#so really there’s gotta be some kind of threat in there somewhere

[gillyweedgrl]

Does being a combination bisexual himbo and emotional support gremlin make one a double threat or a quadruple threat?

Asking for a friend…

[sxcret-garden]

hmmm smth im curious about…mtl likely in ateez to be a brat tamer/enjoy a bratty s/o

we're just gonna ignore the fact that this ask is almost 3 months old ok aksldjöfksa i've been wanting to answer this for ages and suddenly so much time has passed... anyway

thanks for the ask, anon!! my detailed thoughts are under the cut~ i hope you enjoy hehe

most

Hongjoong

Wooyoung

Jongho

Mingi

Yunho

San

Seonghwa

Yeosang

least

I think both Hongjoong and Wooyoung would thoroughly enjoy being with a bratty s/o! Hongjoong especially strikes me as such a brat tamer - dating a brat will for sure bring out his dominant side a lot! He'll have so much fun playing with you, figuring out how to make you submit to him and what kind of punishments you enjoy receiving just as much as he enjoys giving. The type to learn very quickly how to keep you under control outside of the house - however, once you're in the comfort of your own home he'll deliberately give you a bit more freedom to go wild, because he loves observing your bratty behaviour almost as much as he loves it when he gets to put you in your place for it. The same goes for Wooyoung, except he'll give you a lot more freedom to tease and disobey him. In that, he's not the biggest brat tamer I think - though on some days dom!Wooyoung will jump out and completely ruin you - but he enjoys the playful power exchange of being with someone willing to challenge him. He'll definitely let you win on some days, while on others he'll make sure to drag out the mutual teasing for hours, until you're both so horny that you just can't keep your hands off each other anymore.

Of course Jongho needs to be in the top 3 for this, but I didn't put him at the very top because I think he isn't up for brat taming all the time. Sometimes he just needs things to be peaceful and sweet while having sex - more often than the people ranked above him - but that doesn't mean he won't enjoy himself when you do act up. Will be pretty strict with you, and when you're both in the mood for it, hard dom!Jongho will jump out. As much as you misbehave, he'll be mean to you, knowing just how to break you into submitting to him completely, and he won't be satisfied until there's not a single thought of disobeying him left in your mind. And tbh he definitely gets off on outsmarting you and making you beg for him to finally give you what you need after he made sure you're done being bratty for the day.

I put Mingi fourth because I think while he wouldn't explicitly be seeking out a bratty partner, being with a brat would bring sides of him to light that no other kind of person could. I think you gotta smooth him into the experience, but after you've gotten comfortable with each other, bratty behaviour just might tickle a very dominant side out of him. Like one day you'll be teasing him in public and this guy will just eventually have enough of your attitude, drag you off somewhere, and whisper the dirtiest threat possible in your ear and neither of you will know where that just came from kslfjasdjf needless to say, he'll really enjoy discovering all about this very different side to him together with you.

Yunho and San would both enjoy having their partner acting bratty sometimes, but they wouldn't want to take on the role of a brat tamer all the time in my opinion. They're both softies at heart and need times where they can simply please you and make you feel good without any big power dynamics involved, being more on the service dom side of things after all. For Yunho especially, I think that he would rather keep things to the comfort of your own home, so his first instinct at you trying to rile him up or tease him in public wouldn't be to put you in your place or anything (though I do think he'd be up for that sometimes if you discussed it beforehand!). That said, I do think that both Yunho and San enjoy this kind of dynamic from time to time! They both have a dominant side to themselves, and they're definitely more than willing to try brat taming with a trusted partner. And just like with Mingi, you might uncover some surprising sides of them in the process...

As someone who has trouble seeing Seonghwa as a big dom, I put him towards the lower end of the list. He's probably a bit similar to Mingi, in that a bratty s/o might just tickle a side out of him that enjoys brat taming a lot! But I think he isn't as likely to actually end up with a bratty s/o. He wants to please you in any way he can, and certainly enjoys submitting to his partner too, so if his s/o turns out to want to be brat tamed, he might not really know what to do with that at first. Though if you're really into that, you two will be sure to figure out how to go about it in order to make the experience enjoyable for both of you!

Last but not least is Yeosang, because I just really think he'd prefer submitting to his partner than the other way around. I just don't see him as a brat tamer at all, so if you throw some bratty behaviour his way he will just be very confused and not know how to respond to that at all. Sure, over time you two can definitely incorporate some teasing into your sexual relationship, and if you explain to him how you want him to react to you being bratty he'll definitely do that. But I think it'd be more something he's willing to dip his toes into in order to please you, and not something that comes natural to him or that he'd get the most pleasure out of!

[quillsandblades]

What could be the reasons for Hange's death?

I’m not best at doing these analysis posts, but I’ve had this in my mind for a while now and it needs to get out.

As a sort-of writer, I know there’s always reasons to kill off a character, especially if they're well-developed and play a crucial part in the story. So what could’ve gone through Isayama’s mind when he decided to kill our precious Hange? Here’s what I think.

First of all, reading the manga I really felt like her death was forced, staged. It didn't seem right, didn't seem to fit. Now I don’t know if the rest of you felt this way but I sure did. And that's why I'm gonna talk about why I think Isayama killed her.

There are four points in this post and each explains a potential reason:

1. To make the readers cry

Many characters are killed just to give a truck load of emotional damage to the readers. And sometimes authors enjoy it — don’t get me wrong, we love the characters, it’s just what even is a good story if devastated readers aren’t sending you death threats for killing their fav fictional pookie? Such characters often possess some or all of these qualities: Lovable, witty, humorous, determined, has big goals/dreams, you get attached to them easily and if they have a love interest that you’re invested in, and they both got plans to *ahem* live peacefully once a certain war is out of the list of duties, it’s over for you (IFKK 😭).

And who do we know that holds nearly all these characteristics, and died?

Maybe Yams was in killer mood the day he wrote chapter 132. I wonder if he’s doing the evil laugh somewhere, thinking how we’re suffering every day.

2. It’s crucial to the plot

These kinds of deaths aren’t in the author’s hand, and they really hurt us sometimes. I have a few characters very close to my heart and I hope I never have to put them to death cuz I may not have the willpower to write ahead if I do. It happens when you get dead-ends (yes you can get dead-ends even in fiction as well, at least that’s what I think because the setting or world you create has to have some limits), when the rules you have set up to make that world start to cage you in. And sometimes there’s no option but to kill them. Their death is important, it’s a key point, or maybe it’s part of what their personality demands. It’s needed, and it hurts.

But coming to Hange, I can safely say that’s not the case. Her death could’ve been avoided. In the manga she barely managed to get much time. Yes the plane made it, but it’s Hange we’re talking about and she has a big brain. She could’ve made a less harmful plan to stop the Colossal titans right there, I don’t doubt her intelligence at all. Or someone could’ve helped. The part about titan shifters saving their strength was a flimsy excuse Isayama, cuz taking out a Colossal isn't such a back-breaking task for the Shifters - they’ve had worse and done better.

3. Some other character needs to take the spotlight

This happens when our character is in the way of someone else’s glory. They need to be taken off the stage so the next one comes up.

For Hange I’d say, that was Armin. I think Isayama might have wanted to give the stuttering blonde kid a glow-up, and I gotta say it worked well. I’ve seen countless posts where Armin back then and as commander is compared and people are like, ha! Y’all used to laugh at him cuz he was a timid, scared little thing but look at him now, Commander of the scouts and such.

I’ve seen him get a lot of hate for not being strong enough, not being confident and such things. So what does Isayama do? He takes that character and upgrades him to Commander. I think he’s wanted to do this for a long time, to show just how much potential the kid has, and take it as a character development. He was chosen over Erwin and then Hange. He couldn’t be Commander after Shiganshina cuz Hange was named successor. He got his chance in ch 132 and took it. The only way to make Armin Commander was to kill Hange and so we had to part with the crazy genius we loved. (I don't hate Armin though, it's Isayama's fault not Armin's)

But here’s the thing, she could’ve still come back. Battered and bruised, and Armin would still be Commander as the title was already handed over. Then why go all the way and kill her? Here’s why.

4. External reasons

This and the 3rd point, In my opinion, are the main reasons for Hange’s death.

The external factors here include her relationship with Levi. The man has a HUGE fanbase and he’s shipped (and shippable) with so many characters it’s concerning. And the most popular ships are Ereri (this one doesn’t even make sense) and Eruri. As a character that’s so popular among fans, I don’t think Isayama wanted to confirm anything related to his love life as that would only create rifts among fans or even drop his popularity. By keeping it vague he kept the fanbase up. But what has Hange living got to do with it?

Well, we all heard her ‘Let’s live here together’ confession. It’s probably the most romantic thing anybody said to Levi canonically and no one can deny it gives hints. Then comes Levi's double meaning statement of ‘Unrequited titan love’ and I’d say that pretty much sealed the deal. ‘Devote your heart’ was the cherry on top and now if Hange returned they both would be so canon.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say all of that meant nothing romantic. But if Hange’s still alive we all know she’d never leave Levi alone in his impaired state after the war. She’d be the one pushing his wheelchair around and since they’re already veterans and very close friends, Levi would only tolerate having her around him at all times. So if someone’s gonna say that all of those ‘confessions’ meant nothing, then these facts are proof enough that after the war Levihan had all the chance of being canon. So if Hange had lived these two would have been a sealed deal - but that isn’t possible in reality due to Levi’s popularity.

So, Hange dies and Isayama avoids a ton of mess for himself.

All of this is entirely my take on breaking down my fav character’s death, not saying it’s 100% legit. Just a harmless analysis.

[thicctails]

I love the get better children AU! It is so creative and I’ve been obsessed with Bill’s parents. (I need more lore on them!) I’m curious, is there a specific Gravity Falls Villain that they both REALLY despise? Like the gnomes for trying to force Mabel into a marriage? Cause I have a feeling that would not go well with them. Love your work!

I really gotta compile a lore dump for the Cipher parents I stg

Gideon is probably their number one enemy. Jeff is definitely next in line, but he wasn't really a problem after the whole giant gnome monster situation. The widdlest Gleeful, however, is at the TOP of their shit list, not just for being a creep towards Mabel, but because of how often he puts the twins in danger.

Thanks to them usually tagging along on Dipper and Mabel's adventures (probably either in the form of some kind of tattoo-like marking or hiding somewhere on the twin's outfit), as well as making Stan come along more often as well, Stan actually takes Gideon more seriously as a threat (seeing your nephew get tackled off a cliff will do that to you) and is a lot more hostile towards him. Soos and Wendy also get informed of how dangerous he can be, so Gideon gets his ass booted by Wendy way earlier.

(Soos doesn't do anything to him, but the man has been partially raised by Stan, so when the handyman gives Gideon a killer glare and cracks his knuckles, the pig nosed kid gets the message)

Stanford just straight up fires a warning shot next to him when they meet. He makes it clear that he will not issue another warning. This gets him slightly more into Scalene and Euclid's good graces.

[popponn]

call you later; 2.

notes: what if you didn't pick up their call? they left a voicemail, in their own ways. so we still got uh... aryu chigirin and im considering reo. idk who else will come later but i had fun writing this!! character: itoshi rin, bachira meguru. [ part 1 : isagi, sae, nagi ]

itoshi rin

What did you do? This guy is the type to only left anything if it’s urgent, about nii-chan, or about football. Other than that high chances are they are actual death threats and you are not an exception.

