#she's still promoting infinite

[tbhsilver]

[ 231026 ] weverse update

🦁: birthday suit

[cumikering]

Neighbour Ghost x reader 5

2.9k | fluff, night terrors, being held at knifepoint Whose fault is it when the stray you feed won’t leave? (part 1) (part 6)

“You got a girlfriend now, Riley? You know you don’t have to keep coming back to base, especially not at this hour,” a lieutenant from another unit teased as Simon passed him in the hall. “Don’t forget our training is coming up.”

He kept his head down as he unlocked his door. It was inevitable for suspicions to arise after doing this for months now, but thinking of the eventual teasing he was getting in the dining hall made him groan.

Earlier that night, he’d left his hoodie at yours. If he couldn’t have yours with him anymore, maybe you’d appreciate having his.

You took the bait, a selfie of you in it already waiting on his phone when he lay in bed. He shouldn’t have left your flat - your bed was infinitely better than the one he was in anyway. Perhaps he could find an excuse to keep one of your shirts with him instead.

Simon came over almost every night and the banter only got worse when his peers started noticing how he was only gone a few hours each evening.

“Don’t you get tired from all the driving?” you asked as you poured him another glass of water at dinner. “It’s not a short drive at all.”

He looked up from his plate. “Do I bother you?” he asked carefully.

“No, no! I meant, why don’t you… Your flat’s right down the hall.”

Of course the drive was beyond tedious, but it was the lesser of two evils than to be caught having one of his bloody nightmares again.

When he had his first back home, fresh after deployment, his mum said his piercing scream woke the whole house up. He swung the bedside lamp around in a daze as he heaved, yelling at nothing. She said it shattered her heart to see her baby so.

“Why not stay there if you don’t want to be here?”

You thought he didn’t want to be with you?! Where did you get such an outrageous theory? He didn’t want to leave your bed if he was allowed to.

“It’s not that.” He put his fork down, weighing how to put it. “I dream sometimes. I’ve been told it can be really difficult to watch.”

They hadn’t been anywhere as vivid the past few months, but he knew the demons hadn’t left. They lurked around the corner, ready to strike at the earliest convenience.

He usually got them in the field or fresh after a mission, but shooting up into the still darkness was no shame among his sergeants as they shared understanding glances, a silent promise to keep it amongst the unit. Each of them carried the same weight after all.

You nodded, giving him one of those kind smiles again.

Why couldn’t he hold his tongue around you? The lame jokes, the embarrassing bet he lost and now this. What were you doing to him?

“And we have training this week. I’d prefer sleeping a little later than having to wake earlier to drive.” He averted his gaze. “I’m in the top third of the regiment. One of us is getting promoted to captain.”

For years, he looked forward to each promotion, excited about being and doing more, but that evening as the words formed in his mouth, they tasted… underwhelming. It dawned on him that it would be another reason he wasn’t enough for you, not someone you deserved. It caught him off guard that the title was not as shiny now up close.

“That’s wonderful. Captain Simon Riley does have a lovely ring to it.” You reached across the table and rested your hand on his. ”When do you get to know?”

Did the joy in your eyes ever lie? Was he allowed to imagine a world where the possibility to be apart longer wasn’t a problem for you, even when she couldn’t handle the mere thought of him being SAS?

His hand clasped over yours. “We’ll be deployed next month for a bit, but after that. So in two, three months.”

“Rest up then. You don’t have to come over. We can call meanwhile.”

Would you let him? That he only took without giving? He was supposed to provide, to be endlessly needed, but never need.

But you did. The rest of the week he was battered from training, but your soothing voice surrounded him as he lay in bed, melting the tension of his aching muscles away. It was far better than when he was deployed, but it wasn’t the same if he couldn’t hold and kiss you. He had to feel you pressed against him, to be constantly reminded that you were real.

By Friday, he was dead tired, but he couldn’t stay away from you anymore.

It’s raining hard. I don’t want you to have to drive so far again after a short visit. We can meet for breakfast tomorrow instead?

Nah

You opened your door to Simon with his hood pulled up, wet with rain splotches. He didn’t wait any longer before pulling you in for a kiss.

“Good thing you left the black one here.” You helped take his wet hoodie off, and the shirt under pulled with it before you smoothed it down. As you hung the black fabric on the back of the chair, you chuckled. ”Do you even have any in another colour?”

He shrugged, smiling, thinking of the secret matching one he got. “Maybe.”

You sipped your Ceylon tea as yet the same panda advertisement interrupted the episode of the Great British Bake Off.

“You’re making that face again, Simon.” You placed your cup back on the table and snuggled back against him.

He turned to you with a sheepish grin, his arm wrapping around you. “Am I that obvious?”

“Shoot. Don’t be shy.”

“Shoot,” he repeated, barely able to contain his own laughter. “What’s the scariest tree?”

“What?”

“Bam-boo!”

You giggled into the crook of his neck while he cackled at his own joke. He could have sworn you were mostly laughing at the way he laughed, but he liked it. He liked making you smile.

When you led him to bed, he noticed the nightstand on his side was cleared. You’d removed the night lamp and the colourful candles you liked to light at night. He let out a small sigh, thinking of you looking up ways to help. You didn’t have to be so thoughtful or he was never going to stop spilling his secrets.

Your fingers brushed along his black and blue arm making him shiver.

“Do you need anything for these?”

“They look far worse than they are.”

“How many people did you beat this week?”

He chuckled. “Enough.”

Simon was not one to avoid stare downs, but when your soft gaze lifted to his face, he couldn’t hold it for long anymore. He didn’t want you looking back at him, not like that with those gorgeous eyes. The façade he loved to intimidate people with had grown to be an insecurity. You were supposed to be with someone as beautiful as yourself.

��Love the shape of your nose.” You pecked the tip of his crooked nose – another proof of the terrible things he’d done.

He rolled you off him, climbing over you. Under his shirt, your hands explored the expanse of his muscled back as he kissed and kissed. He wondered if you could tell how many raised scars there were, the way his body couldn’t bury the memories properly anymore.

You pulled his shirt off and your hand trailed down his chest, littered with more cuts and scrapes. He wished it looked better for you. When he leaned back down, you kissed down his neck and collarbones.

“There’s nothing not beautiful about you, Si,” you breathed against his shoulder. “It’s too easy to love you.”

This huge, blemished, strange dog might have kept coming back to your door, but at this point, maybe it was a bit of your fault too if you kept inviting it in and feeding it. It was too good to be true, like it was all a dream to have come across you, to end up at your dining table, to be here in your arms.

How did you expect to say something like that without making him want to cry, without giving you his soul?

“Simon?” you whispered against his knuckles you were just kissing.

He hummed drowsily against your exposed shoulder, his bare chest against your back.

“What’s blue and not heavy?”

“What?”

“Light blue.”

The last thing he remembered was snorting softly as he smiled before he slipped into slumber.

And so the stray lingered longer and longer after each weeknight dinner and stayed at yours every Friday and Saturday. You didn’t seem to mind. Meanwhile, after weeks of back and forth between his mum and her lawyer, his dad was finally served.

Simon decided the occasion deserved a celebration. He tried the steakhouse again, telling himself he was going to take matters into his own hands if the place screwed up his reservation again. They didn’t, fortunately for them, and he was even given complimentary onion rings ‘for the mix up the other day’. Apparently it was hard to forget the huge man with the intense stare.

You kept surprising him how you even remembered his lame jokes when you retold them to his mum. He always loved seeing you both interact, how gentle you were. Most of all with him, the way you grabbed his rough hand under the table, stroking with your thumb. It was impossible to not love you.

But the best part of each evening was that he got to kiss you at the end of it, unlike before, when the thought of holding your hand almost made heat rise to his cheeks. But first, he needed to get cleaned up before he could climb in bed with you.

“Mum, you need to stop giving me that look,” he grumbled, tossing his keys onto the entryway table.

“What look?” She turned to him feigning innocence, but the amused smile she’d been wearing all night betrayed her.

“That one!”

She laughed, swatting his arm. “Oh, Si. You’ve been happy. It looks good on you.”

He blinked.

“There’s nothing a mum wants more for her son. Take care of her. She’s a sweet one.”

You were, indeed, especially in bed, all cosy in one of his shirts. You smiled before giving him your back – an invitation for him to come up behind you. He nuzzled your neck, arm wrapping around your waist.

“Wait, you’ve got a non-black hoodie!” You turned to him, fingers tracing over the pie patch on his chest. “Just like the one you got me.”

He smiled.

Acknowledging the tingles you gave him was weird, that his mum knew, and that his door wasn’t far enough from yours, especially when she wouldn’t stop shooting him those looks. It didn’t matter he was a grown man - he felt like a teen all over again, getting teased for having a crush.

It doesn’t hurt anymore to think about the past, about being left behind. You made him feel like he wasn’t just another unsalvageable, daft soldier, but someone worth having, caring for.

And so he willed himself to not ruin the time he had with you by getting ahead of himself. There were other great lieutenants too - he might not even get the promotion this year, and this wouldn’t have to change one bit.

With the divorce finally happening, things were falling into place. Breathing didn’t feel as heavy, and having you in his arms was the cherry on top. If being with you was home, he was never sure he even had one before this.

Simon was deployed the following week.

The night prior, he engulfed you in a hug at your door, nose buried in your neck as he inhaled. You made him promise to get home soon and safe as he kissed you. The more time you spent with him, the harder it was to see him leave.

You knew what you were getting into from the start, but you couldn’t lie the distance and risk he put himself in made you uneasy. Knowing how devoted he was to his job, you wanted nothing more than for him to climb further up the ranks, but you knew it also meant an uphill battle of balancing a normal relationship amidst his commitments. Even when there was almost no day without hearing from him, the hours in between were unbearable sometimes.

Your dad was supportive, as far as not blatantly voicing his opinion counted anyway, but knowing him, it was still a more positive reaction than to some of the men you saw. You were his precious one after all.

You thought he could see it too, that Simon was quickly becoming more than just a man you were seeing. But you didn’t miss the looks he gave - like you were making a huge mistake - apprehensive if the lieutenant was even a good man, if he could give you a proper relationship like what you deserved, if he was only going to break your heart. You reassured him he was a gentle soul despite his living, that he overflowed with selflessness.

“You’ll see when you meet him,” you promised.

On the first Saturday of the month, it was your turn again to volunteer at the soup kitchen. It was nice when Simon could help with the lifting and the ride, but this time you had to resort to a taxi like you always did. He insisted you use his car while he was away, but you rejected the kind offer.

Ben helped as much as he could, but you didn’t have the heart to see him strain and groan. He had history of a bad back anyway, which was why he stopped doing the majority of the baking those years ago.

“Don’t have to pay today, luv. Simon covered it before he left.”

“He did?”

“Yes. Go.” His hand wrapped around yours, curling it over the notes you held out to him.

“Thank you, Ben.”

“Thank you.”

Some of your friends asked if the ‘tall bloke’ didn’t come with that evening. You smiled. ‘Maybe next month when he’s in town,’ you said.

The shift ended little later than last time, Simon was far more of help than you realised. The chill wind hit as you walked home, and you slowed to tighten your scarf.

The next thing you knew, you were pulled into a dark alley. Nails dug onto your arm through your jacket as a man shoved you back against the rough and damp brick wall, making you yelp. He flicked out a knife from his back pocket.

Your breath caught in your throat when he leaned in, reeking of alcohol, his stare and smirk deranged. You realised… You realised you’d seen him before - the younger, healthier version of him at least.

“Hiya, little birdie. No Simon this time, huh? You’ll listen then…”

Tears pricked your eyes. “D- don’t hurt me, please. You can have everything. There’s an ATM-“

“No, no… I don’t want your money… Tell Mel to – hic – call off the proceedings.“ His grip loosened as his words slowed. “I haven’t been good to her… If she leaves, I’ll have no more chance to… make things right.” The knife clanked onto the ground as he hiccuped.

With it, you kicked his shin as hard as you could, making him fall with a shriek. You sprinted away, looking over your shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following before rushing into the closest corner shop, your knees pressed to your chest in the furthest corner.

Your hands shook as you tapped your phone, wiping your tears away as the line connected.

“M- Melanie?”

Every once in a while, while looking through the folder he’d made of the photos you sent - his favourite pastime as he waited for sleep after returning your texts, Simon would involuntarily come across that photo. He chuckled.

He stood in your small kitchen wearing the silly apron, a post-pie mess on the counter. He couldn’t hide his concern about the ugly pastry, thinking it wasn’t going to turn out. But it was the very first pie he’d made. Were his tainted hands allowed to create something so wonderful, with you? He wished he’d asked you to be in the picture too.

The way you made him feel, he realised it might be more than an infatuation, more than a fleeting crush. He still couldn’t wrap his head around how you said he was easy to love, but you were not one to lie. Being loveable to you to any degree was enough for him.

I’ll tell you when I’m back. He sighed as he stared at one of your selfies.

His phone dinged. Si, call me when you can

He sat up, dialling straight away. “Mum?”

“Your dad’s back. This time he went after her.”

“What?” His hand formed into a fist. That bloody bastard.

“She’s okay. Shaken, but alright now, sleeping in your bed.” She sighed. “I can’t keep running from my problems, Si. Look how I’m bothering you, even dragged her into all of this.”

“I’ll serve him the bloody papers, mum,” he said through his teeth. “And he’ll regret not signing them the first time around.”

@tiredmetalenthusiast @shadofireshinobi @keegansshark @two-gh0sts @eve-lie @astraluminaaa @luvecarson @jaguarthecat @knight4xmas @unwrittenletter @mxtokko @reaperxxxxzz @audisive @sparrowgalaxy @fanficreblogs @lyenera

[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

*doing an interview for a promotional thing*

Interviewer: Of the Big Three, who would you say is the smart one?

Arthur: I've heard some people claim the smart one is Batman, but paranoia isn't the same thing as intelligence, seeing as he keeps trying to hide life-threatening injuries after battle because, quote, "it wasn't important."

J'onn: Many assume that Wonder Woman is the smart one of the Trinity, but her boundless compassion and infinite courage masks an impulsiveness to rival a terrier. She keeps trying to adopt the monsters we fight.

Dinah: Well it can't be Superman. He likes to act like a one-man punching bag whenever someone even slightly threatening shows up, even when it's a magical threat that he's uniquely vulnerable to.

Interviewer: ... how is the Justice League even still functioning?

Oliver: Luck and prayers, mostly.

