up on a short rest once per long rest. Not having slots sucks, don’t do that.

2. Second level wizards learn a specialty, and Divination basically lets you cheat at everything thanks to your Portents. At the end of a long rest, you roll two 20s and save those results.  At any time before your next long rest, you can use one of those results to replace an attack, save, or ability roll you can see, once per turn. If you roll high, give it to Artoria. If you roll low, still give it to Artoria, it’ll be funny.

You also become a Divination Savant, making it cheaper and easier to copy divination spells.

3. Third level wizards get second level spells, but your Abyssal Arcana also grows stronger, giving you a random first level spell each long rest as well. You cast these spells as if you were using a second level spell slot once per long rest. They are Burning Hands, Charm Person, Magic Missile, Cure Wounds, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, and Thunderwave. You’re a Grand Caster candidate, so it’s not like there’s a reason you couldn’t cast any of those.

We’re also spending your spells this level to enhance party members, with Enhance Ability and Magic Weapon helping out in and out of combat.

4. I know we just got cure wounds last level, but that’s a one in six chance of using it once per long rest. I’d hardly call that meta breaking. We’ll fix that by using your first Ability Score Improvement to grab the Magic Initiate feat, giving you the spells Light, Minor Illusion, and Cure Wounds more consistently (the last one is still once per long rest though).

5. Fifth level Abyssal Tieflings get one last boost to their Abyssal Arcana, giving them one of six second level spells each long rest. You could get Alter Self, Darkness, Invisibility, Levitate, Mirror Image, or Spider Climb. 

You also learn Dispel Magic to break through Tiamat’s Chaos Tide.

6. Sixth level divination wizards have Expert Divination, recharging lower level spell slots after expending another spell slot on a divination spell. The recharged slot also has to be 5th level or lower, but that’s hardly an issue right now. Very useful for someone who’s technically in another plane most of the time.

You also learn Major Image, for stronger illusory power, and Haste to make a chosen warrior more of a hero.

7. We’re now going to bounce over to Fighter real quick, you’re surprisingly quick to pull a sword on someone if you feel like it. The Dueling fighting style adds 2 to your weapon damage with one handed weapons, and Second Wind lets you spend a bonus action to heal yourself. 

8. Second level fighters get an Action Surge, letting you add an extra action to your turn once per short rest. 

9. For your fourth level spells, Hallucinatory Terrain will give your allies a glimpse of Avalon (healing and NP charge not included).

10. Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence, and learn Charm Monster to keep Cath Palug from smacking you upside the head for the eight billionth time.

11. With fifth level spells you can finally insert yourself into others’ dreams thanks to the spell Dream. It takes a minute to cast, but afterwards you can enter a trance to hop into a target’s dreams. You can shape the dream to your liking, or just watch the fireworks. You can also turn into a nightmare to deal psychic damage and prevent any benefits from that sleep if the target fails a wisdom save.

12. Tenth level divination wizards can use The Third Eye to gain one special kind of sight each short rest as an action. You can choose form Darkvision, sight into the Ethereal Plane, the ability to Read any Language, or the ability to see invisible objects and creatures. 

13. Sixth level spells like Mental Prison make things a lot harder for your enemies, charming one target creature if it fails an intelligence save. If it succeeds, it only takes some psychic damage. If it fails, it takes the damage and it becomes surrounded by an illusionary prison, so it can’t move, see, or hear anything beyond its space. If it’s forcibly moved out, or is attacked/attacks through the illusion, it takes even more psychic damage and the spell ends.

14. If you’re going with the standard array, you’ve probably noticed by now that your intelligence is currently odd. Thankfully we can fix that and make your DM’s life so much harder all at once thanks to the feat Keen Mind, which we’re picking up with this level’s ASI. Your Intelligence goes up by one, you have a great sense of direction and timing, and you have eidetic memory of the last month.

15. Seventh level spells like Mirage Arcane are another bump in power, letting you warp the landscape in a square mile around you. You can even add your fancy looking tower to the illusion now! Still not a lot of healing though.

16. Your last divination goody is the feature Greater Portent, letting your roll three d20s per day instead of two. Yeah, portent’s just kinda busted.

17. Eighth level spells like Illusory Dragon are a massive upgrade, almost as powerful as you usually are. This lets you make a dragon illusion that takes up space, is tangible, and can really breathe fire. I’m not entirely sure how this is an illusion, if I’m being honest.