Though, he can not deny that you are sort of his favorite in a way—won't admit that to your face too, though. That’s why he even bothers calling you and not just left a message or tell some poor soul to call you instead. While he probably feels a bit irked that you didn’t pick up, he will save the nagging when he finally met you face to face later. And even then, most of teammates will clarify that rather than nagging it’s more like his way of asking for your extra attention. It’s adorable, if you ignore the fact that the next movie night will definitely without a doubt would have to be a horror movie night just to cheer him up. Prayers and thoughts, if you dislike horror.

The message he will left is exactly like him, in a way. Rude, doesn’t have many words, but if you squints you could hear what sounds like a caring nosiness. While he isn’t the type to suddenly get clingy because of one unpicked-up call or thing about it too much, call him back soon as you can even if he didn’t say or rush you to do so. Would never say it to your face, but having you around him calms him down a lot and that includes your voice.

“Where are you right now?” Rin sounds like he was angry, as usual. “You better not be picking up problems left and right or I swear I will—”

A background noise that sounds like a chirpy teasing interrupted him, reminding him not to be so scary, which Rin replied with a snarling growl, “Shut up! And that wasn’t for you—I got a match so you better fucking watch it and fucking message me where you are while you are at it. I will get you home later so you better wait for me or else…..that’s all. Later. Next time don’t just go somewhere without telling me, stupid.”

bachira meguru

Do you know how long of a voice message can someone left on an unpicked up call? If you don’t you will find out soon.

He probably would not really question why you are not picking up, but mostly because whenever you got separated he will always call you in the most ungodly timing possible just for chatting. Somehow. So, at this point, it has become more of a norm for you to not pick up and just call him again later. He is not being nosy, it’s just more of how he expresses his love—sharing literally everything with you. This has led to several one-sided awkwardness from your part between you and some of his teammates, but hey Bachira Meguru’s Hottest Soccer Gossips is a very important segment in your daily life with him.

Which being said, yeah, get ready. He will talk into the phone as if you were there replying to him—and indeed he always manage to predict how you will react. Listening to his voicemail during work is a good replacement for podcasts and such as in case you are bored by them. Though, sometimes, when he is in a rush and have to keep the message shorter than usual, it’s really sweet! He rarely manage to remind you to call him back though, as it feels like norm for you to do so. Don’t forget it, so you don’t get a Bachira Meguru species asking to be carried around for the whole day on the next holiday. He has muscles and those things are not light.

“So, so, so!” Meguru began with his chirpy voice, not leaving any greeting as usual. “Today Isagi and Chigirin kind of clowned and I really, really want to tell you that story—but I gotta go fast, so I will tell you at home later, okay?” Meguru worded out each word in a rushed manner, akin to an excited buzzing bee waiting to run somewhere with skips in his steps and ball for him to dribble.

“Last night I dreamt about Zico so I will definitely win today! But I also dreamt you were there bundled up because you got a fever. Not like I’m complaining if I get to take care of you with my specials, but stay healthy, ‘kay, ‘kay?” Meguru said, jokingly yet dotting. Then, immediately, he continued, “Oh, well! That’s all—I will call again later or you could! So, see ‘ya, Lovely! Love you! Muuuach!”

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

.batcrow feat. the owl.

or a situation, which is stuck somewhere between existential threat an’ scuffle between barn animals.

...

(it’s one of those underdeveloped, raw-ish concepts that i indulge in just for funzies. it all started very simply. i was thinking about what kind of person might make bruce jealous. the topic was kinda challenging, considering that bruce in the comics *at least in the ones, i read* or even btas is rarely express this emotion if at all. in fact, at one point, he literally said to the woman, who he supposedly was in love with, that she should stay with the other man, who also liked her, bc he needed her more *he got disfigured an' such* an’ she was like ‘wtf is wrong with you. to paw me to the other man like that’, clearly outraged. but bruce didn’t seem to fully grasp what her issue was lol.

still, what if he somehow got jealous of another man, when it comes to crane, anyways? and who that man could possibly be? my first thought was superman, bc bruce generally can be kinda petty, when it comes to him. but clark is such a puppy-like character. he wouldn’t have been mean about it, or even be someone who could potentially like jon in such a manner. at worst, bruce might have got annoyed at crane *not clark*, if he said smth about superman’s strong arms in front of him. some jealousy there, but not quite what i was looking for, when pondering on that set up.

an' then, i recalled the owlman! i only know the version of him from the cartoon, an’ honestly after seeing glimpses of what they do with him in comics, i’d say this is the only owlman for me. from the crisis on 2 earths ‘toon. gotta admire a character, who is SO nihilistic an’ SO sure in his own worldview, that he literally does nothing an’ dies, just bc it doesn’t matter to him. he even smiles a bit, if i remember correctly. kinda both chillin’ an’ sad. the owlman had an ego, but he also just kinda….wanted everything to die an’ that’s it. he is what might have happened, if bruce went full blown doctor strangelove, after his parents death. which is funny, bc owlman isn’t bruce wayne at all, but he is the one who ‘takes’ his place in his own universe. i don’t remember if it was ever revealed in the cartoon, who the owlman was or if they left it ambiguous. i'm pretty sure, that they made him bruce’s brother in the comics, specifically. but i might be wrong, bc there was a few owlman in batman's ran, i think...?

either way, this version here is devoid of backstory. the main thing for him is that there was never a bruce wayne in his universe, an’ coincidently enough, no jonathan crane, either. as result, owlman knows nothing about scarecrow. he had analogs of other batman’s rogue gallery, who were either heroes or anti-heroes, but he never had professor of fear of his own. an' that’s part of the reason why he gets slightly curious about him. at the begining, it's very casual on his part. i guess, he might have wondered why it's those two *jon an' bruce* specifically, who never existed in his reality. everybody else, clearly did. so he looks a bit closer into it, still mostly for the sport. only to find out about strange relationships that crane has with the bat.

the owlman is an isolated kind of character. he doesn’t care for his own teammates. nor he's able to reciprocate their affection. i mean, he didn’t really react to the villain version of wonder woman kissing him. he was surprised, sure, but not hurrying to return the gesture or even seemingly knowing what to do about this situation. which led me to believe, that at least in the frames of that toon’s worldbuilding, he had no alt alfred or robin or anyone, who he was close with. kinda an opposite of batman, who does to a degree surrenders himself with people, even if he keeps them at *emotional* distance, more often than not. but the point is, that bruce still wants a connections an’ not devoid of hope to see the things sorta/kinda working up. in comparison, owlman is as nihilistic as a person can get, so it makes zero sense for him to have close ties with anyone. or even see it smth that he needs. but i imagine that witnessing how batman acts with his enemies, jon esp, be a very confusing experience for him. like, why pity such a person? why even show some small signs of kinship with him? an' what’s so different about this one, if anything at all? 

so after some more pondering, he approaches crane just to see for himself, if he is worth all that effort *sympathy* or not. an’ hey, scarecrow is kinda fun. reactive an’ jerky, an’ surprisingly aggressive for such a coward. owlman's usual enemies are the good guys. they're heroic an' noble. but jonathan isn’t that. not even close. his worldview is bitter an' twisted. whatever wrongs were done to him, didn't mold him into a hero like with any other owlman's enemy. the scarecrow is a villain to the boot an' it's...new. his use of fear is interesting too. none of his enemies had this gimmick. this makes the owlman wanna play around with him for a bit longer. or owlman experience unknown emotions for the first time in years an’ kinda not fully certain what to do about it, other than indulge in it. his end goal still the same. it won’t change for/or bc of anything, but he can have a small distraction, before the curtains call. it's not everyday, when he can find a person, who is kinda interesting to him, even if bc of pure novelity that he can hang out with a man, who had never existed in his own timeline.

then, he learns about the scarecrow’s life. how it went downhill or rather, how it was sorta doomed from the start almost. an’ oh. here it is. that’s what batman feels too, isn't it? that silver of kinship. the owlman never had this before. an’ it’s not a bad feeling, either. he was never able to relate to the others. it’s like ‘everything sucks so much. everything just sucks forever’ an’ he has found someone who understands the meaning of this sentiment, an' not just being an emo about life. at least, the owl would assume that jon understand it in the exact same way he does *but jon doesn’t lol* 

meanwhile, bruce is concerned. owlman is a very bad, bad kind of man to have around crane for many different reasons. one of which is that it doesn't sound like a hard thing to convince someone like crane, that destroying everything is the only 'right' way to go about things. jonathan's life is generally was an' still is awful, so why not end it all, but with a huge, literal bang?

it’s like a nihilistic doom an’ gloomy buddy club. sounds hella corky, but in reality, it’s dark stuff, actually. jon be beyond depressed in this case. him getting all buddy-buddy with people, who are more unhinged an’ dangerous than him isn’t a new thing. but in this case, it’s like an extra salt on batman’s open wound. the bat himself states in comics at least twice, how crane is one of those villains, who don’t just stay the same, but who progressively gets more an’ more insane an’ deranged each time he breaks out of arkham. him hanging out with the person, whose worldview is basically ‘it would have been so much better, if we all were dead’ an' who literally an' genunily means this, isn’t smth that is good for jonathan's *already declined* mental health. esp if owlman is also rather problematic in other ways too. not to meantion, that him dragging crane along is also kinda personal. in this way, he might be showing bruce, that no matter how much he wants his rogues to change or how much good will he shows them, they're all just human, therefore they're all hopeless an' bad. bc all humas are bad in owlman's understanding. it's like 'aw, you want to believe that this one isn't a lost cause? what if i will make him help me to murder everybody? still think he worthy of your delusions?' owlman might have an end goal, but he's also arrogant an' petty too.

on main, i have two rough-ish concepts for their uhhh, trio shippy thing. in PG-ish version, it’s just that owlman influencing jon in an awful ways, an’ since he kinda/sorta resembles batman, crane subconsciously rely on him, bc he's somewhat familiar. besides, the owl hints that his own life was bad too, an’ it’s like finally someone gets on the same level of despair as crane does. an' also, maybe...this what could have been, if the bat was a villain too. they could have been on the same team. so in a way, it's kinda more of jonathan playing into this weird fantasy of himself an' bad batman, than him fully understanding the real level of 'oof' that owlman tries to acomplish with 'the plan'.

*funny enough tho, where it really counts, jon isn’t like owlman. he, for one isn’t someone who would just give up. after every fail an’ each kick an’ shove, he still gets up. the thing about jonathan is that he wouldn’t just lie down an’ die no matter how much pain an' humilation an' despair, he felt. an’ he also wouldn’t *in the end* commit to the idea of murdering countless people just bc his life sucked. even if, it doesn’t mean, that he won’t go through motions an’ nearly, truly consider going along with it. he isn’t alright in the head, an’ his negative emotions tend to get the best of him. still, i feel like most versions of jonathan would in the end, decide that no, it's not what he wants or ready to take responsibility for.*

it all would resolve in comic book fashion, where jon would help the bat in the end, an’ not that other man, who had his allure an’ had almost seduced crane into doing one last evil act any human being in existence could have ever done. still, there always be longing on scarecrow’s part for this odd, wrong ‘batman’, even if he sticks with his own, regardless. 