When asked the same question later:

Nightwing: *laughs for six minutes straight on camera*

Green Lantern: *leaves*

Captain Marvel: Umm…

Zatanna: *very drawn out sigh*

[yourgentlegirlfriend]

Bro, infinite darkness Leon is plaguing my mind I’m being so fr rn. So my req is like DomInfiniteDarkness!Leon and like this reader who rlly sarcastic and bites back and shit like that and the plot is (porn 🫶 obvi) that he asks reader to ride his face (after a few days of sexual tension) and like she’s taken aback at first but then she’s like ‘he’s hot tho’ (not rlly I can’t think of a better response, u can choose) so she rides his face yeah, and he has this grip on her thighs that she can’t even try squirming away

And omg, there should be like this one part when he’s eating her and like she grips his hair and he goes feral and sucks harshly as a motion to continue the grip on his hair, also the stubble that he has should like graze her poussay and like she clenches bc of it and Leon notices 😮‍💨🤭🤭

Leon just gives pussy-eater vibes, is it jus me? 😭 anyways in not asking this anonymously bc I need this shit so bad

If u wrote anything similar, I’m sorry 😭 😭

Tyyyy ♥️♥️♥️🫶🫶🫶🫶

( I had to, he’s so fine)

ID Leon is a plague in my mind he never goes away. I was actually writing a request super similar to this so i hope the other person who requested this sees this!! I honestly don’t think it’s that good but i try my hardest FOR YOU GUYS. I made the reader plus size deal with it and if you hate it so much just block it out with your mind okay because i needed to write a lil something for me in this one. Sorry i haven’t been posting much writing i hit little blocks sometimes and feel like my writing sucks but nothing a little sleep couldn’t fix!

Disclaimer!!! This blog is 18+ only! If you are underaged please don’t interact with my posts thank you!!

mentions of afab slighty plus size reader x ID Leon!!

Warnings: Angsty kinda! Mentions of yelling, holding guns and close to death experiences. Leon forces reader to sit on his face, he’s kinda rough with her

word count: 2,826

Heavy. Your arm hanging from the metal that had been broken not even seconds before. Though you and Leon had far to many disagreements he was still your partner. Just the way his head tilted up and his hand gripped at your wrist you knew he was so angry that you would throw yourself so close to death just to save him. The metal beneath you made a loud creaking noise as you gripped at Leon's hand, your other arm folding over to pull him up onto the platform with you.

“You have a death wish?”

Leon yelled as he tried to carefully crawl up next to you as you let go of his arm. You leaned back on your arms, catching your breath, your eyes followed Leon standing up, his hand reaching down to help you off the floor.

“That must’ve really bruised your ego huh, kennedy.”

Mascara caked a bit under your eyes due to all the running and the tank of water exploding all over you. Your hips swayed side to side as you put your hand up waving goodbye to Leon, yelling something about how you’d see him next week.

——-

Leon’s jaw tightened watching your hips sway, the way your soaked shirt clung to your body. You were his rookie once, he trained you from the ground up. Once your promotion hit you never let Leon talk down to you again, and he hated it. Snarky comments about his aim, about the way he talks, how he looks in his suits.

His body screamed at him for relief, preferably whiskey. The bar was quiet and he couldn’t help but thank the god he didn’t necessarily believe in. His fingers traced over the rim of his glass in front of him. The man had too much trauma, a troubling past and current that just weighed on him so heavily that it made everything he does difficult.

“I knew I’d find you here.”

Your silky voice snapped him from his day dreaming, his chin tilting down as his eyes traced every dip and curve of your body before he brought the glass to his lips, the liquid stinging his throat as he tilted the glass against his mouth. You wore that pretty black dress you had been wearing back in Grahamas office, but of course you had to change when actual shit started to go down. It hugs your hips and thighs so good, your plush legs crossing over each other as you sat down staring at your partner.

“You okay?”

For once you seemed genuinely concerned for him, Leon’s head nodding as the bartender poured more whiskey into his glass. Your delicate hand reaching forward and pulling the glass from him. Leon sighed turning himself to you in full, his hands reaching down to unbutton his jacket that held it to his center.

“What.”

A smirk quickly grew on your lips as you took HIS whiskey down your throat, your nose scrunching as you pushed the glass back to him. He was so tired of your bratty demeanor, it’s so unprofessional, so unclassy. Your hands reached out to fix the collar of his white button down as you still processed the burn of the alcohol.

“I worry about you sometimes.. Anyways, I was looking for you then Claire told me you were rambling about desperately needing a drink.”

Leon couldn’t help but admire the way your hands moved when you spoke, your eyes rolling at the mention of his small drinking problem.

“Drinking everyday is bad for your liver Leon.”

Leon groaned at your lecturing, his hands coming up to shush you.

“Fuck you..”

He grumbled, causing your mouth to drop open. Honestly you were offended. For once you were really concerned about the man which was rare from either of you because if you weren’t working, you were fighting.

“You’d like that too much, old man.”

———-

“Cmon Le.. Let's just have one more drink.”

Leon’s hands held at your waist as you stumbled into him. So while you lectured him for drinking so much you downed shots one after another right in front of him. Leon watched you ramble all night, the night he was supposed to spend for himself. After he pulled the both of you outside, you shivered pointing to your car, you hand grabbing for your keys in your purse.

“Okay bye Leon.”

You slurred as a whistle left Leon’s lips, his much taller frame coming in front of you to catch you yet again. Your hands nudged at him, trying to push him off you as you whined about it being cold and how you wanted to lay down. His hands worked at his jacket, shrugging it off and reaching for your arms and slipping it onto you.

“Stop talking and walk, let’s go, you're not driving.”

You were an idiot. Leon’s head shook in disappointment as the two of you began your walk down the street in silence. Even through your drunken fog you could see he was upset with you, your hands playing with the long sleeves of his dark blue suit jacket. He did have his moments where he got genuinely upset with you, like when you had accidentally stabbed him during training, or when you stepped in front of him and Chris during a mission to take the damage of a blown hit. You didn’t belong in this field and he had no idea how you even made it this far. He reached into his back pocket pulling his keys out before he pushed open the door, turning himself back to you.

“Inside.”

His palm rested against your lower back as you stepped inside his home, your eyes adjusting to the lighting change. Leon pulled the jacket off of you and threw it on his couch before he leaned on the counter staring at you. Standing in the middle of his living room. His annoyance was making you sober, playing with your fingernails as he glared at you. His back turned to you as he pulled a glass from his cabinet, turning on his faucet to pour water into it. You flinched as he slammed it in front of you.

“Drink.”

A laugh left your lips as you reached for the glass, taking a sip. But Leon didn’t seem to find it as funny as you did, his hands resting on the beautiful marble counter.

“Lots of one word responses tonight huh.”

You asked as you finished off the glass of water, your hand rubbing your stomach. He was in his own world, it was shocking he cared as much as he did.

“Yeah, goodnight.”

Leon mumbled as he pulled the glass into his sink, pointing to the blankets on the couch. Watching his figure walk down the hall made your skin crawl. You wanted to tell him how scared you were today, how you almost lost him. How he didn’t notice the bruise on your right shoulder from almost breaking your shoulder saving him.

————

A loud thump of a pillow hitting your face shook you from your sleep, your hand reaching for your gun as you sat up.

“Oh calm down. Let’s go Grahams called.”

Leon spoke as he handed you your shoes. You yawned, pushing your heels on before running out the door after him. It’s your favorite time of day, even though you have a violent hangover and it feels like you are going to puke with every step you take trying to catch up to Leon. Out of breath finally walking beside him you push your neck forward, nodding with that stupid smug look on your face that Leon hated.

“You clean up really nice Leon, what straightener do you use?”

How could you be so bitchy at eight in the morning, Leon’s eyes rolled, his lips pressed together as he got into his car, you not falling too short behind. Out of all the people in the department he didn’t understand how he ended up with you as his partner.

——-

“What?”

Leon stood next to you, him and the president sharing a glance as he sighed.

“Listen, Leon told me what happened yesterday and we decided collectively it would be best for you to go work for another agency.”

Your jaw grew tight, it felt like your teeth were being grinded down and your cheeks were flushed a deep red in anger. Your head snapped to Leon, your eyes squinting at him. How could he file a complaint about you saving his life? He is lying directly to the source but you had no proof he was lying which is what made the situation so much worse.

“Fuck you.”

Your words smacked Leon in the face, your body purposely shoving into his shoulder- and hard too. The sound of your heels clicking filled the hallway, your anger building in your chest as you stormed out the back door. This was your life purpose, being an agent. When your younger brother had died at the hands of Umbrella you tried working your way up to demolish it all. None of it mattered anyways because when you met Leon and Chris your life had completely changed. Even though you and Leon had too many unsolvable problems, you thought he still cared? Now you were left jobless, clueless. You looked down at your phone as it buzzed in your purse ‘Leon’ Flashing on the screen.

Stupid son a bitch.

————

Loud banging on your door woke you up, your eyes fixing on the clock on your nightstand. Three in the morning? Sitting up quickly you pulled your handgun from your dresser, tip toeing into the living room area of your flat.

“Who is it? I have a gun!”

When not at work your self defense skills were beyond poor, the banging stopped, the sounds of shuffling were heard before a small thud was heard against your door. Peering into the small eyehole of your door, there stood Leon. His eyes squeezed shut as he rested his palm against your door, you immediately swung the door open causing Leon to fix at his posture.

“Jesus christ Leon, what the fuck?”

Leon’s body pushed into your flat, slamming the door behind him. His hands grabbed at the gun in your hand, laying it on your counter. Your lower back smacked against your couch as he towered over you, his hands reaching down to hold at your face before his lips smacked into yours. No alcohol? Leons teeth nipped at your lip, pulling a low moan from you before you put your hands out pushing him away from you

“What are you doing?”

Leon’s chest heaved as he stared at you, you still looked so sleepy, your pretty nightgown resting so beautifully on your thighs. Your hair was a mess and now your lips were all puffy, he couldn’t fucking stand you. Leon’s hand ruffled through his hair as he looked down the hall to your room, your bed sheets a mess. Leon’s hand gripped your upper arm, walking down the hallway with you in his hands.

“Leon! Stop! Look at me”

Pretending you didn’t like the way he touched you was a joke, and you knew Leon could tell just by the way you reacted to his touch. A whine spilled from your lips as he shoved you down onto your silk sheets, your fingers reaching down to fix your nightgown that had flown up. The sound of Leon’s knees hitting the floor echoed through your ears, your upper body lifting as you watched him lick at his chapped lips. His head shook at the sight of your glistening folds in front of him, your thighs squeezing together as you stared down at the man. Stammers of protest left your lips as Leon’s fingers dug into the flesh of your meaty thighs, of course he was strong but you didn’t know he was this strong. A deep groan emitted from his chest as he lifted his hand, his tongue running across his fingers. His eyes finally met yours, his fingers slick with his spit rubbing small circles on your clit.

“Not so much to say now, huh?”

Oh. Your heart dropped as you remembered the paperwork you had sent in placing a complaint for him. Talking about how unprofessional he was, how he drinks on the job, and stuff about his personal life in general, your lips shook as your mouth opened, a moan ripping from your throat as Leon's thick fingers pushed into you, your hand reached down grabbing at his wrist but he pushed it off to side as he rose his way up your much smaller body. His other hand gripped at the inner part of your knee, locking it beside him as he pushed his fingers into you.

“God you piss me off, Grahams was so mad at me you know? But unlike you I didn't lose my job. You had me with your little comments but I swear if you try something like this again, I will do more than fuck you stupid, Do you understand me?”

When did Leon get the capability to be so fucking mean? Your head nodded up at him, his fingers drawing from you. Leon’s head shook in disapproval as he pushed himself off you, laying down on his back.

“Sit.”

Great. Back with the one word responses. You sat up confused as your hand reached down to cover your exposed self. Your gaze shifted to Leon who looked so pretty sprawled out onto your black silk sheets. His pupils were blown with lust.

“Sit?”

Laughter came with the question as Leon tilted his head to the side to admire you tilting your head back as you laughed at yourself. His hands tugged you towards him, making you lose your balance. “fucking brat.” He mumbled as he dragged you onto of him, your body sitting on his chest.

“Sit on my face. I know you’re not stupid.”

Leon spoke up to you as he pulled your hips towards his face but you pushing yourself back made his eyebrows raise.

“Leon, I'm going to kill you..”

You sat up slightly trying to take more weight off his chest. You weren’t the skinniest but Leon knew that you were always a bit self conscious about your weight, and the amount of times he has caught you has been extremely surprising. One look down at him changed your mind, he was looking at you as if you were the only person in the word, his tongue continuously licking over his lips, you let out a shaky breath before you brought yourself forward grabbing at the headboard. Hovering over his face still too scared but Leon’s hands reached up, pushing you down onto his face.

“Leon!- oh-”

Screams of worry turned into soft cries of pleasure, Leon’s hands reaching back to cup at your ass in his hands, somehow pushing you further into him. Your eyes finally fluttered open, staring down at Leon who seemed to be enjoying much more than he should. Never did you imagine Leon’s face so deep into you, your thighs pushing against his cheeks, the scruff on his face scraping your soft skin. His eyes opened hazily, staring up at you as he pushed his tongue into you, his hands still rocking you into him.

“Leon wait!-”

You cried out as a boiling burn started to build in your stomach, your body going to crawl off of him. Leon’s arms wrap around your thighs before you’re flipped over, his thighs laying over his shoulder as he laps at your folds on long strokes. Your hands reach down, grabbing at his soft hair. Leon moans out, vibrating your entire body as he uses his fingers to hold your folds open. He’s sucking at your clit so fucking good, your hands trying to push him away as he hold you’re hips down. He could have this view forever, the way you’re crying for him and the way you taste so good in his mouth. The amount of times Leon has wanted to force you down and suck on your pretty little clit was too many to count on his hand.

“Fuck!”

Your scream could probably be heard from all the flats around you as your orgasm flashed through your body, causing tears to drip from your eyes. A cry left your throat as Leon sat up, his fingers gently rubbing small heart shapes on your clit with a big smile on his face. He looked so beautiful, your slick covering his chin and his lips swollen from sucking at your folds for so long.

“Le.. s’ too much.”

Leon shook his head as he leaned down, sloppily pressing kissing on your lips, your own taste filling your mouth before you screamed out at the feeling of Leon once again pushing his long fingers into you.

“Jus’ give me five more of those pretty.. I'm enjoying this too much.”

[sga-owns-my-soul]

Fic Idea Adoption!

i have way too many ideas for fics and i know i won't ever get around to writing them all so i'm putting some ideas up for adoption!! i may or may not write these eventually, but they're too good of ideas to leave sitting in my notes app forever, so i'm releasing them to the void! anyone and everyone is welcome to use them, and feel free to be as ambiguous with the prompts as you want! no particular order but nsfw ideas are at the bottom for anyone who wants to avoid them!

(if you do use any of these, i would love to read the fic!! you definitely do not have to but please feel free to send me anything you write off this list!!)

