#sorry for taking so long to answer anon

[boozye]

I love reading your rants and ramblings about Lucifer, and was wondering if I could persuade you to overanalyze why Lucifer blushes during the Home Screen line wherein he says it was lonely without you around. AFAIK, it's the only one he blushes for except for when he admits to going on a spending spree on Akuzon.

I was surprised by it honestly! He says things on the spot with such confidence usually. But then I noticed he seems to save his more sweet lines for when he and MC are alone. Unless it's with the express purpose of someone else listening. Like he's hyperaware of his surroundings, but very cool and calculated about it.

Lucifer is very aware of other people's feelings. He makes a point to take notes of others taste and preferences. Personally, I think that usually, these are traits related to being a people pleaser or a pushover in general. Because they can't stand any sort of negative emotion being aimed their way. However, there are those who can stand it and accept it as a part of life, despite being aware. Lucifer strikes me as the latter. He doesn't usually enjoy others being upset with him, but he accepts it and tries to make amends. He is aware that, for example, Mammon is constantly gonna talk smack about him because he's the punisher, but he accepts it because someone's gotta stop his constant godamn antics sometimes.

Anyways, getting back on topic.

I think he blushes because he thought too much about it. It's not something he says out of nowhere. He was LONELY WITHOUT YOU, HE WAS THINKING ABOUT YOU AND MISSING YOU FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG UNTIL YOU ARRIVE. The feelings and words have been swirling within him too long to just be casual and spontaneous about it. So he just resigns to saying something so sweet in earnest for once without any calculations. So he blushes.

Or maybe he's just drunk idk

Those are my musings about that :^)

[dearestgojo]

hi! I wanted to ask if you had 22 December in the birthday book?

Birthday book game

[ecstarry]

omg just saw your jegulus/single day james hc post and i wanna know your head cannons for teen harry w jeggy dads plsssss

i must preface this by saying all of this hcs are self indulgent and based on my characterization of them so dont come for me

reg would be the best at understanding when harry needs space, like as some people may read it as reg not being interested in getting to know him, harry just really appreciates not being pushed into talking/bonding, like reg does not care looking like the "mean" one if that's what makes harry comfortable

alsooo reg is much more in "touch" with today's youth than james so when it comes to movies and music he clicks so well with harry and james is like cool cool cool so a24 is like a franchise right or how do they have so many movies??

harry asks reg for help for assignments and asks him to proofread his essays and reg is very gentle with his corrections and comments. in my mind harry is booksmart but sometimes the concepts and ideas he has are hard to properly translate on paper and that's where reg and his beautiful mind comes in

if harry ever has like a bad attitude kinda day because you know teen he is toooo similar to james and they clash, reg just finds it amusing but knows it's on him to mediate

their favorite thing to do as a family is read together, yes im talking that scene in cmbyn where the mom is translating in real time, that's them!!! reg ofc is the one translating and james is actually the one spread out in the couch while reg plays with his hair but harry loves hearing reg reading out loud

on james' bday they always give him a present together, they make a day out of picking it and regulus always lets harry write the card even if his penmanship isn't as pretty as reg's

[misc-obeyme]

How many relationships (or hook-ups) do you think the Demon brothers (+ side characters) had before meeting MC?

All of them are very old and seeing how they live long lives surely they had some experiences, some more than the others.

I'm thinking out of everyone Asmo definitely had the most experience with others. But with Asmo most of his experience are from hookups since he's the most beautiful in all Devildom, so everyone would want to have their way with him. He probably tried going into serious relationships but that didn't go anywhere.

Lucifer's pride might have gotten in the way for him to form a serious relationship in the past (and he was still traumatised being cast out of heaven), but he definitely had hookups here and there. I can see Mammon trying in the past to enter a serious relationship, he was madly in love, but he got taken advantage of :(( Maybe he had hookups for money??

I'm sorry, but Leviathan is an Ancient Virgin. The only experience he had was his right hand. Again it's difficult to say with Satan. He tried relationships and hookups but he wasn't into it and sticks with romance/smut books instead??

