#so I gave him the ace flag in a little ace shape

[goodlucktai]

a song to bring you home

one piece word count: 4k written for the its pirates server sake exchange ! my giftee was @portgas-d-aroace who wanted "anything asl" and gave me an excuse to write the most self indulgent fic of 2023

read on ao3

x

“Again?” Sabo whispers, trying to sound mad. Whether he sounds that way or not doesn’t actually matter, since he’s already lifting his blanket in silent invitation.

“Sorry, ‘Bo,” Luffy mumbles thickly. He wastes no time crawling onto Sabo’s thin mattress, and Sabo pulls the blanket back down around them both, tucking it tight to keep the chill away. 

Luffy attaches himself to Sabo’s side like a barnacle, tiny fists curled in his brother’s shirt as if he’s afraid something is going to swoop down and try to wrench them apart. Sabo huffs out a breath that fogs in the air and lets him. 

“Nightmare?” he asks after a moment. He keeps his voice quiet in case Ace is still asleep, even though his twin is the lightest sleeper on the planet. 

Luffy nods once, face buried against Sabo’s shoulder. He’s not trembling, but the way he’s holding himself completely still and silent is its own red flag. 

It’s easy to forget that Luffy is not actually as spoiled as he acts. He whines and cries and pouts like any other privileged little master, he’s bossy and clingy and demands to go where his brothers go even though they all know he won’t be able to keep up, and sometimes—oftentimes—it grates on Sabo’s very last nerve. 

But holding someone like Stelly up to someone like Luffy is like holding an orange up to the sun. There’s literally no comparison. 

If Ace were actually as annoyed by Luffy as he pretends to be, then he wouldn’t be the first one to roll his eyes and throw up his hands and stomp back to collect their youngest when he falls behind. If Sabo actually meant all the mean things he says when they have to waste precious daylight dealing with a stupid scrape on Luffy’s stupid knee, then he wouldn’t suggest the pilgrimage down to Makino’s bar because she has those colorful bandages that always make Luffy smile. 

Luffy is as much an orphan as Ace is—as Sabo pretends to be—and he was so desperate not to be alone that he was willing to die for their reluctant, backhanded friendship. He would run after them until his arms and legs gave out, and then at that point he would probably crawl, just so they don’t leave him behind. 

Stubborn, selfish, stupid Luffy. The unwanted little kid that Ace and Sabo have begun to shape all their days around. 

Something in Sabo’s chest hurts to know that Luffy is afraid. He tips his head and adjusts his arms so that the smaller boy is tucked more securely under his chin. Stars pinwheel slowly across the sky, winter constellations that Sabo will teach his brothers how to find once they manage to get their hands on a halfway decent telescope. There are clouds forming to the east, low and gray, that promise snow. 

“Sing,” Luffy mumbles petulantly. 

“You’re such a brat,” Sabo complains. But he doesn’t make Luffy go away, and it’s only another moment before he starts humming. 

Sabo doesn’t know a lot of music, having successfully dodged his piano tutor for the last two years straight, but there’s a song he overheard on the docks a few months ago that stuck. Some sailors were singing it while they worked. Sabo didn’t catch all the words, so he made up the rest.

He made the mistake of singing it within his little brother’s earshot only once, but once was enough. Now he may as well be a performing monkey, because for every birthday and campfire and boring afternoon and bad dream, Luffy requests the same thing. 

“Now you've got the chance to travel oceans,” Sabo half-says, half-sings, letting it settle somewhere between a story and a lullaby. “I hope the world’s as wide as you were hoping…” 

Luffy sighs, a slow, satisfied thing. The fear-frozen shape of him softens with every word. He’s asleep again within one verse. Sabo sings two more, just in case. 

—

Two weeks and five escape attempts after he nearly died at sea, Sabo is finally allowed out of the infirmary. It’s slow going, and the doctor isn’t thrilled with him, but stepping into the fresh air out on deck is worth the man’s grumbling and sidelong looks. 

The whole left side of Sabo’s body is pins and needles and every breath feels like it burns, like the fire that almost killed him is still ready to snatch him up if he’s not careful. 

But it’s worth it. It’s so worth it to see the open ocean, stretching out forever under a sky vivid orange and blue with dusk. There’s enough sunlight left in the early evening that it cascades across the surface of the water so brightly Sabo can’t look at it for very long. 

This is freedom. And it’s important, so important he’ll cling to it with tooth and nail. So important he would set out by himself in a barely-sea-worthy boat to claim it. He just doesn’t remember why . 

Sabo knows his name. He knows he left something horrible behind—he dreams of running desperately through a place that glittered and gleamed to hide the rot underneath, of begging cold, lofty faces for help that never comes. He knows that he should be happy to escape whatever left that impression on his brain. 

But there’s a pit in his chest. A gnawing emptiness where something important is supposed to live. Part of him is so desperate to go back to where he came from that he would swim there if he had to. 

With time, that feeling would fade. He would overlook it so often that it would become second nature to pretend it wasn’t there. Time and distance would soften the frantic edges, years stacking on top one after the other until that little voice wailing I want to go home! was too muffled for Sabo to hear. 

If it was important, he wouldn’t have forgotten in the first place, he would reason to himself. Right?

But today, Sabo wins the contest of wills with the doctor, and he steps out onto the deck, and there is someone by the bow humming a familiar song while they work, and the whole world stops. 

“Hey,” the doctor says, alarmed, and a bracing hand lands on his shoulder, and that’s about when Sabo realizes he’s crying. 

His damaged eye stings horribly, and he’s making a mess of the bandages on his face, and he can hardly get enough breath in his lungs to say, “Take me back where you found me. I have to go back.”

The concussion makes it difficult for him to form new memories right now—his brain was rattled pretty hard. So he thinks the faces that peer at him in confusion and concern are the same ones that have surrounded him since he woke up on this ship in the first place, but they all swim together. Names are impossible. He knows the doctor by the cross on his shirt, and he knows the broad, looming shape of the man who saved him, and he turns to those two in particular. 

“I know that song,” he babbles, hysterical. “I made up the lyrics so I could sing it to my brothers. What if Luffy has a nightmare while I’m gone? Ace doesn’t know the words. I have to go back. Take me back.”

They take him back. 

The air smells faintly of smoke and melted garbage and burned meat even as far out as the beach. It turns Sabo’s stomach. His brain is topsy-turvy and confused and he wobbles so badly that the doctor has a pinched, pissed-off look on his face that gets darker with every step Sabo takes. 

But his feet know where to go. They’ve walked this coastline a thousand times. The sand gives way to grass, and he has to use his hands to make it up to the top of the hill, but finally he spills out on his back where the earth beneath him and the sky above him are utterly familiar and takes deep gulping sobs of air. 

“I’m here,” he says nonsensically to the man who followed him. The man who stayed a step behind in case Sabo fell but otherwise let him fight his own way back to the place he needed to be. “I’m home.”

The man studies him without speaking, his tattooed face impossible to read. Sabo’s thoughts are all swimmy, but he hopes he remembers this guy. He hopes he can find him again someday. His vision greys a few times, and at some point the man isn’t there anymore, but there’s a strong wind blowing in from the sea—steady and unrelenting, just hard enough that the nearby tree boughs start to bend. 

Someone says, “My hat!” 

Someone else says, “You and your stupid fucking hat—hurry up, it flew this way!”

Sabo is humming to himself when they finally find him, and falls asleep somewhere in the middle of those voices shrieking his name. 

Now he’s home. 

—

“I can’t even look at him,” Ace grinds out, digging the heels of his hands into his eyes. “That reckless little asshole.”

“Mm-hmm,” Sabo replies mildly. He’s sitting on the edge of the bed, carding one hand through his little brother’s hair. “I wonder who he takes after more.”

“Shut up, ‘Bo! You’re just as bad as him!”

“If you children can’t get along, I’ll separate you,” Luffy’s friend, the extremely unsettling Surgeon of Death, says in a tone that suggests that he has both the means to make good on his threat, and also the absence of any god-given good sense to try it. 

Sabo, ever the peacekeeper, smiles at Trafalgar without teeth. “We’ll be on our best behavior. Thank you again for being there for my brother.”

The supernova cuts a sharp glance at him, dark eyes unreadable. His gaze travels to Ace for a long moment, and then finally drops to Luffy in the bed between them. There is something in his face—something more than the spite-and-caffeine-fueled monster of a man he would like the rest of the world to believe he is—something not quite so old, not quite so burdened, that looks down at Sabo’s little brother and sees someone who deserved to be saved.

But all Trafalgar says is, “Would’ve been too boring to let him die now.” He leaves the room after that, the door shutting behind him solidly. 

“Didn’t Nami say that guy only met Luffy once?” Ace says, bewildered. “What the hell is he doing risking his neck for a stranger?”

“Sometimes that makes it easier,” Sabo says. “A stranger could be anyone.”

Ace wrinkles his brow, an uncomprehending twist to his mouth. He has come leaps and bounds from the hateful little boy he used to be, but he has always clutched his brothers closest and kept everyone else at arm’s length. 

Since forming the Spade pirates, that tight-knit circle in his heart has inched wider. Ace thinks the world of Deuce, even if he will literally attack anyone who implies as much like a rabid coyote. Masked Deuce, who has actually referred to his captain as a rabid coyote on more than one occasion, within his earshot and to his face, would kill for Ace indiscriminately. The rest of the Spades are equally as long-suffering and entirely devoted. 

Secretly, Sabo believes that Whitebeard is going to get through to him one of these days. The last time Marco and Thatch came around with a recruitment pitch, Ace only set them a little bit on fire. 

Maybe some people would call it selfish to put you and yours first, but Sabo doesn’t think so. As long as Ace wants to live for his brothers and his crew, he wants to live. He’ll endure prison with gritted teeth, he’ll fight the guards every step of the way to the execution scaffold, he’ll never, ever go gently. 

That’s all Sabo asks of him. Hang on for one more minute. Survive one second longer. 

It was no grand fleet or sprawling armada that spread across the horizon to retrieve Fire Fist Ace from the hands of the World Government, but the Revolutionary Army was hardly going to stand by on this one. Not when it was their Chief of Staff’s beloved twin brother at stake. And so the war began long before the battle had a chance to start. 

Half of the military forces meant to be stationed at Marineford never arrived, picked off ship by ship in the week leading up to the execution. All radio frequencies were jammed the day of, transmissions in and out of the island blocked universally, and the media blackout of what was promised to be a globally-televised event had people talking. 

The only thing available on every channel was music—the tone dial recording of a skeleton musician bowing a familiar song on his violin. Looping on every station, every monitor, every snailphone. It drowned any attempt the soldiers made at communication, and more importantly it irritated the hell out of them, but it had a secret third purpose as well; if Ace heard it, he would know exactly who was coming for him.

(Ace heard it. The morning he was slated to be killed, a harried guard ran from one end of the cell block to the other with a malfunctioning den-den in hand, and the music echoed off the stone walls like it was trying to make a point. 

It wasn’t his brother’s voice, but it was his song. Ace knew it like he knew his own name. Shackled as he was, he couldn’t reach his fire—but for the first time since he was captured, he didn’t feel cold.)

In another world, his execution was overseen by all three admirals and most of the warlords, the military rightly assuming that they would need to meet the full weight of Whitebeard’s infamous protection head-on. 

But in this one, Ace is a powerful pirate captain of a relatively small crew, rising in fame and bounty, but attached to no great superpower. Still the demon spawn of the Pirate King, still an example waiting to be made, but there was no way Sengoku could have anticipated the battlefield Marineford would become. 

The Spades, the Strawhats, the Revolutionaries and the handful of ships sailing in Whitebeard’s name to fight for that cocky young captain he was so fond of brought more than enough of a fight with them. The Red-Hair pirates’ fashionably late arrival was kind of an overkill. 

Sabo made sure to say so. 

“What, so I should just sit back and watch?” Shanks laughed as they made their retreat, one newly liberated prisoner folded safely into their ranks. “No way. I’d like to be able to look Roger and Rogue in the eye when I meet them in the afterlife, thanks.”

“Is there a reason you’re covering your eyes?” Ace asked hoarsely, sounding a little bit like he didn’t want to know the answer. 

“I’m not allowed to meet Luffy again until he’s become a great pirate,” the man replied cheerfully, jogging down to the wharf blindly with his hand clamped over his face. Deuce, glued to Ace’s side for the foreseeable future, traded a long-suffering look with Benn Beckman.

After the clusterfuck that was Sabaody, Kuma sent the Strawhats safely to Baltigo one by one. When an RA mole within the Marines brought news of Ace’s execution, half of Luffy’s monsters went back to retrieve their ship, and the other half forged ahead with the rescue mission. 

So it’s the Thousand Sunny they made their getaway with, the cheerful little lion ship an extra special fuck you to the Marines that made Sabo feel warm inside. 

The team has since scattered, the Revolutionaries and Red-Hair pirates breaking off to lead the Marines on a very merry goose chase. The Whitebeard pirates don’t go away without first passing Ace along yet another offer to join their ranks—to their credit, they seem amused by the whole thing, as if Ace spitting sparks in sheer annoyance and the Spades’ prickly, proprietary offense are all part of the game. The Polar Tang is nesting abeam the Thousand Sunny while the Heart’s captain consults with the Strawhat’s very young doctor, something that seems to put the little reindeer at ease. 

They’re in the aftermath. Sabo takes a deep breath for the first time in what feels like weeks. 