-john takes rodney to earths moon

-john and rodney find the ancient equivalent of speed. they do Everything

-au where ronon gets earth to repeal dadt bc john tells him it's why he can't be with rodney and ronon goes I Must Fix This (he enlists teyla and lorne and maybe cadman)

-rodney asks ronon to go with john to earth (outcast coda)

-rodney goes on bill nye saves the world after stargate declassification

-evans biggest fear is having to shoot john (and maybe getting a promotion bc of it?) and john finds out

-rodney’s ‘torture too hideous and intimate to recount’ is him being tortured, just for them to realize that torturing his team is a better way to break him

-teyla living out ‘the chosen one’ trope

-what happens to sora after the eye

-au where meredith(female!rodney) comes to atlantis instead of rod and not only is rodney horribly disturbed, he’s furious (and strangely confused) as to why everyone apparently likes him more as a woman

-todd is weirdly obsessed with this strange human he meets, and is determined to get closer to him

-the team is most excited about catching up with todd when they get the confirmation atlantis is going back to pegasus

-everyone complains about rodney’s moods bc no one can complain about the infinitely worse in every way sheppard bad moods, that make everyone on the base wish they were on a hive ship being eaten by two wraith at once

-au where ronon ends up on athos at the same time the wraith come and he sneaks through the gate with the intention of just sneaking away on the next planet but whoops it’s atlantis (ronon pov)

-rodney keeps a memorial for every single scientist lost in his lab and radek shows it to new scientists who start complaining about rodney not caring and risking their lives

-reaper au where’s he’s fed the fuck up with these two stupid men who never actually die when they’re supposed to and it’s more annoying than anything now bc he still needs to show up

-au carson comes to atlantis and is HORRIFIED by becketts retrovirus research and the hoffan drug bc “does the hippocratic oath mean NOTHING here???”

-au where rodney can’t admit to himself what john means to him, until something happens that brings all the alternate rodney’s that have lost their johns to atlantis, and they all fall apart when they see john alive, and john and rodney have to have a Conversation (mcshep? maybe ambiguous? idk yet)

-rodney sees john as three separate entities: the Colonel, who is Professional Important Official Man; sheppard, who is his friend/team lead that he hangs out with and goes on missions with; and john, who he’s always seeming to have very intimate moments with that make him question a lot of how he feels

-early days in the city, elizabeth is sick of the marines shitting on the scientists for not being tough and the scientists for shitting on the marines for not being smart so she makes them try to solve a fake crisis from the other side and everyone is like aww shit this is harder than it looks

-that thing where tough men pretend they don’t care much about someone but then the person gets hurt and Tough Guy go a little feral and then holds them close and whisper pet names (sweetheart, baby, darling, etc) but it’s john and/or ronon after rodney gets injured

-the more important something is to john, the harder it is for him to talk about it, and rodney starts to realize how hard it is for john to talk about what rodney means to him

-a bunch of au sheppards get brought to atlantis and one on them is terrified of flying

-rodney has always said biology was beneath him, but then ford almost died, and was… different, from the wraith. and rodney knew he had to find a way to help ford, maybe find a way to fix his mental problems while keeping the physical benefits. rodney and carson find a way to save ford and sheppard is so thankful he kisses them both

nsfw ideas:

-ronon suggests some planets for trading when they get low on supplies that have an interesting trade system. it seems too good to be true and they wonder why telya hasn't taken them until they find out that they trade goods for sex

-au where john is hired as a spy for atlantis and he seduces people in pegasus to get intel for the city

-sometimes rodney just grabs john (by the hair, throat, back of the neck, chin, etc) and asks who he belongs to and john instantly melts

-rodney decides to be a tease on a mission and teyla and ronon think mckay is just really pissing sheppard off when he pulls mckay away for “privacy” but really he’s just super horny and wants to fuck (or, teyla and ronon don’t realize that their fighting is foreplay)

[shyvioletcat]

