#she has big trust issues and prefers to keep to herself

[fayesephone]

Messy doodle sheet of my lil bunny vampire Ophelia that I adopted from @flowerrose14 awhile back! 🍷❤️

[chefkids]

I love your meta!!! It’s amazing that you’re still able to identify and connect new things that the rest of us overlooked. Do you have any predictions for next season? Not just with SydCarmy but also any thoughts about where the show may take us

Thank you!

I think a big focus of next season is going to be on their lives intertwining and their families coming together. Season 3 ended with Richie, Nat, Carmy, and Sydney all coming together to open the restaurant and including her in their core group like family. And like Ayo and everyone in the show has said, this is all about chosen family and real family. But I also think a lot of bad shit is going to happen, especially at the very start of the season.

After Carmy practically begging to meet Sydney's dad, I do think Emmanuel and Carmy will finally meet. I do not think he is going to like Carmy at the start. He is very sceptical of their whole arrangement, he knows Sydney quit for a minute and might have heard Sydney talk shit about him. And if he ever finds out what went down on opening night, I don't think he'll be too happy with Carmy. But I do think they will eventually bond and get to know each other, I think including that Sydney's dad was sober from alcohol is going to be a big conversation for them.

I think they were alluding for Natalie having some sort of complication maybe preeclampsia with her shoulder pain. I think she's going to give birth sooner rather than later. Natalie giving birth is going to bring Donna back and is what is going to get Carmy and his mother to finally see each other again after seemingly years apart.

I also think Donna and Sydney will meet. I think Natalie and Sydney are both going to try to get Carmy to at least try to give his mother a chance because they are both much more optimistic and forgiving people than him. I think it's going to cause a lot of tension between all of them because Carmy doesn't want Sydney seeing that side of his family.

Sydney's share/ownership of the restaurant comes back into question. I also think Carmy getting more credit/recognition than her in reviews or press will bother her. I think she will basically say that this place is not really hers. Someone tries to poach Sydney, Carmy freaks out. Sydney starts to consider if it is worth staying if another good opportunity comes along.

Marcus' mom is dead and gone. RIP to that lady. I think grief and how they all deal with it differently will be a big theme. Carmy ignored his grief for a long time and tried to use work to fix things. Sydney and her dad still keep her mom's memory alive but she still struggles with letting others know about her grief. I think Marcus will be letting others help him and be there for him and Sydney will be there for him. I think this will bring back things Carmy about his own grief and how he's still dealing with it.

Luca returns to fill in for him for a bit and emotional support for Marcus. Which I think will also bring us to see Competitive Carmy in full force as goes into Michelin Mode, for Syd's sake. No amusement or enjoyment. I also think this will kinda turn the crew against Carmy as they'll prefer Sydney, they kind of already do. Especially considering she was more involved in training them and in the build than he was. Plus she's just nicer than him.

Sydney will overwork herself and burn out, she won't trust Carmy on his own and will inevitably put a lot of pressure on herself. She's not going to want to quit or stop but Carmy and her Dad will be pressuring her to slow down because she's making herself sick. I think a large focus of Season 3 will be on their energy. In Season 1 it was all about the pressure of money, Season 2 about time pressure, and now they need to find the energy to keep going because they need to make back money in a set time frame. The focus on energy and their internal dynamics between them, rather than external issues like things in restaurant being broken.

Jealous Carmy. When he realizes Marcus likes Syd more than a friend, he's going to view everyone as competition and a threat, even though he's still to scared to do anything about it. I think Sydney will grow closer to Marcus and Richie and maybe even Luca or new guy Connor, not in any romantic way, but it is going to bother Carmy a lot that she never spends any time with him and that they know her outside of work but he doesn't.

Menu overhaul is inevitable, aside from Marcus dishes, most of the menu is not that remarkable and they really need to pull out new interesting ideas if they want a star. I'm sure we will see a lot more of Syd and Carmy actually testing recipes together. Carmy is just not as creative as Sydney when it comes to food, he struggled with the chaos menu. Mostly as Carmy's way to force proximity with Syd when she doesn't want to be around him.

I'm also still rooting for the return of the short rib risotto and the missing acid chaos ingredient. They have to bring it back.

Tina and/or Richie straight up comment on Sydcarmy. I think Tina knows and suspects a lot more than she lets on. She is very observant and protective over Sydney. She's overheard and seen a lot of what has been going down between them. She's going to put Carmy in his place and scare him a little on Sydney's behalf.

Richie on a similar note is going to put 2 and 2 together on what Carmy is feeling and basically tell him to stay away from Sydney because he doesn't want a Claire 2.0 to happen to her and he probably feels like Carmy does not even deserve Sydney in any way and he would just fuck things up for everyone at the restaurant.

Natalie finally says something to him and that's what finally gets him to do something and stop bottling everything in. She never commented on his relationship to anyone except Sydney, and that was more so to get her in the loop and protect her, because she knew Carmy was leading her on while seeing Claire and not telling her. She's going to subtly or not so subtly ask him wtf he is doing. I also think Jimmy fully thought Sydney was his girlfriend.

Fire Suppression System will tested for real with an actual fire. I have a lil theory that Sydney is going to be the one to accidentally start a fire next season. The fire suppression test was all a metaphor for Syd and Carmy suppressing their feelings and the spark/fire that they have. At the end of season 1 Carmy started a grease fire after Sydney quit, because he couldn't suppress his sadness and feelings for her. In season 2 they passed the fire suppression and Carmy decided to declare Claire his girlfriend. They managed to contain their feelings, but eventually they still came out with Carmy and his panic attack. But now I'm sure Sydney is going to be the one trying to suppress feelings because of how everything went down, and I think it will just blow up in her face literally and metaphorically. They spent so much time explaining the fire suppression system and the electrical wiring and the amperage of it all, that I think it's going to come into play again.

Carmy uses Sydney for emotional support without her realizing. When he texted her because he needed her comfort and forgiveness before opening Mikey's note, she didn't know that was what was happening. When he had panic attack and thought of her to calm down he used her for comfort, but she doesn't know all that. I think he's going to tell her or show her that she is his comfort person. I also think we will also see Sydney eventually reach for him for support and comfort as well.

Sydney's catering days and UPS flashback. Please I am begging. We need more of her lore. I think next season will be a lot of seeing her as more independent and being the boss, we only just started to see her at her peak performance in the last episode. I think we'll see more of her evolution, and also her flighty nature. She went from restaurant to restaurant. I think the idea of her leaving The Bear will hang around all season, but she won't leave.

Claire apology then goodbye within the same episode. Sorry to that girl. I think Carmy was already planning to breakup with her after he had the panic attack and the talk with Uncle Jimmy, which is why he freaked out when after he saw her at dinner. I don't think there would be much place for her unless they throw her into some hospital scenes with maybe Nat or Sydney being sick. I think her work here is done. I think she might make other appearances with the Faks. They are close family friends. Maybe she's friends with the elusive Francie Fak that everyone is dying to know what happened between her and Nat.

I think Richie will try to work elsewhere for a bit. He wants to prove that he doesn't need Carmy and that he can succeed without him. I think he'll come back when Sydney asks him to. The situation with him and Tiff feels very 50/50 to me. On the one hand I think it could be him learning to move on from his ex, on the other hand I think Chris and Joanna are all about second chances and I could see Tiff seeing Richie change and wanting to give things another chance.

I also think there's opportunity to see another city like we did with Copenhagen. I'm still rooting for Carmy to take Syd to Noma before it shuts down. I could also see a New York flashback episode with Carmy working at Eleven Madison and Sydney going on her NYC food tour and their whole invisible string coming together.

Not in this season, but The Bear Cookbook will happen. Trust.

And The Psychedelic Musical Episode. A girl can dream. But I do think we'll get another karaoke scene, maybe with the whole crew going out after a shift and just letting loose for once.

[mari-lair]

That’s a lot of questions, but I’ll try my best to answer them all!

.

Aoi doesn’t care about an individual perception of her, she genuinely has no interest in a stranger because she always assumes they have bad intentions. They want to hurt her: It does not matter if they are jealous or worship the ground she walks on, they they will hurt her. Which is a sad way to view the world, so she defends herself.

Her attitude is a big wall that says “If I don’t care about you or your opinion, you can’t hurt me”. 

She detaches herself from it all, preferring apathy over being vulnerable and opening herself to be hurt. This lack of confrontation, this apparent lack of care (she doesn’t seem to ask even simple things most kids would in her situation “Why are you bullying me?”) makes her feel arrogant, which feeds into people’s bad view of her and prove her trust issues right, which gives her more reasons to believe she is right and became more arrogant.

Akane was always there to stop anyone from going too far when messing with her, so she can look down on others even when they got aggressive without fearing for her health. She can’t be hurt emotionally in her indifference, and she doesn’t care about physical injuries, not when the most she’ll get with Akane around to protect her is a scratch.

So she keeps this up to the point Akane genuinely starts believing she is a tough girl that doesn’t care when people are mean to her.

But she does.

She just pushes it all away, and pretends she is above it all. Growing genuine in her arrogance after training herself to not care all the time, convinced the way the world sees her doesn’t matter, because they don’t matter.

Aoi can’t use this defense when she already cares about someone, but she still naturally assumes the worst of people when it comes to how they view her, so something as small as a petty fight with someone whose views she deeply values can be extremely hurtful.

She is scared.

