#they'd take ages to properly write out

[evermorethecrow]

HI GUYS!! QUICK QUESTION

[bluegiragi]

I hate to ask this cause it feels stupid but I dont wanna do a bunch of research on whatever the recent cod mw fandom discourse is,

but I saw the reblog of someone accusing you of supporting people who write sexualized pedophilia and that really is personally my only """"moral"""" with nsfw shit, (I'm a patreon subscriber and ig I just wanna know where my money's going) is THAT true?

i used to follow an artist who, 5-6 months ago made racist art featuring gaz and soap in a slave context, which I didn't like, retweet or interact with in any way. they also made under-age art of ghost soap, which I also didn't interact with . people on twitter called me out yesterday, for retweeting (months before this incident) other art they'd made as evidence I stood by/encouraged/was an avid fan of all these tropes. The art I retweeted wasn't either of these previous examples of art, but one where ghost and soap were sleeping in a bed together, as adults, peacefully. I can't emphasise enough that I have not interacted with this artist at all, for over six months. The callout in question has framed me as a close friend of theirs when, in truth, our total timeline of interactions could probably be counted on one hand, and I haven't interacted with her in so long that I genuinely forgot I was still following her.

The crux of all is this is that I did not unfollow + block this artist earlier on when the racist art was posted months ago, and then I retweeted a fic tagged with "non-con" (ghost gets soap off in a context where he can't really properly consent, they're in front of a crowd of strangers and they have to fuck, but both parties are into each other) written by a friend as I wanted to support their writing.

The pedophile claims are because I retweeted a fandom bingo post that defended loli-con without reading all the squares properly, and then immediately un-retweeted it when I properly read it. All in all, the post was on my account for maybe a few minutes.

The zoophile claims are because people say i support someone who wrote zoophilic fic and called people slurs, and I genuinely don't know who they're talking about there.

The anti-asian racism claims come from the original accusers in the callout thread thinking that I made Horangi's eyes in the monster!AU sensitive as a way of making fun of Asian eyes. The real reason is because he's a cat hybrid in that AU and cats are sensitive to light.

I tried addressing all this in a casual way earlier on in a misguided attempt to sort things out more 'civilly', and responded to an ask talking about my "support" for the artist who drew the slave Gaz art by saying the fanart in question was tone deaf and in poor taste. It wasn't enough for some people, so I'm happy to say it clearly- yes, it was racist, and the reason why I didn't want to be more aggressive is because I didn't want to extend all this mess by throwing this artist directly to the wolves - I genuinely believed them at the time when they said that wasn't that their intention, and think they should've deleted the post at the time, but not unfollowing was a decision that I made. I know now upon reflection that it was naive of me, unwarranted and frankly irresponsible to take a stranger at face value and believe they had good intentions, when the act of not deleting the post in question was evidence of a lack in remorse. In the moment, I'd thought back to my own personal experience with a friend of mine who used an asian slur in my company, who later sincerely apologised and legitimately cleaned up his act after I gave him a second chance. It informed my choice to not unfollow at the time, but there's a difference between someone you know irl for months and a stranger on the internet you've interacted with a few times. I shouldn't have coddled them in my response, and I'm sorry for not treating it with the severity it deserved. It was callous, and stupid, and indicative of internal biases that I ever thought it was a light enough offence to "see through", and I deeply deeply apologise. I promise from the bottom of my heart to do better.

That's everything so far. I didn't unfollow an artist when I absolutely should've, which i'll always strongly regret. I also retweeted a properly-tagged fic on my clearly 18+ nsfw account. I've undone both of those actions now. I hope this can be the end of it.

[insipid-drivel]

Toxins, Venom, and Poisons in Historical Western Medicine: How Are We Not Extinct From Doing Some Of This To Ourselves?

This piece is an involuntary piece inspired by @writing-with-sophia's awesome post "Poison list", which is an accurate and succinct list of commonly known (and ancient!) poisons, venoms, and toxins that have been and were used for causing poisoning in ancient and recent history. I wanted to write this because what struck me by their post crossing my dash was, the sheer number of poisons listed that were - and even still are - used as mainstays for healthcare around the world throughout the ages!

OBLIGATORY DON'T BE A DUMBASS PSA: If you're planning on incorporating these poisons into your HISTORICAL-era writing, it's also important to remember that many of them were used for medicinal purposes at one time, too, and it's great you're interested in learning about the subject! And also, you shouldn't try ANY of these! I will not tell you how to do it at home if you DM me, so don't! You are not appropriately trained to do it! You will harm or kill yourself and possibly your loved ones if you fuck around with any of these and it will be 100% your fault and you absolutely should feel bad bout it! I've seen some of you idiots believe 4chan posts about making home-grown crystals using recipes for actual mustard gas and seen you being wheeled into the ER on the news! I will not feel bad if you get yourself hurt if you screw around with any of these plants, elements, or animals!

Resource blog plugs and PSA over, now for the Hilariously Poisonous Medicines:

If you're writing something that's meant to take place prior to the advent of our more modern understanding of poisons, venoms, and toxins, factoring in "this is toxic to me NOW, but what about 500 years ago?" can add a lot of opportunities for interesting plot elements to your story.

These can include someone accidentally poisoning themselves with a toxic drug or substance that wouldn't have killed them if they'd handled it properly - like tansy? Grows all over the place in Europe and England? That'll kill you if you harvest it too late in the season, but it's good for intestinal parasites when it's harvested early in the year and processed right.

Did the lady's maid really kill her mistress with belladonna? Or was she trying to secretly help her mistress get rid of an unwanted pregnancy?

The protagonist's children can't survive to make it to weaning age! Is the wetnurse a poisoner, or does the milkman hide that he sells sour milk by pouring Borax into it so no one could taste it and has no idea he's killing his clients' babies?

Nuance and cultural mores regarding historical views about poisons and toxins can make writing even more fun, dynamic, and interesting! Explore 'em!

Just... please don't try any of this crap yourself. You will poison yourself, it will hurt, you will die, and you will hurt the entire time you're dying. Using OP's master list alone, here's the flip side of these lethal beasts through the eyes of our distant ancestors who believed illness was caused by "vapors", "bad air", and "imbalanced humors":

Hemlock:

Used across multiple different cultures in history. When properly administered to treat a disease, poison hemlock was used to treat asthma, whooping cough, bronchitis, joint/bone pain, muscle cramps, and insomnia. Hemlock was most often used as a sedative and antispasmodic.

Arsenic:

Arsenic is a heavy metal, and so has been used in everything from making specialty dyes for wallpapers (Scheele's green is the most infamous arsenic-based paint; Queen Victoria once had a guestroom in her palace redone with Scheele's green wallpaper. The first dignitary to stay there had to be carried out and taken to emergency care after breathing astronomical amounts of arsenic dust from the wallpaper's paint), to medicine. Arsenic was especially commonly used in history to treat skin ailments ranging from acne, to psoriasis, to syphilis sores. It was also sometimes prescribed for menstrual cramps, upset stomachs, colic, and arthritis, among many, many other things.

Cyanide:

Uh... I have literally never found any evidence of cyanide in medicine, outside of its use in modern medicine as part of certain chemical lab tests for measuring urine ketone bodies that involve no contact with a patient whatsoever. Cyanide literally works in less than a few seconds to render your entire body incapable of absorbing OR using oxygen in your lungs or already existing in your blood. Cyanide is really only good at making things that breathe not breathe anymore.

Nightshade:

There are a lot of different "nightshades", so being specific is essential here. Potatoes are nightshades. Tomatoes are nightshades. Calling anything a "nightshade" does not inherently mean it's lethally toxic. Belladonna is probably the most notorious of the "deadly" nightshades, but to this day, is still used medicinally, and would actually be seen as a health and cosmetic mainstay in historical fiction, especially if your setting is in Italy!

Belladonna is an Italian portmanteau for "beautiful woman", because tinctures (water-based drops) of belladonna were commonly used by Italian women as eyedrops to dilate their eyes and appear more attractive, aroused, and desirable. Today, belladonna's eye-dilating effects are still used by optometrists to dilate the pupils! Belladonna has been, and still sometimes is used as an NSAID, general painkiller, motion sickness treatment, asthma medication, and even as a treatment for IBS.

Ricin:

As OP said, Ricin is derived from the toxin found in Castor Beans, and is surprisingly new as an official "the only reason this is made is to make someone dead" poison. Not only is ricin a popular "nobody would think to test for this!" choice in mystery/thriller writing, but it has been used for political assassinations in real life before. Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian anti-Communist dissenter and writer, was killed in 1978 with a 1.7mm diameter ricin-coated pellet shot into his thigh muscle by an unidentified assailant using a modified umbrella as a gun. He died 4 days later.

Historically, castor OIL has been used for medicinal purposes, especially for treating constipation, inducing labor in pregnancy, and as a topical skin moisturizer. If you've ever watched the opening scene in Disney's "Peter Pan", when the childrens' mother is trying to give them a spoonful of medicine each, she's actually giving them castor oil! Castor oil tastes really bad (so much so that flavorings like cinnamon were often added to try to muffle the taste), so the childrens' reluctance and disgust at their mom making them take their medicine is very realistic for the era the movie came out in!

Strychnine:

Another lethal poison that started life as a medicine/food additive. Strychnine is no longer used medicinally at all today, but historically, it was used to stimulate the heart, treat bladder and bowel incontinence, and limb palsy. Strychnine is a deadly-powerful muscle stimulant that, as a poison, causes horrifyingly painful full-body strictures (spasms) and destroys the cardiovascular system. (Fun fact: Strychnine and hydrochloric acid were historically mixed into cheap vodka to make knock-off gin, especially during the Georgian Era in England if the brewer didn't have or couldn't afford juniper berries!)

Snake Venom:

Seriously, do your research before you write an actual, real snake species using venom they don't produce! The Big 3 Forms Of Snake Venom are: Hemotoxic, Neurotoxic, and Cytotoxic. Specific snake species exclusively generate the same kind of venom (so a hemotoxic snake will ALWAYS produce baby snakes that also make hemotoxic venom). Aristotle himself wrote in 380 BC that certain snake venoms could be applied for treating fevers, smallpox, and leprosy, and there is even some evidence in the historical record prior to the 1800s that different cultures have experimented throughout the eons with using venom for converting into antivenom, but I've never found a source citing anyone making a successful form of antivenom until around the 1850s.

Digitalis:

OP really nailed the important thing about Digitalis, and that is it's cardiac benefits for certain people - particularly for treating congestive heart failure. Vincent van Gogh was actually prescribed epilepsy medication that likely contained Digitalis, aka Foxglove, and there are some prevailing theories about van Gogh's love of bright yellow paint as being either caused or exacerbated by the symptoms associated with digitalis use, which can cause an attraction to and increased visual sensitivity to the color yellow. In several portraits, including one of his own psychiatrist, van Gogh shows subjects presented alongside foxglove flowers. Digitalis is absolutely lethal if consumed or taken without expert guidance, however, because it's the mother ingredient of Digoxin. Digoxin isn't used as frequently as it used to be a few decades ago, but it's still used and prescribed today for certain forms of heart failure and heart disease. Digoxin was also, at one time, was also sometimes used to induce chemical abortions.

Lead:

Dear god, lead. Not only is it so slow to kill you that you'll think that the only way to manage your symptoms is with more lead, but lead poisoning can be a life-long crisis for a person who is regularly exposed to it. Humans have used lead for everything from plumbing, to paint, to our cutlery, to cosmetics, to medicine. While yes, it is very possible to ingest enough lead in a single sitting to die within hours or days, most sufferers of lead poisoning experience it for years or decades before the symptoms become obvious. Some archaeologists believe that the Romans used lead cutlery because lead has a unique reaction when we lick it: when you have lead coating your tongue, it makes EVERYTHING you eat suddenly taste 10x better. I learned this myself from going target-shooting with my mom at a gun rage as a teenager, inhaled gunsmoke (which contains lead), and went for lunch immediately after. Even though I was just eating a $5 meal from In-N-Out, my burger tasted so good I thought I was gonna have to change my pants. When I asked the rangemaster at the target place about it later, he literally said, "Oh yeah, lead makes the worst cooking taste like heaven."

The ancient Romans ate a lot of rotten, spoiled, and sour food, and so lead would've made it easier to eat it back then. But the neurological effects of lead poisoning are nightmarish. It's suspected that, in America, the #1 reason we had so many active serial killers in the country from the 1940s-2000s was because of leaded gasoline. Ever since leaded gasoline was banned? Serial and random violent crime rates have dramatically gone down, especially in metropolitan cities. Ancient Rome, too, gradually became an increasingly violent city as its population went up and its reliance on lead did. We're only just now starting to figure out how toxic lead actually is, so go nuts with using it as a plot element regarding subjects like "Why Are You Like This?"

Mercury:

Mercury is also known as quicksilver, because in spite of being a heavy metal, the temperature at which it melts into a liquid is very, very low compared to most other metals. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, was rumored to be so obsessed with the notion of immortality that he would send his doctors on doomed voyages around the world searching for a legendary substance that would, indeed, make him immortal. Legend has it that some doctors who were tasked with the job found out about the last guys, and produced mercury before Emperor Qin Shi Huang and cried, "Here it is! I got it!" so they wouldn't end up doomed to drown at sea. Qin Shi Huang became so obsessed with ingesting and medicating himself with mercury that, when his legendary tomb was being constructed, he had a small-yet-accurate-to-scale map of China+the known world about the size of a football field with every body of water full of fountains of running mercury in his burial chamber. His tomb was rediscovered in the last couple of decades after archaeologists found suspiciously high levels of mercury in the soil on top of a "hill" that had been sitting in the countryside untouched for thousands of years. It turned out to be Qin Shi Huang's long-lost tomb.

Since those days, mercury has closely been associated in early medicine as a sort of cure-all, since it literally kills anything it touches (including people). Captain Blackbeard himself, the most notorious pirate in Western history (Western specifically; google who Zheng Yi Sao was), was known or widely believed to be a syphilis sufferer, and desperately sought infusions of mercury from ships he'd capture (and the doctors onboard) to treat it, believing like everyone did that mercury could cure syphilis. It can't. They just didn't understand back then that syphilis starts off surface-level, and then eats your brain years after the initial infection.

Aconite:

Again, ridiculously toxic outside of specific medicinal applications that still aren't safe today! Aconite, or wolfsbane, has historically been used as a heart sedative (for slowing the heart), diuretic, painkiller, and even used to induce sweating. Evidence of wolfsbane being used for medicinal purposes has been spotted here and there over thousands of years throughout the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Empires, but its original use came about in Ancient Greece for hunting and culling wolves by poisoning bait-food with it. That form of hunting died out long before the European Middle Ages, but the name "wolfsbane" stuck. Mostly because in the Middle Ages, a lot of people believed werewolves were a huge problem, and kept wolfsbane handy to deter said werewolves.

Thallium:

Today, thallium is mostly used in the production of camera and eyeglass lenses. Before its toxicity was known about, it wasn't strange to hear of thallium being used topically to treat fungal infections like ringworm. Thallium was also sporadically used in treating typhus and tuberculosis, along with a wide array of sexually transmitted diseases.

This list doesn't even touch the tip of the toxic iceberg when it comes to the sheer quantity of hilariously dangerous toxins people have, or still continue, to use for medicinal purposes! In a Victorian-era English London middle-class townhouse setting alone, there were dozens and dozens of ways to poison or otherwise harm yourself just by going about your daily life. So, if you've got a period piece you're working on, or are just bored, you can pick an exact date and time in our history and learn just how terrifyingly comfortable our ancestors were with upsettingly dangerous substances and home remedies. You can also watch a massive docuseries, called "Hidden Killers" and hosted by historian Suzannah Lipscomb, among other historians and archaeologists, which deep-dives into the hidden and unknown dangers of living in eras from Tudor-Era England, to the Post-WWII Reconstruction Age.

