#this decade long hyper fixation need to end

[peejayee]

I want to apologize for reinfecting the public with the Authority. I was under the impression everyone was inoculated by Mark Millar 😭😭

[assassiowl]

"Do marshmallows grow naturally?" -

Hearthian Food Exploration part 2

The food hyper fixation continues. This post is part 2: a continuation of Hearthian's dynamic with food. In this case specifically food preservation and the canning process.

Disclaimer: This is for fun, though I will do my best to weave in content based on actual science. It's a game about weird aliens, don't worry about it too much. Establishing science tier: So how much founded knowledge do the Hearthians actually have. I think the best way to establish this baseline is by looking at the design for the ship (Saiful Haque). Although at first glance, unreliable, a death trap stuck together with nothing but tape and determination. /End post. Actually, the idea of space travel in this this suggests their grasp on science is extremely high. So it raises the question. Why is it made out of wood? Why does that matter? The existence of canned marshmallows, and this ship that's stuck together, it suggests a strange dynamic with understanding: that they get the principles, and then at the very end slap it together to get over the finish line. I worry that unreliable attitude slips into their food. Food safety Vacuum sealed food is a technique of food preservation. At it's core it's preventing microorganisms from infesting your food and making it rot. One technique is drawing out all of the moisture. This time we will look at the canning and jarring process, which has the same end goal, but gets there slightly differently. With jarring and canning food, the idea is to boil off the microbes, allowing the oxygen to seep out while doing so, which creates a vacuum and prevents more from getting in after. This process allows food to be preserved for really long times. There's evidence of canned goods lasting a decade, still edible. Canned goods often feature in post apocalyptic settings. Simply put, the science is good, and provided the container itself remains in tact, the food is edible for a long time. Perfect for hiking and camping out under the stars. How do you do it? At it's core for this method of preservation, it's heat that acts as the main driving force. High temperatures, from boiling or steaming, raise the temperature of the food and container to kill off micro-organisms inside, ait and oxygen is released from the container, forming a vacuum seal preventing further contamination. That's a simplified look at the mechanics - how this occurs, how containers were designed to do this, and entire systems being created to be able to do this en masse are in place. This is where we get all these canning factories popping up in the 19th century. Home food preservation usually focuses on glassware. The process itself sounds harder than it actually is. Simply put, you squish out air bubbles from the food, clean up the jar and then boil it for ages.

What can you preserve? Most commonly with this method you see Jams (Chopped fruit + sugar) Jellies (Fruit juice + sugar) Marmalades (Citrus fruit + sugar) Chutney (Chopped fruit + sugar + vinegar) Preserves (Bigger pieces of fruit + sugar) Incidentally, the process is very similar to pickling, except you'd add vinegar to the boiled content (which acts as another layer for preservation, the acidity kills off microorganisms). So by that extension, essentially, if you can eat it, you can preserve it (probably true, idk, how do I fact check that). Ok so the issue is how well it tastes. You end up with a lot of concentration of salt, or you need to include spices and other flavourings to make the food taste good once you open up the container. How do Hearthians use this? Given what we've seen in game, it really isn't that much of a stretch to suggest that they can can and tin anything. The limit is what types of flavours are available to them. Canned foods are par cooked by the steaming process, then finished cooking when opened. This let's you can things like sauces, stews, soups etc. I imagine anything they can cook regularly, can also be stored for easy consumption later. Gives me an idea to explore next time - the herbs and flavours. (Based on an r/science question) Actually, the space science was wrong with the angle fish carcass theory. Temperature and food degradation works differently in space, and actually food is constantly bombarded by radiation particles. It essentially renders the food inedible within a few years. So these canned marshmallows aren't the best source of nutrition. We're looking at vacuum sealed foods cooked back on Timber Hearth, sent up to be rehydrated once out in space. Astronauts these days use a whole special machine to do so. They essentially press their food packets against it and there you go. Which incidentally, reminds me of airline food which undergoes extra flavouring during their cooking process, since you taste food differently at the different altitude. Which also reminds me of military rations, designed to be really compact and highly dense in calorific value. The world of food and cuisine is fascinating. So anyway marshmallows don't grow on trees, you whip sugar and gelatine really hard to airate it. Basically, idk how that fits into a can, but we ball. If you tried to steam a marshmallow in a sealed environment I'm pretty sure it would expand and explode. Or would you get a melted sugary deflated mess. Just look into microwaved marshmallows. Actually I've talked myself out of it, the existence of marshmallows in a can is a ruse, this game is unplayable. Inner Milds is a no fun allowed game where you sit grumpily in front of an unlit pile of logs eating a tin of really salty pickled fish. (I didn't even mention refrigeration methods bleh) Added notes: I feel the expansion of what Hearthians eat is so contingent on a healthy dynamic with agriculture. I was floating the idea of a pair of ranching OCs, but the more I sit with the idea the more I like the idea of this eccentric duo who are really interested in genetics within their food. One grows shaped vegetables that are appealing to eat, while the other loves animals and is always looking for ways to free ranch.

[apoptoses]

Do you think Armand ever helped Daniel manscape? Or subjected him to it 😬 Its’s mentioned that he often bathed, shaved and dressed him to his liking and I see Armand as the type of lover who would obsess over and hyper fixate on every part of his partner’s body, pubic hair included 🫢

oh boy anon DO I. Buckle in because i've got THOUGHTS.

so like, shaving his face? absolutely, that started out as a totally benign request when Armand got curious about modern disposable razors. Daniel was down, it's fine, he does half his face to demonstrate and show Armand how to handle the razor and then lets him finish the other half. And it's nice, it kinda makes him feel spoiled to sit on the edge of the tub and let Armand tilt his head around and wipe the shaving cream off his face. He's happy to let Armand have full control over that particular grooming chore.

(Does Armand sometimes nick his jaw? Yes. Does Daniel think that's on purpose so he can lick up the blood? Also yes. Does he care? Not really, secretly it's becoming a turn on.)

Naturally, it escalates.

It starts with shaving Daniel's chest just to see what he'd look like with it smooth. Then it's his armpits, because Armand wants to know what they look like bare and how long it takes for them to grow back (three very fucking itchy weeks, where Daniel can't stop squirming and thinking about Armand every time he tries to sneakily scratch at the stubble through his shirt).

At this point Daniel tells him no shaving below the waist, uh uh, not doing it. He keeps everything trimmed short and that's enough, thank you very much. Obviously Armand takes that as a personal challenge.

(in the end all it takes is a few well placed bites, a whispered "please, lover?" and those big brown eyes looking up at him through dark lashes and Daniel crumbles, but he's never going to admit that)

And so he ends up laid out with his legs spread, ass half in Armand's lap while Armand lathers him up with shaving cream and gets at it. It's weirdly hot, he feels all vulnerable and squirmy and Armand's hands are cold and wet with shaving cream and touching him all over. Daniel notices he's not just being tidied up, Armand is taking everything and he goes to protest. But then Armand strokes him with the shaving cream and his brain melts.

(and does his face burn when Armand asks him to lift his knees to his chest so he can get his ass? absolutely. does Daniel jump to obey anyways? you bet)

By the time Armand wipes him down with the towel he just feels so weird and bare, he's got this urge to put his hands over his lap and hide. And Armand just keeps staring in that way of his making it worse. Daniel feels about ready to curl up and die, but then Armand touches his bare skin and oh it's so sensitive. And then Armand bites him low on his groin where his teeth have never been before and- yeah, okay, maybe this was worth it.

They keep it up for a few weeks, because every time Daniel looks in the mirror and sees himself he feels like Armand's possession and he likes it. They do it again with a straight razor, and then once with wax (which makes Daniel cry and that's the most confusing turn on he's ever had). And then the novelty wears off, until decades later when Daniel is a vampire and he remembers it'll all grow back overnight, no itchy phase needed at all.

But YEAH they're both into it not even just for the grooming itself, but the giving over of control, the intimate secret, the constant awareness Daniel has that he's bare somewhere because Armand wants it and he can't stop thinking about his sensitive newly naked skin.

And they switch once. Armand hands him the razor and it's fun, but Daniel is too into Armand with all of his hair intact for it to be anything but a novelty. He'd much rather trim his hair for him, or pull it back, or get out the manicure kit if he's going to do any grooming stuff for Armand.

HOPE THIS HIT THE SPOT, ANON ♥

[worldismyne]

which fanfic of yours are you most proud off?

Omg, this is such a tough question @_@

There are a few I'm proud of for different reasons.

Daughter of Madness (Soul Eater) is by far the longest fic I've written at 109,829 words. I have tended to it frequently over the years, going back to edit for grammar and such as I learn, but it is definitely a time capsule of the person I was in high school. While I still recommend it to anyone curious or a fan of Kirona, I would not say it's best reflective of how I write now. It is one of the fics I have hand bound.

Crest of the Dragon (Xiaolin Showdown) is another that I've hand bound. It's a fan envisioned 4th season, and I hit massive writer's block right before the end. It was on hiatus for a good 6 years, but I didn't give up on it, and I managed to give it an ending I'm really proud of. Liked with DoM, this one is kind of a time capsule of where I was at in college. It is also the first and last time I tried doing episodic writing.

Before, getting a fic over 60K was a miracle, and the only requirement for me to print and hand bind. Since I've returned to the SE fandom I've been on a real hot streak, managing to get several fics to novel length and no forced hiatus's, which is a first for me. Been at if for a year now, so there's a lot of stuff posted and in the drafts that I like for different reasons. It's a little too soon to tell which I'd point to as the best example of my work now.

