#that'll work for now at least okay cool

[paigemathews]

ooh I would like to contribute to the pairing ask

And I'm going to give you a bunch to choose from because I can't decide and also that way you get to do the ones that you find the most fun without trying to do the ones you don't have ideas for (pick whichever you like and feel no pressure to do them all):

wyatt and the manticore baby (this can be gen or romantic, whichever you prefer)

chris and bianca in the past

piper with her niece/nephew (gen, dealers choice for which child)

patty and paige (gen)

victor and henry sr bonding as mortals in a magical family

elise with one of the charmed ones offspring as honorary aunt

more of the baby morrises all grown up however you would prefer

piper re-meeting bianca in the future (gen)

phoebe and andy (gen), preferably with time travel involved, bc we get told andy cares a lot about all the sisters and vice versa but we don't really get to see that as much with phoebe

a charmed one with their ex bf in an unexpected situation (gen, again dealers choice of who)

time travelling wyatt and chris (gen)

and prue and paige (gen) either in a world where its a different sister that dies or after they've both died and they're looking at the mess and drama of future generations and Judging

I went ahead and added this to the initial post bc I did not originally, but I think that one pairing per an ask will probably be easier bc if I do all of these, it will end up being so long that someone will murder me for ending up on their dash. That said, I am begging you on my knees to resubmit the others because I want to do literally all of them please please please

Pairing: Wyatt Halliwell ? Sebastian Johnston (half-manticore baby)

-----

Trudging through the empty cavern, Wyatt kept glancing over to Sebastian uncertainly. His expression was uncharacteristically steely, normal jovial mood absent. Prior to their run-in with the demon, Wyatt had been the same way, intent on finding his siblings and cousins. He still was focused on finding them, but felt his attention split as they walked between worry for them and replaying the demon's words.

"Poor demon," she cooed, dodging the potion Wyatt threw. Darting into Sebastian's face, she smiled maliciously as she said, "Blonde of hair, fair of face, never will-"

She slammed into the wall as Wyatt snarled wordlessly, trying to get to Sebastian's side as the half-manticore shook off the daze that her spell had left them with. Sebastian opened his mouth, eyes narrowed, but the demon beat them to it.

Throwing her head back to let her hair fall back, she grinned as she threw out both hands. Half a second too late, Wyatt was caught in the blast as she telekinetically threw everything in her past. He lost sight of Sebastian as the demon's workstation flipped and-

Oh, wow, the Underworld really had tall caverns actually. Wheezing for breath for a minute, Wyatt heard the demon start her little rhyme over again absently as he tried to convince his lungs to take in a breath. That was good, because she wouldn't recite her weird... prophecy? spell? whatever over a corpse. Probably. You never could tell with demons.

Also there was no way that Sebastian, who came right behind Chris and Penny as the most likely Warren kid to fight demons by themselves - despite not even being, y'know, a Warren - was killed by one telekinetic blast. Chris did worse, and didn't that thought send a pang of worry about his younger brother through his chest.

Or, actually, that might be that one of the potions on the demon's workspace was apparently acidic in nature, and Wyatt's hand was burning a little now. Fuck.

Bracing himself, Wyatt sucked in a breath and pushed the table back and sat up. The demon was on top of Sebastian, one hand cupping his face as she finished her rhyme, "-of the Charmed One's embrace. Unrequited love is such a pain, little demon, let me spare you of it."

"Get away from hIM," Wyatt roared, throwing hands out, magic distorting his voice in the last minute. At his shout, both Sebastian and the demon's heads snapped over to look at him. Sebastian's eyes went wide, and he bucked his hips enough to startle the demon. Just as the energy blast was about to engulf them, Sebastian shimmered away, unfortunately taking the demon with him. The blast slammed into the wall, destroying the entire shelf of potions lining it.

Wyatt felt more than heard Sebastian reappear, spinning on his heel just as Sebastian came into view. Sending the demon sprawling onto the ground, Sebastian rolled to one side, scrambling onto his feet as the demon rose with a screech.

"Wyatt!" Sebastian pointed at the remains of the demon's knife collection scattered on the ground opposite of them, and Wyatt didn't hesitate. As the demon raised her arms, Wyatt threw out his arm and the demon's destroyed armory went flying at her.

"Well, that seems like karma," Sebastian commented, breathless, as the two watched the demon burst into flames. Seeing as the entire debacle started when the demon sent her own armory at them, Wyatt couldn't help but agree.

Blonde of hair. Fair of face. Something about a Charmed One. Unrequited love. Years of looks between family members and gently teasing comments that Wyatt never quite got.

Sebastian had been one of Wyatt's best friends since he was a baby. Whenever Sebastian spent time with someone, they were almost always guaranteed a fun time that they needed. Beyond just genuine joy, Sebastian would always have his friends' backs. He was Chris and Penny's most consistent backup in a demon fight. He was the person that Melinda would call when she wanted a friend to party with or play video games against. He was the person that would go after Parker when she got a too desperate need to prove herself as a witch. Even if they hadn't been friends themselves, Sebastian's love and care for Wyatt's family would have more then earned Wyatt's love. Despite his heritage, Sebastian was a compassionate person who loved deeply, and he was one of Wyatt's best friends.

But as the pit continued forming in his stomach, Wyatt knew that he didn't love him as more than a friend.

There was no guarantee that the demon had been telling the truth. But Sebastian's expression had been painfully exposed.

Demons were cruel, and it would be so characteristic of a demon to throw that in Sebastian's face right in front of the person he loved.

The thought kept taunting Wyatt, and he knew he needed to resolve it somehow. They were still tracking his siblings and cousins, and whoever managed to subdue multiple Warrens was sure to be dangerous. Being distracted was dangerous, but Wyatt couldn't bring it up to Sebastian and risk hurting him right-

"Dude," Sebastian said, and Wyatt stopped his anxious tirade of thoughts as Sebastian snapped in front of his face.

Blinking, Wyatt looked between the fingers in front of his eyes to Sebastian's face. He was still tired, still worried, but there was a familiar look of bemusement in his eyes as he looked at Wyatt. One hand was on his bicep, a light grip keeping him still, as he dropped his other hand.

"You back with me?" Sebastian asked.

Wyatt nodded mutely.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "You spaced out for like. Five whole minutes. None of those demon's potions did anything to you, right?"

Wyatt shook his head. Sebastian opened his mouth to say something else, but Wyatt blurted out, "Blonde of hair, fair of face."

Sebastian's mouth snapped shut, as his gaze became unreadable. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence as Wyatt struggled to find words, Sebastian tilted his head and asked, "And? Is there a problem with that?"

His voice was guarded, but not hostile. Wyatt nearly tripped over his words as he frantically shook his head. "No! Just I don't know if-"

Sebastian's shoulders dropped an inch as his eyes softened. "Wyatt, I'm an adult. I don't need-"

"I'm sorry," Wyatt interrupted, guilt heavy in his stomach. He knew, logically at least, that he wasn't obligated to return feelings, but Wyatt never enjoyed hurting people, and to hurt one of his best friends was excruciating. "If I could, I would."

Wyatt winced at his words, because it wasn't as if Sebastian was unlovable, just that Wyatt didn't-

"No," Sebastian nearly snarled. Wyatt started, and Sebastian nearly looked as startled as Wyatt did. Still, he continued, "I don't need more than friendship, Wyatt. That's enough for me. As long as-"

You're happy, Wyatt mentally finished. Or you find someone. Some kind response that highlighted why Sebastian was great and why Wyatt felt awful.

"-she's happy and safe, I'll be okay."

Wait, what?

"But we need to get going to find them, because the longer we wait-" Sebastian was still talking as he turned to continue, but Wyatt was still stuck on the "she" part.

Had the demon actually... specified Wyatt? Thinking back, there was no actual guarantee that it had been Wyatt the demon was talking about. Blonde of hair, fair of face, and something about a Charmed One? Yes, that was Wyatt. It was also Melinda and Peyton. And sometimes Penny, but seeing as she was a lesbian and Sebastian knew that, Wyatt thought it safe to assume that Sebastian would have had plenty of time to get over it if it had been Penny.

Oh, boy.

Face burning, Wyatt interrupted, "She?"

Sebastian turned back around, voice fading as he took in whatever expression Wyatt had. They were both silent for a minute before Sebastian's lips quirked up. He couldn't control the grin as he asked, laughter in his voice, "Wyatt, did you think-"

"Blonde of hair, fair of face!" Wyatt protested immediately, feeling just a little stupid.

Sebastian outright began laughing as he finished, "Never will feel the daughter of a Charmed One embrace. Unless you have something to tell me, which I completely support-"

Wyatt pushed past Sebastian as he kept laughing, face burning but heart lighter than it was.

As he continued on his path, Wyatt heard Sebastian fall in step just behind him, still laughing. They still had demons to vanquish and family to save, but at least he wasn't responsible for breaking one of his best friend's heart.

Wait. Did that mean Sebastian liked his sister?

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

NERD!MIGUEL IS SO REAL I LUV HIM <3333

NERD!MIGUEL IS THERE I KNOW IT

Like...You saw what he said to Gwen when she called it a watch (which IT IS).

[omg she's so tiny small next to him]

He's a NERD. He thinks this stuff is COOL. He's WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO ASK.

Like I imagine he's used to it by now - people's eyes glazing over when he begins to explain something technical or program-y, like Lyla's algorithms or the Multiverse Anti-Glitch feature of the watches.

He's put SO much work into all of this, the whole facility and the tech.

He made Lyla himself, but he knows that most people aren't really interested in that. So he's learned to simplify things.

If you ask a question, like how he made Lyla - he'll answer it basic and to the point.

_-_ 'She's an AI. She's my assistant and the notification system within your watch.'

He probably won't even look up from his work, thinking it's just the routine questions everyone asks before moving on to the next thing.

BUT IF YOU ASK FURTHER - Miguel's like

Because it's not often someone actually like...does that.

It's probably very rare that someone shows interest in his technological, engineering, or physics studies - all of which he's INCREDIBLY talented at and actively working on

You ask him how long it took him to make her, he says a year or two.

You tell him how impressive that is and BOOM NERD!Miguel.

He's telling you how her voice detection took the longest, and how her multiverse-monitoring probability algorithm was something he had to tweak twenty thousand times.

You compliment him about the design of the watch, he's like

_-_ 'I still have the protypes.' And he's ready to show you different ones, different shapes and materials he considered using, but eventually ruled out through experiments and tests

AND DON'T GET HIM STARTED ON THEORIES OH GODDDD

You mention the words 'String Theory' or 'Time Dilation' around him and you will NEVER hear the end of it.

He has so many opinions on it he's never had the chance to share.

Ideas and theories about things like fourth dimensions, worm holes, black holes, and dozens of other theoretical scientific concepts.

I mean, he MADE time travel. He is an EXPERT in that stuff.

I would KILL to have a Time Travel Movie Marathon with Miguel.

Sitting on the couch and watching things like Back to the Future, and he describes what they got right, what would be impossible, how it could work in theory.

He probably talks through the whole movie, and picks each one apart. You watch Doctor Who and he WILL NOT SHUT UP.

He's probably AMAZIINNGG at math.

Like math IS science. It's the answer for science. So he's probably a natural master.

You can be like 'Miguel, What's 34% of 12,967?' - Without blinking he'd be like

_-_'...I'm guessing 4408, or something? I don't know, am I right? Ask Lyla, don't ask me.'

But you don't need to ask Lyla cause HE'S RIGHT

HISTORY TOO!

I mean... the man time-travels. I think he'd have at least a good grasp on history, and time periods. Thinks like ancient roman historians and how their thoughts effect modern science, and how certain events effected the flow of time throughout history.

I imagine he finds it so fascinating, seeing the vast differences that can span in universes, just from one small change. Maybe he even finds comfort in it, seeing how histories and stories have a natural flow in a way fiction can only hope to imitate.

I love me some Nerd!Miguel.

I wanna get in bed with Miguel and by that I mean I want to sit next to him as he sits in bed reading a book on the Theory of Relativity with reading spectacles and a mug of sleepytime tea okay

A Miguel who runs up to his partner like 'Read this,' and he's all proud as he hands you a notepad full of numbers. But to him it's a formula he's been working WEEKS on, one that'll make Lyla run smoother, and everything much easier and he wants you to think he's cool for it

A Miguel who spends date nights watching NatGeo documentaries for fun

NERDY NERD MIGUEL DORKY MILD NERDY MIGUEL

[bless-my-demons]

Redamancy: Chapter Seventeen

Series Summary: What happens when your soulmate is a vampire that struggles to maintain a diet of trying not to kill you? Common sense says run for the hills, nothing is worth your life - but my heart is whispering why not, what’s there to lose?

Warnings: Angst and cuss words

Notes: The impatient part of me just wants Jasper back, but I have to power through for the plot. I also have that scene written and it taunts me every time I open my Docs🥲

Word Count: 2010

Series Masterlist

Reader

They say grief is just left over love.