I doubt Beelzebub had anything serious going on with someone but maybe he had a few hookups? Belphegor's the same with beelzebub, my guy is too lazy haha.

It's difficult to place Diavolo seeing how he's the next Demon king. This may sound dumb but maybe he had a lot of Physical experience (The best Succubus/incubus for the king! The best Orgies for the King!) but no romantic relationships seeing how easily everyone would want the crown for themselves and how much of a scandal that could be. This could also be said for Mephistopheles since he's a noble too.

Then there's my precious sexy ass Barbatos. It's hard to say but i low-key think he had a few flings here and there when he was still young and not a butler yet. He won't be seeking out any relationships/hookups anymore since he probably tried everything already and that could possibly distract him from his butler duties.

Raphael/Simeon are Angels so i doubt they had any experience in the past when it comes to Relationship/hookups. Solomon DEFINITELY had quite a lot of Relationships/hookups! This guy had a ton of Succubi and wives! As for Thirteen i assume she's not into Relationships/hookups until she meets Mc.

What are your thoughts on this?!

Now this is an interesting topic, anon. I've thought about it a lot, but I don't think I've managed to settle on a solid idea that I like best.

The rest is below a read more because I wrote A LOT, so this way people won't have to scroll as much.

Also NSFW below the read more due to the discussion of sex, but nothing explicit.

I think how experienced the characters are is going to depend on how sex is viewed in their respective realms.

We know how it is in the human world. I personally have a huge issue with the way sex is taboo in our world. It bothers me that there's so much suppression of it and that people are so concerned about stuff that really isn't that big of a deal. It feels manipulative and I've always felt the conservative view of it is the predominant one in our society, which only exists to control people. At least, this is my view of how I've seen it handled around me. So I feel it's important to note that I am a USAmerican. I also happened to grow up in a place that was ultra conservative while not being conservative myself so my opinion may be skewed.

Anyway, the only reason I'm talking about this is that it means I tend to prefer thinking of both the Devildom and the Celestial Realm as more free with this kind of stuff.

Especially the Devildom, but the idea that just because angels are angels means they've never experienced sex or relationships bothers me. I think it's because the CR touts itself as being the pinnacle of all things good and pure and in my opinion, sex is good and pure. I don't like thinking of it as a "sin." (PLEASE NOTE I'm discussing consensual sex between adults, obviously this is not the case for abusive situations.)

That being said, I'm also aware that this is my personal take on it, so it might not really make any sense. Like I just want the CR to be chill about it because that's what I would prefer, not because it necessarily makes sense for them to be chill about it lol.

In the context of the game, it makes more sense for the CR to not be chill about it.

But their stance necessarily alters how much experience I believe characters like the brothers and angels to have.

Because the brothers were obviously angels for a big chunk of their lives.

I also have a personal preference for characters who do have some experience. I think a first love/first sexual encounter is always extremely intense and can be toxic or problematic in ways that the inexperienced person is blind to. (Not necessarily of course, but you kind of move past that all encompassing devotion that you tend to have for your first.)

So for me, it's more appealing for the characters to have moved past that first experience and to have some knowledge of how love and relationships work. It isn't necessarily about the sex part, but sex is often entangled in love and it certainly complicates things.

Which means that in my own personal thoughts about it, Levi is the only one who could even manage to stay a virgin that long.

The reason for that is because he makes it pretty clear that he rarely leaves his room, especially after they fall.

Now if the CR is chill about sex, I think it's possible that Levi had some desperate sort of encounters while he was fighting as the Grand Admiral you know what I'm saying? But if we're going with the idea that they aren't chill, then yeah, he's probably still a virgin.

I do think it's possible that Levi isn't a virgin, though. I honestly think you could easily come up with a situation in which he actually did have the opportunity come up. Maybe he even fell in love with someone over an online message board before meeting them in person. I just think there are options, you know? And in the end, it depends on what you prefer.