“Akane hates me, he doesn’t want to be friends anymore, he never liked me in the first place!"

She is also visibly angry: She hates that she cares, she hates that she can’t hide it. Notice how she doesn’t say anything or try to run after Akane. She is trying very hard to convince herself she “Doesn’t care”, she wants so badly to ignore Akane, or to hate him, but she can’t do either, so she defaults to being angry at herself.

The reason Akane finds her crying so cute is not because the tears look cute, is because it shows how much she cares about him. Under all that bravado and arrogance Aoi is a sensitive girl who wants to be loved, and she is very attached to the people she considers friends, she can act tough all she wants but if a loved one says "I hate you" she is so distressed she cries.

Aoi hates how sweet and 'weak' her heart under all her icy defenses. Akane finds it cute.

Akane was her only friend for most of her life, so the person she pays the most attention to, and the one she compares herself to the most is Akane.

Akane is the direct opposite of her: People are unfair to Aoi and she react by closing her heart so no one can hurt her. People are unfair to Akane, making him do annoying work without giving him anything in return, and he reacts by loudly acknowledging people are being unfair instead of bottling up any discomfort, and trying his best anyways instead of running away, keeping his heart open and wearing his emotions and feelings on his sleeves. 

Akane doesn’t care about others opinion of him, he’ll swing his bat like a crazy person at school and be rude as fuck to people he just met, but he help other because he wants to help, he is a nice person.

In comparison to Akane, Aoi feels selfish, cruel, and cold. She only ever cares and worries about her close friends because their opinions matter to her.

Akane is someone even she, with all her walls, can’t help but love. And since she is the oppose of him... Is easy to come to the conclusion she is unlovable. She may not care about a stranger calling her a slut, but she can see people don’t like her. Again and again, people always find some problem with her.

She hates herself too, so she is convinced even the people that claim they love her don’t care about her, they just love the sweet personality they come up with after seeing her pretty face, and they’ll hate her when they realize there is more to her than a cutesy smile.

She is unlovable by design, so she assumes the only reason her friends don’t hate her yet, is because they don’t know her true self.

The “cute, sweet, and friendly, popular girl with a pretty face!” is loved. She is Nene’s best friend, the girl all the guys want and all the girls envy.

But Aoi? The arrogant and distant coward that is scared of caring too much? She isn’t loved by anyone. She is sure she will be rejected if she act honest, so she doesn’t even try.

Her life was never a “perfect life”. 

Aoi is either by Nene's or Akane’s side. She isn’t close to anyone else.

The manga is in Nene’s point of view so her situation is narrated through rose tinted glasses: Nene lives in a fantasy world where Aoi’s life is perfect since being popular is Nene’s dream, so Aoi’s popular life must be amazing! Right?

Nene can’t break this view. Even when the truth stares her in the face. She does not change her view.

Aoi was a wreck when she tried to apologize, but she does regret trying to kill Nene, she wants to apologize, so she tries her best to get out of her comfort zone and face her biggest fears for Nene: She is willing to have a confrontation instead of hiding

Instead of asking Aoi how she feel, or making any questions about her behavior, Nene immediately dismissed all of Aoi’s actions. Nene doesn’t want to deal with Aoi’s problems, she just wants her popular bubbly friend back.

Their hug in chapter 96 means Nene embraced the “popular girl bff with a pretty face” and rejected Aoi. 

Aoi is hurt by this, but she is a coward, so she accepts it, pretending nothing happened. (I go into more detail about Nene’s views, and why Aoi doesn’t open up: Here.)

Despite all her flaws, Aoi is not nearly as bad as she sees herself as, she is mostly insecure, desperate to be loved even when she feel like she doesn’t particularly deserve it. 

She is harsh on herself, wanting to keep all her emotions under tight control, but she is sweet to her friends, she genuinely loves them and tries to fight her bad habits. She wants them to be happy! 

She’ll get invested in topics she doesn’t personally care about, because she knows Nene likes it, and worry about Akane’s health for the simple reason that she cares, she wants the best for them.

Her sweet side clashes with her bad habit to always assume the worst.

Despite being a sweet girl at heart, caring about others is still very painful. It does not come easy for Aoi, who has trained herself to be isolated from her peers.

She wants her friends to look at her, she wants to be important and be reassured she is loved! But even when she is shown love, she doesn’t believe in it

She convinced herself they don’t care about her, just like all these strangers don’t care about her. And she is arrogant enough to believe she is always right, so if she can’t see this ‘wonderful girl’ Akane sees, it just means Akane is the wrong one. That this isn’t her insecurities talking, Akane is the one lying, he is the one that doesn’t truly love her. 

 Aoi believes she has misled him just like she had misled Nene, and she wants to talk about it, she wants to be honest, she is so tired of hiding her flaws! But she is too scared to risk losing the love she is given so she will keep hiding, she’ll keep lying to herself that it doesn’t matter, as she has done since she was a small child.

All the things that she claims to hate about Akane, the things that make her feel envious, and lacking in comparison, are also what she wishes she had, things she genuinely admires about him. Things that make him so special and “easy to love” in her eyes.

The idea Akane isn’t lovable does not compute to her. She never says “he is not my type” even when she is neck deep in denial because to Aoi, only an idiot wouldn’t see how lovable Akane is, and Aoi is too arrogant to lower herself to the level of an idiot.

She adores him so much that even when she believes the “cute humble and popular Aoi” is the only Aoi he’ll ever love, she can’t let go. She keeps him at arm's length to not get too attached, but she can’t bring herself to truly run away, to reject him point blank.

She wants him after all, when we get a glimpse of her alone with her defenses down, she melts just from watching him work hard.

She wants them to be closer (unrelated but I can’t get over how she went “watching Akane from my window isn’t enough, let me lean on my balcony, so we are closer.”)

She wants them to be side by side. She wants to accept his confessions. But she is too scared to admit even to herself that she is smitten.

Opening up is hard for her after all, and admitting he cares about him so much? That’s terrifying. 

So she runs. 

Because if Akane gets too close he might see her flaws, and if her “unlovable self” make him stop loving her, if her flaws make him leave her, she will crumble.

When her usual defense of “I don’t care, you can’t hurt me!” isn’t effective, her second one is to distance herself from what is hurting her so she has some ‘control’ of the situation.

The drug no.6 gave her may have lowered her empathy, but “discarding people so they can’t hurt her” and “running far far away” has always been an itch she had. She always dismisses any stranger from her life, because she doesn't need them. She always runs away when she is hurt.

Is a desire born from the ugliest, most selfish, and insecure parts of her heart, something her kinder and friendlier side never allowed her to act on. But it is a part of her, the one she hates: this is the “unlovable Aoi” to the extreme, fully out.

Is a part she constantly tries to hide, but is always there, as important to her character as her kindness. A part of her that is resentful of the world and wants to stop caring altogether, to hide and hide forever, make it so only she can hurt herself.

She assumes if Nene asks Akane out he’ll accept, despite how much Akane only focuses on her, so she spends a week without going to school to spare herself the pain.

She accepts Akane “have been lying and secretly still likes Lemon” right away because of a silly ghost game, going straight into depressive mode and running away from the pain.

She genuinely wants Akane to be happy, and while she wants him to be happy with her, she hates her possessive nature, using her usual defense mechanism and trying to convince herself she doesn’t care about him, that he is disposable.

She doesn’t want to hurt anyone but she is arrogant, so she doesn’t protest or do anything to show she likes Akane (even when its obvious), going “I hope you’re happy” and running before she says what she really wants and ‘ruin their fun’ and ‘give her feelings away’.

She wants control over the situation: To leave before others ‘inevitably�� leave her. And Akane knows.

But he genuinely like her for who she is, he know how sensitive she is under her smile, so he always run after her to calm her down.

Akane is her biggest weakness and Aoi despises feeling weak and out of control. So her crush on him is a two edge sword.

She genuinely believed Akane doesn’t love her real self, but she also used it as an excuse to have control over her crush, to justify her lack of courage to pursue a relationship. 

She is still the same scared kid that cried when Akane said he hates her and got mad at herself for crying about it.

She is too arrogant to admit Akane has control over her feelings even when her composure is shattered.

Part of her genuinely doesn’t want to care, she wants to raise her walls and keep Akane away so he can’t hurt her! That is why she stabbed him and tried to throw him away in the first place.

She tries so hard to use her usual “I don’t care about you, so your opinion can’t hurt me” strategy with him, it's frustrating that it doesn’t work. 

She is a flustered mess by the point Akane start gushing about a flaw she hates so much and makes her life difficult.

The reason she is uncomfortable with Akane is because she is uncomfortable when she can’t control her emotions. And Akane? He could make her blush even when his approach was so tactless she dissociated from his shower of  neverending compliments, so this assertive approach, practically forcing Aoi to accept that he likes her for who she is and that she can’t run away from his love no matter how hard she tries, it’s as much of a dream (she always wanted to be loved fully) as it is a nightmare (he is too direct! He does not give this poor coward a break!!).

He doesn’t allow her any escape. He is taking her far far away from her comfort zone. Her panic is completely and utterly genuine. Help her cause she does not know what to do.

She isn’t able to give him a verbal answer when Akane asks “Do you like me, even just a little bit?” but Akane never expected an answer.

He only acted so bold in the first place (holding her and kissing her neck) because at this point, he already knows she loves him.