At the moment it's a tie between two fics.

Where Do All the Good Kids Go? Is now my second longest fic at 91,075 words. It is both the sequel to DoM that people had been asking for, for over a decade and the spark of the MaStar hot streak I'm on. It's definitely been the blueprint for how I write Maka and Black Star in fics moving forward. I have handbound this one as well, but I'm saving up to purchase a cover for it.

Mortal Sins of Meisters and Weapons is the other. It's the only other long fic I've written that's not romance specific. I did a lot of research on the seven deadly sins in order to flesh out the Book of Eibon. There were tons of opportunities to flesh out other characters I rarely use. Pretty much all my TsuLiz works stem from this one. I like it so much, I wish I could retcon and wedge it in as canon for the DoM series, but I have made a solemn oath to not make anymore major edits/rewrites to that fic. Eventually I'll get around to hand binding it as well, but I need to pop a cover on WGKG first.

That all said... The current long fic I'm working on might take their spot if I can really stick the landing on it. I have learned a lot this year about writing that I'm applying to it. People have responded well to the concept and snippets I've leaked. So far the draft is at 52K and I'd say about 2/3 done. So, it may creep past WGKG in length.

Honorable mentions go to Good Intent (Warrior U), which was read by the creator of the web series >///< and the Trival Untruth series (DRV3). Whenever I hyper fixate on DR again I'll revisit it.

Thanks of asking anon!

[stanweirdosalliance]

Get to know me

Sorry if this is too long I really want some to understand me. Most people have hard time knowing real me not just online me.

If you see a lot of football aka soccer for you American I grew up watching it I am from Belarus but live in America. Growing up I was huge fan of David Beckham had him as my wallpaper on computer and my bro was okay with it. I am huge into entertainment, movies and music. My fav director is Edgar Wright I am taking Edgar Wright filmmaking course online it's not cheap but my mom bought me that as my early 28th bday last year. I really love him as film director even when Last Night in Soho came out and I saw it. I came home and watched his every interview on that movie. I love how his movie usually come out like 3 to 4yrs. He takes time on his movies and I see how a movie fan he is. Last year I went from just listening to pop music and soundtracks to Indie music. I cant do anywhere without my headphones I listen to so much music in public to get away from people it's part of my disability. I listen to music too much does not matter time of day cause it calms me down. All of my rock music love comes from my amazing mom. I am future Filmmaker 4yrs ago I think I wrote like 54 pages script. Truth is we need to write 100 pages but teacher had so many problems about my British character who is cop but my bro was helping. Also I am ON THE SPECTRUM that's why my teacher let me make shorter then 100 pages script. Their is a reason why I chosen filmmaking well because my whole family is medical even my aunt and for me learning it would be hard cause I wanted to be vet. Someone in new high school when we moved to new state like a decade ago told my mom I would never graduate high school and I did close to graduating community college. When I came to community college and took classes I really wanted like filmmaking ones I finally became so happy cause school was never happy for me with my disability school was hell if no one would of helped me I would of failed it on my own. If you talking to me and its not movies, music or entertainment, or football sorry I start to either freak out or I just need to leave I can't be in that room. I wish someday to see my fav band live French band Phoenix but I seen one of my fav bands last year in music festival thanks to my bro its The National. I love anything British my fav actors Dan Stevens, Gwilym Lee, Martin Freeman and Simon Pegg. My favorite tv shows are Legion yes it ended but still it was the best one, Fargo, The Bear, What we do in the Shadows, Welcome to Wrexham, loved Pose and Righteous Gemstones

Just 3yrs ago during the middle of season 4 of Fargo I started to like actor Jason Schwartzman and now I know so much about him. I own almost everything with his band he made Coconut Records only need Nighttiming Vinyl. I won Davy on Ebay for 300 dollars and in 2021 in one auction I won his red jacket from Fargo season 4. If you need to know anything about Jason just don't afraid to ask me. People make fun of me being fan of him cause i know too much but that's not my fault being On The Spectrum he is my hyper fixation. Growing up I been bullied so much even for liking some actors. People tell me on on TWITCH channel how bad of an actor he is or terrible actor. My mom recently came to terms to liking him after I showed so much videos and made her listen him talking about his kids. She says he is a great person and dad. If ever asking one of my fav Jason videos it has to be Sesame Street Memory: Jason Schwartzman | #ThisIsMyStreet cause part of it I relate knowing his one daughter is autistic and special needs. Talking about Jason sometimes annoys my mom.

[dragonnan]

Finally watched the Doctor Who 60th Special. Thoughts and critique beneath the cut and please expect all the spoilers.

It's been a while since I've hyper-fixated on Doctor Who so I want to have full transparency that that could have colored my experience a bit.

I was exited about the idea of the older cast returning. Donna's run on the show was one of my favorites as well as one of the most painful endings. It always felt incomplete and I think many other fans felt the same. Getting to FINALLY go back after 13 years of wishing for resolution was amazing!

Overall the acting was pretty decent for having been so long since the cast played those characters. Jacqueline King gets a special nod for showing a Sylvia that maybe actually learned from her mistakes with her daughter and comes off as a woman struggling to be better while still showing plenty of her personality to read as authentic.

I like the character of Rose (Donna's daughter in case it needs clarification). I love that she's trans and unlike some critiques I saw, I didn't see it as “wokism” (which is a really clumsy way to say you're bigoted). Frankly it's long past time there were trans characters added into popular media and not simply token individuals but in large numbers. (steps off soapbox while keeping it nearby as needed).

Taken as a whole, however, I did not care for the special.

The start – the villain was weak and so one dimensional it could have been made of paper. A muppet villain would be hard to pull off at the best of times and this was not the best of times. I felt like I was watching something that had been filmed exclusively for children. I never got any of the nuance that even Daleks, beings literally encased in a salt shaker inspired tank, are able to bring to the role. I've felt emotional connection to Cybermen which, again, are frozen expressionless masks. The Meep was a bug eyed Christmas sale item that couldn't even manage interesting with sharp teeth and a snarl. Gremlins it was not.

This builds into the overall lack of emotional depth I felt through the entire episode. Nothing felt consequential. Nothing felt ominous or dire. I felt nothing during Donna's supposed “death” - which I attribute to that thing about not being earned. She'd flipped a few buttons. Great. Really earned that tragic death (oops, sike!)

The “fix” was trite and too “neat”. “Thank God Donna got knocked up I guess???” What took an hour to resolve desperately needed a full season at LEAST. And there was no win for feminism by turning Donna and Rose into Mary Sue characters that are just OH so much smarter than the Doctor cause he's wearing his man face that day. I didn't like the way the Doctor was dismissed due to being male presenting. Before, when they were looking disaster in the face and the Doctor was lost as to what to do - Donna could figure things out differently due to being HUMAN and having a different POV. The way this played out, now, was sloppy and injected cliché where it never should have existed.

I also hated the stripped down TARDIS set design. It felt like they put all their budget into the stuffed animal and just painted the set white and slapped some lights on the walls. Was it intended as an homage to the old school white space of decades ago? Possibly. Doesn't matter though cause it just felt soulless.

[seat-safety-switch]

In the future, therapists will have this big machine that they can hook up to your brain, and a little super-deformed anime statue of your innermost trauma will fall out of it. Until then, there’s pickup trucks. Long favoured as America’s preferred form of therapy, pickup trucks offer people from every walk of life a chance to feel powerful and well-protected as they blithely commit offences against the public good.

Part of my problem, of course, is that I cannot afford a pickup truck. Once, if you can believe it, a pickup truck cost less than a luxury car. That is because they were stone simple, proletarian vehicles for getting work done. Cloth seats. Vinyl floors. Manually adjustable mirrors. Bed stacked to the tie-down rails with roadkilled wildlife. Wait, tie-down rails? You bought the high-end model, my friend.

Nowadays, trucks are in huge demand. And automakers have noticed. This means that every time they miss a quarterly update, it’s an easy turn of the screw to layer on some margin to the pickup trucks. After all, the chassis has been developed for literal decades, so what are we paying all those engineers on the truck team for if not to add $700 velour-lined coffee-heating gloveboxes? This vastly inflated price means that I, a humble worker, need to drive to work in a mere Volvo, while my boss tools around in the opulent comfort of a mid-range F-150.

So: no truck therapy for me. Which is alright, because I’d rather face my demons the traditional way. By ignoring every single one of my personality defects by hyper-fixating on obscure Dodge cars. Hey, a slant-six is basically a truck engine to start with. I think I’ve made a breakthrough.

[bagopucks]

A group of Michigan Brothers and their tall friend

🤝

A group of Michigan Brothers and their tall friend

From one hyper fixation to the next. If you wanna know where I’ve been, it’s with my music.

If there’s one thing I’ve loved all my life, it’s been music. It has been so long since I’ve genuinely invested myself in a band I felt meaningful or enjoyable. Modern music is not my favorite thing. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I just don’t enjoy the vast majority. This however, I can get behind. Nothing beats modern rock that sounds like it was pulled from the 70’s. I’ve always been envious of older decades that had such beautiful music, and I can’t even express how wonderful and fulfilling life has felt with the one thing I’ve wished for since I was old enough to listen to and comprehend music. I can’t explain it in a way to make anybody understand, but this music, this fashion, this time feels almost.. like a reality in a way. Like it’s actually within my grasp. It’s something I’ve always loved but I never had the privilege of loving in the present time. Now I do, and the love I used to hold for music has returned at such an overwhelming pace that life feels so full again.