As a final note: I am NOT bashing Chinese or Eastern medicinal practices here, and in fact deliberately have gone out of my way to not include any references toward culturally-sanctioned medicinal practices in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. This post is specifically related to the history of WESTERN medicines and their associated history. I am not, nor have I ever been, a doctor of any traditional Eastern medicinal practices, and do not pretend to know better. Sinophobes are unwelcome in my blog space.

[inkedreverie]

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: bucky barnes x female reader

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: bucky being a flirt, fluff, fluff, fluff, very little use of y/n

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 3k+

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: A day of pumpkin carving and bonding brings Bucky and Y/N closer together, with Alpine as the perfect observer.

𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅:

𝐀/𝐍: I haven't written for Bucky for a while and it was so fun to write for him again. Thank you for requesting this, Brandy!

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐈𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐱 (𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧) | 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐎𝟑

Bucky grinned as he strolled through the fallen leaves, relishing the satisfying crunch beneath his feet. The chilly wind brushed against his skin, but with her presence by his side, he hardly noticed. His arm encircled her waist as they meandered through Jimmy's Pumpkin Patch. Sensing her gaze upon him, he turned his head to find her lips curved into a knowing grin. Matching her smile, he let out a soft chuckle. "What's on your mind, doll?" he inquired, giving her side a gentle squeeze.

He came to a sudden stop, pulling her close, as if it were possible to be any closer. Her cheeks heated at the endearing nickname. They'd been dating for a few months, but he always managed to make her feel like she was seeing him for the first time.

"Oh, nothing really," she said with a hint of happiness in her voice. "I'm just so glad we're finally doing this. Being with you feels so normal, you know? Like we're actually getting a chance to be regular people." She paused, her eyes scanning the field, a mischievous smirk gracing her lips.

She cast her eyes downward, a hint of shyness in her voice as she continued, "And, um, seeing you out here, in the sunlight, breathing in the fresh air... it's really nice. You look handsome today, you know? It takes me back to the day I first laid eyes on you." Bucky blinked in surprise, his mind flooded with a rush of memories from their initial encounter.

The recollection left his mouth feeling dry, as if he were reliving the moment all over again. She was an absolute vision in his mind, that day and every day, morning and night. Her figure was accentuated by the snug black skinny jeans, hugging her curves just right. The cropped black and white long-sleeve Henley she wore revealed a glimpse of her midriff, exposed to the invigorating autumn breeze.

She tilted her head slightly, and pursed her lips a bit before releasing the kiss into the air, her hand a ghostly memory. This kiss sent his skin ablaze.

The sly little minx, Bucky thought and his lips upturned as if she had planted a kiss directly upon his lips instead. He bent to brush his nose lightly against hers, teasing and testing, his voice barely a murmur. "Meeting you has got to be one of my favorite things."

His forehead pressed against hers. "Always will be, beautiful." Her mouth slacked slightly at his confession. Bucky took full advantage and used his thumb and finger on her chin to pull her even closer so that they were kissing properly.

He found himself drawn deeper into the sweet innocence that lingered on his lips, reminiscent of the taste of apple cider. It was a craving he couldn't resist, a forbidden desire that seemed to seep into his very bones. The longer her softness grazed against him, the more he felt like an addict, yearning for more. His fingers instinctively tangled in the curls of her soft hair, while his other hand wrapped around her waist.

Her grip tightened on the front of his flannel, a sign of her own desire. As her hand trailed up, it traced the contours of his exposed jawline, sending a delightful shiver down Bucky's spine.

Cupping his face, her touch set his skin on fire, a tingling sensation that electrified him. Their lips moved together slowly, yet with an urgent passion, unable to be denied. Her eyes fluttered open slightly, intoxicated by his scent.

"How is it that every time we're out, it feels like we're constantly making out?" she remarked, her laughter dancing playfully against his lips.

He responded with a devilish smirk, his hand mischievously cupping her backside before caressing upwards, tracing the curve of her right breast. "Well, that's a pretty clear indication that I can't stop thinking about kissing you. It's always on my mind," he playfully whispered into her ear, pulling her body even closer to his.

"Guess we're a modern-day Edward and Bella, huh, big boy?" she murmured, a teasing tone in her voice. She glanced over him, her eyes lingering on his attire. "Well, maybe if you swapped those denim or dress pants for some skinny jeans, we'd be right on track."

Bucky couldn't help but snort, his laughter shaking his body. "Smart-ass."

His eyes briefly flickered towards something beyond her shoulder, causing him to shift his stance. He tugged her along, pulling her closer as they made their way towards their destination. "You know I only wear those skinny jeans for you," he confessed. "I may be super-human, but I'm definitely not a vampire."

She couldn't help but nearly roll her eyes at the mention of his super-human abilities, unsure if he had winked at her. "Although, there's one thing I don't quite get," he continued, shaking his head slightly.

"So why are we going on a hayride? We're already outside, sweetheart. We can do anything that involves the outdoors." Her brows furrowed and she scrunched her face adorably, which made Bucky lean over and press a kiss on the bridge of her nose.

"Why are you acting as if we are limited in activities?" She scoffed as they waited in the line for the next hayride to start. "Buck, can you believe this is going to be your first hayride ever? Trust me, it's going to be a lot of fun!"

He nervously chewed on the inside of his bottom lip before releasing a deep breath. He pressed his lips together firmly, his expression determined. Suddenly, a playful smirk formed on his face, accompanied by a wink. He took her hand in his, showing his eagerness to embrace the upcoming adventure.

His warm palms gently grasped her smaller hand, lacing their fingers together as their fingers naturally curled together. The fact that he did that was comforting and never failed to make her weak in the knees. He turned back toward the field, taking a small step up onto the trailer and shifting her in front of him.

He liked shielding her like this. The familiar way his larger frame settled against her was calming and put his mind at ease. While she fit perfectly against him, the size difference was always amusing to see. Her shoulders fit easily beneath his broad ones and he towered over her form quite a bit.

The position also afforded the perfect opportunity to hold her hips, something he quickly did once they got settled on the hay bale and began the journey around the large pumpkin patch.

As their trailer pulled along, his strong hands seemed to ground her, and the moment they picked a pumpkin, a grin crept on her face. As they searched the patch for the right pumpkin for them, her fingertips brushed the spiky sides of a rather large orange and brown squash and Bucky chuckled behind her.

"You look adorable doing that." Her boyfriend came into view, bending to pick the gourd out of the hay, he placed the large round ball between his pectoral muscle and raised it like a volleyball. "This is huge." His left arm kept it steady. "I feel like it will take a day for this guy to get picked." She shifted her weight onto her other foot, twisting the ankle out and leaned back to keep balance.

"What do you think about him?" Bucky questioned, raising a dark eyebrow and the woman found that she wanted him to hold her in his arms instead of the pumpkin but shrugged.

He held the pumpkin out in her direction, angling it in various ways to show off different angles of its rounded bulbous shape and elongated stem. Bucky twisted his wrist so he could turn the gourd, poking his bottom lip outward, his eyes crinkled in the corners and his head tilted to the side as if in deep concentration.

She squinted and tilted her own head to the side in return before the two burst into fits of chuckles.

Bucky could watch the way her eyes twinkle. His free hand stretched, capturing hers, and gently tugged her forward, allowing the round melon to fall onto a pile with the other pumpkins before guiding her body fully into his own embrace.

"Hey," He leaned down and gave her a quick, hard kiss, causing her to giggle, "I bet Steve and Sam will flip when they find out that we're choosing our very first pumpkin today!"

Her small fingers grabbed at the front of his shirt before clenching in it, and her digits pulled forward slightly, coaxing Bucky down to her. Their noses brushed together tenderly, a second later, before he ducked his head to place a chaste but solid kiss on her waiting lips.

The smooth, salty caramel from the candied apple Bucky bought earlier from the carnival booth still lingers there, sweetening the flavor.

He pulls away, albeit slowly, before returning his palm to the swell of her hip and nodding forward as he shifts the pair of them over to another pumpkin patch. "W-we better choose carefully," Her voice is breathy. The way the low, rumbled timber of his laughter rasped along the shell of her ear did wonders to her willpower to remain focused.

Bucky had a knack for getting under her skin, always managing to make her flustered. She took a few steps ahead, scanning the assortment of pumpkins on display. Pausing for a moment, she placed her hands on her hips and looked up at him.

 "Should we go for a big one or a couple of smaller ones?" she inquired, her lips slightly pursed. Bucky couldn't help but smirk down at her, a playful glimmer in his eyes.

Seeing his reaction, she crossed her arms and demanded, "What's so amusing?" She teased, a playful glint in her eyes, and couldn't help but notice the alluring, crooked grin that adorned Bucky's face. 

It was a grin that looked irresistibly kissable. Bucky shook his head, his laughter soft and warm. "We've been standing here, mesmerized by pumpkins for the past five minutes. Every time we move, you spot a new batch," he chuckled. She playfully punched him in the arm, expressing her desire for something special. She shrugged, a slight pout forming on her lips.

"Alright, alright, fine," Bucky relented, reaching out to gently pat her head. Her pout slowly transformed into an adorable smile. "Tell you what, I'll step back and let you take the lead," he offered, his trust evident in his words. "I believe in you, doll."

Her eyes widened in playful defiance as she walked over to him. "Oh no, you're not getting away that easily! You're going to help me pick those pumpkins, or else no more kisses for you." He raised both eyebrows, a hint of amusement in his expression. "Oh, how dire the situation has become! Threatening to withhold your kisses, huh?" he chuckled, reaching out to hold her hands in his own.

She smiled smugly, feeling the warmth of his touch. "Oh, trust me, I can get by without them," she teased, her fingers tracing a path up his arms before curling around his strong, sculpted muscles.

Bucky couldn't help but scoff, his eyes narrowing playfully. "If I were to believe that, you'd have a hard time convincing me, little missy." Y/N pulled away from him, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh really? Well, someone's getting a bit too confident. I can resist your advances," she retorted.

He mirrored her tone, a smirk playing on his lips. "That won't be possible, Y/N," he shrugged nonchalantly. "You always want me, anyway."

"Yeah? And what makes you say that, Barnes?"

"Your lips tend to be a little," he reaches up and taps her cupid's bow with a single metal finger, "Pouty when you want me, and you tend to-"

"Tease." Y/N scoffed once more. "Bullshit." She quickly glanced around, ensuring that they were alone amidst the vast rows of pumpkins, hidden from prying eyes. Satisfied that no one was nearby, she felt a sense of relief.

Bucky, sensing her momentary unease, lifted both hands and delicately cradled her face. The pads of his thumbs caressed her cheeks and traced along her jawline, gliding over her cupid's bow in gentle, ticklish movements.

She could have sworn that she heard a faint growling rumble in Bucky’s chest. But before she could ask, she felt herself being spun and pinned by her waist to the body of him. She giggled in response to the playfulness.

He leaned forward to breathe along her exposed collarbone. Y/N looked around briefly and tried to figure out whether he intended to ravish her in the middle of this pumpkin patch in view of the crowd of people.

The trailers filled with people made their way by the pair and the volume of their conversation decreased but the roar of the carnival and hayride riders continued. His hands grabbed hers from her sides and squeezed them as his teeth gently graze the curve of her neck and along her exposed collarbone and collar area, sending waves of heat and pleasure coursing through her.

“Bucky, we’re in public.” She breathed, goosebumps now covering her arms.

He responded in the form of a groan of approval. She pushed on his chest gently but enough for him to respond with a barely audible and sharp inhale. She hoped that her teasing him with no kisses wouldn't escalate to a make out session in a public place.

"You like driving me crazy." his grip on her arms lessened slightly before they dipped low at the bend of her elbow and slid slowly towards her hands. Y/N couldn't see much, just a blurred smidge of red and gold.

Bucky's metal arm is braced behind her while the flesh one continues its upward trail. This is really not a good idea in a pumpkin patch, she thought. He continued, his touch slow, reverent and tender. As his hand ghosted over the valley of her breasts, tracing circles and caresses, a sense of calmness washed over her.

His pace is deliberate, loving, and thorough. His lips continued their assault, kissing her tender neck, biting and nibbling along the way, his lips kissed and teased the hollow of her throat where her pulse lay dormant until he kissed his name into it, waking her heart to its rhythm, causing her pulse to race.

"So sensitive, Doll. You taste so delicious," His voice rumbled in her ear before nipping gently.

“Are you trying to prove a point or something?” She teased before pulling away. "Besides, this wasn't the plan."

Bucky smirked. "Maybe. Are we not in the mood?" His teasing was ridiculous. He had no idea how difficult it was for her to refrain from jumping his bones all of the time.

She grinned at his questions and mumbled something under her breath as he tugged her closer to him again and pressed his lips to her own, then promptly released her mouth.

"Now, if you keep touching me like that, you won't stop my next course of action," Her voice trailed off towards the end, and he felt her shiver ever so slightly.

"Really, I don't intend on letting you go so soon," his left hand rubbed small soothing circles along her hips while the right ran along her neck and trailed slowly upward before threading through her hair.

She inhaled slowly and turned to him, their eyes met. Her bottom lip quivered at the promise he had etched on her body, his desire to ravish her burning low and constant like an untended fire, ready to flare when needed.

"Can we just do this in a pumpkin patch?" Bucky suggested, his eyebrow quirking in an amusing manner. She pushed against his chest while stifling a laugh. "God, no, you nut-case.”

She giggled, feeling the heat travel down her neck, despite the chilly weather. She looked at the rows of pumpkins before she spotted the biggest one she could find. “This one! This is it.” He gave her a sly smile, his blue eyes glinting with delight, and walked with her to pick up the large gourd.

They moved past the smaller jack-o-lanterns and several other gourds before exiting the patch and waiting to board one of the hay wagons.

Three days before Halloween, Bucky and Y/N sat on the floor of the back deck with all of the tools beside them. "Okay, let's start with cleaning its guts out."

Bucky chuckled, shaking his head. "Damn. Remind me not to get on your bad side." he stuck his hand into the pumpkin, fishing out the pulp and seeds before scooping them into a plastic grocery bag. Y/N pulled out the last pulpy bits and then poked the tarp on the floor of the table beside them, indicating that that was where Bucky needed to put the guts, which he proceeded to.

She cleared her throat, watching as he got comfortable with carving a jack-o'lantern, a ritual that they both found satisfying. They had the radio playing on a pop station as a soundtrack. It played songs that ranged from Katy Perry to John Legend to Usher, even Eminem. She decided to tease him while carving the pumpkin by shaking her shoulders along to the music.

She reached up to get the candles from her box of Halloween decoration and pulled out a tiny pumpkin-carved candle and tossed it over her shoulder without looking, knowing that her soldier boyfriend was just going to grab it.

She dug into the orange gourd, reaching far with her hand, "Can you pull out the edges, I can't feel them all?" He nodded, moving her hand out of the pumpkin. He held it from the inside.

"So...Is it weird that we're talking like this or..?" her lips tugged in a smirk.

Y/N felt his metal fingers start pulling gently at the insides, his warm hands pressing and shifting against hers. She smirked, seeing his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. "See. Not too bad."

"Ah, here's one," his voice rumbled with that tone that he knew got her all worked up.

She felt the pads of his fingers rubbing along the sensitive area of the pad of her thumb, "Think that's all of it. I'll clean it up with a damp paper towel." He removed his hand, his other holding out her candle.

She grinned, taking the small candle and dropping it back into the box of decorative items, grabbing one of the large round candles and sitting down on one of the steps. Bucky got up and entered the house. When he returned, she was standing in front of her carefully carved gourd.