Aoi doesn’t deny his claim, she doesn’t use meaningless excuses like “We can’t marry because that would make me Aoi Aoi” , she just... cling to him, holding on.

Only after she hugs him back (which is a silent “I love you too” in this context) does Akane go for the kiss.

Let's compare when Akane tries to kiss her to a similar scene where she is genuinely uncomfortable so I can show you she is more nervous and flustered by his advances than truly scared or uneasy.

In chapter 24 Hanako possessed Nene and tried to ‘seduce’ Aoi. Aoi had no idea supernaturals exist at the time, and she even goes “Nene-chan...?” to show she fully believes this is Nene, not some ghost possessing her friend. 

There is a lot of focus on Nene’s reaction, an attempt to make it comedic, but Aoi is extremely uncomfortable with this forceful behavior.

Aoi likes Nene, Nene is one of the two people she considers a friend, but she hated this: She is sweating, there isn’t even a hint of blush on her face, and she keep her hands far away, having her back on a wall. She likes to hold hands with Nene, comfortable being touchy with her friend, but in this situation, her instinct is to lean away. She doesn’t want it. She is uneasy.

Now let's go back to chapter 69. There are a lot of similarities, both Hanako (who she assume is Nene) and Akane hold her chin before trying to kiss her and both have her backed into a wall. Akane should arguably be worst cause she hasn’t been touchy with him in years while she is constantly holding Nene’s hand, but not only does Aoi blush, she doesn’t try to run from her feelings like usual, she reaches for him, holding on to his jacket.

She isn’t confident, she is sweating and shocked, (which makes sense considering how chaotic her night have been) but there is light in her eyes: She is scared, but she wants to kiss him too.

She have craved to be closer to Akane for ages but this talk didn’t magically heal her issues, no matter how much she dislikes this part of her, she is still an arrogant coward at heart: This kiss is hard for her. Any sort of intimacy is. It goes agaist her instinct to hide and sabotage herself.

That’s why she always blushes hard and gets extremely nervous with Akane when he gets too close. Even when what he is doing isn’t forceful, it feels overwhelming to Aoi.

She needs to hold back the urge to run. She needs to fight the urge to think about the worst and trust him, allow Akane to have sway over her emotions.

She still have a long way to go, and I’m rooting for her.

[river-bottom-nightmare]

The kid really wasn’t supposed to be an issue. Dick assured himself it wasn’t going to be an issue. He crossed his heart and hoped to die, dragged a knife over his throat, offering Tiger a solemn promise before flipping the knife between his fingers, dancing too close to his jugular, and winking. (One of these days, he’d put a flash of panic in Tiger’s eyes, he just knew it.) Agent 37, especially now with Tiger, was damn near unshakable.

But here’s the thing: this little brat with a suit more expensive than half of Bruce’s wine cellar and a pout sweeter than a baby’s and pudginess still clinging to his cheeks hadn’t stopped talking about jaguars in the past ten minutes.

“Eyes on target. Two minutes to break through security’s last defense,” says Tiger’s voice in his ear, quiet even through their tinny comms. Dick can picture the concentrated furrow on his forehead, the set of his shoulders and flex of his traps to settle himself before a mission’s last stretch. He can picture it better than he can his siblings, somedays.

“That’s great, buddy!” Dick tells Tiger and the kid damn-near clinging to his leg. His hair is blonde, ruffled, clinging to any vestige of its gelled style with a sort of hopeless desperation, like trying to ground a ghost. And this wouldn’t be an issue, it really truly wouldn’t, if Damian Wayne hadn’t also spent their last gala running his tiny, calloused hands through his sticky hair, doing his best impression of not clinging to Dick’s leg, and continuously talking about tigers.

How long has it been since someone’s last touched him with such simple trust? Dick feels the boy’s faith angularly, like a spear of glass through his ribs, through the ribbons of his tendons.

It’s frigid. The two of them are on the ballroom’s balcony, letting the wind use her cold fingers to trace the underside of Dick’s scalp, letting a night of dancing and quiet drugs and secrets spill out behind them. (Letting Dick protect this child’s innocence a day longer.) He isn’t true royalty but he may as well be, the way Bruce always was, because underneath the balcony overlook is a very illegal jaguar enclosure. Inside, the jaguar seems to be stretching, waking herself up for the day, taking note of the iron fence surrounding her as Dick supposes she does every morning. Dick can sympathize. There’s a different sort of freedom they’re both experiencing for the first time, and Dick thinks they both rather prefer before.

“—and they have the strongest bite of any big cat! Compared to its size, I mean.” The boy clearly thinks this fact is splendid—it actually kind of is—and he looks up at Dick, pleading with his eyes for acknowledgement. His aunt and uncle, the child’s new guardians, are attempting to use him to release a bioweapon four nights from now that would potentially kill millions. He’s resisted them for weeks, and here he is, begging for a morsel of praise.

Dick lets his eyes go wide. “Whoa, really? That’s actually pretty cool.” The boy beams, his little wildflower head bobbing and his smile unburdened, beauty like something peeking up out of the earth for the first time. God, Damian used to hate these parties. Used to scowl at any mention of fumbling himself into a child’s suit and making nice with shark-toothed civilians for hours. Used to look up at Dick with that same unfiltered joy when they sat in the hall, asking Alfred to sneak them some tarts, Damian leaning into Dick’s arm and telling him about a cool new tiger fact he learned. That arm still prickles. Emptiness does the opposite of pain, and somehow that is always worse.

“Everything’s disabled,” Tiger’s voice nudges him out of his reverie. “Except the last password. Needs to be handwritten. You got that kid to open up yet?” Dick can hear the challenge in his voice, ever so subtly weaved into his even tone, and he can’t keep his lips from turning up at the edges.

The jaguar in the enclosure below folds up from her stretches, smooth like a burn, and leaps atop a large rock in her enclosure. The boy is stunned into silence for a brief moment. He seems to be gazing at the jaguar with a dangerous sort of longing in his eyes. Like he wants to be cracked open, like a stone-fruit ripped in two and devoured, like trust seems to be at once a holy and sordid thing to him. (He seems to be exactly the son of parents who, rather than entrusting any of their relatives or partners, made their child create the password for access to a mass bioweapon, then had the brilliant sense to be assassinated before they could tell him about it.)

Quietly, murmuring into the comm on his wrist, Dick says, “Try panthera onca.”

There’s a pause, then, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“He’s a kid, Tiger.” It wasn’t really that long ago that Dick was making up stupid passwords for Bruce to guess. The password to the pillow fort Dick made for Bruce’s birthday was the binary nomenclature for a bat. The password Damian uses—used, fuck, used—for his phone was the king cobra. 

Silence from the other end of the comm. Silence from the kid, too. Dick glances over, and sees he’s still hypnotized by the jaguar. He follows the child’s line of sight, and finds the jaguar staring straight at them. I am hungry, her eyes tell him. I have not felt another living being in so long that I will devour the next one I touch. I am so fucking starving and I want you like an organ taken out of your guts, I want to swallow you into a lanky-shaped hollow near my stomach, and maybe, Dick thinks, maybe she’ll name it “Agent 37” or “Nightwing” or possibly even “Robin.” But what I want most of all, she says with a flick of her tail and a twitch of her ears, is to rip out your bones and hold them, craft them, use them to wrench open the bars of this cursed cage so that I may run, and never return. I will take your bones with me, the jaguar promises, so you will be free as well.

The jaguar growls quietly, and Dick can somehow hear it from the balcony. Then, she flits away. Dick untenses in time with the boy next to him. He thinks of iron bars and bloody torsos and a time when he could wear his own face. He thinks of a boy, only a little taller than the one standing next to him, who would have kept him from ever giving in to Bruce’s demands to renounce his face to begin with.

(He thinks of Damian’s bloody torso, specifically, and thinks that he would let the jaguar carve open his gut and tear out his bloated bag of organs, if only she would give them to Damian. They would be more useful than his unknowable face.)

Tiger’s voice filters through the comm. “Package secure. Heading towards safehouse delta.”

The kid next to him sighs happily, again. “Pretty cool, isn’t she?”

Dick smiles down at him. “Very. What’s her name?”

The boy frowns, confusion on his face. “She doesn’t have a name. It’s better not to have one, I think.”

“Oh really?”

A nod from the child, more serious than Dick imagined “She did bad things. She killed people. That’s why they let me have her. And I think she’d like it better if I didn’t use her old name, the one that she had when she did the bad things. But I don’t want to give her a new name and have it be wrong! So she doesn’t have a name.”

“Do you think she likes that?” Dick asks. “Names are—names are important.”

“I don’t know,” the boy says, suddenly looking very unsure of himself. “But I think it’s better to not have a name than to have one that hurts you. Or to have one that doesn’t fit.”

Dick hums. Considers. Offers the boy another smile and straightens up in the way people do when they’re getting ready to leave. “I suppose you have a point, kid.”

The child nods. There are bruises in the tender skin under his red-rimmed eyes and his lips have scabs from his own teeth all over them. They’re so chapped, they’re nearly bleeding. Dick knows how much sleep children get after their parents are murdered in front of them. “Thank you for the jaguar facts,” Dick tells him, sincerely. “They made the night much more fun.”

The boy nods. Opens his mouth, closes it, then seems to make up his mind and opens it again. “Before you go,” he says, with all the hesitation he’s kept close and quiet this entire night, “can I—can I just have a hug? Please?”

And Dick, without hesitation, folds to his knees and opens his arms.