Well I have plenty of grief then, because I never got to pour it into the person it was meant for. It's rotting away inside my chest and leaking from the cracks. It spills from my eyes and scratches my throat, flooding everything and it doesn't seem to end.

Is there an end?

I don't think there is, because I don't just miss him - I miss something that'll never happen. A life I'll never live, one where it's just me and him and eternity stretches out before us endlessly.

• January 16th, 2005 • Home •

Reader

My phone buzzes in my pocket letting me know I'm getting an incoming call. Fishing it out, Bella Swan flashes across the screen and I'm stunned.

"Hello?" I answer hesitantly.

"Hey Y/n, I um - well I was wondering if you wanted to catch a movie? With Jessica and I, tonight?"

"Oh uh-"

"You don't have to-" She interrupts me, clearly sensing my hesitation, but I stop her before she could back out.

"No! I'd love to, let me call my mom and tell her I'll be gone when she gets home from work."

"Okay, cool. I'll be there in like, twenty minutes." Ending the call, I stare at my phone in wonder.

Bella has been catatonic the last 3 months and now she's down for movies like nothing has happened? Shaking my head, I call my mom while slipping my shoes on in the hallway, she picks up on the second ring.

"Hey sweetie, I was just about to call you and see what you wanted for dinner!" Her cheerie voice tugs on my heart strings, I think she's trying to over-compensate in the hopes that'll it'll bring my own mood up.

"About that, Bella Swan just called and asked if I could go with her to the movies-"

"Absolutely! Do you need money? There's some in-" The excitement in her voice is almost comical.

"Mom, I have money. I just didn't want you to worry if I wasn't home when you got off." The line is silent for a few beats before she answers.

"Honey, go have fun with your friends and don't worry about me! I love you, sweat pea."

"Love you too." Tears begin to prick at the corners of my eyes suddenly.

"Call me if you need me?" Her question is soft, not wanting to spook me into canceling.

"Always." I smile sadly to no one in the empty house before hanging up.

Bella's tires on her old truck crackle on our gravel driveway and I snag a jacket before bolting out of the front door.

I can do this, I can be normal and enjoy my friends for a few hours.

• January 16th, 2006 • Port Angeles, WA •

Reader

Not only did Bella manage to get me out of the house for a few hours, but she also talked me into watching a scary movie about zombies - one of my least favorite monster movie types. I don't do the jump scares, the suspense, the chasing - nope, none of that is for me.

The worst part was wishing I had him to just hold my hand, because with him I'm invincible. Well, was invincible. With every one of my lurches and under-my-breath curses, I know he'd be chuckling at my expense. Somehow that made the hole in my chest wider, darker.

At some point, going out and doing everyday things has to get back to normal. This piece of me that's rotting away inside can't keep continuing to fester and grow, its so fucking tiring.

Relief floods my chest and limbs as the credits begin scrolling. Looking to my right I can tell Bella is unamused and Jessica on her other side didn't enjoy it.

"Okay, next girl's movie night, I'm picking the movie." I tell them, exasperation leaking into my tone.

Both girls glance at me and raise eyebrows as we stand and exit the theater.

"Don't give me that look, zombies freak me out!"

"They're not real-" Bella teases me with a smile, but realization stops her comment and I try to hide my falling face from Jessica as she walks ahead of us in the lobby.

Vampires weren't real, until we met them. Fuck, everything brings us right back to them-

"-If it's supposed to draw a parallel about leprosy, my cousin had leprosy, it's not funny 'ya know." Jessica Stanley takes the cake when it comes to filling silence with conversation, even if it's one-sided.

Walking back to Bella's truck, I'm only half-paying attention to Jess as she rattles on. If I've learned anything from her since my first day at Forks, it's that I need to take everything she says with a grain of salt.

"I was surprised you even called at all." I lift my head in surprise at Jessica's statement, not quite rude but... "Like, your guys' depression thing - I get it-" Glancing between Bella and I, the train wreck falling from her mouth continues, "I'm totally, totally worried. But after a while... you're still not over them, but I'm going through stuff too 'ya know."

I almost want to laugh, not at her, but... it's almost funny how one person has basically derailed my life and Jessica Stanley thinks it's just seasonal depression.

Turning to Bella, I notice she's watching a group of bikers at the next street corner over.

"How 'bout a ride, girls?" One of them calls, watching the three of us.

As Bella gets a far-off look in her eye, Jessica moves to stand in front of her to get her attention.

"Dude, c'mon." Inclining her shoulder to continue moving down the street, she gives Bella a weird look, waiting.

"I think I know those guys." I reach out to put a hand on Bella's arm, but she's already stepping towards the group of men.

"Well they seem great, can we go?" Jessica pleads.

"I just need to see something." Bella sounds like she's in a daze and I start to worry as she begins walking to their street corner.

I have an instinct to follow my friend at the same time a tingle spreads across the back of my scalp, danger. The sensation almost draws a gasp from my lips, finally something other than just emptiness holed up in my chest.

I start after Bella, half to make sure my friend is alright and half to... chase this different feeling.

"Alright, alright! We've got takers." One of them says smugly.

These aren't safe men, turn around.

I stutter and almost trip on the uneven pavement. It's almost like he whispered the words in my ear, if the January air didn't have such a chill to it - I'd swear it was his breath on my neck.

A piece of me that had been dormant since Bella's birthday springs to life, I need to chase this. Just the instant craving to hear more of his imaginary voice drives me to stand beside my friend in front of a group of sketchy-looking bikers on a dark street late at night.

"Sorry, I thought you were someone else." I whip my head towards her, trying to figure out what she's got planned.

"That's cool, I'll be whoever you want me to be." Swinging a leg over his motorcycle, he gives her an expectant look. "So, what do ya say?"

After a few tense beats, she decided to hop on the back of the closest bike and they immediately take off into the night. I hesitate a few more beats, looking at the other bikers, waiting-

Don't get on another man's bike darlin', you’re mine.

Tears spring to the corner of my eyes and I turn around, not wanting to start crying out of the blue in front of a bunch of random strangers. I'm not his anymore, but I also can't bring myself to cling to the back of anyone else.

Jessica meets me halfway up the street, throwing up her hands in a 'what the fuck' motion.

"Um, care to explain?" She asks impatiently.

"I think she just wanted to see what it's like-" but I'm cut off as Jessica stomps past me, Bella rounding the corner of the building.

"Hey! What the hell is wrong with you? Just curious."

"I thought I saw something." Bella tried to explain, I try to meet eyes to see what's actually going on, but her eyes are glued to the ground.

"You-oh, You're insane actually. Or suicidal. That homeboy? Could've been a psycho. I was about to end up in an FBI interview room like some lame TV show." Jessica rants as we walk away.

"Ugh, that was such a rush."

"Awesome, so you're an adrenaline junkie now? That's cool, you can go bungee jumping. You don't get on the back of some loser's motorcycle! Crazy." Stomping off towards her own car, I hang back with Bella. She's not wrong, but she also doesn't get it.

"Let's go home?" I ask my friend, grabbing her hand and leading her towards the beat up old red truck.

Is danger how I see-or rather hear him again? My heart picks up speed at the thought - I'm not one for dangerous situations, but I also can't get the idea out of my head. It's like my heart is at war with my brain, one with a crushing addiction and the other with the instinct for self-preservation.

A new war has kicked off inside of me and I have no idea which side will win.

• January 16th, 2006 • Ithaca, New York •

Jasper

Reading a book I found in Carlisle's study to pass the time, an unfamiliar uneasy feeling settles in my gut. Closing the book, I check everyone that's home to make sure it isn't one of them and I come up normal. Alice, sitting across the room raises an eyebrow while reading her own magazine at my sudden shift in demeanor.

"Alice-"

"I won't check her every time you get a feeling, Jasper. You're the one who wanted to cut her out." The sting of her words find their target, but I can't ignore this.

"Please, I need to know if she's... alright." I plead, not ready to drop it.

"She hasn't been fucking alright this entire time-" but her snap-back halts immediately as her eyes adopt the familiar far-out gaze of her power.

Immediately I'm kneeling in front of her, worry begins to slither across my skin. Alice cranks down on her feelings, refusing to give any hints away to what she's seeing.

"Alice, please." I'm not usually one to beg, but for Y/n? I've noticed over time things like that have changed.

"She's fine." Drifting back to reality, she stands and shoves me off with a look, voice monotone in anger directed at me.

"What did you see?" I hound her, following her down the hall to her room.

"Nothing - it doesn't matter, she chose differently." She answers cryptically and it almost sends me into a spiral of the worst ideas.

I want to question her more, but she slams her door in my face effectively ending the conversation. Anger and frustration with a tinge of despair floats through the air mingled with my sister's scent. I know it's directed at me, I know it's my fault and I can't find the strength anywhere to wipe her feelings away. Almost as if my gift has resorted to the cruel and unusual punishment of feeling without the capacity to manipulate anymore.

My forehead thumps against the white wood in defeat.

At what point does this sore heal? Does this ache ever go away? How much time has to pass before she isn't occupying every single thought of every single second of the day? I've read that grief is supposed to ebb and flow, but this - this is more of a steady current, a nonstop hotwire through my chest that's painfully constricting the long-dead heart within.

Next

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[nano_owl] and [gregg_thecat] for some reason Tumblr won’t look you up with the underscores and searching before the underscore doesn’t pull up your blogs as available for tag🥺

The rest of you, tumblr says there’s no blogs that are available for tag! Please please please don’t hesitate to message me so I can fix!

[some-pers0n]

Hi I made a crackfic for Arctic's death because I had a terrible, horrible idea inspired by that old fandom meme. I don't regret anything <3

"Aaannnddd...perfect!" Darkstalker stepped back. "All set and ready to go. Haha! Look at him! Clearsight, look, c'mon. Come see."

"Darkstalker, I don't think this is a good idea–"

"Shut up woman and come look," he bluntly said. "Come on, it's not like the camera's gonna bite you or anything. Neither is Arctic, but, eh, maybe that'll add to the drama. The kids love it when people get hurt, it's why they watch it."

He grabbed the camera again and pointed it at Clearsight. "It's rolling. Come on, babe, don't you wanna do it? For the bit? Ohhh it'll be such a funny thumbnail. Everyone's gonna click on it. Just stick your head near him."

"I'm not going to bite an innocent dragon..." Arctic muttered.

"HA! Oh but it's okay for you to do that to me. Not cool dad. Mid dad behaviour, tee-bee-haitch. To be honest. Tee-bee-haitch– you get it."

"Back in my day we just called somebody a 'loser' if they were a bad parent. Like, me? I'm a dead-beat dad."

"Yeah, that's true." Clearsight nodded.

"But I'm not...mid? What does that even mean?"

"Mannn you so did not cook. 'Dead-beat'? Yeah, you're gonna be dead as hell once I'm done with ya. Like for real done. Dead. Deceased. Ain't coming back from that."

"God just kill me now," Arctic grumbled.

"In a minute! Me. I'm God. It's me. Get used to it :)"

"What was that sound you just made with your mouth--" Clearsight began but Darkstalker cut her off. He couldn't bother to hear such a whiny, woman voice. He needed to pay more attention to the crowd that gathered.

"Hey, hey! Guys! Check this out! I'm a livestreamer. I do all of these cool things on Twitch and YouTube. Follow me! My handle's Darksalter. Like Darkstalker, but salty, cause of all of the noobs I own on my daily League of Legends streams."

The surrounding NightWings just blinked at him.

"Ughhhh. How about you guys being recorded, huh? You get famous! Right here, right now, this is a big deal. No cap, this is serious. This is gonna be a livestream to end all livestreams. There's gonna be like at least ten dragons watching!!"

"OH MY GOD!?" One dragon shouted. "TEN??? I've never seen anybody have that many, hold on! We gotta watch this guy!"

Immediately, the entire population of the Night Kingdom arrived. Even the queen (a closeted Darksalter fan, who was wearing all of his merch) was waiting for him. They all cheered and clamoured for him.

"Settle, settle! I know you're all such adoring fans. Believe me, I would love me too. Already do! Such a great, handsome, all powerful animus." He flexed his muscles. "Plus, the ladies love me." He glanced back at Clearsight, who had the most aggressively unenthusiastic frown he ever seen.

"But, but, we gotta wait a minute. First, I gotta mew."

"What does that even mean?" Clearsight asked.

Darkstalker did not answer. He brought a talon up to his snout and then traced the outline of his perfectly gorgeous jawline. I mean just look at that thing. Downright beautiful. Like, come on now. Look him up right now. Yeah, yeah! The thang of all time! That sweet, succulent jaw. Bro's been mewing since the day he was hatched.

[A/N: it is a pretty cool jawline]

He cleared his throat. "Anyways, enough talk. You had your shot for the thumbnail, so now it's all about me." He looked at the camera and enchanted it to float. It hovered above, pointing at him. "Three, two, one..." He clapped. "And we're live!"