Nothing touches my soul deeper than a beautiful voice and meaningful lyrics. Something poetic and fun. I’ve been an artist since as long as I can remember. I feel incomplete if I don’t have good music to listen to, or a muse for drawing and physical art. Music is beautiful in an indescribable way.

Due to the transition period I’ve started, from high school to college, and a lot of change, my OCD and depression has been spiking on and off like a switch. I’ve been pretty busy these past few weeks, seeing as everybody at work simply decided to quit, so my hours are through the roof. I’d like to take a break to focus on my art and my future for a month or so. Possibly until the new season opens. I’m not saying a permanent goodbye, I promise I’ll be back. I just need some time for myself, and I’d love to explore my other interests some more while I have this past summer as a ‘kid’.

Always feel free to check in, submit thoughts, questions, just talk if you want to talk. I’ll still be on tumblr, just not writing. Though I’ve kept my accounts separate, with this break, I’d like to extend the opportunity for anybody to follow @teddydrawshockey (my first account) if they’d like. I’ll probably continue to post art there from time to time. Requests for art, drawings, anything of that nature is always welcome on that account as well.

I want to give a sincere thank you to all of those who have followed and remained consistent through the few months I have done this! It has been so much fun, and I can’t wait to return to writing soon. The support, interaction, and love for my work was what kept me going. This account was initially created so I could get some of my own ideas down on paper. Then interaction came in, and I decided to make something out of it. I thank all 800+ of you who have followed for the ride. And the ones who popped in every once and a while to check out my works and spam my account. I am eternally grateful, and I do hope you all stick around for my return.

I promise this is not the end, I’ll be back

-Ella

[weridpersonhelp]

Red Phone [7]

Previus - Next?

master list!

warning: slightly scary, first-time horror writer, stalking, confusion, gramma and spell mistakes, screaming, getting up a horrible hour of night, neurodivergent reader, slow burnish? , x reader, children, puppets, curse langue, music, be ready for cringe!

Ring-ring- ring- “Hello?”

“Hey is this Y/n?” Wally asks, I couldn’t help but chuckle at this guy’s stutter.

“The one and only,”

“Hello! Um, how was your day?”

“Good what about yours?”

“It was also good, though I didn’t do much I went to the store to get some more apples. Howdy had a sale, but he limited what I could buy.

“Oh, and why’s that?” “I may or may not like apples a little too much?” I raise an eyebrow at this but end up chuckling instead.

“Wait how many did you buy?” Wally was quite for a minute, leaving me suspect more than the usual.

“20.”

“You bought 20 apples?”

“Yes,”

“Are you going to make something with them?” I ask pushing myself on the bench now, I didn’t want my feet getting hurt. I was very curious of why he would by so many apples, that would last my family a while even made apples pie every day.

“No, I don’t really eat them.”

“Then why did you buy so many?”

“I like to just stare at them? I know it’s weird, but there just so shiny. They look very pretty; the red ones are my favourite honestly. But the green one’s are still alright, their also fun to draw and paint.”

“How long have you had this obsession with apples for?”

“Ever since I could remember? I know it’s weird but-“

…

“I know it’s weird but-“wally was cut off by the girls chuckles, he was currently in his Pj’s in his special red chair next to this phone. It was the only one that he could call her on, it was late at night for him so he had to remember to remain quite. But he was worried that she would consider his obsession with Apples weird.

“No, I don’t think it’s that weird, people can have things like that. I know I hyper fixate on Lego’s or movies!”

“What type of movies do you like?”

“I’m a sucker for romance and Comedy! But I do love a good horror!” Wally chuckles and pushes back his hair a little.

“those are complete different genre’s! how do you even watch a horror?”  y/n gasps dramatically at him.

“Horrors are good! You need to give them a try okay! they’re not that bad.” She defends herself, Wally chuckles at how defensive she was over her precious movie genre.

“What’s your favourite then? Mr I’m too good for Horror’s”

“Hey now! I never said I was too good for them!”

“Oh? Then what’s so bad with them?”

“I never said they where bad, I just said how do you watch them! Their so creepy! My favourite genre is action and western! Though I also love myself a romance movie.”

“Ooh so your scared of them, are you? That it. And you’re a cowboy’s kind of guy huh?”

“Always have been, isn’t it cool how they ride their horses off into the sunset? With their true love.”

“Mmm, I guess, I never really watch many cowboy movies.”

“My favourite would have to be big jack! It’s good you should watch it sometime!” Wally suggests.

“Hmmm I’ve never heard of that movie before, I’ll have to watch it.” Just at the suggestion of her watching his favourite movie, just because he said it was his favourite movie. He kicks his feet a little out of excitement, what was going on with him? He never acts this way. Julie and Frank sometimes act this way! But not him! he was always to cool one! The calm, collected, charmer of the group!

“You’ll like it I promise!”

“I hope so, anyways. You never told me how old you where, or what you wanted to ask my- I mean Harrison and Maggie.” Wally eyes widen, what the heck was he meant to tell her? He was in puppet years 20, but in human years? Who knew! Hell, he didn’t even know what decade it was over their he could be 30! No maybe even 100! And what would he say about the question as well?

‘Oh yes! I just wanted to know if he we could complete the spell? To make us alive so we could continue the show! And why they were trapped in this world? Before all of this, they where in this world, but then Harrison completed a spell. One that made them come to life there was more to the story, but how the heck was he just going to info dump you like that? How could he?

He might scare you away, and he loves talking to you so far! Love it a strong but it truly it what he think this feeling was. a love of a friend? He wanted to get to know you more before he would say anything. Hell maybe even some how, some way bring you into his world? He didn’t know how it would work or how but it was something in his imagination.

“Wally you there?”

“Oh yes! Sorry I just dropped the phone HAHA! Um I’m 20, how old are you?”

“18 turning 19 soon”.

“Oh, when’s your birthday?” Wally asks, he was very glad you forgot the other question or had moved on from it.

“(date and  month of birth) 1996! What about yours?”

… Wally didn’t have a birthday. Well, the year of his birth doesn’t count, but what would his birthday be?

“Oh I don’t really celebrate my birthday-““WHAT! YOU DON’T CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY?!” Wally pulls the phone away from his face as she shouts into the phone.  

“No?” what he said was meant to be a statement, but really sounded like a question.

“I mean do what you want to do, but have you ever celebrated your birthday? Like in your life?” She asks more calmly, Wally pauses thinking back, they didn’t real do Birthdays here, no one had one. They Did Christmas, Halloween and easter! Heck even Saint Patrick’s Day. But never birthdays.

“No?” he whispers into the phone, it stayed quiet. The house was quiet, Home was asleep. So, Wally did not want to wake her up. Otherwise, he would have been sent to bed.

“Dam, Is it your religion?”

“What? Oh no! I just never have? Hehe sorry if that’s a little weird-“ “No it’s not weird! I just, well it just surprised me sorry.”

“Why are you apologising? you did nothing wrong.” Wally tries to comfort her. He honestly had no idea what he was doing though.

“I don’t know>” silence filled the call again. The air filled with so much tension you could cut it like a birthday cake. They both wanted to say something but what?  Wally wants to say something, but what? He didn’t have much he could talk about with her; I mean it was different from talking with the neighbours.

“So, your 20 and own a house?”

“Oh! Yes, it’s small but nice a house. It has a decent yard.”

“that’s nice, I’m surprised you where able to get a house in this economy!”

“well I inherited it, from a great grandma?” Wally was lying, he knew it was never good to lie. But a little white lie wouldn’t do too much harm do?

“did you know her?”

Son of a-

“No, not really! But I kept the house the same. Nothing really changed haha!” He says he hears the girl chuckle a little, but then a small yawn escapes her lips.

“sorry, I’m just a little tired.”

“no it’s no problem. You should probably head to bed, you got plans tomorrow?”

“mum’s making me go shopping with my baby brother, so I’m most likely Going to be warn out. But I’ll tell you if anything interesting happens?” Wally smile grew, she was the one who wanted to call again. And he was very happy she was enjoying it so much she wanted to call again, maybe a little too happy?

“sure, would you like me to call you earlier?”

“I don’t mind, thanks for the chat it was really nice.”

“Same, you’re quite the interesting person Y/n.” he loved hearing her giggle into the phone, and how she yawned again into the phone. UGH!

“Okay then, good night, Wally~” her tired voice sang.

“Night Y/n, sleep well”. When she hangs up, wally instaintly stands up and runs around happily jumping around. Getting all of his excitement out, that was until home woke up thanks to the noises he was making and caught him with the curtains.

“CREEEK!!!”

“sorry home, I just got excited! I’ll be quieter! Sorry home"

Tag: @quittingfortgebetter @egg1sblog @ice-cream-writes-stuff @thealreadyunsteadyteddynewpaper @narucore

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

for the fic writer asks: 3, 15, and 18!!