---

@dickgraysonweek dick grayson week day 2: first responder au | “can i just have a hug? please?” | spies & secret agents

---

taglist who will probably shoot on sight thinking i've risen from the dead: @thatsthewhump @xatanna-troy @red-hood-redemption @capricorn-stark @batshit-birds @buticaaba @comics-observer @newsical @queenofbooknerds @scattered-winter @amillionandonefandoms

[yanderes-galore]

If requests are still open,

Yandere Zarya (Overwatch)? Concept

I'll try, sure!

Yandere! Aleksandra Zaryanova Concept

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Overprotective behavior, Providing yandere, Slight manipulation, Violence, Blood, Implied murder mention, Dubious companionship.

I've stated before that Zarya is a protective and providing yandere.

She means no harm to her darling and just likes to keep them safe.

She and Reinhardt have very similar yandere behaviors, they want to be your guardian and hero.

Zarya has wanted to protect those she cares about so much that she had joined the Russian Military.

She's a heavy lifter and is incredibly strong and enduring.

Honestly... you'd want someone like her on your side rather than against you.

She may seem scary but she wouldn't want to harm her darling in the slightest.

She even tries not to use unnecessary violence, even when she feels a bit of jealousy bubble in her.

Zarya is a yandere who will be your guardian, a protector, regardless on her intentions towards you.

You could just be a friend, maybe she's a bodyguard for you.

That or maybe there's something deeper.

Either way... no one is hurting you with her hovering around you.

If they do?

Her fists end up covered in their blood and they're begging for mercy.

Which she may grant them... if they promise not to touch you again.

Her strength is a big part of her yandere.

It's what makes her able to protect you but it also makes her nervous to be physically affectionate.

Which is why Zarya prefers to just be in your presence and is rather gentle with you.

If she's too rough she could easily break something.

Something she'd immediately regret if that ever happened.

She never wants to do physical punishment and treats you as if you could break in her arms.

Which is entirely possible with her.

Zarya seems like she doesn't mind the thought of carrying you or using her strength to make you happy.

She just has to remind herself that she can never hurt you... she also can't harm others around you off the bat.

But a couple of mistakes manage to slip through.

Zarya is strong in body and soul so she has self-restraint.

Her snapping wouldn't occur often and would take time due to her patience.

But when she does snap it isn't pretty.

It's easy to trust her as most of her emotions are controlled.

Even if she did harm someone she doesn't tell you.

She doesn't need you to worry about that.

When it comes to you all Zarya cares about is your safety and your happiness.

Eventually she may convince you to move in with her to provide for you.

After all... living costs are high, yeah?

So why not let her deal with it?

Zarya wants to shield you from the issues life throws at you.

She wants to hold you and hide you behind her.

If anyone disagrees... you can guess what happens.

Zarya feels only she's capable of caring and protecting you...

Why should she care if it means getting some blood on her hands? She's seen worse.

[darlingmisa]

Agents as your gf- Pt. 2

this took so long to get out but im finally back and writing again! Includes Raze, Jett, and Neon :)

Raze:

This girl LOVES pda and I mean it. Whether its on a mission, on base, in the range, wherever, she always keeps you in her sight. Also definitely has a hand on you whenever possible, usually in your waist or the small of your back. She just wants everyone to know you’re hers.

Lets be honest here, Raze definitely sleeps like a starfish and takes up the WHOLE bed. That doesn’t stop either of you from cuddling at night though. In fact you find it most comfortable to lay your head on her chest while she has one arm wrapped around you, tracing small shapes on your back.

Raze knows you can handle yourself of course, you’re just as strong as everyone else, but that doesn’t stop her from worrying. You’ve never seen her pull out as many grenades as the time you took a bullet to the shoulder. You swore up and down you were fine but raze didn’t stop until the enemy team was completely wiped out.

Raze sometimes thinks she’s not good enough for you and is entirely terrified of you one day leaving her for someone else. It was hard for her to open up about it at first but now all it takes is some alone time and cuddles from you for her to feel better and be back on her feet.

Jett:

Surprisingly Jett isn’t the biggest on pda, but still lovessss to hold your hand wherever you two go together. Like raze, she just really wants people to know you’re hers. And trust me, everyone knows. She just can’t stop talking about you!

Hugs and cuddles are Jett’s favorite things. Anytime she can she definitely has her head on your shoulder or you wrapped up in her arms. Especially back hugs, expect to feel her arms wrap around you from the back at any time, no matter what you’re doing.

Jett is, well, she’s Jett, and that means everyone knows not to mess with you, because if they mess with you, they mess with Jett. And no one wants to mess with Jett. The one time though, you got a minor injury during a mission, Jett was the first to your side, shielding you with a smoke and finishing off the surrounding enemies with a quick bullet to the head.

Jett confides in you with pretty much everything. Any issues or doubts about herself and you’re the first one to know. She trusts you more than anyone, and has told you time and time again that she simply wouldn’t know what to do without you.

Neon:

Being the youngest, Neon is a little shy about pda. Usually just sticks to holding hands or a small kiss on the cheek. Is always by your side though, she’s most comfortable around you and prefers to be close to you at all possible times.

Behind closed doors it’s a different story. Neon is a big cuddler. And position that’s comfortable for you is good for her. She loves holding you as well as being held by you. Even if an arm or leg falls asleep, it doesn’t matter to her as long as you’re comfortable. Her love language is physical touch after all.

Seeing you hurt on the battlefield was all neon needed to let loose. Usually she holds back a little, in fear of hurting her teammates, but after hearing your pained scream through her ear piece, that was the least of her worries. It took less than a minute before the enemy team was down and she was by your side.

No matter how many times you reassure her, she’s still terrified of shocking you. It took a while for her to even hold your hand no matter how bad she wanted to, in fear of hurting you. After a little training from Reyna and sage, she’s less nervous about it, but still gets anxious sometimes.

[hopefuldoubts]

aurora ashford. 26. the lost soul. bakery shop owner. taurus. dependent muse blog for hollowcreekfm.

bio:

aurora was born into quite the big family. she's one of three kids. but the rest of her mother and father's sides of the family were quite big besides for her and her brother. aurora was always known to just keep to herself. she was known to be someone to be indecisive. a lot of the times she would stay in her room and blast her music. she preferred to have her space. when her friends would ask her to go out, she'd stay for a little while. but then she'd realize how much she would rather be home and read a good book. make some tea. put on a movie. anything else. while going out wasn't entirely her preference, she would here and there if she was asked or if she wanted to spend sometime with those closest to her. most of the time she was pretty indecisive and sometimes didn't always make the best of decisions. kind of just keeps to herself about things. which maybe is what makes her the best secret keeper. and now knowing that there's someone out there threatening to reveal her secrets, she tries not to talk too much about certain things to anyone else that's around here.the thing about aurora specifically is the fact that she truly doesn't trust people very easily. while she has made decisions she wasn't always proud of, she's learned from them and has vowed to never make those same ones again after loosing the closest person to her because of it. when anyone gets close to her so quickly... it makes her worried. because she feels as though they may end up never sticking around in the end. which made her last relationship quickly come to it's sudden end. and mostly, due to her trust issues. it was super hard to let anyone back in and it still is unless she feels that they've got a closer bond. if she feels that someone is pushing away from her, so will she and she'll make note to not talk to that person again.usually, you can find her in her room listening to music, journaling, gardening, baking, meditating or doing anything to relax and bring some peace and quiet to her life. she knows that deep down she's super compassionate, but a lot of people seem to test her patience when it comes to that. leaving her to realize that at the end of the day she only truly really has herself. because as it's been seen and known... who could she really trust fully here in hollow creek?

app:

( ABIGAIL COWEN. TWENTY SIX. CIS-FEMALE. SHE / HER. ) since you aren’t aware of them yet… that’s ( AURORA ‘RORY’ ASHFORD ) wandering around in hollow creek! from what i know they’ve lived in hollow creek for ( HER WHOLE LIFE. ) i’m also aware of the fact that they work as a ( BAKERY SHOP OWNER. ) in town! but if you were to ask me, what i see when i think about them are: ( FEELING OUT OF PLACE, WRITING IN JOURNALS, OLD POLAROIDS OF FRIENDS, LISTENING TO THE SAME PLAYLIST ON REPEAT, CHERRY FLAVORED LIPGLOSS. ) if anything, i feel like they could be ( ENIGMATIC, COMPASSIONATE, STUBBORN, AND STOIC. ) it’s really weird, though… because they seem to be hiding something that no one else knows. but i sure do! and that is ( CLOSED FILE … REDACTED. ). wild, huh? i know. they’re hoping no one will ever find out. and the very last thing that i’d say about them is that they’re mainly known to be ( THE LOST SOUL. ) just keep a lookout! who knows if they’re putting on a facade! ( N, 27, EST, SHE/HER. )

headcanons:

to cope with her emotions and the disquieting nature of hollow creek aurora takes up drawing. she sketches scenes from her memories of home, creating a visual diary that helps her process her feelings and maintain a connection to her past.

aurora shares a particulary close bond with her sister paisley. who she often turns to for comfort and advice.

despite her melancholic label, aurora is able to often think under pressure, but she prefers not to and very much needs her space.

her nickname rory is often used only by closer friends and family members, but never used by anyone who doesn't know her.

aurora often struggles with feelings of isolation due to her labe. she often feels like an outsider, even within her own family and those who know her. leading her to seek solace in nature and her personal reflections.