*an’ yeah, the bat is kinda jealous throughout all of this lol. the world can be hanging by a thread, but no one said, that he cannot be a tad possessive, while he’s saving it *an’ crane* too. owlman will have fun with this knowledge, while it will go completely over jonathan’s head. mister ‘i can pin-point everyone’s fear from one conversation’ would have a really hard time understanding that batman’s beef with the owl not strictly hero vs villain thing*

then, in more mature version, it's kinda the same-ish plot, but owlman prob would do way more messed up things, which might put crane into a position, where he’s afraid to not comply, but also not actually willing to do it. an’ naturally, there bruce won’t be jealous, more so angry. really struggling with idea, if he should let just this one man *or an owl, whichever rings more true* die. an’ then, if this is a reflection of him, what kind of person, he really is. so it’s more of moral dilemma an’ a character study of a nihilistic sociopath, who just might have wanted to have a lil chew-toy, as he prepares his biggest scheme.

anyways, it’s not like an otp3 or anything. i’m a very bond/pair oriented fella. so when i’m dabbing into 3 way dynamics, it usually has more situational/reactive undertones. but i won't deny, that it’s fun to think about 'what if' or even about some situation in the void, where the bat an’ the owl double teame the crow. which in any plot-included or a somewhat coherent narrative just wouldn’t have happened bc of how all 3 of them function / react to things. it just not in their character to do it this...randomly. but if i will ever make a superhero pwp ficlet collection, i might try to do smth with this idea.)

[threepandas]

Bad End: Screen Demons

Giggles echoed through the empty halls. Unhinged and static-y. Everything smelled of copper and viscera. Stale air and fear. The final moments of these poor souls, had not been kind ones. Somewhere, not far from where I was trapped, I could hear dripping. Unsteady. I hoped... I prayed... it was water.

I had already smashed every screen in this room. Ripped out every reflective surface. Security cameras, shards of glass, bottles. Every single thing the average person forgets, when warned against "reflection" based threats. There were more then you'd think.

Even your own eyes could be a problem, depend on how powerful they were. You may have to fight blind. There were specialists. I, however, was no such individual. I was a CONSULTANT. Company wanted to both keep compliance and cut costs. I'd been requesting a team for over a year. Getting denied. "We'll look into it." And "gotta check the budget".

All while they go on another yacht vacation.

Well, now? NOW the inevitable happened. I had been stretched too thin. Couldn't check all the sites in a timely enough manner. Someone, somewhere, got DISGRUNTLED. Started listening to a little voice they shouldn't have. One that PROMISED them things. Love, power, revenge. Just do this oooone little thing.

THEY'RE not like those OTHER Demons! Promise!

Ha!

I got here too late. Far, far too late. Everyone was already dead. Whole satellite facility overrun. Didn't even REALIZE until I found the first body. And by then? I was too far from the door.

They sealed me in.

The only, ONLY, reason I survived those first few hours? Was because of my safety suit. It got SHREDDED. But? They have my patronage for LIFE. I counted no less then fifteen blows that SHOULD have killed me. Claws, fangs, curses, the WORKS. I used every single off hand trick my professors ever mentioned. Plan to buy them all flowers... assuming I live.

Fell back to a defensible position. Like you're supposed too. Set up a camp. Armed myself. Took stock of supplies. Risked my life, nearly lost a LIMB, to get to the emergency communications system. The warded one.

Fucking IDIOTS had kept it in a SAFE. Yeah, it's expensive. Really expensive. But that wasn't were it goes! For a REASON. This! SPECIFICALLY! Is the reason! This happening RIGHT HERE! But did I get it? Fuck YEAH I got it. Will have the scars to PROVE that for the rest of my life.

And? It worked like a CHAMP. I could kiss it. Make sweet, sweet, sloppy love to it. Inanimate object be damned. We would have a spring wedding, honeymoon in the fall, go fuckin apple picking. It would be BEAUTIFUL. Is that the blood loss talking? MAYBE! There are A LOT of wards to set up! I'm fucking terrified!

But Cental Supernatural Suppression is ON THE FUCKING LINE. And the C.S.S. does NOT fuck around. I've never called their emergency line before. Never wanted to be in a situation where I HAD too. But the calming voice on the other end? Helps. Walks me through ward set up I NEVER would have been able to do on my own.

There is a rescue team being sourced to get me out and back up to put this thing back where it belongs.

And... and if I cry? When they tell me I'm going to be okay? That's between me and the blood stained walls.

All the while, that THING laughs and coos. It can feel my fear. My desperation. And? The most fucked up thing? Is that it looks like a fucking "waifu". Some vampire e-girl I think, from a show. Whoever had unleashed this thing had... they had been lonely. Wanted connection. And I want to say ugly, UGLY things because I am scared.

But that is how THEY fucking win.

So I won't. I will not judge. I will not sneer. Won't let my fear turn to anger. Lash out at the dead. Someone who was hurting. Who made a terrible, fatal, mistake. They just... just wanted CONNECTION. Someone to listen. And this THING preyed on that. Fed on it.

"Muuu~, don't be like thaaat~! I was just giving them what they WANTED! They SAID they wanted to be Together Forever~! Now~. We~. Are~!" Coos a cutesy voice from speakers throughout the building. My room is the only room without them. "You're being so MEAN. I just want to LOVE yooou~! Don't you want to LOVE me? You've lasted so LONG! So COOL~☆ I should give you a biiiiig kiss! He he~"

Kiss. Right. Says the Demon pretending to be a vampire girl.

She never STOPS. It's been hours. And still she's trying to convince me to leave my bunker of wards. Compliments. Threats. Mimicry. For the last six? She pretended there was another survivor. You know... one she was torturing. Classic "I'll STOP if you come get them. Don't you want to STOP me? Save them?" Shtick.

Ha! As though life sign detectors aren't the FIRST thing we're told to make, once a safe zone is established. There's no one in this building but me. I have a week's work of rations from smashing vending machines in the break room. Would have had more, but my flare died faster then anticipated thanks to her constant direct attacks.

"Aaaaw, are you ignoring me? You're making Kimi-tan SAD~! You big MEANIE! Why you got to be like that? Some~Thing~ I~ diiiiiiid~?" She continues, before breaking off into cackles. The sound discordant and rapidly changing pitch. Distant speakers whining and crackling with the strain of it. "It's not like they didn't deserve it. They ALWAYS deserve it~! They summoned ME!!"

Yeah. After you fed off them. Called to them. Built up their loneliness and pain, until it actually seemed reasonable. Try your lies on someone who didn't SPECIFICALLY go to school for this, you hellfire shit.

"Well, that's not nice."

I choke on the scream I know won't save me. Scramble back. Away, away, AWAY! There, in the doorway. Stands a glitching manifest of the Demon herself. Pale, wrong, and impossible. She's-! She was-! IS a reflection demon! The sort of power MANIFESTATION costs?? Oh god. What have I walked INTO?!

"I wonder, Dar~ling~," she muses, eyes unblinking as she stares me down. "How long you can survive me? I bet it's REAL long. Bet you'd be FUN to break. You know~? If you're cute enough? I might just KEEP you! Like a little pet. Bet I could make you a demon, easy!"

A hand comes up, single finger out, to lazily trace the air between us. Holy light violently rejecting her. BURNING her. Yet it clearly doesn't bother her, even as the tip of her finger sizzles and cooks. Instead, she lazily traces shapes in the light. Watching me. Contemplating. Deciding if it's worth it.

"Thoooough? I DO like you like this. You're like a little mouse in a cage. All terrified and alone. It's cute. I never did get why the others got so obsessed over hunting you guys." Pulling back her finger, she smiles.

It splits her face farther then it should.

"I think I get it now."

[solradguy]

....so got any sol johnny headcanons

:) <3

I don't think there's any actual love between the two, it's purely carnal and situational

Tbh I imagine Sol as the top in most pairings, but Johnny is so smooth and one of the few characters in the GG cast that Sol doesn't seem to view as an existential threat, so I think in certain circumstances Sol might bottom for Johnny

Denki Akiba writes their interactions (in Heliogenoms) with them kicking each others' asses and realizing it's kinda hot seeing another beefy guy sweaty and bleeding and that's probably like 90% of how anything between the two happens. It Just Makes Sense™️

There's a lot of gay chicken between the two and eventually it went too far because neither tapped out and it turned out they were kinda into it

I know Johnny talks about hooking up with hot babes all the time in the actual canon, but he brings it up so much and they show it actually happening like... maybe once... So I think he's actually gay as hell. There's no reason to really lie about that in a setting like GG's where it seems to be pretty chill about LGBT people though. BUT a lot of Johnny's persona comes from how he viewed his dad, so it's possible he's clinging to that memory and overcompensating slightly. Performative heterosexuality as a coping mechanism.

Sol is bisexual. I won't budge on this. Daisuke hasn't outright said it but I know it in my heart of hearts.

SO. Johnny is gay as shit but surrounded by cute women all of the time and May hovers around him like a gnat 24/7. Man has zero privacy at home, he's gotta be dying. There is NO WAY he would EVER phone Sol up and be like "let's bang, ok." Probably. Sol would laugh at him and hang up. I think, if the stars aligned, Johnny would call and be like "there's [x thing] happening at [y place] with a bounty of [z world dollars]. could be worth it" just absolutely dripping with subtext.

Post-GG Xrd it gets harder to imagine Sol and Johnny hooking up though. Their chemistry is best between roughly GGX through Xrd. Once Jack-O' gets more involved I just can't see Sol and Johnny engaging in their ritual "beat the shit out of each other" roleplay anymore, and that's kind of the core of how I imagine their interactions. I also don't think Jack-O' and Johnny have any (sexual) chemistry either, but they'd probably at least be friends. Johnny's cowboy-Zorro thing and Jack-O's disco girl thing are fun platonic dynamics and it's fun imagining them with Sol (and possibly Axl too) just sitting around somewhere drinking crappy beer and laughing about the absurd stuff they've been through together.

Neither Sol or Johnny are very big on opening up emotionally to other people, but the two of them have been through some serious shit, especially with Gears killing loved ones and being forced (willingly or unwillingly) into almost savior-like roles they would rather not have ended up in. Eventually I think they'd realize they have this common ground and it would lead to a massive increase of respect for each other. That said, they're both so weighed down by having repressed their emotions for so long that I haven't imagined a scenario (yet) that feels convincing enough for them to ever talk about it in a major way. This aspect of their dynamic is the most interesting to me though.

Sol and Johnny are incredibly similar, yet process their traumas in completely different ways; they were both beaten down and spit on by the world, and I enjoy exploring that aspect of their characters. While Johnny focused that trauma into something positive—by becoming a father figure for so many girls/young women orphaned by the Crusades and making sure they never had to go through what he went through—Sol isolated himself, blamed himself for everything bad that happened to him and his loved ones, and forged his trauma (and himself) into a literal weapon that he then used to better the world through destructive force. Lighting fires to contain an even bigger fire, in a way.

If Sol had had someone to rely on, that could have kept pace with him, would he have been able to truly prevent the Crusades? Johnny is only a mortal human man, but he can keep pace with Sol, and I genuinely think that's fascinating.

[thepenultimateword]

Secret Santa Snippet

This is my secret Santa for @yourheartonfire , I hope that you like it!

Prompt: A swordfight, between a protagonist with fancy formal training and an antagonist who's a back alleys dirty tricks kind of fighter. It can be friendly sparring or deadly combat, but there should definitely be some suppressed romantic feelings there

“Wooow,” the assassin drawled, spinning their blade lazily in their hand. “Nice uniform. Did they also give you that fancy sword?”

The soldier’s knuckles tightened on their weapon’s hilt, making the leather wrappings creak. “Don’t do this.”