ROWAELIN MONTH: DAY 10

~ Co-host/Guest Star with Chemistry ~

You might remember this fic from last year. Well, I had plans to make it a one off thing but then I couldn't help it and I got another idea. And I just want to say thank you to everyone who read the first part and loved it. It's so fun when you guys love something as much as I do. Without further delay, please enjoy Part 2 who we really and truly have to thank Rowaelin month and @rowaelinscourt for.

~~~~~

All Aelin could do was stare at her own reflection in the mirror of her dressing room vanity. She didn’t have long before she had to leave her sanctuary and face a crowd of strangers like her entire world hadn’t been rocked at its foundations. Acting was a talent she’d taken to at a very young age, the tales of her dramatics often told around the dinner table. Aelin would be fine, she’d put on one of her charismatic smiles and give her audience her all, and everything would be fine. But for now, it was only her stunned expression to keep her company. 

That was how Rowan found her however long later, silent and still as her mind was whirring with thoughts of the future. Aelin had lost track of the minutes spent doing absolutely nothing, and as Rowan appeared in the mirror she startled, a hand flying to her chest as if to stop her heart from flying out of her chest. 

“Holy gods, you scared me,” she breathed as Rowan removed his cap and kissed her on the cheek. 

“I’m sorry, love,” Rowan murmured onto her skin as he kissed her again. When he noticed she still hadn’t moved, not in the slightest, to look at him or seek out another kiss his voice changed from teasing to concern. “Are you all right?”

Aelin finally found the compulsion to move, swivelling in her makeup chair to face Rowan. It was always infinitely more pleasant when he could come to the studio without the threat of being in front of the camera. Not as exciting for her, but she was still happy to see him. When he came to visit her here Rowan had to sneak in and from the sheer amount of times he’d done he’d developed quite the skill for it. The tricky part was not drawing attention, and with years of practice he had the art of blending in down to a fine art. 

The key was appearing so much unlike his professional self that it would take more than a double take to place why he looked so familiar. So today with his scruffy hat hair, hoodie and stubble covered cheeks, he was a far cry from the suave and composed image he gave the camera.

Since Rowan’s last public performance here he’d been promoting his new album and gone on tour. Over the past eight months Aelin had hardly seen him except via a phone screen. The last time they had managed to see each other in person was when he had shows in Suria and snuck away when he should have been sleeping in to come see her. That was about six weeks ago.

“We have a situation,” Aelin had said, looking up at him and jerking her head towards the vanity. “And I think we have this room and that couch to blame.” 

Rowan’s brows furrowed then looked to where she had directed. His eyes went wide and he did a few double takes before his gaze finally settled on her. There was an open question in his eyes and Aelin just nodded. Then he let out a shaky laugh as he realised fully what this all meant, a hand rubbing his stubbled chin. 

“Well, I guess this changes things,” Rowan finally said. 

“Indeed it does,” Aelin confirmed. “We need a plan, and I think I have one.”

THREE AND A HALF MONTHS LATER…

Aelin always got butterflies waiting behind the curtain for the final call of action. The crowd was still humming with chatter and she could hear the last camera checks over her in-ear monitor. This time the butterflies were worse, enough to make her nauseous. Today’s show would be one to be remembered and it had taken a good amount of deceit and scheming to get here.

“Alright, Aelin,” a voice said into her ear. “Curtains open in five, four, three…”

Aelin took in a deep breath, the last two counts sounding in her head. Two, One.

The applause started and then the curtains opened, Aelin taking the ten steps forward to get to her mark. She smiled and waved while she made eye contact with a few people seated in the audience. There were cheers and whistles, and when it went on a little too long Aelin held up her hands to start quieting them down as the prompt screen undoubtedly displayed QUIET PLEASE. Once the audience had settled Aelin began her welcoming monologue. 

“Thank you so much,” she said, her smile stretching wide, and there were cheers again. “Now, now, as much as I would love to stand here and lap up every bit of your admiration, I don't get paid for that.” There was a healthy amount of laughter. “I get paid to put on a show and what a show do we have planned for today. They’re always special, what am I talking about? It reminds of something my father used to say, slightly inappropriate but I think—”

The strum of a guitar interrupted her and Aelin made sure she looked affronted even though she knew exactly what was going on. When the the chord turned into music she sent a confused look to the audience a millisecond before they broke out in raucous cheers. Aelin whirled around  to see Rowan strutting out, centrestage from where she had been standing moments before with the smallest of smug smiles on his face. He was looking down at his guitar and Aelin put her hands on her hips to show her displeasure. Rowan had the gall to wink at her. If he wasn’t careful he’d give the whole gig away. 

Even though it wasn’t his job, it was Fenrys who darted out from the wings and dropped a mic and stand in front of Rowan, and then he was gone again. It became a stand off, Rowan playing while he challenged her with a look that told her to get off his stage, even though it was her stage. 

He had to win for the whole ploy to work, so Aelin gave an overexaggerated and exasperated sigh, her hands falling to her sides as half turned to the audience as she said, “I guess I know when I’m not needed.”

It was hard, but Aelin withheld her own smile as she gave Rowan the limelight. He hadn’t stopped playing, the chords effortlessly coming from the instrument and he never missed a beat. Aelin found a spot by the foot of the low steps near her interview platform, right beside Fenrys who had decided not to head out of sight. He nudged her with his elbow and winked. Aelin tried not to look too pleased with herself. 

The tempo picked up and Rowan readied himself in front of the microphone. Aelin’s breath caught in her chest, it always did in the anticipation of the song beginning. It always happened when Rowan was about to sing. He closed his eyes, grounding himself to the melody and then his deep voice filled the studio.

I found a love, for me

Darling, just dive right in and follow my lead

Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet

“Sweet?” Fenrys muttered under his breath.

Aelin tried very hard not to snort and ruin Rowan’s performance. “Artistic licence. Now hush” 

'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love

Not knowing what it was.

They might not have been kids but they were young and stupid enough to mistake their mutual animosity for other feelings that were way at the other end of the spectrum. When they had admitted to their true feelings it was like Aelin’s entire world had fallen into place. Rowan was everything she wanted and she had just been too willfully ignorant to see. Thank the gods they had come to their senses. Eventually. 

I will not give you up this time

But darling, just kiss me slow

Your heart is all I own

And in your eyes, you're holding mine

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark

With you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass

Listening to our favourite song

When you said you looked a mess

I whispered underneath my breath

But you heard it

Darling, you look perfect tonight

Aelin remembered that night, Rowan had surprised her after she’d been deep cleaning her house all day. It was the first time that Rowan had seen her so dishevelled. Her cheeks had burned, he didn’t notice, just sweeping into her kitchen to make dinner. They had sat outside, eating on a blanket, and after Rowan had pulled her to her feet to dance under the night’s sky, the cooling grass beneath their feet. 

The backing curtain rose, revealing a small band to accompany Rowan and his guitar playing. The music swelled to new heights and Aelin was reminded of just how much she loved this song.

Well, I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know

She shares my dreams, I hope that someday I'll share her home

I found a lover, to carry more than just my secrets

To carry love, to carry children of our own

Unconsciously Aelin’s hand drifted to her stomach. It was an unconscious gesture, but how could she not when he was singing about that. 

We are still kids, but we're so in love

Fighting against all odds

I know we'll be alright this time

Darling, just hold my hand

Be my girl, I'll be your man

I see my future in your eyes

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark

With you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass

Listening to our favourite song

When I saw you in that dress, looking so beautiful

I don't deserve this

Darling, you look perfect tonight

When the instrumental bridge began Rowan stopped playing, letting the backing band have their moment. Confused, Aelin sent him a questioning look with a raised eyebrow. He just pulled his guitar over his head, walked over and handed it over to Fenrys. Before Aelin could even ask aloud about whatever was going on right now Rowan had taken her hand and spun her into a dance. Fenrys’ laugh was audible and she knew they must have looked quite the sight. It was hard not to melt into his embrace, which came to her so naturally in this moment. They were still on camera, and they had images to maintain. Her the larger than life social star, he the cold and callous musician, although with this break in character Rowan’s was very quickly unravelling. Aelin knew this song by heart, he’d played it for her enough, so she knew when he had danced too long for that standard interlude, but the band covered him.

He did dance her back over to her spot by the stage before it was too obvious that he was stalling and took his guitar back. Rowan was effortlessly able to join back in, his voice impassioned as he started the final rendition of the chorus. 

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark

With you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass

Listening to our favourite song

I have faith in what I see

Now I know I have met an angel in person

And she looks perfect

I don't deserve this

By the gods he did. With everything that he had been through and what he had given to Aelin without question, he deserved every bit of happiness they had together. As her thoughts ran off the music slowed, Rowan closing out the song, strumming the last few chords himself and ending it on a truly acoustic note. 

You look perfect tonight

The applause was deafening, and Aelin joined in. Like he always did, Rowan went a little shy when accepting the adoration being rained down on him. His cheeks went a delectable shade of pink and he nodded at the crowd who just kept clapping. Aelin gave Fenrys a jab in the arm to get him moving off camera and out of the way. Knowing the camera was now on her, Aelin put on her signature teasing smirk, clapping as Rowan approached. Gods damn him, but he held out his hand like the gentleman to help her up the miniscule steps. His back was to the camera, convenient as he scowled at the towering heels she’d chosen to wear today. He would say they were a safety concern, Aelin was adamant they made her outfit.

They sat in the arms chairs, sinking into the plush cushions. Their eyes were on each other while they waited for the commotion to die down enough for the interview to start. Rowan must have made quite the impression because it took the QUIET PLEASE flashing longer than usual for the audience to follow the instruction. When they finally did Aelin grinned. 

“How dare you interrupt my monologue,” she said. 

Rowan had assumed his cool and aloof demeanour, and he just shrugged. “That song was more heartfelt than any spiel you were about to give.”

Aelin gasped. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

In fact, she’d woken him up with soft kisses that had led to more, and he’d left bed in the best mood possible. 

“Now that song,” Aelin said, drawing out each word. “It’s a love song, and from those beautifully written, heartfelt words, it feels like it might have been written about someone special.”

“If you have a question, Aelin, just ask it,” Rowan challenged. 

She lent forward, the thrill of the game exciting her. “I have many questions. First, what can you tell me about this,” Aelin waved her hand flippantly over her shoulder, where she knew a photo from Rowan’s Instagram was being shown.  “I showed this post a few months ago and I can tell you there were more than a few broken hearts in this studio.”

A murmur of agreement rippled through the audience. Aelin shot a glance at the picture, admiring the large emerald set in a gold band. Rowan couldn’t have done better in picking the perfect engagement ring for her, Aelin had hated that she hadn’t been able to wear it and to show it off. The only public admittance of their relationship was this photo and because it only showed Aelin’s hand she had remained anonymous. There was just the widespread devastation that Rowan Whitethorn was officially off the market, the media sent into a tizzy because no one knew who his mystery woman was. It cost them both an exorbitant amount in NDAs but somehow they had managed to keep it all out of the public eye.

“My favourite comment is this one: WTF But you and Aelin! I shipped the two of you so hard. You’ve broken my heart,” Aelin read. “How could you break their heart like that, Rowan? Have you no compassion?”

“I don’t know how people can see the way we interact and imagine us together,” Rowan said.

“Shipping is the word you’re looking for,” Aelin explained. “You may be too old to be down with the lingo, unfortunately.”

Rowan scoffed, selling his arrogance. “I could say the same about you, I doubt kids today know what the word lingo means.”

“At least I’m not as old as you,” Aelin threw in a little bite to her words to make her anger believable. “I have that going for me amongst all my other admirable and desirable qualities.”

“If you say so.” She saw Rowan fighting his smile but he kept his composure in the end. “You just like anything that draws attention to you. Never mind how ridiculous and unfounded that attention might be.”  

“I see falling in love hasn’t done any favours to you manners,” Aelin teased.

“Maybe it’s just you, Aelin. You seem to make it your mission to make me as nasty as I can be." Rowan sounded both impatient and offended, a practised tone for him.

“What can I say, I love to ruffle your feathers. And It’s not my fault they’re so easily ruffled,” Aelin countered. “But I should at least offer my congratulations. An engagement is one thing but I’m more interested in what comes after.”

A video played on the large screen behind the two of them, the song Rowan had just sung playing again in lower quality with just him and his guitar. Aelin watched the grainy video footage, seeing him dressed in dark pants with the buttons of is white shirt rolled to his elbows, the rest of his features were blurred by the terrible quality of the camera work. His stand out feature was his voice as he sang to an unknown figure. The heads of the guests obscured the view of who that was, the only thing that was seen of her was her hands dancing above her head for a few moments. Fenrys had done a wonderful job purposefully terrible camera work.

There were some murmurs from the audience as they put together the other pieces of information the video showed them. It was more than clear what this delightful snippet was from, but Aelin began the dance anyway.

“That looks like you’re at a wedding,” she said. 

“My own, in fact,” Rowan confirmed. There were a few cheers at that, the news wasn’t new. It had been hard won but they had managed to fully control what information had gone out about the special event. “You should know, you were there.”

This time there were a few surprised gasps and muttering of what. The animosity between Aelin and Rowan was notorious, and although some tabloids tried to put a flirtatious spin on it it never seemed to stick. Their feuding held more entertainment and money. 

“I wasn’t invited directly, I came as a plus one for a very important guest.” Aelin lent back in her chair, consciously keeping her hands on the arms of it. “It was a magical affair and a wonderful night. I must say though, I think you could  have done better. You’re worth millions after all.”

Rowan’s eyebrows rose with indignant surprise. “Care to elaborate?”

“Well, the venue for starters,” Aelin said. “It felt like a prison inside, all those high walls and artificial lighting. Why were we punished for your success?”

“I’m a private man, as you well know. There’s certain things I can’t compromise on to maintain it.”

“And the colour scheme,” she made a disgusted sound. “So basic. Green and gold? Sounds like the colour scheme for a sports team.”

There was a chuckle from Rowan at that. “I didn’t know you paid attention to such things.”

“You’d be surprised at what I pay attention to,” Aelin said with a flirtatious wink. “That dress. Stunning. Couldn’t have chosen a more stunning piece of art.”

“At least you have one positive thing to say,” even though he sounded completely unimpressed. “She was stunning as ever, even though wedding planning did make her kind of a diva.”

Aelin lent a hand on her chin, a smile quirking up the side of her mouth even though she wanted to insist the contrary. “Pity about that, though I’d say your temperaments match. Or more likely she realised it was your sorry ass that she was marrying and didn’t want you to face the embarrassment of being left at the altar. I think you should thank her for that kindness.”

“Anything else that didn’t meet your expectations, your Highness?” Rowan made sure to add an edge of mocking to his voice, but Aelin could see the mirth dancing in his eyes. 

Aelin tapped her chin, sending a conspiring look to the audience as they sat on the edge of their seats waiting for her next biting quip. “The wine, I would have chosen better.” That held some truth, because Aelin hadn't exactly participated in the trying before buying. 

“You didn’t even drink any,” Rowan said, almost ruining everything by laughing. They would need to wrap this up quickly before he gave them away completely. This man couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. 

“That,” she drew the word out as a warning, “was because I heard it was so terrible I didn’t even bother with it. Now let’s get back to your lovely little song.”

“If you’d like,” Rowan added callously. 

In return Aelin sent him a wry smile. “I understand it was for your wife. A serenade for her on your wedding day.”

Rowan just nodded. There was a call of but who is she from the audience. Host and guest both pointedly ignored it. 

“The lyrics are beautiful, and obviously come from the heart. She must be a very lucky woman to have your devotion.” Then Aelin turned towards the audience. “Who knew Rowan Whitethorn could be such a softy, even his vows had me in tears.”

There was no word of a lie there. As Rowan had declared his love to her, and promised to honour and care for them as long as he lived, Aelin couldn’t keep back the tears. Her father had to pass her his pocket square so she could dab the tears away without ruining her makeup. 

“Over all, it was quite the party,” Aelin said. 

Rowan snuck her a secret smile. “It was.”

“I’d say the party really started once the bride and groom left,” Aelin mused.

“Did it just?” Rowan said in that dry way of his.

“Mhmm,” she hummed, trying not to remember too vividly how they had gone back to their room and really celebrated lest she blush on camera. “Your presence has that kind of impact.”

Rowan had to look down to hide most of his smile as he shook his head at her antics. It really was time to wrap it up before he lost all restraint and just blurted everything out because Aelin teased too hard and he bit too quickly. 

“Where is your shiny new wedding ring anyway? It just about blinded me at the reception,” Aelin said. 

This was the predetermined phrase that would uncover them at last. For nearly two years Aelin and Rowan had managed to keep their relationship private and out of the public eye. They were about to undo all their hard work, but it was about time and most definitely worth it. Bringing their relationship to light would save them from all the speculation and rumours that continuously surrounded them. Not completely, there would always be gossip of cheating and the like, but it would be nice not to hide anymore. 

Rowan shifted so that he could reach into his back pocket and then showed off his ring, holding it between his thumb and forefinger. “I took it off to play, didn’t want it getting in the way.”

Even though they had no idea what they were anticipating, the audience seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for something to happen. Rowan slipped his ring onto his finger then looked right at Aelin. 

“I’ve got yours, too,” Rowan said, this time reaching into the pocket over his heart. There was tittering from the audience, Aelin struggled to keep her face neutral. “I found them on the bathroom counter, I thought you might want them.”

The was a singular, very high pitched WHAT from someone in the audience. Rowan held out his hand to her, palm up with the emerald on full display. 

Biting her bottom lip to stop her grin was futile and Aelin only had eyes for Rowan as she said, “Thank you, but I’d left them there on purpose.”

Rowan was grinning too, his eyes darting down to her stomach. “Why?”

“Well, I couldn’t get them on,” Aelin said casually, risking a glance at her audience who looked like they were ready to explode. “My fingers were too swollen. Tends to happen when you’re pregnant.”

Absolutely pandemonium broke out. Aelin stood, watching as the audience collectively lost their mind and smoothed her hands over her dress, showing off the small bump she had hidden beneath. Everyone was on their feet, cheering and clapping, there were whistles and a few screams. She smiled, caressing her bump affectionately again. It had been difficult but they had managed to keep the pregnancy out of public knowledge. A few of the tabloids had run stories about her looking pregnant but when nothing came of it, they just gave up. Aelin had faced pregnancy allegations every other week for years, this time it wasn’t a lie. She was just too good at keeping secrets. A baby had been a surprise, to say the least, but not at all an unwelcome one. The wardrobe department had a hard time dressing her lately in an attempt to hide the pregnancy and to keep her comfortable. Even more NDAs were handed out over it.

And then Rowan stood too, off script. He swept an arm around her waist and she went willingly into his embrace. Rowan tucked her hair behind her ear and gave her a sweet smile, the kind that was just for her, his eye crinkling in the corner. When he kissed her Aelin let him, returning it fervently. It was probably too amorous for day time television but Aelin couldn’t find it in herself to care—not when Rowan whispered I love you and looked at her like that. 

Once the chaos died down Rowan had been sent off and Aelin had to focus on her real job, Getting through the rest of the show had been a feat. As soon as Rowan had left the stage Aelin pretended like nothing had happened. The next segment had been promoting various popular books, followed by video chatting a school telling them her studio was providing them with iPads. All in all, it was a fantastic show, but now that it was over she was free to return to her dressing room.

Rowan was waiting for her, arm draped over the back of the couch and looking far too good. Aelin tried not to slam the door but her excitement got the better of her. Kicking off her heels she wasted no more time before climbing into Rowan’s lap, grabbing his face with both hands and kissing him. His hands went to her waist, his thumbs brushing over her sides. 

When they finally broke apart Rowan said, “You could have let up a little.”

“I’m still mad about it being a shotgun wedding,” Aelin pulled back and narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t know if it was the hormones or purely the lyrics but I had to blink back the tears.”

“How is that my fault? You’ve heard that song a hundred times.” Rowan was giving her a look that only insisted that part was not his fault.

Aelin ignored it completely. “And you almost gave it away so many times, like when you told the world I wasn’t drinking.”

Rowan's deep chuckle rumbled through his chest and he urged her closer. “We were heading in a wedding direction anyway. We just needed a little bit of a push. You can’t blame me for getting a little excited over telling everyone.”

His hand rested over her stomach, right over the tiny thing that had given them much more than a little push. Finding out that they were pregnant had accelerated all the plans they had for their future. They didn’t see the point in waiting to get engaged or prolonging the time between that and a wedding. They had chosen each other, and like their vows had said, they were in this together until whatever end. Still, the joke of the shotgun wedding was too funny to let go of, and there had also been the fact she hadn’t been able to wear her engagement ring outside the house. It was beautiful and deserved to be shown off. 

The feeling of Rowan’s lips making their way up her neck drew her back to the present. “I worked it out.”

“Worked what out?” Rowan asked but wasn’t deterred by her shift in topic and kissed her jaw.

“That we most likely conceived on this very couch,” Aelin explained. “You were busy with your tour and I checked the dates and you were only in town for those few days.”

Rowan stopped kissing her to laugh. “Is this a lucky couch then?”

“Hmm, I dunno,” Aelin said, her hand slipping into his hair tugging it just the way he liked. “I certainly like to get lucky on it.”

Rowan groaned, leaning in so that scrape his teeth over the sensitive skin of her neck. “Did you lock the door?”

The words were whispered onto her skin and made Aelin shiver. All resolve lost, she melted against Rowan, sighing as his hands wandered over her body. Gods, she needed him, her blood still thrumming from all the excitement of the interview. And she could feel how much Rowan needed her, a teasing roll of her hips only intensifying the situation. 

“There’s no need,” Aelin said and Rowan pulled back enough to see his face. “To quote our dear friend Fenrys, after all that foreplay no one would even risk disturbing us right now.”

Rowan’s grin was near feral. “No more wasted time then.”

They both moved, meeting in the middle for a kiss that set every fire within them blazing. The couch it seemed, would prove to be more than useful yet again. And like Aelin had said, lessons had been learned and no one interrupted them… this time.

~~~~~

Hope you like that one! I know I certainly did

[pinkpinkmermayyy]

some of my favorite YouTubers! Some of these are coquette but some of them are not, so I’m still going to tag the coquette tag but it won’t apply for all of these

CZsworld, a horror themed channel that focuses on the intricate histories, theories, characters and stories of many horror movies, books, and sometimes tv shows. He also talks about people/figures from real life in more parody-esque horror history videos. He’s extremely cool and an amazing channel to watch to get into the Halloween mood during October, but watching him at any other time is enjoyable as well

glamourdaze, a collection of different videos from the 20th century, such as beauty and healthcare videos, or just videos of people from different decades in this century living out their lives. What makes this channel one of my favs is that they revive the clips of people from decades such as the 1920s to color them and slow them down (to make it look less choppy and more realistic in how the people move) and it really gives a whole new different perspective on these eras and makes us realize that this wasn’t too long ago.

Erin Parsons Makeup, a very talented makeup artist and vintage collector who’s really cool and someone I love seeing talking about makeup and fashion from history. She’s very similar to glamourdaze except she mainly focuses on vintage/antique fashion and recreates retro looking styles in her looks and it’s just really neat :>

Schafrillas Productions… yeah he’s just very neat and I like watching his movie/tv show reviews. Though his content where he’s passionate and excited about a piece of media is enjoyable, watching him rip apart something he genuinely despises with an infinite amount of rage is funny as all hell

Micarah Tewers, a very talented, artistic, and funny seamstress who makes different types of dresses and outfits in her videos. I love how much dedication and detail she puts into her work to make it stand out and look amazing whenever she wears it, and I also really enjoyed her prom dress videos. She’s also really funny and I love all the extra hijinks she shows herself getting into in between making her project and the video itself lol

Nylijah Myeesah, aka the channel of @/lovesickbrat is a really great coquette channel, and she also has some very good points on different parts of the coquette community and how some aesthetics (such as traumacore or doelet) need to be criticized more because of what they promote.

Colin LooksBack, a Disney based channel that focuses on the characters and movies/other media from Disney, as well as the behind the scenes details of how classic Disney films were made, especially the animated movies made during Walt Disney’s life/career

Karolina Żebrowska, a history fashion themed channel that you probably have heard of. She makes a lot of historical videos as fashion videos and she’s just very talented and intelligent and you should check her out.

Finally, Lavendertowne, the channel I have the fondest YouTube memories of as she was the one who inspired me to start art. I used to love her creepydrawstas and her videos where she drew different stuff as people, as well as her art tutorials. I wouldn’t have gotten to my point in my art journey if it weren’t for her, and overall she’s very cool and sweet.

[chernobog13]

Neal Adams' cover for Superman (vol. 1) #233 (January, 1971).

This was the beginning of editor Julius Schwartz's 15-year stint as Superman editor, and was to be the beginning of a new era for the Man of Steel.

In this issue an experiment seeking to use kryptonite as an energy source goes awry, resulting in an explosion that renders all kryptonite on Earth inert. Superman's greatest vulnerability is gone, making him seemingly unstoppable!

However, as the story progresses over the next several months, Superman's powers decrease until he's only 2/3 as super as he was before the explosion.

Schwartz, and new Superman writer Denny O'Neil, believed that Superman had become so powerful that he was no longer believable or relatable. Along with jettisoning much of the Silver Age lore (Krypto the Super-Dog and the other Super-Pets; the bottle city of Kandor and the Superman Emergency Squad; the Superman robots; The Phantom Zone; etc) they thought that by reducing Superman's abilities readers would find him more interesting, as he would have to struggle more to defeat villains and solve problems.