3: What’s a fic idea that you have but haven’t written yet?

oof, there's a lot. i'm very longwinded and i hyperfixate easily, which is a recipe for fics that take a long time to make and then never gets made. 

the all stars:

bucky barnes designated driver au: a personal fave, no idea if i'll ever write it in full but i hope i do. bucky barnes, fresh out of hydra, ends up stumbling into hell's kitchen and meets its devil. matthew murdock has an air of such good natured, reckless stupidity that usually manifests in a violent back alley street fight that it punches through decades of hydra programming because jesus christ, this man is terminally, dangerously stupid. why is that so familiar. this is one of the most chaotic things i've ever come up with and i love it with my whole heart. it's one of my favorite peter parkers i've ever come up with in it. he's so feral. may is where he gets it from. she is in a polycule with frank castle and karen page. it's so fun.

peter parker roommates au: weird cosmic energy linked the three peters from nwh and let them do what america chavez does, just with each other's universes. they immediately use this fact to save on rent costs by moving in together. multiverse shenanigans ensue. this one i'm probably going to write after i wrap up a few other projects.

time travel au: probably never going to write this one unfortunately, which is a shame, because it's an absolute party. matt murdock and peter parker are sent back to their old bodies in a freak magic accident. they immediately decide not to tell the fucking wizards this happened, because the fucking wizards ruin everything trying to "preserve the timeline" and "not destroy the multiverse as they know it." it's fine, peter did the math and they only have like a 13ish% chance of destroying space and time, trapping everyone in an endless void where death and escape will be impossible and those are like, AMAZING odds. and they sort of need those odds because they got booted back to the day that frank castle's family died and they simply fucking immediately saved them with no regard for the consequences. featuring a peter who refuses to be swayed by the fact that he's fucking thirteen again, he's going to airdrop the CIA's files to the entire state of new york, a matt who insists that he is aware that peter is like, thirteen and allergic to grass but this is one of his best friends, it's not weird, a frank who has no idea who these fucking people are, and a karen and foggy who got together and immediately sailed over the relationship hurdle of both mutually finding matt to be unspeakably attractive when he engages in open and honest communication, stumbled right into the most awkward seduction of all time. everyone is so stupid, except for peter, who is using this less of a romance opportunity and more as an opportunity to commit federal crimes.

Spider-Man v Kingpin x2: I have these two really different plot lines of Peter Parker versus the kingpin that’s like, cat and mouse, mind games, suspense type things. An older peter parker than what I currently have on my account, post nwh, that kind of showcases his ability to hold his own in the new york underground. Ensemble vigilante cast for both, but in very different ways. disney hire me i would make either of these into an eight episode series in a second. 

De-fridging the punisher's family: okay so like, i think there's a distinction between all “my wife/kids/girlfriend/family died and now i have to commit gratuitous acts of violence” backstories and fridging that's like, bad writing (even though it almost always is bad writing, very few writers have pulled it off) and i don't actually think frank castle's backstory is bad writing. that being said, i LOVE undoing it. i do not know why i am hyper fixated on the castles, but i am. they are alive and they live in my head. i have wayyy too many stories that are focused on the castle family. i do not know why. my favorites:

Maria Castle was Jack Murdock's kid sister AU--probably one of the sadder ones of the bunch. Maria is the painfully estranged aunt of Matt Murdock, who she recently bumped into, only to find that he looked like someone kicked the shit out of him. In an effort to make sure he's okay, she tries to revive ties long since buried. She invites him to join her family on their tradition in Central Park.

"Castles for Christmas" AU--Winter break is here, the dorms have plumbing issues, Foggy has a mandatory trip visiting a horrible bitch of a great aunt who doesn't want any blind best friends tagging along, and Matt says "I have a place to stay" when the place is an old mattress next to the boiler in Fogwell's. Meanwhile, Agent Orange takes a very different approach to the problem of Frank Castle and steals his kids. Matt Murdock hears a couple of kids in trouble and decides to handle it himself. When the kids' father tracks him down afterwards--well, nightmare scenario, but they aren't ratting him out to the cops, so it's as good as it can go. The problem: these people are fucking insane and their mission of "thank the nice young man who saved our kids" turned into "fully kidnap him and force him to live in their guest bedroom because they have an exaggerated sense of duty and this man is living like a fucking goblin." Featuring a matt who's like, trying to politely explain to the Castles that he appreciates the concern, but also this is a fucking kidnapping, like there's literal zip ties involved, like seriously this is a felony, a castle family who has decided that if frank keeps dragging him off the windowsill before he can wriggle his way to freedom then maybe they'll give him stockholm syndrome and it will be a nonissue, and a foggy who is wondering if his best bro has been enslaved by a suburban family of four to make gingerbread men.

Maria Castle Matt Murdock Best Bros Au--at the start of his Daredevil career, Matt saves a random suburban housewife mid-mugging--only she was in the process of saving herself and Matt gets clipped with a bullet in the process. the injury to his person is minor. the injury to his pride is major when random suburban housewife pistol whips him in a moment of panic, proceeds to kidnap masked man for medical treatment. The thing is 1) she hates the PTA 2) it's so hard to make adult friends with you know, kids and everything 3) she is extraordinarily okay with aiding and abetting and 4) this man is her dumbass little brother now, look at him, he's so ridiculous and pathetic, she can't not bully him, this is an excellent life decision curtis calm DOWN. featuring a curtis who does not want to be a part of this, please and thank you, maria stop calling him, and a frank still in Afghanistan, under the impression that this is his wife's new gay best friend instead of like. a man she met via vigilante justice.

15: Are there words, phrases, mannerisms or scenes you tend to use a lot?

Uhhh, i overuse stuff like “(s)he sighs” or “(s)he doesn’t say anything” or “(S)he scoffs” and “(s)he shrugs,” etc. because i’m looking for a specific like, rhythm(?) in a conversation or in the prose and shove in those mannerisms like placeholders. I haven’t figured out a better way to handle that problem with my writing yet, but hopefully will one day. 

Frank’s a weirdly expressive character, at least the way Jon Bernthal plays him, so I tend to kind of add in like, exaggerated exasperation. He has a lot of looking heavenward for strength, side-eyeing, that kind of thing.

Matt and Peter very purposefully have some parallels across my projects, but especially the Matt  and peter in pottery shards. it’s this kind of impatient way of downplaying concern for them. I think that all narrators are inherently unreliable, is the thing. It’s all going to be framed through their mindsets and experiences. Matt and Peter are both deeply isolated characters who don’t know how to comprehend--let alone accept--help and concern, for different reasons. Matt’s used to systemic abuse and instability. He’s used to him having problems being treated as him having done something wrong and being punished for it. So there’s usually a scene with a character showing some pretty appropriate concern for him--Brett, Foggy, Karen, etc.--and Matt’s entire internal monologue is about how endless this conversation is and how he doesn’t know why they’re reacting like this, and the thing they’re reacting to is like, horrible abuse. 

Peter has the same thing, because Peter in pottery shards is someone who enters the narrative as someone who has purposefully isolated himself and set himself into the mindset that people trying to interfere in his life--aka help him, the fourteen year old--is just going to hurt both himself and the people he loves. And there’s a lot of reasons for this, not all of which has been unpacked yet, but it’s resulted in this same mindset that Matt has as perceiving concern as something that’s at best a waste of his time and at worst a big problem he has to fix. So you have scenes where Curtis is actively providing him health care, or teachers are concerned about his wellbeing, and his entire internal monologue is either frustrated musings on how to get out of this, or perceiving it as them being upset with him. 

Foggy and karen haven’t gotten to the brunt of their roles yet in any of the projects, but I usually try to model them around these same internal baseline characteristics that results in repeated mannerisms. Foggy is someone who is usually very purposeful in how he acts and the words he uses. like, he’s really more self aware than any other character, and he’s good at teasing through the maladaptations of other characters. So foggy gets these repeat lines of verbal clarifications like ��This isn’t a fight” because he’s good at clocking what exactly is wrong with another character and trying to make his own actions clear. I’ll refrain from karen because most of her repeated baseline characteristics haven’t popped up yet. 

18: Recommend someone else fic! (And tag them if they have a tumblr!)

i don’t think this author has a tumblr, and I haven’t seen anything from the in years, but silverpard on both AO3 and fanfiction.net has this one fic that changed the chemistry of my brain. it’s called a mirror, darkly and it influenced my own writing to a ridiculous degree. i’m not much of one for batman, never got into DC, but it’s very much worth it. 

[gentil-minou]

hi^^ I am very new to experiencing hyperfixations on a show and like. I got into this one show which ended like YEARS ago and I was so happy and giggly about it for a whole week (my prev and first hyper fixation is ongoing and I dropped it because I was frustrated with the way the sorry went) but then. I guess I kiinda came across very conflicting opinions on it in here (I mean it WAS. A pretty popular show so one side of people were very very happy with it and one side had been like 'the show is trash!!!1!') and I. Can't stop thinking about all of them. this was fine for a while, but now it's really interrupting my rl responsibilities and I just think I want to move on to a new show (since this show is over and has ended years ago and it's okay)?? And I am unable to do so because a part of me is scared of letting go of these characters and the impact they made in me ig? I am very sad about the fact that I might forget them(?) I just want to move on peacefully but also regain that positive impact I had when I first watched the show, which has just felt like it has disappeared since I read all of those negative comments (on surface level I can accept that not everyone needs to like a show! But it also just. upsets me to some extent, I'll admit. And it's just the fact that this show ended like. what 5-6 years ago and so I don't even need to be upset about comments made THAT ago but) I was wondering if this is just a common thing to go through when one gets into previously-ended-ages-ago shows or just a me thing

Anon, this might be a bit of tough love, but this, truly, is just the nature of fandoms.