18. Use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for less dying and more stabbing. You also learn the spell Demiplane, to create your own Avalon! As long as you don’t mind your Avalon being a 30′ cube room and nothing else. Still, it’s hard to beat that level of security.

19. Seventeenth level wizards get ninth level spells. Seriously, just grab as many as you can. Merlin’s a grand caster, literally nothing is beyond his reach, certainly not anything a D&D character could do.

20. Eighteenth level wizards gain Spell Mastery over a first and second level spell, letting you cast them at their lowest level like cantrips. Silent Image and Magic Weapon are both good for support, I’d pick those. It’s not a huge issue if you change your mind later, too- you can change spells after 8 hours of study. You also learn True Polymorph. Artoria’s gotta father a child somehow.

Pros:

With your maxed out intelligence, plus ways to confuse your enemies and buff your allies, you make for a pretty good support caster. I doubt that comes as a surprise.

Divination wizards are kinda busted? Three portents per long rest can seriously reshape a campaign if you’re smart with them.

Wish is also kinda busted? You know how a lot of builds I mention not getting to ninth level spells as a con? Now you get to find out why.

Cons:

You’re squishy, which also isn’t too surprising. With an AC of 16 and HP barely scratching past one hundred, You probably won’t want to actually use your sword that often.

Despite healing being the big draw of your FGO counterpart, we didn’t really get that much in this build. You get one to two uses of Cure Wounds per day, plus your second wind. Not exactly meta defining.

Most illusions and buff spells use concentration, so good luck holding onto those with a con save of +1. It also means you have to pick and choose what you’re doing at any one time.

[fbfh]

fangirl’s paradise - leo x reader

genre/vibe: romance, adventure, slice of life

word count: 2.8k

pronouns/perspective: first person present, no pronouns (I think), gn reader

au: soulmate kind of?? also traveling to other dimensions/multiverse

pairing: Leo x fic writer!reader

requested: nah

warnings: you think someone broke into your house for a minute, you feel like you’re going crazy for a minute, questionable pop culture/internet references, you get really embarrased about stuff you’ve written, you say fuck a lot, tiddy as an explative

summary: all you wanted to do was write some leo one shots for your blog, but finding out he’s your soulmate is good too

reccomended songs: havana - camila cabello, where do we go from here - amelie obc

a/n: got really meta and self indulgent with this bad boy, probs gonna do a part 2 at some point, cause this got really long and I started to get tired lol. For clarity, you’re from the riordanverse, but ended up in a world where it’s fictional. also some memories were erased. 

requests r open xo

All I wanted to do was dance embarrassingly and sing along to the same playlist I’d been listening to for the past three days in terrible accents while I wait for my ramen to finish cooking. That’s it. I really don’t think that’s too much to ask for. Plus, I’ve been home alone all day, so it’s really not too much to ask for. I flip over the waistband of my sweatpants while shimmying my way to the kitchen. 

“Half of my heart is in havana oh nana,” I sing along off key, in a pseudo growly voice that makes me giggle. I’m going to turn the corner, make myself some ramen, then finish the episode of love island I’ve been watching. Except that’s not what happens.

“He got tha-” I cut myself off with a scream, seeing a stranger in the hall way. He looks up. I scream more, way more, and choke out, “JFK’s left fucking tiddy!”, because this dude is either the best freaking cosplayer ever, or those tiktok reality shifting tutorials actually worked at some point. 

He looks too natural, too organic. The level of detail and strategic imperfection is beyond conscious choice. There’s no way he’s a cosplayer that broke into my house. Also, that would be a super weird crime. 

Either way, I’m standing in front of a dude who looks exactly like Leo Valdez. 

It feels… fake.

I didn’t really notice I’m covering my mouth with my hand to stop my hysterical scream laughs, but I’m able to get it under control after a second. 

He’s looking at me, eyes wide, examining me, probably wondering why I’m acting so erratically. Or why I just spat out such strange bullshit. In my defense, I’ve been watching chaotic tiktok compilations inbetween updating my blog for like, two days straight. Three other people round the corner. I don’t know what I expected, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise at this point, but I’m sure I’m looking no other than at Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Piper Mclean. 

“Jesus fucking christ, fuck me with a chainsaw!” I spit, retreating into the kitchen, reminding myself that while they are my favorite characters - and again, somehow real and in front of me? - they’re still technically intruders. I grab the nearest kitchen implement, a pair of red kitchen scissors I’d used to hack open the ramen packet, and point it at them. 

“Woah,” Piper says, “it’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you.” I count to four and breathe in, setting the scissors back down within arms reach. Hold for seven, exhale for eight. I repeated the process again, watching Annabeth whispering to Leo.