The crowd cheered and roared as he did so. No omegaluls. No minus ones. He was an unboxing andy just about ready to tear open into his best work yet.

"Hey what's going on Stalker Gang! How are the stalkers in chat going? Can we get the hype train going?" He gestured to the crowd, which yelled and screamed louder. "Yeah!! Let's go Stalker Gang!!"

"Darkstalker...this isn't you." Clearsight sobbed. "You don't do this. You aren't like this!"

"Baby, I'm an influencer. It's my duty as Twitch's No. 27 streamer of all time!"

Clearsight cried more but Darkstalker did not care. He turned back to the camera. "Ayyy guys!" He clasped his talons. "So, today is a very, very special day, because we have a guest! That's right, my terrible, very uncool, incredibly mid father! Look at him. Blue pilled in every sense of the word. Even his blood's blue, which y'all are gonna see real quick." He pushed the camera directly in his face.

"Hey, hey, everyone!" He gestured to Arctic. "Can I get a 'boo' from you all?"

With his command, the crowd began to jeer at Arctic. A wave of rotting tomatoes came hurling his way, splattering against his face.

"And, with that being said, this stream is sponsored by Glep. Get a Glep. Now. Or else. You don't wanna be there when Glep is upset. That's how the last moon was destroyed." He stared silently into the camera for a minute, as customary with the Glep sponsors.

"NOW!! Let's get this going!" He pointed at Arctic. "You. Unbox yourself."

"Wh–" Arctic didn't have a chance to finish before he clawed at his torso and gutted himself. The crowd kept cheering and applauding and tossing money at Darkstalker.

"Woah woah, pretty messy, huh guys?" He raised an eyebrow. "Totally unpoggers. L behaviour. Boo!!" But when he turned back, he noticed that everyone stopped cheering.

"Bro, dude," one dragon began, "poggers is so, like, old man. That's so cringe, skull emoji."

Then, they began to dissipate. Quickly as they arrived, they left. He was cringe now. So cringe.

"No, NO! Wait! Come back! I'm still relevant! I'm still hip with the kids! I– I..." But it was too late. He was cancelled for being cringe. Everyone was bored by him. He was out-of-touch. He was out of time. He was out of his head when they're not around.

Behind him, he heard his sister, Whiteout, crying. He turned back to see that her favourite stim toy, a rainbow coloured pop-it shaped like a crewmate from Amomg Us, was lying on the floor. Things must be serious.

"Sis, are you upset at me?..." he muttered.

"Yes! You just unboxed our dad! My trauma points are like so high right now. I can't even..." She wiped her tears and kept crying.

Darkstalker looked back at Arctic, who was dead. Very dead. He growled. "When I'm the alpha king of the world, everyone will be my fan. Everyone will follow me! Everyone will like and subscribe! You'll see, you'll all see!"

[reinedeslys-central]

kotlc things that I keep thinking about that are never really addressed by canon

there is a complete replica of sophie's bedroom and perhaps countless other rooms just. somewhere in a building in mysterium that the councillors just know about.

alden and other telepaths were instructed to monitor the citizens' minds for signs of dissent around the time the prentice thing was going down

they regularly torture prisoners and dissenters into literal insanity that they can't come back from

they also have a super weird prison only accessible by quicksand (????) to house said prisoners

there is an ENTIRE DUNGEON OF WEIRD LAB EXPERIMENTS DOWN BY THE VACKER HOUSE?

okay. how - how big is havenfield?

the entire thing with - is their name twix? the person dex was working with for something. why do we not get to see that more. why is dex the criminally underrated goated character and WE DON'T GET FLESHED OUT CHARACTER ARCS FOR EVERYONE

linh flooded. atlantis. linh song FLOODED ATLANTIS hello what do people think about that?????????? do they see her on the street and whisper? what's up with "The Girl Of Many Floods"? Where else did she flood?

What is up with the song family (tong? their name changed after their grandmother or smth got famous with their music right?) that both their children not only have two very powerful elemental abilities, but are also crazy skilled with said Talents.

why are music, art, and culture not a bigger thing? like yeah, plot, obviously, but that's just worldbuilding!!! I wanna see!!!! art hanging on the walls! Defying gravity! more sculptures! more music playing in the shopping centres!! If they have imparters why don't they have long distance radio? are there mandatory dance lessons? what's the etiquette like besides what we already know?

more animal husbandry at schools. speaking of schools: we KNOW foxfire and exilium aren't the only schools. are smaller schools more specialised? are their community colleges or academies dedicated to specific career paths? universities?

okay but the polyglot ability is SO COOL???? tell me about the archaic variants of the enlightened language. there's no way that's just the elves' one language and the other species picked it up due to their 'superiority' or wtv. the goblins have cities of gold and metal and the trolls age backwards, you're not convincing me of anything.

secret societies in the other species. that has to exist right?

.....is squall dex's mom or not? I genuinely can't remember.

anyway remember when she froze gethen's fingernails off, yeah that happened (I think)

so instead of rehabilitating teenagers who have dangerous abilities and not much control over their powers, we just do....whatever the council did with gethen, ruy, and linh ig

hey, um...are we just not going to talk about dex casually HACKING INTO A GOV DATABASE WITH SOME RANDOM BITS OF ROCK AND TWINE? he can just do that. okay. okay. that's - yeah, okay.

did he match a frequency or something? how does the signal network even work in kotlc when everyone is technically all over the world in unplottable locations and they get around by LIGHT LEAPING???

ON THAT NOTE. light leaping. yeah haha funny let's just teach our kids to casually break down their very particles and hold onto their consciousness to travel at the speed of light using quantum mechanics and crystals that are specifically cut to project light in such a way that'll take you only to a specific location nvm im not thinking more about it.

flickering? is apparently a skill you can learn even if you're not a vanisher? remember in book two when fitz got prissy at sophie for knowing how to do it apparently b4 we figured out that she's a teleporter

keefe is a fun loveable goofball and I've always been on the sokeefe train but now the more I think about it he's really um.... yeah, uh, sophie? darling, please just don't date any of these people. obv you can make your own decisions but at least not now, okay. take care of yourself hon

the fitz hate is kinda weird ngl. wdym you don't want your problematic traitor brother to move back in to living literally with your family after supposedly losing his memories and that's a bad thing? wdym your close friend/crush is hiding things from you when yall are supposed to be cognates and she's kinda gaslighting you since, forever? wdym your father's been shadily telling you to stalk this girl in the human world since you were a kid? yeah definitely he does pull some weird stints throughout the series. but the bigger things i see ppl hating on him for are. hmmmmm

the council themselves choose to lock away the government secrets and wipe them from their memories. hey, um - recordkeeping is great, obvious, but - wiping those secrets from your minds isn't gonna help you lead while accounting for those parts of history, is it? nevermind how dangerous it is when there are huge species-wide secrets that NO ONE remembers. society-threatening incident waiting to happen.

the concept of vociferators. that's just kinda funny lol even if it is weird

are their schoold for diff abilities?

what's the genetics of talent inheritance? why are 'stronger' abilities rarer? In my opinion, p much every talent is goated, I don't see why more characters aren't more creative about it.

banning talents is just a bad move. like. are you serious? how is that going to make it better? that's how you get brant. brant was a pyrokinetic, without getting into the primary issue of the whole talentless/talented discrimination discourse, the secondary issue is he wouldve been able to marry jolie as two talented elves. would he have cracked if his ability was just a bit better handled by society?

grady is a mesmer. how - that's a really powerful ability???? how do you even train to use that? what do you even use it for?

same with whatever that lady councillor is that tried to seduce alden during his own wedding. fun times, yall.

rainbow fire??? cool????

so we have the sanctuary, do we also have a gigantic library of alexandria-esque thing? a botanical garden?

according to jolie's wiki she died at twenty as a level 8 at foxfire. so... hang on a minute. okay, sure, numerically that could make sense since sophie, at 12, became a level one - but are you telling me she went through the whole matchmaking process and was planning to get married that young????

hey, here's an idea - in a relatively stable society where economy is great, trust funds exist, people work to have something to do with their lives, birth rate is generally low (now through prejudice as well as societal comfort and ease/cost of living), why are they marrying so young? WHY ARE THE KIDS STARTING THE MATCHMAKING PROCESS IN THEIR TEENS???? the elven society has p much every mark of a stage 5 developed country? help? middle-high school human geography??

if they apparently live so long, show me the funny messy family trees with couples having children generations apart.

so, trust funds of lusters??? lustres?? (which we barely ever see. why is there little-to-no use of money?) which equate to roughly one trillion USD (in value? are you. are you - um. are you....serious?) exist. but I guess inflation and relative currency value from mass money printing doesn't count in this world, as well as the fact that there's only one currency for all the elves.

I wanna see a divorced elven couple now. how does divorce law work??????

if there's such a low BR and low population and people are yet still encouraged to have less kids to 'not dilute the genes' (that's my next point btw), I'm guessing matchmaking is encouraged younger to make sure population stays stable/growing? obv you need it to ensure genetic diversity and no incest, but if it's heavily encouraged for elves to have children like this, are queer elves mandated to have children with a surrogate/other couple even if they have a same-sex marriage?

i'll probably edit this or reblog it to include more stuff (character limit lol) as i remember the books bc it's been a hot minute since i read them.

[rustbeltjessie]

To what purpose, April, do you return again? (or: finally, a pinned post for April)

Hi all. I'm Jessie Lynn McMains, aka Rust Belt Jessie. I'm an Xennial/Elder Millenial (please don't call me a Geriatric Millenial, thank you) writer/artist/zine-maker/etc. (I wear many hats.) I'm queer and nonbinary/genderfluid, and as far as pronouns go, I’m okay with any human pronoun (they and she are my most-used, but I like he, too, and I especially like it when people switch up the pronouns they use for me). I’m disabled and neurodivergent.

I live with my partner and our two kiddos, both of whom are also neurodivergent, and right now I’m supporting all of us on whatever money I earn. I do freelance copywriting and editing as my main thing, but I also make a decent chunk of my income from selling my zines and books and pins and whatever else I make, so the more I sell, the better able I am to pay bills and take care of my family.

Through my Ko-fi, you can buy my zines and books (I have both poetry and prose available) and pins, as well as commission me to make you a music-inspired mini-collage or hire me to edit your own writing. Or also just throw me a few bucks if you appreciate the content I make available for free.

If you live outside the US (I can only ship within the US via Ko-fi, because setting up shipping for multiple countries is a pain the butt), or just prefer to purchase something or donate via a different platform, I also have PayPal and Venmo (@ JessieLynnMcMains).

I also have a Substack newsletter. I try to send something out at least once a month. Sometimes it's a longer piece about music and nostalgia (I recently started a series called These Fucking Songs, for just that purpose), sometimes it's just updates on what I'm up to, sometimes it's something else. I'm currently working on one about poetry, and my writing process, and revision.

As if that weren't enough, this month I'm doing a 30/30 on the Tupelo Press site, which not only means I have to write a poem every day to be posted the next day, but I am also fundraising for Tupelo Press. My goal is to raise $350 by the end of the month. You can follow along with my daily poems here (the newest is always at the top; scroll down to read previous days), and the fundraising page is here. (I'm also offering some cool incentives for people who donate; more info about all that is available on the fundraising page.)

I'm pro-trans, pro-vaccine, pro-sex worker, pro-abortion, pro-Black Lives Matter. I'm for harm reduction for any drug user or addict, meaning I want them to be able to use drugs as safely as possible, rather than forcing them into rehab or incarcerating them. I'm anti-censorship and anti-fascist. I believe everyone, everyone, should have a safe place to sleep and enough to eat without having to earn it. I consider myself an anarcho-socialist, basically, but I do vote. I'm telling you all that because if you are vehemently against any of those things, we'll probably not get along.

I'm a forever-goth/punk who loves all kinds of music. (Things on heavy rotation for me as I write this are: The Replacements, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Oliver Nelson.) I'm femme but I'm a disaster femme; when I use nailpolish it's always sloppy and/or chipped, when I wear eyeliner it's always crooked and/or smeared, and I am incapable of not ripping a hole or two in every pair of tights and stockings I own. I love art and film and theater and literature and music. I'm a Shakespeare stan, I love growing my own vegetables, I collect souvenir pennies and stick and poke tattoos. I'm always a slut in theory, even when not always in practice. I'm perpetually nostalgic, melancholy, and restless. I spend all my free time posting pictures of myself on the internet and trying to prove I'm punk to anyone that'll listen.

Want more Jessie content? There's my website (still under construction, but it exists). Or you could try searching the my writing, my art, Jessie Lynn McMains, or Rust Belt Jessie tags on this blog. I also have a side blog, where I tend to post more frequently than I do on this blog. If you ask nice, I'll probably give you the URL.

On that note, my DMs and asks are open, and, as of right now, anon is on.