It was not what they had imagined saying to the assassin if they ever met them again. No part of this sick situation had ever intruded upon their many daydreams and curious musings. In their minds eye, their friend was always still back at the orphanage, teaching kids the basic steps of combat like the old swordsman had once taught them. Or if not there, somewhere far and free from this land that hated them. Somewhere warm. And safe. They weren't supposed to be the very type of person that the soldier had sworn to fight.

“Why? Because we know each other?” They still spun their shortsword nonchalantly, as if none of this, their personal history or the soldier’s battle prowess, mattered, but even after all these years, the soldier still knew their tell: the tufted end of their tail lashed anxiously at the earth, stirring small puffs of dust around their ankles. “Gotta say, I heard you’d grown up, but I wasn’t expecting time to be quite so generous.”

The soldier’s cheeks flushed involuntarily. They had to fight the urge to hug themselves as the assassin’s golden eyes roved up and down, hungry and sharp-edged, cutting right through the plating and undoing every link in the chainmail beneath, exposing them to the world. 15 years ago they might have welcomed it. They still would have blushed, and the assassin would have teased their shyness, but they also would have gently guided them through it. A relationship at their own pace, soft and slow as leaves in a late summer creek.

They did not feel that same safety now.

The soldier raised their sword higher. “This is you’re last chance to walk away. One more step and I will consider you a threat to the crown.”

The assassin raised their brows. They stepped forward. “You probably should have considered that a long time ago.”

They lunged.

The solider barely braced themselves in time, catching the assassin’s wicked blade along the edge of their own before it gashed open their face. It was a bold move, if the soldier was a little slower it would have gotten them, but the footing wasn’t firm enough to hold against their strength.

“Sloppy.” They shoved forward, pressing all their weight all at once against the assassin’s weapon.

The assassin stumbled.

The soldier’s sword slid up and free with a light shink.

“You still go right for the throat. No care for how you’re going to hold the position later.”

The assassin glared. “Don’t preach your fancy training to me.”

“Don’t be jealous–”

The assassin scoffed. “Jealous? Jealous? Being jealous would imply that you have something I want, and I would die here, crawling in the mud, before I rolled over as one of their dogs!”

They lunged again, this time nimbler, feigning another blow and ducking the soldier’s return swing. The soldier barely whipped around in time before the point of that wicked blade found itself a home between their shoulder blades.

“You’re really trying to kill me.” As soon as it was out, the soldier bit their tongue.

“Were you not? I’m sorry, sweetie, it seems there’s been a misunderstanding.”

Suddenly the assassin was right up in front of them, one hand flat against their chest.

“What are you–” The soldier cranked their head in search of the sword, but then Villain’s tail wrapped around their knee. The end brushed the inside of their leg, sending a traitorous shiver down their spine.

“You still like me,” the assassin said, hand drifting up to their cheek now. Clawed fingers slid into their hair, just gentle enough not to scratch the surface, and their thumb trailed gently back and forth along their cheekbone. “Even after all you’ve done. After selling your soul to see mine damned, you like me.”

They laughed, a musical, hissing sort of sound that showed off the pearly points of their fangs.

“Does your boss know?” The points of their claws sank into their scalp. The soldier winced, attempting to pull back but only earning themselves a tighter grip on their hair. “I’m sure the king would have quite the shock to know one of his precious vassals consorts with demons. Or is it fine because it’s just the one? It is just me, isn’t it?”

They wrenched the soldier’s head to the side. It was almost as if they were on the verge of tearing their hair straight out, even as their face leaned carefully in, breath soft on their cheek and voice oh so gentle.

“It might hurt my feelings if you’ve been playing around with other monsters.”

“Get off me!” The soldier beat the flat of their sword against the assassin’s hip. A sharp, searing pain ripping through their thigh immediately followed. The soldier screamed.

The assassin drew their sword back scarlet, and the soldier collapsed the to the forest floor, a gush of warmth soaking their pantleg.

For a moment the assassin only stood over them, twirling their bloodied blade once, consideringly. “Huh. It seems I don’t want you dead. But don’t think I won’t do it if you press me. Just stay down and let me finish my job.”

They strode for the crashed carriage, dead driver still hanging out of their seat.

“No!” the soldier pressed their palm to their wound and wobbled to their feet. They gritted their teeth against the muscle-tearing agony as they dragged themselves stiffly forward. “You don’t understand!”

The assassin glared over the shoulder. “No, [Soldier], you don’t understand. You think we’re still kids playing games. We just whack each other a few times until we both get tired, call it a draw, and go home, but sorry, dear, we’re not kids anymore. I’ve been charged to kill the prince, and that is what I aim to do. Stay out of my way or die with him.”

“You’d…you’d really kill me?”

“I wouldn’t be killing my [Soldier]. I’d be killing another piece of the putrid infection that took them away.”

The assassin took a couple of steps forward before pausing again. This time they didn’t turn when they spoke. They stayed facing their target, shoulders straight and taught, tail lashing.

“You know they burned it down?” Their voice came out barely louder than a whisper. “Right after they took you and everyone else who benefited them out. They did it in the night while we were asleep. Most of them died.”

The soldier’s stomach clenched, almost like someone had taken their insides in a nauseating death grip. “I…I didn’t know.”

“Of course not. You were busy preening.”

The soldier surged forward furiously, slick hand slipping off their leg. “You don’t know a thing about me! I’ve been doing all I can to save you! All of you!”

The assassin scoffed. “Really? And where are the fruits of your labor? Have you actually done anything?”

“It’s a long road to peace.”

“Not so long as you’d think.”

The assassin wrenched open the door to the carriage.

“No!”

The soldier stumbled on their next step, falling to their knees a few feet away.

The child scrambled back against the back of the carriage, knobby, white breached knees drawn to his ridiculously large cravat.

“What…” In a blink, the uncertainty was gone and the assassin hauled the child out of the carriage by the arm. “What is this?”

“The crown prince.” The soldier dragged themselves a little closer and held up both hands cautiously.

“No. No!” The assassin shook the prince in their fist causing him to whimper. “The crown prince is grown. He’s the pompous, pretty brat who gives all those puff speeches and insipid sneers.”

The soldier swallowed, not taking their eyes off their charge.

“That’s what we would call a stand-in. A double. An assassin deterrent. If you thought he was the prince why did you track my carriage?”

“Because I knew it would be you.”

“What?”

“Who else is good enough to be the prince’s personal bodyguard? I know what I saw when the carriages left, but I knew, somehow, he would be with you.” Their gaze flicked down to the trembling, wet-eyed child in their hand–he was doing a remarkably good job keeping the majority of his emotions on the inside. “I still have to kill him. Child or not. This line has to end.”

“Wait!” the soldier grimaced at their own abrupt movement, gripping their leg once again. “Wait. Just…let me show you something. Please.”

The assassin hesitated. “Put down the sword.”

The soldier dropped the heavy, gilded blade without hesitation.

“It’s about the kid. Can you…can you bring him a little closer?”

The soldier was beginning to feel a little dizzy, but they had to hold on a little longer. For the kid. For [Assassin].

“If this is a trap, I will gut you,” the assassin said, but they still took the few steps between them, transferring the point of their blade from the child to the soldier’s throat.

The soldier made brief eye contact with the prince. “Forgive me, my liege.”

The young royal nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. He must have known what the soldier was about to do. He still felt humiliation over his differences, defects the other royals called them. The soldier was doing everything to cure those notions before they took too deep.

With a strong wrench either direction, the soldier ripped a large tear in the back of the prince’s trousers.

A black, tufted tail slipped out.

The assassin dropped him.

“Wh-what…? What?”

The soldier siezed the child up in their arms, scrambling on their rearend a few painful paces back before looking back at the assassin’s pale and confused expression.

Their mouth moved numbly. “[Assassin] meet [Prince]. The crown prince. His safety is not the only reason the royal has hid his identity with a double. He… He’s not the queen’s, but he is the king’s. That doesn’t make him legitimate, but it does make him fit to rule. And with no other heirs…” The soldier met the assassin’s eyes. “He’s going to change everything. He’s going…he’s going…” Their voice cracked. “Please.”

The assassin stared, predator eyes swimming with something unreadable. Mercy? Regret? Determination?

The soldier fumbled behind them for their abandoned sword. They weren’t getting out of this by running.

The assassin took a step forward. They brought their blade in front of themselves just as the soldier’s fingers caught the end of their sword hilt. The soldier pulled the blade toward them, one arm shaking as they used the other to clutch their charge close. They raised the sword in front of themself, and…

The assassin stabbed their short sword into the earth.

In moments, their old friend was knelt beside them, ripping a long piece of fabric from their tunic.

“Ridiculous, stupid, noble-hearted…” the rest was lost in a spew of unintelligible grumbling as the assassin wrapped the length of makeshift bandage taughtly around their leg. Their fingers moved fast and gruff, but they lingered a moment over the tie.

“I thought you changed. I thought you were like them.”

The soldier took a shuddering breath. “I have changed. But never like that. I’d never betray what I know is right.”

“Why are you such an incessant goody-two shoes?” The assassin chuckled lightly, giving their leg an awkward but playful shove before pushing to their feet.

“One of us has to be,” the soldier joked nervously back.

The assassin yanked their sword free with a small spray of earth and leaves, wiping it briefly on the ground before sliding it back in its sheath.

A beat of silence passed as the assassin turned back toward them.

“I’ll tell the guild the situation,” they finally said. “You…may see me again soon.”

Their tail flicked softly against the soldier’s ankle. It was light enough that it could have been an accident, but from what the soldier remembered, the assassin very rarely made accidents…

They smiled softly. “I’ll…keep an eye out.”

The assassin nodded and turned to the prince, bowing shortly. “My liege.”

The future king opened their mouth to respond, but when nothing came out, they only nodded nervously back.

The assassin chuckled. “I’m not being forgiven so easily, am I?”

The prince huddled closer to the soldier’s chest.

“Yeah, didn’t think so.”

With one last nod, they turned on their heel and began the trek back into the trees. They only got a few steps before stopping again.

“I missed you.” It came so quiet the soldier barely caught it against the wail of wind in the branches. They did not wait for a response. With a last flick of their tail, they were gone.

The soldier stared after them, barely seeing the empty clearing in front them as they murmured a reply to the empty air.

“You too.”

[randomthefox]

Hey there. I’ve been reading through your blog and you seem to have some pretty good opinions on the Sonic franchise. Compare that to me. You see, I’ve consumed so much Sonic media outside of the games and read so many headcanons online that my perspective is probably pretty warped. So I’ve got a request, if you don’t mind. First, I’m going to list off my interpretation of Sonic the character.

I’ve always seen Sonic as arrogant. An extrovert who knows he’s the hero. Who loves the attention and embraces his own hype. Not that Sonic only does things for the fame. He does things because he knows in his head what he’s doing is right. He just enjoys the fame he sometimes receives for it. This lines up with how he’s consistently interpreted verbally destroying his enemies and how he loves travelling the world and meeting new people (because you have to love meeting new people if you love travelling the world). He loves talking to people and loves talking down to people who are being jerks because Sonic loves being in the spot light. And I don’t mean arrogant in the derogatory sense. It’s always a joy to get swept up by his sheer force of charisma. To watch as he walks all over his enemies because they tend to be narcissistic murderers. I find his arrogance gives him layers. It makes him flawed while also giving a good reason for why he refuses to change. Sonic only does things his way, and we’re all just lucky that involves doing good. He radiates confidence, so it’s no wonder so many people follow and respect him. But he’s also simple. He doesn’t have any kind of complex moral philosophy. If you asked him why he did something he probably wouldn’t be able to give anything more complicated than a shrug and maybe a one to three sentence answer. Something about doing what he thought was right in the moment. Because Sonic is also impulsive. So, while he doesn’t always do things in the most effective way possible, he always does what he thinks is right, and that tends to be the right thing, at least in spirit. Thats my take on Sonic’s character. Now, I want you to tell me what’s wrong with it. Feel free to rip it to shreds. I want to know what’s true (if anything), and what was born from fandumb or the comics and isn’t an accurate interpretation of the game canon. Only if you want to that is. I understand that this is a pretty long read.