In fact, I would say I kinda feel this way about all the characters. I think you could say all of them are virgins if you wanted to. Lucifer, for instance. CR isn't chill, so he never did anything as angel. After he fell, too dedicated to his work and Diavolo to even bother pursuing anybody and always immediately shutting down anyone who came onto him so as not to get distracted.

That's just an example, I'm saying you can change these details to fit with your preference for any of them, though I think Asmo would be the hardest lol.

So here are my ideas on all of the characters, based on the concept that the CR is not stupid and instead chill about sex:

Lucifer is experienced, but not by a ton. In the CR, he's too busy being a seraph and keeping all his lil siblings in line. Maybe there are a couple of people who catch his eye and while he might indulge, I don't think he'd have had a relationship. After they fall, he retreats into himself. At this point, if you're into DiaLuci, that could start to become a thing. But I also think you could say that maybe he had a little bit of time where he kind of went crazy, going out and doing all the things he maybe didn't have time to before, more as a bad way of coping with the reality of the fall and the loss of his sister. After time, when they all get settled, I think it's an every once in a while kinda thing. He just doesn't strike me as the guy who'd have time for relationships unless it was with someone like Diavolo or MC (or Solomon... yes I'm still on the solulu train just you wait). He doesn't have any reason to let someone that close to him, you know?

Mammon, I agree with you on. I think he probably wanted to be in a relationship and likely fell hard for someone, only to have his heart broken. Thus his tsundere attitude now. It's a defense mechanism. I think that could have happened in the CR and then once he fell, he would just do the hookup thing, especially when he's out partying or gambling or something. It doesn't mean anything. He's still protecting his heart until MC comes along.

Levi we've discussed, but I do think he's either a virgin or maybe had some fumbling moments in war time, you know. Pluuuus I kinda think he was probably admired by a lot of angels during that time. So you know.

Satan has a whole stretch of time where he's just trying to figure himself out. I think he'd be cautious about a relationship due to his wrath. I always think of Satan as being super romantic, but he's also concerned about his own anger. He's afraid to hurt people because of it. So I kinda think he'd hold off. He likely had some hookups and such, but I don't think he'd have a full blown relationship until he felt it was someone who truly understood him.

Asmo I agree with you on, but I also think he could have had a serious relationship at some point. I kinda see it both ways. He might not because he doesn't want to tie himself down to any one person, but I think he can also fall in love passionately. So I think he could've had one really intense relationship that inevitably fell apart.

Beel is such a sweetheart, I can imagine someone else falling in love with him easily or other people kinda throwing themselves at him. I don't think Beel would've refused them, either. But I don't think he had a serious relationship, maybe just short ones here and there, probably some hookups, but nothing more.

Belphie I think could go a lot of ways, but I kinda see him being mostly uninterested. He might have had a couple hookups over the years, just because there are so many years and there's no way the opportunity didn't arise at some point. But I don't think he ever cared about anyone enough to pursue a legit relationship.

Okay, now bear with me here, but I kinda like the idea that Diavolo and Mephistopheles hooked up lol. I mean, they were childhood friends, right? Maybe when they got older and started having those thoughts and such, they were like hey... why not? I think it's really cute when bffs decide to be each other's first, even if they never intend to have a serious relationship, you know? Just another reason for Mephisto to hate Lucifer lol. Otherwise I would say Mephisto is probably pretty picky. I think he's more likely to only have been in a serious relationship, considering hookups kinda beneath him.

But aside from that, it's going to depend on what's expected of royalty in the Devildom. I can't imagine they'd have a rule about it, though. It's the Devildom, you know? So I think Diavolo has likely had hookups, but I do think it's a rare occurrence now that he's focused on running the Devildom and united the worlds and all that.

Barbatos, my true love. I like the idea that he was a bit promiscuous in his younger days, traveling through space and time and doing whatever pleased him. He might have been more passionate, more likely to fall in love, a little more free with himself physically. But ever since becoming a butler, I think he clamps down on that quite a bit, just like he does with everything else. He's certainly experienced and I don't think he's like not ever doing anything since becoming a butler, just that he doesn't do it as often as he once did. He's had a few relationships in the past, I think, but not since he started working for Diavolo. He's too dedicated and spends all his time in the castle.