I think that's it! As always, whether you can send any $$ my way (or to my fundraiser) currently or not, keeping this post circulating helps. Thanks much. 🖤

[elexuscal]

Ficlet prompt idea! Interactions between ART and Pin-Lee and/or Mensah in the time after NE but before SC.

More thoughts if you wanted more inspiration than a single line. Does Pin-Lee teach ART some new curses ('cause ART curses alot more in this book, and I wanna blame Pin-Lee like how Rhatti mentions the overlap between MB and Pin-Lee's curse vocab)? How great would their banter be, lawyer vs know-it-all-AI?!

Is ART still kinda shy/excited by meeting Mensah?

Thank you~ I really love your work!!!

Awwww thank you very much!

Oh man i was so spoiled for choice here but i really really struggled to think of an interesting take on this

Big thank you to @specialagentartemis who i paraphrased a significant chunk of this from as well as general Vibes

Asshole vs Asshole

So here's the thing. Here's the fucking thing, okay?

Twenty-three days. Twenty-three fucking days of waiting, of worrying, of preparing. Of nearly chewing her own arm off. Of thinking she was walk into a fucking blood bath.

And the Preservation Alliance rescue team finally gets to the scene of the crime, and no one is dead. Which is fucking good, obviously. Okay. She gets it. No one's dead, no one's lost any limbs, and praise the dark gods of yesteryear, no one has even been kidnapped. This is literally better than the best-case scenarios they concocted.

But surely, surely, Pin-Lee can't be the only one who thinks it is fucking weird to be having tea with the person who did the kidnapping in the fist place?

"Thank you, Perihelion," Ayda says, as a shiny blue drone finishes pouring tea into a cup. Just a whiff and a glance is all Pin-Lee needs to know it was brewed exactly the way Dr. Mensah prefers it.

The drone turns to hover to her. It pours a drink into her own mug. Pin-Lee glares at it.

Ayda doesn't look at her, doesn't so much as tilt her head. But they've worked together for a long, long time now, and Pin-Lee nonetheless reads the subtler body language. She grinds out, "Thank you."

She sips the drink. It is coffee and it is extremely bitter and it's warm-but-not-quite-hot and Pin-Lee has a sneaking suspicion it is at least a few hours old.

[You're welcome~] Perihelion's trills as the drone zooms away.

Peri. Fucking. Helion.

Turns out, it's the one that orchestrated this whole thing. The super-secret advanced spaceship that SecUnit apparently befriended while it was off on its journey of self-discovery or whatever decided that it knew exactly who could handle its little pest control problem, and hadn't much cared which innocent civilians got stuck in the cross-fire.

"There were extenuating circumstances," SecUnit had explained, face set like it was ready for a fight.

"It's all fine, water under the bridge," Ratthi had said. "No harm done really."

"Except for the new layers of fresh trauma," Overse had groused.

"But we're handling that, too," Arada had said, with a too-bright smile. "And it's a good thing we're here to help the colonists."

"Yeah yeah and you should see ART's hydroponics bay, it's super cool," said Amena, tugging on her arm.

So suffice to say she was kind of getting some Mixed Signals about this whole thing.

But okay! Corporates descending to steal the livelihoods of hundreds of innocents! Fine! There's a lot at stake! And this is what Pin-Lee is good at, and (sort of) what she was dragged along to handle, so she is willing to put this all aside for the greater good.

Pin-Lee sips at her under-handed-insult coffee and reads over the legal feed documents of this whole cluster-fuck of a case. "Okay," she says at last. "Okay, this is salvageable. But I'm going to need to some more info before I can fully revise this.."

"Of course," says the captain of The Perihelion, a note of genuine relief in his otherwise professional voice. "What do you need?"

"1: A full list of all the symptoms associated with the contamination, and its speed of spread. That'll influence what level of breach this is classified under. 2: Estimates for all of the colonists deaths that were directly caused due to their being stranded. 3: Monetary evaluation of all the colonists' remaining assets..."

"Of course," the captain agrees

Which is fine. Except fifteen minutes later some teenager not-much-older-than-Amena shows up and hands Pin-Lee a stack of paper.

"What's this?" Pin-Lee says, her eyes immediately skidding off of the hand-written tables and charts.

"That's our evaluation of the colonists' assets, like you asked for," the teenager (Turi?) says.

Pin-Lee looks at Turi, to the papers, and back at Turi again. "Can I get this in the feed?"

"Well.... You can..." Turi says, a bit of red in their cheeks. "But..."

"But no guarantee the numbers won't be doctored there," calls Karime from the other side of the lounge.

Teeth grinding in the back of her mouth, Pin-Lee manages, "What?"

[My numbers are perfectly accurate,] Perihelion protests. [It is hardly my fault if none of you are capable of following the calculations.]

Martyn snorts. "It would help if you bothered explaining all your sources."

[Find them yourself.]

Pin-Lee can barely believe what she's hearing. "Are you telling me... that your AI keeps fucking with the numbers so bad that you need to get a teenager to do the accounts by hand."

"I'm not a teenager, I'm twenty-three." Pin-Lee huffs; as if that's a meaningful difference. "And I'm a very, very good accountant." Turi pauses, then admits, "But that's the long and short of it, yes."

Pin-Lee can't help it. She drops her head to the table and hides it under her arms.

[Do you have a problem with this state of affairs?] the very aptly re-named Asshole Research Transport oozes in her private feed.

[You really don't need me to answer that.]

[You're right. I don't.]

She uncurls her finger and makes a rude gesture. Presumably one of its thousands of cameras will see it.

That summons SecUnit into the conversation. [Are you two fucking with each other again?]

[No,] they say in unison.

[Cut it out,] SecUnit says, and then drops away. Truly a master of conflict resolution, that one.

'I'll cut it out when you learn to make nicer friends', she almost sends, but catches the obvious come-back and stops herself. Instead she takes sip of her shitty coffee and gets to work trying to interpret hand-written accounts.

[lamardeuse]

Quand il me prend dans ses bras

911  |    Buck/Eddie   |    Rated  M   |    c. 3800 words

for @devirnis, prompt: "it’s cold." "c'mere. my arms are warmer."

Eddie's being crabby and he knows it. He tells himself to stop it, it's only going to be a couple of days.

It doesn't work.

When Bobby decided to send him and Buck on a three-night training session on fighting brush and wildfires, he thought it would be at a hotel. Not a resort – he wasn't expecting a spa and a gourmet restaurant – but a basic-ass hotel would have been nice.

As they walk down the winding lane from the parking lot to their accommodations, Eddie's face falls.

“That is not a hotel,” he declares.

Buck, on the other hand, is delighted. “Oh, this is cool!” he exclaims.

“I think you mean cold,” Eddie says. “As in we're going to freeze.” The nights up here were not like they were in LA.

“I'm sure it'll be fine,” Buck assures him.

“It's a tent in the mountains in the middle of April.”

“It's a yurt,” Buck corrects, still grinning, totally undaunted by Eddie's lack of enthusiasm.

“That makes a difference?”

“No, but it's –” Buck waves a hand. “I've just always wanted to stay in a yurt, that's all.”

Eddie sighs. “Okay, yeah, I'm sure it'll be – whatever. It's only three nights.”

Buck stops outside one of the structures. “Sixty-two, this one's ours.”

“What's this?” Eddie asks, poking at the box sitting outside the door.

“Oh, that's the food storage box.”

Eddie raises an eyebrow. “Why do we need a large metal container for storing food?”

Buck's already opening the door. “Hm? Oh, because of the bears, of course,” he says.

“Of course,” Eddie says weakly. Right, how could he have forgotten the number one reason he's never been the least bit interested in camping. Oh, but it's fine, they've given everyone something to keep their Oreos in, that'll keep them perfectly safe.

Eddie wonders if both of them could squeeze in there if a bear were rushing toward them right now. He tilts his head, contemplating how easily he could fold himself like a pretzel. His verdict: unlikely.

“Oh,” Buck says, and for a hot second Eddie wonders if a grizzly has already found its way inside and is making itself at home in their ten – sorry, yurt.

Eddie peeks around Buck's shoulder and sees that the room is blessedly bear-free. However, there is another problem.

“Huh,” he says at the bed. The only bed in the room. He hopes it's a queen, but from here it looks smaller than that.

Buck bites his lip. “Should I – uh, should I see if they have another room with two singles?”

Eddie shakes his head. “I heard the clerk say the place was fully booked when we were checking in.”

“Maybe someone will want to switch?”

“I don't imagine there are a lot of couples on this training,” Eddie says. “It'll be fine.”

“Yeah?” Buck looks at him. Eddie keeps his eyes on the bed. “I mean, sure,” Buck adds hastily. “We shared during quarantine, it wasn't a big deal.”

Eddie doesn't point out that there's been a lot of history under the bridge since then, near-deaths and actual deaths and rebirths and wills and girlfriends and a boyfriend and now here they are, both of them single and Eddie wondering what the hell will finish him first, hungry bears in search of Doritos or sleeping next to Evan Buckley in a fucking yurt.

“Nope,” Eddie agrees. “Not a big deal at all.”

read the rest at the AO3

[for-a-longlongtime]

Important TF2 question (to me)...is the Standard Heating Oil hat still a thing for Frankie? Did he leave it in South America? Does he still wear hats? His hair is still long, right? RIGHT?!

These are the questions I'm fixated on should a sequel happen.

Jess! Do you know that you're the first person who submitted an Ask to me here on Tumblr? I'm so excited about it, makes me feel like I'm finally one of the cool kids 😅

His hair is definitely still long. He's probably tried some shorter cuts over time, but going to the barbershop is one of those things he often just doesn't get to - so the extra curls and length are often there because he's long overdue for a cut. That's also why the hat (or at least A hat) is still around a lot, because if he's headed out to work or to meet somebody it's just easier to throw on a hat than bother with hair products.

Every now and then he'll have a moment of hair envy though when watching Santiago. Their hairtypes are very different, but you know that Pope is a lot more vain - pretty boy will pop into a salon every 3 weeks to get his hair cut, facial hair trimmed, the works. Always looking very put together. It's not like Frankie couldn't afford that or doesn't have the time - he just forgets, or feels like it's a hassle to go that often.

Also, don't underestimate him. He knows what the sight of those curls do to people. He's not cocky about it, but he knows. Most of his bed partners through the years will have made at least a few remarks about it, always with praise. If you'd ask him about it, he probably wouldn't say it out loud but his hair at this length, just like in the photo? It's the perfect length to grab ahold of his curls when he goes down on you.

When he's eating you out, that's all he's focused on and he doesn't need any further encouragement. But he loves it how your grip on his hair will tighten when his tongue pushes right there right there, harder Frankie, please, fuckkk. Inevitably you'll be so far gone that your tugs on his hair won't be as gentle as they started out, but that's exactly where his sweet spot is. When your fingers have slid deep into his hair, clutching his curls, and you just pull at him so hard that it makes his head jerk back and eyes close for a moment... It's the only thing that'll interrupt his tongue on you, but that's okay - because the way his hot breath stutters against you in that moment is so good. So you do it again, feel how it makes shivers run down his spine. Having his hair pulled like that just shoots straight to his dick, and now he has to really work on not letting that distract him as you're whimpering under him. So who needs haircuts every three weeks when he can have all of this - the tugging and oh so good flashes of pain that turn him on -, just by keeping his hair long?

The Standard Heating Oil hat, though. That one is special because it fits him just right, even after all these years, like a perfectly worn in sweater, and somehow it will never accidentally fall off unlike other caps. Not even after that helicopter crash in the Andes, you know? Fucking magic. He stole it from Pope years ago when he'd crashed on his couch after a night out and just never gave it back. There's no long or even overly sentimental reason he would offer for why this one is his favorite - it just is. Plus it'll make Pope grin at him every so often as he'll call Frankie a pendejo and ask when the fuck he is getting his hat back, which will never happen, because they both know that that hat became Frankie's the moment he put it on.

What the fuck, how did I just word vomit 600 words on Frankie's hair and hat before it's even 10 am? I must've blacked out there for a bit. Thank you for the ask, @rhoorl! <3

Pssst @legendary-pink-dot, Bush Pilot Hair alert.

[squoxle]

૮꒰ ྀི◜๑◝ ꒱ა 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 ~ 𝐍𝐢𝐤𝐢 𝐟𝐟 ♡ 18+

*𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒 𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕙𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕓𝕠𝕪 𝕓𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕗𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕕.*

✩✩𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: <<𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡, 𝐯𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩

✩𝑃𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔：Niki!bff x Reader (female)

☆𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑒： Romance / Adventure / Fluff

☆𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡：2,849 ~ part 2

☆𝑆𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦：𝐈𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐡, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐢𝐤𝐢 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐢𝐠.