I can feel the initial freak out subsiding. I’m starting to calm down a little.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Piper repeats. Well duh, they’re the good guys. A spike of pure what the fuck shoots through me, as I realize I’m already adapting to the fact that fictional fucking characters are standing in my kitchen. Leo’s ignoring Annabeth, and still staring at me, searching my eyes for... something.

Piper’s brow furrows. I call past Piper to Annabeth.

“Yeah, hi op, what the fuck?” They all have a silent conversation for a minute, and I continue, “Anyone want to tell my why the fuck fic-”

“We can tell you what’s going on, but it’s going to sound crazy.” Piper starts.

“After the past five minutes, probably not.” I glance past her shoulder, Leo’s still examining me. I look away, overwhelmed almost immediately. About 30% of my brain is just an endless loop of ‘ohmygodohmygodohmygod he’s real??? Like,,,, r e a l real????? Aj;dlfkajskdla ohmygod he’s looking at me what the fuck richard’, 20% was still trying to calm down from freaking out so much earlier, so I was at about half brain power for the conversation ahead. 

“Okay, wait. Let me get this straight.” they stare at me in silence. We’re standing in the hallway outside the kitchen, and I feel like a complete disaster trying to process what they’re telling me and not look like a total idiot.

“So, Calypso went missing, and Leo got Aphrodite to activate his soulmate link so he can find her and it led you here?” I’m already smiling. There’s no chance, I can’t get my hopes up. 

Piper continues, “Which means it might not be Calypso.”

“Unless you’re wearing a really good disguise or something,” Leo says. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time he’s spoken to me. I let out a breathy laugh and look away from him. If I try to look at him my brain goes haywire. Scenes from stuff I’ve written about him on my tumblr flash in my mind, and it makes me feel like I’m about to explode. 

“Yeah, the reason we know is-”

“The gods are real, monsters are after you, et cetera et cetera. Yeah.” They seem a little surprised that I’m more concerned with the soulmate part than the mythology part, but I’ve been reading these books since middle school. We been knew.

Piper keeps looking between Leo and me with a weird look on her face. God, Piper, don’t get my hopes up. A knowing look passes over her face and she looks around the room again.

“Gods, where did he go…” She gets up and leaves the room. No one says anything. Between right then and when she gets back should have been in a ‘top ten most devastating anime uncomfortable silences’ compilation. She enters again a few seconds later, a tall hot guy behind her. He has red flowers in his hair and isn’t wearing a shirt for some reason. He looks between me and Leo.

“I see… interesting.” he turns to me and says, “Can you tell me anything… personal about him?” My face flushes. I turn to Piper.

“Sorry, but who the fuck?”

“I mean the only noncanon stuff I know is what I came up with for like, writing and stuff but that doesn’t count-” I sputter.

“Eros.” she replies, “My mom sent him along to help find the right person.”

“Normally I’d be able to tell instantly, but my powers don’t seem to work here very well.” his voice is like honey, and it seems like he’s heavily implying something no matter what he says. 

“Yeah, go on hermosa,” Leo says, smirking, “take a whack at it.” His voice sounds so much more… real than I could have imagined. If I could verbally keysmash, I would have then and there. 

“Hmm… why don’t you try anyway. What kind of lover is he?” the room erupts into protests. They don’t want to hear personal stuff about their friend, I don’t want to talk about cripplingly embarrassing smut headcanons in front of the character they’re about, and he probably doesn’t want me taking a wild guess at his bedroom habits. Eros turns to Percy, Annabeth, and Piper.

“You two, out. You, leave but stay close.” They leave the room hastily.

“Since I’m the god of sexual desire, I know what gets people going. I’ll be able to tell if you’re right or not. ” Eros says. I risk a glance at Leo, who I have a feeling has been staring at me a lot. He leans forward, playful intrigue all over him. How is he not dying inside?? 

“Ah ah,” Eros says to Leo, “you too.” Leo obliges, and heads up the stairs.

“H- okay, uh… he acts like a top, but he’s really kind of a bottom,” I choke out, trying to remember details from past posts, and Eros nods in approval, encouraging me to keep going, “he’s really-” my voice falters, and I hide my head in my hands, “he’s really vocal, like really vocal… uh…” 

“Oh yes, I can tell.” Eros says, and I laugh slightly. “What else?” 

“More? God okay… uh… he really likes hickeys, and-” I choke on my words, still unsure of how I got in this situation. 