Simeon and Raphael are going to depend on the CR again, but if we're still in my preference of the CR being cool about it, then I think Simeon at least is no virgin. He's too pretty and there is no way a million angels have not come on to him. And like I don't think he'd just fall into the bed of any angel that batted their eyelashes at him, I do think that he's secretly very passionate. Under that cool exterior, he loves hotly and I think he'd have fallen for someone at some point, giving them all of himself. Now he's older and more calm and collected and carrying the grief of losing Lucifer and his brothers.

Raphael I'm not so sure about. Because on the one hand, he's clearly quite passionate too in a "here are the spears" sort of way. But he was also super dedicated to his goal of becoming a seraph, so I don't know if he even had the room for any kind of relationship. Might still be a virgin. But I think you could go either way with him.

Solomon is a human and he's been around for ages there's no way he's still a virgin. I know I said you could make it work, but wow, that'd be tough to do with him, I think. He's like nah, the 700 wives and 300 concubines (or whatever the numbers were lol) are just for show, I didn't actually do anything with them! Wait, no but he had kids. Well you could say that Biblical lore doesn't apply to your story adsklfjdf

However. Solomon is known for being incredibly lonely. Even if he had relationships, he likely had them with other humans who inevitably died and left him alone again. So I think after his normal human lifespan ended and he had to start moving around more and kind of dedicated himself to magic, he likely stopped having relationships of any kind (love or friendship or anything) because it hurt too much. I think he could have hookups or one night stands with people he never saw again. But not so much a relationship.

Thirteen I dunno. That woman is hot af. I could see her having to turn down a lot of advances. I think she might have had some hookups, maybe even a relationship, but nothing too serious. She strikes me as a little more lighthearted about this kind of stuff. Like you know life is fleeting and in the end I'll just have to reap you anyway lol. I don't think she would get serious until MC.

ANYWAY. Sorry for this absolute NOVEL of a response. I didn't realize just how much I had to say until I started... and then I couldn't stop. I hope that somewhat answered the question, anyway??? In the end, I think it's possible to have all the characters as experienced or inexperienced as you like!

[romankvn]

Please draw me and Peter B, consensually kissing

[ragri5]

Please draw demo doing the “my eyes are looking at you” thing with his fingers at medic but when he points at his own eyes he holds up one finger and he points four fingers at medic

My guy won't get uber for a very, very, long, time․

[cutie-lumi]

Every femstars artist I've seen draws Mugi with big boobs and I'M NOT COMPLAININGJFKSNGK I just love how she has the biggest boobs and then nat is like.... Flat.. I feel kinda rude saying thatdbsknf😭 I love them so much ❤️❤️

I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE DRAW THEM LIKE THIS!!!!!!! it's my ultimate hc for their bodies ever since I?? started shipping them ig?? Fem!Tsumugi not caring about her looks yet being well endowed while Fem!Natsume is like. always looking super pretty, but being flat as hell (and a little bit jealous of mugi's overall body proportions)? SIGN ME UPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP IT'S MY FAVE SHIP DYNAMIC. I EAT IT ALL UP ALL THE TIME. I love seeing other artists having this as their hc as well!! Imo it suits them so much OUGHHHHHHH i need to thank all the artists who also draw them like this bc you're the reason why im so well fed. thank u for your service.

[flickering-nightfall]

getting a little destroyed by classes and other things at the moment, so i'm not posting as much. but here are some itties i drew on my notes to keep myself sane :)

[askchilchuck]

Hello, this is half-dwarf half-half-foot (....quarter-foot?) from before!

I've taken up fishing by Kakha Brud and it's not too bad. Little boring, but better than nothing right? My other option was selling dragon dung, and while I was... morbidly curious what that experience would be like, I figured it wasn't worth the risk of going somewhere shitty (ha).

Good news though! I met a potion brewer who was willing to use changeling mushrooms in one of their experiments! Aaaand I'll be the one to test it! 🌟🌟🌟

(They seem to have either ignored your advice on the mushrooms or forgotten it.)