Some fandoms never die, even though it's been years since it ended. I got into Buffy the Vampire Slayer over two decades after it ended, and that show had a lot of problems that I can acknowledge, but I searched for fandom spaces I felt safe in with plenty of content to tide me over.

Some fandoms last a long time, particularly depending on what kind of fans are drawn to it. I think older fans tend to hold on to fandoms longer so there tends to be more content, like my current mdzs fandom technically ended a couple years ago but since it's got a more mature fanbase the fanworks tend to reflect that.

Regarding your issue with getting upset about people disliking something you like, I mean this in the nicest way I can, but that's always going to happen. People are always going to dislike something you like, and that's fine. It doesn't mean anything about you or your tastes or your love for the media, it's just the nature of humanity.

You're responsible for the fandom spaces you enter. If you don't like seeing negative comments about something, then don't look. It might seem hard to do that, but once you accept that not everyone's taste is going to match yours the better it gets. I certainly like a lot of things I know others would hate and might even judge me for, but the only opinions who matter to me are my own.

If you're current fandom is quiet or dead, then my suggestion is either look for the older content like on ao3 or even other sites or, even better, make your own content. I promise there will be people who come out of the woodwork to look at your stuff and talk about the fandoms you're in. Some fandoms are smaller, and that's fine too. Again, it's just the nature of these spaces.

But at the end of the day, I promise you will enjoy fandom spaces more when you learn how to ignore the spaces that make you uncomfortable. If you can't handle criticism for something, then either ignore it or look away and practice brushing it off. It will take time to get used to doing that, but it's all about practice and catering your fandom spaces to your needs. That's the only way to truly survive being in fandoms in general; learning what your limits are and sticking to the spaces you feel best in, while ignoring the places you dont like

[cloudyevaa]

— warning!!! spoilers for the 2.1 genshin impact archon quest, and a lot of disappointment up ahead. also disclaimer: i am not by any means qualified to give this criticism lol this is just my take and my opinion on the quest's execution, and i need a place to rant.

I can't be the only one who feels very conflicted about the 2.1 archon quest, right??

I think one of the appeals of inazuma's main story was the fact that there was a war, an ongoing conflict between a nation and its deity - the fact that the archons' moralities are not so black and white as we'd thought is hammered home by the dictating reign of the raiden shogun, in contrast to both rex lapis and barbatos, who have directly aided the traveller in their previous endeavours.

the 2.1 archon quest, though?? it feels as if ei is played off to just be a lonely and misunderstood deity, and she so easily changes after... what? yae miko visits her in her realm of euthymia? the shogun knew of the repercussions of the vision hunt decree, the tenryou commission's involvement with the fatui, and even the civil war.

so why was the plot building up to the reveal that the raiden shogun may have just been mislead by false commission reports? what difference does it make that both the tenryou and kanjirou commissions have betrayed the shogun if she already knew they colluded with the fatui?

I hold nothing against ei's character — in fact, I love the way her ideals seem perfect on paper, but works in detriment to the very people she wants to protect. I love that she struggles to understand how eternity is not stagnation, and that growth is the only thing that will stay forever unchanging, because all moments are fleeting, and all life ends.

but mihoyo makes it extremely hard for me to enjoy her story completely when all we do is fight her and rely on the power of friendship vision bearers' ambitions to change her mind about the vision hunt decree. like, ,, what gives?? everything happened so quickly, how could she so easily throw away the ideals she's been so adamantly holding onto for decades?

I haven't done her story quest, but it looks like she's not even being taken accountable for being the spearhead in a literal civil war. all those vision bearers who lost their lives ( including kazuha's friend ), all the common people she has harmed because of her tunnel vision - she lifts the vision hunt decree and she is suddenly absolved? of course, I don't want a perfect morally good character, but at the very least mihoyo can show us that she is not so perfect so as to suddenly change her mind about the vision hunt decree and sporadically feel compassion for the very people she knows she has harmed.

I'm sure people are also really shocked about signora's death - I am too. I was never a fan of signora but her presence was always filled with mystery, intrigue, and an impending sense of doom. she was that antagonist - beautiful, hauntingly cruel, and jam-packed with unknown backstory ( as seen with the crimson witch and pale flame artifact set lore ) that I thought was going to be further explored on future quests. but?? she??? just???? dies???? and for what?

I don't mind if she dies ( in fact, I would like for an opportunity to use traveller to execute her myself ), but the fact that her death brings no substance to the overarching story, especially since scaramouche just. got the gnosis from yae miko. like, mihoyo can do signora MUCH better than this. she deserves a glorious death as a fleshed-out antagonist, yet I felt nothing for her, not even the slightest bit of satisfaction, when she disappeared into ashes.

and scaramouche. I like the guy, he's funny-looking, and kind of sadistic. the fact that he was appearing in inazuma was a welcome surprise. it made sense, considering he was confirmed to be from inazuma, and there were theories about he and the shogun's similar appearamces which I eagerly consumed. but he appears for like, 3 minutes, and then we're KNOCKED OUT???? seriously???????

when yae miko suddenly appeared I actually thought she'd betrayed us and was working with the fatui. but then she wakes us up, tells us nothing about the SINGLE MOST important exchange in the whole quest until AFTER the main conflict is resolved, and just dumps scaramouche's identity on us as a SIDE COMMENT. what is this tomfoolery??? we weren't even there to see it? at least give us a cutscene explaining what went down, because this was LITERALLY one of the most important parts of the entire archon quest, and one of the recurring goals of the traveller.

also, can we talk about the resistance? oh wait a minute, we can't, because they literally did nothing. absolutely nothing. they contributed a total of 0 times the whole quest. only teppei was a memorable figure, and he had more lore than the upcoming 5-star master strategist of the whole army; kokomi.

as a person who loves kokomi, i am devastated by the lack of actual role she holds within the plot. she is a famed strategist and the only reason the resistance has been holding out for so long, as kujou sara said herself. but she's not given so much as a 30-second fight scene, and we never see her cunning wits on the battlefield - we probably never will. why, you may ask? well, because the freaking war is OVER. because baal just decided to stop the vision hunt decree.

i sincerely hope there will be more substantial kokomi content during her banner where we get to see her shine, seeing as it seems that mihoyo is already nerfing her abilities and focusing their efforts into promoting ei instead.

however, seeing as the main inazuma conflict ( the vision hunt decree ) is already over and dealt with... what the frick is kokomi supposed to bring to the table??? 😃 the one character i feel that shone throughout the quest was kujou sara, who had actually had a set-up for potential character development from the previous patch. but even then she's rendered unconscious by signora in front of the archon she is the loyal right-hand of??? like y'all pls tell me I'm not dreaming.

I loved the graphics, the concept, the lore - but the execution fell flat and felt terribly rushed. I wonder if it's because mihoyo is very insistent on hyper-fixating upon the raiden shogun this update.

anyway, that was a long tangent lmao. if you enjoyed the quest, good for you!! I enjoyed it, too; but my enjoyment is far overshadowed by the glaring issues that i had with it. i'd love to hear other people's thoughts about the quest.

[queer-whatchamacallit]

Autistic Reid headcanons except I make them up as I go along

He has horrible sensory issues with different textures

He can’t stand the feeling of sand that shit is nasty

If he smoothes velvet the wrong way, he has instantly recoiled in disgust and is not far from having a meltdown

This is also an issue with food, and literally the only time he eats something with real substance is when the BAU goes out to dinner together

Otherwise he will exclusively survive on ritz crackers and coffee

He also has issues with sound

There aren’t really particular sounds that overstimulate him, just anything considered annoying and anything he considers too loud

Jfc someone let this kid info dump

He has had his mom to info dump to all his life (even if she couldn’t really tell what he was saying at certain points) so he felt kinda betrayed the first time he started info dumping to his BAU friends, pretty much the first friends he’s had in decades, and they just cut him off or were uninterested by him

(Little thing I need to go off on: I know what it’s like when you’ve been hyper fixated on something and feel like you can’t talk about it with anyone. Someone just listen to the kid!!!)

When Spencer is over stimulated, he just wants to go somewhere else and have no one question why he has to leave before he can go

He ended up coming up with the phrase “I’m kind of wound up” to signal to the other BAU members that he just needs to get out for minute

When overstimulated, he has a tendency to snap at people and apologizes for it the second he’s “wound down” enough to talk to anyone

His meltdowns aren’t super out of the ordinary, so the team has sort of learned how Spencer wants to be treated during and after them

Spencer occasionally goes nonverbal, and he typically switches to more calming, monotonous paperwork when this happens

He had a huge meltdown the first time he got on the plane and Gideon wasn’t there

It really affected him that he no longer had someone who shared one of his biggest special interests, European film and books

He stims constantly with his hands, but doesn’t really do fidget toys

He would sometimes use them for a week or two after getting them, but would soon default to doodling or running his thumb along his forefinger

Typing became a stim for him at some point, so every once in a while he’ll convince Emily to help him translate a book that’s in one of the languages she speaks

I might make more of these later, but this one’s getting pretty long so I’ll leave it there!!

[ereboros]

*    knowing  your  partner  well  can  potentially  make  writing  a  lot  easier,    repost,    do  not  reblog.