(Interestingly, Supergirl's powers were not reduced during this period, so she would have been more powerful than her older cousin. To my knowledge this was never addressed.)

The new concept only lasted nine issues. By Superman #243 (issue #239 was a giant all-reprint issue) O'Neil was gone as writer, and Superman was back to full power with no mention of what had gone before. The only changes that stayed from the previous storyline was Clark Kent being a TV news reporter instead of a newspaper reporter, and kryptonite still being harmless.

Other writers eventually brought kryptonite back as a menace by explaining that new batches from space had fallen to Earth. Clark was promoted to anchorman at WGBS TV, but also allowed to do double duty as a reporter for the Daily Planet (which, conveniently, was housed in the same building as WGBS).

Krypto, Kandor, the Phantom Zone, and other Silver Age elements gradually made their way back as well into Superman's stories.

And that's the way it remained until Superman, and much of the DC Universe, was rebooted post-crisis On Infinite Earths.

[samanthahirr]

The Quartermaster's Mission Holiday

The Quartermaster’s Mission Holiday

Another installment in the continuing series of “Stories Sam Isn’t Writing,” here’s a breezy outline for an alternating POV, 00Q meet-cute and romance set at James Bond’s home in Jamaica. This story takes place in an alternate timeline where Bond retired before Q became the new quartermaster. When M dispatches Q to Jamaica to recruit the former-agent back into MI6's service, a new kind of relationship develops.

Q’s POV: Six months after his promotion to Quartermaster, Q is summoned to a private meeting with M in her office. He assumes she’s going to request a mission-status update for 009, but instead M has a top-secret mission assignment for Q. She’s sending him to Jamaica to get in touch with the former 007, who retired from MI6 a couple years ago, and disappeared without a trace. James Bond’s reputation is legendary; Q has heard plenty of stories about Bond’s lethal exploits and incorrigible charm. And now M says it’s up to Q to convince Bond to return to the service; MI6 needs him back as 007.

This is a ludicrous task for Q—convincing a complete stranger to return to the agency he walked away from years ago! Nevertheless, M insists. She reassures Q that Bond has always had respect for his quartermasters. Her mouth turns up in a private smile. “He likes smart. And you’re the smartest employee I’ve got.” Given no choice in the matter, Q is promptly packed off to Bond’s location—a location so secret that only M knows it, and which Q is forbidden from sharing with anyone—with a promise that M will contact Bond to forewarn him of Q’s coming. 

Bond’s POV: Bond gets a phone call from M informing him she’s calling in an old favor. Bond says, “You don’t have any left.” She laughs, “I still have an infinite number of favors, considering I’m single-handedly keeping the tax office from sniffing out your years of gambling winnings.” Bond snarls with begrudged fondness. 

M tells Bond that her new quartermaster’s identity has been compromised by an enemy faction, and she’s intercepted word of a hit out on him. She’s sending Q off the grid—to Bond—for protection while she eliminates the source of the danger. Q will be covertly shadowed as far as Bond’s door, and then Q’s safety will be Bond’s responsibility. Bond acts pissed off, but he has been feeling restless lately. This mission should spice up the boredom.

Q’s POV: Bond is indeed expecting him when Q arrives at Bond’s waterfront cabin on a secluded, private beach in Jamaica, and Q’s reception goes better than he expected. (He was prepared for Bond to shut him out or threaten to shoot him.) Bond welcomes Q inside and gives him a tour of the small but scenic cabin. Bond isn’t unfriendly, but he lays out strict ground rules for staying in his home, including keeping away from the rear windows, never going more than 50 yards from the cabin alone, and drilling Q on the locations of all the spare guns, etc. 

Q assumes Bond is a paranoid veteran who’s going batty in retirement. Over beers on the dock that first evening, admiring the truly stunning sunset, Q bluntly informs Bond that he’s been sent to recruit Bond back to MI6. Bond scoffs, “No you haven’t.” Q assures Bond that M needs him back as 007. Bond corrects him that M says Q needs protection from an international hit. Q bursts out laughing. Bond assures him that M swears Q’s life is in danger, and Bond is meant to see to Q’s protection for the next short while. 

“That’s even more preposterous than my own mission,” Q marvels. “My god, I must really have been sent to recruit you back, if that’s the story she sold you.” Bond presses Q on his certainty. “I would know if my cover ID had been breached; I have alerts tracking that.” Q dips his toes in the water and sighs. “No, unless she’s lied to both of us, and there’s some secret, third reason for my trip, I’d say my version makes far more sense than yours. For all that my mission seems destined to disappoint her.” Q offers some scathing assessments of Bond’s lack of field readiness, disparages Bond’s fitness, etc. Bond is more than a bit bemused as he watches Q lay into him, recalling a similar conversation with a vivacious brunette 10 years prior.

Alternating POVs: Over the next few days, Bond insists on keeping Q within his sights at all times. They go out fishing on Bond’s yacht and spend time reading, walking the beach, and snorkeling. They discuss Bond’s last mission—the one that drove him to retire. Q makes a few earnest attempts to sell Bond on Q being a good quartermaster, extolling his own intelligence and the kinds of digital support he and his revamped branch offer to agents nowadays. (It would be an easier sell if he’d been permitted to bring any of his MI6 equipment with him. Or if Bond allowed WiFi at his home.) Bond seems to find Q’s earnestness endearing and amusing. And Q is frustrated by Bond’s lack of interest in all things MI6 and his continuing belief in a threat to Q’s life. 

Although, the more time Q spends enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and disturbing lack of technology, the more Q suspects Medical of whispering in M’s ear. He’s received more than a few cautioning lectures about burnout since his appointment as quartermaster, and yes he knows they have a valid point, but there’s simply too much work to do, getting the branch modernized and hiring staff with newer skill sets. The prospect of this “mission” being a mandatory holiday galls, but at the same time it’s putting his recent lack of a personal life into perspective. God knows, he hasn’t even had time to open Grindr since he took the job….

Q and Bond sleep together on day 3, and it's such a thoroughly satisfying experience for both of them that they continue to do so. The less they talk about threats to Q and the merits of MI6, the better they get along, until they start to actually enjoy one another’s company. Bond is surprised to realize that he was perhaps lonely prior to Q’s arrival.

On Day 5, mercenaries actually do come to assassinate Q. Bond kills them with a good deal more skill than Q had expected, living up to his legend and then some. Once the last man is dead, Bond reports the attack to M. Q hacks into the mercenaries’ phones and sends their recent money-transfer records to M. An hour later, M calls back that they’ve identified the mole in MI6 who sold Q out, and she has dispatched another double-0 to eliminate the mole’s foreign handler. Q asks whether it’s safe to return to MI6 now, and she says to give them a couple more days to establish a new cover identity for him. Q asks about his ‘mission’ to recruit Bond. She tells Q to disregard those orders and advises Q to relax: “Medical says you’re due a holiday.” All he can do is laugh at the irony.

Bond and Q dispose of the corpses in an illegal limestone quarry that Bond just so happens to know about, some ten miles inland. They have sex a few more times, including on Bond’s yacht. And now that the threat to Q has passed, Bond drives Q around the island to see the sights. Bond belatedly notices that, while his vigilance naturally ramped up once he took charge of Q’s security, Bond hasn’t truly let his guard down in the two years since he left the service. Always looking over his shoulder, always defensive. What kind of a retirement to civilian life was that?

After two more days, Bond drives Q to the airport, and they say their goodbyes. “Look me up if you’re ever in London,” Q says, and Bond laughs as though he can’t read the sincerity in Q’s eyes. Q nods his acceptance and returns to London well-rested and tanned and with many fond memories of Bond and his tropical paradise retreat. The combination of man and locale could almost have been heaven, if only Q’s cats had been there with him. And if he were allowed to set up a WiFi router.

A week later, Bond seals up his cabin on the cove and takes to the sea, his course set for the UK. He arrives at Q’s door with three suitcases and a saucy grin. He gives a stunned Q a kiss on the cheek in greeting and says, “After letting you crash at my home for a week, I’ve decided you should return the favor.” Q welcomes him in, looks at his three suitcases, and asks, “How long are you planning to stay?” Bond checks around Q’s cottage, confirms there’s no sign of a partner in Q’s life, and pulls Q into a proper kiss, the kind he’s been missing ever since Q left Jamaica. “However long it takes MI6 to find me a new flat.” Q is stunned. “What…you’re back at MI6?” “You were very convincing, Quartermaster.” Q grabs Bond and kisses him passionately. 

The End.

[koreyeet]

i wanted to give my nextgens an update with designs and slight changes to lore

Howl (she/her)- Knuckles and Rouge's oldest daughter, acts like an only child and is pretty much Knuckles 2.0 where she refuses to leave the island for most things and is a huge nerd in echidna history and prides herself in her ancestors even though she technically isn't one of them, also she dies at 18 bc of some selfless sacrifice and becomes a ghost like Tikal.

Meg (any pronouns)- Shadow's adopted son that took him way too long to acknowledge the fact and technically Rouge's adoptive nephew-son, he was found at around age 3 as a trash child on a mission Shadow and Rouge was on, Shadow didn't want him but when Rouge yelled at him to suck it up (mostly bc she had a newborn at the time) so he kept him until he found Meg's parents, 13 years later that never happened. There was also an incident where Shadow was trying to make Meg a citizen or something, tried to name him like Mario or something, Rouge scolded him about how bad his names are, then Shadow scribbled it out in crayon and replaced it with Mega (after Omega), didn't want to be scolded again and scribbled it out again, never submitted the papers and now Meg thinks he's named after the shark but in reality Shadow's not messing with Rouge and he isn't allowed to name anything else and his son isn't a registered citizen.

He's a chill guy who gets along with the strangest people, mostly hangs out with Howl to train or look after the M.E, and thinks of her as a sister, he also hangs out with Rouge and takes after her a lot especially when he presents feminine, she is the one that promotes that confidence, but with his "sister", Seven he is a bit spiteful towards her for the favoritism she gets and has been slowly drifting from Shadow bc of that, but he still has his best friend who he can vent to her about it.

-was born without hands so he now has cool prosthetics

Seven (she/he)- Shadow and Zero/Infinite's unintentional tube child, the favorite one, she was the last creation done by Eggman before he died and her purpose was to be like a final weapon, but his plans where foiled, she emerged early/ was not fully cooked and the two edge lords where now dads. She was raised sheltered and is considered very well behaved considering her and her dads where created as weapons, she isn't all that strong only having the powers to project holograms and phase through walls, not really being told her origin and is really confused if she is a foster or their actual child, which eventually leads to a crisis about what she is.

-was the tax benefit motivator in the enemies to forced room mates because of house arrest to tolerating each other to allies to team mates to married for tax benefits to lovers arc

Ruth (she/her)- Second daughter of Knuckles and Rouge, she takes after both her parents with brains and brawn, probably has the closest relationship with them and loves to accompany them in treasure hunts, she takes after Rouge the most in her love of gems, but is more into the non-polished dirty ones, she's decently skilled in stealth and combat from her mom's training and thinks the other two (Seven and Ringer) are just dumb.

Ringer (he/they)- Sonic and Amy's oldest kid, imagine an adhd ridden child who has barely a filter and gets distracted so easily and that's him. He's a little menace who possesses Sonics speed, although not fully, and has the itch for seeing anything and everything. He's has a group with Seven and Ruth where they do whatever, girls nights, sleep overs, secret missions, sneaking out, etc. They get in trouble so much.

Drill (he/him) - only son of Knuckles and Rouge, he's basically Bark but a child, he never talks, only glares, he is a dear to babysit though because all he does is sit there drawing in the dirt and wants to be left alone unless your Ghost, then he loves being around her. Eventually when he's like 16-17 he becomes her body gaurd when she gets her time guardian job.

Ghost (she/her) - daughter of Silver and Blaze, she is mute and very anxious around anyone except her family, Marine, Drill, and Gardon, she was raised mainly by Silver bc he's a good malewife and inherited his psychokinesis, allowing her to float most places and create a wave lifting everything off the ground, her powers are very unstable, triggering every time she as a breakdown and since she was coddled so much she never really knew how to handle is so now she's just struggling.

Herb (she/they) - daughter of Lanolin and Trois, works very closely with her moms and has a huge intrest in hero work and helping others, generally really happy and makes a bunch of friends unless she fails then se gets sad for a while. Her hair can act like an extra set of punching gloves.

Hound (he/him) - oldest son of Lanolin and Trois, teenage angst because he got mugged as a 13 year old and is trying to find the perpetrator who took his sword, it turned into an investigation on finding an uncle everyone denies exists and he isn't vibing with this conclusion. Really uptight and snappy, he gets mad easily, especially at his sister, he's working close with Junebug and Cream on his case since everyone else tells him to give up or gaslights him.

MJ (they/she) - Metal Sonic's creation - was meant to be minion to their scheme but ended up being like a child to him, but they didn't want to be apart of the scheme so they ran away to the restoration, failed to blend in, got taken in by his aunt Belle, had to convince her parent to not kill anyone, and is now just vibing. They tend to keep to themself, only being around the mechanic area and assisting their aunt with whatever she needs, not really going out there in fear of retaliation.

Bug/ Junebug (any masc pronoun) - oldest twin of Espio, he's upbeat and hyper, kind of a combination of Charmy and Cream when they were younger, which is expected since they work for them as a junior detective and would rather take action now and solve the case rather then waiting for people to come to them, leading them to get into some dangerous situations, one that scarred both him and his brother, ever since then they've been mostly the same but even more stern about his work and goals.

Zeki (he/him)- the other one, taking after Espio in the ninja shit, recently got reckless trying to save his sibling and lost an arm and partial vision in one eye so now Espio is being really protective of him. He's really serious about everything and compared to the other twin, he hangs out with his dad more and is really serious and prefers to think things through so something doesn't happen again.

[fantastic-nonsense]

Harley Quinn's insane popularity during the mid-2010s is a super interesting phenomenon precisely because her abrupt rise in popularity was less about her unique appeal as an individual character and more about everything else DC Comics was doing at the time

Harley's New 52 aesthetic revamp from her classic harlequin costume to a corset, booty shorts, and two-toned hair happened entirely because people loved her look in the Arkham games and DC was trying to capitalize on it. Also almost entirely on the basis of her popularity in those games (and because the company was in desperate need of positive PR after mass criticism about their treatment of female characters in the early New 52, including Harley), editorial greenlit a solo book for her.