"When's the last time you carve a pumpkin, Y/N?" Bucky said, joining her side, handing her the warm damp paper towel she requested and a dry one. "Probably when I was seventeen. Before I moved out. What about you?"

Bucky pondered her words and glanced between her pumpkin and his. She sat on the stair leading onto the back porch, holding a spooky jack-o'-lantern to the light while he was still sitting out with a gutted inside that needed carving.

"Huh. When I was younger with Stevie. We carve 'em every year. But after I joined the military, it stopped. Been years." Bucky crossed his legs in a meditation-esque pose. "Steve likes this kinda of stuff."

He proceeded to clean the pumpkin as she taught, squeezing her small body through the crack of the door. She saw the cat scratching posts that she just bought this week.

"You think Alpine will love the new Halloween-themed scratching posts?" she asks, sitting down next to him. Bucky smiled, nodding to the window. There was the kitten, rolling over lazily. The afternoon sun from their kitchen window is illuminating its fur like stardust. "That little creature has done a lot."

"Yeah. Ever since I got that adoption letter," The former assassin crossed his legs and bent over the now gaping gourd, brushing his long locks to the side, "it was the happiest day."

She rubbed the fur over the belly of a now happy-looking Alpine. The cat purrs loudly and with vigor. "Good boy," her boyfriend says, half-aloud as he chuckles, wiping his wrist on his forehead, and brushing his bangs backward.

Y/N couldn't help but feel her heart warm at the sight of Alpine rubbing up against his arm. "Sometimes I think you love that cat more than me." she teased, her lips curved up into a smile. "Y/N, you know that's a lie."

"I love you both very dearly."

"Bucky..." she rolled her eyes playfully. He sighed dramatically and lifted himself from his seat to stand beside her. "I'm teasing. I know you do." her free arm slung over his shoulders, pulling him in, as she coaxed his lips toward hers and planted a small kiss on his cheek. Bucky chuckled before resting his hand on her shoulder and giving her another sweet kiss.

"Okay, you gotta let me go so I can finish this," Bucky said, pulling away from her with a smile. She pouted, looking up at him with pleading eyes, but Bucky shook his head and placed his hand on her chin. "Doll, you gotta let me go," he repeated, his voice husky. Y/N stuck her tongue out at him playfully before removing her arm from his shoulders.

Bucky grabbed one of the small candles from the box and pulled out the small lighter from his pocket, lighting the candle inside of the pumpkin and placing it on the porch railing. "There we go." he turned back towards his girlfriend, smiling when he saw her staring at him. "What? Did I spill some pumpkin guts on myself?" he asked, looking down at his shirt.

She shook her head, laughing softly. "No. You look really handsome in this light. I'm just admiring my boyfriend," she smiled, her heart warming as she gazed into his eyes.

He laughed and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Well, thank you, doll. That means a lot," he said, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. Y/N hummed into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

She felt his arms wrap around her waist, pulling her flush against him. Her fingers tangled themselves in his hair, tugging gently.

She felt his tongue swipe across her bottom lip, asking for entrance which she granted immediately. His tongue explored her mouth, tasting every inch of her. She moaned softly, feeling his hands roam her body.

His hands moved down to her ass, squeezing it gently. She gasped softly, feeling his erection press against her stomach. He pulled away from the kiss, resting his forehead against hers.

"You're so beautiful, Y/N," he whispered, his voice low and husky. Her cheeks heated, biting her lip. "I love you, Bucky."

"I love you too, sweetheart."

They kissed again, their tongues dancing together in a passionate embrace. They stayed like that for a while, kissing and touching each other, lost in their own world. That was until Alpine started nudging his head against their legs and softly purred.

Bucky broke the kiss, chuckling softly. "I think someone's hungry."

"Yeah, I think so too," she agreed, smiling. "Let's go inside and get something to eat."

divider credit: @.saradika

[togenabi]

by the window under the moonlight

inumaki toge x fem!reader ♡ royalty au

♡—when sent to look for your brother, you find a handsome stranger instead.

word count♡— 1.9k words

genre♡— fluff, royalty au

aged up characters♡— 18+

content notes♡— strangers to potential lovers, mutual pining, everyone is a prince or princes, older brother!gojo satoru, no use of y/n, love at first sight ish, very fluff, mc pins toge to the wall, toge writes a love letter, toge uses sign language bc I refuse to write shake or salmon in a royalty au, lets just say that mc is called princess bc their empire > the other kingdoms

author's note♡— i desperately needed toge fluff, so i was motivated to write this! might be a bit wonky bc it's been a while since i wrote a fic, but i'm still happy with how it turned out ^^ enjoy!

You don't know why you believed Satoru when he promised he would sit still at tonight's ball. Maybe it was because you were genuinely looking forward to it. Maybe you wanted to believe that you would have fun with your friends without having to worry about the troublesome crown prince.

But... he was your brother, and as it always was in times like these, you're sent away to find him.

Because he does listen to you.

...

To an extent.

...

When he feels like it.

Running your hands through your hair, you turn towards yet another empty corridor.

“Just where is that annoying—” Your grumbling is interrupted when you spot a head of white hair flit by the corner of your eye.

‘Aha!’ You rush immediately to follow the figure.

It quickly becomes clear that he's very good at dodging you and leading you in circles. However, you know this castle better than anyone, and you trap him into a corner soon enough.

“I'm surprised you fell for that. You aren't usually this easy to... catch...”

A beautiful stained glass window is fixed at the end of the corridor you led him to. The moonlight shines through it and paints the stranger in breathtaking colors.

‘Who is he?’, you wonder. You don't think you've ever seen someone so handsome... Despite an extended collar covering half of his face.

He meets your eyes and frowns. Though you only stand in front of him in confusion.

“You're not... Satoru.” You start slowly, trying to grasp the situation. “Why did you run from me?”

You hear several scuffling feet in the distance, and suddenly you're alarmed.

‘Shit, is this an ambush?’

The stranger seems to be distracted by the noise as well. Taking the opportunity, you sprint and tackle him, pinning him to the wall. This hallway is secluded enough that you're confident whoever's following you won't be able to find you if you keep quiet.

He looks like he's about to say something, but you don't let him.

“Shush!” You say. He looks bewildered.

A moment passes, and you realize that the noise was only from the knights rushing to look for Satoru as well.

You find yourself staying still despite having nothing to hide from the knights. ‘Why do I feel like I've done something wrong?!’

You take the time to analyze the man in front of you while waiting for the knights to depart. Though you can feel his strong build, he doesn't resist you. Perhaps he isn't particularly dangerous, or maybe he doesn't see you as enough of a threat to put up a fight.

The latter irks you more than you thought it would.

The noises fade, and you're about to loosen your grip on the stranger when you hear more sounds. This time, it's the boisterous laughter of those annoying, pompous delegates.

Annoyance paints your face just thinking about the ridiculous rumors they spread. If only they'd properly do their jobs instead of gossiping and pestering you to get married. Imagine if they saw you now, pinning this man to the wall. Why, they would probably chatter about it for years and—

You suddenly realize how... delicate your current situation is.

You panic, and the stranger tilts his head as if asking you, ‘What?’

“Shhhhh!!!” Before you could help it, you shush the man with urgency, using your hands to cover his mouth. You couldn't even begin to comprehend the international scandal that would unfold should you be discovered in this very compromising position—with a noble you've never met, no less!

“Did you hear that the crown prince disappeared again?” One of the delegates cackled.

“Oh my, again? Then was the princess sent to fetch him?”

“It seems so! But I hear she has been gone for some time as well! Ho ho!”

“Perhaps she has gotten tired playing her brother's keeper. I can't believe the future of the empire lies on the shoulders of someone so happy-go-lucky. Tsk.”

The voices fade. Holding your breath, you crane your neck every which way to see if the delegates have truly left. You finally spare the stranger a glance once you're met with a noiseless hallway. You sigh deeply.

‘This man would probably be angry’, you think to yourself...

You expected him to be mad, or to throw a tantrum. You waited for him to shove you off despite you being a princess—to demand an explanation and god forbid, compensation for the stress they endured this entire ordeal. That's how most, if not all, nobles were these days. Entitled beyond repair.

But to your surprise, you find him smiling. The corners of his eyes pinch as if he finds the situation very amusing. His shoulders shake due to laughter, and that's when you notice the color of his coat—a deep bluish purple... The color reminds you of the Inumaki clan, of the flag on the carriage you saw arriving this morning.

...

Ah. You let go of him.

His eyes glow with mischief as he watches you take in his appearance. The coat. The color of his hair. The purple eyes...

...The markings he reveals after he pulls down his collar.

You've played yourself a fool.

You back away from him immediately, clearing your throat and smoothing your hands over your skirt. “I deeply apologize, prince Toge.” You bow deeply.

Toge bows to you as well. Afterwards, he begins to sign a response. ‘You have a strong grip, princess.’

Your cheeks grow warm. Of course he decides to make fun of you. But then again, it was very rude of you to have literally cornered and restrained him.

“Again, I'm sorry.” You take a deep breath. “As you may have heard, I was looking for my brother. I only followed you because I thought you were him.”

His eyes glint wickedly. ‘And the pinning?’

“I-I was flustered.” You still are, but you curtsy to him and look to the floor to hide your expression. “Please excuse me. I must go.”

Toge watches you leave, and a smile blooms on his face when he sees your ears turning red.

He looks back to the stunning window at the end of the hall, and engraves into his memory how beautiful you had looked under the iridescent moonlight.

⋆｡˚ 🪟 ˚｡⋆｡˚🌕˚｡⋆

After trying (and failing) to find your dearest brother, you decide to return to the ballroom. You spot your trio of best friends conversing near the buffet table. Prince Megumi catches your sight first, and walks briskly to meet you.

“Where have you been?” He asks, and you think this is the most frazzled you've seen of the dark haired prince.

“I was looking for my brother, where else?” Your thoughts wander to prince Toge, and you subconsciously look around to see if he has returned as well. Your eyes find prince Yuji and princess Nobara approaching.

“When we thought you were taking too long, we left to find you.” Nobara explains. “But we ended up finding your brother instead.” She gestures to the end of the ballroom, where Satoru is sprawled on his seat next to the emperor's.

“Serves him right to look so bored. He's so much more trouble than he's worth.” You tsk.

Yuji catches your attention. “But I don't understand what took you so long, princess. You usually find him quickly, did something happen?”

Once again, your mind is brought back to Toge, and how he looked when you first saw him.

You must have taken a beat longer to reply. The three of them suddenly lean closer to try and read your expression.

“Are you alright?”

“Don't you dare try to keep whatever this is a secret from us!”

“So something did happen!”

They bombard you with questions, and you're suddenly overwhelmed. “I'll explain if you all let me, now will you?”

You pull them towards the wall, where there are less people, before explaining what happened.

...

You immediately regret doing so.

Your friends fail to compose themselves as they laugh. You're baffled as even Megumi laughs at you. He tries to cover his mouth, but it's too late. You glare at all of them.

“I can't believe you told prince Toge, of all people, to shush!” Nobara wipes her eyes with a handkerchief.

Yuji is still keeled over as he nods. “I would have paid to see that!”

“Now I understand what Maki and Panda were laughing about earlier, and why they kept looking over at us.” Megumi smirks at you teasingly.

“No!” You gasp. “They didn't!”

“Oh yes they did!” Yuji counters. “It all makes sense now!”

The trio seems to have regained their composure, but you're still a bit miffed. You refuse their offer to dance with you.

“I don't want to dance with any of you right now.”

“Oh shush, princess!” Nobara says, and they're caught in a fit of laughter once again.

But then their eyes shift to something behind you, and their next words get stuck in their throat.

You hear footsteps before you look over your shoulder. Prince Toge advances towards you.

He bows in a graceful motion, just as he did before. ‘I greet the princess of the empire. May I have this dance?’ He asks before holding out his hand.

You expected to be too embarrassed to dance with him well. But you're learning that your expectations are often wrong tonight.

Words fail to describe how wonderful it was to dance with him.

For someone who held him against a wall, the prince looks at you fondly. More fondly than you expected, and more fondly than anyone else has ever regarded you. His movements are confident and smooth as he leads you along to the music.

You want to apologize again, and possibly say that you're enjoying your time with him; but you have the strangest feeling that he already knows.

And thus, you stay silent, and let yourself be swept off your feet. The gentle melody plays on and contrasts with the erratic beating of your heart.

When the dance ends, he leans down to bring his face closer to yours. He takes your hands and brings your fingers up to cover his lips—reminiscent of how you had done earlier when you were hiding. You blush as he kisses your fingers while holding your hands firmly.

You find yourself unable to think of anything else even when the ball draws to a close.

You're unable to properly greet him goodbye, but you meet his eye when he looks over before entering his carriage. He nods, and smiles sweetly at you, the kind that reaches his eyes.

Your attention snaps away from him when Nobara demands you make her your maid of honor at your wedding, and you're left flustered once again.

⋆｡˚ 🪟 ˚｡⋆｡˚🌕˚｡⋆

A letter from him arrived the next day.

Dearest princess,

I realize I left you last night without apologizing to you. Please accept my apology now, though it may be late. You said you were flustered, and that was what led you to your actions last night. I'm afraid it was the same for me.

I don't know why I ran from you, or why I didn't bother to turn around sooner to confirm the identity of my pursuer. But now I'm certainly glad I didn't, for it has left me with memories I will surely cherish.

I will be frank. I am unable to stop my thoughts of you, and would like to get to know you more. Allow me to be the one to pursue you, this time.

In a few weeks, during the crown prince's birthday banquet, please let me steal you away for a while. I hope to meet you there again, by the window under the moonlight. I look forward to your reply.

Thinking of you,

- Toge

⋆｡˚ 🪟 ˚｡⋆｡˚🌕˚｡⋆

[PART 2]

© togenabi 2023 | see here to be added to my taglist ♡

[whumpshaped]

this has been sitting in my drafts unfinished for ages... it was supposed to be the first of my robot drabbles to go up but here we are. i hope i'll have spoons to write more for these guys... i'll post some picrews sometime for the cast and also make a masterlist and give the story a title

masterlist

content: robot whumperee (literally whumpee and whumper in one i don't know how to describe it any other way), sci-fi setting, implied systemic whump, morally dubious caretaker, living weapon

Szoren grabbed the closest rag and did a cursory wipe-off on his tools before turning towards his robot: the Self-Sufficient Riot Control Unit, the very first one they'd ever created. SSRCU-01. Zaps, as they'd affectionately nicknamed it. An absolutely magnificent piece of machinery, something Szoren and his colleagues had been working on for years before they managed to get it to function properly.

Well, as properly as they could at the time. If he didn't count the unfortunate shocking incident from the first week, and the even more unfortunate airlock incident from the second week, he could say Zaps was doing a fine job of only hurting those it was meant to be hurting.

Which, of course... Szoren didn't like that his poor baby was made for such a brutal purpose... But he couldn't change the reality of it, and he was just glad to see his creation performing well.

"So, what seems to be the problem?" he asked cheerily, adjusting his glasses as he looked over the custom murderbot.

"The central processing unit seems to be malfunctioning, sir," it said, monotone as ever. Szoren didn't mind. He wasn't good with emotions anyway.

"Malfunctioning? How? I'll run diagnostics, but you can talk to me in the meantime." He hooked up Zaps to the computer, hoping the 'malfunction' would be easy to spot and solve. At least it wasn't the motor functions this time — he really didn't need another injury.

"The reactions are delayed, sir. I hear the orders and I see the mistakes I'm meant to be fixing, but the body locks up before I can carry out the task. It almost allowed one of the workers to run away."

Szoren frowned. Zaps was entirely okay from the looks of it, or at least the computer didn't find anything wrong with it.