Luffy collapsed the second his feet hit the grassy deck of his ship, his body crumpling beneath him like a puppet with its strings all cut. It would have been horrifying, if he hadn’t been snoring loud enough for Sanji to hear it from the galley and come out to investigate. Zoro scooped him up and Nami held the door open to the room she and Robin share, what would have been the captain’s quarters on any other ship, and Luffy was deposited carefully in a soft bed. 

“He needs a bath,” Nami said, nose wrinkled in a way that did nothing to disguise her affection as she combed his dirty, sweaty hair away from his face with her fingers. 

“It’s laundry day anyway,” Usopp replied, coming through the door with his arms full of someone’s well-loved blanket. Sabo smiled to see his spoiled little brother tucked in by his friends. Some things never changed. 

“Glad you’re okay,” Sanji said to Ace, the last one to linger in the room, keeping the door propped open with his hip. “Ghost pepper chicken curry for dinner,” he added, which was Ace’s favorite food, and the final straw for Sabo’s twin brother. He sat there blinking wetly at his own hands, at the bruises the sea-stone manacles left on his wrists, finally letting himself feel the weight of what he had survived. 

And now Sabo pats the bed beside him. Ace glares at nothing for a moment longer, before he gets up to join his brothers. It’s inevitable, like an act of gravity. The mattress gives beneath him and Luffy mumbles crossly in his sleep, turning toward them without waking. 

“Brat,” Ace all but whispers. Then he says, just as quiet, “Thank you.” 

Sabo says, “Nothing exists in this world that could have kept us away from you.”

Ace puts his head on Sabo’s shoulder, this wild young thing who doesn’t know how to want to live for himself yet. It’s okay. He’s figuring it out. He’s getting closer and closer. Someday soon he’ll understand that his siblings and his crew—his family—wouldn’t go to the ends of the earth for someone who wasn’t worth all their love. He’ll realize how deserving he is of all that. Until then, Sabo will believe it for him. 

“I’m on your side and you can call me and just like that,” Sabo sings under his breath, “I’ll sing a song to bring you home.”

“Hey,” Ace protests when he stops, muffled against Sabo’s shoulder. “Keep going.” 

So he does. 

—

Sabo is twelve, almost but not quite thirteen, and he’s much too old to cry. 

He had been sneaking through the market, ceramic festival mask on his face and hooded cloak hiding his hair, pockets full of those hot cinnamon candies his brothers love so much, when he glimpsed them. 

His parents. They were strolling along the decorated streets, arm-in-arm. Stelly was walking at Outlook’s side, talking importantly and waving his hands. And on Didit’s side, holding her hand, was… 

Sabo had to run away before he did something awful, like show weakness where one of the rich monsters might see it. He ducked into a side street and started running the second he was out of sight. His heart didn't settle until he was weaving through the familiar dingy corners of Edge Town and picking his way over heaps of trash in the Terminal. 

Even when he makes it into the forest, and the trees shelter him on all sides and the owl monkeys make their racket in hello, even when he’s headed in a straight line toward the place he feels safest in the whole world, he still hurts. 

They replaced him. Again. With a little girl this time. She had blond hair and brown eyes, as if her whole little person was spun from gold. Her pinafore dress was cookie-cutter perfect. 

Sabo wonders which noble line they adopted her from. He wonders if they even told her Sabo’s name, or if Stelly is the only brother she’s aware of, or if she would care one way or the other. He wonders what kind of person she is—if she’ll fit in, or get eaten alive. 

He doesn’t care what his parents think of him. He doesn’t. He is certain in his heart that they’re the worst sort of noble—they’re selfish and shallow and don’t know the first thing about what it really means to be a human person on this planet. He knows all that. 

He was unbelievably lucky to fully escape his family, to be presumed dead in their eyes, and he’s never going back. An act of god couldn’t drag him back. 

But there’s this awful pressure behind Sabo’s eyes and nose, and his face feels hot and prickly, like there are needles poking at him. 

He doesn’t love them. 

It’s stupid, so stupid, that there’s a tiny part of him that still wants to be loved by them.  

Sabo climbs the ladder to the treehouse with numb hands, easing the trapdoor open carefully so the hinges don’t squeak. 

The ancient camping heater Makino gave them glows a steady orange in the corner, clanging occasionally as it works against the December night air. 

It’s early evening yet, but Ace has been pretty sick, and Luffy has subsequently been glued to his side. Even with the noisy fireworks down on the beach from the end of the year festival in Goa, they’re both sleeping soundly, curled up tight together like leopard cubs. 

There’s a pile of quilts folded messily on the other mattress, waiting for Sabo when he comes home. The sight of them causes a sharp pain in his chest that he can’t explain. 

He takes off the mask, climbs out of his boots and cloak, and drags the extra blankets over to his brothers. One by one he adds them to the nest, layering them neatly and tucking in the edges, and then worms his way in next to Luffy, because Ace doesn’t rest well if he feels stuck or boxed in. 

Sabo’s parents replaced him for the second time, two years after he was, to the best of their knowledge, blown apart at sea by their precious Celestial Dragons. Had the ink on his death certificate even dried before they brought their new daughter home?

Sabo’s brothers saved him blankets, the best ones without any holes, even though they could have used them. Should have used them. Even when he wasn’t here, they were thinking of him. They didn’t want him to be cold. 

The sob takes Sabo by surprise. He stuffs a hand over his mouth, squeezing his eyes shut against the tears. He sobs again, as quietly as he can.

He doesn’t notice when Luffy wakes up, but he feels it when clumsy fingers land in his hair, pawing through it as his baby brother hums a familiar tune. A well-meaning mimicry of every time Luffy’s older brothers have done this same thing for him. 

“So you can keep me somewhere out of reach but if you need me,” Luffy’s voice warbles like a sweet little bird, “just hum these memories and you can feel me. I’m always standing by.”

If Sabo opened his eyes, he would see that Ace is wide-awake, scowling up at the sky; their tiny family’s stalwart protector, standing guard even when he has a fever and he’s buried under a small mountain of quilts. 

And he would see Luffy’s sleepy, scarred face split in half by a smile, beaming like he was trying to put the sun out of a job. 

But Sabo keeps his eyes shut, and buries his face a little further for good measure, that tiny part of him that wants to be loved crying I am! They do! It’s such a big feeling he doesn’t know how to hold it. He wants to just sit with it for a bit longer. 

“Ace, sing,” Luffy breaks off to scold loudly. 

“Don’t even dream of bossing me around, Lulu,” Ace snaps back.

Ace’s voice sounds hoarse and sore, but he joins in anyway. Of course he does. Only Luffy gets some of the words wrong in every verse, and it sparks a scathing argument each time—the two of them alternating singing together and shouting over each other, putting their rowdy owl monkey neighbors to shame. 

It’s the best thing Sabo’s ever heard. He’s laughing too hard to cry anymore. 

[rjalker]

this picrew for the first one, and this one for the others. Didn't realize until now they were made by the same person lol...

In order from left to right: The deadbeat dad, whose name I did not learn. Pretend the mark over his eye is a bruise. He has a black eye from not following the most basic safety protocols for dissecting literally anything, let alone an unknown dead alien.

Bethany Thomas, who was so fucking adorable words cannot suffice. Cutest character ever to appear in a dream. She was the main character who was stuck in a time loop, who gave herself two first names because she's bigender and wanted to represent her feminine and masculine sides at every introduction. Yellow seemed to be her Theme color.

Then Matt, her BFF who had the amazing shirt, and Shelly, the new (but not replacement! They all became BFFs!) BFF who hasn't actually met Bethany Thomas yet because the time loop just reset.

They were all trapped on an abandoned space station with a bunch of already-dead horse-shoe-crab looking aliens. Which Mr. Deadbeat Dad was dissecting without proper PPE which is why he got a black eye. An organ just came shooting out and smacked him right in the eye. A reverse chestburster lol.

All of the kids are Queer. The deadbeat dad is not happy about this, but he's the only one who thinks he has any authority over them, so it's fine. They mostly sit back and enjoy watching him hurt himself because he refuses to use the most basic caution or follow any kind of safety rules out of spite for being reminded to.

He's there just by absolute random chance, no one was planning for him to be on the same shuttle as his estranged dauson. He now thinks that as the adult he's the boss and they all have to listen to him and Respect™ him. Nope.

[ID: Four picrews, all with a watermark reading "Makowka" or "Makowwka". The first shows an angrily frowning man with white skin, unruly short brown hair, and stubble on his chin and cheeks. He is wearing round glasses, and has a red mark over his left eye. He's wearing a blue button-up jacket overa Star Trek shirt. The background is solid red-brown with a white circle behind his head. The second shows a young nonbinary Black person smiling at the camera happily, with dark freckles and a little speech bubble with a heart emoji in it. She has black hair that comes to just above her shoulders, with a yellow bow and gold heart-shaped earings. She's wearing silver glasses, and a white and blue tracksuit jacket. The background is the trans pride flag, with stripes of blue, pink, white, pink, and blue, with a cream circle behind her head. The third shows a young white boy with light brown hair and freckles smiling at the camera happily. He is wearing a white and blue tie-dye shirt, and the background is the Pride flag, with stripes of black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green blue, and purple, with a black circle behind his head. The fourth shows a young white girl with shoulder length blonde hair and a gap in her tooth as she smiles at the camera, blushing happily. There is a pattern of light scarring crossing her face. She's wearing a black choker necklace with a silver heart, and black crescent moon and star earrings, and a pastel shirt of blue, pink, and yellow. The background is the Ace pride flag, with stripes of black, grey, white, and purple. End ID.]

Anyways, the picrew art belongs to the creator, but the character concepts themselves are public domain because they were in my dream, and I say so.

[my-craft]

MCC Pride 2022: Red Rabbits!

Patterns now have banner sized additions going forward, feel free to use with credit!

(Edited the background just a bit)

[silence-burns]

Please Hate Me //part 49

Fandom: Marvel

Summary: Based on: “Imagine having a love/hate relationship with Loki.” by @thefandomimagine​ Who would have thought that babysitting a god could be so much fun?

Genre: slow-burn, enemies to lovers, banter, smut

"How did we end up in here?"

The god of mischief didn't answer. Barbara, bound with thick rope on the other side of the cell, screeched, but you didn't speak owlish, so her opinion went unnoticed.

It took her a long time to calm down again, and even then the owl kept glaring at you. Whichever guard had been assigned to catching and binding her, must've had his hands torn into ribbons judging by the amount of fresh blood on her feathers and the ferocity in her eyes every time any guard passed by your cell.

"I might've miscalculated something along the road," Loki finally muttered, working on the restraints around his wrists. They'd been changed since the last time he'd had the pleasure of being thrown into that dungeon.

"There was no road. You've literally been smashed through the wall—"

"How was I supposed to know the lady was a shapeshifter!"

"You're a shifter too!"

Loki took a deep breath that did nothing to calm him down. He felt you fidgeting behind his back, trying to free yourself too. 

"Listen," he said. "It's not like shifters wear a special little badge or wave a huge flag over their heads. Had I known she could turn into a celestial—"

"...and mop the floor with you…"

"—and make the extraction of the pin difficult, I'd have definitely approached things differently. Still, I'm rather proud of how well I handled the situation and we got what we came for in the end."

"We had to run. You told me to jump off of a terrace!"

Loki rolled his eyes. The handcuffs finally snapped open. "It was the quickest way down."

"But was it a good way down, Loki? Was it worth it??"

Loki grimaced. He tried to stand up, but even while moving very slowly, his thoroughly bitten bottom hurt. "No, I don't believe it was. But in my defense, I had no idea there would be fish in the pond."

"I'm pretty sure those were piranhas, but I wouldn't know since I wasn't stupid enough to jump after you."

"That's fair."

Loki freed your hands and pocketed the handcuffs. His clothes were in a bad shape, with plenty of rips that left little to the imagination about what had welcomed him in the water. It was a shame that the shields around the casino prevented him from running away on wind currents, but it was an understandable security concern that he had already exploited once.

"Why do we end up in a cell at least once a month?"

"It must be because the world cannot contain our might, darling."

You thought back to Loki's face when he got thrown through that wall. "Yeah, must be it. Should we get out?"

Loki thought back to his last visit on the Moon and a certain captain of security he might have slightly offended. "That would be wise."

While you went to check for any guards in the vicinity of your cell, Loki slung Barbara over his shoulder, not daring to loosen up her bindings. The bird writhed and wriggled within the ropes, but she didn't manage to bite him.

You took a deep breath and took the sword out of your pocket. It was a small miracle the guards didn't take it away, and it was a mistake you'd gladly exploit. The door hinges gave out quickly. Loki peeked his head out—the corridor was empty. The few torches lined along the thick stone walls did little to vanish the darkness completely, but it was enough to see.

Your footsteps kept silent, you followed Loki along the row of cells, not all of them empty. 

"Listen," Loki whispered, "we have to be quick. The current captain of the guard and I had a little misunderstanding in the past, which made him unreasonably prejudiced against my humble persona and I don't really feel like facing my past today or any day, for that matter—"

He was cut off by the darkness swelling in front of him. You didn't manage to stop in time, so you slammed into Loki's back just as he beheld a man rising out of the shadows. 

"I believe you have something that belongs to me," said the Hoarder.

Loki slammed the handcuffs against the Hoarder’s arm and the nearby iron torch holder. "I don't think so."

The cuffs snapped instantly. You'd never ran faster than when the roar of pure hatred echoed in the narrow corridor, successfully ruining yet another of Loki's plans. 