Seriously, you need to be carful with that kind of stuff! It’s not something you should be playing around with!

Wh- What? When did-

[mossiistars]

jon needs some love as well (not that martin doesn't give him enough)

had a plan for this ask. got distracted. ended up drawing uni jongeorgie. enjoy.

[space-blue]

I'm so glad there are people discussing the politics of Arcane! It's something that bothered me too while watching. One thing I wish they had portrayed more fairly was Silco's time in power. I mean, we only get one montage of the more advanced industrialized Zaun with clean air stations, and only one mention of "Silco the Industrialist." Meanwhile his Shimmer business got episode upon episode of "look at how evil this is".

It even seems to be common for watchers to think he was ONLY doing Shimmer. So many people didn't pick up on the industrialization of Zaun, the cars and new machinery, nor the clean air stations. To the point that it's common to say he only destroyed Zaun and did nothing to improve it. I'm just like.... why did the show not put in more effort to portray both sides of the coin of Silco's operations, especially when his faction is the ONLY one specifically fighting for independence from their oppressors. Just seems like an odd choice.

I feel like Silco has more implied time in the way he talks to the chembarons. He makes it quite clear that HE brought them up here, and they're now corrupted by their time in the sun. And it's set in a gorgeous cultivair... So I think Silco making the Lanes wealthy is really undeniable. It's just that making crimelords wealthy is dodgy in itself, even if we assume that everyone got richer and better.

But honestly I want to say... People have a tendency of forgetting that Silco is a private individual. It's not his job to make people richer or to modernise the Undercity. It's not his responsibility to keep the streets clean or control crime.

That's the Council's.

The scene where Jayce looks in wonder/disgust at all the children in the shimmer factory always strikes me as a great moment for him. I've seen a lot of bad takes on it, making Silco EVIL for having kids working there and Jayce GOOD for feeling bad. Like, flashnews, Silco is providing them with stable income! Kids in his factories don't need to steal or prostitute themselves.

Wouldn't it be great though if they didn't have to work at all? No shit. Shall we ask the Council why there is ZERO social wellfare programs for such poor kids in Zaun?

Well, probably because when they don't work at Silco's, they work at Piltovan factories and mines for scraps. Because Piltovans don't have a normal relationship with Zaunites.

Silco is basically the head of a mafia, and he operates in a power vacuum left by Piltover. If the council took an active interest in the well being of Zaunites, if they weren't starved and beaten and killed point blank for wanting rights, there would be no need for Silco's dream, and no show.

I think even if the show made a greater effort to portray both sides, people would still vilify Silco, because "drugs" have such a demonic reputation. What bums me out more is that they made no effort to make separate chemicals, and ended up making shimmer into the philosopher's stone. WHY wouldn't you make shimmer??? It powers crazy cool engines, saves people from imminent death with no visible bad side effects, gives people a strength boost, and is a cool party drug?

Those are all things we're shown as well. It's so weird.

It really bums me out how Ekko talks about the horrors of shimmer, what it did to Zaun as it flooded the streets, and yet what we're shown is a camp of a dozen people, and a couple homeless people begging in the street when Heimer visits. As well as a violent fight.

Like... Yes? Zaun apparently has been the pits for generations. Is that truly the worst you have? A few addicts and 1 homeless beggar? As well as being "told" it affected families?

I totally get this is horrible, but we are shown a lot more screen time of shimmer being super OP when well used, and used for years without bad effects at that, via Sevika. It makes the criticism sort of moot, especially after one drop of shimmer saves Vi from a horrendous gut wound.

I highly doubt Silco invented poverty or addiction. The show makes it seem like those are his responsibility in equal measure because he commercializes shimmer (which is true) and because they need him as a villain. If shimmer is too good, then he'll become a straight up hero, instead of an anti-hero in villain clothing.

The show just wouldn't commit to have the third act fully go with 'the council are the villains, Silco is in the right', and I genuinely think it's because Riot is an American Company owned by a Chinese one, and that nobody up the foodchain really wants a story in which an underdog character is morally justified in exacting violence on the powerful.