"I'll take a look myself. Maybe it's something to do with the joints and not the CPU."

"The joints are fine, sir," it said firmly.

"It can't hurt to check—"

"The joints are fine, sir."

Szoren felt a chill run down his spine. There was no discernible emotion in Zaps' voice; it wasn't capable of conveying human emotion. There shouldn't have been an intensity to its stare either... But for some reason Szoren felt like he couldn't push it. That wasn't a nice feeling when it came to something he himself had helped design and create.

"Zaps... I'm going to take a look at your joints now." He didn't want to do something without the robot's consent; but to be entirely fair, the robot not consenting wasn't something that had ever even crossed his mind. It was equipment. A tool. It didn't consent to being worked on any more than the screwdriver consented to being worked with.

For a long moment, Zaps didn't react. Then the light behind its visual sensors seemed to dim as it obediently popped open all cosmetic panels that were hiding major joint connections. "Yes, sir."

"Good robot," Szoren murmured, relieved. "You said they'd 'lock up'?"

"Yes, sir."

"It sounds like something that some oil should fix, but... Evidently, it's not. All of these joints are perfectly oiled."

"Yes, sir."

"And it only happens when carrying out orders? What if it's something like... Bad wiring, something triggered by the electrical impulse..."

"There are other malfunctions, sir," it interrupted, and Szoren looked up. "I'm unsure how to describe those. It is akin to a virus. Someone might have tampered with the programming."

"What's the malfunction?"

"Sometimes I get false orders to hurt my superiors, sir. While carrying out my regular tasks is difficult, these false orders are at times incredibly difficult to resist."

"What?" Szoren turned back towards the computer, frantically trying to find something in the code that could explain this. This was alarming. This was dangerous! Possibly lethal! If Zaps ended up hurting someone important, the whole tech department would be on trial; and not a favourable one. "What are these orders like? Are they like your regular orders? Maybe it's something about the target list, maybe... Maybe someone tampered with that."

"Sir?"

He barely glanced at the robot. "Yes?"

"What is the purpose I have been created to fulfil?"

Szoren stopped. "You know your purpose."

"To punish workers who fail to comply with the rules set out for them by the Seventh Earth Council." At least it remembered that line. Szoren had drilled it into its head before anything else. "But is that..." It... trailed off? It had never done that before. Robots didn't trail off.

"Is that?" he prompted, more and more concerned.

"Is that all I've been created for?"

Szoren inhaled sharply. That was a loaded question, and one he didn't really want to answer yes to. It was the truth, though; Zaps had been created to punish and execute.

"Yes," he breathed, acutely aware that if the robot disliked his answer, it could very well turn its weaponry against him. It shouldn't be able to, but clearly, it was doing a lot of things and having a lot of thoughts it shouldn't have been able to.

It stared at him for a long, tense moment. "Understood, sir," it said eventually. Szoren exhaled.

"I'm going to switch you off and ask Kiki for some help in fixing you. How's that?" He tried to go back to his cheery attitude from before, but his voice came out strained and a little scared. Zaps didn't seem to mind.

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

~

tags: @whumpsday

[malk1ns]

"Sidgeno taking in a rookie" prompter here - that was delightful, thank you soooooo much!!!!! :D :D if you would like to write anything more in that mini-verse, may I request a) how does Mack handle it when Sid goes into heat? does they politely kick him out of the house for a few days? or does he have to listen to them bone all day? or b) Sid teasing Geno about how the baby obviously has a massive crush on him or c) maybe Mack does walk in on them at some point? all I'm saying is it baffles me how little fandom makes of the potential hilarity/awkwardness of "oh no we can't move till the knot goes down". But no pressure as you've already given us such a gift!!!

thank YOU for an incredible prompt!!! i feel like maybe we could put these in some form of chronological order....

c) mack walks in on them

Sid and Geno are usually pretty discreet. It's not their fault that Mack's going through dynamics puberty, after all—the dynamics counselor with the team said he'd have elevated sensitivity to scents and pheromones for at least a year, but it will eventually settle. Mack can't blame Sid and Geno for not realizing just how sensitive he is—they keep it to their bedroom, and Sid's got pheromone neutralizers plugged into an outlet in every room. Mack's learning to deal with it, doing his best to get to his room and shut the door when Sid starts looking at Geno like that.

Sometimes, though, they're not careful.

As soon as Mack walks into the house, he groans—it reeks, Sid's little air fresheners doing absolutely nothing to dispel the cloud of horny alpha and seductive omega permeating the entire entryway. He'd been at the mall with Brayden, poking around for Christmas presents for his parents—he was gone for ages, haven't they done anything else this whole afternoon?

Sighing, he hangs his coat on the rack and takes off his shoes, remembering just in time to not just kick them off into the wall—one time catching Sid cleaning off the scuff marks was more than enough guilt for a lifetime. He thinks vaguely about getting a snack, but figures that distracting himself with some television until they're done is the better choice. He's felt even more attuned to Sid and Geno's scents recently, and there's an itch under his skin that he's trying not to worry about too much.

The living room isn't empty.

"Oh god," Mack yelps, freezing in the doorway. "Oh no."

"Fuck," Sid gasps, grabbing at Geno's shoulders to stop himself from tipping back onto the floor.

One of the couches in the living room, the one Geno always claims during movie night and coaxes Sid into cuddling with him on, is angled so that it's half-facing the door into the room. Mack has an unimpeded, perfect view of the way Geno's slouched against the back cushions, arms akimbo, staring up at Sid with heavy-lidded eyes as Sid rides him.

"Oh my god," Sid says frantically, leaning forward and grabbing for a blanket. He and Geno both hiss in discomfort, and Mack cant help it, he looks down at where Geno's dick is—fuck, he's knotted Sid already, and Mack can see where it's stretching Sid wide.

He snaps his eyes away, but Geno catches him looking, and Mack just knows what he must smell like right now, knows there's no way Geno misses his reaction.

Sid's muttering frantically to himself as he drapes the blanket around his naked body, as if that's going to help at all. "Mack, I'm so sorry, just—" he starts.

Mack flees. It's the only sane decision.

Maybe if he opens every window in his bedroom and sticks his head under ice-cold water in the shower, he can shock this boner away and hopefully purge the entire incident from his mind.

b) sid teases geno about mack's crush

"Oh god," Sid groans, tucking his face into Geno's neck. They'd been so careful until today.

It's been an adjustment, having Mack in the house. Of course it was the best choice—the only choice, really—to have their draft prize who also happened to be an omega live somewhere he'd be taken care of properly, with someone who understood—that didn't make it any easier to get used to.

There had been a lot of close calls at first, when Sid was halfway to sliding to his knees in the kitchen when Geno looked at him a certain way before realizing that Mack was just one room away setting the table, or Geno was about to push Sid's thighs apart on the couch when Mack shuffled in with a bowl of popcorn. They'd gotten used to it, though, making sure to get up to their bedroom before starting anything—Sid even set up a bunch of scent-neutralizers, he remembers what it was like at that age.

All that hard work, totally undone because Sid's a week and a half out from his heat and starting to get horny at the drop of a hat, and Geno got too worked up to remember to chivvy them up the stairs.

Mack looked mortified. Poor kid. And of course Sid's been knotted in Geno's lap for the last half-hour, with no signs of it going down any time soon.

Sid can feel Geno chuckle under him, and he can't help but relax, letting his body go heavy against Geno's. Geno slips his hands under the blanket and rubs them soothingly over Sid's back. "He ok," Geno rumbles, pressing a kiss to Sid's forehead. "He's adult, not like he doesn't know. He's have a computer, internet." One hand slides down Sid's back to tease at his hole, where Geno's knot is stretching him, and Sid shivers.

"He's barely an adult, he's practically a baby," he mumbles into Geno's skin, trying to keep focused on the conversation instead of melting at Geno's touch like his instincts want him to. "And even if he's watching porn, that's not the same as walking in on us. I'd be traumatized if I ever saw Mario like this."

Geno laughs outright at that. "No, you see Mario do this, you run up to room and get off," he teases.

He's not wrong. Sid bites down on his neck a little anyway. "Who's to say Mack's not doing the same?" he asks, arching his back a little and pressing against Geno's finger. He should probably go get his levels checked tomorrow, his heat might be early this month. "He's got the world's biggest crush on you, and now he's seen you in action. Probably made his day."

"Sid!" Geno sounds shocked, and Sid grins. Geno talks a big game, but he's a prude at heart, and Sid loves scandalizing him a little bit. "You don't say this, he's kid, like, he's not think—"

"Oh, he absolutely does," Sid says. "I'm surprised you haven't noticed. He's no good at suppressing how he's feeling, and he's got it bad for you. Not that I can blame him."

"Oh, you like too?" Geno says, sounding smug. Sid wants to keep talking, try to figure out with Geno how they should address this with Mack, but Geno's sliding his finger into him, and the pressure is sparking stars in his vision, and they can talk about it later.

a) how does mack handle sid going into heat?

Mack avoids Sid and Geno as much as he can for the next few days.

'As much as he can' isn't all that much, considering they live together and carpool to work most days, and Mack's mom would yell at him if he took the meals Sid made and ate in his bedroom. So he's still around them a ton, but he keeps quiet when possible, and after Sid tries to coax him into conversation the first day, they let him be.

The problem is, the itchiness under Mack's skin hasn't gone away. If anything, it's gotten worse, and Owen's been acting weird around him too, lurking near him in the locker room and looming behind him on the ice when the guys start roughhousing with him.

Mack's heat isn't due until the All-Star break. Rookies always have their heats suppressed until they have a decent amount of time off, they can do it safely now, and it's easier—he has a few months to get used to playing in the show full-time without having to add in a heat on top of it, and he's got ten full days to take advantage of the facilities and recover when he's done before he's back to game play.

But Mack had two heats before the Penguins medical team got him on his shots. He knows what it feels like when he's getting close. It feels like this.

Watching Geno fuck Sid on the couch only made it worse.

Geno's been watching him too. Mack can feel the weight of his attention, the way he's keeping watch in the room. It keeps Mack up at night, intrusive thoughts about what he'd do if he were a little less nervous and Geno was a little more single.

He's moping in his bedroom after dinner five days after The Incident when someone knocks on his door.

Mack considers ignoring it, pretending he had his headphones in, but the manners his mom drilled into his skull won't let him, so he reluctantly gets off his bed and slumps to the door, cracking it open and hoping Sid will accept a brush-off if he smiles big enough.

It's not Sid. Geno pushes his way into Mack's room, barely glancing around before sitting at Mack's desk and staring at him pointedly until Mack sits back down on his bed.

"Um," Mack says, darting a glance at his nightstand and breathing a quiet sigh of relief when the drawer is shut. "What's up?"

Geno purses his lips. "I'm not talk about...before," he says, grimacing a little. Mack watches in surprise as his face turns a dull red. "It's fine, we don't talk about. But, I need to come say to you, it's heat soon for Sid, and I think maybe for you too, after."

Mack swallows. Shit. "I'm not due until break," he says weakly. "They're giving me the—"

"Shots, yes, I know this," Geno says impatiently, waving a hand in dismissal. "Shots not perfect, like, for Sid they not work at all my rookie year. And for you, I think because you're with Sid so much, it's making like...link, maybe. I don't know, it's for doctors, but I can smell. You talk to Dharmesh?"

Mack cannot imagine addressing the stern team physician by his first name. "Not...yet," he says haltingly. "I was hoping maybe it would go away."

Geno sighs. "Podrostki," he mutters. "No, it's not work that way. Look, I think for Sid's heat you're go stay with Jake, maybe, if it's okay. Not good for you, to be here when he's...I think maybe it's worse for you."

Mack thinks back to how being in heat felt, the way he needed so much, and flushes, imagining that same want creeping up on him when he's locked away in his room, listening to Geno give Sid everything he wants down the hall. No, he can't be here for that. "Is Jake okay with that?" is what he says, ducking his head so he doesn't have to meet Geno's too-knowing gaze. What they're dancing around is that Geno knows how Mack feels, maybe has known the whole time, and that it's not just Sid's heat that's accelerating Mack's own.

Mack wonders if it's too late to ask to be sent back to juniors.

"Jake offers," Geno says. "He say, maybe it's good for you to be with betas for a while, especially then—it's hard for the guys, even the ones who know Sid for years, and you're new."

Mack takes a breath. Being around someone who isn't involved in the drama surrounding dynamics sounds like a breath of fresh air, even if Mack's going to be going through all this for himself soon. Maybe a break is exactly what he needs.

"Yeah, okay," he says. "If they're alright with it, that's probably a good idea. I'll go whenever you guys think I need to."

Geno nods and gets to his feet. "It's maybe another few days," he says, pausing before he leaves and clapping a hand on Mack's shoulder. "You good kid. It gets easier, Sid says."

The next morning, Sid's practically in Geno's lap at breakfast, and when Mack walks into the kitchen Sid growls at him, territory-marking in a way that Mack's only read about. Geno looks half-drunk on the flood of pheromones, pulling Sid in close and licking over his bond bite.

Mack runs up to his room and shoves as many clothes as he can manage into his travel bag, hoping that the Guentzels are ready for company sooner than anticipated.

[onepieceoftheoceanblues]

More One Piece X Batman au ideas/hcs

Just more assorted ideas from this OP Batfam au here iv been playing with. All you have to know is the Batfam is now in the op world tho!

-Im leaving the og post with multiple options but im def leaning twords them having their own Pirate crew, and either ally with another canon crew or have ties to the Revs, or both. Im unsure on what they'd be called because the Bat Pirates or Bat and Bird Pirates is kinda lame lol so ill figure something out later, and also am open to suggestions!

I feel like they're very open about being Vigilante-Pirates, working like or with the Revs but still being Pirates. It catches on pretty quick for them, and later is a classification used for other similar crews. Also, yes they follow the Pirate Codes and learn the traditions! They mostly learned out of curiosity at first but learned how important it was and kinda just fell into them.

Here's the set-up on the crew for those with official position, though they do have a lot of crossovers (Any positions not specifically mentioned are just done by all the crew or when needed, or not needed at all);

Bruce is the Captain, and Navigator (Tho I feel like all of them learn how to navigate just in case). The crew mostly governs itself, but they learn more about the Pirate Codes and make sure to listen to their Captain when it's important because it's as much as about respect to their crew but also for other crews. They adapt pretty well to it tbh tho it takes a bit because being a pirate crew is largely very different from a Vigilante group.

Dick is the First Mate, and their Communications Expert/Diplomat. Ie he keeps track of allies, friends, man's the phones, er, snails? And is the one usually to socialize or mediate with both interpersonal and outside the crew. He does use swords, but doesn't consider himself the official Swordsman of the crew, that's Damian. (This is because I found out in older comics Bruce taught him to fight swashbuckler style, so he uses swords he switches out with his Escrima Sticks when needed)

Jason is their Gunner/Sniper and Cook, and he also is their Chronicler. He bitches a lot about the last two, but he refuses to let anyone take over the Cook role as he doesn't trust anyone else, but also enjoys writing their adventures down despite denying it.

Tim is their Information Gatherer and Chemist Expert, and knows the second most of Navigating. He and Bruce also are the ones who mostly make the weapons for the others, though most of them could if needed. He also shares Archaeologist duties with Bruce, though everyone partakes.

Cass is their Spymaster and Scout, and also "secret weapon" ie she kicks major ass and scares the shit out of their enemies cuz nobody expects the tiny half mute girl to be one of their frontline fighters <3

Stephanie is their Doctor, because I love the hc that she decides to become a Doctor and has been going to med school (and because I need someone to fill the position without Alfred here ^-^'), as well as their Tailor, though she splits that with Jason and Dick as needed. Though everyone knows Advanced First Aid due to their lifestyles.