Barbara continued to scream as you cut another corner. The alarm blared through the prison and drowned Loki's curses. Even though you were getting closer to the way out, each passing second—

A man stepped out from the shadows, but Loki never would have mistaken him for a Hoarder. It was not someone who'd ever lower himself to such pitiful, little thefts. No, Loki knew the man would rather cut off his own hand than use his skills for such pathetic matters. And use his magic-shredding sword to do it.

A deep part of Loki recoiled at the presence of the man, or rather the blade he held. The cold presence was that of an ancient thing designed to rip through all glamour, all spells the prisoners might've used to free themselves.

The captain of the guard. The very man who had banished him from the Moon, and rather rightfully so.

The man's thin lips spread in what could've turned into a smile if only Loki hadn’t thrown the furious, bloodlusted owl into his face. And loosened her bonds while doing so.

Loki pushed you forward, right under the swinging arm of the captain. Barbara tore into his face with the claws, beak, and infernal rage of the undead. The god of mischief couldn't contain his grin. Maybe getting the bird wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"Left!" Loki shouted when you neared another bend. Guards spilled into the corridor behind his back from the endless maze of the prison corridors, made narrow and chaotic specifically to prevent escaping. 

But the god of chaos, the frequent visitor to the Moon before his ban and an even more frequent one afterwards, always had an ace hidden up his sleeve even when the world was tumbling down around him.

The stinging smell of sewers filled your nose as you ran in the direction he shouted.

"Wait, there's a—..."

"I know," Loki said. And pushed you headfirst into an open drain.

He followed right after you, his shoulders scraping on the tight walls and for one dreadful moment, Loki imagined getting stuck in the middle of the long, and rather disgusting, slide. His skin burned and his blood thrummed in his ears, louder than the yelling he left behind. Even if any of the guards dared to follow, they'd need to shed their spiky, iron armor first if they wanted to squeeze in.

His thoughts scattered as the slide ended abruptly, launching him directly into the wet, muddy puddle of something he'd rather not think about in too much detail. 

Fists closed around his neck as you pulled him upwards with murder bright in your eyes. "Sewers?!"

"May I suggest killing me once we make it out?"

The noises of pursuit were getting louder in the disgusting, cramped space of the labyrinthine tunnels under the surface of the Moon. There were many purposes for them, and just as many entrances, so it shouldn't be a surprise the guards found another one so quickly. Still, it was a nuisance.

"Change of plans," Loki hauled you up and ran.

The thick, greenish mud splattered beneath your feet and soon you were covered in a layer of putrefying gunk. 

"Do you even have a plan anymore?" You asked between breaths that burned your lungs.

"I'd prefer not to answer that question."

There was no way you'd let that slip, but before you managed to continue, you ran into a larger, open space, where water—finally not mud—was up to your knees. But the most welcome change of your current situation came in the form of slim, narrow vessels standing by one of the walls. 

If you didn't know any better, you'd say they were perfect for racing in the sewers.

Loki hauled you into one of them before quickly destroying the others. The wooden planks they were made of were incredibly thin and fragile. You couldn't help but imagine them breaking during contact with a wall.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" You asked when Loki jumped back and started it.

"No," he grinned.

The vessel launched forward, pushing you back into the wood. The acceleration kicked you hard, and for a moment you forgot how to breathe. Loki maneuvered the boat in the tight spaces and turned with a wicked smile on his face and little recognition for your troubles as you slammed into the sides.

"I hate you!" You yelled over the noises of the machinery even as the light finally shone through the end of a tunnel.

Loki only laughed - a pure, lighthearted sound so at odds with all that had happened that day. But it made you smile too, even if just a little.

The exit was nearing, and the sudden light felt blinding after the dim darkness of the sewers. But even through the buzzing of the engine and the blast of air watering his eyes, Loki knew pursuit was hot on their heels.

So he took your sword, the shiny, marvelous thing, and cut through the supporting pillar just as your vessel passed by it. The sword that could cut through all did its job perfectly well.

You watched in awe as the pillar collapsed, and then the drain it was supporting gave out too, sending the stones crumbling down in a cloud of dust that only rose higher as the upper parts of the wall took damage too. Loki steered the vessel away from the casino, but even as the distance grew, you could still see the entire side of the golden building collapse, taking down two of the large balconies with their cushioned sofas and lounges. You were too far away to hear the screams and curses, but something in your guts told you your grand escape just became grander than you expected.

"Can you get double banned from the Moon?" You asked.

"...I suppose we'll soon find out."

Barbara joined your ranks after a few moments, flying with all the grace she could muster from her ruffled and rather thinned out feathers.

*

Loki had no idea how the short, broad-shouldered and completely silent owner of the bar knew what you needed, but the god of mischief welcomed the warm meal brought to them without a question, even in the dead of night. The only downside was the silent order for them to eat outside the bar itself, but given the state the three of them were in, it was only justified.

Barbara gurgled one fry after another as she perched on the back of one of the cheap, plastic chairs crowded around equally plastic tables. Loki and you focused on the deliciously warm meal varying from meat to spicy meat with equal hunger. New York's lights flashed all around you, making the night seem as bright as the day.

You slipped your completely drenched shoes off without stopping your eating. You dreaded the moment you'd have to put them back on. There was no point in trying to save them - no amount of washing would make you forget what you've walked on. You had a thought that had never occurred to anyone before: it would be cleaner to walk New York streets barefoot. 

"That was a terrible idea," you managed to say after a few minutes of devouring the food in silence. 

Loki didn't deny it. "But it worked."

You gulped the water. You'd never had something as refreshing, or at least it felt like it in your state of utter exhaustion. Loki didn't look much better. You were both filthy, although you tried not to dwell on that too much, full of scratches and bruises, and smelling worse than even Barbara with her half-rotten body. It was no wonder any and all people daring a walk in the middle of the night gave your little table a wide berth. 

"I'm not doing that again," you sighed, slumping into your chair only once your plate was empty.

"Do what?"

It was not the voice you'd like to hear at that moment. Or any other, to be precise.

You pried one eye open. Thor took a free chair opposite you, dwarfing the plastic frame easily.

"Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy?" You drawled. Barbara puffed the remains of her feathers and put one clawed paw on her fries.

"It would certainly make me less suspicious and worried about my brother and his betrothed."

Loki sneered. 

"Rats," you lied with a shrug. 

"I didn't know you were qualified for such a noble job."

"I've been dealing with pests my whole life,' Loki gave his brother a pointed look.

Thor nodded with a small smile that did little to lift the graveness from his face. "I assume that means neither of you had anything to do with an attempted assassination of a Niflheim's ambassador? The one taking a reprieve on the Moon, and whose visit there was kept under complete secrecy?"

"How could I know if it was a secret?" Loki frowned. 

Thor pointed a finger at him, as if he was very close to starting a long and incredibly tiresome rant about what precisely made all the secrets always cling to Loki, but he gave up at the last moment. Instead, he rose from his seat, making the plastic sigh in relief.

"This conversation is not over," he said by a way of goodbye. "But I need a clear head and you two need a bath first."

You waved him goodbye with the sweetest smile you could muster. Loki and you watched him swing Mjolnir and fly away. 

"I think we might actually need a bath," you admitted after you made sure he was gone.

"I hate to agree with my brother, but I can't deny his words some semblance of truth."

[septiembrre]

30 for the kiss prompts!!!!

Prompt: Weak, sweaty kisses because it’s unbearably hot.

@sothischickshe, I made a concerted effort to keep this silly and short. And I gave myself frown lines as I watched it grow longer and longer and… angsty. D: 

Featuring:

A magical reappearance of Beth’s furniture

A broken air conditioner

A heatwave

Lots of summer clothing

Sweat (but like the typical annoying kind. This is not a euphemism for sex)

Beth and her anxiety

Rio, a certified Goth™

A relationship not yet ended

Pain

And a Mick cameo, of course!

On AO3, too!

---------

I’VE GOT TO LOSE MY COOL

Beth’s first mistake was not calling the HVAC technician first thing in the morning. She had called on the way out the door, left a voicemail. 

It shouldn’t have been a big deal. Wednesdays were usually slow. She would be able to sneak away at almost any point to take a call back. In the message she left, Beth made sure to mention that her only conflict was at three (the weekly drop of bills from Mick). Otherwise, there was plenty of time to schedule the service visit with perfect timing for the impending heatwave. 

But, of course, her life was no longer neat.   

On this random mid-day shift, there had been a flurry of customers at the store -- multiple special orders for invitations, a desperate maid of honor running in for last minute bridal shower details. And, naturally, it was in this hubbub that the tech had returned her call. There was another subsequent round of phone tag. Beth left a new message. 

On her phone, there was also a text from Mick. He was held up -- and that never happened. The texts hinted at some mysterious, more-important errand for their boss and she was a little curious. He had quashed her follow-up questions (only a couple!), with a gruff, “I’ll get there when I get there.” 

And he indeed eventually arrived to Paper Porcupine -- a whole hour late and in a terrible mood. He barreled in the backdoor, sans his typical flannel and sans-leather jacket. Instead, he was in a t-shirt and sweaty as all get out in the late afternoon heat. Beth had stared at him aghast as her phone chimed with another call. It had been a perky soundtrack to Mick’s string of colorful swears when he realized he had left behind half the one-dollar bills needed for the next print run.

Well, at least that mess wasn’t on her. 

When Beth finally caught the technician on her drive home, she confirmed what Beth had begun to suspect in her gut: they were all booked up with service calls until next Monday. 

“It’s the heatwave, Mrs. Boland,” the tech explained over the car’s speaker phone. “Half of Detroit is calling in about faulty units. We can get you in first thing next week.” 

Beth had nodded unseen and despairing. She had the AC blasting in the car, but she was still sticky with sweat. It was going to be precisely eleven degrees hotter by tomorrow. Then, it would chart 105 the day after that.  

Good Lord. 

Her second mistake was not immediately driving to the store to purchase a pool.

This is how Beth finds herself in the middle of the brutal once-a-year Michigan heatwave, reflecting on how truly her life no longer plays out in the tidy, pre-ordained trajectories it used to. And some days this is thrilling but other days, today, it’s... 

Terrible. 

Beth tries to do what she can. 

She digs out her most breathable pair of exercise shorts, short short and purchased two children ago. She dons her comfiest, lift bra and throws on a frayed pink tank top. She no longer wore these articles of clothing in the presence of her husband (especially after that comment now etched into her soul about “a great ass and perfectly shaped boobs”) but kept them tucked into her dresser for such hellishly hot, solitary occasions such as today. 

She pulls her hair messily into a lofty bun leaving no opportunity for it to cling to her neck. She also temporarily appropriates three of the flagging household fans and angles all of them carefully at her, meticulously layering the currents. Finally, she sprawls on her bed, starfishing her limbs for maximum air-to-skin contact. 

All of it helps a little, but she’s still hot. Beth can’t fathom anything outside of her misery, wants to shed her skin. 

She momentarily considers taking her third cold shower of the day. 

Then, without realizing it is happening, Beth finds herself an hour deep into a frenzy of online shopping, precariously balancing her laptop so it doesn’t touch her skin. 

Her focus: sandals. 

Beth knows she shouldn’t go through with the purchase. Rationally, she can admit it is a feverish spiral, fixating on one fraction of why this week is awful. But, it is all she can think about: she does not have any appropriate footwear for this heat. 

How will she survive?

From there comes a whole whorl of scenarios. If she could get away with not leaving the house, she could stay barefoot, stick to the shadowy corners of her house, shower any hour of the day. In fact, this was (part of) the reason why she had chosen to stay home as Dean took the kids to the community pool a few blocks over. Her old pair of ratty flip flops had finally given out and the mid-morning heat already had Beth at her wit’s end. God, she just needed some quiet and some sense of distance from Dean. So, she suggested the idea, urged him to go and leave her in peace.

Perhaps, she could send him out for all the kids’ needs and assorted errands? 

...But, could he be trusted? 

Well, if Beth refused to leave the house, that meant she was also choosing not to go with the kids to the movies or the library, places with functioning air conditioners where she could cool off. And what else could they do tomorrow? Maybe she could dig out the old sprinkler from the garage… But, then she’d have to go into the garage, and the temperature in there-- 

Anxiously, Beth meanders the tabs on the DSW website and adds two new pairs of flip flops to her cart. One’s a little more casual, definitely good for pool-side and backyard time. The other pair is a little more dignified. They didn’t look like they would clack. 

Well, she doesn’t need two pairs...

She’ll narrow it down later. 

In the back of her mind, Beth can acknowledge she doesn’t really need to buy anything at all, and that these sandals will not make her current discomfort any more bearable. But, it doesn’t hurt to look. 

Oh, goodness -- what about when she has to go back to Paper Porcupine for her next shift? The thought of putting on any of her flats seems like too much to bear, claustrophobic as they were in the heat. Pumps were out of the question. Which brings her to her last job-appropriate footwear option -- her ankle boots. Weirdly, that seemed to be a fashion trend that was happening now, but nope, absolutely not. 

It is in this fever pitch, that Beth makes her third and perhaps most egregious mistake: when Rio knocks on the French doors, she lets him in. 

In her defense, she’s a little dazed. As mentioned before, the current state of Michigan is literally hell and Rio’s appearance… takes her by surprise. She was not expecting him to show up today with a duffle of the rest of the small bills. He hadn’t texted and to top it off, he is wearing... an outfit she has never seen before.

A sleeveless shirt.

A sleeveless shirt and joggers, fancy athletic ones that look a price point (or three) above the ones she usually buys for Dean. However, despite this new foray into athleisure-wear, Rio remains head to toe in his favorite color with black on black Chucks rounding out the look. 