>Hey there. I’ve been reading through your blog

I'm so sorry

>I’ve consumed so much Sonic media outside of the games and read so many headcanons online that my perspective is probably pretty warped.

Like that person who got all their info about Avatar The Last Airbender from fandom memes and didn't know who Aang was? No shade, I'm just poking fun. We all gotta start somewhere.

>I’ve always seen Sonic as arrogant. An extrovert who knows he’s the hero. Who loves the attention and embraces his own hype.

What you are describing is Archie Sonic, aka Steven Maurice Urkle the Hedgehog. That is how Archie Sonic was written. The Archie comics are not in continuity with the video games, as the comics themselves state plainly at the beginning of every single issue.

Archie Sonic is a completely different character compared to the Real Sonic, and what you are describing is precisely what makes them different. Because the Sonic from the video games is quite the opposite.

Sonic being arrogant isn't quite true. It's more that he's CONFIDENT. He's well aware of what he's capable of, both in regards to what he can accomplish AND what his limitations are. If something is beyond his ability, he has no bones about admitting it and working to overcome those limitations so that he'll be able to handle it. Ego doesn't factor in whatsoever, if he's stronger than a threat he's happy to admit it bluntly and with maybe a small degree of bravado, but if he CAN'T handle something he won't pretend otherwise.

I would argue that Sonic is actually an introvert. Fukurou-Hoseki used to have some really good videos about this subject, but unfortunately they've vanished off the face of the internet and their videos are no longer available. This is a shame because whilst I didn't agree with ALL of their opinions, and we had some personality clashes from time to time, overall I think they had very good insight into Sonic's character and explained their interpretations well with evidence from the video games to support their conclusions. Anyway, yeah put me in team Sonic Is An Introvert.

This doesn't mean that he's shy or has a problem with social interaction. Sonic definitely is happy to engage with people. But being an introvert means that he "recharges his batteries" by BEING ALONE, in solitude by himself away from other people, and it is irrefutably true that Sonic enjoys spending time alone. His dang catch phrase for a while was "long time no see" BECAUSE he would go long periods of time without interacting with even his close companions, because he's off gallivanting on his own doing stuff by himself. He doesn't even have a house, he just goes wherever the wind blows him and sleeps wherever he stops - he isn't Tails' roommate, he doesn't hang out in a tree outside of anyones house. The most we ever see is in Sonic Adventure it's heavily implied that he's staying at the Emerald Coast hotel as a guest since he was sleeping by the pool in the morning when Tails crashed, and the front desk clerk gives Sonic a unique introduction compared to every other character. He is NOT uncomfortable being around other people, but when left to his own devices Sonic is more often seen BY HIMSELF.

And he definitely does not soak in the praise and adulation from an adoring public. Again, that's Archie Sonic. Archie Sonic definitely is centrally motivated by his reputation as "the hero of mobius" and getting recognized for being as such and grapples with all the expectations that come with that title. But Game Sonic does not seek the limelight. He does not REJECT praise, he accepts compliments and appreciation for his actions, but he'll often brush them off with the sentiment of "I just did it because I felt like it."

And he never sticks around to soak in the cheers of an adoring public grateful for his heroic deeds. The only scene anywhere even close to that was in Sonic Adventure when he went Super Sonic, and that was clearly a "lend me your energy" moment where the hopes and wishes of a desperate populace allowed the positive energy of the Chaos Emeralds to let him transform. AFTER he got finished stopping Chaos and saving the day, Sonic fucking DIPPED. He just left, when no one else was even really looking, and just ran off. TAILS is the one who ended up getting a heroes celebration by Station Square which gifted him with a Chaos Emerald for his efforts to save the city - Sonic has never been stated to take part in any kind of ceremony in his honor like that. And even at the end of Sonic Forces, Sonic doesn't even bother to hang out with the Resistance which are his own friends after the day is saved, he just ran off like he always does.

Sonic does NOT "love the attention." He does not "enjoy the fame." He won't REJECT attention, he doesn't seem to resent or have a problem with being famous, but he doesn't think he even did anything special to warrant receiving attention or being famous. And he does NOT see himself as a hero. He was just doing what he felt like doing.

>He loves talking to people and loves talking down to people who are being jerks

Eh, Sonic is kind of a man of few words. He tends to only say as much as is needed, he definitely isn't a conversationalist. I don't think we've ever seen him engage in small talk, and when he is in a conversation with someone he tends to be more of an active listener who only pipes in when he has something of merit to contribute. And he definitely doesn't "talk down" to anyone? I mean, Sonic likes to trash talk sure, but it always seems more good natured and playful than anything else. When Sonic is REALLY pissed off at someone, he tends to clam up and becomes incredibly blunt and straight forward about how he feels. This isn't really him talking down to them, it's more like a dressing down.

>He does things because he knows in his head what he’s doing is right.

See above. Sonic doesn't do what he does "because" it's "the right thing to do" or anything like that. He does what he does because he likes doing it. He felt like it. He enjoys it. He LIKES helping people. That really is all it comes down to.

>I find his arrogance gives him layers. It makes him flawed while also giving a good reason for why he refuses to change.

Sonic has flaws, and "arrogance" isn't one of them. Sonic is a creature of instinct, he does what comes naturally to him without really thinking twice about it. He's not really a look before he leaps kinda guy, if it seems proper to jump he's just gonna jump. USUALLY this works out for him, because he really is just that good.

But it's definitely not a positive trait. Sonic Lost World was a game dedicated to confronting that element of his character by having things NOT turn out positively when he did something on a whim, and he didn't even learn a lesson because he just kept doing it and getting his friends in trouble in the process lol. You don't need to make up a flaw to give him dimensions, he already has them.

And Sonic doesn't "refuse" to change, he just doesn't need to. He's already a complete self actualized person. There's nothing for him to need to change into. He already lives by the truth that he believes. This is in contrast to the type of character who undergoes a positive character arc, who lives by "a lie that the character believes" such as Tails who believes the lie that he isn't good enough on his own and needs to emulate Sonic to become cool - his character arc is about overcoming that lie and realizing the truth that he can be capable effective and cool just by being himself. But Sonic is a character who already knows what the truth is, and he uses that truth to overcome the challenges of the narrative and to inspire change in a lie burdened world. Sonic doesn't NEED to change, because he's already perfect. Instead, Sonic is a vehicle to inspire change in others.

>Sonic only does things his way, and we’re all just lucky that involves doing good.

I've seen other people express this sentiment as well, and while I understand where it's coming from... it doesn't jive with me personally. Like, I get it, it's the "what's so funny about truth justice and the american way?" Superman story thing, where everyone realizes that if Superman wasn't bound by his ideals the world would be fucked.

But frankly that just doesn't feel right when we're talking about Sonic. I don't disagree with the sentiment, but to me it feels like saying "we're lucky the sky is blue and that grass is green" you know what I mean? We aren't "lucky" that Sonic is a good person, because he literally would NEVER be a bad person. I dunno, it's hard for me to articulate this one. I don't disagree, it just doesn't have a good mouth feel for me personally.

>He radiates confidence, so it’s no wonder so many people follow and respect him. But he’s also simple. He doesn’t have any kind of complex moral philosophy. If you asked him why he did something he probably wouldn’t be able to give anything more complicated than a shrug and maybe a one to three sentence answer.

Yes. Correct. And it would definitely be a one sentence answer, and that sentence would be "I did it because I felt like doing it." lol

>Because Sonic is also impulsive. So, while he doesn’t always do things in the most effective way possible, he always does what he thinks is right, and that tends to be the right thing, at least in spirit.

Also yes. The only chaffe is this idea of "what he thinks is right." I know it feels like I'm nitpicking or being pedantic, but I do think this is an important distinction. Sonic does NOT do things "because" "it's the right thing to do." He does things because he WANTS to do them. He SINCERELY enjoys and has fun HELPING PEOPLE and STOPPING BAD GUYS. And that is the only reason he does it! Because he likes it. Because he wants to. Because it genuinely doesn't occur to him to NOT do so. Saying he does it "because it's the right thing to do" implies that he has or needs a REASON to do it, and he doesn't. "Don't Ask Me Why, I Don't Need A Reason/I've Got My Way, My Own Way" are literally the words in his theme song.

>Thats my take on Sonic’s character.

It seems like you mostly saw people talking about Archie Sonic if I'm being honest lol. People can like what they like, but Archie Sonic is his own distinct character. Not even a "version" of Sonic, he's just a COMPLETELY different character who happens to also be named Sonic. Which, frankly, is why I hate him. Because he dilutes the discussion. He'd be a perfectly fine character on his own, but he doesn't exist on his own. He wouldn't exist without the Real Sonic, and I'm definitely long past the point of even pretending to tolerate Archie Sonic in any capacity. You would not have these conceptions about Sonic's character if it wasn't for Archie Sonic, because everything and I mean basically every single thing you are describing is just Archie Sonic. Including the stuff that is actually accurate to Game Sonic.

You can like Steve the Hedgehog all you want. I would like him too, if he was allowed to exist as his own character. But he's NOT Sonic. Never was. And I enthusiastically recommend experiencing the Video Games first hand so you can truly meet Sonic yourself.

[katyakurae]

OMG Thank you for liking my art!!! I am very proud of my little nuggests, been team appleradio since day one. I agree, any fic where a deal causes lucifer to be the one in the losing position immediately scrambles my brain, like no way Lucifer is that scared of Al, or desperate for any kind of company that they have him being easily manipulated by Alastor and fall for the deer tricks...Lucy has witnessed his manipulation and threat to his status in Charlie's life, let’s give the devil some credit. Also I am not saying Al is not smart but I don’t see him as this master manipulator everyone wants him to be. He definitely likes to think he is, but in reality Al just spends a lot of time observing people, so he knows how to act around them and manipulate them to do what he wants. Or at least that’s how I see his persona. He works hard for what he craves most and always waits the right moments to attack or use what he has at his disposal to survive, but in the end he is just a silly little guy with so much ego to put shame on the devil himself, who can see through his bullshit miles away lol

So yea what u done with those two is the only way I would have seen a deal between them play out. Alastor was always gonna lose against Lucifer.

Ohh wait I just remembered that one of the reasons Al wasn’t using his shadows to escape Lucy in the last chapters is cause he exhausted his power and wasn’t feeling very well afterwards. Could it be that something happen to him when he ran away from Angel?!?!He hasn’t appeared at all during all that chaos between the two Morningstar and that’s so unlike him. U don’t have to answer ofc, my brain just won’t shut up and I needed to write it somewhere ehehe

Unrelated but I read others storyline u worked on and they way u write just makes me want to read more, the dialogue are so entertaining and the characters are so well written that I don’t even mind using google translate for every few sentences. I have a very poor attention span, but u managed to pique my interest more than once now and I gotta say I am impressed And grateful that my curiosity won the other night. One of my fav scene from one of ur fic, called ‘Embajadores Celestiales’was when Lucy slapped Alastor…like the gasp I let out cause I thought he was gonna hug him or something, that was so funny and also when Alastor confesses to his mother that he lied to her. Couldn’t stop laughing at Al saying he should have told his mum about the people in the fridge and invited her to dinner lmao I love that silly little deer so much!!!