Her 2014 solo book outsold most of DC's line partially because of the character, story, and the creative team of course; there's no way it could have been that successful without people liking those things. But its success was massively helped by Harley being one of the few characters who (outside of Glass's Suicide Squad run, which was promptly yeeted into oblivion and never mentioned again) wasn't completely fucked over by the reboot and whose book DC editorial largely left alone during the notoriously micromanaged New 52 era.

She also had one of the few decent "fun" books at a time when DC's offerings were mostly either grimdark and edgy, disliked, or doing something radically different with their protagonists than normal (for example...Lobdell's Teen Titans and Red Hood and the Outlaws, making Supergirl a Red Lantern, and having Dick Grayson fake his death and go undercover as a super spy), making Harley Quinn a breath of fresh air for anyone seeking to escape the melodrama of Forever Evil, Future's End, and Convergence or find a new book after the ones they were reading ended or became unpalatable.

Over in the DCEU, people had two lukewarm movies they weren't really that excited about despite starring DC's Trinity. And then you got Suicide Squad, which was kinda hot garbage and a critical failure but made bank and had the wonderful Margot Robbie playing Harley Quinn. No one else really made it out of that movie looking good, but Margot's depiction of Harley was widely praised and her look in that movie became wildly popular, selling tons of merch. So DC went "oh she's a seller!" and then greenlit the Harley Quinn cartoon and Birds of Prey 2020 while generally refusing to acknowledge that the lack of decent DCEU movies overall, Robbie's performance compared to her co-stars, and Harley's grunge Hot Girl look were the main drivers of Harley's seemingly unique popularity following the movie's release.

Basically: Harley got incredibly lucky because she got a major internal editorial push as a character at the exact same time basically every other character whose comics would have normally outsold hers got fucked over, and then got lucky twice when DC cast Margot Robbie to play her in Suicide Squad while the movie's Hot Topic Aesthetic™ was still somewhat en vogue.

Combine those two things with the fact that her relationship with Poison Ivy (an A-list Batman Rogue) was confirmed at the same time same-sex marriage was legalized and DC was looking to promote a diverse character slate...and you get the wild popularity she's enjoyed since ~2012 that nonetheless is obviously starting to slowly return back to base levels. Which you can tell when you look at, for example, Harley's sales numbers post-Rebirth/Infinite Frontier (since facing actual competition from DC's staple characters) and the number of new Harley-led projects that have been greenlit since the 2020 management massacre that took out Didio.

At the end of the day, The Harley Phenomenon is less about Harley Quinn and more about what happens when a company capitalizes on a character's aesthetic appeal and Cool Girl Status while largely abandoning the goal of making quality content starring the rest of their staple characters. She's certainly popular on her own and has individual appeal, but she never would have achieved the level of mainstream popularity she's enjoyed over the past 10 years without an astounding set of major coincidences all falling in her direction.

[mmikmmik]

Gwen is very comfortable with state violence. She saw Lena trying to murder someone on tape and said “damn, that should be me, I’d be so much better at that.” She believes the authorities above OIAR can demand the murder of a frightened man begging for mercy and she’s fine with it. But when she understood the true nature of the violence of the OIAR, it horrified her. The externals are varying degrees of disgusting and absurd and cruel and there are no barriers between them and Gwen. She is a frail mortal human and there is nothing standing between her and Chester rattling off the details of her gruesome death - not her family’s (implied) wealth and privilege, not her authority as a government employee, not even physical force. Gwen wanted to make a career out of being the bestest cog in the cold machine of death and instead she was plunged directly into a grotesque horror fiction exaggeration of how stupid and evil and murderous the British government and modern society can possibly be.

We saw Gwen tentatively start trying to talk to Sam about this like a human being. We also saw her power-tripping on the idea that this is some kind of “promotion” and demanding her coworker account for showing up at work 10 seconds after Gwen did. Really excited to see if Gwen is going to firmly join the protagonists or if she’s going to ignore everything she’s learned and develop into an antagonist (or she’s bald/some other infinitely nuanced option). Tbh I’m kind of leaning towards the former because uh. Frankly I don’t know if she has what it takes to survive if she keeps going down the villainy road! No one is going to help her down that way, including Lena! A lot of people seem to be comparing Gwen to Jon Archivist, and in that vein I could see Gwen being more or less on the “side” of Sam and Alice and them all, but still alienated from them for a long period because of how rude and sketchy she’s been.

[rd0265667]

Chaewon x Reader: In every universe

Sequel to The Girl who I once loved(technically, you'll see) Earth 320 Permanent Taglist: @cwpiqwon @justme-idle

Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism, of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities. Creating alternate worlds, from the one you know. I am Xin, the Watcher. I have seen all that has ever happened, all that will ever happen.

We've seen this before, stories in a singular universe, of love, of strife and of loss. But never before, has there been a story so constant in every single universe. And this one. This one breaks my heart.

"Where are we?" You asked in confusion, looking around in the white void as Chaewon cowered behind you

A humanoid looking being emerged, looking down upon you and Chaewon. "Greetings, Y/N. Chaewon. I am Xin. The Watcher. I am the spectator of the Multiverse, and not supposed to interfere with the course of events."

Looking up skeptically, you questioned, "Multiverse? Like in the movies?"

With a wave of a hand, a crack appeared, a crack into another universe

"Earth Prime, the universe you're familiar with, where Kim Chaewon is a former member of Iz*one and current leader of Le Sserafim, and Y/N is the producer and caregiver for Le Sserafim. Earth Prime is the designation of your Earth." 

Looking up at the celestial being before you, you held Chaewon's hand in yours, nervously looking around.

"Why did you bring us here, Xin? If you don't interfere, why are we here?" You asked, Chaewon's hand shivering as you covered it with your own.

"I'm here to try and spare you pain."

Turning around, Xin waved a hand, another crack appearing.  "Behold. Earth 398."

Earth 398

The Princess Kim Chaewon waited in her palace nervously. Outside her palace, she heard rumblings and screams, her hands clammy. Elsewhere, in the King's palace, he was getting ready to command his army, but not before talking to you. "Y/N. I know of your relations with my daughter, no matter your efforts to hide it for the last 2 years, so I entrust her safety to you. Bring her some place safe to hide out till this war is over. Her safety is in your hands now." The king decreed, as you bowed, bolting to the armoury. Now armed with your sword, as well as a bow and arrows, you ran to your girlfriend's room. "Y/N? What's going on?" Chaewon asked, looking at you as you rushed to pack her belongings. "Your father has tasked me with bringing you away from the palace to keep you safe. Let's go!" You informed her, as you grabbed her by the arm, running to the back of the palace, getting on your horse before riding 

The two of you had managed to leave the castle without much problems. The king had prepared safe houses away from the palace, which is where the two of you ran to. When there, you let Chaewon rest, trying to keep watch to ensure no enemies were coming, and hoping there would be any soldiers from your kingdom, coming to inform you of the invader's defeat. The coast stayed clear for 2 days, then suddenly, you saw around 200 soldiers marching towards the safe house. Panicked, you ran to Chaewon, waking her up.  "Chae, wake up! Listen, the enemies are here. Leave through the tunnels, and I'll stall as long as I can for you to escape. I'll see you at the other end alright!" You said, as Chaewon still blurry from her sleep, jolted up, nodding worriedly, throwing you into an embrace, sharing a kiss with you, before running. Taking a deep sigh, you armed yourself. You were a great combatant. That's how you were promoted to Chaewon's personal bodyguard. But no matter how skilled you were, you couldn't take them all. After a hard fight, you fell to the ground, your quiver empty, sword broken, arm bloodied. Forced into a kneeling position, you faced the commander of the soldiers. "You've failed, you asshole. The princess is long gone by now!" You shouted out, as the commander smirked. With a wave of his right hand, he called a soldier over, who held Chaewon with her hands behind her back. She exclaimed in shock at your condition, as you angrily tried to charge up, but was held down by two soldiers.  "You don't know how many soldiers I had to torture to find out about this safe house. But after sometime, one finally broke. He even told me about the tunnels." The commander taunted "Now that the king is dead, the princess is going to be married to my lord, to legitimise his rule. Men, throw this cretin in the cells. He might prove useful in keeping the princess docile." The commander said once again, as Chaewon fell back in shock. Her father was dead? As you tried to fight back, Chaewon saw an opportunity. As the soldier holding her lost focus, she turned around, grabbing the sword from his sheath, turning to stab the soldier with it. The soldier was well trained however, he easily disarmed her, stabbing her through the stomach. "Chae!" You shouted, as the two men holding you were shocked at the death of the princess, loosening their hold on you as you jumped at Chaewon, desperately holding her hand and her face. "You fool!" The commander shouted in anger, taking his sword out and stabbing the soldier who stabbed Chaewon. "She was the only princess! Our lord can't legitimise his rule anymore!" On the ground, you held Chaewon's hand in yours, crying as she looked at you, trying to force a small smile to calm you down. "Well, I guess if she's dead, we don't have to keep you around anymore." The commander took his still blood stained sword, running it through your back and out through your chest. Twitching from the pain, you collapsed next to Chaewon, as she exerted the last of her strength, crawling to you as she rested her head on your now unmoving shoulder. "I love you, Y/N. I'll see you in the afterlife." She hoarsely whispered, as the two of you died, holding each other

"What was that for?" You asked Xin, who shook their head. You tried to console Chaewon, who had tears in her eyes from the story she had just seen.

"Behold. Earth 101."

Earth 101

"The two of you don't have to do this. I don't want to burden either of you with this. " The mayor explained, a pained expression on his face. "The two of you have done enough for this city. And we can't stop Tyrannus. The City is almost evacuated."  Across him sat two masked vigilantes. Dark Arrow and the Canary. "With all due respect, Mr Mayor. Tyrannus is an old enemy of ours. We can handle this." Canary spoke up. The mayor thought for a few moments, before nodding. "The city once again thanks you for your selfless contribution, heroes." The mayor thanked the two vigilantes, as they both bolted out of the office. "Y/N, can you locate Tyrannus' bombs?" Canary asked as they ran to their hideout. "What did I saw about codenames, Canary?" You said, hearing your partner giggle beside you. "Fine. Dark Arrow, can you locate Tyrannus' bombs?" She rolled her eyes playfully "You're lucky I love you Chae." You pouted as the two of you got onto your motorcycles, the scan showing bombs in the sewers. "The bomb is in the sewers under the bank, let's go!"

"Ah, my two friends. Welcome, to the Endgame." Tyrannus bowed, before he flung two daggers at you and Chaewon. The two of you dodged the daggers, as Tyrannus chuckled. "Give it up, heroes. The bomb will go off in 5 minutes. You can't beat me and get there in time to defuse it. Besides, I'm the only one with the code." Tyrannus taunted, as you looked at Chaewon, who nodded to you, before you ran off to the bomb. "Ah Canary. The one who started it all. Y'know, if you didn't start running around the city in your suit beating up criminals, I would never have happened. And now what? You and your lover are forced to spend your days fighting for your lives. Well, whatever life you have left."  "Shut up and fight." Chaewon growled, bo staff in hand as she charged at Tyrannus.

After 4 minutes of tussling, with Tyrannus landing a few solid blows, but the battle ending with Tyrannus on the ground, Chaewon panting but pressing her bo staff onto Tyrannus' neck. "Give me the code. Now." Chaewon threatened, as her comms crackled to life. "Canary, I'm at the bomb, waiting for the code." Hearing that, Chaewon pressed her comms in her ear, replying, "Good, I'll get it to you once he tells me." Seeing that, Tyrannus smirked, pressing a button on his gauntlet, as Chaewon's comm became overwhelmed with static. Panic began to set in as Chaewon shouted for Y/N, only to be met with nothing but Static. Tyrannus began laughing maniacally at Chaewon's panic. "Did you really think I would set a defuse code for my bomb, this is the endgame afterall." He smirked, as Chaewon's eyes widened in panic. She quickly clubbed him across the face, running towards the direction you had ran previously, desperately talking into the comms system, but nothing came back, and just as Chaewon began at a crossroads, a loud and reverberating explosion shook the sewers. Running towards the boom, Chaewon saw her worse nightmare. Amidst the rubble, she saw your bow at a side, with your body trapped under stone. Running over, Chaewon pushed as hard as she could, freeing you from the rubble, but it was too late. Your breath had gone raggedy, your face caved in and bloodied, your arms with charred skin and dust. "No No No No No, Y/N, please." Chaewon sobbed, grabbing you by the hand as you looked up at her, a smile forced on your face as you whispered to her. "It's okay Chae. It's okay. It's going to be okay." You tried to reassure her, as she held you, tears dripping. "It's my fault, I brought you into this, I did this..." Chaewon could only muttered, as you tried to reassure her. "These were the best years of my life, Chae, I don't regret it a moment. Don't blame yourself love. I'll see you in the afterlife alright? I love you" You barely managed to whisper before your hand went limp, Chaewon screaming in anguish as she held your corpse in her embrace

"What is the point of this!" You screamed out at Xin, trying to stop the visions and console Chaewon

"Behold, Earth 271"

Earth 271

"Are you sure you're ready to do this Babe? He is your uncle." You whispered to Chaewon, who nodded, beginning her incantation.  "LATROP NEPO, KRAD SECROF" A portal opened, as Chaewon jumped in first, followed by you. The hellish landscape of the Dark Dimension greeted you, you casted an invisibility spell on yourself and Chaewon, blocking both of you from the view of the the undead who roamed the lands. As quickly as you could, the two of you moved to the nexus, the stronghold of the lord of the Dark Dimension, Gideon. Approaching the nexus, Chaewon summoned her gauntlet, getting ready to breach the stronghold. Walking across the bridge, The two of you were suddenly surrounded by a seemingly infinite number of undead. The both of you bolted to attention, you sent an ethereal shield of light to Chaewon before your cloak of levitation sending you into the air, firing off displacement spells and bolts of lightning, as Chaewon's gauntlet lit up, sending balls of fire, casting illusions and throwing lances manifested of Darkness. The two put up a valiant fight, but the unending numbers of undead soon overwhelmed the two, both sorcerers brought before Gideon in chains. "Ah, my treacherous niece and her lover. How nice of you to both show up! Would you like some tea?" Gideon stood, gloating upon his throne as the two of you struggle in your chains Pointing to Chaewon, Gideon's soldiers dragged her over to him, then, with a wave of a hand, Chaewon was suspended over the ground, a beam of light shooting through her arm. Chaewon groaned at the pain, but bit down, unwilling to show pain before her evil uncle. "My Lord, she's showing low traces of the Dark. It isn't enough for the catalyst" An assistant next to Gideon whispered in his ear, as his eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Well, the Dark is borne of negative emotions. Bring the doctor to me." Gideon commanded, pointing at you as you were brought before Gideon. "Hey Gideon, long time no see. We haven't really talked since our last bargain, have we?" You said snarkily, as Gideon rolled his eyes. "Do not avert your gaze my Niece, or your love gets it." Gideon threatened, a manifested blade to your throat forcing Chaewon to look at you, as you looked back, trying to reassure her that the two of you would find a way out. "Perfect." Gideon smirked, before running the blade across your throat, the blood spilling out from your throat as Chaewon screamed in shock, a radial blast emanating from her being, knocking everyone away. Chaewon's dark brown eyes had grown red, as she stormed through the nexus, using a chain of darkness that pierced every undead. Turning around, Chaewon spat out curse after curse as she grabbed Gideon by the neck, running the same blade he used to kill you across his face, mutilating him in her rage. "Chae. Don't." Your faint voice rang out, barely clinging on to life, but that was enough to pull Chaewon from her rage, as she sprinted to your body, holding your hand. Desperately, she manifested a tome out, trying to cast every healing spell she could find. When it didn't work, she looked at the dagger, realising that it was enchanted to block magic, so now, there was nothing she could do. "Don't let the darkness take you Chae. You're a good person, don't let yourself be overtaken by rage. I love you, don't forget." You could only stutter out through the pain, your last words cut off as you fell to the ground.