What a goth, Beth thinks, shaking her head to herself. This outfit in over-100 degree heat? 

She feels hotter just looking at him.

Like Mick the other day, Rio is sans-jacket, sans-button-up, and sans-beanie and there’s just… miles and miles of uncovered brown, freshly sun-kissed skin. 

Maybe, it’s her deep-seated jealousy of people who can tan. All her skin is good for is glowing in the dark and flash burning at the slightest interest from the sun. And mind you, she’s currently safe inside her dim bedroom, but it’s the strangest thing...  She’s burning now as her eyes trace the smooth skin exposed at the base of his neck, burning as she follows along the neat, sharp line of his collarbone where she had bit--

Stop, Beth. Why did she still want-- 

Had he purposefully shown up with a work excuse on the hottest day of the year to pester her? Was this a latent extension of his punishment? Beth thought they were past this. 

But, you know what? Whatever. Let him try.

She’s cool. She might be sweaty as hell, and wanting to crawl out of her skin, but she is cool as a cucumber, cold as ice, profoundly unbothered. 

She’s so cool that she doesn’t say a word. 

Not to greet him, or remark upon the mistake with the drop or… his atypical clothing choice. 

She doesn’t comment either on the state of their business or ask after whatever it was he had assigned Mick to do this week and had seemingly gone awry. 

She doesn’t comment as his mouth drops open with surprise as he takes in her appearance, his eyes widening with something as intolerably warm as the air around them. The bag slips from his grip just inside her doorway.

Nor does she say anything when Rio follows her back to bed, tethered to her through a tenuous spell of heat (weather or otherwise). She’s cool, indifferent, breezy actually as she repositions herself in the crosshairs of the fans. If she pretends he doesn’t matter, she doesn’t have to share the breeze right? So she doesn’t pay much mind as Rio slips off his sneakers and settles next to her. Instead, she re-balances the laptop and resumes pursuing the online DSW store. 

She doesn’t say anything as he eventually shuffles closer, presumably to watch as she adds strappy sandals to her cart (or more probably to peek down her shirt). And god-- this stupid tank top. Maybe her boobs look better from over there in Rio-world, but over here she is sticky with underboob sweat and crossing her fingers that none of it shows through her bra. 

His shoulder leans against hers.

And she has every reason to push him away, but… his skin is cool and smooth and not the most intolerable part of this weekend. So, she lets him stay there. 

And she continues to ignore him, cool-like, or cool-aspiring.

Until he no longer lets her. 

Concentrated as she is on her shopping, she notes idly as Rio’s foot reaches out to nudge one of her fans to aim more directly at him.

Beth can’t help the snarl that comes out of her mouth, “Don’t.” 

He always brings out the worst in her.

There’s a low snicker. Her gaze drops down to take in Rio’s arm as it presses up fully against hers. His fingers reach over to pinch her thigh. 

“Damn, ma.” 

There’s that heat again, the one from inside. God, she hates him. 

Beth shuffles away, frowning at her screen. Rio shuffles too, sidling up next to her again. She adds another pair of sandals to her order and then considers her cart. 

“Elizabeth…” In the corner of her eye, she catches the movement of Rio shaking his head with reprove. “Think about where you live.”

Beth flails on the bed in a display that admittedly reminds her of her own children in a fussy mood and it only annoys her more. Her bedspread sticks to her arms, the backs of her legs, and the exposed sliver of her midriff where her top is creeping up. Beth shifts, trying to dislodge the cover from her skin, mindful to protect the laptop. It’s only happenstance that she manages not to shift a single inch of where the length of her arm touches Rio’s. 

As she tries to calm down, a brief vision comes to Beth -- an alternate universe where the laptop is safely tucked away and the HVAC blessedly functions. The Rio and Beth of this fantasy are them but also not… maybe she’ll call them Christopher and Elizabeth. That Beth -- Elizabeth -- is only mildly inconvenienced by the heat raging outside. She can rest her dampened forehead against the cool arch of his-- Christopher’s neck. She can lean in to press a weak kiss at his collar bone. In fact, she can kiss it anytime she wants, invited to touch him anywhere she like. In this dream, Elizabeth’s ministrations don’t have to be surer or bolder or cool -- because she has him. 

All the time. 

She can afford to be soft. 

In turn, Christopher nuzzles his face into her hair fondly, and that Elizabeth receives a soft kiss at the crown of her head. There’s an undercurrent of sex between them, the suggestion of it, but overall the scene is sluggish in the zenith of summer and content. Elizabeth can curl her body around his and let him hold her-- 

How silly. 

Beth shakes herself out of it and realizes that Rio has shifted on his side, watching her as she’s zoned out staring at the cart full of sandals for too long. His lips twitch and almost pull into a smile. Then, he quells them into mock seriousness. 

It feels too intimate, him with her on this bed, her bed, the bed. It feels like Before. 

God, why is he here anyway? If she was alone, she could peel off all her clothes and… take an ice bath probably. 

Not think of him at least. 

Not think about that wild, feverish idea of curling up, fitting her body into his and surrendering to the heat. Not think about how desperately and pettily she wants to pinch him back. She wants to kiss that stupid look off of his face or... Maybe she could purchase all six pairs of sandals and start browsing for pools on Cloud 9 just to spite him-- 

 “I am thinking about where I live and actually, it’s the middle of summer here--” Beth bites out. “--and it’s outrageously hot.”

“Just buy yourself a pair of sturdy white lady shoes. You mean to tell me you don’t already own some Birks?”

“Excuse me--” Beth splutters, incensed. She had considered them first but had been discouraged again by the price tag for a single pair.  “White people aren’t only ones who wear Birkenstocks.”

Without missing a beat, Rio volleys back, “Baby girl, what are you going to do with so many pairs of sandals in Michigan the rest of the year?” 

“Says you.”  

“Oh?” 

“You literally have a million pairs of shoes. Your closet is insane.”

It dawns on her, what she just said. 

Oh. 

Not good. 

It’s the fucking heat. At least, the discomfort can’t blotch her cheeks any more than they already are. 

She knows that if she looked at him now, she would see Rio doing something... obnoxious with his face. He’s probably smirking in that terrible, gloating, dumb, sexy way that he does, but too bad. 

Beth refuses to look at him.

She’s indifferent and unbothered. She’s cool. She’s the kind of Beth that would never ever even think about his closet or daydream about them folding clothes together or fucking on-- 

So, instead, she snaps her laptop close with a final click. The sandals were a half-brained idea anyway and that was a conclusion she already came to on her own. Thank you very much, boss. 

She starts to get up but then Rio’s hand reaches out to curl around her thigh, pinning her to the bed. He squeezes her leg gently, as he has the audacity to shush her. 

It’s enough impetus for Beth to rear her head back to meet his gaze again and level him with her most withering glare. 

And, what do you know? She was correct. He appears to be very entertained. 

This time she feels the heat surge on her face and knows without a doubt that it shows on top of the heat rash.  

“Yeah, so… are you ever gonna tell me what you were doin’ at my house?”

“No.” She snipes, prim. 

“No?”

“I wasn’t doing anything.” It's outright untruth.

Rio’s amused disbelief and her defensiveness meet in a standoff. Beth knows from experience he’ll try to wait her out and she gnashes her teeth. 

Then, there’s a twitch of movement at her thigh, the flex of fingers she realizes are still there and Beth registers the warm span of his hand a few inches above her knee. Her gaze darts down to look at where he’s touching her. He glances down, too. Together they watch as his thumb slowly strokes her skin. Then, again. 

They both observe as the muscles in her thighs just perceptively clench.

God, him and her, in this bed. 

His voice softens to that ridiculous mumble, both low and rich. “Aw, c’mon, darlin’. You can tell me.” 

The tone raises her hackles -- as if she wasn’t already too familiar with this trap! She tries to affect nonchalance -- she’s cool -- and shrugs, “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Rio grins. It’s sharp like a knife and charming. She hates that he’s the most attractive person she’s ever met. “You liked my closet?” 

Then, an idea comes to her-- how she can best him at his own little game.

Beth curls on her side towards him. Her cleavage deepens and god, she can instantly feel more sweat bloom but she knows what he likes. The line of their bodies is parallel, only separated by an inch or two. They’re sharing the breeze from the fans now and wisps of her hair have gotten loose from her bun and are blowing into her face. Rio’s hand shifts to resettle and it drifts up to stroke her hair back behind her ear. Then it drops to curl at her waist. And you know -- nice move -- but she can do him one better.

“Yes,” Beth says simply. She brings her hands up to trace along the neck of his shirt, across his pecs, and the expanse of skin she hasn’t seen since that afternoon of Before. “I didn’t see this though.” 

Then, in a moment of haughty malice, her fingers find the notch of his clavicle. She watches his throat bob as he swallows hard and she counts the success. She ignores the tell-tale temptation to gift him more bruises, to kiss him… 

The thought occurs to her, distantly, slowly emerging through the fog of heat, that if she tugged the fabric to the side a bit, she’d find one of the scars she gave him. Her hands become clammy and they retreat. 

“You like it?” Rio’s voice comes out a smidge hoarse. But, perhaps only someone who knows him like her would notice. 

Beth shrugs a shoulder. 

His eyes are bright as he looks back at her. His gaze shifts crass, laden with the suggestion of sex, and there’s a tinge there that's not quite sour per se. But, it’s heavy with the particular weight of who they are now. His line of sight deliberately drops to her cleavage with old, salacious purpose. 

It’s not the way he looked at her that day, that one time (or two).  

Self-rebuffed, Beth tries not to think too much about how she hates that Rio caught her dressed like this. She itches to pull her top up to her neck or scramble off the bed to find something else to throw on. She itches to disappear entirely or to retreat into her bathroom (and see if this time he’ll follow her there too). 

Slowly, in performance, Rio moves the fingers at her waist and dips them under the edge of her tank top. He traces teasingly underneath along her sweaty skin. 

“I like this.” Rio says, biting his lower lip lewdly, tugging along the hem of her shirt. 

And Beth feels-- she feels--

Too hot. 

Too objectified. 

Her stomach drops and she wants to crawl out of her skin. This wasn’t, this isn’t-- This isn’t what it was. 

No matter who they are this minute, whatever mess continues to unfold, this isn’t what that day was.  

She won’t let him ruin it. 

“You know I did really like your closet. I liked your shoe racks--” she scrambles, trying to dangle a little of what he wants and to remind him. “Your pictures. Nice touch.” 

The comment serves its purpose. It makes him pause, sufficiently rebuked by all the ways that she knows him. 

Rio extricates his hand, pulls away from her skin, as she tries again to calm herself. She needs to be cool, cool, cool. 

But, it’s unbearable -- who they are now.  

She feels frazzled and depleted as she watches Rio roll onto his back. He looks up at her ceiling, not at her. “Why can’t you be honest with me for once?” He says it tiredly, without artifice. 

She can’t stand it. 

“You’re one to talk.”  

Beth watches as Rio is now the one gritting his teeth. 

“Y’know--” There’s a poignant, festering beat and then he says, “When I fucked you in this bed, I had wanted…” 

More. 

That want goes unsaid, suspended in the air around them with the heat. 

“But, you just wanted me to fuck you,” he finishes quietly, leveling her. 

Her stomach bottoms out newly pained and she wonders if that day, those two times, are already ruined for him. Certainly, she can understand if it’s because of the bullets. But, if he still has any doubt-- 

She makes a last-ditch attempt at levity. 

“You’d probably say this is really… basic bitch of me.” The phrase fits awkwardly, and the call back immediately has Rio’s attention. She knows in her race to pull something together, to make it better, something bearable, whatever she’s going to say is going to be too candid.

“Yeah?”

“But, the times that I’ve been the most… attracted to you--” Oh god, this isn’t coming out light and casual at all. Oh no. 

Rio shakes his head at her, “Don’t stop now, Elizabeth.”

“Oh my god, shut up,” Beth huffs. Then, she tries again. “One is definitely when you were bashing in that butt-ugly car.” 

Rio’s eyebrows raise comically high. 

“You know with the crowbar,” She gestures, swinging her hand gratuitously. He absolutely already knows what she’s talking about. 

“And two..”  Beth shuts her eyes and takes a steadying breath. She hopes for the best and tries not to rush the next bit. “--was when I saw your closet was color-coordinated.” 

She sneaks a glance at him, and her stomach twists again.

He has absolutely no business looking so fondly at her. 

She strives to clarify. “But, that was before.” 

“Not anymore?”

“No.” 

Rio nods, presumably in acceptance of her refusal. 

But, then he tugs her to him, across him. Beth settles on top of him, too hot, too sweaty. Her forehead comes to rest, pressed against the soft hollow of his neck.  