I feel like Duke decides to pick up the position of Official Shipwright because they need someone to do so, and actually comes to really enjoy learning how to make and take care of ships properly.

Damian is their other Swordsman, due to his skill and pride in his swordsmanship. He is also their Beast Tamer, and secondary Spy. He's often thought to be a Cabin Boy, which pisses him off, but he's got actual positions on the ship, so he isn't despite his age. Some of the Old Guard have issues with how young he is, but it's not like anyone of them had a choice due to his past, and it's not like he hasn't earned the roles either. He's more experienced them most pirate crews!

They all switch out chores mostly evenly, Helm the ship, rigging, and do lookout duty, though often trade off when someone needs a break from the others due to the whole "trapped on a ship 24/7 hours together". Most of them know how to use instruments, so technically they all are the Musician, though they don't often do so. Damian plays his Violin the most, however, and has secretly enjoyed learning Sea Shanties to play. Dick is the one who bursts into song and knows almost endless sea shanties.

They're also all considered frontline fighters, which is strange for even a small pirate crew, but anyone can also easily switch to support or really any types of roles in a fight, which makes them even more odd. It's not often crews are very versatile, specially with how most of them can easily pick up the role or position of the roles another inhabits.

-At first I was unsure if they should ditch the costume or nah, but then I realized how hard it would to be to live in them like, 24/7 cuz they can't exactly treat this like patrol. Plus, wear and tear of the costumes would make it just unlikely they'd survive for the months or even years they're stuck in the OP world

So I decided that they do a mix-up. They keep a lot of their costume or costume elements but add more casual and piratey vibes in, both for comfort and style to fit in a little better, like these images.

Bruce really didn't want to, same with ever taking off the masks or suits due to the risk of somehow being ID'd back in their world, but over time even Bruce has to admit they can't live in their suits or all call them only by their Vigilante names forever.

They still all wear masks for the most part, and how much they keep or get rid of varies between them, but yee.

Dick has a coat like above, but he also has a very nice black swashbucklers shirt he'll put over instead. Bruce was bullied into making his cowl only the top part of his face, but they got him a captains/swashbucklers hat that has similar bat ears on it as well to wear. They tried to find a Captain's coat that worked but in the end decided to stick with the cape.

Tim no longer has the full cowl of Red Robin but instead a half face one that also lets his hair free, and kept his "wing cape" and chest belts but overall went for something more casual but still armored.

Damian has changed the least with his Robin suit and refuses to really mess with it, though he will occasionally take the over-shirt off and wear a looser, more comfy shirt over the under-suit.

Uhhh the others I really don't have anything concrete but you get the idea for outfits lol

-The Whitbeards would really like them as pirates, they have soft spots for Crews that are Family, though they are not a fan of how young Damian is, even more so when they learn that apparently all the kids have been fighting since they were little, but eventually find out that Bruce liked it even less than they do, and he really had no other choice other than to teach them to do it safely then let them do it behind his back.

-Mihawk and Bruce would get along very well also btw

[thenewausten]

ok so imagine you had family in town and it’s easter morning and you and alex take your little siblings easter egg hunting? i feel like that would be really cute😭😭

Thanks for the request!

Quackity and you taking your little siblings to a Easter egg hunting HC's!

(this is such a boomer photo I loved it)

Alex and you decided to pass the Easter break with your family, so you both woke up earlier to get ready to go to your parents house <3

You had two siblings, a little girl, she was 5 years old and a little boy, he was 8 years old. You were the oldest, 21 years old.

Alex and you brought gifts for them, of course!

As soon as your siblings see Alex, they both hug him, you smile to the scene with your heart warm up:((

Taking them to the Easter egg hunting would be Alex's idea!!!!! He'd see they wanted to play and would follow you to the bathroom. "Hey, amor. Ask your mom if we can take your siblings to the Easter egg hunting thing. They want to go so badly." He says and you nod. "Sure."

Your mom allows you to take them and Alex's happy for the rest of the week.

He puts them in the car and check if they were using the seat belt. Putting music so they can listen to it>>>

As soon as you arrive, you both help them to get out of the car. Your brother making a lot of questions to Alex. "So, there's this girl on my class..." He starts and Alex laughs. "At this age?! Oh God." You both laugh and take them to the place where they'd look for the Easter eggs

Lots of funny moments together, for sure. Alex would be a child again with your siblings, talking and laughing with them, and eating the chocolate eggs together 😭😭

You finish the morning taking care of your siblings and of Alex, lmao

Taking selfies with them kdjdidkdkd Alex would put one of the photos as his wallpaper

Alex would approach you and kiss your forehead. "I love your siblings." You smile to him. "And you, I love you so much." You hug the boy, watching your two siblings eating the chocolate. "I love them too, 'Lex. And you, of course." You smile and give him a peck on the lips. "Ewwww." Your little brother says, making you laugh. "Eww, uh?" Alex looks at him. "Yes." You laugh and approach him, kissing his face. "Stop, silly. You'll understand when you grow up."

You and Alex went to your parent's house again with a lot of chocolate eggs and very tired, but very happy. As soon as you arrive, they run inside of their home to show to your parents what they get.

"I hope our kids be like them." Alex whispers and you smile to him. "Me too." You lean in to kiss your boyfriend properly.

Happy Easter everyone! Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy the writing! :) 🐰

Requests are open!

[yanderes-galore]

Could you write a yandere stan and kyle ( like a rivalry) with yn? (Ignore this if it's not properly formatted)

It's okay, I understood what you were trying to say. I love them, lol. Aged up AU so feel free to think of their adult variations or some sort of AU after they graduate high school.

Yandere Stan Marsh vs Kyle Broflovski

Pairing: Romantic - Rivalry/Poly

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Drinking, Violence, Anger issues, Manipulation, Kidnapping, Jealousy, Alcoholism, Mentions of wanting kids, Family issues, Delusional behavior, Dubious relationship.

Stan and Kyle act very similar due to being best friends and all.

They both are very moral characters to a fault, Kyle being known as the "good boy" of the group when he was younger.

Except, as Stan got older he struggled with depression and alcohol.

While when Kyle got older he gained a quick temper and makes decisions based on his emotions.

Honestly, both yanderes are pretty emotional yanderes.

They just go in two different directions with it.

Other than that they are very similar.

Admittedly, Kyle is more capable of being manipulated than Stan but they both fall for tricks.

They're both family men, Kyle growing up in a family with strong beliefs and connections and Stan wanting a family where he can be a better than his father.

What's funny is Stan wants to be a better father while Kyle has already had a fraternal instinct since he was young.

Kyle is convinced he'd be the best partner for you, while Stan feels he has to fight to convince you.

Other than their slight differences, they are both very sympathetic and caring.

Which means they both want the best for you.

It's just... they fight about who's more capable of that.

They are definitely going to use their weaknesses against each other.

Kyle is going to criticize Stan's drinking and dependency issues.

Meanwhile Stan is going to plan on making Kyle show his true temper around you.

They are both the type to just melt at your attention.

They definitely have a rivalry due to being best friends.

Also, your affection feeds into their attention.

Sharing a small drink with Stan... visiting Kyle and Ike...

It all just fuels them.

It doesn't help that they're both the delusional type.

They both think you love them but are constantly trying to talk the other out of it.

They both have the capability of violence due to their aggression, but they prefer not to murder if they don't have to.

They also don't want to murder each other... they still care for each other, despite their fights.

Kidnapping is up their alley.

Stan tries to lock you in his house, alcohol on his breath as he tells you how Kyle isn't the best for you.

Kyle will try to guilt trip you into staying with him, saying Stan is an alcoholic who couldn't care for you.

You're much better off with him, someone who could take care of you and your children. (AFAB darling or you adopt.)

They can be ruthless with each other's emotions, which makes sense as they both are yanderes that run with their emotions.

There's a chance they could share.

But they much rather create seperate families with you.

The most violent they'd get with each other is like a fist fight.

Either of them could've started it, honestly.

Maybe Stan drank too much, or Kyle's temper got out of control...

Now they're fighting about you.

There's a good chance they will fight for a long time.

Even if you chose one of them... or even both...

They'd still fight to keep you to themselves.

[sheepwithspecs]

Echar Agua al Mar: Chapter 1

|| DP Coco (2017) || Rated T ||

Ao3 Link

For Imelda, trying to prevent Héctor from coming back into her life is like throwing water into the sea: pointless. With her family keen to accept the strange musician, and a challenge she can hardly refuse, she soon finds herself caught up in the continuation of a romance decades in the making. [Updates every Saturday]

Author's Note:

A lot of people wanted this one back, so I took the time to sit down and rewrite it properly. I plan on writing a proper ending, but it will be finished as-is (with no added chapters). I don't plan to write anything else for the DP-Coco fandom, so please accept this reworked fic as a celebration of my short, but meaningful time here. As roughly as it ended, I still would not trade those years for the world. I met some of the best people in that fandom, many of which I am still in contact with as friends and mutuals.

I want to take the time to thank each and every reader who has reached out over the years asking about this fic (as well as other DPC fics). The fact that you remember my work fondly means more to me than words can really describe. I wanted to finish this for you, so it's my fervent hope that you enjoy it just as much, if not more, as you enjoyed the original WIP. Please don't stop reaching out, either! In this day and age, it's rare to get reviews on fics anymore. If there's something you enjoyed, no matter how small, I promise that it would make my day to hear it!

The Rivera family was in distress.

Before the last Día de Los Muertos, they had been perfectly content with their lives—if a skeletal soul could indeed be called "living". They had a certain pride in being the best shoemakers in the Land of the Dead, and in death they worked much as they had in life: hard. But now production had slacked off unexpectedly; the twins fulfilled the quota of only one man, Julio made more mistakes in one hour than he had in nearly twenty years, Rosita polished at a tortoise's speed, and even Victoria made simple errors, growing frustrated as she was forced to thread and rethread her needle.

If Mamá Imelda saw them, she might have gloated that her ban on music was well and just. It was music—or the lack of it—that kept the family working at a plodding pace. They'd had a taste of the tunes, a bite of the proverbial apple, and now they were tempted for more. They heard rhythm in the steady ringing of the twins' hammers, in the swish-swish of Victoria's needle, in the scrubbing of Rosita's polishing brush. The Rivera harmony, so easy to recognize, to hum along to… if they weren't in the habit of suppressing those same urges.

But the family matriarch was nowhere to be found downstairs, and could not scold their behavior from the living quarters on the second floor. It was early afternoon, and so Imelda was in her bedroom, hiding… though no one would have dared suggest such a thing within earshot.

"Mamá Imelda can't blame us now," Julio murmured. "Not when she herself sang at the Sunrise Spectacular. In front of everyone, too." It was a conversation they'd repeated over and over again for three months.

"It's true," Oscar added. "She sang again, and so beautifully! But if she heard us…." He was irritated, more with himself than with his older sister. He hated working as though he were a greenhorn cobbler. If he could only finish the day's quota, he could spend the rest of the afternoon tinkering on inventions with his twin. But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't stop his foot from tapping along in time with his hammer.

"Then let her hear us," Victoria huffed, squinting over the rims of her spectacles. The needle was mere inches from her eye sockets, shaking slightly as she aimed. "Maybe that will be what makes her come downstairs for a change."

"She won't." Felipe looked over his shoulder, shaking his skull at his great-niece. "Not so early in the afternoon. Not before…" he trailed off, gazing pointedly at the clock just above her elegant bun.

"And so? Why not sing?" Victoria lifted her eyes from her work, pushing the spectacles up her skull with one dainty finger. "If there's no danger of her coming down." She sighed as the twins shook their heads in unison. "Oh, if my mamá could see us now. She'd have a good laugh at us all."

"Ah, he's coming!" Rosita announced suddenly, rising from her chair at the window. She let the unfinished shoe in her hand fall to the table, the brush tossed aside as she raced for the door. Everyone paused in their work, following Felipe's eyes towards the clock.

"Right on schedule," Julio said with a smile. "By the way, what will today's excuse be? The corner store?"

"No, we used that one yesterday."

"A walk?"

"We used that one two days ago." They stared at one another with growing concern, each racking their brain for some useful idea. Finally Rosita shook her head, shrugging helplessly at Julio. He blew out a low breath, hands stuck deep into his pockets.

"You say something," Oscar muttered, elbowing his brother in the ribs.

"Why me?" Felipe gulped. "You know I can't think under pressure!"

"Neither can I!"

"I'll say something." Victoria stood as well, brushing bits of thread from her apron. The twins sighed in relief, dropping their hammers simultaneously to the workbench as everyone in the room turned towards the open door in anticipation of their daily visitor. A moment later, there was a self-conscious knock as a man stepped just past the threshold. He was dressed in ragged clothing—espantapájaros, Victoria often muttered under her breath—with his sleeve barely hanging by a thread and shoeless as the day he was born. His gold tooth glinted in the afternoon sunlight as he grinned sheepishly, his hat clutched in nervous hands.

"Hello, Héctor," the Riveras chanted in unison, the start of their new daily routine.

"Hello, everyone." The hat brim began its revolution as Héctor's anxious fingers began to twist. "I've come to… I mean: is Imelda at home today?" The twins shared a sympathetic wince. Rosita's fingers clacked against her cheekbones as she raised her hands to her face. Victoria looked around the room, adjusted her glasses, and scowled.

"This has gone on long enough!" she declared, ignoring the shocked gasps from the rest of the family. "Of course she's here! She's been here every day for as long as you've been coming."

"Ahaha… I, uh… I thought that might be the case." Héctor sighed, looking down at his bare feet. "There's only so many times someone might go to the markets, after all." He looked so pitiable, dashed hopes and guilt and shame, standing in their doorway like a beggar searching for alms. Rosita clucked and guided him to her empty chair, inviting him in properly now that Victoria had broken the routine.

Héctor had given them all of a month before showing up out of the blue, hoping to speak with his wife. Of course, they had all been under strict orders after day one to not let him inside. If he asked, they were supposed to offer some excuse as to why Imelda was not downstairs with the rest of the family. Every afternoon she avoided the workshop like the plague, waiting until he had come and gone before venturing downstairs to complete her portion of the day's work.

This left the rest of the family with no choice but to scramble and find sixty days' worth of excuses to feed him, along with their best what-can-be-done expressions. They would have much rather invited him in, treated him as one of their own, and marched him up to Imelda's room without a word of protest. But the family matriarch's orders overruled any personal attachment to Héctor. At least, it had… until today.

"So." Héctor placed his hat on the table, linking his fingers politely in his lap. "She asked you to cover for her."

"She did," Victoria answered for them, "but this is getting out of hand."

"Even though you knew we were lying, and that Imelda didn't want to see you… you still came every day?" Oscar asked curiously, running a finger over his thin mustache. Héctor managed a one-sided shrug, smiling sadly. "That's pretty stubborn of you."

"Imelda's just as stubborn as you, though," Felipe pointed out, leaning against the workbench. "She won't come downstairs. Not even if you come every day for the next century."

"Victoria?" Julio waved his hand in his daughter's face, a frown twisting his mustache. "Go upstairs and ask Mamá Imelda to come down. For your Papá Héctor's sake."

"No! No, don't bother her. If she doesn't want to see me, then…." Héctor stood quickly, scratching at his thin goatee before offering them a much happier smile. "Tell me, how much would I have to pay for a pair of genuine Rivera boots?"

"What?!" Rosita shook her head in dismay. "What on earth are you talking about? You're family, of course they'd be free—" Oscar and Felipe immediately bent, each studying one of his feet.