“He holds hands a lot in… the bedroom? God…” I trail off.

“The next morning, he kind of… he just sort of stares at you while you get dressed and stuff. I don’t know anyone else who does that.”

Eros studies me for a second. My heart is beating so hard. How long does it take to say yes or no? I’m uncomfortably aware of the distracting adrenaline in my arms and chest and head. 

“Interesting,” he says, then stands up and leaves the room.

What the fuck, is he not going to tell me anything?

I’m listening as closely as I can, and I’m pretty sure I hear Eros say five out of five. I got everything right or everything wrong. Nailed it or failed it. 

Piper speeds past me a second later and races up the stairs. After a few seconds she comes back down. She nods toward the staircase.

“You should go talk to him.” a knowing smile is playing at the corner of her mouth, and I can’t stop one from starting on mine. I run up the stairs, and see him, kneeling on my bed, reading what’s on my laptop. 

Oh god, no. 

He stands up. He’s staring at me so intensely, I look away immediately. I start sputtering out a panicked apology and sit down on my bed, moving to shut the lid of my laptop.

“Uh… I just listen to a song or something that makes me think of you,” my voice gets really tiny at that last part, “and stuff starts to pop into my head. I just keep replaying it, and uncovering more details so I can wr- wait,” I start to look up at him, but can’t bring myself to meet his eyes. I stare intensely at the pattern on my quilt instead. “Did you say remember?” He lets out a breathy laugh, and I can hear the smile in his voice. 

“-of course I never thought you were going to read any of that, or…” His hand is on top of mine, my hand and voice freezing at the same time.

“How… did you remember all this?” my fears are being squashed. He doesn’t sound mad, or grossed out, or judgemental. He sounds… impressed.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m only starting to get back bits and pieces, but you remember… everything.” 

“Wait wait…” I mutter, completely dazed, “so it wasn’t… it was all real?” I feel him nodding behind me, and he makes a noise of agreement. 

“It was genius, really… as soon as I felt like I was remembering something, I’d forget it.” His other hand rests on my shoulder, palm flat against my back. “Only you would think to write it like that…” 

“So… it all happened?” I breathe, my face heating up as I think of the titles marked with a little asterisk. 

“Yeah,” I bite my lip, feeling his breath over my skin. It’s quiet for a second. The mattress shifts and I can feel him leaning closer to me, feel the heat coming off his body. His lips are dangerously close to my ear.

“Want something else to write about?”

Oh my fucking god.

I nod before I finish registering what he said. His free hand moves to my cheek, tilting my face towards him, and my skin explodes with sparks where he touches me. 

Our lips brush.

We both freeze.

Flood gates open. Countless vivid images and feelings and scenarios flash across my mind. It was like watching a movie connecting every fic I’ve written. I gasp-laugh a little, and he does the same. It seems like the visions or whatever that he’s seeing are a lot more intense than mine. His eyes flutter open and he looks at me stronger, more intensely, more passionately than he had before. He lets out a soft, breathy laugh, and presses his lips to mine. Everywhere he touches feels carbonated, and I’m trying not to smile too much. I don’t think I’ve ever been more in the moment than right this second. He pulls me closer, tilting his head and deepening the kiss. I didn’t know a kiss could be deeper than it had been a few seconds ago. His mouth moves feverishly against mine. My arms move up on instinct, one hand playing with his hair, the other tracing the collar of his shirt. He shifts his weight, and one hand on my waist, lowers me back onto my bed. His left hand intertwines with my right, and I smile, remembering what I had told Eros earlier. 

“Estrella,” He groans into my mouth, our teeth scraping as we smile in spite of ourselves, and I get the sense the nickname was an ‘as you wish’ type of thing, from the Princess Bride. It feels like he’s saying I love you. My heart speeds up as he nuzzles into my neck, pressing kisses and little bites into my skin. I think about the nickname I always thought would suit him, the one I kept writing down over and over. Now or never.

“Sparky…” I smile, hiding my face in his hair. He freezes for a second, then lets out that breathy laugh again, his face in my neck. His lips graze my collarbone, and he starts to say something, but the door opens suddenly, and we jump apart. It doesn’t help much though, because he’s still hovering over me on all fours and we both look very flushed. And I’m pretty sure the start of a hickey is forming on my neck. 

“Right,” she replies, “we gotta get going, the door is closing soon, so come down stairs as soon as you’re… free.” 

“Sorry!” Annabeth yells, averting her eyes. Leo and I stumble over each other’s flustered responses.