"That's enough Xin. Please!" You shouted out, covering Chaewon's eyes to hide the gore from her. "Do you see now?" Xin questioned. "What! See what!" You screamed back, frustrated. "In every universe, Kim Chaewon falls for Y/N. And in every other universe, it doesn't end well" Xin explained, as you looked at Chaewon in shock.

You looked at Chaewon, both sitting in silence as you absorbed the information. "So that's why you brought us here before either of us confessed. You wanted to save us?" You asked, as Xin nodded. "It doesn't matter. Send us back." Chaewon whispered. "What?" Xin asked in bewilderment "Yeh, send us back, now. It doesn't matter what you or the multiverse says. I love Chaewon, and she loves me. Our love will see us through this." You said back. In frustration, Xin waved their hand across the air. "You humans are so frustrating! Look!  Earth 832. Kim Chaewon is a rich Heiress and Y/N is an assassin sent to get close to her, steal data, then kill her. Y/N ends up falling in love with Chaewon and confesses. The company sends another assassin, Y/N dies to protect Chaewon. Earth 541. Y/N is an F1 driver and Chaewon is the car maintenance manager, they fall in love, almost get married, and what happens? Y/N dies in a high speed car crash when the car explodes. Earth 340, Chaewon and Y/N are dueling kombatants in a tournament for the safety of their country. They fall in love, and decide to fight the oppresive ruler who hosts the tournament, and they die in each other's arms after the ruler murders them both! Take less violent Earths. Earth 320. Kim Chaewon and Y/N are childhood friends. They love each other but don't do anything about it. Not till they reunite. They confess to one another, then in 5 years, Chaewon dies of an illness.  Earth 679, as high school sweethearts, Kim Chaewon falls in love with Y/N, and Chaewon confesses her love for Y/N. Almost instantly, Chaewon and Y/N die in a fiery car crash. Earth 452, the furthest Kim Chaewon and Y/N get in their relationship, they die in a plane crash en route to their honeymoon! Can't you see! I'm trying to spare you the pain. Spare me the pain of watching this heartbreak over and over! Even if it's just one earth, just one earth to let the two of you live. Please!" Xin cried out, collapsing, shocking both you and Chaewon, thinking a celestial being incapable of emotion "Please, take the chance. I'll send you back to your Earth the day before you met, and make it such that you never meet. Then you get a chance at living full lives." Xin made a last plea with the two lovers, who exchanged glances. You held Chaewon's hand in yours, a resolute glance exchanged as you both nodded. "I'm sorry, Xin. But we'll try. We have to try. And I have faith, our love will pull us through, right Chae?" You declared, Chaewon nodding. Xin stared at the two of you, before sighing.  "Ah humans, always so stubborn. Go. Live your lives." Xin said, waving a hand as a portal opened back to their Earth. "This will send you back to the moment the two of you left, with no memory of me or the multiverse."  "Thank you, Xin. I promise you that we'll try." You bowed, as the two of you walked out of the portal

As the two walked through the portal, Xin sighed, wishing themselves rid of this curse.

Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism, of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities. Creating alternate worlds, from the one you know. I am Xin, the Watcher. I have seen all that has ever happened, all that will ever happen. That's how I know what will transpire, what I tried to stop, knowing full well that it would fail. I know that they love each other, a love so great that it permeates throughout the multiverse. So I know that try as I might, they would reject my offer. And I know that regardless, they have belief that their love will see them through,  and they'll always try. And that. That might be the most heartbreaking of all.

[cookies-and-music]

Ghost. - part 15: Compromised

My suggestion for this chapter is Rehab by Amy Winehouse,

Part 1 here - part 16 here

PAIRING: TVA!LokixOC

TAG LIST: @kats72 ; @mischief2sarawr ; @m3ntally-unstable

SUMMARY: Loki meets sombody at the TVA he once knew. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to remember him.

The first problem with Yggdrasil was the fact that in no document and no story had there ever been written about a god trapped within it. Thousands of timelines and countless books all led to the same point: "It's just a damn tree!" She threw a book off the desk under Mobius' shocked gaze.

"Are you talking about..."

"That. That damn thing." Lydia wanted to bang her head against the desk. "It doesn't matter how many books I read, how many papers I examine."

"Maybe you should look for something different," Mobius suggested calmly.

"And what?! Do you think I haven't looked for variations of the same damn tree?" She got up from the desk. "Even an infinite number of universes follow the same damn laws. It doesn't matter what you call it, with all the knowledge in the world at our disposal, it's still just a damn tree!" Lydia shouted on the verge of tears.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," Mobius sighed, turning a page.

"Oh, don't start with the damn Shakespeare quotes," she leaned back in her chair. "You know where you can shove your-

"Lydia," Mobius stopped her before she could say something she'd surely regret. He used a firm tone in such cases, and Lydia secretly thanked him for it, as her mind was a hurricane and his voice grounded her.

"Sorry," she took a deep breath, bowing her head.

"You need a break; you've been thinking about nothing but this for months."

"But Mobius, how can I if he-"

"You're compromised."

Lydia didn't respond because it was true. He had said so before.

"If I could, I'd take you off the case, but this isn't an official case, and making your life difficult wouldn't stop you from doing your things anyway," Mobius massaged his temple with a finger. "So I'm asking you to take a break, think about something else. Anything else, I really don't care what," he said with a bitter laugh that betrayed his exhaustion.

Lydia closed her eyes, nodding. The first thing to do when hitting a dead end was to step away from the case and think about something else, then come back to it. But she just couldn't.

"You're right," she swallowed before grabbing the jacket draped over the chair. "I'm going to the café. Do you want anything?"

"I want you to have some chamomile tea."

He managed to make her laugh before she walked away.

Mobius understood her frustration and shook his head because Lydia was right, even with all the knowledge in the world at their disposal, it was still just a damn tree. That had always existed and always would.

"All the knowledge in the world..." Mobius murmured to himself, "at our disposal..."

All the written knowledge of the world. Damn the TVA and the arrogance of everyone working there.

---

Lydia was an excellent agent, Mobius knew this. That's why he had fought with the council to get her promoted from consultant to analyst. Not that he had ever told anyone. The slight workplace rivalry that united them had made the days stimulating while the world was falling apart.

But at that moment, Lydia wasn't there to question his theories when they didn't hold up. She was imprisoned by her own emotions in a dark cell of her mind, compromised. And thus, she wouldn't be of any use to anyone.

Mobius had decided that to get anything from her, he would have to get her as far away from the TVA as possible, clear her mind, and restart her system.

"Why are we here?" Lydia crossed her arms.

"Because we need some fresh air," Mobius smiled at the lady as he picked up the two tickets.

"At the Natural History Museum?" She raised an eyebrow.

"So what? Loki said you liked history," Mobius walked toward the entrance.

"Loki talked about me?"

"Constantly," Mobius rolled his eyes, and Lydia smiled, sadly, but she smiled. "Anyway, relax, let's take a walk. Think of it this way, everything is stable, the TVA is stable, Loki is stable, there's no need to rush."

"But not time to waste either," Lydia huffed.

"It's not a waste of time. You know what is a waste of time? Rushing to reach the destination, falling, and having to go to the hospital, if you get what I mean."

Lydia didn't respond.

They walked around the museum, and after a few minutes, Mobius said something incorrect, triggering Lydia's need to prove herself.

"It was 1732, not 35."

"Really...?"

From there, Lydia went into encyclopedia mode. She had so many things to say, but also to discover, about each room in the museum that after a couple of hours, when they reached the Norse wing, Mobius couldn't take it anymore.

"The runes of this type are about Odin who, according to legend, held onto Yggdrasil for three days and three nights to absorb its knowledge."

"Oh, finally!" Mobius exclaimed, spreading his arms.

"Finally, what?" Lydia turned, confused.

"Are you serious?"

She shrugged, and he burst into laughter.

"You are really, really compromised," he shook his head. "Repeat what you just said, slowly."

Lydia frowned.

"Odin... held onto... Yggdrasil for three days and three nights..." With each part of the phrase spoken by Lydia, Mobius nodded with the smile of someone about to punch her. "to absorb its knowledge..."

They stared at each other for a moment before Lydia's gears started working again.

"Oh my god! Odin held onto Yggdrasil for three days and three nights to absorb its knowledge!" Lydia exclaimed, but after a moment, her enthusiasm faded.

"But Mobius, we've examined almost every piece of paper in the TVA library, there's nothing."

"Just because it's not written doesn't mean it isn't there."

"But we also have the communication transcripts," she shook her head.

"But knowledge can go beyond that. In this case, it can be absorbed. If it's never told to anyone, nor shown, nor written," Mobius listed on his fingers, "there's only one place it can be."

"Odin's mind."

OFFICIALLY BACK BITCHES. AS PROMISED THAT WAS NOT THE END.

I'D LIKE TO THINK OF THIS AS A SECOND SEASON, IN WHICH MOBIUS MA BOI WILL PLAY A GREAT ROLE AND LOKI WILL APPEAR SOONER THAN YOU THINK

AS USUAL, THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READS

CHEERS

[akito-shinonome-official]

ooc post

i have created the biggest polyamorous pjsk relationship. hear me out.

shizuneneruiemukasamafuenakanamizuhonamino

(shizuku, nene, rui, emu, tsukasa, mafuyu, ena, kanade, mizuki, honami, and minori)

each pairing is good. some better than others but still

🟣 = perfect pair

🔵 = amazing pair

🟢 = good pair

🟡 = okay pair

🟠 = makes less sense but they’re close

🔴 = probably not the closest in the polycule

(WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD)

🔵 shizunene: calm

🟡 shizuemu: emu brings excitement and shizuku is the voice of reason

🟢 shizurui: rui is ambitious and shizuku supports it

🟠 shizukasa: tsukasa is a star and shizuku is the clouds that calm it

🔵 shizumafu: they can be open with one another and are very soft also mutual angst

🔴 shizuena: ena shows shizuku all of her art and shizuku helps give advice

🟡 shizukana: shizuku promotes self care and kanade is like “pretty women tell me everything i need to know”

🟢 shizumizu: name rhyming /j + mizuki apologizes for nothing and shizuku apologizes for her

🟢 shizuhona: they bake together

🔵 shizumino: they practice & perform together, + their dynamic is so cool

🟣 emunene: child on leash + calm

🔵 nenerui: childhood friends. they know each other so well.

🟡 nenekasa: triforce of courage x triforce of wisdom

🟢 mafunene: they are both encouraging one another to Self Care

🟠 enanene: they prob don’t get along perfect but love each other all the same

🟢 nenekana: both dislike loud noises and dont sleep enough

🔵 mizunene: flirt x deadpan expression

🟢 honanene: sewing together the clothes of more.. ambitious members after they fuck them up

🔴 nenemino: minori is a performer and nene looks up to her to a healthy degree

🟣 emurui: god they are so silly. i love them

🔵 emukasa: star and wonderhoy duo. unstoppable

🟣 mafuemu: sun & moon…. they are my babies…….

🟡 emuena: emu compliments everything ena makes

🟠 emukana: emu likes to steal kanade’s tracksuits and be amazed when kanade always has an identical replacement

🟢 mizuemu: mizuki’s unbridled swag is slightly made more polite by emu’s unbridled sunshine

🟡 emuhona: they’re very similar but emu brings more energy to the table

🔵 emumino: they definitely practice together. minori helps emu with homework

🟣 ruikasa: i could go on about them. they are so silly. sun & moon. tsukasa does anything rui tells him to and with 12,000% confidence. i love them. im so normal about them

🔴 mafurui: rui tries to help even if his efforts to not always work

🟢 enarui: ena sketches everything rui talks about. they gossip about akito.

🟡 kanarui: rui brushes her hair for her. they clean together.

🟢 mizurui: i don’t like it as a standalone ship but they are very silly and bring infinite swag to the table

🟢 honarui: they give each other valuable advice all the time. they make playlists together

🔵 minorui: minori, much like tsukasa, will do almost anything rui suggests. they also learn choreographies together

🟡 mafukasa: tsukasa is toned down around mafuyu

🟢 enakasa: besties in love energy + akito gossip

🟠 kanakasa: (ONLY IN NON-KANADE TENMA AU) neither one can cook. they blow up the kitchen together

🔵 mizukasa: mizuki shows tsukasa elaborate tricks she learned when she used to do gymnastics

🟢 honakasa: trying to learn to cook. honami eats tsukasa’s food and acts as though it’s good even when it’s not

🔵 minokasa: they are the stars ever!! 🌟🌟

🟢 mafuena: they sit in silence apart from bouncing ideas off one another.

🟣 kanamafu: they both try to self care and they both kinda suck at it but are trying still!!!

🟡 mizumafu: ponytail girlies.. pretty women..

🟠 honamafu: calm + angst garnish

🔴 minomafu: minori is a bit too loud but they love each other still

🟢 enakana: determined and focused

🟣 mizuena: sassy bitches

🔵 enahona: angst + feral animal x normal person

🟢 enamino: minori’s dynamic poses are the perfect muse!

🟣 mizukana: academic & project geniuses

🔵 honakana: fruit picking lovers. soft

🟠 minokana: kanade is inspired by minori’s fast beat music compared to her own

🔵 honamizu: encouragement while honami tries to bake

🟢 minomizu: dumbasses

🟡 honamino: tropical bird energy /pos

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

Do y'all want spoilers for the time travel fic I haven't updated in two years?

Of course you do!

So here's how the entire thing will go if I can ever hammer it into chapters.

(Cut to spare people's dashes. Also, thanks again to @micchikureshima for letting me use our discord convo to rant this out.)