"Come now, I'm willing to pay something—"

"No, Héctor." Julio crossed his arms. "Rosita's right. Family doesn't pay for shoes. But, eh…." He glanced warily at Victoria. "What do you think Mamá Imelda will have to say?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. You can leave her to me-e-e—!" Héctor jerked his foot away from Oscar, the appendage flopping loosely as he hopped off-balance. "Hey, watch it! That tickles!"

"But—"

"Listen: Imelda is your mamá. Of course you will do as she says, and don't ask questions. That's the way it should be. But she's my Imelda." His eyes twinkled. "I know how to deal with her. You can leave that to me. I just thought that since I have no plans to stop visiting my family, I might as well have a proper excuse of my own." He leaned in, motioning for them to join him. They huddled around him, close enough that their heads were nearly touching.

"As far as you're concerned," he whispered, "I've given up on seeing Imelda. I've accepted that she doesn't want to see me. And if you do see us together, just… y'know." He smiled again, but this time the expression was far more playful. "She's my wife, isn't she? Act natural."

"Natural?" Oscar parroted, only to get thumped on the skull. "Oh, right! Natural!" They all chuckled, save for Victoria's modest headshake. Héctor nodded and they broke apart.

"I'm sure boots take quite a while to make, yes?" He asked in a much louder tone, directing his voice towards the stairs. "Especially custom boots for your Papá Héctor!"

"You're right!" Julio agreed just as loudly, winking at Rosita. "Custom boots take a very long time!"

"Yes! Weeks!" Rosita giggled.

"Then I'll leave you all," Héctor nearly shouted, taking his hat and waving it with a flourish, "to your work!" As he jammed the hat on his head, there was a soft sound… almost like the rustling of skirts at the head of a grand staircase.

"Come back tomorrow for a proper sizing," Victoria advised, one eye on the stairs. "That way, we won't have to second-guess ourselves once we begin."

"Understood!" He winked once more before turning, offering a little wave over his shoulder. "See you tomorrow, everyone."

"Adiós, Héctor!" The Riveras waved him out the door, looking at one another before stifling their laughter. If Héctor was volunteering to take the brunt of Imelda's anger, they were more than willing to sneak around and help them any way they could. After all, her mighty arm was often the only thing that kept them in line, and something about Héctor's goofy charm made him hard to resist. Maybe that was what she had meant, blaming him for Miguel's naughtiness on Día de Los Muertos: his mischief was catching.

"It's all right, Mamá!" Julio called at the foot of the stairs. "He's gone now." There wasn't a full thirty seconds of silence before Imelda was among them, eyeing them all suspiciously with her usual motherly intuition.

"It took longer than normal to make him leave this time…." She trailed off expectantly, waiting for someone to explain. Without batting an eye, Victoria took over.

"We ran out of excuses and had to think of something else." It was a lie by omission, but it rang enough of the truth that she felt confident staring directly into her grandmother's eyes. "He stayed because he wanted to order some boots."

"Boots?" Imelda repeated, her mouth pursing in distaste. "What sort of boots?"

"Custom boots," Rosita explained. "He's tired of walking around in his bare feet."

"And you accepted him?" For the first time, Imelda seemed unhappy about a potential sale. "Why? Now he has an excuse to come inside and—anyway, you should have turned him away," she fussed, running both hands over her immaculate hairstyle and patting it into place nervously.

"It's our fault," Oscar spoke up, hands clasped in false penitence. "Felipe and I couldn't turn him down."

"We haven't made a custom order of boots in so long. We were excited, Imelda."

"We didn't think, and he is—"

"—like a brother to us, after all."

"It's not just anyone," Rosita pointed out gently. "It's Papá Héctor. We can't refuse him."

"Papá Héctor?" Imelda groaned. "Since when is he— Never mind." She crossed her arms, staring out the open door. "I can't even blame you for it. A Rivera has never been able to turn away someone in need of shoes. Even if it's him. And it's only for a few more days."

"Maybe a week," Julio corrected her. "Or more. We have a lot of orders…."

"Ay… heaven help me."

Héctor sat at the edge of Shantytown, kicking his feet off the ledge as he thought. People passed by, shouting greetings to him from the docks, but he was far too lost in his own mind to pay much attention. As was the case lately, his thoughts were focused on one goal: Imelda.

Admittedly he was out of practice, and quite rusty when it came to the art of courtship. In the olden days, back when they were alive, it had been more a scheme of getting her to notice him at all. He had even rejected the help of his best friend, afraid that Ernesto might catch her eye before he could ever hope to. That was good: he hadn't needed him then, and certainly didn't need him now.

Most of his ideas for getting back into her good graces were the same as his former exploits: serenading by moonlight, offering her gifts, winning her over with his irresistible charm… he no longer had the dimples she so admired, by he was still quite handsome, if he said so himself.

The real question was: would she ever indulge him?

Probably not at first. He frowned, staring up at the city lights dancing above him. He'd given her a full month, slipping away after the Sunrise Spectacular and biding his time. Imelda could hold a nasty grudge—he had firsthand knowledge of that. Years of bitterness would not disappear overnight, just because they'd had one song together, one small adventure with their living progeny. Before Miguel had come, he'd given up hope of reaching her at all.

But.

That's for murdering the love of my life!

The thwap of the huarache against bone rang over and over in his head: a sound of hope. He was the love of her life! Even all these months later, he still couldn't quite believe it.

I still have a chance. I'm the love of her life.

It was that mentality that had him coming to the Rivera household day after day, standing awkwardly in the doorway and asking to see her. He could tell that the family was willing, even if the woman was not. There was pity in their expressions as they lied to his face, telling him that he'd just missed her, that she'd gone for a walk, or to get more thread, or to deliver a rush order of shoes.

Imelda was a stubborn woman, that was for sure. But he was a stubborn man. Year after year he'd gone to that dumb bridge, knowing full well that he would not be able to cross. Compared to that, romancing his own estranged wife would be a piece of cake! He planned it out in his head, days of shoemaking and nights of wooing. She'd be begging him to stay within the month. Maybe. Hopefully.

It was a foolproof plan… so long as she didn't call for Pepita.

[imp111]

PICO HEADCANNONS 1

trigger mentions: school shootings, depression, anxiety content: slight fnf pico, ooc pico, jumbled writing, pico, pico, pico, mentions of nene and darnell, pico,

author's note: I haven't written like this since my quotev days LOL so i apologize that my writing is kind of all over the place.

(for context, the events of pico school happened in elementary because that's what the wiki says!!!!) 1.) Whenever something serious happens, Pico's instinctive response is always fight, never flight (or in his case, stand around in shock or hide). He only did so once, which was when Cassandra suddenly began to school up his classroom (during the opening scene). After that day, he couldn't stand the thought of dissociating on the spot again. He always forces himself to act. It's instinctual, which sometimes ends up with him being in a lot of trouble.

2.) Pico rapidly aged after elementary school. He lost his spunk and started getting serious mood swings. He already had anger issues before, but this is when it really began to develop. He didn't talk as much and kind of became a loner. He knew what happened was wrong, but it never fully hit him until the end of middle school. He never got an official diagnosis, but it doesn't take a scientist to see when somebody is going through depression, and Pico was obviously depressed. He gave up on completing school and college and everything else he fantasied about when he was a kid. But somehow, by the grace of god, he ended up finishing high school with barely passing grades and an even shitter GPA. 4.) I kind of see him more aloof and tense than what fnf depicted him as. Personally, I just don't see him being extroverted and all carefree. So, with that said, Pico isn't that much of a people person. He's pretty inconsiderate of strangers, but of course he's not going to be a dick unless someone is first. 5.) It took him a while to get used to being in crowds like malls and generally just be out and about again. It took a lot of Nene and Darnell to get it through his head that not every crowded place was a death trap for him. It was a lot worse when he was in high school, but like a year after graduating he got diagnosed with schizophrenia and was properly medicated.

6.) With that said, Nene and Darnell also practically forced him to get his ass out of his house and see a doctor. There was no way in hell they could convince him to get therapy (because men will do anything but go to therapy), so they opted with getting him at least medicated for his delusions. It took a lot of nagging (especially from Nene) for him to at least *see* somebody that could prescribe him something that'd help with his anxiety. He didn't think they'd do shit but come to find out, Meds... can actually help with his depression?? And his mood swings?? 7.) Pico doesn't have self-esteem issues. He actually thinks he's fairly attractive. And yet, somehow, that man is absolutely bitchless. 8.) No, but seriously, Pico needs major work done on himself before he starts dating again, and he knows damn well, too. His last relationship was with a blue-haired twink who was crushing on some bimbo and he was too mentally checked out to really care about him. Even now that he has a better mindset, it's still such a struggle for him to be vulnerable. Talking about his struggles makes him cringe, and besides that, he literally kills people for a living. Maybe if he finds somebody good, he'd change, but for right now he's just going to be independent.

[heartfullofleeches]

X

Yandere Grim Reaper [He/They] + Cursed Reader [G.N] Blurb

Summary: A Reaper mourns the lost of their beloved and pays them a visit

Warning: Character Death (sorta)

A matchstick strikes against the wall of a gravestone-

Kindling a candle burrowed in the grey sand devouring the stone. Bold letters engrave the same name nine time over on different slabs; the dates below just a year apart. The same headline marks each grave, luminated by ice blue as the remaining wicks are ignited.

Fighter. Friend. Lover.

No matter the age, the last word is always crooked. Disturbing the dead is the one sin in their heart. The hands that write can never make it truth through words alone. They promised their beloved they would no longer cry for them, but the flood of emotion drags the once heartless being underneath; their striking blue tears the only ounce of color in the monochromatic land.

Time does not move for them. It hides within glass and leaps from period to period, no comfort to be found in between. The reaper clasps their hands in prayer, offering its meaningless script in thanks to the cruel hands of fate for allowing their love to walk the earth another year. Their laughs remake them. Their tears destroy. Its a cycle they'd never tire of- till that dream came home.

"They're dead."

The sand figurines by the reaper's knees crumple into ash.

"Will you do your job this time?"

"They have one life left."

The stagnant air grows denser. "They should not have had more than one to begin with. The hand they were dealt is unfair, but the same goes for all mortals. Your foolishness and naivety are your only shields else you would be erased by now."

The reaper continues their prayer. The graves rattle in their plots, falling still when no reaction is given.

"Fine. Go to your mortal. It is clear you plan to make them one of us so balance with be restored once they perish for good."

Once again the reaper is left alone. They're always alone. Alone, alone, alone - but not for long.

-

Your right leg hangs out the window as you perch upon its sill. The height from here would kill you if you landed properly, but you've already had your death for the year and the morgue was so stuffy. Good thing you died in a pair of presentable pajamas, shame about your gloves though. Your body was in peak condition, so explaining the see through fingers would be pretty hard.

"Y/n..."

The lights flicker. An indigo glow rolls from the smoke cloud billowing from the empty cabinet in your little corner of the wall. Your heart rams against your ribcage as the smog blackens from the shadows and maneuver up an invisible frame to form robes wrapped around a skeletal body. Fear is the least possible aggressor for your increased heartbeat; the organ fluctuating along with the pulsing blue orb in the being's exposed ribcage. It steadies as the reaper joins your side, and takes your hand.

You collect yourself, clutching your shirt as you squeeze their hand for support. "Hey, Mad. Still get excited when you see me?"

"I'm sorry..."

"It's alright. It's the one thing I've gotten used to over the years, minus the mini heart attack."

Maddox picks their eyes off the floor and looks at your hands. Every digit is transparent except for your index finger. The first one to touch them when they first came to you.

"Did it... hurt?"

You shake your head. "No... It was a fire this time. They managed to put it out before it got to my door, but the smoke already reached me. I died in my sleep."

Maddox looks back to the ground. You stand up and onto your toes to make them face you.

"It's alright. Better than getting hit by a bus or falling down some stairs. I have the worse luck don't I?"

Luck is one way to put it. For crimes against humanity your ancestors were punished thousands of years after their own deaths. Every second child in your family was cursed to die on the birthday when life truly began for them. This decade was your turn, and your time came nearly ten years ago. You would've died that day, had the only one who ever cried for you not come to aid.

"I had a great birthday though. Cake, and I even made it twelve hours before I died. I wouldn't have made it nearly as long if it weren't for you. This is the last year, right? Once I die again, you'll take your heart back - and I come with you?"

For once, Maddox is thankful for their lack of facial features. "Yes."

"Hm. That sucks- but since I've taken good care of your heart, I know that whatever I'll be in good hands. Can you stay with me? At least for breakfast? I'm starving."

Maddox nods, hood masking his face. It still smells like ash, but it works well to hide their leaking eyes; shame dripping down their bones for the sins they have committed. The lives they've taken when they could've enjoyed the time you had, just to get you home sooner.

[insanelyadd]

Collector and Archivist Family Headcanons

I got one person who said they wanted to see this when I asked, so this is for you. <3

Before I get into describing the relationships of the siblings (Which I think I did a really good job writing and describing), it is important you know a few background details (that are also headcanons). As a little heads up warning, under the cut there will be mentions of: Imprisonment, neglect, abuse, manipulation, toxic family dynamics, child murder (the Titans), murder (also the Titans), abandonment, guilt, PTSD(?). I think that's it. Let me know which of the Archivists are your least favorite, I'm keeping track and so far one of them is ahead by a lot.

As a reminder this is what My Archivists look like, I swear to god tumblr if you tank the image quality when I publish this:

Free headcanon before we transition to under the read more: I gave The Collector and The Archivists "true names" (and in the Archivist's case, specific code names) because I have a HC that the reason we never learn any "normal" names for any of them is that if a mortal knows a Collector's True Name then that mortal (non-Collector) has power over them. Their magic no longer has much, if any, effect, and they can be harmed by the mortal.

They had one parent named Nebula who used xey/xem pronouns. Their parent has been imprisoned for trying to raise xeir children to believe contrary to the extremism of destroying planets when people get mad about their loved ones being kidnapped, which would probably reflect onto the children that their parent cared more about xeir contrarian morality than them, since xey definitely would have known what would happen when/if xey were caught. They have to have had a parent because the large age disparity between the eldest Archivist and the Collector would typically imply a more parental role, so they need to have all shared a parent.

When the other Collectors came to arrest Nebula, xey tried to fight it so xey could stay with xeir children but xey were easily outnumbered and overpowered. After Nebula were apprehended, the other Collectors began to round up the children so they could be brought to new adult(s) to be raised “properly”, but once they noticed Penumbra was roughly adult age, they asked her if she would be willing to become their caretaker, as otherwise the other children may all be separated, because who would want to suddenly accept 5 new children, including an infant. So Penumbra took on all this responsibility herself to prevent them from being separated.

Sketch of the happy family after these events, now with finalized designs.

Next info bit relates to a theory I have about how the room where Phillip found the Collector's disk could not have been made by the Titan ("Ah yeah lemme teleport this into my skull where I have conveniently made a locked door to put it behind") or Titan Trappers (they would have absolutely taken the disk instead), so this room had to have been made by SOMEBODY and the most likely candidate is the Archivists. To expand upon this, I believe they absolutely had access to Titan Blood and the Disk and chose to leave the Collector behind.

They most likely did this because whoever found the disk would very quickly find out they need Titan's blood or a Titan's help to release the Collector, in any case, the last Titan would need to be hatched, and accessible. The Archivists very likely assumed that he would return to them and when that happened they'd go back to the planet to finish what they started (killing the last Titan if they were not already killed to release them, and then possibly microwaving the planet).

They need to stop taking family photos after one of them is imprisoned, now with finalized designs.

NOW FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIPS!

Nebula, the Archivists' parent, loves all of xeir children dearly, and hopes they are all doing well without xem.