It's my tinfoil hat theory. The hopeful tinfoil says that the writers did their best to give us that story but couldn't realise it fully. The dark tinfoil says that everyone involved is too far deep the neoliberal hellhole to escape centrist narratives (in which Ekko and his useless, powerless artsy rebels are the true heroes).

I'm happy to take the show as it is though, and fill in the blanks my way. I don't have to bend the canon's arm too much to tell a politically charged story that fits my desires!

[ohbo-ohno]

Imagine trans!soap getting jealous of reader who has been getting more attention from ghost so in an act of misguided desperation, soap goes off of birth control and doesn’t tell ghost about (not that ghost would care honestly), effectively baby trapping ghost so he never leave him. While Simon is the more f@#ked up person in this relationship, I think Johnny is also toxic just in a different way. Also can can I take this 🐶 one.

i don't have a toooon of trans!soap in a ghoap x reader scenario (this one haunts me though), but there is something very Personal to me about soap getting jealous of the reader. smth smth ghost treats johnny's clit like a cock and uses his ass almost exclusively, and sometimes johnny gets jealous of all the attention (all the softer and nicer attention) you get :(

[msmargaretmurry]

QUESTION ABOUT HAW do Matthew and Leon ever get married, and if so, who asks who, how does it come about, etc?

i have always assumed they would eventually!! but almost definitely not until after at least one of them retires, although they will be talking about it for a while before then. i haven't thought about it super in detail, but the logistics are something like

matthew is obviously in calgary for four more years after haw, and leon is going to re-sign in edmonton when his contract is up, on a contract that's a few years longer than what matthew has left, then when matthew's contract is up he'll pull the kind of sign-and-trade he did irl to get to a team where they'll both be happy spending their old man hockey years, so he can lowkey manipulate them into having cap space for leon when the time comes, lmao.

so they don't want to get married until they can live together year-round anyway, and also they didn't want to get married while they still had to be super low-key about being together, which they'd still be doing at that point, because they didn't want to risk the team being weird about signing players who are in a relationship. but once they're established on their old man sancutuary team together they'll gradually start giving far fewer fucks about that 😂

anyway they will have started talking about getting married before they move to the same team -- leon brings it up first, not in a proppsal way, just in a very matter-of-fact way one day, i think maybe when matthew is coming to the end of his calgary contract and is stressed about it -- about picking the perfect team, about moving even farther away from leon -- and leon is like, hey. it'd gonna be fine. i love you. no matter what happens i'm still gonna marry you one day so it'll be fine.

and then they spend several years in this state of occasionally talking about marriage but not formally engaged -- to the point where they're, like, discussing theoretical timeframes and venues and wedding parties. matthew is the one who finally proposes properly, during the summer after their first season on the same team, down on one knee and everything, and he's like, "i don't know if this is even necessary at this point but i wanted to say this [sappy, clearly practiced little speech about how much he loves leon and how much loving leon has changed him for the better]"

just because he's older i think leon would retire first -- maybe a couple seasons earlier than planned, because some injury just won't heal right. they had originally said they'd get married when they both retire but matthew's like, hey do you wanna just get married THIS summer. you can be my wag :)"

so they do. and brady cries during his best man speech

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

No but that comment on lady gaga's tiktok right when there's pregnancy rumors about Taylor... she really never does anything that's not in self interest, huh

I mean she doesn't say FUCK ALL about any damn thing going on in the world, but this is what she choses? It's so shameless

“she really never does anything that’s not in self interest, huh” !!!!! SO TRUE

[chaoslynx]

So glad ur back & I hope you’re doing well! I recently have been listening to a lot of Alex G and his song No Bitterness is so ash coded… “my teacher is a child with a big smile, no bitterness”… ash healing his inner child by being a good big brother to Michael :’) could be a good idea for a fic <3 your writing is amazing and I hope life is treating you better!!!!

Ash knows that jaded isn't a bad word to describe him, in more ways than one.