“-looks bad but nothing… happened… we d- we didn’t like, do anything...” I trail off. 

The door closes.

“I’m coming with you guys?” I breathe. He looks over at me, that unflappable sense of playfulness present as ever. 

Leo sits back, scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah, we should get back soon. Everyone else will be worried once they remember.” My heart plummets. I didn’t know you could go from feeling so incredibly euphoric to beyond miserable in about five seconds. I open my mouth to choke out a response, but before I can, he stands up and stretches a little.

“Do you wanna change before we go?” The question has such a normal tone to it, it’s a little bizarre after all the unusual things that have happened today. The bad feeling and tears at the corners of my eyes start to recede. 

“Of course you are. If you think I’m losing you again this soon you’re crazier than I am.” I let out a relieved laugh, and stand up. I look down at my monster foot slippers and sweatpants. 

“You know where to find me,” he winks before closing the door on his way out.

“Yeah, I should probably change.” He pulls me close to him, one hand comes up to the back of my neck, the other on my hip. He starts swaying us back and forth, dancing around my room.

“Well, if you need any help…” I laugh, and shove him away playfully.

I take a second to catch my breath. Oh my god. Thoughts are still racing in the back of my mind, but I don’t pay attention. I don’t have time to worry about what’s real and what’s not, I need to find the perfect demigod adventure outfit. I throw open my closet, start shuffling through dresser drawers, digging through my shoes. I don’t remember having one or two of the pieces, but after a minute, I find exactly what I’m looking for. It’s the exact outfit I’d always imagined myself in if I ever went to camp half blood. I search through my accessories, grab a bag, and hastily fill it with anything I think I’ll probably need. I turn back to my laptop, and change my blog description to on hiatus. I check my hair, flattening out the back from before, and determine I’m ready to go. 

I walk down the stairs, and everyone’s watching me. I feel like it’s prom or something, which sounds silly since I’ve got on ripped jeans and a backpack instead of a dress and clutch. Leo’s watching me with that look, the one that makes his eyes all sparkly, and he meets me at the bottom of the stairs. He puts his arm around my shoulder.

“Ready to go home, Estrella?”

I have never been more ready for anything.

[planet4546b]

question time my beloved!! what sort of threats exist in s/n? in the sense of like. a) corrupt govts or cults or whatever but also b) u know how in fantasy stories there are bands of robbers alongside the road to waylay unsuspecting travelers. monsters in the woods. that sort of thing. ALSO is it possible for ppl to live outside the spire observation zones? ik it would be fucky because of quantum stuff but like do people do it anyway??

omg hi sorry it took me like 3 days to get to this. but ohohoho do i love making vaugely sort of fucked up factions and also weather that kills you!!!! im actually gonna answer these in sort of a weird order because they all relate to each other sorta weirdly but well get there hkjdasg

ok so im actually gonna start with natural/environmental threats (ie. why the world outside spire observation zones is dangerous) so that i can get to ppl that live outside those zones so that i can get to weird little robber bands. this post comes with a table of contents hjdlsakg.

most of the environmental dangers outside of observation zones have been sort of colloquially recontextualized as weather in the 200 years since the resonance as a way of normalizing them, but they're just manifestations of the quantum rules that places not being observed function by. these are things like reality storms (think what the end of spiderverse looks like - buildings appear and dissapear, places become physically uncertain, people just vanish as multiple dimensions overlap at the same time), quantum tides (what if collisions got turned off for everything in an area at the same time, which sounds silly but has literally swallowed whole towns), probability storms (a worse version of a reality storm, when the actual fate of an area becomes uncertain, like if you put the box for schrodingers cat around like, 50 square miles. these are TERRIFYING), and things like time and space just sort of getting unstuck, so time can pass much quicker than normal without you realizing it or you can walk for 5 minutes and travel 50 miles or space and time physically 'looping' in on themselves, etc etc. also, because of how the resonance worked, there are entire chunks of the world that are unfamiliar landscapes - just 20 miles of the kind of fantasy forest that has giant spiders in it in the middle of like, kansas - and animals from other worlds, but these are both inside and outside of observation zones and are mostly a known quantity. like yeah if you want to get to jims house you have to go through the poison mushroom zone. it happens. (however. long term exposure to quantum environments is dangerous, and there are odd, incomprehensible, 'mutated' creatures that arent more dangerous than normal wild animals, but would probably be classified as monsters, living outside observation zones. think the fucked up animals from annihilation. i picture these guys a lot as like. ominous silhouettes and shadows on the horizon. you know theyre out there, but thats about it)