Penumbra:

Penumbra had a very good relationship with Nebula, but after xey were imprisoned for raising them "wrong", Penumbra resents xem. Xeir actions led to Penumbra being forced to raise four children all by herself while she, herself, was barely an adult by the standards of Collector society (I'd say 16 but simultaneously I'm assigning numbers for convenience to myself rather than it being a true translation of their ages as I feel many of our concepts of aging and other things are not be truly cross-compatible). Taking care of a teenager (14), two children (8), and a toddler (2), all while trying to continue to do her duties as a Collector (starting at the Collector equivalent of 8 years old they can assist on Collections, so Satellite, Solari, and Crescent all would have been able to help to varying degrees) would have been extremely stressful for her and it strained her relationship with all of her younger siblings.

She gets along best with Crescent since he was old enough to be almost entirely self-sufficient, though she was still very immature. They would occasionally come to points of contention specifically about how much Crescent should be allowed to do, with both of them having different perspectives on what she can do and what he can't do. Penumbra felt like he should contribute more on Collections and play less with Cosmos (the Collector), while Crescent felt like she should be allowed to help care for and watch Cosmos more since Penumbra assigning herself as sole caretaker of them was very obviously wearing her out. This would ease as Crescent got older, but as Cosmos also got older and less dependent, Penumbra became less stressed which made Crescent press less about caring for him, though she still enjoyed spending time with them (if any of the Archivists were likely to want children it would be Crescent). 

Penumbra has a much more tense relationship with Satellite who took Nebula's imprisonment the hardest. Penumbra feels like Satellite resented her for the role she was forced to fill as their new sole caretaker. Satellite became much more quick to anger and was openly hostile when in a bad mood, which is ultimately why Penumbra decided they should be the Cartographer, because it gave them a lot of time by themself, since it seemed so obvious to her that they couldn't stand their own family. Penumbra also has a bitterness towards Satellite for their repeated verbal abuse towards Cosmos. All she wanted was for them to play nice with their baby brother so she could have a moment alone with her thoughts, or to work on projects and sometimes it worked, but it is impossible for her to tell when Satellite is in a bad mood (since they suppress their emotions until they explode) until she hears them screaming and Cosmos crying and has to show up to yell at Satellite and comfort Cosmos.

Penumbra has a horrible relationship with Solari. Unless they are speaking on official matters regarding their jobs, Solari has a tendency to undercut everything with sarcasm and disdain. Solari only ever seems truly happy and genuine when deep in thought categorizing and organizing the Archives, which was something Penumbra picked up on quite quickly, seeing how organized and easy to find everything in their room was, especially compared to the random hordes of assorted trinkets present in Crescent and Satellite's rooms (and her own if she felt like being honest), and assigned her as the Archive’s Curator. Penumbra feels like Solari needs to be preoccupied with other tasks while interacting with anyone because she otherwise expends her excess mental energy to be snide and cold to people, like they want to tell jokes but she's too mean or emotionally distant to bother thinking of ones that aren't cruel. Penumbra also DEEPLY dislikes Solari's tendency to be rough with Cosmos when she sends him off to play with them. He doesn't seem to mind the shooting star game, as long as he isn't thrown into objects or so far away they can't find their way back, but Solari does things that scare Cosmos and piss off Penumbra, like boxing him into small spaces or stomping their foot hard enough for the floor to crack right in front of him, or punching walls and slamming doors when she’s aggravated about them being around. She's never actually hurt them on purpose, with a few accidental times resulting in Solari immediately apologizing, healing him if necessary, and leaving him alone. But if the day ever comes where they do hurt him on purpose Penumbra is fully prepared to wring their neck and lock her in her room for 100 years, impeccable talent for organizing be damned.

Penumbra has a complicated relationship with Cosmos. She is their older sister but also effectively their mother, having been his sole caretaker for a majority of his life, but she’s also exhausted by him. She raised Cosmos from a literal infant into a curious and playful child. Unfortunately the playfulness and curiosity are a non-stop feature and not one that only conveniently exists when she wants a break from her duties or when she's giving him his lessons on their culture, the universe, or their vast Collection. She also gets easily frustrated with them just like the twins do, but she prides herself in being able to easily dismiss those feelings despite her bone deep burnout for childcare. She sends him on tasks in the Archives, uses the cultures of the beings she’s observing at any given time to concoct new games for him to play, or redirects them to any of the other available siblings. She loves them very much but she also desperately wanted a break from him.

Crescent:

Crescent had the worst relationship with Nebula, which isn’t to say it was even bad, but that once she found out that xey were breaking their laws by teaching them all “incorrectly”, he turned xem in. Crescent much prefers the rules as they are Meant To Be, because the way Nebula taught them was much less efficient, which is what she prefers. It wasn’t until the incident with the Titans that he became more openly gleeful about ending the lives of mortals, before then it remained largely just another part of her duties as a Collector. Nobody knows how other Collectors found out about Nebula doing this, and Crescent knows better than to tell his siblings about this.

Crescent feels like an equal to Penumbra, in that they both are the eldest, with only a few “years” apart from each other, and he is given free reign to make executive decisions while performing her duties on planets alone. She still has a slight bitterness about Penumbra refusing to let him help raise Cosmos, because she believes if Penumbra was less stressed she would have lashed out less to Satellite and Solari, and blames her for some of their behavioral issues. For the most part though he doesn’t let these feelings interfere at all with how he interacts with her, because they are The Charmer, and she prides herself on being able to be incredibly charismatic, smoothing over moments of tension between Penumbra and the Twins easily, lying to and manipulating mortals even more easily.

Crescent silently despises Satellite. She would never let it slip how she really feels about them, but inside whenever they are forced to interact she is constantly imagining scenarios in which it may be appropriate to punch them. He HATES their inability to telegraph how they’re feeling more clearly, because she hates not being able to read people. Their emotional constipation means it’s harder for him to get a read on how best to placate or flatter them in any given situation. His frustration about this coupled with Satellite’s extreme hostility at the drop of a hat makes it so Crescent loathes interaction with them.

Crescent outwardly gets along very well with Solari, as they can very very easily figure out the best course of action to take in any given interaction they share. He still doesn’t enjoy her company that much though, as her tendency to “jokingly” insult her pisses her off, especially paired with what Crescent perceives as extreme arrogance when Solari tries to act intimidating and tough to him. Crescent is probably the most physically fit of all of the Archivists (magically it is much harder to decipher who’s on top) and is insulted that the least physically capable of all of them (excluding the actual child) even entertains the idea that she could fight him, especially with her misplaced confidence in these moments that Crescent perceives to be them believing they could even win. At every opportunity that has presented itself Crescent fights her and takes them down VERY quickly, which makes Solari even more passive aggressive and angry at him.

Crescent adored Cosmos. Always enjoying playing with them, telling him stories about the Collections she’s gone on recently, teaching him new magic tricks. Crescent liked that they were easy to read and easy to lead, easily redirecting their energy at tasks and “games” that could easily preoccupy them until they got tired enough to sleep. Still, he believed it was a great idea to send them to the Titan Planet to see how he would do on his first excursion as an Actual Collector, even after the Titans proved to be able to harm Cosmos they weighed the benefits against the risks of leaving them there. Benefits being that he could function as a good distraction while she whipped up a quick plan to wipe the Titans out, risks being the Titans catching on and harming Cosmos or doing so accidentally. Crescent concluded the Titans were far too nice to harm them, and believed himself to be clever enough to quickly mount up an attack on the Titans that would wipe them out before they’d even be able to register what happened.

Satellite:

Satellite loved Nebula more than anyone, even their own twin (but don’t tell Solari that). The feeling of betrayal and abandonment they felt when it was revealed that xey had broken laws which resulted in xeir imprisonment destroyed everything that they knew in their mind.

Satellite is afraid of Penumbra, which used to not be the case, at least, not to the same extent. Satellite never really got along with any of their siblings except Solari on a consistent basis but Penumbra’s idea to make them the Cartographer at first felt fine, even Satellite didn’t fully understand what would set them off and enjoyed the time alone and moments of peace they got exploring space and searching out new places to Collect from. Eventually they realized that they actually hated being alone, they didn’t like how easily Penumbra sent them to do probably the most isolating task any of them could do to maintain their Archive. This strained their relationship quite a bit, but seeing how easily Penumbra was able to cast aside Cosmos after he was sealed in the mirror shook something in them. They thought Penumbra loved Cosmos more than any of the other siblings, a leftover piece of jealousy at him receiving so much attention after Nebula was taken away, but they couldn’t comprehend Penumbra actually even DISLIKING them in any capacity so it simply meant that to Penumbra All of the other Archivists were disposable if she came up with a good enough reason to abandon them.

Satellite is also afraid of Crescent but for reasons that are the same and completely different. The same because Crescent didn’t even argue with Penumbra’s plan to leave the disk on the Titan Planet, and in fact came up with the idea to leave behind folklore and stories about how “The Collector” was so powerful to entice people to want to find him and release him. Different because while Satellite was more apathetic to mortals, the lessons Nebula told them about how mortal life is sacred and should be protected (which is only slightly different from what they were “meant” to be told about how mortal life is sacred and must be protected by collecting unless they resist in which case they should be taken by force and their home and any stragglers left to die as they destroyed their planet) resulted in Satellite being deeply disturbed by Crescent’s total glee upon orchestrating mortals to fight the Titans on his behalf, easily ignoring how many of the Titan Trappers she had trained were killed in the battles against the full grown titans. Wearing the skulls of the babies and children, and encouraging the Trappers and other Archivists to do the same. Satellite knows how good she is at reading people, they aren’t stupid, they see how when Crescent is around fights are resolved easily, how the mortal Trappers were so easily swayed by her words and loyally fought in battle for him to the very last breath. Satellite isn’t as good at reading people but they sense their emotional non-transparency frustrates him which Satellite is just fine with, to a small extent because it can be used to protect them from her but also they worry about it making Crescent angry enough to do something about it one of these days.

Solari is Satellite’s only friend. They confide in her frequently about what they are feeling, and spend much of their time when not exploring space hanging out with them in the Archives while she sorts, categorizes, and organizes things. Solari is almost never on the receiving end of one of their meltdowns, especially since she was the one to be there for them the most after Nebula was gone. They still do get into fights, they are siblings of course, but they are not even remotely on the same level as one of them fighting with Penumbra or Crescent. Satellite has shared their worries about Crescent and Penumbra so easily discarding Cosmos, and how they worry how easily they would get rid of them or her. Solari understands them and they agree quite frequently on things, though their jobs typically keep them far apart.

Satellite did like Cosmos. They have extreme difficulty expressing how they feel and clearly communicating their needs in social situations which very often resulted in Cosmos, being a child and thus even more oblivious to social etiquette than Solari with none of the lifelong bonding Satellite has with her to guide Cosmos through their interactions, getting on their nerves severely. It was about a 50/50 chance for Satellite to be in a relatively good mood to speak with Cosmos, enjoying them chatting about assorted things, especially when they got to lie and teach them the wrong things about space or magic which resulted in Penumbra giving them the stink eye when Cosmos finally got around to asking her about whether black holes get sick and throw up when too much stuff goes in them at once. Satellite did not like yelling at any of their siblings but they also don’t know how else to act when overwhelmed because it’s not like any of them have had the same issues as them. Now that Cosmos is gone, Satellite is very upset at how they treated him. Satellite feels like they should have realized that they were distant and cold, and Solari was distant and cold, and Penumbra was detached, and Crescent was nearly always busy, and they wonder if he felt the way they do, about being so very alone with almost no one to talk to about how they really feel.

Solari:

Solari loved Nebula quite a bit, though they could tell Satellite was always more excited to spend time with xem than her, but they didn’t let that get her down. Seeing their parent taken from them, and how badly it hurt Satellite made them resent Nebula after the fact.

Solari hates Penumbra. Mainly because she was smart enough to, just like Crescent, realize that if she relinquished some control over Cosmos when they were a baby to Crescent, she would have been more present for Satellite, like they desperately needed her to be. As they got older her resentment manifested in cold hostility for all the members of the family that they felt were failing her twin. Penumbra isolates them, Crescent is annoyed he can’t just puppet them to do what she wants, and Cosmos got all the attention. Penumbra’s obvious disdain for Solari just fuels her own disdain for her right back. They frequently get into fights. Solari was HORRIFIED by Penumbra’s suggestion that they leave the Collector’s mirror disk, all that remained of him, on the Titan Planet because what amounted to the corpse (though not dead) of their sibling could be used as a signal to them for when the final titan frees them or is killed so they can finish the job they started and finally destroy the planet.

Solari despises Crescent. The way he is able to so easily turn events in her favor when there is a disagreement, the fact that he is given so much freedom from Penumbra compared to herself or Satellite, the way that Crescent avoids Satellite simply because she does not care to be genuine in conversations with them. Not to mention when instead of arguing that since they had Titan’s blood and the disk, they should release Cosmos immediately, he agreed to Penumbra’s plan and contributed. It deeply disgusted Solari, especially since her and Satellite agreed that Crescent and Cosmos were closer with each other than any of the rest of them were with either. She loves to get under his skin by challenging her authority, even though she knows they will always lose in a hand-to-hand fight, she does it anyway because they can tell it makes him angry to see her self-assured superiority challenged.

Satellite is the only person Solari is really close with, both of them speaking to each other about their concerns regarding their older siblings when they have the chance to. Solari knows Satellite the best out of any of their siblings, which is why her sarcasm and teasing is always intentional and never mean spirited with them. Solari was the one to comfort Satellite the most about Nebula, which shocked and upset her, because they could not understand why neither of the older siblings could tell or seemed to care about how much they were hurting. Together they realized they had been terrible to Cosmos through no fault of his own and they both deeply regret how they treated them. They’ve spoken before about a complete pipe dream they’ve had, where if Cosmos is ever able to return to them, they’d all run away together to keep their older siblings from continuing to use and neglect him.

Solari has a lot of regrets about Cosmos. She wishes she could have realized that they never did anything wrong, or hurt them (Solari and Satellite) intentionally. They know now that he deserved much better than what he got, this regret typically manifests in her being even more upset at Penumbra and Crescent, how DARE they care more about practicality and their “carefully laid plans” and stupid PROTOCOL than their own brother. Whenever she thinks about her, and Satellite’s own treatment of them, she becomes repulsed with herself. She tries to avoid thinking about it, because it only comes up in her mind when she’s alone sorting the Archives and cataloging new entries, a task they do so effortlessly that the guilt and “what ifs” end up consuming her until she realizes she’s stopped her work entirely and is standing entirely too still with her non-existent stomach turning and her eyes burning, but never fully crying.

The Collector/Cosmos:

Cosmos doesn’t know how to feel about Nebula. On one hand, xey never would have been taken from him and his siblings if xey had simply done what xey were supposed to do, but on the other hand, now that Cosmos is separated from their own siblings, and the culture of other Collectors, he wonders if Nebula would have been proud of them for disagreeing with what he was raised to believe, and managing to escape from the grip it had on them. They’ve heard stories from their older siblings. Penumbra’s stories about xem were typically meant to impress upon him some lesson or to pass on a story that was originally told to Penumbra, as part of the lessons she would teach him, though she avoided speaking about xem in any other context. Crescent’s stories would usually come back to how what xey did was wrong, and how xey put xeir morality above what was actually legal and accepted practice. Satellite loved speaking about Nebula, it was one of the seemingly only guaranteed ways to cheer them up, unless the story was specifically the day xey were arrested, that one was a guaranteed way to make them more upset than anything else he could think of. Solari’s stories were tinged with bitter resentment, though she had good stories about xeir kindness, they would always finish their story with “but xey still choose to break the law and abandon us”. It was all giving mixed messages.