🎀 (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧ ꒰ᐢ⸝⸝•༝•⸝⸝ᐢ꒱⸒⸒ ~🍦 🍧 🍨 ~ ꒰ᐢ⸝⸝•༝•⸝⸝ᐢ꒱⸒⸒ ✧ (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) 🎀

It was a hot summer day, the only thing that kept you from melting was the shade provided by the gigantic oak trees accompanied by the occasional cool breeze. You and Niki decided to spend the day relaxing in city park.

In an attempt to prepare for the day in the heat you stopped at an ice cream stand to buy character themed popsicles.

"How're y'all lovebirds doin' today?" the friendly elderly man running the stand asked upon seeing the two of you. He a wore blue and white pin-striped shirt with a gold name tag reading "Andy." You couldn't help but to chuckle a bit at his remark before voicing your request.

"I'll have one of the Bratz character popsicles." "Okey dokey. And what'll it be for you young man?" "I'd like a SpongeBob one." Niki replied as he reached into his pocket. "Alrighty. That'll be $5."

Niki pulled out a $5 bill from his wallet and handed it to the man through the window. Andy, the old man in carge of the stand, handed the two of you your sweet frozen treats before flashing a warm smile. "Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy y'alls treats," he waved. You both bowed and headed over to a clearing in the park.

"Thanks for paying." you said as you plopped down on the ground. "Well you paid for the snacks last time so it's only fair," he said tearing open the packaging. "Hey, look! It's your twin," you laughed as Niki pulled out a cross-eyed SpongeBob.

"Haha. Very funny," Niki's tone was drenched in sarcasm as he rolled his eyes. "But I'd rather look like a cross-eyed block of cheese than a blonde blow-up doll."

"Oh my god, whatever," you scoffed before throwing up your middle finger as you continued to enjoy your popsicle. Niki burst out into laughter as he successfully annoyed the hell out of you.

"Have you thought of what we should do yet?" Niki asked after the two of you finished your snack. "What we should do about what?" "Don't you remember how we talked about making a little extra money." “Oh, right.” “Soooo?” “Soooo what? I’m not the only one responsible for thinking y’know.” “Well i sure as hell got nothing.” Niki said before laying on the cool grass.

“You could always start up an OnlyFans or stream on discord or whatever. I’ll play for you since you honestly can’t game for shit. All you have to do is look pretty and pretend. I’ll do all the leg work,” he continued. “Are you fucking kidding me?! I am NOT degrading myself for money. How about you do it.” “I would if I were a girl. Guys are so desperate. That’s easy money.” “What the hell? You’re still a minor.” “Only until December 9th, after that, it’s payday. And if I started a fan base now they’d be so fucking eager for my 18th birthday I’d probably get a cash advance.” “You’re sick,” you said shaking your head. “No. I’m just trying to make money.” “Well we’re not doing that.” “Hmm…fine. At least I had an idea.”

“Wait! I got it!” “Got what?” “I know what we could do to earn extra money,” you beamed. “Okay, soooo…” “We should start a babysitting business.” “Oh hell no! I am NOT degrading myself to be a butt-wiping, story-reading, preschool pimp!”

*Ring, Ring*

About a week after that day in the park, you and Niki created your rookie-business. You had a friend working on a website, but for now you ran it through Instagram. With your experiences caring for your cousins, this was gonna be a piece of cake.

*Ring, Ring*

“Hello. Thank you for calling The Drop Stop. How may we be of service to you today,” you answered the phone smiling as Niki rolled his eyes.

"Hello. Sorry for calling at the last minute, but is it possible for you to watch my kid on Friday?" "No problem, ma'am. I just need your child's name and age along with a picture of the child. And I'll need the same information from you as well as a picture of your drivers license." "Okay, you can call me Valerie. And should I send the rest of my information through a text or an email?" "You can send it either way you like. After that you can send me the drop-off and pick-up times for the day." "How much do you charge by the hour?" "For toddlers 4 and under, $14 per hour. For children 5 to 10, it'll be $13 per hour. And for 11 to 16, it'll be $12 per hour." "Okay, perfect. James, my little angel, is 5 years old. I'll be at the Galleria for a meeting with my job and I'll just need you to keep an eye on him for a few hours." "Okay, don’t forget to text us when we should be there. We’ll also need to see your ID again when we get there. Security purposes.” “I understand. And how should I pay you?” “Preferably cash, but we’ll take an electronic payment as well.” “I’ll have the cash for you. Oh, and my husband may come to pick him up if my meeting is running longer than I planned.” “Okay, well you’ll need to provide his information as well.” “Alright. No problem.” “Is that all?” “Yes, thank you.” “You’re welcome. Bye.” “Bye, and thank you again.”

“Omg! That was our first customer! Niki! This is insane!” “Okay, okay, I get it. Now can you stop yelling?” “Oh, sorry. I’m just really excited.” “Yea this’ll be pretty good depending on how much we get paid.” “Well she said a few hours and based on the rate we charge it should be at least $40 each.” “40 dollars?!” “This is just the beginning. It’s $40 right now, but it’ll eventually be more than that.” “Hmm, I guess.”

The job sounded fairly simple. Keep Valerie’s kid entertained for a few hours at the mall while you wait for her meeting to end. You didn’t have to worry about bedtime stories or getting lost looking for something in an unfamiliar environment. You and Niki come here every week, sometimes more than once. So, you knew the Galleria like the back of your hand.

The next day, Valerie sent you the address and time stamps for babysitting James. “4 hours!! What the hell kind of business meeting is 4 fucking hours long?!” “Relax, Niki. Everything’s gonna be fine,” you said as you gathered together a few items you might need in case of an emergency.

“Easy for you to say, I’ve never worked with kids a day in my life.” “Look, do you wanna get paid or not? Because if not, I can take all the money for myself.” “Whatever. I’ll just throw him in a ball pit anyway. That’s easy money. At that point, he’s watching himself and we’re just waiting for a check,” Niki said flicking his hair out of his eyes.

After what felt like an hour, you and Niki drove to the Galleria to meet Valerie and James.

“Hello. This is my sweet James. Say hi Jay Jay,” instead of speaking, James dug the tip of his light-up Velcro shoes in to the shiny tile floors. “He’s a little shy that’s all.” Valerie proceeded to explain to James something that he most likely already knew, ‘Mommy’s gonna go bye bye and these two strangers are gonna watch you till she’s done.’

After exchanging some information, Valerie went off to attend her business meeting.

“So…uhh…what do you like James?” “Humph,” he puffed stamping his foot. “What the hell is his problem?” Niki said flashing you a confused look. “I don’t like you,” James said, looking Niki directly in the eye.

“Me?! What’d I do? See, I knew this was a bad idea. Let’s just go bring him back to his mom and we’ll find another way to make money.”

“Niki! You have to give him a chance. Remember that his mom said he’s shy.”

“I HATE YOU!!” James shouted, before kicking Niki in the shin and pushing his legs.

“OUCH!! Shy my ass. He’s just a whiny little brat. Why else do you think his mom wanted to throw him on us?”

“Because she has a business meeting…”

“You really believe that? Do you realize how much bigger I am than you?" Niki said turning his direction to James. "I could crush every bone in your body...by accident. You're literally underdeveloped in every way. You see all those teeth in your mouth? Yea, they're all gonna fall out one day and then you'll be looking like a wrinkled turtle that sucks on lemons all day until they grow back."

“Shut up, dumbass…” James pouted.

"Niki, you can't talk to him like that," you said turning to face James. “Hey. You can’t say bad words, it’s not nice.” You said before lifting James onto your hip. “How about we go get some ice cream? Do you want that?”

“Yes! Yes! Ice creammmmm!” James shouted excitedly, throwing his hands in the air.

Niki rolled his eyes before walking with you to the ice cream shop in the mall.

You and James took a seat at the round table in the food court while Niki ordered the ice cream.

“Since we’re gonna be spending the day together, how about you tell me some things about yourself.”

“Like what?”

“Just copy me, okay,” you smiled.

“Oookay~”

“I’m, Y/N.”

“I-I’m…James.”

“See that wasn’t so bad. So James, what’s your favorite show?”

“Umm…I like Thomas.”

“Wow! Guess what?”

“What?”

“I like Thomas too.”

“Really!!” James’s eyes widened in surprise as he jumped in his seat.

“Yes, and Percy is my favorite engine.”

You didn’t really know much about this show, but you wanted to make him feel comfortable, so you played along. Thankfully, he liked a show you were at least somewhat familiar with.

“Oh yeah, he’s Thomas’s best friend!” He giggled.

“What’s so funny?”

“There was this video *giggle* with Thomas *giggle* and he kept saying charm *giggle* but then the guy got mad *giggle* and blasted him with lightning.” James struggled to say before exploding with laughter.

“Shh shh,” you chuckled causing James to immediately cover his mouth, muffling his little giggles.

“Hey, kid. I got your ice cream.” Niki smirked, gliding the bowl of ice cream across the table. “Yay! Ice cream! Yummy!” James excitedly shouting before digging in to his sundae.

“Two scoops of chocolate brownie ice cream with Oreo bits, chocolate chips, gummy bears, sprinkles, and whipped cream. Oh, and chocolate syrup.” “Yay! Thank you!” “You’re welcome,” Niki smiled.

“Was that a smile?” You teased. “Nah, I was just stretching my jaw,” Niki said as he began to make strange expressions in which James saw and started to laugh. “Do that again,” he laughed with his mouth covered in chocolate. Niki smiled at his request and made one last face before laughing himself.

“Aww has Niki made a little friend?” You teased again. “I—“ “Niki? That’s your name?” James said cutting him off. “Uhh, yeah…” “I like you Niki, your funny,” James giggled as he picked up one of the gummy bears. “Here. You can have this one,” James said, handing Niki the cherry flavored gummy bear. “Umm, thanks,” Niki said before eating the candy.

“This is too cute.” “Yea, whatever,” Niki shrugged.

“Hey, James. Do you wanna go to the ball pit after this?” “Yea!” James smiled. “Okay. Well hurry up so we can play before you have to go.” “Hmm…okay.” James's once chipper composure faded to a seemily dispondednt one.

Just as Niki said earlier, after James finished his ice cream they headed to the mall's giant ball pit.

As you were walking, a song started to play causing James to dance.

"Oh, you like to dance too huh?" "Yea. I'm the best dancer in my classroom," James said as he continued to bounce around. "Well maybe next time we can go dancing." "Really!" James stopped dancing to look at Niki. "That would be so fun!" he jumped before grabbing Niki's hand.

The two of them continued walking until they reached the ball pit.

"Niki! Niki! Are you gonna come play with me?" Niki gave an unsure look before being persuaded by James's puppy eyes. "Argh. Okay, sure. Let's go, but only for a little while." "Hehe. OKAY!!!!" James giggled before grabbing Niki's hand and running into the ball pit.

The two of them played around laughing and throwing multicolored balls through the air. About 15 minutes in, James ran off to play with another little kid around his age.

"Looks like you're having fun now huh?" "Yea, he's not too bad I guess," he shrugged.

You and Niki sat on a bench near the ball pit while you waited for James to finish playing around.

"Wheeee!" a random kid came over by you and Niki and started to spin around in a circle before plopping down to the ground, and he continued to do this a few more times before *BLECH* the kid threw up all over you and niki. "What. The. Fuck." Niki said almost in disbelief.

A woman who you assumed was the child's mother rushed over to the two of you.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY BABY??!! YOU DAMN HOOLIGANS!!" "What did we do? We didn't do shit, bitch. Next time keep a closer on your nasty ass little twerp," Niki spat before grabbing your hand and walking off.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING? YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!" the psychotic woman shouted before launching he shoe at Niki's head.

"HA! You missed me you cross-eyed hoe!"

"Niki! You're just gonna piss her off more."

"I don't fucking care. She brought her dumbass over there screaming at m--" the woman had launched her other shoe at Niki, hitting him directly in the back of the head this time.

"KEEP WALKING BASTARD!" she screamed.

Niki grabbed the shoe off the ground and launched it in her direction.

"NIKI!!" you shouted at him.

The shoe landed directly beside the woman.

"NOW LOOK WHO'S CROSS EYED YA LITTLE PUNK!"

Niki picked up the other shoe and threw it, this time he hit her between he eyes. "It's still you bitch!" Niki laughed before running behind a corner with you.

"AAAARRRRRGGHGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" the woman screamed before running after the two of you.

Niki, still holding onto your hand tightly, ran around the mall before losing her in the large crowd.

"SHIT!!!" Niki spat. "What?" "James. We forgot about James." "Oh my god!" the two of you ran back to the ball pit, hoping to God that James was still in the ball pit playing around.

"James?" you called, looking around to see if you could spot him anywhere. "JAMES!!" Niki shouted at the top of his lungs before crawling into the massive sea of plastic orbs. "JAMES!!" he yelled again.

You had never seen Niki panic before...ever.

"Do you think he left and tried looking for us?" you asked.

"If it weren't for that stupid fucking woman and her bullshit we wouldn't even be in this situation right now." "I know, but talking about it isn't gonna help. We have to find him."