[level247-table-tech]

here are the sprites on their own! not all of them, but there are way too many to fit up there. i’m leaving the rest under the cut.

others include significantly asymmetrical sprites, as well as a bonus set. 8)

these don’t really clarify their relative heights. they are not adjusted to the bottom pixel i actually drew for sure, that’s not how i aligned them. i actually have a guideline in the file, but. i can’t really show that.

above are the regular sprites. it took ages to figure out what i wanted to do with virgil’s plaid, but it turned out going simple with it was the best plan. also it looked very bad until i figured out to use values correctly.

also, while we’re at it, i can tell you some things i changed between projects! this is a remaster of my last attempt at pixelology, and i do  believe it’s an overall improvement.

virgil’s plaid, yeah, changed that, but also the colour of his hair, because the old one blended too much with his skin. glad that happened to virgil, because i was trying to keep the hair highlights the same for everyone, with differently-tinted shadows. i did give him a bat instead of the wings this time, because a, he seems like a bat kind of guy, and b, the wings sucked and i don’t think i could improve them. like, the best thing about those wings is that they were the ace flag colours, and since his general colour scheme is already like that, it’s not a spectacular saving grace. they also made the frame fit weird, but i don’t like drawing wings absurdly small, like why bother? i alos tried to be a bit more competent with the jacob lines in his shading. those are an indicator of fear so of course i wanted to keep them included, but last time i feel like i didn’t do great, and this time i think i improved. especially on the legs. it is kind of a pain how there are adjacent sections where the shadows are done in the same colour, but. that’s really who virgil is, let’s be real. wouldn’t be the same without the all-black clothes.

also, patton’s different skin tones were really bad, you could barely see the shadows, so i changed them. his overall shape also did not work, so this time i stylized it a bit more to fit with the pixels. also i gave him a different weapon. hopefully it’s still funny in its incongruity!

roman had very little change. like, i really like his original sprite! i did change some of the gold details, but the biggest thing is probably the pants. they’re white with a red stripe because, a, it looks very good, and b, it set up a parallel with remus.

and remus. most obviously in the first one, his different head angle super didn’t work. it was very bad! which, in his case doesn’t automatically rule it out, but this one looks way better next to the majority of these. i mentioned relative heights earlier and this one should actually be the same height as roman, you can align them by their chins. aside from that, i added a lot mor detail to his ruffles, i tried my best to maintain clarity on his torso, i got the sleeves just plain wrong, but it looks fine, and it happened to be very good art that led me astray on that, so whatever. i feel like his morningstar might have gotten worse between versions, but what can you do. maybe i accidentally put it at a slightly harder angle to make look nice. whatever.

logan! i don’t think i’m doing these in any real order, sorry. like patton, his shape has been changed to be more stylized to fit the pixel thing. like, a realistic taper on the legs, as it turns out, looks pretty bad! exaggerate it or make it just straight lines and it is better. i feel like i very much improved his hair, and i also added the belt that he wears which i forgot last time.

lastly, janus. well, lastly for now, but the next one won’t be a remaster of anything. i gave him his canon weapon instead of snakes, which, not sure what i was thinking gameplay-wise for those. [that’s a lie, i was thinking nothing about gameplay because i am no gamemaker. i’m not even an animator, much as i’d like to be.] when i made his last sprite, i forgot the lining of his cape is yellow. also last time i had not seen the magnificent longer cape from the game sections of svsr, which as i’ve mentioned elsewhere i am never letting go of, ever. so that features here. it kind of blends with the backgrounds i use for the vs character selection screens, but i don’t think that’s necessarily a downside. aside from that, i did remove some scales from his right hand because we have now seen it, and it’s proven bereft of those. as you’ll see in a second though, fortunately no such thing can be said of his legs. nor upper arm.

now for the bonus set. you may recognize this theme if you’ve followed this project awhile. 8)

some notes on these specifically:

-this is simply a complete set based on janus’ bonus sprite from the original project this is remastering.

-i tried to base the colours on their onesies. that proved harder than expected. remus and janus have no shown onesies, but

>i had janus’ previous sprite on hand, so that was him taken care of.

>virgil’s onesie didn’t really have multiple colours, so it’s just different shades of black, with some grey thrown in because white is already a base colour.

>logan’s, oh boy, i thought i remembered it having two colours, but i was wrong, it is just blue. and white, but again, that doesn’t work. so i gave him a couple of shades.

>patton’s, i didn’t really want to use grey as a colour, but it actually had two others, they were just in trace amounts. it was okay.

>remus. nghh. i wanted to use like, an inverted version of roman’s colours, but it turns out blue and yellow inverted is yellow and blue. so i used the orthogonal colours instead, and i’m not really sure it was a good look.

-aside from colour schemes, each of these has its own little variation, because i felt like having fun. aside from any kind of socks/leggings, because whatever, those are pretty variable anyway, each has one detail different. from most to least noticeable as i see it:

>patton has pants instead of a skirt. i just thought the look suited him better. the thing about patton is i always imagine him in Dad Fashion, which doesn’t have a ton of skirts in my mind. maybe that’s just my dad, but eh. i do think it’s a good look but i didn’t draw it very well.

>roman has a different crown. need i explain further? adding the others’ crowns was a bit of a pain considering how they interact with hair that isn’t drawn in anime style.

>virgil’s might not be too noticeable on its own, but the leggings kind of direct the eye there. he’s wearing his own boots instead of any variety of sailor scout ones. mostly because they are much, much cooler.

>logan has a different collar. closer to his usual polo than... whatever the sailor collar is actually called. he also might not have the same choker necklace as everyone else, but mostly you just can’t tell. still tied with a weird bow thing, though. how the hell do those bow accessories work?

>janus has a longer cape. again, need i explain further? he’s also the only one with a magical girl wand, because his colour scheme* was the most permitting and i really wanted to draw coily ribbons.

>remus is kind of like virgil with the leggings, but again, those don’t count, and with remus they draw attention away from his change. anyways, the different thing about his outfit is the sleeves. i only noticed long after i was out of the pixel stage that none of the sleeves are accurate, but his are even more not accurate, they do the poof thing. also his neckline’s a bit lower, but i mean, how could i not?

-i might assemble a full scene with these, if anybody asks. or nobody, i kinda just want to. it’s not too much trouble, but it won’t be animated this time, that took ages and i don’t think it even turned out well. i gotta find somewhere to actually get taught things about animation, though it also just does not gel with my medium.

-i can’t for most of these, but for janus i can talk about some improvements. his crown looks more visible, though that might just be compared to this side of his face. the skirt is not better and might be worse to be honest. also the bow on his chest. other than that it’s definitely better for the gloves actually being incorporated in this one.

*i do actually have set colour schemes for these. i tried to even limit the number of colours for each one. that said, most of them have exactly 17 instead of the nice power of two 16, and one of them couldn’t even fit that bill.

[make-me-imagine]

Howdy, let's go! 21, Ace-PanRomantic yet still prefer males, gender questioning, 5'4, chubby pare shape, acne scars/redness, dark brown almost black eyes/wavy thigh length hair, beauty marks on left bottom lip line/think an incomplete snake bite and on my forehead slightly off the middle are two more beauty marks, hooded eyes, down turned lips, and round face shape, duff beige skin tone, some say I look as young as 15, typically dress in dark colors that are feminine and gender neutral. (1/2)

I’m sorry it took so long! I hope you like them. Also, DAMN your hair is long lol. I can’t get my hair to grow past my chest, it just stops growing lol, though I do now tend to keep it a short bob because I gave up on length lol. 

Pushing Daisies:

I think you’d fit in really well in the whole Pushing Daisies style aesthetic lol. And of course, I ship you with Ned (he’s pretty much the only person to ship with though if you prefer males lol). But I do think you would go well together. I think Ned would be very respectful towards you and your boundaries. He loves your beauty marks and sometimes looses himself and traces the invisible lines between them when you are lying comfortably together. Ned is very respectful and would never talk down or over you. He also adores your personality, your willingness to learn, and how kind you are to others.

Prompt 19: Letter (I took a little detour on this, so the more accurate prompt would be ‘Sticky Notes’ hope you don’t mind)

Ned was walking through the kitchen preparing to open the restaurant when something bright pink in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning to look, he sees a little pink sticky note stuck on the pie shelves. Smiling to himself, already knowing what it is, he walks over to it.

Pulling it off of the shelf he read the words with a fond smile ‘Try not to burn any pies today! xoxo ♡” 

Shoving the note into his apron pocket he continued on with his day.

-

You yawned at you wandered through the kitchen ready to get some coffee/tea to wake you up. As you got to the coffee maker you smiled as your eye caught on a large green paper not stuck to it.

‘Things to remember today:

-Drink Water, Eat Food

-Breath

-That you are perfect and beautiful

-That I’m sorry AGAIN that I accidentally knocked your nail polish off the counter, braking the vial, I promise I’ll buy you a new one

-That I love you

xx”

You grinned at the note as you took the note, carrying it to the living room. Taking out a small paper box from the shelf you opened it, your eyes scanning the small pile of bundled sticky notes, all covered in Neds hand writing. Adding the new note to the collection, you closed the box and placed it back on the shelf before carrying on with your morning.

-

Ned woke up with a groan, stretching and slowly opening his eyes. His hand wandered over to your side of the bed, only to find it empty. Frowning slightly he ran his hand over his face, only for it to knock off a sticky note that had apparently been placed on his forehead.

Squinting as he picked up the yellow note he blinked a few times to clear his still blurry vision. “Left early for my appointment so I could stop at some stores on the way, see you later! xoxo ♡”

Wrapping his hand around he note, he placed his hand on his chest as he slowly lingered back to sleep, wondering if you’d be back by the time he woke up again

-

You sighed as you leaned your head back against the seat of the car, trying to calm yourself from the stressful situation you just got out of. Your anxiety pulsed through you as you took a few breaths trying to calm down.

Feeling the pulse of emotion you grabbed your bag, looking for your car keys. You just wanted to get home. As you looked for your keys your eyes landed on a crumpled blue sticky note.

Pulling it out, you straightened it out, your eyes grazing over Ned’s familiar handwriting as you wondered when he put this in your bag.

“Just remember that no matter what happens, you’ll survive, because you are strong and amazing. And whenever you need help or reassurance, or even just a hug, I will be waiting at home for you. I love you, more than anything. xxx”

You felt tears swell in your eyes as your anxiety and stress began to fade away. Ned knew that today would be stressful for you, he offered to come, but when you said no he must have written and stuck this in your bag. 

Grabbing your keys you were more excited to get home and thank him, and get yourself that big hug he promised in his note. 

^^This is pretty close to what your height different would be with him lol

The Hobbit

I ship you with Thorin. Thorin would appreciate your outlook on the world, your politeness, self-sufficiency, and the way you take no shit. He was taken back by you when you first met and thought you to be very interesting, he grey to like your company quite a lot, and over time he needed it. He is comfortable in a non-sexual relationship, and adores your companionship. Though he isn’t the best at emotions, he does try his best to comfort you when your anxiety and depression kick-in. He hates seeing you hurt inside and will pull out all the stops to get you out of your own mind. 

Prompt 19: Letter (**Lansel is apparently “love of all loves”, taken from this post by @demifishblog​)

As you stared out at the rising sun, sat outside your cabin home in the hills outside of the Blue Mountains. A home you had shared with Thorin before he left on his quest to Erebor what felt like so long ago. 

Pulling a folded piece of paper out of your pocket, you ran your hand across it before opening it for the hundredth time.

Your eyes scanned over the words, his voice in your head as you read them. You could recite the letter to yourself, as you’d read it so many times, but you loved to see his familiar handwriting as you read it.

My dearest Lanselê,

I know I sometimes cannot speak my true feelings, so I hope that this letter holds more of them than I was able to say to you before I left.

I know you fear for me and my kin, as I fear for you at my absence. But I have faith that you can survive without me, as I have faith I will one day return to you, once again, and as the King of Erebor. Once I do, I will take your hand and you will rule by by side as I once promised to you. Though I know that matters little to you, as all you wish for is my quick return.

I cannot promise it to be a quick return, but I will try my best to come back to you before you have given up on me. 

And please know, that al the days that I am gone, my mind and heart will constantly be with you, as I imagine your voice and your beautiful smile and how I hope you will be thinking of me. I know that there will not be a day in which I do not imagine you being in my arms once again. 

I hope you forgive me, my love, for leaving you. I hate that I had too. And I promise that I will make up for my absence for the rest of our lives. I will give everything I have to you, and all the love I can muster. I promise. Just please, wait for me. Wait for my return. 

And every night, look at the moon, and know that I look at it as well, thinking of you, and sending my love with it to you every night. And every morning, as the sun rises, know that I watched that same sun, rise for me. And as I watched it rise, I whispered ‘I love you’ to you, and hoped that some how you could hear it.

You are as patient with me as you are kind, and I hope that patience does not give out, as I impatiently wait to be back with you. I only ask that you have faith that I will return. I WILL return to you. I promise.

Until my return,

Thorin

As you sighed, closing the letter once again, the distant sound of hoof-beats made you raise your head, your eyes scanning the horizon. As the sound got louder, you rose from your seat, your heart beginning to bead rapidly. Wondering what was coming.

Seeing the top of a flag appear above the hill, you took a step forward. You covered the sunlight that had been blinding you with your hand as you tried to focus on the appearing figures on horseback. 

As your gaze adjusted, the figures were still back-lit and hard to see. But as your eyes landed on the figure in front, you heart seemed to burst from your chest. You could recognize that silhouette anywhere, and as he grew closer, and his appearance now clear, your grin widened, your jaw almost aching from the size of it as every ounce of worry you had been carrying on your shoulders faded away, the only thing you could think now was that it was over. He was home.

[shipaholic]

Good Omens/SU crossover - The Prologue!

Day 19, 2020: already behind on my writing schedule, lol.

It’s angels and demons with gem powers y’all! I’ve decided to post scenes from the fic on tumblr as I go, and then do a big edit at the end before putting it on AO3.

Prologue: three days after Adam and Eve leave the garden, Crowley reforms for the first time.

Link to next part at the end.

---

Prologue

4004 BC

There was an angel in the garden of Eden.

The others had left already after the business with the apple, muttering about cock-ups (but more politely, being angels). Strictly speaking, there was no reason for any angel to still be skulking around the garden. A cloud of embarrassment hung over the place. In a few hours management was due to turn up and sweep it, before returning to head office and drafting an official statement. The garden couldn’t remain on Earth, obviously. There had been talk of archiving it.