she enjoys stargazing and reading poetry, which help her unwind and gain perspective. her interests also include painting, listening to music with headphones in to tune everything out, journaling, and gardening, which she finds therapeutic and grounding.

she's worried and stressed slightly about being a co-mayor. mainly because she's not used to being in a type of 'leadership' position before.

she wears her heart on her sleeve sometimes. but is absolutely terrified of heartbreak, so because of that reason she tends not to open up easily and keeps her feelings hidden and locked away.

she has two siblings named austin and paisley ashford.

statistics:

full name: aurora ( "rory" ) rylee ashford.

age: 26.

star sign: taurus.

birthday: may 13th 1997.

nickname: rory.

favorite color: purple and deep blue.

job: bakery shop owner.

marital status: single.

family members: addison ashford ( mother ), cameron ashford ( father ), austin ashford ( brother ), and paisley ashford ( sister ).

pronouns: she / her.

pets: 2 dogs, 1 cat.

theme song: complicated by avril lavigne.

positive traits: enigmatic and compassionate.

negative traits: stubborn and stoic.

label: the lost soul.

faceclaim: abigail cowen.

connections:

siblings: ( austin ashford and paisley ashford. )

exes.

cousins.

best friends since they were born.

close friends.

friends with benefits.

frenemies.

used to date but it didn't work out.

blind date.

stood her up.

enemies to friends.

exes on good terms.

exes on bad terms.

have mutual friends.

friends to enemies.

family friends.

currently dating.

had a falling out.

got ghosted / was ghosted.

template credit:

IG_MY_SEA_OPPALU

[frostise]

details about the impact crystal had on louise:

crystal had stated in her will that louise had the rights to own not only the thermofrost chamber but her personal belongings and clothes as well. crystal dryly joked about them being a little too big on louise since they're almost the same height but she didn't have any other friend she can genuinely trust. to this day, louise still has her stuff in her penthouse and keeps them in great condition

as a bonus to the headcanon above me: louise wears crystal's clothes when she's in a depressed mood or when her death anniversary comes up. if anyone had a keen eye for detail then they would realise her sweaters were a little too baggy on her figure, which isn't like louise to wear since most of her clothes are tailored to fit her. she's a uptight person when it comes to fashion

whenever louise openly talks about crystal she would only focus on the good parts of their friendship. she would prefer to remember them without the hyperthermia cancer which drastically changed crystal's appearance and sets those good memories of them in college but never at S.T.A.R lab's since those memories lead to the lab accident that made crystal into a metahuman

she's lightning fast to correct someone when they get something wrong about crystal. she always gives the person a death stare and refuses to take her eyes off of them the entire time until they leave the room or is forced to pay attention to something else. this would've played out in firestorm's murder trial once and police interrogations

crystal is the only person she considered to marry despite them being friends at the time

louise remembers crystal's appearance so vividly that she had no issues creating a ice statue in a matter of seconds when she was a assassin in training. in canon, crystal named herself the queen of new york and to honour her memory she would've created a ice crown and royalty dresses in those statues

most people would think louise is fuelled by rage, sadism and grief which is true...but they often forget she's powered by her love for crystal. that's the primary drive for her actions when it comes to her vengeance crusade

louise had confirmed she helped crystal be more outgoing because she wasn't a sociable person and was the type to bury herself into her books. i would imagine louise was the type of extrovert to not understand introverts until she met crystal and therefore developed a better understanding of their social awkwardness

her thoughts would often drift to crystal when she's in prison or arkham whenever it got really, really bad. she's one of the few people in her life who motivates louise to never give up and be able to ironically stay 'sane' in there

as a bonus to the headcanon above me: she would have random thoughts that would trigger her to start thinking if crystal would love or hate a person she made friends with, something as mundane as the weather becoming colder can become a bad memory and the scent of cheap perfume brings comfort when she's about to sleep after a nightmare

louise has framed photos of crystal in her bedroom and study room only. there's several pictures of them in graduation, college parties, rollerskate blading and ice skating. it's the only few times she's seen crystal smile and forbids those who visits her penthouses to never access those areas without her permission. those photos serve as both a comfort and motivation since crystal was the reason why she became a better scientist and understood what louise was without fearing or hating her

if anyone were to visit crystal's gravestone there would be a lot of cemetery red rose bouquets since it was crystal's favourite flower and not many would know she was a hopeless romantic at heart because she was an extremely hard person to know. louise specifically bought purple roses because its often associated with royalty, blue roses symbolise yearning and hot pink roses for gratitude. her grave would always be spotless and well-decorated which always leaves crystal's parents surprised and terrified

as a bonus to the headcanon above me: louise unfortunately found out her gifts were being stolen and not taken away by the groundskeeper when the flowers would wilt away. she had planted a tracking chip ever since that incident occurred and took care of the problem herself by kidnapping the thief and torturing them for days before leaving their corpse in front of the snowy cemetery for the cops to find and crystal's gifts to be returned. it was very obvious louise had done this but it served as a warning to never disrespect crystal's grave

[sunnybunny2468]

full ask game but bri flavor :)

(og post here, all credit to op :))

💭 not quite sure for any of them.... 🚗 she is 14 years old :) ✈️ traveling!!! traveling yes yes yes!! she would >w< 🎮 talking, rhythm games, and singing/dancing! 💍 no, and she would like small earrings... 🖊️ no, and maybe one or two small ones? a bunny, fox, and butterfly, seperate or together. 📚 shes a high schooler :3 🎻 no, she's more of a singer! 🩹 she has really bad mood swings, but not diagnosed with anything... 🩸 not sure...

𝐒𝐘𝐌𝐁𝐎𝐋𝐒. 🎶 vocaloid!!! she loves vocaloid very much! and it helps keep her from constantly talking, so :) 💯 she was in a milgram rp, she's a pacifist, and she once considered eating glitter.... 💤 light sleeper, she will wake up and stay up if you pique her interest.....her sleep schedule is alright but only cuz her older sis keeps it that way lmfao 🔱 yeah, but she prefers land! splashing strangers however is a fun adventure to her :D 🔺 GOOD GOD NO....SHE IS SCARED OF ANYTHING THAT COULD HARM PEOPLE... 🔶 no, she doesnt know it, and nope- ^^'' 🚫 her big sister would fucking ground her. for a eternity. she knows better.

𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄. 🌈 sapphic asexual, she/her! 🎄 valentines day!! maybe someday she'll get love.... 🐶 no- but she wants a bunny. she would do anything for a bunny. 🐈 she's okay with her small circle, but loves yapping to anyone! 🐷 bunnies. she is not allowed in stores near easter. 🐉 jackalopes! but only cuz of miley.... 🍃 music classs!!! 🌴 no, not really! but she likes flowers :D 🍎 somewhere in america! she hasnt left home, and doesnt mind it! though, she wishes to visit japan someday....

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒. ❤️ optimistic, friendly, and forgiving! 🤍 clingy, incredibly emotional, and she talks a lot. 💔 naive, easily broken or messed with, and has attachment issues. 💘 her friends, her sister, and by proxy, her sister's pin. in the universe where her sister is missing, she treats it almost like her. when she knows what she's about to do is something her sister would frown upon, she hides the pin or gives it to someone she trusts for the time. 🧡 friends, excluding her sister. her parents aren't...people she knows much about. 💛 she knows english and asl! though, she can only understand asl, and cannot do it herself :( 💚 she doesn't mind either way! 💙 no, no magic here! just a 14 year old girl :) 💜 she doesn't know, haha- 🖤 no, and no. she'd never do either. breaking a promise by harming someone, or hurting someone emotionally that horribly? she could never.

𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐒. 🎂july 11th, 2008! shes a cancer, and the rest who knows ^^'' 🍝 she likes simple stuff! grilled cheese is good for her ^^ 🍰 coffee rolls. she would do almost anything for them. 🍦 cookies and cream! she likes the double sweetness :) 🍔 she knows enough cooking to get by, not much baking....she'll eat almost any sweet you bake, though! 🥯 something simple, like a bagel or donut(s). she tries to, as long as she doesn't miss her walk to the bus with miley because of it! 🥪 school lunch, otherwise whatever her sister picks...and of course, she tries to! sometimes she talks through the lunch period without eating a thing, though.... 🍛 usually chicken nuggets or rice by itself! her sister tries to make sure shes always eating enough, though :) 🍸 she's 14 ^^" ☕️ she likes fruit juices, including juice boxes! :D

𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄. 😊 her ultimate dream is to be a idol! and honestly? she wants to live a life hard for others to forget, a star too bright to ignore. 😖 EXTROVERT. she will YAP. to ANYONE. 🤔 lots of humming, tapping her foot like a bunny, twirling, and switching between censored phrases ("yikes on bikes!" "dangit!" "raspberries...") or just. swearing.

🧐 emotional. so very emotional. 🤓 SHE WILL Y A P. god forbid you bring up something she likes. 🤩 'fuck it we ball' attitude. god stop her. 😥 she stresses EASILY. but she tries hiding it with energy and positivity :3 😓 open minded, and questions things often! but if the answers make her uncomfy, she'll ignore the truth and deny it as long as she can... 😞 she likes making her attitude a light, and people are like moths. 🤒 not really! she doesnt do much to get sick, so... 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 all she cares about is her older sister, who doesnt mention their parents or other family much...her friend group is like a family to her, though!