You and Niki walked around the play area calling out James's name, desperatly hoping that you'd see him laughing and playing with another kid. It was of no use. You couldn't find him anywhere.

The two of you walked back to the food court and spotted a familiar face.

"James!!" Niki shouted in excitement. "Why did you leave the ball pit? Do you know how worried I was? Please don't ever do that again," Niki said pulling James into his chest.

"I'm sorry, Niki. I just didn't want to leave you," James said with teary eyes. *sniff, sniff* Still wrapped in Niki's embrace, James started to cry.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not mad at you. I was just scared something bad happened to you. And don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," Niki said as he gently patted James's head. "Do you wanna go hang out together while we finish waiting for your mom?" "Yea!" he smiled before Niki lifted him onto his back.

The two of them danced around until James finally fell asleep in Niki's arms.

"Sorry, I was running late with my meeting. I hope everything went well for-- Oh." Valerie paused seeing James cradled in Niki's lap. "No worries, ma'am," Niki smiled. "Here you go," Valerie said handing each of you an envelope. "Its $130. I hope I can get you two to help me out again sometime." "We'd love to hang out with James again," you said, smiling at Niki. "Wouldn't we?" "Yea, we definitely would," Niki smiled.

"We make a pretty good team don't we," you nudged Niki as the two of you walked to his car. "Yea, we do," Niki said before interlacing his fingers with yours and kissing your cheek.

"Ah..." "What? Too fast?" "No. I-I uhh" "You're so cute," Niki laughed. "Now get in the car, punk," he continued.

🧃.🌱.🍭.🎀.🪁.🧩.🎨.🥰.🖍️.🥁.🧸.👑.🩹.🖇️.🔆

I know these pics don't really relate to the story, but the way he's cuddling this kitty ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ I CANT!!!

❀𝚃𝚊𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝:

@chlorinecake @sussyjake @hoyeonheeseung @furious-eagle @cherrriesss @abbyizzy @weyukinluv @addictedtohobi @thatonenoona @wavykook @givemeyourtmihyun @jaeljn @hoonmywk @valennshit @19-yunalyn @hoonbby @frostedblankets @hoonsyo @no-mannerism @perfectxserendipity @chubbibish @ihrtlix @bunniesforsoobin @thereadersparadise @thatbooknerdfr @aiden2001 @belongstoheeseung @jakeybabe @donut-crazs @rizzhee @nikimeows @woonieees @uarmyxtae @rebecca-johnson-28 @they2luv1naia @isa-2007 @silcry @riverscafe @pearlwhitesoul @yohanabanana @heecries @rizzhee @heeseungsrealwife @nikittie @rickysblkgf

[cardboard-hyperfix-games]

Let's make a Character!

Today I want to show you that it is easy to make a character in my new TTRPG:

The Power Rangers inspired TTRPG that I've been working on for SIX YEARS

We'll start with getting out the HANDY, DANDY form fillable character sheet I made.

Whoa, it's a little ugly!

ANYWAYS, I've also got this other cool sheet I downloaded called the CHARACTER CREATION SUMMARY

DAMN, is it really just one page! WHOA. I mean, it's like more pages in the actually rulebook, which you will need to reference for specifics, but this totally gives us some easy steps to walk our way through.

You are a teen. In this system, we are leaning into archetypes from media, especially shows like Power Rangers and Sailor Moon. You first step is to pick at least one role from this list. If you really want two, that's probably fine. Talk with your Director (GM) about it.

Dancer sounds pretty cool. Makes me think of Zack, the Black Power Ranger, in that one episode.

Yeah, hell yeah! That rocks. Okay, so I'll go with Dancer. Slotting that in now.

So, next step.

That shouldn't be to hard. Let me think about it.

Alright, that wasn't too bad. Now my Director (GM) can start to think up some ideas of what kind of villains or bads we run into.

Okay, that makes sense. Let me pull up that table in the rulebook.

Alright, so I think that Terry's best stats are going to be in Stamina. He's dancing a lot. That'll be a 3. Then, I think his Confidence, Cleverness, and Speed are going to be the 2s. He has those, but not as much as his Stamina stands out. That leaves Strength and Concentration as his 1s. That should be fine I think? Okay, let me slot those into the sheet.

Now I'll go back to the rulebook to follow the steps for filling in the rest of the character sheet.

Awesome, now we have our SLIDING SCALE and our BRAIN and BRAWN stats. That's like, most of of the character sheet done. What's next?

This one sounds the coolest to me, so let's add it

Now for the last step.

So our Director and I talked, and she doesn't want us to have a lot of gadgets at first. She said I could pick one, so I guess I go with a Grappling Hook. That sounds cool. She says we also all have Wrist Communicators. I ask if I can play music out of the belt of my suit, and she says maybe not yet. That's something we can work on in the game.

Now with all that added, I'd done! Let's look at the whole thing.

Wow, now what? Well, I guess we wait to start playing the game.

[howlingday]

That’s cool. Now, what will the how Beacon story goes if Jaune is born a Xiao-Long? Is Yang going to be either an overprotective sister or a fun and party-loving sister to him? How would the interaction with Jaune and Weiss go?

Okay, so let's cover up to and including the initiation, starting with going to Beacon. Jaune says good-bye to Summer with Ruby and Yang, then the three go off to Beacon. Jaune and Yang were supposed to go together, but having learned Ruby managed to bust up Roman Torchwick and his goons, they're not that surprised that Ruby gets in with them... Well, Yang isn't surprised. Jaune and Tai were worried sick (literally for Jaune) when they learned Ruby got into a fight with an actual gang. Jaune spends the trip to Beacon with his sisters, flipping between being airsick to worrying about Ruby. Yang tells him to stop babying her, which Ruby agrees.

Once they arrive at Beacon, Jaune and Yang get dragged off by Yang's friends, leaving Ruby alone. Ruby explodes, Jaune helps her, this time dusting her off and making sure she's okay. She bats him away, insisting that she's fine. The two walk and talk with Jaune explaining that he's just worried about her since she was always the smallest of the three. Ruby then unfurls Crescent Rose, noting that it is at least three times heavier than Jaune's weapon. They then head to the assembly and Jaune gets dragged off by some friends. Ruby and Yang meet up, "tall, blond, and scraggly" and Jaune catching up to Ruby and Yang expressing how excited he is to be noticed by such a cute girl already, which Ruby scowls and pouts at because Weiss is nowhere close to cute.

"Oh, come on, Ruby, where else am I gonna find a girl willing to talk about me that isn't you two?" Pyrrha pops her head up.

The night before initiation and initiation itself go about the same, and Jaune now regrets not working on his "landing strategy". He was never good at it, and even now, he's still flying through the air like a dog toy. Y'know, the long arm and leg ones? Anyway, Jaune meets Pyrrha and he explains that he's still not used to this whole "being a huntsman" thing.

"Then why apply at all?"

"Well... I kinda have to." He explains. "When I was younger, my sisters and I were walking in woods, alone, and we ran into some Grimm. One of my sisters got hit and none of us had aura yet. I covered my little sister to protect her, but..." He shakes his head. "Yang's always been so headstrong, so she needs somebody to pull her back. And I didn't expect Ruby to get accepted, so now I have to protect her, too!" He sighs. "Sorry for dumping this on you. You probably think I'm worrying too much."

"No, no, I... I never had siblings myself, but I think I understand why you're here." She smiles. "I guess I'm lucky to have someone so kind as my partner." The two share a chuckle.

Jaune still manages to make the Deathstalker mad, gets flung, flies into Ruby, and manages to catch Weiss as she's falling, too. Jaune stresses about the Nevermore but decides to let Ruby and Yang take care of themselves while he and his partner deal with the Deathstalker.

The teams defeat their respective Grimm in about the same way as they did in canon.

"That's your sister?" Pyrrha asked. "She's very skilled, isn't she? Did you teach her to do all of that?"

"No." Jaune looks up to Ruby. "She did that all by herself."

As for your other two questions, I will say that Yang will still be her usual self, trying to do her balancing act between rough and tumble party girl and caring older sister. When she sees Jaune with his team, she admires how much her dorky twin grew into his own. And as for Weiss, well... I think that'll have to wait until next time.

[haunted-xander]

When she came too, she was in a bedroom she's never seen before. Her chest felt heavy still from her actions the other day, but having had proper rest helped her keep her mind steady. The door opened and Nagito came in and sat on the edge of the bed. "You're finally awake! What a relief. I was beginning to worry you'd die in your sleep!" His voice was soft and calm, betraying no emotion. Oh, Komaeda-kun. That's right... I did find him, didn't I? I'm glad... He seems okay. "Nanami-san, I'm so happy I could see you again! And to think even someone like me could help you in your time of despair! I could just-"

"Don't bother her so soon after waking. Her mind is still shaken, she needs peace." A dull, monotone voice cut off Nagito's ramblings as a man she hadn't notice come in leaned against the now closed door. Kamukura-kun... So he's joined Komaeda-kun now? Better than Enoshima-san, I guess... "Ah, of course. You're right as always, Kamukura-sama. My apologies, I didn't mean to overload you so quickly! I was just so excited... Haaahahaha~ the amount of hope that'll be born from your journey... I can't wait to see it~" Nagito wrapped his arms around himself and started shaking and drooling, all while breathy laughter escaped his lips continuously.

...Komaeda-kun's kinda easy, huh? He gets super excited so quickly... She looked back to Izuru and noticed his blank expression had shifted into slight exasperation. If he's working with Komaeda-kun, he probably deals with this all the time... He doesn't seem too annoyed though. "...Komaeda-kun... Where are we?" There were many questions she wanted to ask, but she thought it best to start simple. "We are in an abandoned house Komaeda and I have been using for some time now." Ooooh, they're roomates. Wonder how that happened. "...Nanami. You have more questions. Go ahead and ask." Izuru made a face that made it clear he knew exactly what she was thinking, but made no move to correct her or explain the circumstances. Huh. So it really is like that. Didn't expect Kamukura-kun to actually indulge Komaeda-kun like that. Cool.

"...Well, why did you help me, Komaeda-kun? You're also..." Hesitating to say it out loud, she trailed off instead. "Brainwashed? Despaired? I am aware of my situation, Nanami-san. Unlike the others, it appears I've managed to keep some hold of my mind. It is quite hard to tell what's my own thoughts and what is her influence, however..." At the mention of that girl, his face grew dark and his tone harshened considerably. "Oh yes, her... Junko Enoshima... The person I hate... and love... the most of all... I want nothing more than to see her dead..." His eyes spiralled with mania as he started shaking uncontrollably. Unlike previously, this didn't seem to be from excitement. He was rapidly coming undone. "Huh...? Do I... hate her...? Huh? Huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh-"

"Stop that." Izuru grabbed his face, snapping Nagito out of his spiral. "How boring. Your mind is strong enough to resist her brainwashing, yet awfully weak to the thought of that boring girl. I much prefer you with your mind intact." He leaned closer until their noses were almost touching. ...Is he gonna...? I guess that'd help snap Komaeda-kun out of it, but is that really appropriate right now...? "Ka-Kamu-Kamuk-kura-s-samaaaaa... I lo-love youuuuuu... I hate y-you............" Nagito began rambling about nonsense until he passed out and ended up falling backwards onto Chiaki,s legs. Is he okay...? I hope this isn't a common occurance... Poor Komaeda-kun... At least Kamukura-kun is here to take care of him, I guess... "...It seems the questions will have to wait until later. Rest, Nanami."

"...What about Komaeda-kun?"

"I will take care of him. He will be fine." Without another word, he picked up Nagito's unconscious body and left the room. Chiaki decided to go back to sleep for the time being.

+ A bonus!

[danielfosseyart]

Daniel Watches She-Ra & The Princesses Of Power

-S1E1- 'The Sword Part 1'

Today's She-Ra Watch Art: This shitty Glimmer doodle.

Look I promise they won't all be garbage ;-; I promise

Okay I wanna preface: Not every post is gonna be this detailed, I didn't even intend to go on this long with just one episode but I lost track of time. Some posts I'll be short & sweet. Some I'll be long winded to a comical degree. Depends on my feeling.

I think I'll just keep it to one paragraph per episode, & only pull out the long rambles when I finish a season. I think that'll work. Yeah.

Okay so I have no idea who any of these people are because I literally just started but one of these guys is a lizard. I'm a huge sucker for lizard people in anything ever so I immediately like this fucker. He's a lizard, that is all I need. He's just instantly cool because lizards are fucking rad as hell dude.

So Cat-Ra speaks, that first fucking line of hers.

The fucking "Hey Adora"

The first fucking thing I said to myself, out loud, was the immediate reaction I had to that line: "Oh so they're gay."