A twisted black sigil, the size of a rook’s feather, lay on a flat rock. It looked as though it should have only had two dimensions, but had been press-ganged by physics into manifesting an extra one. It was wrapped in a little nest of white cloth and placed in a sunbeam. The angel hovered nearby, trying not to break into out-and-out looming.

The black object on the rock finally did something. It glowed pure white and rose out of its nest to float in the air two feet above eye level. It made a noise that would be identifiable, many, many years from now, as a laser beam charging up [1].

The light became blinding, and a shape grew out of it - more shapeless than shape, its borders wobbling like a giant soap bubble. Then it compressed and became human-shaped. Limbs sprouted in every direction. The blob at the top decided to be a head. It was like watching dough being rolled out and reformed into an unsettlingly realistic gingerbread man.

Long curls unspooled from the head. Swathes of cloth burst into existence and draped around the figure, similar to that worn by the angel. It then changed its mind, and the loose toga pinned over one shoulder morphed into a cowl and hood, wrapping around the head and leaving only a few loose strands of hair.

Features popped out of the smooth face. Colour suffused it down to the fingertips. There was a final burst of wind and light, like a celestial flourish, and a pair of gleaming white wings unfolded from its back. Immediately, they turned black, like a forest scorched to ash. They fluttered once, and the figure gently touched down on the grass of Eden.

It opened its eyes. They were still golden.

Then it squawked and fell over.

“Ack,” it said.

It kicked a few times at its robe, which was not especially tangled around its feet, but that seemed less embarrassing than acting as though it had fallen over because it still hadn’t got the hang of having legs.

Then it caught sight of the angel hiding behind a rock.

“Gnn!” it said, and grabbed for something to throw at him. [2]

“Um!” The angel held up his hands. He tried to stand up without looking intimidating, and ended up in a kind of hunch. “I come in peace. Erm.”

The figure pulled a face, as if remembering the distant present. “Peace? You killed me!”

The angel grimaced. “Well. I suppose I did, technically. Sorry about that.”

“You whacked me over the head!”

“I know how that must look -”

“I thought we were having a nice moment up there, with the sheltering from the rain and so on, and two seconds later you karate-chop me with your blessed wing!”

The angel’s face was two notches guiltier than his gave-away-my-flaming-sword face. “It really was an ac -” He paused. “Well. Not quite an accident, to be quite honest. Not in the sense of not meaning to do it. But I really didn’t mean to k- discorporate you. I feel terrible about the whole thing.”

“Oh, you feel terrible! I’ve got a ding in my skull. Brand new skull and everything.” The demon tapped its own head, but found it undamaged. It frowned. “Huh. That’s useful.”

“You seem fine now,” said the angel. He already sounded far less sympathetic.

“Yeah, ssssuperb.”

“You’ve even redecorated yourself a bit. I like the, erm.” The angel gestured vaguely. “Belt.”

“Yeah. Well. Why not.” The demon preened a little. It was quite a nifty trick. The angel was a fan of his new, cinched-in waist look, but thought it a bit of a shame the demon had covered his long red hair. His gem - the winding black sigil just under his ear - was also half-hidden under his hood. The angel had a few further thoughts, but it seemed impolite to comment.

“What are you hanging around for, anyway?” said the demon. He was still sprawled on the ground with a clump of grass in his hand. “Planning to stand over me and just… finish me off whenever I reform?” He blanched. He’d just said it off the top of his head, but it was actually a disturbing thought. “Because that sounds, uh. Boring.”

“Of course not!” said the angel. It did sound boring. Also, horrible. He’d got through the entire War in Heaven without engaging in what might technically be called combat. Given the option, he’d prefer to keep his kill-count at zero. Who knew their human forms would… explode into smoke clouds from one tiddly knock on the head? Someone upstairs might have told him. “I wanted to see you were all right, that was all. You gave me quite a shock, you know.” He gave an embarrassed cough. “Look, I really wasn’t trying to trick you - back on the wall.”

“Oh, ‘course not. You were just doing me a favour, keeping me dry, nice and neighbourly, only by sheer misfortune an overwhelming blood-lust came over you, and there was nothing for it but to smite me off a sixty-foot wall. That’s a comfort. I feel much safer now.”

   The angel, unlike most of the others, understood sarcasm. [3] He kept what had really happened up on the wall to himself. It had been a loud clap of thunder - the first ever produced on Earth - and it had been startling and unpleasant. Usually a sound like that heralded the appearance of Upper Management, who would have had Questions about him chatting to a demon, of the kind that ended in Meetings with Clipboards. Getting the demon out of sight chop-chop had been the word of the day, and - well. Turned out these new, corporeal bodies were less resilient than one might hope. Bit of a rush-job, the angel regrettably suspected.

“How long was I out, anyway?” The demon peered around the sun-drenched garden. “I see this place has had time to dry out.”

“It’s been three days. I’m not really supposed to be here anymore. I’m going to be terribly late to the staff meeting.” The angel looked at him sidelong. Politeness lost a skirmish with curiosity. “What… exactly was it like?”

“What, getting my head stoved in? Or just the general feeling of betrayal?”

The angel was a being of heavenly love and he did not roll his eyes. “What were you doing in there? While you were, er, recharging?”

The demon’s yellow eyes went blank. “Hnn.” He scratched his cheek. “Just. Hanging about, you know. Think I was in contact with one of my people. Sort of felt like someone was talking to me. And like I was filling in forms. And having a nap.”

The angel frowned. “A nap? Never heard of it.”

“Oh, it’s going to be big.” The demon smiled. He had high hopes for sloth. At the very least, he suspected he was going to like it.

The angel gave a tentative smile. “So it wasn’t too unpleasant?”

The demon huffed. “Fine, no, it wasn’t torture. It was just weird. No harm done, and I got a new look out of it, so don’t be too hard on yourself. Not that you were being all that hard on yourself. Scratch that, be harder on yourself, softer on me.” He clambered to his feet. He definitely hadn’t got the legs down yet. Rebooting his body had set him back, he was sure of it. “I’ve got turned around. Where’s the exit?”

The angel pointed. There hadn’t used to be an exit [4], but now that Adam and Eve had departed, there was. “I’d move quickly if I were you. Head office is sending some of my lot down to check the place over. Could be any minute now.”

“Thanks for the warning,” the demon said gloomily. He spread his wings for balance and started to wobble away on newborn legs.

“Sorry again!” the angel called out.

“Not like anyone died. See you, angel.”

The angel waved, then felt foolish since the demon was facing away. “Aziraphale. Don’t think I said.”

“Goodbye, Aziraphale.”

“Goodbye, Crawly.”

The angel watched him stumble towards the exit of the garden, until he started to feel peculiar and unsafe and guilty about something he couldn’t put his finger on. Time to leave and avoid running into management.

Aziraphale the angel turned and strode eastwards, and Crawly the demon continued west, and they wouldn’t meet again for six hundred years.

---

[1] But only in certain B-movies.

[2] There were no deadly weapons in Eden, even if you improvise. The figure grabbed a handful of grass. He inconvenienced himself more pulling it out of the ground than he would have done to the angel by throwing it.

[3] After a fashion. At least, when it came draped in a neon flag with ‘I am being facetious and mean to you’ scrawled across it.

[4] An exit for humans, that was. The four Gates at the North, South, East and West were guarded by angels and they led to less Earthly destinations.

---

(Chapter 1, Part 1)

[nyrator]

ARE YOU ALL READY

for my first ten days in Animal Crossing New Horizons in picture form (aka the 20th-29th)

because I have close to 3,000 screenshots and it was hard go through them all but I did (mostly because I ran out of the 10,000 limit and had to upload them to my computer anyway)

letsa gooo

The start of the game.

Heck yeah, Tommytown. Also shoutouts to Rocket and Teddy, my first new friends in the town. Can’t say I relate to Rocket, but she’s pink and has a pink house eventually so that’s nice. Teddy’s okay, though not a fan of Jocks in general.

Thanks, random motivational dream K.K.

The start of Nyville

People say Timmy and Tommy are the same, and I admittedly was not a fan of them in ACNL, but I know thanks to this game that Tommy is a true friend and I would die for this tanuki

Also shoutouts to catching like two tarantulas in the first night, jesus

And in one night, managed to get Blathers to want to join our town.

And then the rest of the days came.

DAY 2

Met Gulliver (jerk thinks my head is big all the time)

Made some pro designs and changed my hair

Lots of good friend visits/visiting (though one random guy I added from Splatoon invaded and stole all my apples, rippp)

and that was my second day of playing

AND ALSO I’VE RECEIVED A LOT OF NICE LETTERS FROM PEOPLE... I am bad at writing letters and I’m not sure if people would want them public but aaaa thank you for the letters (shout outs to lala-ko in particular what a good AC frienddd)

DAY 3

Lots of things being built

Got some reactions~

MABLE... but, more importantly, that means...

SABLE... the best NPC in the game...

More friendshippp

Paid off my first loan~

Also shoutouts to local friend letting me get some apples to make some furniture for people to move in after some jerk stole all mine

Also met Harvey, what a dude. ALSO, MY OLD FRIENDS...

And that was only day three of my adventures.

DAY 4

Met Wendy, a Peppy Sheep. You’re okay, Wendy, you’re okay.

BY THE WAY THE MUSEUM IS GORGEOUS

they did not have to go that hard but they did

whoops I didn’t expect it to be that close oh well, I can move things around later so for now everything is next to each other for convenience

also met a ghost friend and he gave me expensive(?) flooring

DAY 5

Got a cute alligator friend, you’re okay too, Gayle. ALSO I SEE YOU MABLE...

Also, finally, new phone, who dis? Dis stylin’ Nyrator. May adjust it later on since I found there’s a template online on how it works.

Did some fishing as well, apparently caught some rare first that day.

Nook continues to ruin me financially, but at least I got more storage space.

DAY 6

Some frog joined, and I think I’d like him if it wasn’t for the burpy noises and the facial hair. Lazy villagers seem great in this game though.

hello Saharah

thanks for all the rugs/wallpaper I guess

Thanks, Wendy.

ALSO SHOUT OUTS TO KOMETA a good friend she got me a lovely heart apron and hair pin and pink hoodie and things and they’re so nice and aaaa thank youuu

Also made more pixel art designs because why not

even wendy agrees

DAY 7

it better, Nook

give me Tommy back to wander the island with his flag and leaf umbrella I miss socializing with Tommy

excuse you Nook told me you wanted this here

more friendship

this game a nice game to socialize in with people (even though I’m terrible at it I apologize especially for never imitating anything with anyoneee)

the letters and the casual tours and having fun are really nice, plus it’s nice to just share things like fossils and DIY recipes, good times

thanks, Wendy

ALSO LOOK AT THIS BAD BOY

It took over 50 bait until I failed a catch and failed getting that one achievement again (farthest was 81/100 fishing in a row and I keep getting into the 60s-80s before screwing up, close to 90 today though so we’ll see how it goes), after failing I was like, heck with it, just throw bait over the small fish until a big one appears, and sure enough, my second-to-last bait, and my third large fish, bam, this baby arrives.

ALSO SPEAKING OF BLATHERS

STAR WANDDDD...

thank you celeste now give me your bow...

Didn’t see a meteor shower at this point, but you better believe I just crafted one today and boy is it good (though stores clothing in the wand which is a bit weird but saves my storage space a bit, I just need to buy multiple hairpins)

DAY 8

there she is, the jingly girl herself

also I put a podium there but misplaced it, sorry Nook I’ll get it right tomorrow- oh wait you don’t do these outside anymore... ripppp

However, before any of that silly nonsense

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LALA

you don’t know how heartwarming it was to be invited to this and celebrate this that morning, had no idea it was happening until it happened, but aaaaaaaaaa so wholesome...

SERIOUSLY THIS WAS ONE OF MY MOST WHOLESOME ANIMAL CROSSING EXPERIENCES...

so anyway back to Nook and Isabelle

and getting this immediately because heck with all the inventory management in this game

So Project K, got it. Heck yeah, K.K.

Also made a town theme (forgot to screenshot it but it’s the Yume Nikki save theme, might change it to Mary Had a Little Lamb though), and also a flag design was already prepareddd

also hi Gulliver again

and a campsite...

heck yeah it’s all coming together

YEAH WHAT OF IT

WENDY YOU WERE JUST COMPLIMENTING ME

jerks all of you are jerks but you’re all still pretty okay/10 (not Merry/Kyle level though)

DAY 9

seriously though rip that podium idea

thank you mabel...

And a campsite~

EXCUSE ALL OF YOU WITH YOUR PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE SUGGESTIONS

Kometa gave me this apron and I will continue to cherish it

But yes, that’s about it for today~ Town’s unweeded, campsite’s built, things have been slowing down while at the same time picking up~

DAY 10

okay cool

okay AAAA YESSSSSS SABLE TIMEEEE FASHION TIMEEEEE...

also hello Daisy Mae, the internet loves you for some reason, can I have some turnips

that is expensive you little snot nosed brat but fine I’ll play your stalk market games, cover my whole town in four million bells worth of turnips again like ACNL...

Also thanks Lyle, I’m a B apparently.

Wow okay I don’t even have a choice, rippp

at least he’s smug, smug villagers are the best personality of villagers

heckk yeahhhh bad placements all arounddddd

I can’t wait to start fixing this island up to a better shape, rip my haphazard placement (I admit I kind of miss the randomness of earlier games, having this much control is weird)

AND THAT’S THE FIRST TEN DAYS OF ACNH...