[bananasfosterparent]

Name: Efenity (Efe) Kelmorn

Toyhouse Profile:

https://toyhou.se/23127342.efenity-kelmorn

Pinterest Aesthetic Board:

https://www.pinterest.com/spiiceprincess/oc-baldurs-gate-3-efenity-kelmorn/

Personal Theme Songs:

Do Bad Well - KSHMR (ft Nevve)

Losing My Mind (ft HALIENE) - Tritonal

Unstable - Svrcina

All Eyes On Me - CRMNL

The Glamorous Life - Eden's Crush

Race/Species: Half High-Elf, (later) Vampire Bride/undead

Age: Mid 30s

MBTI: ESTP-A Class: Storm Sorcerer 

Background: Criminal - Smuggling, transportation/import/export, haggling, heist planning

Proficient Skills: Intimidation, Deception, Persuasion  

Personality: ESTP - Efenity is not a "nice person". She doesn't revel in being evil or mean necessarily... she just has no patience for stupidity and often just feels frustrated and angry all the time. But she holds it in. She can often be quiet, but speaks loud and heavy. She spent far too long being silenced, and when she has something to say, she's going to say it. But she doesn't share a lot about herself either. Mostly so it can't be used against her. She can put on airs and be sweet, charming, and kind when it's needed, but it's usually not with sincerity.

She prefers to be the biggest voice (and person) in the room, using intimidation (and her muscles) as a convincer.

It takes a lot for her to trust someone and be loyal to them, but once they are in her very, very, very small "circle" she trusts them completely. Otherwise... she'll sell you to the devil for a corn chip and think nothing of it.

Full Backstory: READ HERE (Google Doc)

Powers: Favors lightning and thunder magic, Flight, and...biting.

Allies/Friends: Shadowheart...and...?  lol she doesn't make friends very well.

Significant Other: Astarion (Ascended)

Ship Pinterest Board:

https://www.pinterest.com/spiiceprincess/oc-baldurs-gate-3-efenity-kelmorn/efenion-efenity-x-astarion/

Ship status: Excellent Standing. At first, romping around with Astarion is just good fun. Efenity knew enough about vampires to know not to trust him. Moreover, her own issues with letting herself get close to people and fearing she will ruin and lose them (and vice versa) allowed her to keep him at a safe distance from her heart. Until she couldn't. She tried her best to not fall in love with him, but once he had confessed his own failure to do the same with her, the fight against it was pointless. She realized she cared about him more than she cared about even herself. Which was new, for her. In her own way of selflessness, she became his personal army and stopped at nothing to support his decisions. He wanted complete independence, revenge, and security? Consider it done. She helped him ascend and gladly took her place by his side, as his little love, his right hand, his Dark Consort. She'd go to the hells and back if he simply asked her to, and bring him back a souvenir. He wanted to live and she helped him become alive again. She trusts him with everything she is. She will praise him as her Lord and Lover forever and follow and serve him to the deepest depths. Their love is an unconventional and often misunderstood one, but remains true and deep for them. And that's all that really matters.

Ship themes (pulled from their ridiculously massive playlist):

Thunder - Primo the Alien

Salt & Vinegar (dEd Version) - Lights

Primordial (ft Niya Wells) - Satin Jackets

Parachute (Kat Krazy Extended Remix) - Matthew Koma

Misery - RUNN

If The Devil Is You - RUNN

Because The Night - The Midnight ft Nikki Flores ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Yaaay it's Efe! I have sort of been avoiding Tumblr, first for Miraculous Ladybug spoilers and now I just was a bit unsure how the BG3 fandom was here, but I figured it's chill enough.

ANYWAY Here is Efenity, my lil caramel drop uwu Actually, huge caramel drop. She's a big lady lol I mostly did this for my own reference, but figured it would be good in general to have a "masterpost" of info about her.

I wanted to have a non-hero Tav to pair with Astarion and who also wasn't Durge. It took a little while but I'm really happy with her design and backstory! I'm really super happy with her in general and how she ends up. 😭💜

[altorav]

Angsty nekushiki ideas (1) Shiki feeling left behind from the NEO adventure, specially bc Neku doesn't want to say much about what happened on Shinjuku. Shiki not understanding why Neku trusts Coco and Josh (i dont think she hates him or sm so lets ignore NEO finale for a moment) and she may feel a little...left behind, you know. But Shiki is not the only one, since Neku might feel out of place in her Gatto Nero bussiness and feeling like Shiki is not that close to him? Thats whats comes to mind

I personally feel like Neku should be the one who has the most angst when it comes to feeling out of place and left behind here post game. Just because Shiki isn't as huge a part of the canon narrative as Neku, I don't think she logically deserve to angst about her lack of participation since Shiki technically could be considered the one working the hardest out of everyone else in the 3 year gap with her business and possibly gaining the most experience with other people and has the most practical life skills (she's got her own big adventure in the RG and likely had become more mature because of it) and I feel like Neku being possibly suffering from feeling like a stranger in a familiar land and having PTSD are more pressing matters than any insecurities Shiki may have from not fully understanding the stuff that he may have gone through.

So, I feel like a more appropriate angsty scenario for Shiki would be Shiki trying her damnest best to help Neku reintegrate into society and the RG and ensuring he's got his possible emotional and psychological issues taken care of. Shiki seems to be intuitive enough to be able to just fill in the gaps herself and does what emotionally appropriate at the moment (if Neku doesn't wanna share details at the moment, she'd let him be. Even if she prefers that he talks about it. But the most important thing to acknowledge is his experience hasn't been the best and no one deserves to go through what he went through) And considering how idealistic she is and knowing how Neku is the type of person who actually doesn't trust people easily (she's got to experience it first hand after all) I think she'd just go along and trust that Coco and Josh couldn't possibly be that bad if Neku doesn't find anything wrong with trusting them. I think her biggest worries would actually be about ensuring that she's not feeding into Neku's possible insecurities (since she's experienced first hand how it feels like to feel like you aren't worth anything or feeling like you're never enough) from having the 3 years of his life robbed and not really learning any practical life skills during that time (unlike her) her primary worry would be if she is being effective in her attempts to ground him to reality, keeping him not to be too lost in his head and drowning in whatever anxieties and insecurities he may have after his traumatic history.

And yea, I think one of her worries would also include making sure Neku isn't intimidated or feeling alienated from her just because she's a successful business woman at the time being. Ensuring that he doesn't miss opportunities his life has to offer because he gets too caught up in his sense of not belonging.

[lilborealis]

(Literally no one asked, but I wanted to show off one of my babies! She’s the main character for my fic Cœur D’acier)

Name:Georgette Anna Chevrolet  

Date of Birth:November 20th, 1767

Birthplace:France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Rhône (formerly known as Rhône-Et-Loire), City of Lyon

Appearance:standing at 5’8, she has a pale complexion with brown eyes and slightly noticeable dark circles, straight black hair that goes past her shoulders. Her build is lean, like a ballet dancer. Has a burn scar on her left shoulder and another long horizontal scar on the right side of her torso.

Immediate Family-

Step-Father:Gerard St.John

Real Father:unknown

Mother:Estelle St.John (née Durand, formerly Chevrolet before her divorce)

Siblings:Philip Chevrolet(older), Adam St.John(younger, half-brother)

Likes

————————

-her brother Philip

-drawing, painting, anything to keep her hands busy

-reading, loves to collect antique books

-dabbles in science, mainly readings

-being by herself

-the night, very much a nightowl

-a big cat person

Dislikes

————————

-her half-brother, mom and step-father

-being in loud places for too long

-a certain blonde sharpshooter and his equally stupid brunette friend

-her childhood home

-waking up early

-Pierre Bellec

-Philip being overprotective

Personality-

-often cold, quiet and somewhat mean at first appearances, Georgette is very intelligent and often wants to get the job done with no distractions. She prefers to work by herself as she doesn’t want anyone to “slow her down” if they can’t keep up. This is due to Georgette’s insane perfectionism as she believes anyone else can’t meet what she considers a “job completed” is someone who gets in her way

-People who know her well enough though, say she’s very caring towards them. She is concerned for those she cares for, and loves spending time with those people. How you know she likes you if she lets you exist in the same space as her

-somewhat closed off, she doesn’t like to talk about her childhood, especially her mother. She doesn’t really like to talk about herself either

-She considers herself to be very independent, preferring to take solo missions. This often puts her in arguments with Philip as he is protective over her, due to how she was mainly targeted by their mother as a child. She loves her older brother but sometimes finds him suffocating

-she does have trust issues, which is why she seems so cold and distant at first

Backstory-

(TW:mentions of child abuse, neglect and harassment)

-born on November 20th, 1767 in the St.John manor, Georgette was born with the last name St.John until she ran from home and took her real father’s last name of Chevrolet

-Georgette only really had Philip and some of the servants that were nice to her growing up. Estelle and Gerard often neglected the Georgette and her brother, opting to pay more attention to Adam. Georgette was unaware at the time, that it was because she and Philip were deemed as “illegitimate”

-The only time Estelle interacted with her daughter was to “train” her into a “perfect wife” ever since she was a child. Young Georgette often blamed herself for when she couldn’t meet her mother’s impossible standards. Estelle would often abuse her mentally and physically if she didn’t, only claiming to love her if she followed her orders

-this gave Georgette her perfectionism :(

-her relationship with her step-father wasn’t that much better either. He never hit her but often neglected her as a child as she didn’t know that he wasn’t her father until much later in her life