I don't know if it's like canon or not but one of the things I know about this show is people ship them a lot. I have no idea if that's actually like a canon thing in the show or not but I've seen a lot of fanart of them so I know people at the very least WANT them to kiss or hold hands or get married & buy a house in the suburbs & raise like 5 kids & watch Shrek on VHS & talk about doing their taxes or whatever idk.

That being an actual thing in the show itself? Uh I guess I'll see what happens so who the fuck knows man. Maybe they just explode idk.

But like....dude. DUDE. The fucking way Cat-Ra said it was just....

SO fucking extra like that immediately felt fruity to me. I'm already getting that vibe from her. On top of that, the way her & Adora continue to interact in the episode also give off a very distinct vibe, a rather, ahem, 'fruity' vibe. I think I'm already getting the idea of why this ship is popular. I do believe I see the vision.

Also, quick tangent, I LOVE the way the animators animated Cat-Ra like an actual cat. Her hair getting puffed up when she's agitated, her ears moving to reflect her mood. Her eyes dilating like how cat eyes actually do. THEY EVEN ALSO MADE HER PURR LIKE AN ACTUAL CAT, LIKE SHE AUDIBLY CAN BE HEARD PURRING. THAT'S SUCH AN ADORABLE DETAIL & IT MAKES HER IMMEDIATLEY ENDEARING AS FUCK.

Also I guess it makes sense Cat-Ra would be into women, yeah?

Because it makes sense that CAT-Ra would be interested in PUSSY.

(Please Laugh) (I'm desperate please think I'm funny I need this)

Now moving on, let me talk about this BITCH.

One. Compared to the original Shadow Weaver, they sure did make her a way more intimidating villain.

Two. FUCK THIS BITCH??????

THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU FUCKING BITCHY, INKBLOT LOOKING, WACKY WAVING TUBE MAN HAIR HAVING, WIZARD-WANNABE MOTHERFUCKER? LITERALLY SHUT UP

+ NO ONE CARES & ALSO YOU SMELL BAD

+ YOU LOOK LIKE A BOOTLEG ERMAC

+ YOU'RE MEAN TO CAT-RA, I MEAN HONESTLY, WHO THE FUCK JUST BULLIES A CAT?

IMAGINE BULLYING A FUCKING CAT. FUCK THIS BITCH.

I DO NOT CARE FOR THIS WOMAN.

HER SMUG AURA MOCKS ME.

Hi so I immediately love you?? Like instantly my favorite character just from the design alone. Glimmer is so real honestly.

I also like Bow, like, Bow is just so fucking cool & nice? He's such a real one, I wanna be best friends with him & hang out he's just so lovable like he's just awesome. I love this man immediately. He deserves all the good in the world actually.

Also holy shit the contrast between Bow in the original show vs this reboot design.

It's funny, the original design WAY more gay than the new one.

The new one that a lot of people (and by people I mean homophobic douchenozzles.) complained about, the design for Bow in this supposedly 'woke tumblr sjw cartoon' has a design that is far less homoerotic in it's design & feel.

The original Bow just outright looks like a fucking gay pornstar.

He's got the trademark 'Gay Porno Mustache™' & everything.

Okay so there's a magic sword or something, etc.

They mentioned Eternia.

Okay so, one of the reasons the original she-ra was lame as fuck compared to He-Man? No Skeletor.

Hordak & literally all the villains in the original show suck ass.

They fucking suck. Hordak is just Skeletor but boring & shitty.

Why the FUCK did they not take the oppurtunity to replace Hordak with Skeletor? You don't even need to add He-Man, I'm fine with that.

But You could have just taken She-Ra & added a better villain because Skeletor fucking rules. He calls people boobs. That's fucking awesome & cool. WHERE IS HE? WHERE THE FUCK IS SKELETOR? LOOK SHOW. HORDAK WAS FUCKING LAME AS FUCK.

SO IF THIS REBOOT IS GOING TO CONVINCE ME THAT HORDAK IS IN ANY WAY A LEGITIMATELY COOL VILLAIN, THEN THEY BETTER FUCKING PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS BECAUSE IT'S GONNA TAKE A LOT TO CONVINCE ME THAT THEY WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF JUST USING SKELETOR INSTEAD. LIKE, YOU BETTER FUCKING IMPRESS ME BECAUSE OTHERWISE, THE LACK OF SKELETOR IS GONNA BE A HUGE FLAW THAT YOU CANNOT OVERLOOK.

I mean, so far they managed to make me actually LIKE Cat-Ra, & the original Cat-Ra fucking sucks. Shadow Weaver sucked & so far at least this reboot Shadow Weaver is actually intimidating. But man, you better fuckin' impress me show, because the lack of Skeletor is felt deep within my soul.

OH wait hold on.

Okay I see why everyone said this show is gay now.

Anyways I didn't mean to ramble on this long about the show in just one episode, I promise this is gonna be a rare occurrence. I think from now on, I'll keep it shortened to just one paragraph per post. I'll only pull out these long posts when I finish a season or something.

Anyways uh:

-Glimmer is the best

-I'm sorry but I'm not over the skeletor thing WHY DID YOU NOT USE HIM HE WAS RIGHT THERE-

[jpitha]

Just a Little Further 27

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Okay, you can do this. She just represents Venus, and everyone outside of their own space hates them, she's just the second in line to all of the Venusian Empire, she came in a massive warship 'to offer assistance' and...

she looks so cool.

No, stop thinking about that. They're not good guys, we're not going to be friends. What am I going to do? Ugh, she's so cool and collected and just standing there. it's like she's demanding I come running and jump into her arms. Maybe they'll be friendly?

No Melody. Stay focused. Think about Ava. She hates Venus. You'd make Ava so mad if you got friendly with Venus. Dinner. Invite them to dinner. I can use my Voice then, and make them leave us alone. Yes. That'll work.

I hope.

"Thank you so much for coming to visit us. Please, I would love to extend an invitation to your whole crew to come to dinner tonight. We'll set up a banquet and everyone can be welcomed officially."

Raaden inclines her head. "We graciously accept. Currently It is slightly after lunch, on our ships time, when would you plan on eating?"

"It is a few standard hours after breakfast here, it looks like you're a little ahead of us. If you could possibly have a light snack around your dinner and then come see us for a late evening meal? Ten standard hours from now?"

She clapped her hands together, her eyes bright. "Wonderful, I do so enjoy a late dinner. Shall we bring anything? I have a stock of various alcohols as well as coffee and tea-" her eyes flick to Um'reli "-even Chamomile."

Um'reli's eyes meet Raaden's. I know she hasn't had good tea since we got here. Politically, Venus never had an issue with the K'laxi and the K'laxi didn't really mind Venus. There were rumors that the K'laxi and Venus had unofficial official trade agreements and even more wild rumors that hig up in K'laxi people were friendly with the Emperor. I don't believe it though.

When Um'reli meets Raaden's glance. Raaden winks at her. I can see her suppress a blush. Good, at least it's not only me. Is she doing something to us? Does Venus have Nanites?

There are no Nanites that we detect Empress, just your and Um'reli's raging libido.

Quiet.

Oh, more coffee would be so nice. I ran out 4 months ago, it's been awful going without. I can't let it go without asking, I just can't.

Be wary of enemies offering gifts, Empress.

"We do find ourselves running low on luxuries from human space, some coffee and tea would be most appreciated."

"Then it's settled. We shall all come for dinner, and tomorrow we can get down to the business of business. With your permission I shall station two guards outside of our entrance, just for the look of the thing."

I nod. "Yes, that's no problem at all. Thank you for asking."

She smiled and I melted slightly. "We are here to serve." She snapped her fingers sharply and four of the guards turned smartly and walked back in through the umbilical, and when they have left she made a gesture at the other two who put their rifles on their back, and stood at parade rest on either side of the umbilical. She then turned and went inside herself, and the umbilical closed behind her.

Mindful of the guards, I turned back to my group and said "Please, come with me to the Throne, we have a dinner to plan." As we walked, I thanked Sep and Vaaqo for their assistance and coming to meet the Venusians, and I invited them both to dinner.

Vaaqo gestured a kind no thank you. "That is very generous of you Empress, but I cannot take meals anywhere but in our sector. Our pressure suits are not designed for...cuisine."

"Ah yes, that makes sense Vaaqo, I apologize."

"Not necessary Empress. I am here to serve."

Sep seemed to be of two minds about it. As head of Security on this level he does get his fair share of fancy meals, but rarely with the Empress; he also seems intimidated by the Venusians. That was probably deliberate on Archduke Raaden's part given her highly polished troopers. "Ah, I would very much like to attend, Empress, but I'm afraid that I cannot. We have much to do to prepare for visitors to be spending time here, even if only for a short while."

Intimidation won then. "It is fine Sep, I am glad you came to meet the Venusian Archduke today. I shall dispatch a runner if you are needed."

Sep nodded and hurried back. They seemed to be in a hurry to put some distance between us.

The Venus contingent worries them. We are worried too. Venus seems to know how to be Imperial better than yourself, even with our help. You would be wise to use your Voice on them as soon as you can. Perhaps at dinner when they are all gathered.

Yes, that was my plan too. Hence the last minute dinner invite.

Once we got some distance from the guards and turned a corner towards the Throne Ava turned to me and hissed "Dinner? You invited them to Dinner? What were you thinking?"

Um'reli looked over at Ava surprised. "Melody invited the whole crew. At dinner she can just use her Voice on them and they'll do what we say."

Ava threw up her hands "But it's Venus, Um'reli. They're not to be trusted."

"And we won't trust them Ava. But we can't just give them the cold shoulder, that's more suspicious." Huh, Omar is backing me up too. I wonder what happened with Ava and Venus.

She has a history with the Venusians.

You think?

We would bet 10 Skys on it.

Hmm.

I look at Um'reli and Omar. They seem to have the same idea I do, I don't need to convince them. "Head on back to the Throne. Dispatch a couple runners to one of the fancier restaurants on this level. Let them know we need a banquet fit for an Empress tonight at the Royal Dawn. We will cover all expenses.

"You got it Melody, I think I know just the place." Omar turns to Um'reli "It's that place we went to last month that did that roasted vegetable dish with the white sauce."

"Oh I loved that place! Good idea!" They walk off towards the Throne, lightly arguing about the menu.

I turn to Starlight on a Moonless evening and Rapid River Roaring. "We do not trust the Venusians."

They nod, their feathers ruffling worriedly. "It is as you say, Empress. Are you worried about an attack?"

"I hope it does not come to that. They are known more for their... treachery than outright combat. Still, if they were to attack right now we would be at an disadvantage. I'm hopeful that we can... use dinner to our advantage."

River nodded. "You plan on ordering them to not attack."

"Something like that yes. But just in case... make sure that Sep and Security is ready. If you have to arm them with something more powerful than stun clubs, you have permission to do so."

Starlight and River shared a glance and had some long conversation in body language. River nodded once at Starlight. "Yes Empress. I know just what to do. Thank you for trusting us."

"You and Starlight both have been integral to our work here. Thank you for trusting me."

Starlight shook their head. "We did not treat you... appropriately when we first met. It would have been entirely expected and within your rights to have us killed after the attack. We are... in your debt for your kindness."

"Thank you River, thank you Starlight. Your work here shows your love for the Reach. Go. Dispatch a runner if you need anything."

They both nod and peel off at the next intersection. As they walk, I see Starlight grab River's hand. Hmm.

Now it's just me and Ava. "Ava? Do you have a moment? Come with me." As we continue on to the Royal Dawn I take Ava's hand. "Walk with me, Ava."

She takes my hand and squeezes it gently. "You're going to ask me about Venus, aren't you."

"Only if you want to tell me. I don't need Nanites to tell me that something about them bothers you beyond their attitudes towards AIs."

Ava looks out at the promenade as we walk. She's weighing something in her mind. "Melody, I was born in Regantown, one of the largest of the floating cities."

Venus's atmosphere is much to thick and toxic for people to live on the surface, but it turns out that about halfway up the temperatures and pressures are pretty close to Earth. When outside you just need a mask for oxygen and you could almost forget you're not on Earth. Before they developed their military and started expanding, Imperial Venus was mostly a tourist destination. Resorts, Casinos, that kind of thing.

"I see. Well, it certainly explains your feelings about them."

She nods. "We moved away when I was about 10 or so to Hyacinth, one of the High Mars Cities. It's one of the Orbitals over the graveyard of the billionaires?"

I nodded. High Mars locals call the surface of Mars the graveyard of the billionaires. Long ago, in the beginning of our life in space, some billionaires got the idea that they were going to make some kind of capitalist Utopia on the surface of Mars. They spent trillions and countless people died to realize their dream. In the end, they died too. Most were killed. Regardless, nobody wound up colonizing the surface of Mars.

Ava continued "Even though Hyacinth was right on the border between Venus and the OPA, it was still better than living in Regantown. Melody, Venus is bad news. They say they only care about rising up human voices and making sure "we're" heard, but it's so much more than that. The only voice they want to raise is their own, at the cost of everyone else. All their rhetoric is about AIs, but that's only because it's their most convenient bad guy. If they had their way, they'd eliminate anyone not born in the Floating Cities."