I may have ran out of screenshot space early the next day and thus uploaded them all to my computer because I need that space (10,000 screenshots, man...)

Got a lot accomplished, I feel~ Still haven’t paid off my back room loan, but I got a bridge paid, got another bridge on the opposite side being built, and I saw some meteor showers the past two nights AND GOT A STAR WAND...

Got Gwen and Hamphrey also moving in and can’t get Merry in town just yet but she’s in the campsite, watching, waiting... debating if I should get ten randos first before moving cards in, though

Also met Gulliver/Celeste/Wisp again the past few days, and also today is the beginning of Easter stuff (so many eggs, also random esports fish guy, he’s weird, also NO BLANCA, rip my empty-faced April Fools cat dude thing (apparently a girl in the US? but I will continue to be a weeb and think of them as their Japanese selves mostly because the voices tend to be masculine)

but yeah made like over 100 wishes in two days and got a bunch of neat star things (not as many as I’d thought I’d get but I’ll take it)

Also, SABLE IS A FRIEND and I love the clothing store but am weirded out that I can’t seem to order things in bulk, just what I’m wearing in the dressing room, which is awkward. Oh wellll

(also may have realized I never got a recent passport screenshot so went and did thattt, should think up more titles maybe)

[damienthepious]

HEY IT’S PENUMBRA PRIDE WEEK AND I FUCKING MADE IT, BY LESS THAN AN HOUR LMAO

Day 1 - Pride Parade [Day 3] [Day 4]

Flair

[ao3]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien, Rilla

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Penumbra Pride Week, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Pride Parades

Summary: Damien and Rilla are ecstatic to be out enjoying themselves at Pride, but their third is a bit more uncomfortable with the whole thing.

Notes:  COMING IN CLUTCH, good lord, I wrote this SO FAST because i was DESPERATE not to miss out on this whole awesome Pride Week thing. Anyway, poor Arum is a shy, private, easily embarrassed dorkus who only really cares about the opinions of two people in the world, so- this, I guess? <3<3

Arum is beginning to regret agreeing to this. He tugs awkwardly at the sleeves of his button-down, the cacophony of the crowd around him making his shoulders climb towards his ears as he waits for his partners to return. Someone nearby meets his eyes and winks, and Arum pulls his head back, pointedly looks away, and decides that he definitely regrets this.

He’s so busy avoiding eye contact after that, he doesn’t see Rilla barreling back over until she’s at his side, grinning widely through her face-paint and dragging a pleased (if a little overwhelmed) Damien behind her.

“Here!” She presses something cool and metal into his palm, but she doesn’t give him time to react or look before she continues in a breathless, chipper rush, “Since you didn’t have anything of your own to wear. I found an aro-ace one for Tal, too, I think I saw him back the other way- I wanna bring it to him but, I’ll come back, okay?” Her grin, somehow, grows wider, and he’s dazzled enough by it that he can’t find his words as she rocks up onto the balls of her feet to give him a kiss on the cheek, and then his own cheeks flush dark while she bolts away again.

Damien stands by his side and watches her go, bemusement clear on his face, and then finally Arum opens his hand to see what she gave him.

It’s a pin, steel and hard enamel the size of a silver dollar, shaped like a heart. It’s striped down one side in pink and purple and blue, and down the other in yellow-white-purple-black, and Arum drags a thumb over the textured face of it as Damien watches him.

“She couldn’t find one that had those two and the poly colors,” he says with a wry smile, “but she certainly tried. Do you-” he pauses, “do you like it?”

“It’s-” Arum squeezes the metal between his fingers, very aware of the color in his cheeks. “It’s- fine.”

“Fine?” Damien tilts his head, his expression falling. “You don’t-” he bites his lip. “Rilla thought that, perhaps, you would want to…” he trails off, gesturing vaguely to the bi flag he is currently wearing as a cape, “to don a little… flair of your own. To get into the spirit of things.”

“It’s not- I don’t-” Arum snaps his jaw shut, huffing out an irritated breath. He isn’t even sure why this is making him so uncomfortable, but there’s something about this many people- this many eyes- and he’s only here in the first place because Amaryllis and Damien are so enthusiastic about it. Arum is only who he is. He always has been. And, aside from Damien and Amaryllis, “it’s no one’s business,” he says finally, emphatically.

Damien blinks, lowering his head. “W-well- of course, if you don’t want to- that is to say, you don’t need to- to wear it. If you don’t want to. If it- if it embarrasses you.”

Arum nearly hurts his neck in the process of whipping his head towards Damien, a snide defense already rising to his lips, but when he looks at him-

Arum sees the way Damien is standing, one arm crossed over his chest and gripping his other bicep, his shoulders hunched, the curve of his neck as he looks down and away, all of it screaming the tension and worry and dejection he is struggling and failing not to show, and Arum realizes too late what his words must have seemed like, to Damien.

It must seem like Arum is embarrassed by him. By the both of them. And that, Arum finds, is intolerable.

Arum closes the gap, putting his arms around Damien’s shoulders underneath his cape and pulling him close. “I’m- sorry, honeysuckle. I’ll wear it.”

“You don’t have to-”

“I want to,” he says firmly. “This entire…” he wrinkles his nose, but he’s smiling now. “The crowds and the noise and the- enthusiasm, it isn’t exactly my scene.” He overly emphasizes his last word, drawing it out into extra syllables, and he’s gratified when Damien gives a little laugh. “And I don’t care what others think of me. But- but I am proud,” he says, flushing with the strain of saying something so earnest in public. “Proud to be with the two of you. How could I not be?”

Damien smiles so sweetly that Arum could almost forget where they are. Arum doesn't care what other people think of him, but- Arum does care quite a lot, actually, about Damien and Amaryllis, about what they think and feel. After a moment, Damien's smile slips from sweet to downright tender, and when he leans up, Arum leans down.

When their lips part again, Damien says, “You still should not feel obligated, if you don’t-”

Arum interrupts by leaning back, his expression pointed as he affixes the pin to his shirt and then gestures towards it. “I want to wear it, honeysuckle,” he says, and then he takes Damien’s hand in his own, determined not to let it go again. “Now, come. I believe it’s time we retrieve our doctor. If I’m going to be doing this Pride thing correctly, I think I should be holding her hand as well.”

[4thbridse]

July 25th

Mercury transit natal AC

(2nd transit 31st August, 3rd transit 9th September)

Thank you, Melania, America loves our First Lady, thank you. I am thrilled to be back in the great state of Ohio right here with the incredible men and women of Youngstown. What an amazing few days it's been. On Saturday i was in Virginia with thousands of brave men and women of the United States Military. Do we love the united states military? We commissioned the newest, largest, and most advanced aircraft carrier in the history of our nation, the USS Gerald R. Ford into the great American fleet. (Cheers). Then yesterday i was in West Virginia with almost 50,000 of our most impressive young Americans. They are young men who learned to cherish words like duty, honor, god, and country, the Boy Scouts. Then only a few hours ago the senate approved a vote to begin debating the repealing and replacing the Obamacare disaster. [ cheers and applause ] Finally. You think that's easy? That's not easy. We're now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare, and delivering great health care for the American people. We're gonna do that too. And now tonight i'm back in the center of the American heartland, far away from the Washington swamp to spend time with thousands of true American patriots. [Chants of drain the swamp] We have spent the entire week celebrating with the hard working men and women who are helping us make America great again. I'm here this evening to cut through the fake news filter and to speak straight to the American people. fake news. fake, fake, fake news. [Chants of "drain the swamp" from arena]. Boy oh boy, people. Is there anyplace that's more fun, more exciting and safer than a Trump rally?

Where the hell did he come from? this has been a difficult week for the media because I forced them to travel with us all around the country and spend time with tens of thousands of proud Americans who believe in defending our values, our culture, our borders, our civilization, and our great American way of life. [cheers from crowd], Everyone in this arena is united by their love, and you know that. Do we know that. Everyone. United by their love for this country and their loyalty to one another, their loyalty to its people. [Cheers] And we want people to come into our country who can love us and cherish us and be proud of America and the American flag. [cheers] We believe that schools should teach our children to have pride in our history and respect for that great American flag. We all believe in the rule of law, and we support the incredible men and women of law enforcement. Thank you. Thank you for being here. [cheers. We celebrate our military and believe the American armed forces are the greatest force for peace and justice in the history of the world, and by the way, they're getting a lot greater fast. A lot greater. You saw our budget. we're ordering billions and billions of dollars of new ships and new planes and equipment for our great soldiers.we are building it up. There's rarely been a time where we needed the protection of our incredible military more than right now, right here, and that's what we're going to do. We believe in freedom, self-government, and individual rights. We cherish and defend -- thank you, it looks like it's in very good shape -- our Second Amendment. congratulations. [cheers from crowd] Yes, our Second Amendment is very, very sound again. that would have been gonzo. It would have been gone, but i never had a doubt. We support the constitution of the United States and believe that judges should interpret the constitution as written and not make up new meaning for what they read. And finally, we believe that family and faith, not government and bureaucracy, are the foundation of our society. You've heard me say it before on the campaign trail and I'll say it again tonight. In America we don't worship government. We worship God. [cheers from crowd]. Tonight we're going to set aside the cynics and the critics because we know exactly why they are so angry and so bitter. Day by day, week by week we are restoring our government's allegiance to its people, to its citizens, to the people that we all love. We are keeping our promises to the people, and yes, we are putting finally, finally, finally we are putting America first. [Chants of USA from crowd]. After years and years of sending our jobs and our wealth to other countries, we are finally standing up for our workers and for our companies. [cheers from crowd] After spending billions of dollars defending other nations' borders, we are finally defending our borders. [Cheers and chants of "build that wall" from the crowd]. Don't even think about it, we will build the wall. Don't even think about it. I watched the media as they say, well, he just had some fun during the campaign on the wall. That wasn't fun, folks. We're building that wall, and walls do work and we're going to have great people come into our country, but we're not gonna to put ourselves through the problems that we've had for so many years. [Cheers]. After decades of rebuilding foreign nations, we are finally going to rebuild our nation. [Crowd boos at something]. They're pointing to a protester. Honestly, if you don't point, nobody's even going to know he's here. Weak voice, weak voice, don't worry. [Chants of "USA" from crowd. Boy,he's a young one. he's going back home to mommy. Oh is he in trouble. He's in trouble. He's in trouble. And i'll bet his mommy voted for us, right? [Cheers] By the way, so this morning i'm watching Fox News [crowd cheers] And they had some people on, and these were democrats that voted for trump. And they had this on. And so far if anything, they've gotten even more committed. But they had a man on this morning -- they had a man on this morning who was a Democrat his whole life. He voted as a democrat, but he voted for -- I say us, I don't say me. He voted for us in the last election 2016. [cheers] And they said to him, so if the election were held now again, what would you do? And he effectively said, man, would I vote for Trump again, even faster. So his name is Gino Defabio. where is Gino? Gino, get over here, Gino. Whoa. Gino Defabio! [Defabio comes onstage as crowd cheers].

Geno: Anybody who knows me, friends of mine, people who love me its worse for them, they know how its been since President Trump started running for the election. How much I supported this guy, how much I love this guy, this guy's got something, he's the real deal. Everybody else came and said "we're gonna fight for you," this is Youngstown, Mr. President, but this is also the Steel Valley. Every one of these people love you, Sir. And I don't want to sound silly or anything, but i thought what would I say to the President if I ever got to meet him, which this is an honest to god over the top moment for me. I thought you know I'm just going to tell him something. And sir, like I said, thank you for Justice Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. Right? That started it all. And then I apologize, I said Mr. President, thank you for Melania. Could we have a more outstanding First Lady? I'm probably going to be in trouble with my wife, but God bless that woman. And then last thing I said and I don't think he thought I was going to take this much time but anybody that knows me, this is gonna happen, I said thank you sir for keeping the promises you made. To these 12,000 people and to the country. In my recommendation sir, look what you could do in the bastion of the Democratic party. I don't think there's anyone except Cayahuga County who is more Democratic than us. Look who you could draw. I go back to Washington, I would tell the Republicans and the Democrats, "Look. I am going to go do my rallies. You got the agenda. Those people are voting for me and mine. Do what you want. Pass my agenda or we're going out on the road." Thank you sir. An absolute honor. Thank you sir.