Cannot wait to read more of your work. It was such a pleasure 💜

Yeah, I see your point. I mean, Lucifer is older than time. And yeah, he is clumsy, depressed and a disaster, but I don't see him falling for Alastor's little mind games.

It's like what you said. Alastor is smart and works hard, but he is not the ultimate mastermind. That's an ego thing and, highly probably, a charade to feel safe. In control. I also see him more as an opportunist. When he recognizes a chance, he takes it. And yeah, he may has some kind of plan in the long shot, but it's not enough to rope the literal Devil. And if he tries (I hope he tries) it will end... badly.

(You can tell Alastor is my favourite character cause I want to see him suffer.)

I will not make spoilers u.u buuuut (it's no secret, I just post the new sneak peek) you will see soon in the new chapter. It will be out tomorrow!

Anyway, it really makes me so happy to read your kind words, opinions and coments either in The Deal or in my other works. I hope you keep enjoying it!

Thank you so much! 💜💜💜

Read you soon!

[canarydarity]

hello,, remember that Jimmy centric harbinger of death au I mentioned months back? Have a snippet of a scene from the first chapter :) (which will be posted in full soon!)

“Jimmy, look out!” 

From over his shoulder, he hears it—the spark and a slight buzz, like static; for a weird second, he thinks of the radio and the crackling, the sand in the desert. But he knows better, he knows that hiss, a sound that haunts him both awake and asleep. It doesn’t matter that he was just facing that direction and had seen no sign of any creepers—there was a conditioned response to what he just heard, everyone has one; Jimmy’s is to drop, ducking to the ground hands up and over his head—not that they would’ve done anything to protect him had the threat been real. 

And while nothing happened—no crater dug itself into the ground, no hole ripped itself through his barely-armored body, no gasp as he woke up back in that desert—the panic was most definitely real. Seasoned target of one too many jokes, following the usual progression Jimmy knows the anger comes next; the panic would fade upon the realization that the threat wasn’t real and the annoyance at whatever joke was played would take its place, no less insistent and intense as the feeling before it. But as Jimmy cowers on the ground, catching his breath, his hands frantically cataloging limbs and appendages and understanding he was fine, he doesn’t find that his fear gives way to anger—his fear wasn’t giving away at all. 

His ears are ringing, which is weird because there had been no actual explosion. The noise came from somewhere—probably a disc if he had to guess—but it was pre-recorded, only a playback of some other detonation, it shouldn’t have nearly been enough to do any real damage. And it didn’t seem to for anyone else either, if the laughter he vaguely hears behind him is any sort of indication. The perpetrators are fine, but even so, Jimmy’s head rocks like there had been a blast, like he needs time to recover. 

No matter how many times he repeats to himself that nothing had happened, that it was just a stupid prank, he can’t seem to calm down. 

A hand touches his arm and he flinches hard, blinking up to find Scott just trying to help him to his feet. “Easy, Jimmy, easy.” Jimmy lets Scott pull him until he’s standing, brushing him off. 

Martyn is still laughing at his own prank, wiping a tear from below his eye, practically wheezing; it’s unclear how much of it is real and how much is for show. “I have gotten a one hundred percent success rate with that,” he brags with a happy sigh, hands out to his sides, inviting them to join in on his praise. “I gotta say, I’m pleased.”  

“What was that noise?” Jimmy asks, but his question goes unanswered. 

“He got me as well,” Scott says, but then he turns to look at Jimmy with a smirk. “But not nearly as aggressively as he got you, Jimmy.” 

Jimmy wants to join them in their amusement, he really does, but his heart rate hasn’t quite recovered yet. He’s embarrassed, almost, to still be feeling it. He blinks a few times hoping to clear something in his brain, begging himself to calm down, to chill out before someone notices. 

But of course, the next thing Martyn says is “Just a music disc Tim, jeez, you alright there?” Not sounding at all actually concerned about Jimmy’s state of being; his deceptively kind words more an excuse to poke at Jimmy’s weak spots than actually inquire about his feelings.

He wants to play it cool, to take the joke as easily as he’s sure the others have, but instead on instinct his shock makes him shove his arm in Martyn’s face, crowing “I’ve got goosebumps, Martyn, look!” 

Martyn draws back in his distaste, his own hand coming up to push Jimmy’s arm back down and away. “Yep, I see that alright, thank you.”

Scott pats Jimmy twice on the shoulder, something he’s quickly getting sick of happening in this sort of context.

“I’ve got a few more people to get with it, though, so—” Martyn says, clearly trying to take his leave now that he did what he came here to. “Actually,” he interrupts himself, “have you seen Grian anywhere?”

Scott shakes his head, “No, I—”

And—maybe just a moment behind—Jimmy understands he means to repeat the prank again, and speaks without really thinking about it or meaning to for the second time today. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, actually.” 

Martyn’s eyes dart away from him and then back again like he's giving some sort of aside to an audience, acknowledging the weirdness of Jimmy’s comment with a 3rd party who’s in on the bit. “Um, what?”

Jimmy ignores the feeling that he’s walking himself into a joke, calling on Martyn to pick him apart like usual—because the feeling of wrong wrong wrong wrong is so much stronger. His ears are still ringing from the explosion that didn’t happen, and he rubs a hand over one of them trying to make it go away before he answers, but for some reason, that only makes it louder. 

He winces, both from the pain and the knowledge that he knows exactly how this conversation is going to go over before he even starts it. 

“I said you oughta stop that.” He tries to be firm, but from the smirk on Martyn’s face, he’s not going to succeed. It makes Jimmy double down, rush the rest of the sentence out of his mouth as quickly as possible, trying to avoid the possibility of being dismissed. “Someone could get seriously hurt!”

“It’s not a real creeper though, is it Timmy?” 

Jimmy feels the helpless frown settle on his face, and the frustration that comes with knowing he's going to lose but not wanting to give up; he acts and speaks with the same level of intensity as he does with everything else, but there's an underlying urgency here that he does not doubt even though he doesn’t quite understand its cause. He doesn’t bother answering Martyn’s question, knowing at least enough to understand that he isn’t meant to. 

“I still don’t think you should be doin’ that though!” He argues, and the worst possible turn the conversation could take begins from there; dismissal of the point that the prank is potentially dangerous for the more amusing idea that Jimmy is a sore participant. 

Martyn rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “Oh come on,” he drawls. “Take a joke, take a joke…” 

Jimmy groans, “But Martyn, I think th—”

Martyn groans back, “But Timmy!” 

Scott laughs and Jimmy turns to glare at him, giving up on his sentence halfway through. 

Martyn takes the distraction as his leave, already having jogged halfway across the tiny valley by the time Jimmy looks back in his direction. 

“You’re gonna kill someone with that!” Jimmy yells after him, but Martyn is ignoring him and making really exaggerated gestures of goodbye, like he's just given a performance and the crowd is shouting for an encore. He brings both hands to his mouth and blows a kiss to his imaginary admirers, then clasps his hands together giving a large bow; waving, smiling, mouthing thank you. 

Jimmy calls again “I’m serious Martyn!” But his friend fakes a laugh and says “oh, you’re all too kind!” Before disappearing over the crest of the mountain across them.

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Stealth Strike"

In which, Character Development! and other exciting features.

I mentioned the husband loves Star Wars ships right? This is another one of his favorite episodes, he loooves the Interdictor class.

Always liked this little musical flare at the beginning, already conveys a sense of urgency and danger.

Sato sounds so aggrieved that he has to have Ezra along, lol.

I mean from his perspective Ezra's just an overconfident plucky kid, he hasn't been around Ezra long enough to know how competent the boy is.

Love the staggered Force Theme prelude in the strings there, all broken up and disjointed. Once again Ezra is sensing impending danger.

Still adore the kaleidoscope color effect Rebels uses to mark being forcibly ejected/yanked from hyperspace.

Bbbyyyyyyyy. :((((

Worried Spacefamily be worried.

Hera wisely understands that the best way to infiltrate a top-secret Imperial project is to keep the aliens off the mission lol.

Kanan is being predictably petty about having to work with Rex.

"I sent Ezra... this is the only way." Ouch. I bet Hera is feeling pretty guilty and has thought a lot about this since they learned about it, so you know she's run it through a million times in her head. Probably why Kanan acquiesces to her judgment.

I wanna know the thought process behind the Imps' decision to haul Ezra and Sato in to see Titus. Like, Sato I get, he's the obvious commander of the unit but I wanna know which trooper saw Ezra and was like, "Hmm, he seems Plot Important, I better drag him along too."

Sato still very much Not Impressed with Ezra's posturing.

Hi Brom Titus!

It's hilarious that Ezra's sarcastically used "Jabba the Hutt" so often it's been logged as a known alias of his lololol.

The Giligan Cut between Rex complaining that he'd never wear Stormtrooper armor and Zeb bringing them unconscious troopers to steal the armor from. <3

"I thought it was the same one we used before." LOL. Okay, I gotta stop before I quote every line in this episode.

Can't help it, it's just so fun.

We cut to the shuttle mid-hyperspace and Rex and Kanan are still bickering, but even in the middle of that we get some lovely worried Papa Wolf Kanan hyperfocusing on Ezra as his priority.

I swear it was explained somewhere what the specific codes Rex gives meant but I can't for the life of me remember where now. Pretty sure one of them meant the shuttle was going to explode? Anyway...

Rex seems like he's having just a grand old time. This must feel just like the old days for him.

Lol Kallus getting excited about Ezra's capture and warning Titus "[...]do not underestimate that boy." He knows firsthand how much of a threat and nuisance Ezra can be.

A little variation on the Death Star theme here, kind of appropriate given this is a very similar-feeling kind of infiltration and rescue.

Maybe that's why I like this episode so much, has a lot of A New Hope vibes.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: Chopper's legs jerking as he rolls over the hump in the doorway.

The ANH vibes continue with this turbolift scene, which is just hilarious. From Rex not knowing which button to push to the Imperial officer snarking at our hero duo, it's just... *chef's kiss*

They are a disaster pair and I just love them.

Cut to the troopers that are escorting Ezra to his "secure cell" and I'm sorry, I adore this whole sequence. Ezra being a little hyper-competent badass is my whole jam, okay?

This is so clever. <3333

Ezra makes very short work of his guards, without really hurting them (something that would contrast in S3 after the whole Malachor Loss-Of-Innocence thing) and then immediately shoots his intended rescue party lololol.

I love how smoothly he moves through this whole scene. He's obviously been practicing and of course the Force operates on a principal of "the more at peace and in tune you are with yourself, the greater strength you can channel" so after his whole soul-searching in "Brothers of the Broken Horn" deal he's come to some kind of serenity within himself that lets him be just super awesome here. Love it.

<333333

Chopper immediately rats Ezra out lol.

Kanan reluctant to split up from Ezra, aww.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra raises his hands in aggravation when Kanan and Rex get into it again.

Ezra finally chews the two of them out for all their bickering and takes charge of the mission and you can't even tell me he didn't make Kanan just a smidge proud, with that comment about how, "He takes after Hera sometimes." <3333

No but seriously, fandom of course loves Kanan and Ezra's whole "like my father before me" vibe but let's not forget how it was Hera who first took a shine to him, who saw potential in him, who knew that he wasn't as selfish as he pretended he was, drew out that inner spark of compulsive compassion planted by his parents and has been influencing him on the Rebellion side of things to complement Kanan's Jedi teaching.