SO living outside observation zones is dangerous because its unpredictable. theres a handful of ways around this: either you watch the weather (spires put out 'weather reports' that are accesible via radio that list places that have increased quantum activity, but its not the most reliable), you travel/stay in a group that essentially works in shifts so that some people are always observing the area around them, which kiiiiiind of stabilizes it (this works up to a point, but requires a large group, is taxing, and still could very well fail), or you set up brand-new, proprietary tech from the moraine transportation, infrastructure, and protectionary division - portable radio towers that will stabilize the area around you. maybe. this tech, which allegedly works by outputting radio waves of the opposite frequency to the mar (the connective tissue between universes), is able to make small scale safe zones outside of observation zones, and is what mtipd uses to stabilize the path between stitch and staple, which is the largest area outside the observation zones that's regularly traveled. all of these options.....kind of suck. regardless, people do try to live outside the observation zones, but they pretty quickly figured out 1. its much, much safer not to settle in one place for a significant period of time and 2. if you have a group of like, 15-20 and someone always listening to the radio, you can moooostly keep ahead of the weather. what im saying is that outside of the observation zones theres essentially an entire ecosystem of biker gangs and cowboy posses that are all SUPREME weirdos. they have their own complex web of political interactions that frankly i havent bothered working out, but for the most part, they only really affect each other (travel outside the observation zones is rare enough that you just dont particularly need to worry about it, and if you do need to travel there you just need to hire one of the groups for protection and youll be fine). theres ALSO im sure little highway robber gangs inside the observation zones, theyre just not as bonkers.

as far as sorta big scale threats, we've got all the fun ones - shreveport, while isolationist, has been building up a military for years (including refurbishing automatic weapons which is. Bad.) and no one truly knows why, stitch and staple have reinvented capitalism and are each run by a large corporation with all the corresponding dangers there (as a bonus, the two corporations hate each other and are constantly threatening to go to war with each other), backstay had a warmongering past and while their current ruler wants peace, this opinion isnt shared among many of the city's aristocracy, theres a rising political faction called the eigenvector that wants the cities of the verge to be united under one banner and to be a single 'nation' and they suck supremely, theres rogue scientists trying to build a stable portal to another dimension that is this close to collapsing and destroying the entire area around it, theres a cult that believes exposure to quantum environments is good for you but at least they stay out in the wilderness, missionaries from the major religion of the gloaming protectorate sort of wandering around, etc. the most plot relevant big threats are the corporations that run stitch and staple, (geodesia logistics and shipping and the previously mentioned moraine transportation, infrastructure, and protectionary division respectively) and a mysterious group rising to power known as the ekp (which stands for the eschatologic-kymoptosis presage because theyre pretentious assholes), or the ekpyrotics who believe the end of the world is coming and want to make it happen faster. because theyre pretentious assholes.

which is all very fun!!!!! i hope this makes any sense at all but as always thank you for the questions muah a kiss for you

[marvelousell]

The Agreement (Part 1.)

Pairing(s): frat boy!fwb!Tom x reader, frat boy!Harrison x reader

Summary: Tom is a typical frat boy, his love for partying, drinks and girls are bigger than his ego. Y/N is a whole different dimension, she keeps her circle small, and even though she knows her best friend Tom is a total douche, she can’t say no to the little deal that was sealed between the two of them.

Word count: 2k

A/N: ahhhh so this is my first series that I’m posting here! I’ve went for the fwb!au but I will do a mob one soon too. It will be full of angst, smut, friendship, love, heartbreak, absolutely everything. I hope that you all will like it, and I would appreciate it if you comment, reblog or send a feedback!🥰

Also my tag list is open for the series!

Warnings: mentions of smut, swearing

It was a Friday night and that meant party all night.

Well not for you.

You weren’t a party girl. Sure you went here and there on some frat parties with your friends, but every Friday? Hell no.

The Friday nights were reserved for a book and a cup of tea.

You were a shy one, you kept your circle small. Tom, Harry, Anna and Amelia.

You were a big bookworm, and hopeless romantic. A great duo for sure.

Sometimes you felt like an ugly duckling. Amelia and Anna were gorgeous and appealing brunettes, just like other college girls, but with a great personality. They were a whole package if you asked me.

You would say that you were an average looking girl. Nothing to special.

You just wanted a guy that would love you for who you are on the inside, not outside.

Too much books, I know.

“Maybe it’s time to head to bed.” You said to yourself, after you caught yourself overthinking, again.