Trump: Thank you, Gino. What a man. I watched him this morning, I said, we got to find this guy, he's just a great person. Always a Democrat, now it's gone. I'll tell you what, I rode through your beautiful roads coming up from the airport, and I was looking at some of those big once incredible job-producing factories, and my wife, Melania, said what happened? I said, those jobs have left Ohio. They're all coming back. They're all coming back. [cheers from crowd].Don't move. Don't sell your house. Don't sell your house. Remember, i got a lot of credit. This is hard to believe but the press gave me a lot of credit because a number of years ago I said this is the time to buy a house during one of my speeches. I said, go out and buy, and they did this big story, Trump predicted. Let me tell you folks in Ohio and in this area, don't sell your house. Don't sell your house. Do not sell it. We're going to get those values up. We're going to get those jobs coming back, and we're going to fill up those factories or rip them down and build brand new ones. It's going to happen. [Cheers from crowd] We're gonna have it so that Americans can once again speak the magnificent words of Alexander Hamilton, "here the people govern." Political correctness for me is easy. Sometimes they say he doesn't act Presidential. And I say, hey look, great schools, smart guy, it's so easy to act presidential but that's not gonna to get it done. In fact, I said it's much easier, by the way, to act presidential than what we're doing here tonight, believe me. And I said -- and I said with the exception of the late great Abraham Lincoln, i can be more presidential than any President that's ever held this office. That I can tell you. It's real easy. [Cheers] But sadly, we have to move a little faster than that. We will never be beholden to the lobbyists or the special interests. We will never be silenced by the media. I want to protect America, and i want to protect the citizens of america. Your hopes are my hopes. Your dreams are my dreams. I've had a great successful career. I've built a great, great business. This is the only thing that matters. This is the only thing that matters. There is nothing else. Your future is what I'm fighting for each and every day. Here is just a small sample of what we have accomplished in just our first six months in office. And I'll say this and they always like to say,well, I don't know. But I think that with few exceptions no president has done anywhere near what we've done in his first six months. Not even close. But they don't let you know. They don't want to write about it. That unemployment last month hit a 16-year low. Since my election, we've added much more than 1 million jobs. Think of that. And remember I came in and some people said, don't say that. I'd say, "what do you have to lose?" I talked about the inner city, and I talked about the crime and the problems and the lack of education, and I talked to my African-American friends and I said, vote for me, what the hell do you have to lose? Do you remember that? The Hispanic, the African-American, the inner cities. So now it just came out, African-Americans and teenagers are enjoying their lowest unemployment since just after the turn of the millennium.[ cheers from crowd] That's pretty good, right? we've eliminated burdenensome regulations at record speed and many, many more are coming off. And boy, have we put those coal miners and coal back on the map. You've seen that, haven't you? And all other forms of energy. We've achieved a historic increase in defense spending to get our troops the support they so richly deserve. We have signed new legislation to hold federal workers accountable for the care they provide to our great, great veterans. Veterans Accountability Act, they've been trying to get that done for many, many, many years, even decades. And you understand why it was tough, but we got it done. In fact, our secretary is with us tonight, David Shulkin, and we have some just incredible people here tonight, some of whom you've already met. But the job they're doing for the vets, having to do with choice, having to do with doctors, having to do with not having to wait online for days and days and days and getting sicker and sicker and sicker, where you could be taken care of immediately. Now you go out and you see a doctor. To protect American jobs and workers, I withdrew the united states from both the Trans-Pacific Partnership potential disaster and the job-killing Paris Climate Accord. Believe me. And if we don't negotiate a great deal with Mexico and Canada, we will terminate NAFTA and we'll start all over again. You remember when I was in Youngstown, I said we will either renegotiate NAFTA or we'll terminate it. So let's see what happens, but we're right now negotiating with the heads of Mexico, a good man, the President, and the Prime Minister of Canada, a good man. Let's see what happens. But we will no longer be the foolish people. We will no longer be the stupid people that get taken care of so badly by our politicians because they don't know what they're doing. [cheers from crowd] We will always work with our friends and partners, but we will never again sacrifice Ohio jobs or jobs from any state in our union to enrich other countries which has been what is happening to this country. [Chants of "USA"] And by the way, while we're on it, the Iran deal which may be the single worst deal I've ever seen drawn by anybody, if that deal doesn't conform to what it's supposed to conform to, there's going to be big, big problems for them. That I can tell you. You're going to see that. Believe me. You would have thought when that deal was made by Secretary Kerry, maybe the worst negotiator i've ever seen, you would have thought that Iran would have said, thank you, United States. We can't believe you gave us between $100 billion and $150 billion when they were ready to fail. We can't believe you gave us $1.7 billion in cash. You know what that looks like? You would have thought they would have said, "thank you, United States, we really love you very much." Instead, they've become emboldened. That won't take place much longer. [cheers from crowd] The great president from the state of Ohio, William McKinley and you know William McKinley, does anybody know who the hell he is? Do you know who he is? William McKinley understood that when America protects our workers and our industries, we open up a higher and better destiny for our people. We don't protect our people. We don't protect. Trade comes in, goods come in. I was with Harley-Davidson, a great company from Wisconsin. Who has a Harley-Davidson? A lot of you. [Cheers from crowd] They came to the White House and they said to me, "yeah, it's tough going outside of the United States. We're doing great in the United States but when we sell a motorcycle to certain countries, we have as much as as a 100% tax to pay." And I said, "tell me, when they sell back to us, meaning reciprocal, so when they sell back to us, what tax do we charge them?" The answer is zero. [Boos from crowd] Those days are going to be over very soon. [Cheers from crowd] unfortunately, like everything else, there are so many restrictions on doing what's right for our country, there's so much red tape, but don't worry, we're getting through it. The red tape, you would think we could just do it. Wouldn't you think you could say, "hey, you charge us 100%, we're going to charge you 100%?" Then either you'll get the money or you'll both drop it,right? We can't do that. We've got to go back to Congress, who other than health care today, has been made some very bad deals, okay? So we're going to start enriching our country. We're going to start bringing back our jobs, and we will be fools no longer, folks. We'll be fools no longer. Every single President on Mt. Rushmore — now here's what i do. I'd ask whether or not you think I will some day be on Mt. Rushmore, but, but here's the problem. If I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say, "he believes he should be on Mt. Rushmore." So I won't say it, okay? I won't say it. But every president -- they'll say it anyway tomorrow. "Trump thinks he should be on Mt. Rushmore." Isn't that terrible? What a group. What a dishonest group of people, I'll tell you. [Cheers from crowd] And you know the funny thing is that you would think they'd want to see our country be great again. You would really think so. But they don't. Some day they'll explain it to me why. Every president on Mt. Rushmore believed in protecting American industry. We have to protect our industry. And now we are going to start, we are reclaiming our heritage as a manufacturing nation again. Bob Kraft, the owner of the New England patriots, I don't know if you like New England but they have a hell of a team. [Boos from crowd] That's okay. But he came to the Oval Office and he brought a sheet with him that just came out. Manufacturing enthusiasm in the United States is at an all-time high. Isn't that great? To me that's so great. because we're going to bring back our jobs,bring back our wealth, and we are going to bring back our dreams, and we are going to bring back, once again our sovereignty as a nation. As a nation. [Chants of "USA" from crowd] Since I took office we have cut illegal immigration on our southern border by record numbers. 78%. [Chants of "build that wall" from crowd] Record, record numbers. And in fact, the ICE, folks i'll tell you what, and the border patrol police, they are phenomenal people. They're working with General Kelly. And just so you understand, we've already started fixing much of the good wall that's already there. We've already started fixing it.but we are breaking records. And it was actually told to me the other day by somebody in Mexico that's very high up, said it's incredible because their southern border is getting very little traffic. Nobody is coming anymore because they know they can't get through our southern border. So they don't even come. [Cheers from crowd] Never again will America surrender the security of our people, the safety of our communities or the sovereignty of our nation. We are cracking down hard on the foreign criminal gangs that have brought illegal drugs, violence, horrible bloodshed to peaceful neighborhoods all across our country. We are throwing MS-13 the hell out of here so fast. You know, we're actually -- hard to believe that we're talking about our great country. We are actually liberating towns and cities. We are liberating — people are screaming from their windows, thank you, thank you to the border patrol and to General Kelly's great people that come in and grab the thugs and throw them the hell out. We are liberating our towns and we are liberating our cities. Can you believe we have to do that? [Chants of "build that wall wall" from crowd] Earlier in year and immigration and customs enforcement conducted the largest single raid of transnational gangs in the history of our country. We are dismantling and destroying the bloodthirsty criminal gangs, and well, I will just tell you in, we're not doing it in a politicly correct fashion. We're doing it rough. Our guys are rougher than their guys. I asked one of our great generals, "how tough are our people? How tough are they?" He said, "sir, you don't want to know about it." Then I saw one guy come out, a customs officer who is a monster. I said, "so general, you think i could take that guy in a fight?" He said, "Mr. President, sir i don't even want to think about it." I said "you're right, actually." We have tough people. Our people are tougher than their people. Our people are tougher and stronger and meaner and smarter than the gangs. One by one we are finding the illegal gang members, drug dealers, thieves, robbers, criminals and killers. And we are sending them the hell back home where they came from. And once they are gone, we will never let them back in. Believe me. The predators and criminal aliens who poison our communities with drugs and prey on innocent young people, these beautiful, beautiful,innocent young people will, will find no safe haven anywhere in our country. And you've seen the stories about some of these animals. They don't want to use guns, because it's too fast and it's not painful enough. So they'll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15, and others and they slice them and dice them with a knife because they want them to go through excruciating pain before they die. And these are the animals that we've been protecting for so long. Well, they're not being protected any longer,folks. And that is why my administration is launching a nationwide crackdown on sanctuary cities. American cities should be sanctuaries for law-abiding Americans, for people that look up to the law, for people that respect the law, not for criminals and gang members that we want the hell out of our country. [Cheers from crowd] Sanctuary cities legislation has passed the house,along with Kate's Law, named for Kate Steinle, who was brutally killed by a five-time deported illegal immigrant. We are asking the Senate to vote on sanctuary cities and Kate's Law legislation. We've got to get it passed. The Trump administration has the backs of our ICE Officers, our border patrol agents. And yes, our great police officers. And we have their backs 100%. We are going to also protect them, like they protect us. This month in Chicago, there have been more than 2 homicide victims per day. What the hell is going on in Chicago? Better tell that Mayor to get tough, because it's not working what they're doing. We are going to get criminals off our streets. And we are going to make America safe again. We also strongly believe that our borders must always be closed to terrorism and extremism. We don't want radical Islamic terrorists in our country. We've seen the total devastation in Europe. And the attack from New York to Boston to San Bernardino. Exactly one year ago next month I came right here to Youngstown to deliver a major address on how my administration would protect our country from terrorism and radical Islamic terrorism. We only want to admit those into our country who share our values, who love our people and who always will love our people. We don't want people coming into our country who have bad intentions even before they start. [Cheers from crowd] We also believe that those seeking to immigrate into our country should be able to support themselves financially and should not be able to use welfare for themselves or the household for a period of at least five years. As we speak, we are working with two wonderful senators, Tom Cotton and David Purdue, to create a new immigration system for America. Instead of today's low-skill system, just a terrible system where anybody comes in. People that have never worked, people that are criminals, anybody comes in. We want a merit-based system. One that protects workers our workers, our taxpayers, and one that protects our economy. We want it merit-based. We want people that work really hard in their country and that are going to come into our country and work really, really hard. We don't want people that come into our country and immediately go on welfare and stay there for the rest of their lives. We're not going to do it. We are working every single day to move the legislation that serves the interests of the American people. As we discussed earlier, at the very top of the list is health care reform. With Obamacare, the Washington obstructionists, meaning Democrats, made big promising to the Smerican people. And every single promise they made turned out to be a lie. I can have your doctor. You can have your plan. Do you remember? 28 times. You can have your doctor. You can have your plan. I know Democrats who heard that and they would have never have voted for it but they voted for it because they believed the lies of President Obama. For seven years every Republican running for office promised to repeal and replace in disastrous law. Now they must keep their promise. The Senate is working not only to repeal Obamacare but to deliver great health care for the American people. Any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, and I predict they'll have a lot of problems. In West Virginia, recent premiums have gone up 169% since Obamacare went into effect. In Alaska over 200%. And the deductibles have gone through the roof. You'll never even get to use it. In Missouri, premiums have shot up 145% under Obamacare. In Pennsylvania the cost of Obamacare insurance has more than doubled, and the coverage has become horrific. It's time for Democrats to stop resisting. That's their term. Resist. Resist. They have to do, finally, what's right for the American people. But probably we'll do it ourselves. Because today we won 51 to 50 and didn't get one Democrat vote. Think of that. [Cheers from crowd] My administration is working every single day to heed and honor the will of the voters. That includes working on one of the biggest tax cuts in American history. And actually if I get what I want it will be the single biggest tax cut in American history. We have the highest taxes anywhere in the world, and this will really bring them down to one of the lowest. And we really have no choice. We will have growth. We will have everything that we've dreamed of having. It's time to let Americans keep more of their own money. It's time to bring new companies to our shores and to create a new era of growth, prosperity and wealth. We want millions of Americans to be lifted from welfare to work and from dependence to independence. One of the ways we will put more americans to work is by rebuilding our nation's crumbling infrastructure. That is why I have called on legislators to pass a bill that generates $1 trillion in new infrastructure investments. We're going to fix our roads our bridges our tunnels our airports. We are going to fix all of the things that once made us great. And we are going to use American iron, American steel, American aluminum. We will buy American and will hire, finally, American. We want once again to have the best infrastructure. The best schools, the best jobs, the best factories. And we want products that proudly carry the label "made in the USA." We want this country that we love so much, America, to be strong, proud and free. Which means America must also be united. Because when America is united, America is totally unstoppable. Although I'll be totally honest with you even if it's not united we're unstoppable so don't worry. We're gonna to be unstoppable either way but it would be nice, wouldn't it? Our small differences are nothing compared to our common history, common values and common future. Wes hare one heart, one home and one glorious destiny. Now it is up to us to preserve the birth right of freedom and justice, the birth right of prosperity that our ancestors won for us with their sweat, with their sweat, with their blood, with their work, with their muscle, with their brain. They won it for us and we're gonna make it bigger and better and stronger than it ever was before. It's time to look past the old divisions. They're tired, really tired, politicians. And the stale debates of the past, and to finally come together as one nation under god. We have no choice. We cannot and never will back down. We will never, ever give up. We cannot fail. And if we remember what unites us, then I promise you we will not fail. We cannot fail. We will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. Thank you, god bless you, god bless the state of Ohio. Thank you everybody.