Found Family liek woah. :)

Brom Titus looking a little less confident now that the scrawny fifteen-year-old he was specifically cautioned not to underestimate has given them the slip lol.

*cries* He was so TINY!

Very glad Ezra learned binary, it enables hilarious conversations like this.

This is yet another music cue recycled from the Death Star sequence in A New Hope. Like I said, they're really leaning into that this episode.

This little troll I love him so much.

Bit of the "Shenanigans" theme as Chopper rolls up.

Can I just appreciate how well Ezra rolls with blocking shots in zero gravity?

I think Chopper enjoyed all of this a too much lol.

Remember, giving people grief is how Chopper shows affection. :)

Love how they lampshade the terrible vision quality of Stormtrooper helmets.

Sato all ready to square up with this random trooper until he sees it's Kanan.

And his anxious worry over Ezra's welfare is really sweet. Sato does care, he might find Ezra bit aggravating but he's still just a kid in Sato's eyes, someone who was under his protection. (One wonders if Ezra reminds him of Mart a bit.) It's not Sato's fault he's only now learning what a precocious badass Ezra is lol.

This move of Kanan and Rex's is slick.

Lightsaber Naruto run.

I've been told this horn cue is Rex's theme. Makes sense.

Heeeeey remember what I said about Rex's deathseeker tendencies? Yeah.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The drifting smoke in the hallway from the firefight holy cow. Attention to detail.

"I serve the order you put into place, Captain." Ohhhhhh Imma dent his face in.

*hurts in Order 66 feels*

THEY WERE JUST TOOLS TO PALPATINE, THEY HAD A SINGLE PURPOSE AND HE JUST DISCARDED THEM ONCE IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED.

This Hitchcock Zoom with Kanan as if he's sensing Rex's pain. <33333

Character growth! <33333

Ezra one-manning this hallway with Skill and Confidence. <33333

My gosh look how smooth and effortless this is for him. No wonder Sato was impressed.

Nice to see more classic lightsaber positions creeping into the choreography here.

Ezra being all, "OH HECK NO, THERE WILL BE NO SELF-SACRIFICING TODAY!" over the comms. He's very tired of them doing that lol.

The dolly shots this episode are tight.

Aww Ezra still looks really worried tho.

Don't think about him remembering, "I'll take the next one." and "I'll be right behind you."

Aaaaaaaand Chopper just scored the highest body count on the show, lol. (Up until the finale anyway with the Dome explosion and the purrgil-ening.)

My gosh this show even makes total destruction look pretty.

Yeah, getting a top-secret Interdictor prototype imploded is pretty demotion worthy ha ha.

Love how Kallus is basically perfectly fine assigning all of that chaos to Ezra in particular. XD

KANAN SALUTING REX NOT ONLY AS A SIGN OF FINALLY BURYING THE HATCHET BUT ALSO TAKING UP THE MANTLE OF SOLDIER HE WAS SO RELUCTANT TO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON.

This is one of the best episodes of the season, no joke. It's fun, it brings the nostalgia without being kitschy, it lets Ezra and Sato have a little bit of nice interaction (underrated relationship, fanficers have let me down), it shows how Ezra's developing in combat, it finishes the whole Rex and Kanan animosity plot, and Chopper murders three whole Imperial cruisers effortlessly.

Love it.

[bromcommie]

🤡 ✅ for the writer asks!

Hi hii, thanks for the ask! :) ✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

Hm. I feel like I haven't posted enough writing for this to be nearly as relevant as it should lol, but: dream sequences, for sure. Humor, sometimes, even if I’m writing something heavy. And I feel like I tend to come back to mythology a lot. Or maybe not mythology specifically so much as storytelling done within the confines of the story in general? Like as thinly veiled parallels for the characters and what they're going through, sure, but also maybe even more so I find interesting just how different characters might tell, or interpret, different stories. Or what the stories they choose to tell or pay attention to are and why - about their own life or those that stick with them. The stories they tell themselves vs. others. It's also kind of an exposition crutch sometimes, so I've been trying to tone it down or reshape it in certain instances, but yeah.

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

This is an unfinished scene that really doesn’t contain any kind of serious characterization nor historical accuracy. But consider: it's funny to me personally. So who cares. Absolute crack below the cut if you’re interested:

“I am going,” Barnes is hollering from somewhere when Gabe jolts back into consciousness with his face a mere foot from the crackling fire, sweaty and confused, “to kick the shit out of you, Rogers! I’m gonna—“ the rest of the threat gets abruptly cut off when he hits the ground with a heavy thud, all the air knocked out of him. Gabe blinks.

There's gotta be a nicer word for the way Rogers grins with his knees locked around Barnes’ torso, he thinks, other than feral.

“Yeah? Lemme see you follow it through, motherfucker. Lemme see you try.”

Gabe scans their little circle: all of them still battered or bored or battling a variety of illness, and all of them distinctly disinterested in the chaos happening not fifteen feet away.

Whatever the ruckus is, an emergency it ain’t. He stretches with a soul-deep yawn, cocking his head in the direction of the noise. “What’s all that for?”

“Maman et papa se disputent,” Dernier points out flatly from his place across from him, frowning down at the stack of cards precariously towering by Morita’s knee. With a flick of a wrist he throws a card out from his noticeably smaller deck and tuts when Morita immediately trumps it and swipes both cards off the damp log-turned-table. “Ah, putain.”

“Yeah no shit, I can see that. What about?”

Dernier shrugs. “Who se fuck knows. Se mistress?”

Morita lets out an undignified giggle. Gabe squints at the sweaty back of his neck, then down at the conspicuously unlabeled, conspicuously empty bottle by his feet.

“Are y’all drunk?” He glances at the blurry mess of limbs tumbling in the dark. “Are they drunk?”

“Who can tell at this point.”

Gabe watches the two indiscernible shapes in the flickering light that reaches further into the grassy field. There also has to be a better phrase for the mud-covered state they’re both in other than pigs in a pen, but it’s escaping him at the moment.

“What happened to them?”

“Sarge went out to check that house we saw on the way and get firewood. Steve went after him,” Dugan elaborates with a resigned expression, his words running together a little. “Came back looking like two prissy cats the flood just spat out. Something about a mudslide and whose fault it was.” He reaches behind him to pull out a miraculously still only half-empty bottle and tip it his way. “Rogers found us some French brandy, though. It’s shit, of course, but that was awfully nice of him.”

Gabe sits up to accept the bottle, plucking a stray twig out of his hair with a grimace along the way. “Where’d he get that?”

Dugan shrugs. “From a Frenchman, I imagine.”

“All very lovely, except then I believe there was a, uh—” Falsworth jumps in from where he’s propped up on what's left of a nearby fence, nursing his half-empty pipe and an even emptier expression. “Disagreement, if you will, over—“

“Gorizia," Dugan and Morita chorus in unison. Dugan trails off into a mumbled sing-song that Gabe’s pretty sure doesn’t contain any actual words, nor much mention of Gorizia itself.

"Gorizia, yes, and the bullshit with the—“

Gabe groans. "The goddamn barn? Still?"

"Yep. Cap's not letting that one go anytime soon.”

“Oh, and Rogers being a wiseass to Philips when he wanted to bench him last week, don’t forget that," Morita croaks, voice rusted over with the cold but otherwise relaxed. Dernier curses under his breath when his last card lands and digs into his pocket with an expression of a man at his utmost limit. "Or getting his fool ass shot in the first place. One of those."

“—Rogers’ fool arse, yes yes, that too,” Falsworth continues, “which, as you can imagine, didn’t take too kindly to the, uh, constructive criticism. Then Barnes called him an unreasonable fuck so he,” he points with the pipe at where Rogers has Barnes in a headlock, “naturally, brought up something from oh, ten years ago? Ten years ago. That’s about when Barnes tried to tackle him, by the way. And then they started shouting about someone called John — Jimmy—“ He turns to Morita with a series of sluggish finger snaps.

"Jackie Van Wijk," Morita provides helpfully, plucking the stubby cigarette out of Dernier's grudging hand with little sympathy and sticking it behind his ear. "How are you so bad at this? You ran a gambling hall."

"Yes, for poker." Dernier downs the bottom of his cup and grimaces with distaste. "Chemin de fer. Not — children games."

"Jackie Van Wijk, that's right," Falsworth finishes. "And somebody else’s sister who might or might not have been a prostitute, that part’s unclear. I think that about brings us up to now.”

"Are you—" Gabe tries, and fails. "I can't tell if you're fucking with me. How long was I asleep?"

“Oh, about 45 minutes. And you forgot the thing with the coppers,” Dugan mutters over his cup, checking his watch like he's bored out of his skull and has somewhere, anywhere else to be. “And the three dollars.”

“Ah, yes. Sarge owes Rogers three dollars.” Falsworth observes them quizzically for a moment, chewing on the pipe. “Or the other way around, I can’t be too sure.”

“She was a hooker, idiot!” Bucky’s voice carries over again as he uselessly tries to pry Rogers’ hand away from where it’s digging into the side of his face. Gabe can’t tell if he’s laughing or if he’s choked on enough mud by now that it’s permanently affected his speech. “What were you gonna —“

“So what, huh? It was Sands Street, so fucking what, everyone’s a hooker on Sands — I had two more drinks, I coulda been a hooker myself —“

“Are you hearing yourself? Do you ever — stay still, you fuckin’ — do you ever hear the words that come out of your mouth?”

"Y'know," Dugan muses, "if I'd wanted to hear alley cats going at each other all hours of the night, I woulda just stayed in Boston."

"Shut the fuck up, like we don't all know you got the draft."

“Gossip," Dugan protests. “Downright slander.” He whacks Morita's shoulder with probably more force than is strictly necessary. "Hey. Gimme a puff."

"Blow me, Aloysius." It comes out in four parts, vowels dragged out kicking and screaming: Ay-low-see-yus.

Absently, Gabe wonders how much of it is the actual brandy and how much might be a concussion from this morning.

"Sure I will, if you gimme a puff."

Somewhere in the distance, Rogers swears loudly. Barnes cackles.

Gabe stares at them. It really is like being back home, in a way: two of his younger brothers making an awful ruckus first thing in the morning and waking the whole house up over the grand total of jack shit, seemingly hellbent on inflicting as much damage to each other and the surrounding landscape without anyone actually ending up in the hospital. Usually, Gabe’d be the designated first responder in breaking it up, more often than not because he was the only one actually willing to risk getting between them physically. It’d earned him a bump on the head and the grousing nickname “St. Gabriel” more than once.

Jesus, he’s homesick.

He looks back to Falsworth. “So, what, it got so bad they fighting over a girl now?”

“No,” Morita sighs with all the gravity of the long-suffering, voice raising in volume and cracking a little as he turns to look at them over his shoulder. “They’re fighting because they’re two five-year-old fucking morons who are gonna land us in so much shit we’ll be wishing for goddamn latrine duty. Hey,” he shouts over the noise when they both completely ignore him, “Hey! Abbott and Costello — with all due respect, sirs, shut the fuck up.”

“Should we…do something?”

“Hey, you hear that? War’s over! We all take turns pissing on Hitler’s ball-less corpse and then they ship us back!” It falls on deaf ears. Morita throws his hands up. “See? Be my fucking guest.”

“How long before they tire themselves out, d’you think?” Falsworth muses.