Meng Yao manages to get a meeting with Yu-furen (with Jinzu and Yinzu on duty, of course). It's the first time he's ever seen her from within the same room (he only saw her once in the original timeline and it was from all the way across the marketplace during a festival) and he is desperately hiding how nervous he is.

She gives him a suspicious once-over, which has him sweating bullets that he might be recognized as a Jin Guangshan bastard, so he is infinitely glad when she instead identifies him as "that shadow chasing behind Nie-gongzi at the last conference in Qinghe."

Yes. Absolutely. He will definitely take that over being identified as anything else.

He tells her that he does pretty much whatever his sect leader needs him to do, which includes going out into the field as a scout because Nie-zongzhu doesn't trust the Wen in the slightest.

Considering word is already out about the attack on the Cloud Recesses, she agrees, then asks why, exactly, he has come to Lotus Pier instead of reporting back to the Unclean Realms.

He's already made up a lie about his mother having spent time as a maid in the Palace of the Scorching Sun before taking him and fleeing for their lives when one of Wen Ruohan's bad temper spells resulted in her being the only survivor of her servant cohort. He was young, true, but old enough to have seen the kind of man Wen Ruohan was turning into.

Then he tells her his observations and theory that since the attack on the Cloud Recesses failed to produce the kind of bloodshed the Wen Sect wanted for their threat, it's very likely that, as their closest neighbors, either Lotus Pier or the Unclean Realms will be next. And he has already seen (and killed) some scouts from the Wen sect sniffing around the outer edges of Yunmeng Jiang's territory on the way to the Pier.

Yu-furen, absolutely stone-faced, thanks him for the information and orders him to leave.

He goes far enough that no one will notice him, then pulls out some cloaking talismans that don't exist in the cultivation world yet because they were cribbed from the Yiling Laozu's notes back in his previous run of this life. Unlike the usual silence or stealth talismans, which can only bubble a staid location, these can be pressed to clothing to make a moving bubble. It's how he was able to kill the scouts.

He uses one to spy on the Jiang and find out whether or not Yu-furen will take his words to heart.

(He doesn't go spy on her directly because he knows she'll have to talk about it with her husband because he's the sect leader, and he got more than his fill of warring couples when he had to put up with both his father and Jin-furen.)

The security patrols are stepped up within the next week, more frequent, with two or three guards apiece instead of just one. Not enough that it would look suspicious to the Wen, but enough that he can tell his information got through.

He's especially relieved when he watches Yu-furen personally send her daughter and son off to visit relatives in Meishan Yu, ostensibly because she wants them to know more about that side of their heritage.

As head disciple, Wei Wuxian has to stay behind this time, which doesn't help his nerves.

For the umpteenth time, he can't help but wonder what in the world Jiang Fengmian was thinking almost two years ago, cheerfully putting a fourteen-year-old in charge of all their combat necessities, especially one who even now still seems to be goofing off. The Nie sect had been backed into an unfortunate position when it came to Nie Mingjue, a problem the Jiang sect didn't have, and even his own promotion from assistant to military aide had come after the war had started, when he was an adult.

Whatever, he's not going to think about it any more.

He's got work to do.

Meng Yao spends his time focusing on laying traps in the most likely spots for the Wen to infiltrate, taking out more scouts, and other such sabotage, while quietly sending reports to Mingjue.

For almost a month, it looks like his plan is going to work and the Jiang will be prepared if the Wen try anything.

-----

Then he's woken up in the middle of the night by screaming, and sees the orange glow over the trees from his window.

Fuck.

He quickly dresses, grabs his hidden weapons and talismans and sword, and makes a beeline for Lotus Pier. He slaps on a cloaking talisman as he breaks the treeline, and is stuck just staring for a moment at how many buildings are on fire.

How did this happen?!

No time to wonder about it. He shakes himself out of the stupor and immediately starts looking for survivors, waiting until the soldiers and cultivators aren't paying attention to grab them into his stealth bubble and drag them to a safe spot.

He's not a hero. He doesn't want to be doing this. But he can't imagine having to go back and look his sect leader and young master in the eyes and admit that he watched the Pier burn and did nothing.

It's not lost on him at all that most of the ones he's finding still alive are children and very young teenagers, left to die on their own while the adults were more thoroughly finished off.

He finds Jinzu (dead) and Yinzu (barely breathing) and drags the latter out, having to soothe her protests by promising to look for their lady.

He drags out an injured and half delirious Wei Wuxian, who somehow finds the energy to mumble a thousand questions about the talisman on his clothing.

Then he goes back in to look for Yu-furen.

Of course, she's in the middle of the mess, Wen Chao and his annoying girlfriend gloating over the bodies of her and Jiang Fengmian-

-then Meng Yao sees her hand twitch and oh, hold up.

Yu-furen, stunningly, is alive, though she's not gonna be for much longer if he can't get her out, which is looking increasingly difficult with more and more guards joining the -gag- lovebirds and Wen Zhuliu.

Then a charred flag waving in the wind gives him an idea. He sticks a stealth talisman to it and charges the hell out of it to act as a distraction for what he's about to do, then turns around and uses another burst of qi a knife directly at Wen Chao's throat.

The asshole has the unbearably frustrating timing to move right then, but he still hits a target, the knife zinging right past his face to bury into Wang Lingjiao's, killing her before she even hits the ground.

Wen Chao, naturally, completely loses his shit and starts screaming orders as he drops to his knees to cradle her body, and Meng Yao runs like hell towards Yu-furen, leaving behind the cloaked lure flag to make people think the assassin's in the spot he's already abandoned.

He barely manages to get his stealth bubble over Yu-furen before anyone can notice, but they realize she's gone as he's dragging her into the forest.

Ha, let 'em search all they want, he thinks triumphantly, but the adrenaline euphoria wears off as he reaches the rest of the sect members he managed to rescue.

Roughly two dozen kids and teenagers, a badly injured Yinzu and Wei Wuxian, who are trying to tend their injuries as best as they can, and now a nearly-dead Yu-furen.

His time-melded body is somewhere in his twenties, and he's the most capable adult standing here. Damn, he really didn't think this through.

But that's usually how it goes when he gives into impulse, isn't it? Like with-

No, he is absolutely fucking not going to think about the Jin captain from his last life. He is going to think of a way to get himself and this sorry little squad of Jiangs somewhere safe.

Of course, Meishan Yu comes to mind. Getting around the Wen now patrolling the forest won't be easy, but he still has plenty of stealth talismans. The real problem will be managing to get there with any speed, considering all the injured.

"How conscious are you?" he asks Wei Wuxian and Yinzu. Their answers aren't exactly encouraging, but will have to be good enough.

Some of the kids are starting to look at him warily, so he introduces himself as a member of the Nie sect, who'd been sent to warn the grown-ups this attack was coming and had… partially succeeded.

He gives Wei Wuxian some of the stealth talismans and they split the group to make it harder for the Wen to catch them, Wei Wuxian leading one and he and Yinzu leading the other, carrying Yu-furen on a makeshift stretcher between them.

When they reach the front gates of the Yu Sect compound, the guards on the walls recognize Yu-furen and guards come to hustle the Jiang group in.

He, on the other hand, is made to stay outside the gate,

It's not like he really expected any different, being from an unallied sect, but the blunt snub still stings a bit.

He sits down to wait for Wei Wuxian's group to show up, exhaustion creeping up on him as the hours pass. He's almost asleep when someone clears their throat from the wall above.

It's Jiang Yanli, who carefully lowers down a basket on a rope laden with food. For rescuing her mother and the kids, she says before disappearing from the wall.

Grateful and hungry, he tries to keep himself from just wolfing it all down in seconds, with the wistful thought that he should have tried to get to know her better in that life before.

Night falls, he sleeps at the gate, and morning arrives with Wei Wuxian's group still not having shown up.

This can't possibly be good.

-----

Almost on reflex, he makes his way towards Yiling, stopping only to take an extremely quick bath and get -most of- the blood off his clothing in a river.

As he gets closer and closer to the town, the rumor mill gets more and more animated. Most of it is expressly about the sacking of Lotus Pier, but there's one that makes his stomach churn.

A bunch of little Jiang sect kids were tortured, possibly killed, just the day before, and the Wen are forcing some local laborers to haul all the sect corpses from the Pier to the Burial Mounds.

He hears nothing about Wei Wuxian himself, which is… well, he knows better than to hope he just got away clean. The man destroyed his reputation and got himself killed once to shield former enemies, there's no way he would have up and abandoned his shidis and shimeis to save his own skin.

Which means Wei Wuxian must be on the way to the Burial Mounds as well, alive or dead.

And Meng Yao now has a very, very difficult decision to make.

So, pros and cons here.

On one hand, they have a lot more of the Lan sect available to fight this time, and because this whole mess has started two years early and without the Indoctrination Camp (yet… he really hopes it doesn't get to the point that happens again), many of the sects the Wen had absorbed are still independent and could be lured to the Sunshot side.

On the other hand, that's a lot of people available to potentially get killed, and corpses would do a lot more damage with a lot less… casualties, he'll say, even though that's not the right word for whatever goes on with a corpse army.

And then, there's also the possibility that Wei Wuxian is simply dead, or that he can't master the resentful energy necessary to form the corpse army while still having a core.

Though if he could, there would be an entire army already waiting for him because Wen Chao had been stupid enough to dump so many semi-fresh bodies there as an act of spite.

It's not his business.

It is his business, because he'd been impulsive and gotten involved at the Pier.

Fuck, he has the worst headache forming.

Looking down, he realizes he has wandered close to the "border" that the Yiling Laozu had once made by positioning hundreds of corpses around the Burial Mounds. There aren't any bodies about right at the moment, but he can feel the resentful energy trying to find fissures in his qi flow, recognizing him as a potential tasty snack.

He takes a deep breath and focuses on keeping it out, and the pain in his head lessens enough to let him think clearly.

He decides he'll send word to Jiang Cheng -because Yu-furen is in no condition to lead and probably won't be any time soon- about the body dump and the possibility that there might still be survivors, and let him decide what to do with that.

They might end up getting a corpse army anyway.

He still knows how to make the butterfly messengers. It will invite some questioning if too many people see it, since that's a technique he shouldn't know, but he has to make sure the message arrives.

And after one more night of restless, uncomfortable sleep driven by nightmares of the war as it had unfolded last time he'd gone through it, he turns towards the Heijan front.

Towards home.

After days of travel on foot to keep from being noticed and a few unfortunate fights when he failed at that, he barely makes it three steps into the military camp before almost being knocked off his feet by a fierce hug.

"You're back, you're back- you look like hell."

He snorts. "Hello to you, too," he says to Huaisang dryly. But inside, his heart is suddenly full to bursting at the knowledge that his young master must have been keeping a very sharp eye on things to have already known he was coming.

Had been keeping an eye out for him specifically.

Meng Yao knows he should go report to his sect leader first and foremost, but Huaisang drags him off towards the hospital and kitchen tents, dead set on getting him stuffed with food and checked over.

"I'm surprised your brother let you out here," Meng Yao admits as the medic tuts over the condition of his qi from all the stunts he'd had to pull at Lotus Pier.

After all, Nie Mingjue had been adamant about keeping Huaisang as far from the battlefield as possible in their past life, burying him in paperwork in either the Unclean Realms or the Cloud Recesses.

"I'm really only allowed these places," Huaisang says, giving him a conspiratorial grin. "After all, in a kitchen or infirmary, I'm never really disarmed, right?"

Very true. Huaisang had taken to hidden weapons training much more readily than he'd ever taken to the idea of a saber,

and even Mingjue had eventually been forced to admit he was quite good at improvising. Their sect leader still tried to drag him out with a practice saber occasionally, but wasn't nearly as vehement about it as he'd been in Meng Yao's memories.

After he's finally released from the infirmary, he makes his report, and then… he's tired. Too little sleep, too much stress, and even if his core was much stronger than it had been in his past life, he'd pushed it past most of its limits.

"You're staying with me," Huaisang announces. "Until they can get you set up somewhere else. Maybe even then."

He's too fried to argue, but once he's collapsed on a cot, Huaisang clinging to him like a barnacle, he finds he wouldn't have wanted to argue anyway. This feels right, similar to how the Unclean Realms had started to feel like home.

He would like- he could see himself getting very comfortable with this.

But there's still a war going on, and he can't rely on the mere hope that Wei Wuxian is alive and able to figure out resentful energy channeling.

So, with great misgivings, he slips out early in the morning, before Huaisang's awake, to go present his plan about installing a spy in the Wen sect to Mingjue.

He doesn't want to leave again, not so soon after arriving. Mingjue looks downcast about it, and he knows Huaisang is going to be upset.

But there's no one better suited to the task. He already survived Wen Ruohan once when the man had been at the peak of his volatile madness, he's the only one who knows how to predict the unpredictable. It has to be him.

Changing out of his sect clothing back into the dull travel robes, he slips out of the camp like a ghost and begins making his way toward Qishan.

-----

The next time he sees Nie Mingjue, it's in the throne room of the Palace of the Scorching Sun. Wen Chao is dead, Wen Xu is in the pits of the palace, essentially being kept on life support after he barely survived a fight with Mingjue, and the corpse army is tearing its way across the jianghu, bolstered by the rest of the Sunshot forces including an undecimated Lan sect and all the rogues who've rallied to Jiang Cheng.

Unlike the first time this happened, Nie Mingjue is in on the plan, the both of them having agreed to Lan Xichen being their go-between (maybe they could end up friends after all... he could at least hope).

Unlike the first time this happened, the 'killings' of the Nie cultivators are carefully staged.

Unlike the first time this happened, Wen Ruohan catches his movement out of the corner of his eye.

The force of hitting the wall shocks him to the point he doesn't even feel the pain that should have come with so many bones fracturing at once.

But even if he didn't deal the killing blow this time, it's fine. He made a good enough distraction for Nie Mingjue to get his chains around the tyrant's throat.

The last thing he remembers before he loses consciousness is his sect leader desperately calling his name as he drops Wen Ruohan's corpse like a discarded rag and rushes towards him.

-----

He wakes up to the victory banquet having come and gone without him ever meeting his father, and he is relieved

He wakes to the realization that he has already changed an entire war so much that manipulating the political aftermath to an ending that benefits everyone but his father should be easy, and the spiteful little ember he has always carried in his chest finally quiets into smoke.

He wakes to Nie Huaisang clutching his hand, having fallen asleep in a chair beside his bed -"The brat only ever left you if I personally dragged him out,"- Nie Mingjue tells him with an annoyed eyeroll that is immediately disregarded for a fond, proud smile as he ruffles his brother's hair.

And Meng Yao thinks, for the first time in two lifetimes, that he is completely satisfied with the results of all his hard work. (THE FUCKIN END)