-she was a very shy child and had few friends her age due to her mother isolating her. The only friend she briefly had was a maid’s son named Paul Lacroix. She and Paul would often have to keep their friendship secret and often played in a secret room in the attic. Paul promised to keep his mouth shut as Estelle didn’t want her children associating with “the lower class” and Georgette would be punished. Unfortunately, Estelle stumbled upon them and tricked Georgette into thinking Paul blabbed, turning her against her only friend. She wouldn’t see Paul again until they were adults

-at sixteen years old, Georgette and Philip were at a party hosted by their mother. She announced that her eldest two children were getting married to their fiancés after “long and wonderful courtships!”. This was the first time Georgette met her fiancé, Henri DuPont, the heir to a wine fortune. He was much older and very controlling. Once Philip and Georgette learned they were to be secretly married to their fiancé’s immediately right after the party, a move by Estelle so they couldn’t plan an escape, they managed to escape during the party. Estelle didn’t realize they had escaped until the end of the party

-Philip and Georgette ran away to Paris. Georgette found work as a washerwoman and a seamstress. Philip was hired in construction due to his strength. They lived in the attic of a boarding house with several other people. Georgette came back from work one day to find Bellec rummaging through one of her roommate’s things. She mistook Bellec for a mercenary sent by her mother to hunt down she and Philip. She put up a fight, but Bellec quickly got the upper hand. Philip soon arrived and almost beat Bellec to a pulp, but the assassin escaped

-Georgette’s first brush with the unfairness of the law came when a soldier tried to hit on her. She rejected his advances and when he got too handsy, Georgette slapped him and managed to fight him off, humiliating him. The next day she was almost arrested for trumped up charges of prostitution and theft, brought upon by the emasculated soldier. Philip was there with her and tried to fight the soldier, but was shot in the process. The two were then saved by three assassins. Siblings Rosalind and Alexander Fournier, and Pierre Bellec

-the creed moved Georgette and her brother, as both felt they were never given a choice due to their controlling mother. So they felt inspired to join the brotherhood. They took the last name of Chevrolet, having learned that their real father had that surname and was a butcher from their step-father. So as one last act of defiance against their mother, Georgette and Philip took the last name of Chevrolet

-Georgette was mainly trained by Rosalind Fournier and partially Sophie Trenet. She grew particularly close to Sophie Trenet, finding her an admirable character. Georgette raised through the ranks quickly and was eventually forced to train an assassin that came from Giverny, Lionel Poussin. Georgette found Lionel irritating, as he had a reputation as a flirt, who can use his “silver tongue” to get whatever he wants. She considered him a slacker-type and annoying, as he kept on flirting with her during their first mission

-Georgette and Lionel’s first mission was to destroy a fraudulent apothecary in The Court Of Miracles, and kill the man who ran it, Laurent Moreau. Lionel recklessly killed Laurent in broad daylight before Georgette could get into the apothecary, drawing unnecessary attention. She was ambushed in the middle of trying to burn down the place of business and injured during the fight. Lionel managed to save her but she passed out soon after, due to a concussion and exposure to unknown chemicals. It was this fiasco that soured Georgette’s opinion of Lionel even more, despite how charming he was to everyone else

-Then when the Revolution broke out, she was forced to keep watch over a new novice, Arno Dorian. She found Arno arrogant but a lot more capable than Lionel, yet she wouldn’t admit that Lionel had charmed his way into her heart as well

———Playlist———

Blue Hair-TV Girl

Swan Lake, Op. 20 Suite: 1.-Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Oblivion-Grimes

Bellyache-Billie Eilish

Last Words Of A Shooting Star-Mitski

Rainbow-Kesha

Seventeen-Ladytron

Washing Machine Heart-Mitski

Aesthetic——

A library filled with old books; dancing when no one is watching; broken mirrors; frost on a windowsill; moonlight peaking through the curtains; old, worn ballet shoes; dirty paint brushes sitting in a jar; pieces of charcoal sitting on a half-finished sketch; a stash of love letters; bruised knuckles; long black hair tied with a dark blue silk ribbon; a silver tabby sitting on a windowsill; hands with callouses on them; a long, white nightgown; heeled boots covered with dirt and grime; a vase of fresh roses sitting on a desk; the moon tarot card; silver coins and jewelry

[pirxtefairy]

ZARINA ZARATE - - - - - *.⊹₊‧

"two parts sunflower seed & a dash of moonflower."

GENERAL –

full name:  zarina zarate.

nicknames:  z.

age:  twenty-eight.

gender:  cis female.

species:  fairy.

eye color:  hazel.

hair color: brown.

height: five feet, three inches.

date of birth:  october twenty-seventh .

occupation:  peddler.

positive traits: passionate. clever. resourceful. curious. adventurous. creative.

negative traits: sneaky. distrusting. reckless. feisty. self-serving. thievish. crafty.

HEADCANONS –

Zarina’s pixie dust alchemy has combined with human chemistry upon getting trapped in Evermore. What she’s been focused on as of late is trying to find a way to create more pixie dust, whether synthetic or pure. Maybe even blue pixie dust! She only has so much left of her supply from Pixie Hollow… but she’ll be damned to let her passion trickle out when she’s come so far. 

Most fairies have their reservations of the ocean to some degree, other large bodies of water included. Zarina wasn’t any different. Wet wings made for a downed fairy, and in extreme conditions the loss of their wings entirely. But of course, Zarina being Zarina, she had her curiosities about the sea. She daydreamed about what all could be dwelling in such intense, expanse oceans and trenches. Mermaids. Monsters. Magic? Maybe. Eventually the water grew on her after running away from Pixie Hollow and spending so much time on ships and boats. Now she seeks it out when in need of peace or inspiration. 

Zarina has always been very independent and more than comfortable with her own company. However, her severe trust issues and growing loneliness are at a constant war inside her mind. Not to mention that she’s always in survival mode. The other fairies seem to have grown accustomed to Evermore, getting cozy and building a life. Zarina doesn’t really have that luxury. Stealing things just to get by typically burns bridges before she can build them. She’s learned to keep her talents to herself since people have only ever used her or thrown her to the curb because of them.

Did you know crows bring “gifts” to people who share morsels of food and kindness with them? Zarina does. Crows are misunderstood creatures, just like her. They’re also probably the purest friends she currently has. Zarina regularly feeds the crows that loiter outside of her very small apartment. Occasionally they bring her gifts. “little treasures” as she prefers to call them. Dropped coins, lost earrings, small pebbles, etc. She keeps the more interesting items in a little box under her bed. One time a crow even brought her a one-hundred dollar bill… that was a really good week for her. 

Zarina often adds little braids into her hard-to-tame lion’s mane. Sometimes she even weaves in little feathers, charms, hair cuffs or whatever else catches her fancy. Scarves and bandanas are also very common. But beware: if Zarina asks to borrow a hair tie, you’re not getting it back. More than likely she’ll accidentally snap it before you remember to ask for it back. Be gentle with her though, it’s not her fault. Blame her hair. 

This girl is super crafty and creative in more ways than one. In the traditional sense, Zarina without fail customizes and personalizes a lotttt of her things. Her favorite is her lab coat and smock. Whenever she has free time, Zarina will add some scrappy embroidery to the fabric or glue sea glass to the edges. In the less traditional sense, while she hates all of their guts, she learned a lot from the crew that betrayed her. Pickpocketing, sneaking around, resourcefulness, fashioning a good lie and even knowing how to work a knife. Well, sort of. She has surprisingly great aim.

Zarina is a big tea girl. Earl Grey is her favorite, but she loves coffee, too. Like many other people, she'll turn to flavored, espresso based drinks when she's looking for an extra kick of caffeine as long as they're not too sweet. Zarina isn't a huge fan of sweet coffee, but she always munches on candy when working in her little makeshift lab. When it comes to alcohol, Z bounces around between rum and cokes, whiskey and bourbon. It's also not uncommon finding her turning to weed when she's stressed or her brain won't shut off.

[cityandking]

blue 5, black 2, green 1, gold 2, silver 3 for minah & vesper 🥰

ty tabby!! // medieval heraldry oc asks

Does your OC believe that people should only believe or take inspiration from something if it is actually true? Or are there circumstances where a motivating lie is to be preferred to an awkward or uncomfortable truth?

MINAH — there are plenty of situations where a motivating lie is preferable to an uncomfortable truth (for example: no sir, I didn't touch that man's purse, but there was a shifty sort of fellow over thereabouts, you ought to talk to him). more broadly, she knows how much a lie (or a trick or a suggestion or even a misunderstanding) can inspire action, and she thinks, beyond any kinda of moral judgement or obligation, that it's just the way the world works. stories are powerful things, and she's not above using them for her own ends when she needs to VESPER — sometimes it bothers her how readily people will accept a lie (chiefly that she's some divine figure) over all sense and her own denial, but she can't deny it's a powerful motivator. she's well aware that what she believes people should or shouldn't do has little bearing on how they'll actually act, but she strives to tell the truth (or keep politely quiet) as much as she can. the exception to this comes when a lie will help protect people—like lying about a mage's location, for example. she's no narc

Has your OC always been fundamentally the same person? Or would someone from their past struggle to recognise the person they have become?