“I dunno,” Dugan says with resignation. “Cap is still pretty keyed up from today and I think Barnes runs on pure spite alone at this point, so. An hour? Two?”

They watch the graceless grappling slow for a hopeful moment before Rogers mutters something unflattering about Barnes’ mother and Barnes snorts like an enraged bull, throwing him off.

Morita laughs, the sound quickly derailing into a rattling cough. “That man got a congressional medal last month. Stroke of tactical genius, they said.”

“Yes well apparently out of the two of them, Barnes used to be the voice of reason. See how much that tells you,” Falsworth comments. Dugan’s eyes bug a little.

“Reasonable? Barnes? Sergeant I’m gonna mouth off to the guy with the big stick until he decides to crack a rib or two Barnes? That one?”

“I never said it was a good assessment,” Falsworth replies sedately as the man in question finally gets the upper hand and sends Rogers toppling headfirst into the muck. “It is quite possible, of course, that they have both just lost their damn minds.”

A sage nod ripples through the rest of them. In all honesty, it has been that kind of week. Gabe would be buzzing hard himself if he weren’t so goddamn tired he could feel every single one of his bones rattling around in his body like dice in a tin cup.

“That’s great,” Morita drawls around his smoke. “That’s just dandy. I die dropping into Holland next week, I want my affairs dealt with well, you hear me? I want my tombstone to read: I died for my fellow man, and because my fellow man and CO lost their — Dugan, I swear to Christ, you try to take it one more time I’m putting it out in your ear — lost their marbles at the worst possible time. Over Jackie Van fucking Whoever, no less.” He nods grimly at the clearing. “And then I want those two assholes to pay for the arrangements.”

“We will do our best, mon ami,” Dernier says, passing him the reshuffled deck with a sympathetic hand like an olive branch. “But we will probably also be dead.”

[our-nonbinary-experience]

im making you a homestuck sburb land and there's nothin you can do about it !! based on the vibes i get from your profile >:]

Land of Liquid and Warmth (LOLAW)

a mars-sized planet consisting of teapots, waterfalls and vintage art- the atmosphere is shaped so it looks like you're living in an old piece of vintage art, left untouched in a 70's painter's studio! your denizen is Anima, a genderless, centuries years old god of creation and benevolence- they're the kind of person to ramble about the good ol days where they used to play and have fun!

your consorts are black humanoid axolotls(?) who have the same fashion style as you- they all love and praise you and some of them really do want to learn english in order to commune with you.

your quest mainly bases on protecting your land from potential threat and cheering up those who are already succumbing to the severe fear of those threats. kind of like a housekeeper or such! you need to master the arts of advice and peace.

i mainly see you as a sylph of hope due to your cheerful attitude and your open-minded mentality- you're quite literally the keeper of hope! so you'll have to fix and heal the hope of your consorts.

your sprite would possibly be a mixture between a dessert or notebook you have somewhere at home and the kernelsprite released from your cruxtruder- with a warm brown outline defining their features, your sprite is always there to help! the keeper of hope gotta have a fellow keeper of hope by their side.

oh erm- was that too much info? i apologize, lately I've been deeply interesed in homestuck so i figured out i should make one of my favorite blogs their own personal land...

Wow that’s very interesting! I don’t know anything at all about homestuck, but thanks for taking the time out to make something! I very sincerely appreciate it!

[deputy-buck]

Well now you gotta let us know your thoughts on Hawk/Tim puppyplay

!!! love you anon, so much !!! here's Tim's lamb + some other items and photos

Is it a way for Hawk to take more control? yeah, a bit. But is it more so about Tim letting go and being more comfortable with himself? Abso-fuckin-lutely.

I project a little onto Tim, and I HC him being very unsure and over-conscious of his movements, like his physical bodily movements, he's over-aware of anyone's eyes on him to the point he thinks "Am I walking normal? what do I do with my hands? is this a weird way to stand?" It's super fun- I've settled on "Skip" being Tim's pup name :3

Also I'd like to say a super special THANK YOU to @lispenard-street for beta-reading this fic for me!!! Literally every piece of input you had was gold and the absolute correct thing to do, not to mention all the super kind words you had for me even though the draft was in shambles when you first saw it lmfao- So thank you, Gem💚

-

Fetch

Hawk was consumed in drafting a small speech for a function Senator Smith had organized —something about acknowledging McCarthy's threat to the State Department but encouraging diplomacy— when Tim showed up on his doorstep looking like a kicked puppy. His boy promised that he would be quiet and that all he needed was to be somewhere safe while he felt this way. With a beat of hesitance, Hawk let him in, slightly worried no work would get done. Hawk really has no clue how telling a bunch of grown men and women to essentially stand down will do any good for the department, but he'd rather chop off his own hand than go against Senator Smith. 

Tim’s head feels light and full of syrup-damp cotton. He’s quite familiar with this feeling, having been experiencing it for some years; the swirling, strangling, suffocating need to serve and submit. But it’s all different now, knowing that he has someone he can relinquish himself to. Knowing he can let his mind float away and still be safe regardless of whatever may happen around him.

His tongue is wet and heavy behind his teeth, forcing him to swallow the excess spit before it drips past his stress-chewed lips. A warm buzz tingles across every inch of his skin and radiates through his insides; the feeling settles somewhere in his hips and weakens his knees, joints threatening to buckle beneath his weight. The urge to sink to the floor right on Hawk’s doorstep nearly wins but he has just enough sense left in him to know that it would get the door shut in his face.

Instead, he takes a couple wobbly steps across the threshold and into the foyer before giving in to the downward pull and sinking to his knees on the hearth rug that poses as a welcome mat. Tim struggles with bumbling, pawing hands to strip himself of his clothes, only managing to shake out of his coat and claw at the already loose knot of his tie before he lets his hands drop to his lap in defeat. Head swimming, lungs unable to draw in enough air, he looks up to the man standing in front of him, asking —begging— for help with watery eyes, throat resistant to form any sound other than a pitiful whine. 

Hawk smiles and gently peels away the layers of Tim’s human facade: tweed, cotton, tortoiseshell, and gold all in turn. Replacing it with leather and brass, unbinding his pup from responsibility and expectation, letting him be raw and sensitive here where Hawk can protect him—can be the soothing balm to all his scrapes and burns caused by the world.

With a finger hooked in the D-ring of Tim’s collar, Hawk leads his pup into the living room. A little bit of fussing over Tim’s blanket, a brief pitstop at his desk to fetch Tim’s little white lamb, and a soft yet firm command of “Down. Settle, Skip,” later; Hawk redirects his attention back to his speech —leaving his little pup to play at his feet—  intent on making good progress tonight. So he's got a pencil in his hand and three sheets of paper —two already full of his scrawling, thankfully— on an old book in his lap. He's not sitting at his desk for this —his back hurts too damn much— but instead is reclining on the low couch on the opposite wall. 

                                                          ===

Tim nudges his little white lamb into Hawk's lap, propping his chin on the older man's robe-covered knee, huffing and whining when his handler doesn't immediately look at him. The sweet noise catches Hawk's attention immediately, quickly switching his focus to Tim's pouting lips and glimmering eyes instead of the stark white pages.

Those big doe eyes shine with a playfulness that has Hawk's heart seized with warmth and affection for the young man. 

He’s just a boy, Hawk marvels.

Tim had been quietly playing by himself on his rust orange tartan blanket at his handler's socked feet, manipulating the soft toy with his hands and rubbing his cheek against the fluff of its fur, nipping at the tiny ears and tail. But that gets boring after a while, and Hawk hasn’t so much as reached down to pet him in the last twenty minutes. 

A break might do Hawk some good— his eyes are starting to sting anyway.

"Wanna play, huh?" Hawk sets the pencil and makeshift writing pad aside, picking up the small plush and shaking it in front of Tim's face. A laugh bubbles up from his chest as Tim presses his chest forward against Hawk's shin and snaps at the toy, teeth clacking together when a soft, felt hoof gets close to his nose. Maybe he'll catch it one day but today isn't that day.

"Get it, boy." With one last flick of the toy in Tim's face, Hawk tosses the cotton-stuffed lamb across the living room and into the kitchen hall; he had moved the chair that usually sits in the center of the room over, giving his pup room to play while he worked. Hawk is thinking of making this furniture configuration permanent, always allowing Tim to slip down to the floor and be 'Skip' with nothing in his way when his boy’s mind starts to shift and slide to one more canid.

This is a fairly new addition to their play, fetch. It still feels odd to crawl on the floor in nothing but his briefs and collar; bright sconces of the kitchen hall leaving him nowhere to hide. Tim feels a bit exposed, as though his most vulnerable parts are bared for Hawk to scrutinize from his comfortable perch. The skin of his face, chest, and back flush a rosy shade of pink knowing Hawk is watching him.

Hawk rakes his eyes down Tim's body, a ball of heat beginning to wind and coil low in his belly. With a slight readjustment of his robe and briefs, Hawk makes sure to conceal his growing erection, knowing that's not what his puppy needs right now.

Tim clambers his way across the living room, palms and knees softly thumping on the hardwood floor as he chases his lamb. The nickel tag clipped to his collar jingles with each plodding step. He's not going to humiliate himself by trying to trot after it —he knows he'll fall flat on his face— but he's learned that Hawk wants him to crawl instead of get up and walk. Dogs don't walk upright, Skip. Down, boy. 

Once Tim reaches his beloved lamb, he dips down to grab it between blunt teeth. Jaws clamped down on the soft fabric, Tim shakes it side to side like a terrier with a rat or a Beagle with a rabbit: mauling it before bringing it back to his owner for a reward. His hair falls into his eyes as he does so, obscuring his glasses-less vision even more when he turns his attention to Hawk, panting softly, searching for that warm smile he's always trying to draw out of his handler. The one that lets Tim know he's doing good.

He gets it, a sharp show of teeth, the highest value reward Hawk could ever give.

"Bring it here, Skip. Come on." Hawk encourages, patting the top of his thigh to beckon his pup back to him. He loves when his boy turns into his pup, the thorns of defiance and questioning stripped away to sweet, silent submission. Hawk wouldn't change Tim's inquisitive mind and crashing emotions for anything, but it's nice not having to be on his toes, waiting to be thrown off-kilter by a question he hasn't allowed himself to think about. 

Tim ducks his head as he crawls back to Hawk, still a bit too aware of the position his body is in. Hawk had said he likes the way Tim's shoulders flex and strain as he lumbers across the floor on all fours. The memory of Hawk growling those words in his ear while the older man's hands squeezed and kneaded the muscle in Tim's arms prompts Tim to pause once his hands hit the scratchy circular rug. He slides them forward to stretch out in front of himself, chest nearly brushing the floor, fingers clawing at the rug, intentionally tensing his shoulders to make the muscles ripple and cord beneath his skin. Arching his back like a dog who just woke up. His collar tightens around his throat as he does so, biting into his skin, leaving the faintest mark for later.

Satisfied with the shaky sigh and chuckle Hawk lets out, Tim straightens back up to finally bring the toy back to his handler, a little more confidence in his stride. His tag jingles a little louder now. Depositing the lamb in Hawk's open palm, Tim sits back on his haunches, ready to chase and retrieve the toy again, willing to bare himself for as long as Hawk will grant.

"Good boy, Skip." Hawk praises, free hand ruffling through Tim's hair, pausing to gently scratch behind his pup's ear the way Tim loves. "Always such a good puppy for me." 

-

Again thank you so SO much for beta-reading this for me, Gem, you're the best!!