                                           meet the mun.  — basics

NAME:  Odium PRONOUNS:  she/her PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Primarily Discord but tumblr means exposure, so SINGLE / TAKEN: single

— three facts

i. I've been in the RE RPC for a little over a decade now, writing the same muse because I hyper fixate on one character lol ii. I love drawing, and finally bit the bullet and opened an art blog so I can have a formal platform to share my work. iii. I'm also involved in the Warhammer 40k fandom, but not as much as RE

-experience

I started with roleplaying with my ex back in the day, and then started an "ask" blog back in 2012. Then it all just snowballed from there. I created this blog as a fresh start, and I rp on discord with some of my mutuals.

-sub-genres

FLUFF: You can't go wrong with a little bit of fluff. Personally I adore writing it despite the twinge of the "this is out of character" feeling I get from writing fluff with a villain.  I suppose, to combat this I think of most fluff as a crack like scenario where it doesn't exactly count as canon for my muse in most cases as it usually isn't something he would do. But it depends on the situation I suppose. SMUT: Okay. I fucking love smut. Think what you want, but any thread that ends up with a lil bit of spice gets me all giddy. Now I don't just toss my muse in bed with just anyone though, there has to be chemistry for both muses and writers. Otherwise it ain't happening. ANGST: I love angst if it's done well. I'm very connected with my muse and while this can be advantageous at channeling him, it can be emotionally stifling for me. Which means most angst needs to be plotted out for me to be willing to participate. If it's just waves of negativity with no resolve or reason, it tends to affect me personally and I generally slink away.

-plots vs memes

I guess it depends on if there's a specific storyline my partner or I have in mind. In that case, yes, I'd love to plot. Figure out our verses, make a storyline we can play out.. If there isn't anything specific in mind and you just want to thread, then yeah, toss some memes at me, we'll work something out!

-long or short replies

Oooo... It really depends.. I try to match my partner's replies and obviously I'm not going to respond to a three paragraph starter with a four sentence reply, but in all honesty I'm an artist, not a writer. This is a hobby and I know I still have a ways to go as far as quality. That, and I live in a very loud, crowded environment which makes it difficult to concentrate, so that's fun. In short, I'll try to match yours, but I'm not great.

-best time to write

Night time. Like, 9:00 (PST) on is ideal. The family is asleep and I can make myself a cocktail and chill in the livingroom and write. But on my off days I'm usually lurking on here around the late afternoon.

Tagged by: nightlyvisitor

Tagging: @fcrrokinetic, @agntkennedy, @crimson-dripping-fangs @alpharedfield, @ricardo-irving and everyone else who'd like to join in!

[tundrainafrica]

Title: A Tale of Two Slaves (9/?)

Summary:  “Soulmates don’t exist. Fate doesn’t exist. Everything is a choice.” At that moment, Levi could only watch as she made the choice for him.“

Reincarnation AU. Levi remembers everything from their past life. Hange doesn’t.

Other Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

Link to cross-postings: AO3

The oval stretched out in front of him, much wider than his range of vision but Levi felt no need to look around him and take in the whole view. It was the largest oval in his city and having been one of the more active high jumpers the past five years, he had been there enough to memorize it inside and out.

That particular day, instead of being out there in the field doing warm up jumps like he had been for the past decade of his life, he was on the bleachers, a few seats away from the front. He was merely a part of the audience, an oddly surreal experience. For years, Levi had never given the audience a passing thought after all. His world during those few hours on the track had consisted of the bar he had to jump over, the jumper before him, his coach and teammates on the bench and maybe some the interviewers who would flock to him after the medal ceremony.

Although he had gone to that track so many times before, somehow it felt like he was experiencing it for the first time.

He was unprepared as well. Levi found himself pushing his hands farther into his hoodie huddling for whatever warmth it could afford him. Possibly it was the long days he had spent indoors that had made him unready for how cold mid autumn could actually be.

The past two weeks leading up to that particular night, Levi had not left the comforts of Hange's apartment much aside from for the occasional check up or regular therapy session. When he wasn't writing or making sense of new dreams, he spent most of his days catching up with schoolwork or trying to help around her apartment even with his injury.

With the long hours he had spent indoors, he was almost sedentary in comparison to the twice a day training and it was a drastic change. As he watched the other athletes warm up on the track, he was unable to fathom how he had survived long ago in light athletic wear. He started to wonder how much he had changed. If his knee wasn’t casted or buckling at the slightest weight, if he had a perfectly good knee just like a few weeks ago, would he have still been able to jump.

Was that sudden sensitivity to the cold he was feeling a product of his psyche or did his body just suddenly get weaker due to his long stint indoors?

To think I used to actually win these events. With the disbelief that came with that passing thought, Levi suddenly remembered why he had hesitated to join them in the first place. Everything from the atmosphere, to the warm up jumps found a way to hurt him. The few whispers he could hear from his place on the bleachers about the Ackerman kid, who had achieved a college record less than a year ago suddenly sidelined for life, were reminding him why exactly he had cooped himself up in the first place.

At first, he had attributed a huge chunk of that to the healing process, the writing process and the general lack of necessity to go out. At that moment, he was watching athletes do the jumps he knew how to perfectly execute yet was sure he would never be capable of doing again. At the same time, he was listening to whispers that could have been very much about him with the smatters of conversations on knee injuries and wasted talent.

He had looked towards Hange for comfort, an almost instinctive movement. Ironically, that movement had him rubbing more salt on his already reopened wounds. He had ended up watching Hange fall so easily to a state of a daydream and Levi did not need to look back at the oval to know why. She was watching the athletes go through the motions of the jumps.

He recognized that same look to be the one she had given Elijah and those athletes on her instagram feed. He would have given a lot to be able to go back to the Levi of a few weeks ago, the Levi who had been the subject of her hyper fixations. The inevitability of time had him hating himself a little more.

Levi cleared his throat in an attempt to swallow the lump that had settled there and willed himself to look back at the field. The temptation to space out was strong.

He had decided on watching the high jump event for a reason though and he was determined to make it worth it.

                               A Tale of Two Slaves

"Mike and Nanaba?” Levi repeated. The names flowed out of his mouth so smoothly so easily as if he had said those names many times before. Of course, he knew them. They were the subject of Hange’s case study years ago, the one he had read in preparation for meeting Hange.

“Mike Zacharius and Nanaba Briete,” Hange repeated. “Two friends from high school. They’re both participating in the high jump event so I thought of watching."

Mike and Nanaba. As Levi soon found out though the names weren’t cold to his tongue. They didn’t feel as stiff or professional despite their clear origins from an academic paper. It was almost second nature for Levi to attach faces to both of their names.

And that had been a breakthrough at that moment. For the past few days, he had been struggling to dream something different. Ever since Hange had given him a dream catcher, the dreams with Erwin and Hange had surprisingly been clearer and those scenes he had pictured had so easily flown from mind to paper, particularly his dreams to see the outside wall, his drive for atonement, his heroic sacrifice. It had also made him familiar with more subtle things like the long hours he had spent in the office, the amount of time he had spent joined to Erwin’s hip as his right hand man, and the trust he had put on him all the way until the end of his life.

He had squeezed what he had taken out of every memory and every dream and suddenly one day, he woke up to find himself completely intimate with that dream Erwin. Yet the story wasn’t complete, he just had to find inspiration elsewhere.

In an attempt to support him, Hange had been doing her part too to invite him out when she could.

She had suggested movies, shopping or dinner out. Levi could see behind it though and knew Hange would have preferred hiking, park hopping or working out. Not wanting to settle for bland ideas, they probably would have both slogged through, Levi declined all of them despite Hange’s insistence.

Ironically, her mention of plans to watch his college track and field event of all things had been an exception. "I'll come with you," Levi said without thinking.

Hange frowned in concern. “You sure?”

“Why? You don’t want me to come?”

Hange shook her head. “It’s not that…. I’m just surprised that you seemed a little too eager. I talk watching something like that might be torture for you.”

“I haven’t gone out in so long. I’m fine with anything at this rate.”

“We could start with a trip to the mall? Or we could go out for dinner?” Hange lightly suggested.

“I wanna get to know your friends too,” Levi said.

Hange raised one eyebrow at him as she eyed him a little too suspiciously. “You never seemed like the type to actually enjoy meeting new people.”

Levi avoided her gaze. If it were any other friends, he probably wouldn’t have cared enough to leave the comforts of Hange’s apartment. In fact, meeting his classmates and having face-to-face classes were a burden he was happy to avoid. Those names which Hange had mentioned, the faces that suddenly clicked in his brain, which were further confirmed by a quick google search had him all the more invested. “Nanaba and Mike seem like interesting people,” Levi finally admitted.

Her reaction was unexpected to say the least. Levi found himself practically jumping out of his seat in shock at the explosion of laughter that came out of your mouth. “Why the hell are you laughing?”

Eventually, her laughter did die down but Levi wasn’t counting the seconds until it did. He had been too busy enjoying the way her eyes crinkled and her nose wrinkled as she smiled. “Wait ‘til Nanaba and Mike hear this. The quiet antisocial guy who beat them out of first place every single fucking time is actually interested in getting to know them

“Wait. I went against them?”

“Aaaaand you don’t even remember.” Hange flailed her hands up exaggeratedly. “I should have known.” She shook her head. Her voice still had the remnants of the loud laughter of a while ago and she didn’t look like she would be getting rid of that playful demeanor anytime soon.

“And now you’re just making fun of me.

Hange wiped a tear from the side of her eye. “I’m sorry. I probably look so weird right now. I know I shouldn’t be acting like this.” As she put her hand down, she looked back up at him, her smile visibly wider than it was a second ago. “It just never dawned on me till now how weird it just feels. If I told my past self I’d be sharing an apartment with jumper extraordinaire Levi Ackerman, past Hange would have tried to slap some sense into me.”