MINAH — absolutely not. as a kid she was way different from who she is now, and a lot of that change (though not all of it) was intentional. little minah would find it nearly impossible to recognize who she's become. (big minah has some pretty complicated feelings about that) VESPER — she's more or less the same. she's definitely grown up and grown into a version of herself she's proud of, but she's still recognizable. (her younger self would be so awed and proud and hopeful, and vesper feels a great deal of kindness for that little girl)

Does your OC feel comfortable expressing feelings of joy - do they laugh or smile easily? Or do they have a constantly stern or dour countenance? If so is this entirely genuine? Or something they feel they need to maintain for the sake of appearances?

MINAH — she doesn't have issues with expressing joy. she tends to default to more positive emotions: lots of teasing, smiles, jokes (especially jokes). her good humor comes easily and even honestly most of the time, but she also definitely uses it to mask deeper or more negative feelings. idk if it's possible to be honest without being genuine, but that's the line minah walks VESPER — she's very private with her joy, but that means when it sneaks out it tends to be entirely genuine. she's most open with the people she knows and trusts, even if it takes come coaxing to get her out of her shell, but when she's happy it's obvious. she kinda glows with it

Does your OC have any wishes or desires of which they are ashamed or otherwise wish to keep secret? Or do they loudly proclaim their every wish to those around them?

MINAH — some of the things minah wants most are the things she's most ashamed of, and she would never ever ever speak them aloud (or so she thinks; we've got 15 years of Blight to get through babygirl). she's happy to groan and gripe about things or express desires she considers safe (and/or expected), but good luck getting her to open up about anything truly personal VESPER — ashamed, not really, but definitely secret. she grew up (at home and also in the circle) in environments where wanting anything too openly was giving someone something to use against you later. it's constantly a shock to express a vague desire and have it fulfilled (I think josie, bull and varric are the best at reading between the lines. on the flip side, her relationship with cullen involves a lot of learning how to communicate clearly and openly in a way that's good for both of them, but especially for vesper)

Does your OC find it easy to be sincere when expressing their views or feelings? Or do they prefer to adopt an air of detached irony? If so, then why is this the case? Do they fear rejection or mockery by others?

MINAH — she kind of pendulums back and forth depending on the context. if it's about her own thoughts and feelings you can expect heaps of irony (it's the avoidance and paranoia and refusal to outwardly address any trauma she may or may not be carrying), but when she's talking to someone else (like talking to loras about his fathers' death and the power given to him to enact meaningful change; "I think it's possible to wish you could die of heartbreak" etc.) she can really buckle down and be sincere. it's just easier when it's outside herself. her inside stuff is such a mess she doesn't want anyone getting a peek at it VESPER — while slow to open up, she's very sincere about the things she fundamentally believes in (like mercy and justice and the belief that people can grow). she doesn't like saying things she doesn't mean; she'd rather just not say anything at all. she hates politics. thank the maker for josephine

[volcanicmertle]

𝕞𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝕖𝕕𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕕𝕤

mertle edmonds is based on mertle from lilo & stitch. she is a 23 year old human, mall employee, and uses she/her pronouns. she has no powers.

penned by HARPER

reflection

face claim: luca hollestelle sexuality: heterosexual height: 5’5 eye color: brown hair color: ginger piercings: ear lobes tattoos: n/a

attitude

positive traits: passionate, charming, a flirt, fiercely independent, honest, confident negative traits: temperamental, stubborn, selfish, unwilling to accept that people can be different, brash likes: brownies, hula dancing, bikinis, her curling iron, lip stain, chanel 09, the bachelor/bachelorette, listening to music with headphones, pilates, sushi dislikes: being wrong, the color purple, cold weather, turtlenecks, big dogs, tall buildings, getting dirty, not having her nails done, wearing her glasses phobias: acrophobia (fear of heights) hobbies: spending all her money on clothes, dancing at the club, going on runs, listening to the 'call her daddy' podcast, making fun of people, watching corny reality TV late at night, making extravagant overnight oats recipes aesthetic: an shaken oat milk latte made with extra dashes of cinnamon, finding constellations in the freckles on someone's skin, the smell of ember as a flame begins to burn out, the deep rumble of a volcano that could erupt at any moment, the sound of glass shattering, the warmth of a tequila shot in your chest

relations

mother: delaney edmonds father:  karl edmonds aunt(s): stacy edmonds sibling(s): n/a pet(s): gigi ( a "dog" )

headcanons

🌪 mertle absolutely loathes sweet candies and finds it odd when people prefer sweet ones to sour ones. 🌪 in mertle’s eyes, bullying is okay, it builds character…. and it in turn, it stops people from being so WEIRD all the god damn time.  🌪 she claims she doesn’t care that her father stopped coming around… but it has really heavily impacted her. on the rare occasion he calls or reaches out, it sends mertle into a spiral. in turn, she has ridiculously bad trust & abandonment issues. 🌪 girl friends are more like…. pawns. the individuals she chooses to keep 'close' have to benefit her or her status in some way. she keeps her more powerful friends at an arms length, as she finds it easier to surround herself with people she can bully and manipulate into seeing her as their superior. 🌪 the primarily fuel for her hatred towards lilo is that she is envious of her lack of regard for what other people think about her… how can one NOT care?? 🌪 hawaii is in her blood, and whilst she dismisses many of the values her culture holds through her selfish and insecure need to be on top, her heart still misses her island and the warm sun and the never-ending beaches.  🌪 mertle is the sound of a volcano rumbling in the distance, building up tension and smoke and heat as it festers- the contents so hot and fueled with the desire to explode and bring awareness of its presence to everyone around.  🌪 hula is something she still practices daily, it’s a great core workout and it makes her feel connected to the parts of home she actually liked. she’s even started learning other types of dance because movement allows her mind to go quiet for once.  🌪 mertle will have the occasional drink or shot, but she knows her limits. when you're sloppy, you have the opportunity to say and do things that people may judge you for…and being judged or looked at funny is not something mertle is okay with. AT. ALL. 🌪 mertle suffers from dyslexia and was a terrible student because of it, not being able to receive the assistance she needed ( not that she asked for it because she refused to admit anything was wrong with her ). it's something she's really embarrassed about.

[2n2n]

general random ch96 thayoughts

Teru is so funny.... he really is not dissimilar to Hanako... I feel like if Hanako was brooding you could also make him come out of his room if you threw a big party without him with sparklers and made him all jealous and left out.... HARRUMPH... without ME??? precious and lovable... wtf.... .. you NEGLECT MIETTE?

nothing funnier than Teru grabbing his SWORD before he goes to pout about stuff and barge in.... crazy dude. Yet couldn’t we imagine Hanako entering a party intended to make him jealous knife-first, lol....

PUT THAT THING DOWN.

I feel like you were going to barge in and electrocute Akane...... 

I really like the visible pain in Aoi here...

Nene means well, and I think its something to interpret as you wish, but... given Aoi’s stated acceptance of that ‘state of mind’ being nothing but Herself, With Guff Removed, having Nene see her self now as a ‘different’ Aoi, owing those behaviors to ‘that wasn’t Aoi’, may feel like they’re not ready to be closer; she’s not ready to... ask Nene to really understand everything that happened to her, what that all was an expression of. The narrative that she was ‘brainwashed’ is what Nene understands, right now... it’s not the time to challenge that. Truly... Aoi now will be a liar on a few levels.

Being ‘accepted/forgiven’ is touching/painful, as it is, that Nene is so pure/kind she would not be afraid of her, while at the same time feeling the conditions of that acceptance rely on a misunderstanding or mischaracterization, hmhm... I think it’s a bit of everything.....

I’m pleased Akane is the only one with complete knowledge of Aoi’s entire personality issues.... this exclusive acceptance and grasp of the situation, is sweet... I mean, I feel as if Akane himself could never have seen that Aoi as ‘brainwashed’ in quite the same way, since he recognizes her pattern of thinking. Ultimately he loves it. Well.. That Why He Her Man’s.

I dunno, just a goodgood thing that made me sad but endeared to see. Nene and Aoi still have a ways to go, in their friendship... I have faith that it could become more full-hearted, that some day Aoi will trust Nene to ‘see’ her... or rather, will feel less like she’s burdening Nene... but, baby steps. It’s a sweet and painful little middlezone to be in this... Aoi has been graciously granted this narrative, situation, that lets her evade explaining herself for a little longer.... 

I kinda like the contrast of the more tasteless Hanako who I feel gladly leans in to the way others will rewrite the narratives for him, assume him ignorant or sloppy, save him interrogation, without it seeming to burden him to do so  (And I’ll Do It Again Lol), while Aoi choosing to keep Nene at a distance is more like... well, Aoi knows Nene doesn’t deserve to be lied to, as someone so hurt by lying herself....  

AND I’m thrilled if our next trajectory is TALKING TO BROADCAST CLUB MEMBERS!! for the love of GOD... I’d be happy with anyone, eager to learn about Natsuhiko OR like, what the hell Mitsuba thinks about Tsukasa.... Mitsuba doesn’t strike me as the most observant of his environment though, nor like he’s trusted with crucial information, so beyond his feelings/takes on things I don’t know what light he could shed... but nonetheless just knowing his feelings would do me a favor.

It’s sortof funny to me Kou’s first objective when coming back isn’t checking in on Mitsuba, fklsdj;lsjdfksl;fjsdkl I’m starting to feel bad for the guy... please go talk to him, and preferably not in the context of gaining intel, maybe just in the context of You Are My Friend....! I Was Worried! You Looked Scared!