-

“Jesus Christ.” You sighed, the doorbell waking you up.

It was 20 minutes past midnight, and you were now worried who is at the door at this time.

“Again?” You groaned, rubbing your eyes.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s late, but I really needed a break.” Tom spoke, running his palm through his messy hair and massaging his scalp.

You motioned him to the living room, styling your hair that was sticking out everywhere, as much as possible.

“Great, I look like a zombie.” You murmured to yourself as you went to the couch where Tom was seated.

“Want anything to drink or something else?”

“Yeah…something strong?” He said, pushing his back flat on the couch.

“You know that I only have wine here.”

“It will do the job.”

-

“So..will you tell me what is tonight’s reason for your visit?” Your figure sat next to Tom’s, enjoying a late glass of wine as well.

“She saw me with Stassie today, so she went bonkers.”

Ah. Typical Tom.

Well let’s go back to the start shall we?

If you were honest, there was a lot, but still nothing to tell that wasn’t familiar to everyone.

Tom. Your typical frat boy.

Hot guy, astonishing body, soft curly brown hair followed with the dark brown eyes that had every girl drooling. His charming smile that he flashed to every single girl, covered up his conceited behaviour. Although he was a very charismatic person, he was a bit big-headed.

Did I say a bit? I meant a lot.

Parties were his scene. Tom loved the attention he got from the people almost immediately when he would enter the party place. Girls were basically throwing themselves on him, waiting for him to acknowledge them.

Tom was aware of the effect he had on the ladies, and he sure took advantage of that.

Every weekend there was a new one in his sheets.

He didn’t do feelings, some girls knew, some didn’t. So the morning after he would throw them out of his room half naked, all shattered and with the disgusting feeling that they were used.

He had a reputation, after all he was the most wanted boy out here, everyone’s dream was to become something to him.

Unfortunately no one had succeeded.

Did Tom say she a minute ago? Oh yes.

She was Sophie. And no, she wasn’t his girlfriend, but she sure didn’t think that way.

Sophie was your classic example of a girl that doesn’t understand the word no.

She was one of Tom’s flings, a beautiful, but fake girl. They got together at her 20th birthday party, it was just a one time drunk sex. Tom waited for her to feel asleep after a long session, so he could just go home and get at least a little amount of sleep.

However the next day at college, Sophie was like a limpet.

She didn’t let him breathe, even though Tom explained how he worked.

To be rejected or not interested in her was a unknown term for Sophie.

“Look, we shared a night, had sex and that’s all. It’s how I roll sweetie okay?” He desperately tried to get her off of his back.

“Tommy, I know how you do things, but you can’t lie about the chemistry. We just need to be together. And the sex is amazing.”

And that’s how it started.

Tom was loud and clear, not just with her, but with his friends and other ladies that she isn’t his girl, and never will be.

He really hoped that Sophie would let him be after a while, and she really did, but Tom just couldn’t keep it in his pants.

The Spring party.

Everyone got shit-faced, Tom was super turned on by a sweet brunette that clearly wasn’t interested in his lame flirting.

Sophie came in for a refill in the kitchen, but she was a godsend for Tom at that moment.

“Soph, sweetie mind if I get you a drink?”

“Thought you were clear about your feelings for me Tommy?” She answered, playing with the end of her dress.

“Yeah, yeah..How about I get you that drink, and we could catch up on things, ya know like old times?” He crossed his arms on purpose, flexing his biceps.

“I knew you would come back.” Sophie laughed, wrapping her slim arms around him.

It happened again. And Tom left like the last time, but once again Sophie didn’t get the message.

It became much more harder for him to avoid her, she was all over the place. She ruined his possible hookups, tried to meet his friends, brothers. It was getting on his last nerve, and even though he said that he doesn’t do relationships, she didn’t give up.

Sophie just wanted to be in the spotlight, and Tom was a great opportunity.

-

“Dear God. I told you that this lifestyle of yours would cost you. You should’ve refrain yourself for one night. Now you have a fake and crazy girl on your back, and no freedom as well.” You said, secretly eyeing him, he was hot you couldn’t lie.

“Thanks for not helping Y/N. Fucking hell I just want her to disappear, she is hundred percent crazy!”

“Why don’t you for once think rationally. Call her, take her for a coffee, tea whatever, sit down. Talk. Like normal people, tell her how things are, use your magic. But be nice and direct, she needs to get it in her head.” You tried your best to help him, after all he was your best friend and crush since preschool.

Stupid choice I know.