Jumper extraordinaire Levi Ackerman. Somehow, Levi was recalling the way she had held his hands and stared at him, the first time he had laid eyes on her. I heard you’re the best one in the team… I’d love to see you in action. The glimmer in eyes and the excited tone in her voice that fluctuated between highs and lows with every syllable, it was the same as it had been then when she first called out to him.

Hange took a deep breath. “The tournaments were the only times Nanabe and Mike would visit this part of town so they’d invite me to watch every year…”

“And you watched it every year…” Levi didn’t need to confirm anything. It was all in her eyes.

As if she knew she had given it all away through her eyes, Hange quickly looked away. She had done nothing though to hide the pink in her cheeks. She probably couldn’t have done anything to hide it anyway. “When the super rookie Levi Ackerman scored an almost record breaking upset win…” Hange recounted so mechanically as if she were reading a headline. “I was in the crowd. And I never stopped following him since.”

And I never stopped following him since. The moment Hange said it, she dropped her shoulders to the side, so quickly and so eagerly, Levi wondered what kind of baggage she had been holding for her to look so free as she said those last words. His mind shifted elsewhere before he could ponder it any longer.

It was a long shot but Levi still found himself looking back, scrambling to recall his first every competition through lasting sensations from the cold breeze, the blinding lights and the cacophony of cheers mixed with announcers’ commentaries.

As if by some miracle, he remembered it. He remembered it as he mentally prepared for the most crucial jump. The bar was a good two meters up in the air. His legs were aching, his heartbeat was getting wilder. Before he jumped, he had glanced at the bleachers as the murmurs and cheers got stronger and consequently more difficult to ignore. On the bleachers, more specifically on the fifth row from the front, sat Hange. Her hair still as brown and untamed as always, her eyes held the same wonder it always had. And maybe a little surprise? That had been his first tournament after all.

He had only given her a passing glance then. Within a split second, she had blended with the scenery as he ran towards the bar. The jump that came quickly after was strong and exhilarating.

And as Levi landed on the cushion on the other side of the bar, welcoming explosions of gasps and wild cheers as he did, he couldn’t help but reflect on it.

Rookie Ackerman bags gold in the Regional Cup with record breaking height.

That first tournament jump had been life changing, inspiring. Possibly it was the jump that had paved the way to the years of victory that followed.

No sane athlete would have memorized the faces in the crowd. For him though, it felt criminal that he had only noticed it then as she admitted it to him herself.

She had been a part of that experience too.

                            A Tale of Two Slaves

Eventually, Levi did get tired of torturing himself. He knew the way to the barely used locker rooms in the building next to the oval and he seeked solace there. Somehow, he found it worth it to make a slight scene as he struggled to keep his balance and he maneuvered his crutches down the bleachers.

When he got to the empty locker room, with only the dark ceiling above him and silence, that made even the dripping of water deafening, he was able to forget the embarrassing and frustrating journey there. And within a few more minutes, he did forget the onslaught of emotion that had culminated into a wave of incomprehensible emotions, manifesting as demons in his head.

With a lack of stimuli to remind him of his reality, he was once again numb. And numbness tended to lead to dreaming. The old locker room was no place to fall asleep though and Levi found himself trying to focus on whatever faint stimuli could reach him as to stay rooted in his reality.

Faint cheers made their way into the dark room. Levi had watched more than enough jumps to know the cheers flowed with the movements, always at their loudest when the athlete is at their highest. Oddly enough, he had managed to drown out the cheers more easily when he was in the middle of them.

Although they were faint, they were still much louder and more rattling than Levi had ever experienced them to be. And the cheers did rattle him to the bone. His body shook every time the cheers reached their crescendo and he wondered if Hange was watching too. Was she screaming? He could imagine her cheers so easily and he found himself trying to pick it out among what could have been hundreds of other voices.

Her voice was unique, nostalgic, memorable. It should have been easy. But the cheers were too faint. Even in the silence, he found it difficult to split them into individual voices, let alone isolate one out of hundreds. He leaned back on the cold wall, slipped onto the floor and closed his eyes.

“Levi?”

Levi had assumed it to have been a dream at first. The voice he had been raring to pick out among the crowd was right next to him. He willed himself not to open his eyes for fear that the voice might just disappear.

That small voice had opened up to sounds of steps then the brush of cloth on tiles. He felt a warm hand behind him, pulling him gently away from the wall and the warmth of something around him. Levi let out a cough, only then, when the cold was replace by warmth, did he realize how chilly the room actually was.

“You can really sleep anywhere huh?" Her voice had been too near, right next to his ear. Her breath tickled his ear and brushed past his neck. Even before he realized it, he had opened his eyes, Levi was already returning the subtle smile Hange had given him.

“What were you dreaming about?” It had become routine for Hange to ask that question. Levi couldn’t blame her. When he was at his worst, sometimes that was the only thing he was willing to talk about.

“Nothing. I wasn’t sleeping. I was just thinking,” Levi answered. “How are the results?”

Hange shrugged. “You saw it yourself. Elijah grabbed gold in the vertical jump. Mike silver…” She paused for a second.

“So none of the other jumpers after them got higher scores?”

“They still didn’t beat your record from last season.”

“I don’t need that reassurance,” Levi said. “This would have been my last season anyway. I’m gonna graduate, find a job, forget this sport then find out some other kid beat my record in a few years.”

“Why did you leave after Elijah cleared the 2.3 meter bar then?” Hange didn’t at all sound like she had wanted to provoke him. Levi was certain all she had wanted were answers.

“Why were you staring at Elijah like that when he jumped?” As he thought back to the final straw that had made him stand up and brave the stairs and the whispers from the crowd just so he could leave the field mid tournament, he realized exactly why. Hange hadn’t even noticed the way her eyes lit up at him. Somehow, that was enough to have Levi shaking as he saw the confusion in her eyes.

“Staring like what?”

“Your mouth was wide open and your eyes were stuck on him.”

“I just got a little excited I guess. When I see jumps that high, sometimes I feel like I’m flying myself,” Hange said. “Or I dunno, I’ve never flown before but it’s just so easy to get lost in it sometimes.”

“Did you feel that same way? When I jumped?” Used to jump. Regret weighed on him. As the seconds ticked as he waited for her answer, that regret gradually took over and pushed at his chest, making it more difficult to breath. It had been that one movement after all, that impulsive and reckless decision that had him there in that dark unused locker room instead of outside in the tournament.

It was his last season anyway. He had consoled himself so many times before. But it wasn’t the season and the career-ending injury that had him heavy hearted at that moment. Impending retirement in sports loomed for most college athletes, especially in their senior year. Levi had prepared himself for it already.

At first, it had been the loss of that one unique sensation, the blue sky above him, and the his body detached from the earth for that split second, the loss of that memorable and unique experience of having both air and gravity as his enemy as he flew through the air with the wind blowing through his face as if executing their own plans to stop him. When the dreams returned and when he had started to write them out, eventually the weight in his chest lightened, replaced by another one.

As he spent more time observing Hange and talking to her in between her thesis writing and his own writing, he noticed it fester slowly. Only when his chest lightened, set free from that other weight, did it start to make itself known.

Hange never stopped watching jumps, turns, tumbles, runs and spins. Sometimes, she would turn on the tv in the living room to some athletic meet. Sometimes, she’d just be scrolling through her timeline, liking whatever inhumane stunts an athlete was showing her at that moment. She had those same raised eyebrows, that same gaping mouth, those same dilated pupils and that same glimmer in the eyes that he wished was just the glare of the screen.

And I never stopped following him since. Had she looked at him with that same expression? That same exact expression she had given Elijah? Would there ever be away to look back at those moments, zoom into her and look for everything from the raised eyebrows, gaping mouth, dilated pupils and that glimmer in her eyes?

Did you look at me that same way? That was all he had wanted to ask. Hange wouldn’t have known though.

“Of course I did.” Hange answered. Levi could only wish it were true. Without seeing that same expression, he would never know.

“But I’ll never jump like that again. So I don’t think you’ll get that from me anymore.”

I can get it elsewhere. Levi had prepared his heart for that reply. He was at least ready enough not to lash out.

“Because you offer other things,” Hange said. “These stories about Captain Levi and Hange Zoe… Commander Erwin Smith? When we’re up late at night and you start talking about those contraptions that get us flying through the air like birds? I don’t know if it’s the way you describe it or if it’s the passion in your eyes but… it’s like I could have been flying too.”

“You were flying.” And Levi held on to the image so tightly, that the words flowed too naturally out of his mouth. If he hadn’t been staring at the blank ceiling above him, recalling easily how she had tumbled and turned so freely in the air, he probably would have been conscious about how much of a madman he had sounded like.

Hange didn’t seem to mind though. “Even if just in my own dreams, it would be nice.”

The dim room only made the transition from consciousness to unconsciousness a little easier. The coat over his shoulders and the warmth that it kept close to him didn’t help keep him awake either. His dim surroundings blurred into nothingness, the last two sensations he made out was the arm around his shoulder and the faint discomfort as he dropped his head onto what could have been a bony shoulder.

You were flying.

It was as if his dreams had heard the conversation of a while ago. Squad Leader Zoe, Commander Hange Zoe. Dreams of her came in snapshots, in crumbs that indulged all his five senses. The whizzing of cables, the explosion of gas, familiar yet distant screams of excitement, week old sweat.