There's the color, of course. Jade. His middle name. But beyond that, Ash knows that he's ... disillusioned, shall he say, with the world around him. Jaded. It makes sense, when you've seen the things he has.

Ash wasn't out of place with this, at least not for a long time. Most of the people around him were also disillusioned. They'd all seen shit in some way or another, though hopefully few as bad as Ash. They saw past the sparkling NYC lights and into the filth coating every inch of the city, no matter how high the tax brackets became in some areas. They saw past the smiles to the teeth, and past the outstretched hands to the claws.

Ash tried to protect Skip's innocence in as many was as he could, but he was always a bit late to that. And Ash got Skipper killed in the end, so maybe he didn't do much good.

Eiji was one of the first people Ash met—past Griff, at least—who didn't share that same jadedness as he did. But there were more, after him. Well, not after, because Eiji stayed by Ash's side. But there were more people since meeting Eiji who also seemed ... hopeful, almost.

Max, stupidly, despite the war he'd been a part of. Jessica, despite the harm Ash just existing caused her. Ibe, who always seemed more than a touch overwhelmed by everything taking place in the States.

And, of course, Michael.

Michael is a little younger than Skip had been, and around the same age that Ash gained his current perspective on life. Ash is determined to not let the same happen to Michael.

When he stays over at Max and Jessica's place, Ash has his own room—the guest room, really, but they always tell him it's his whenever he wants it. This guest room is upstairs in the house, and shares a wall with Michael's room. Ash worries about this sometimes, since he knows his nightmares aren't always quiet. After the time he punched Bones' teeth out when the kid tried to wake him up from a nightmare, Ash made sure the gang stayed away from him when he was asleep, no matter how much pain he seemed to be in.

Max and Jessica told Ash that he was welcome to use the lock on the guest room door. At first, Ash was hesitant. After all, this isn't his house. This isn't his room. How could he lock the people who live here out?

It was Michael, in the end, who changed Ash's mind. Not that Michael actually did anything, but Ash realized that with them sharing a wall, there was a chance Michael would hear one of Ash's nightmares and go to check on him. Ash, of course, couldn't let that happen, so he started locking the door.

It didn't occur to Ash until it happened that he might be able to hear Michael's nightmares through the wall, too.

Stupidly, it didn't really occur to Ash that 'normal' kids like Michael even had nightmares. Not that Michael hasn't had more than his fair share of pain, much of it due to Ash's influence himself. He really should have known better ...

Still, the first time he hears Michael cry out in his sleep, Ash finds his hand reaching for a gun that's no longer there.

"Michael?" Ash calls, cautiously. Is there an intruder?

"M-Mommy," Michael says. His voice is muffled by sleep and the wall between them.

Without another thought, Ash makes his way toward Michael's room.

He might not have his gun anymore, and it might be too late for him. But as long as there's still goodness in this world—as long as there are still kids like Michael, and the potential for them to grow into adults who are better than Ash—

Then maybe Ash can push aside his own bitterness, those past memories that have jaded him, in favor of learning from someone who's never tasted their own blood on someone else's tongue.

[redux-iterum]

What's the hardest suffix to earn in each Clan? ...Aside from -star lol

Well, -stream is a contender for that. It almost never shows up in any Clan aside from RiverClan, where it's quite popular. In terms of "hardest to earn because you have very little opportunity to use that skill", it would take first place.

Another harder one is -fang, which is largely because one tends to be more skilled in either fighting or hunting, not equally great with both. It's fairly rare in all the Clans.

In terms of "Clan-specific difficulty", there's two ways to go about it. The first is defining the difficulty as "difficult because one rarely can show off that skill thanks to the environment", which we'll set -stream aside for. The second is "difficult because the skill in question is so universal in the Clan that one has to be extremely exceptional to earn it".

For the first definition: -foot in ThunderClan, -tail in RiverClan and WindClan, and -whisker in ShadowClan.

For the second: -claw in ThunderClan, -stream in RiverClan (depending on the generation), -foot in WindClan and -tail in ShadowClan.