“I think so, but I wouldn’t be surprised that she spreads the news that I took her on a ‘date’, not a ‘can you please fuck off’ coffee.” Tom spoke clearly annoyed, filling up his empty glass.

He was tipsy already, and so were you. The wine absolutely did the job.

You were now nervous, your heart thumping against your ribs, the silence wasn’t an issue between the two of you, but tonight something was different.

“Why are you laughing?” You questioned, looking at Tom.

“Nothing darling, just remembered the day at elementary school.”

“Oh God. Which one?”

“You know, when you almost punched Elizabeth when she said I gave her a flower, and that I’m her best friend now.” He looked at you smiling like a child.

“Hey! You couldn’t blame me I loved you, you were my bestie I thought you betrayed me!” You stated, turning your body to his.

“Oh loved?” He grabbed his chest, trying to look hurt, but failing after a loud laugh escaped from his lips.

Your hand slapped his chest playfully, as an answer.

“This wine is crazy, I’m definitely going to consume it more.” He spoke.

“Well you for sure will if Sophie freaks out again.”

“New bottle?” You asked, standing up, your legs wobbly from the alcohol that was running in your system.

“Sure, it’s a long night after all.”

You tried to be as relaxed as you could be, but Tom’s presence tonight didn’t let you be.

Tom was also tense, the wine messed with his mind, he didn’t got laid for days, and the silky white shorts of yours didn’t help him at all.

You were in front of him, opening a bottle, but he just couldn’t control himself. His eyes were glued on your slim legs and tits.

He knew that under those hoodies that you wear on a daily basis was an incredible body.

Tom finded you attractive, absolutely stunning. He thought about you on his bed, whining for him, he really did wanted to have sex with you, but he couldn’t. You were his best friend and Tom didn’t want to hurt you.

But fucking hell. Tonight you were making him go nuts.

“I’m worn out.” You said exhaling the air.

“Live a little Y/N. Your nose is 24/7 in those books, give yourself a break, don’t be so boring.”

“Me boring? Oh excuse me that I don’t have such a dynamic life as yours.” You rolled your eyes.

“Hell yes you are, when was the last time you had sex?”

“What?!” Your cheeks were burning, and you couldn’t believe he asked you that. Sure you two had conversations about sex, but only about his sex life, and by that I mean who he slept with not how and where.

“You heard me, c’mon we’re friends you can tell me everything.”

Stupid Tom.

“Yes we are, but I would love to keep the informations about my sex life to myself.”

“So you’re a virgin?”

“TOM!” You almost chocked on the wine.

“Well?” He smirked, feeling how you got more and more shy from the conversation. God he wanted to fuck you so bad.

“No I’m not a virgin!”

“Then you can tell me when was the last time hm?”

“I don’t remember ok?! Jesus, the last time was probably the week before me and Noah broke up.” Your voice almost a whisper, realising that you were presumably too boring.

Tom just whistled the ‘wow that’s tooo long’ whistle, earning an annoying look from you.

“If it helps you I didn’t bang a girl for like a week, maybe more?” His answer turning into a question.

“Yeah, that helped me a lot, thanks Thomas.”

“Always here to help you.”

You once again slapped him playfully, but with the arm where your glass of wine was, spilling the beverage on his shirt and sweatpants.

Shit.

“Fuck, sorry! I’m drunk, I-shit.” Yes, you were absolutely drunk, because the sober Y/N wouldn’t try to dry Tom’s crotch with her hands.

Tom’s eyes opened widely. The feeling of your palm rubbing his now hard dick, speeded up his breathing.

Your knees were on the couch, and your body extremely close to his. You still didn’t have a clue what you were doing.

“If you’re gonna clean me up like this, I might spill some of this by myself darling.” He groaned, raising the glass in the air.

That was enough to send your mind to reality.

“OH GOD. I’m so sorry, oh my God this is so embarrassing right now.” You tried to sit back down, but Tom’s hands stopped you.

Before you could fall on the purple carpet in your living room, his grip brought you into his chest.

Your hands were on his thorax, his arms on your lower back.

“Shit, am I on his lap right now?! What the fuck is happening?” You thought inside your head. What a great situation to be in.

“You’re making me so hard now Y/N.”

You were speechless. This wasn’t happening.

“I think it’s a big shame that you don’t have any kind of relief after a long day.” He whispered in your ear, breathing in the sweet scent of your shampoo.

“Tom.” Your mind was hazy, you tried your best to resist this, but holy shit you wanted this since forever.

“How about I suggest something to you darling?”