Ava finally turned and looked me in the eye. "Melody, please. Trust me. Don't take any gifts from Venus. Don't do anything to make us owe them anything. Don't take their advice, don't take their volunteers. Don't take their gifts. We don't need them."

The corners of her eyes were wet. " We don't want them."

Oh Ava. I spun her around and kissed her and hugged her deeply. "Ava, I had no idea you felt this strongly. Of course I trust you. How about instead of not taking anything and sending them on their way we take everything from them instead?

She looks up and starts with "Didn't you he-" and then she sees me wicked grin and gasps. "Melody! What are you going to do?"

I hug her again. "Make sure that Venus can't hurt you or anyone here. I have an idea. Come on, I need your help." and we walk off, planning.

After not nearly enough time, it was dinner.

I have to admit that my retinue is worth their weight in Skys at this point. I told them just after breakfast that we were hosting a banquet for the Venusians and they:

Found tables and chairs and tablecloths and plates and everything somewhere. I haven't asked where, I don't think I want to know.

Worked with the restaurant that Omar and Um'reli picked to develop an entire menu with local dishes that are most likely to be liked by people who have never been here.

Found/made/acquired decorations! I have no idea where or how they did it, but they set it up in a hall at the Royal Dawn and it looks amazing. It looks elegant and royal and...

"It's perfect! Thank you so much everyone!"

City and Vaaqo and the others bow low. "It was our pleasure Empress. Thanks must be given to the Royal Dawn staff too. They were responsible for much of the work."

I turn and face Wind Rustled Leaves, the manager at the Royal Dawn. "Thank you Wind, your work here is simply amazing."

Wind bobs a bow and stands up straight. "It is always our pleasure to be the place that you call home Empress. We are here to serve. If we can impress people from your side of the galaxy with our food and fine dining, all the better."

"And my Builder Ava has reached out to you...?"

"About your request? Yes, she has. Please do not worry. Everything is in place and we will be ready when we receive the signal from her."

I look around. Everything seems to be in place. I mentally reach out to Ava "You in place?"

I'm in my chair and am ready. Looks like I was right, there wasn't that many people on the Lavinia. No more than 30.

"So does that mean she lied about the volunteers?"

Probably not, but she pointedly did not say how many she had. I bet there's under 10. I bet that not too many of them actually volunteered. I bet most where volun-told to go.

"If any are really here because they want to help, we could use them."

After you have a Talk with them, maybe I still think it's too risky. Go grab Um'reli and Omar, it's showtime.

I leave the Royal Dawn and take the quick walk to the Throne. Omar and Um'reli are there, waiting. Their Builder uniforms are clean and pressed smart looking. I stop and concentrate for a moment, and I switch to my more royal gown, complete with the long train and higher heels. I tweak the neckline down a little bit as well, two can play at the intimidation game. "Okay, let's go get the Venusians. We have a dinner to host."

"What about Ava?" Um'reli looks around, wondering.

"She's going to stay here, connected to the Throne while we eat. I've got her doing... some reconnaissance for us."

Omar raises an eyebrow but says nothing. We make our way towards the docks and as we arrive, I see them.

There are maybe two dozen Venusians milling around, all in dress uniforms and all looking around in wonder. This is the first time they've been able to leave their ship, so it's time to impress. I flare my crown and wings and greet them.

"Friends! Welcome! I'm so glad you could make it. Please follow us and we shall take you to the Royal Dawn, where a wonderful banquet awaits you."

Archduke Raaden sees me and smiles warmly. I'm taken aback. She's in an extremely classy dress. It's slim and black and clings to her alluringly. She's wearing very tall heels that are black with blood red on the underside, and you get flashes of color as she walks. The dress has a slit up her leg that goes almost all the way up. She is standing with that leg forward too. She's trying very hard. Perhaps my talk with Ava or the Nanites has cooled me a bit on her, but wow, she looks good. She waves us over, and in her other hand is a package. "Please Empress. Take this with the thanks of Venus."

It's coffee, tea and a couple bottles of wine Melody, it's fine.

Thanks Ava. Anyone left aboard the Lavinia?

Yes, looks like maybe 5 or 6 people? Not too many.

Too much to hope that they'd take everyone I guess.

That was never in the cards Melody, Venus is too paranoid. I'd assume at least one or two of the people left are highly ranked and/or excellent warriors.

Agreed.

I take the package and open it carefully in front of everyone. It's a basket containing two packages of coffee - it's from Earth! This is serious stuff! - as well as three bottles of wine and two packages of Chamomile tea. I'm going to have to beg Ava to let us have some after they leave, this is too nice to just throw away.

"This is a thoughtful and useful gift, Archduke. We are in your debt." and I incline my head just a bit.

Don't go overboard Melody.

Archduke Raaden laughs lightly. "It's nothing at all. It is only things we had in our stores, though I appreciate your kinds words. Please, call me Helen, we don't need to stand on such ceremony here.

Did you notice that? She doesn't like her name. She doesn't want to be called Helen, but she offers it to you anyway. She is an excellent player of this game. Do not trust her. She has buried her real feelings and opinions of us very deep.

Both Omar and Ava said Raaden is known to be ruthless and extremely perceptive.

You are wise to listen to them. It is too bad really. She would be an excellent Builder and an asset if she was on our side.

She would never do it.

Correct Empress. We are merely lamenting that fact.

"Helen, please come with me. Allow us to lead your party to dinner." I give her my hand.

She takes it and squeezes gently and slides close. "Oh Empress, please lead the way." she purrs.

Melody.

Jealous?

Yes actually. Don't go falling for her.

Oh Ava, I only meant to make you a little jealous. It's kind of fun to wind you up. I won't fall for her. Not after our talk earlier today. Actually since we talked, this whole thing comes off as...

Desperate? Yes, I get the same impression. She's laying it on too thick now.

As we walk slowly, I notice Raaden look around. She can't help herself, she seems impressed.

"So what do you think of my Reach of the Might of Vzzx so far, Helen?"

"It's so fascinating. I don't think I've ever seen a starbase this large, not even the High Mars Orbitals are this big. The Venusian floating cities are larger of course, but they're not spaceworthy."

"Home to over 11 million people of all different kinds." I am rightfully proud of my new home.

"And there are humans around here too?"

"At one time there were, or people that were genetically very close to us. As near as we can tell though, we are some of the last, if not the last outright on this side of the galaxy. Once we have a starship again, we plan on visiting other locations and seeing who is there."

"Amazing. So how did they get to Earth?"

"We think what happened is that a splinter group of Builders fled to Earth and destroyed their Gate so people couldn't follow. We don't know exactly when though, and we don't know if the Builders were Humans, or just... compatible with them."

Raaden looks around as we walk. "So then you've come back here, where we belong to take up our rightful place."

"Well, sort of. We did find that they were doing mostly fine without us, so we work extra hard to be needed. We did discover that the Reach was starting to fail from a lack of Builder involvement, so we've been spending the last few months getting things back up and running properly, but it was still almost a century that they ran fine without any Builders here. Things were well designed."

Raaden nods. "Smart. Get them to love you and not be able to live without you. We were right to come here. What you're doing here will be so beneficial back home."

"In what way?"

She shrugs and leans in closer as we walk. She is wearing a scent. It smells of flowers and wood and something I can't quite place. It's quite nice actually. "People back home place too much faith in their AI partners. They rely on them. They expect them to come to their aid whenever called." Her face hardens as she talks. These are things she truly believes, the mask is slipping. "It's only a matter of time before they decide that things would be better off if they were in charge. And then where will humanity be? Subordinate. Subordinate to people we made." She shakes her head and the mask returns. "But out here? Here you are showing everyone that humanity still has a place. A place at the top."

I sure hope she doesn't notice my gooseflesh while she talks, or mistakes it for attraction. She is genuinely scary.

What did I tell you, Melody? These are not people one allies with.

Ava is correct. This Raaden is extremely dangerous.

"Here we are, the Royal Dawn hotel. It is my home away from Throne."

The joke goes unnoticed or politely ignored, I'm not sure which

She ignored it, Empress.

Not everyone can appreciate the finer points of word play I suppose.

"Come everyone, this way!" I lead them through the entrance and into the hall that has been set up. The lighting is low, but still bright enough to see, the tables are made up and look warm and inviting. Everyone begins to find places to sit as I lead Raaden to a table at the front of the room, elevated slightly over the others. Omar and Um'reli are sitting there already. As we approach they stand and bow. "Empress. Archduke, please join us."

We walk up and Raaden sits. I look around and everyone seems to be seated. There is curious conversation and people are looking around excitedly.

Ava, are we ready?

Yes Melody. Raaden and 4 others are armed two at each table. Raaden and the armed ones are wearing ear protection too. They look like human standard active noise cancelling buds. It looks like they expect you to use your Voice.

Ah, but if only it was my voice that did it, she'd be protected. She did walk close to me for 10 minutes on the way here, laughing and talking and breathing air so, so close to me. Everyone here has been breathing the Nanite saturated air the entire time they've been here. As near as Omar and Um'reli can tell, that's the secret to the Voice. People need to be in direct contact with me or areas I control. The air here is absolutely saturated with Nanites.

I look over at the assembled people and turn back to Raaden. "My Friends! Before we begin, I'd like to say a few short words." I raise a glass and gesture out towards everyone.

Ŷ̸͇̞̭̫͕̟̻̺͖̣̅̎̔͆̉̕̚ͅo̵̥̲̰̫̼̹̣̟͉͎̭͔̯̯͋͑̍͑̿͒͋̏̂̈̈́͜͜û̵̢̻͖̙̪̪͚̜͕̻͆̈̏̓̇̽̄͐͒͆͌͊̈́̃͜͝ ̶̨̛̛̮̱̻̟̹̖̽̎̎̋̇́͂͌b̸̛̰́̾̄̄ę̵͈͇̬̲̮͖̯̦̺͍̞͛́̔̀̎̇̾̓̅̐̈́̎̚͘̚l̸̙̟̺̫͙̮͔̓̄̋͒͌̋́͛̓̔͊͘͝͠ǫ̵̘̳̔̄̋̉́͝͠n̴̫̯̺̅͜g̵͖̼̥̥͕̏̏ͅ ̸̝̞̰̀͋̂̆t̴̺̖͓̤̀̐̅̽̉̐͋̇͂̀͗̓͆͘͘͠͠ö̴̠̬͕̲͙̗̲́̂̇̾̈̅̀͂̆̀̀̍̚͠ͅ ̶̡̢̙̮͕̤̖̣͚̳̣͚̃͊́͛̍͆̋̈̚m̸̪͖͕̻̼͕̏͋̐̏̿e̸̘̫̜͖̳̮͕͊͆͜ͅ ̶̞͈̩̤̗͉̖̲͖̜̤̏̈̾̿͑͑̓̈̾͊͒̀̃̚͜n̷̢̡͍̼̰͙̹̘͙̱͉̞̩̰͙͝ö̶̡̪͓̖̯̤̠̱͓͈̳̫͒̏͋͛̃́͐̈́̒̓̐͌͝w̶̢̢̡̛͕͕͙̬͊͌͊͋̊̓̊͗̾̆͆̕͘̚.̵͍̙͕̈́̈́͒̇̈́̽̏́

Part 28

[ofstormsandfire]

How do you approach plotting? Have you ever analyzed other story's plot?

I don't, next question-

Okay, that's a joke, if I tried to approach my stories without plotting I would have the same problem I had back when I was first starting to write, which was that I'd tend to forget important details and/or come up with really cool things that I could have foreshadowed if I'd known about them.

Plot is a strong word for what I do, though. I usually don't have outlines, exactly, so much as "a whole lot of vaguely organized notes" because otherwise if I spend enough time not working on a fic I will forget all the cool stuff I had planned and then I'll be sad when I remember it too late to include it.

This is, incidentally, a large part of why my stories rarely adhere to their projected chapter/wordcount lol. I'm wordy and I know it.

Some amount of planning ahead is definitely crucial for me, though. I don't let myself seriously start a project unless I have, at absolute minimum:

A solid idea for the beginning

A solid idea for the ending

A vague idea for how to get from the beginning to the ending

And at least a few major events that'll happen along the way

Ideally, more than that is better, but I do tend to write a lot of story notes and not coincidentally I have had a significant decrease in silly continuity errors since then.

As for other stories' plots... not actively, I don't think? Maybe subconsciously. I tend to have a pretty good sense for pacing in my own work and others, like if something is happening too fast or too slow.

Though, now that I think about it, I did have that internship at a publishing company for school last semester where I did have to actively analyze the plots of various manuscripts submitted to the press, and I do think seeing what others were doing (good and bad) did actually improve my own sense of it all.

Thanks for the ask! I should go dig up my notes for some of my past stories sometimes, those might be amusing for y'all to see-