Cosmos had thought that Penumbra was one of their nicest siblings. He loved spending time with her, he enjoyed their lessons, he tried to ignore the slithering feeling of pain he got in his chest whenever he could tell she was annoyed with them. Every time she tiredly redirected them to play with Satellite, Solari, or Crescent when he was there, he pushed down the feeling of agonizing pain in his stomach. He knew Penumbra still loved them, she still was so happy to play with him when she wasn’t busy, to teach him lessons, or read important books to them. That’s what he thought at least. Since they’ve been freed from their prison, he’s had time to reflect on what happened. Even though Satellite was the one that told them about how he was allowed to go play with the Titans, Cosmos knew it was Penumbra who came up with the plan, it was literally her job to direct the rest of them and their missions. She was either the one that came up with the plan to kill all the Titans or at the very least approved of the plan that was otherwise definitely Crescent’s idea. She didn’t bother taking him off the planet after they started. She left them there.

Cosmos loved Crescent very much, the only sibling that never gave them a disappointed look, that never dismissed him, that enjoyed playing games with him, and never yelled at or scared them. Which makes them even more devastated, knowing that she was the one that had all their friends killed. Every baby Titan he befriended died, very likely because of Crescent, either indirectly by the Titan Trappers, or directly by her own hands. It’s very hard for them to hate anyone, but they’ve decided they should hate him. For being so nice, and so kind, only to hurt them in such a hideous way, he knows she, Penumbra, and the twins all were definitely watching him on the planet. They absolutely knew that Papa Titan blamed Cosmos for the missing and dead Titans. They still did nothing to stop him. Eventually he figures out that they all had to have found his disk, and had access to Titan’s blood, and chose not to free him on purpose. The more Cosmos thinks about him, the more upset they get.

Cosmos never had a very good relationship with Satellite. It was confusing, how they seemed to be fine one moment and angry at them the next. It made them feel cautious when Penumbra sent him to play with them, but they were always happy when Satellite was in a good mood to play or talk. They could never tell when they were lying to him about things, but it was always funny when they did because it was never mean or about important things. Cosmos knew Satellite (and Solari) did not get along with Penumbra or Crescent as much as they did, so it makes them wonder if Satellite argued against leaving them on the Titan Planet when they came up with the plan to kill all the Titans, if for no other reason than to just be contrarian to the elder siblings. Cosmos knows that no matter which of their siblings suggested they leave him behind in his disk, it would have to have been approved by the elder two, so ultimately they do not blame the twins for leaving them behind, at least not nearly as much as he blames the others.

Cosmos was even more cautious about Solari than Satellite, being the scariest of their siblings. She could be so mean and they didn’t understand why. When they seemed to be in a good mood she would have him do little tasks for her, going into the Archives to retrieve things for them, which, in hindsight, they now realize she likely could have just magically summoned. But it kept him occupied and taught him about how the Archives were cataloged. She would teach them about each of the creatures and objects that he collected for them. When she was in a bad mood and felt like scaring him was the worst. Sometimes she got so angry that she destroyed things, nothing from the Archive of course, Penumbra would be furious if they did that. But she would smash walls and floors and doors. Sometimes when she broke things, the exploding pieces would hit him. It never really hurt, but she would always immediately apologize and heal them, even if there was never really any damage. Sometimes she would play games with him, her most favorite being the one where they would pick him up with magic and throw them as far into open space as she could, which was mostly fun, though sometimes scary when he was thrown way too far or hit something. It didn’t happen often and he figured a way around both of these issues by counting in their head to a preset number where he would magically stop their flight if he was still going when they reached the number, and they would also use their flight to alter their path to avoid objects. Now that they’re away they wonder if any of their siblings actually loved him.

[thorns-and-rosewings]

Wow... We've reached part 6 of this thing, the Reaper King AU 💀. I will be honest, this is the most I have written in years... Writing used to be the one thing I couldn't stop myself from doing... but... Somewhere along the lines I lost my passion for it. This is the first time in AGES I have had so much fun doing the thing that I love. And I gotta say I hope y'all are enjoying reading this half as much as I enjoy writing it :)

TW: As per usual, this touches on some darker topics. So you've been warned.

Part 6

-It takes KC a while to truly figure out how to use the App properly... But he gets the hang of it eventually.

-Although he does get a few more 'Old Man' jokes from Bloodmoon as he's figuring it out.

-The fact that he's a robot having trouble figuring out a dating app is not even acknowledged though.

-The conversations between KC and the Ranger, whose name is Harper (Yes, I have finally figured out their name and their a very tomboyish young woman in her early 30s with brown hair and emerald green eyes.) are very casual and friendly. Mostly talking about shared interests.

...Movies...

-The Friday the 13th movies are underrated along with the Nightmare on Elm St series. The original Jurassic Park movies are timeless. Godzilla movies are wonderful and best enjoyed in a large screen setting like with a projector or at a drive in.

-And to this day no one has a clue what the hell was up with Halloween 3.

KC: Honestly some of the B rated horror movies are better than the big budget movies nowadays... More entertaining.

Harper: Preaching to the choir, completely agree :)

...Pets...

Harper: I'm a dog person, I had a husky up until recently... Sadly she passed and I just haven't had the heart to get a new one yet. Not to mention my job; I would have to get a pretty well behaved dog to have it out here.

KC: I have one dog (Petting Muerte, the Moon Wolf alpha) but I take care of a lot of others... My eldest has a dog as well.

...he watches as Bloodmoon is having a full tug-of-war with a bone in his mouth with the two headed/deformed wolf that he has named HunterKiller...

KC: Completely reflects how he is as a person...

...Hobbies...

-As it turns out Harper has a love for legends, myths and all sorts of tall tales especially stories about cryptids. She's obviously extremely outdoorsy and would rather spend her life hiking the trails than sitting in front of a computer screen. The pay for working at the park she is currently working in is also really good... Probably because they can't seem to keep employees long term.

KC: Aren't you scared? There's a lot of disappearances in this area...

Harper: I am not gonna lie, I have... Seen some stuff. In the mists. I think... Eh, you probably won't believe me.

KC: You would be very surprised what I would believe.

Harper: I... I... think I encountered some of the forests cryptids once. I was out hiking and... Just these two forms amongst all that mist. I just froze... Then backed away and ran.

KC: I believe you. Strange things live out here... Were you afraid?

Harper: Well yeah... But... I always kinda had the theory that if you were respectful and left the cryptids alone... They'd leave you alone. I saw them, or at least thought I did, and I backed up and left the area. In kind of a hurry I admit... But I am not one of those people who go out looking for trouble. And judging by the fact that I am still alive, I think that theory might hold water.

KC: That's a good philosophy... I don't think it's completely accurate. But a very decent way of looking at things.

Harper: What's your theory?

KC: That it's nothing personal.

Harper: ?

KC: These cryptids hunt and kill indiscriminately. It's nothing personal to them. It's like a wolf hunting a deer... Maybe they have some scruples about what they hunt, but whatever they do kill... it's nothing personal. Respecting their domain won't always save you, but you'll probably live longer than most.

Harper: ...

KC: ?

Harper: And that is why I would rather deal with cryptids, monsters and legends than live in a concrete jungle amongst other humans any day.

-That one made Killcode smile.

...Family...

KC: I have a big family, all adopted and brought together by odd circumstances... My eldest is a young adult. My second eldest is a young teenager and it shocks me how mature he is. As he's definitely more mature than his older brother. Then my first daughter, she's growing so fast. She's so protective of her siblings and even me. Then there's my twin boys, who are a pair of mischievous little gremlins. Then there my four year old, she's very shy. Clings to my eldest like glue, which is surprising because he can be abrasive. And then there's my youngest, only a few months old now. But I can already tell she's going to be an energetic little hellion when she gets older. I love them all so much ♥️

Harper: Wow

KC: Is there a problem?

Harper: No no, just... Are they okay with you dating? I know sometimes kids don't like their parents dating. I don't want to upset your family.

KC: Actually they set this account up for me.

Harper: Oh ok. But based on your description they sound wonderful

KC: Do you have any family?

Harper: ...not really, I was an only child. My parents passed away in a car accident. No aunt's, uncle's, cousins or anything. I'm just kinda here by myself. Some friends actually made this account for me as a joke about a month ago. And... You're the only person who has had any interest in talking to me here. I was thinking about deleting this thing just before you started talking with me.

KC: Funny how the world works.

Harper: Is it nice?

KC: What?

Harper: Having a big family like that?

KC: It's the greatest joy in my life. There are times we disagree and argue, yes. But being surrounded by the ones you love the most and who love you back... There's nothing comparable.

Harper: Sounds lovely

-They talk back and forth like this for a few weeks. Before they finally opt to meet and go on a date.

...the date...

Upon KC's suggestion they are going to go on a hike on one of the shorter, but still challenging trails. One of Harper's favorites. He states that he'll be bringing her a red rose, so she will know who he is. She stated he didn't need too, but KC insisted. Harper actually gets to the beginning of this trail a little early and is quite nervous... Will they get along well in person? Will he like her?

...she didn't notice the approach of the towering 9ft tall creature garbed in a cloak, with a large glowing red core upon his chest until he was standing right next to her... She turns to see Killcode right next to her, but before she can do anything at all-

He holds out a single red rose. 🌹

There was a moment where the proverbial hamster fell off the wheel in Harper's head... But after a long moment everything finally caught up with her and she realized exactly what was going on.

Harper: Oh um... Hi...K...C?

Killcode: (Awkward smile)

They begin that hike... At first things are a bit tense and more than a little awkward. But they do begin talking, KC assuring Harper this isn't a trick or trap or anything... Harper asks a few questions of her own. But things become less tense. After a bit, things gradually go from being tense to calm, to friendly... And about an hour into the hike they are conversing like friends.

By the time they reach the halfway point of the hike, the moon has risen into the sky and any lingering awkwardness has completely evaporated and they stop and just look at the nights sky.

Harper states this is the best date she's ever been on...

KC points out that this is the only date he's ever been on...

They both laugh. Although KC starts to turn his gaze towards the forest more and more as they continue on the second half of the trail... Until he finally stops and crosses his arms. Looking at something that Harper cannot see.

KC: Young lady... Is there a reason you're following us?

...wordlessly Wisp emerges from the forest, bathing the entire area in a soft blue glow. Harper cannot help but stare at the little girl that is made of flames before her. She floats up and sits in KC's arms, allowing him and Harper to see the thing on her neck.

Harper: Is that... Is that one of those little cameras people put on their cats?

KC: (Gets horrified) Bloodmoon did you put a cat spy camera on your little sister?!

(Elsewhere Bloodmoon and the others slam the laptop closed)

...It wasn't until just before sunrise, after Harper had finally finished cleaning up the station that it really dawned on her at that moment that she is now dating one of the most feared local cryptids.

Harper found the situation both adorable and hilarious... And she admittedly was trying to avoid laughing too hard at the sight. But Wisp looked Harper up and down before moving in close and whispering to her father.

Wisp: I like her. She has a kind heart.

The girl then disappeared back into the forests from whence she came... While KC muttered about how Bloodmoon was going to be in sooo much trouble when he got home.

Rather than their date simply ending at the end of the trail, Killcode actually accompanies Harper back to the Ranger Station... Which was beneficial because much to Harper's dismay, those racoons had returned and had promptly locked her out of the cabin again. And the sounds of chittering and ransacking of the fridge can be heard even from outside.

Harper: (Growls) Evil little trash pandas...

KC: Maybe I can be of some assistance here?

Harper: If you wanna try, but they're tricky little things... The last time they locked me out I had to sleep in my Jeep. This time I am just going to go get the ladder and get in through the upstairs window... Which I started to leave open delibrately to handle these raccoon invasions.

Killcode says nothing as he walks towards the door and actually phases through it... Everything grows eerily still for a moment, before the loud, booming voice of Killcode echoes through the area like cannon fire.

KC: GET OUT!!!!!!!

Immediately the door flies open and at least a dozen raccoons run out... With their high pitched and fearful chittering sounding far more human than Harper can recall hearing before... Hell she swore she heard something along the lines of 'How were we supposed to know she was the mate of the Reaper King?!'

...yeah she's thinking too far into it...

Still KC just calmly unlocked the front door and walked outside. Expressing that he had a wonderful time tonight and would love to do this again. Something Harper happily agrees too...

They make plans to meet up again in the coming days. Before KC bids her good night and he retreats back into the forest so quickly that he just seemed to vanish...

...and she is perfectly fine with it :)

[boyslit]

not sure if i shared this bit but i keep writing Bluocha parts for the prohibition au that don't really have much to do with the main plot because they're my special little princesses and i have a huge section of my brain cordoned off for the bluocha brainrot lol

» in this au, 'Blade' is an English code name he uses for illicit activities and working with Wildfire, and Ren is his chosen name. He left his birth name (Yingxing) behind him when he fled home and left for America with Luocha 👍 Luocha has also technically abandoned his birth and family names, and Ren was the one who gave him the nickname "Luocha" to refer to the way he could twist himself into whatever he needed to be to convince, cajole or threaten their targets. From this he derived a pseudonym with which to do business in America as an apothecarist: Louis Chandler 🤭

anyway that's all fluff, here's the meat <3

-

Clearing Things Up (Luocha, Ren)

Ren sighed, letting go of some of the annoyance balled in his chest. "This was a waste of our time," he growled. He warmed his hands around his teacup, hoping the warmth would soothe some raw nerve of irritation.

Neither of them liked the self-styled but now deposed "Bourbon King" of Tennessee, but business was business and they had to get imports up to Penacony from somewhere. Bathtub hooch didn't bring in the big profits and distilleries with vaults of years-aged amber gold sitting useless on their shelves itched to sell.

"I'm sorry, my dear," Luocha said tiredly, sitting at their low table across from him. "I'd had no idea he'd be bringing anyone along, much less his… lovely, daughter." There were wrinkles of irritation in his own usually flawless countenance, and Ren noted with some relief that it wasn't just his own regular annoyance with visitors. The two visitors together had been a social nightmare.

They'd made it out alive without either tripping into a marriage arrangement or breaking their trade agreements, but it was a close thing. Luocha rubbed some tension out of his wrist absent-mindedly.

"I didn't come this far out from under my father's thumb just to cave to some drunken troll of a peddler," he murmured.

Ren choked on a gulp of tea, coughed, and began to laugh. Luocha smiled at him fondly. Ren held his gaze and then lowered his own, staring through the table. "There's only one person I'd consider marrying."

Luocha nodded, sobering. His long-ago betrothed, Dan Feng. They should, by now, have been married for some time, had Dan Feng not perished in battle before the wedding. The two living men both carried ghosts, and Luocha could hardly begrudge Ren a torch carried for someone who was no threat to him.

Ren reached across the table, taking Luocha's chilly hands in his own, rubbing some warmth into his palms gently. "What are you thinking of?" Ren murmured.

"I'm grateful to have met you… but if your Dan Feng had lived, I would never have gotten the chance. I suppose I feel guilty for thinking I prefer having met you."

Ren gave a little scoff under his breath. "Things can't be changed by wishing. If they could, I'd be a warlord's wife by now." He held Luocha's hands tighter, and looked at him pointedly. "I like things as they are now."

Luocha smiled again, but faintly. They'd had this conversation several times since Ren had told him of his past.

Ren peered at him carefully, then sighed. "You still don't understand. I wasn't speaking of Dan Feng. I want to marry you, you ridiculous man."

"Oh." Heat gathered in Luocha's cheeks, and his smile widened. "I'd…" He cleared his throat. "I'd like that very much."

"Good." Ren's smile was small, but there was a sparkle in his eye that belied some giddiness. "I will find an auspicious date to make the proposal properly, then."

"I look forward to it." Luocha couldn't pull the beaming grin from his face. Ren wasn't as far out of his reach as he'd feared, after all. Maybe he could have something he wanted, at long last.