Her greasy hair on his hands. Then Levi found himself on horseback, his and Hange’s faces were a little too close for comfort. It didn’t take much to remember why though.

She had said something about wanting to meet an abnormal titan and he was in the mood for jokes.

                                A Tale of Two Slaves

“Of all the years and tournaments you could have ditched, it had to be the tournament with my first ever golden medal performance.”

“Nanaba, I’ll make it up to you promise…”

“To think you’re the one who roped me into this sport in the first place…”

They had the whole taxi ride to start an argument. Levi was grateful at least the conversation only reached that topic when they were already in the elevator on the way to Hange’s apartment. Hange had prepared some hard drinks, some soft drinks, some chasers and a lot of water. He was sure that the argument with devolve into something a little less coherent and might actually fizzle out within an hour or so with the right cocktail mix.

He had gone through that same bout of adventure with his own teammates after all. Nanaba continued to talk her ear off while Mike and Hange cleared out the dining table. Levi sat on one of the chairs, making himself useful by opening up the bottles handed to him by Moblit.

“I’m gonna need something hard first. Imagining being awarded that gold medal then looking in the crowd for the person who inspired me to try high jumping in the first place.” Nanaba sat to Levi’s left pouring what could be a nauseating amount of gin into the cup and emptied it within seconds. “And lo and behold, it looks like you were hiding out with wonderboy here in one of the old locker rooms.” She turned to Levi. “So… What were you guys doing there?”

Oddly enough, Levi didn’t understand the question at first glance. It could have been interpreted as an innocent question. When he wasn’t taking into account the cat-like grin, the raised eyebrows and the wide-eyed gaze.

It was Moblit who confirmed her intention. He turned to Hange. “There isn’t anything between you and Levi though right?”

“No one needs to be in a relationship to do anything.” Mike added, begrudgingly wise words from the most quiet one in the room.

“Nothing really…” Hange sat next to Nanaba and poured her own glass of gin, mixing it with some soft drinks. “I just kept him company. And he fell asleep next to me.”

Nanaba turned to Levi, her cheeks much redder than they were a second ago. “You sure?” She cupped her hands over her mouth and whispered in a still very audible volume. “Blink twice if you need help.”

“I don’t remember much, I fell asleep.”

Everyone in the room jumped as Nanaba abruptly slammed her hand on the table. “And you just let your biggest fangirl get away with doing whatever she wanted with you huh?”

“Biggest… fangirl?” Levi asked.

Nanaba turned to Hange. “Don’t you have a folder of pictures of him on your phone?” She dove under the table. From where Levi sat he could only hear the frazzled protests of Hange.

“The pictures aren’t on my phone anymore!” Hange screamed.

“What pictures?” Levi asked, trying his best to ignore the slams and the sounds of struggle from below.

“We did go to all of your competitions.” Mike admitted. “They went for personal reasons… I went for my own research.”

Levi noted that Mike and Elijah tended to alternate second and third place between the both of them. According to Hange that is. He never looked beyond his own experiences and his own injury had made him all the more hesitant to research high jumping stats.

“That sounds reasonable.” Levi managed to say. Small talk had never been his forte. Especially when his conversation partner wasn’t leaving much opening to continue.

For a while they were both silent. “It’s a shame. You made the competition interesting. If this didn’t happen, you could have pushed the sport to new levels.”

“Accidents happen. Someone else will show up and do it,” Levi kept his voice toneless as if he were just rattling off a list of inevitable events. That probably was going to happen anyway. His current inebriated state just convinced him that it wasn’t worth pondering at that moment.

“Moblit! Keep my phone and Nanaba, just go the fuck to sleep already.” Hange’s tone and her face then that managed to be both cold and furious at the same time was terrifying. Maybe, because it was the first time he had ever seen her so angry.

“You’re one of my closest friends Hange…. Be happy…” Nanaba slurred.

Happy. Hange always seemed happy, barring that one sleepless night he did see her cry. At that moment though, Levi instinctively looked towards her, his brain somehow expecting to see a smile on her face.

Of course, with what happened just a while ago she wasn’t smiling. She pressed her phone onto Moblit’s hand and whispered something to him. She returned back and sat next to Levi, taking Nanaba’s seat of a while ago. “Well, I had pictures to be honest but just for a few months I guess? I mean I really liked your jumps and I wanted to keep them...”

“No. It’s nice to know I had a secret admirer.” No actually, Levi probably would have found it odd if it were anyone else. He was doing the equivalent of writing fanfiction about her and somehow, keeping a secret folder of photos of him seemed mild. Although she had mentioned deleting it, Levi found himself clinging to the hope that she might still have kept a few.

“Hange, Let me make it up to you,” A voice and a pair of arms came up from behind Hange and wrapped around both of their shoulders. Levi could smell the strong alcohol in them.

“Nanaba, I think you should go to sleep now…” Moblit said. He stood up and started to prepare one of the mattresses Hange had laid out on the side of the room.

“Make it up to me by going to sleep…” Hange mumbled visibly uncomfortable.

Nanaba ignored her. “Levi, could I ask you one favor?”

“What is it?” Levi asked, keeping his eyes fixed on the still half fall glass of tequila in front of him. He had only been taking only small and cautious sips after all.

“Could you kiss Hange?” Nanaba asked “At least, just a peck on the cheek?”

“Kiss?”

“Nanaba! Go. to sleep.”

Levi could hear the rattle of her chair and from his peripherals he could see Hange moving to stand up but before he could have even processed anything else, he felt a hand on his head, a slight push.

And within a split second, he felt wet lips, he tasted alcohol, he saw scenes and he heard voices.

Within another split second they were all gone.

Hange had gone red, he could see it in her cheekbones. She had her hand cupped to her mouth, her eyes wide with what could have been shock or embarrassment. As Levi felt the blood run through his cheeks and his incapacity to do anything but stare, he started to wonder what he had looked like.

“Weren’t you wondering how his lips tasted? During that one tournament?”

“That was a joke…” Hange said. She swallowed a lump on her throat and as she narrowed her eyes, Levi could see the beginnings of what could have been tears. Was it really a joke?

“Nanaba. Let’s get you to bed.” Mike appeared from behind Nanaba and guided her back to the mattress Moblit had prepared. He started whispering to Nanaba so slowly and gently, Levi almost admired him for his patience.

That exchange between Nanaba and Mike had only lasted a second. By the time Levi did look beside him, Hange was already gone and he could hear the door slam behind him.

Levi took a quick glance at both Moblit and Mike who were still trying to subdue an overly excited Nanaba before he stood up. Not bothering to even grab his crutches from the other side of the wall, he hobbled the few meter distance toward the door of her room.

“Hange?” Levi opened the door just wide enough to see it. She hadn’t locked the door at least.

“I still have the pictures on my phone.” She sounded apologetic. She sat at the foot of her bed, her face towards the ground. Levi could tell by the crack on her voice that she was in no mood to look up.

“The pictures of me?”

“I can delete them if you want. I know it’s creepy. I shouldn’t have taken so many during tournaments.”

“And you wanted to kiss me?”

Hange fell limply on the bed and looked up at the blank ceiling. She had looked like she was avoiding his gaze. “It was a weird passing thought. I mean, I know a lot of girls have those types of things but I guess it really is creepy when the person isn’t as big of a celebrity as boy groups or actors. But I’ve wanted to be an athlete since before I could remember. I wanted to jump, to see how it feels like flying through the air. And when I saw you jump, I swear you could have had wings on your back with how well you were able to control yourself up there. You made me feel like I could fly too and I guess I got a little obsessed and ended up thinking a lot of creepy shit. I know it’s weird and I sound like a stalker…”

“No it’s not. I still have the stories about you. I’m just as weird,” Levi looked towards the wall, a gesture of respect for Hange who looked like she was in no mood to look at him.

“But, you only started writing them after we met.”

“But the stories are so detailed, it’s embarrassing,” Levi said. “if I made you feel so strongly about this, you felt obsessed enough to sneak pictures. Just remember, you made me feel things too. And these things I felt, ended up making me write. And I’ve never written in my life.”

“How did I make you feel?”

“Like I could fly too.” His dreams could attest to the fact that he wasn’t lying. Levi chose that moment to look at her and their eyes locked even before he consciously tried to follow her gaze. She had lain on the bed, looking more relaxed than a second ago.

Hange scooched over. Levi noticed then with the slight movement that his right knee was starting to ache, having taken the load of all his body weight as he hobbled.

Her scooching over could have been a subtle movement more than anything but with his aching legs, Levi decided the risk was probably worth it. He approached the bed on the side Hange had opened up. “I thought of stuff I wanted to write... Nanaba and Mike were in those dreams too. For a time we would go out for drinks after a long day of training. Meat was hard to come by but sometimes, we would have the budget to blow on a plate of meat and we’d share it. Erwin would be there too. And sometimes, they would joke that we bickered like a married couple.”

“You really built your whole world huh? What inspired you to think that up this time? The alcohol? Meeting Mike and Nanaba? Having our heads bashed together?

The kiss? The visions of the split second chose to remind Levi of their existence at that particular moment. “The kiss?” The words rolled off his tongue so easily and so fluidly.

“You don’t have to call it a kiss if you don’t want to.” We didn’t decide to do it. So technically it isn’t right?”

Levi had wanted to argue. Hange’s denial of that kiss only made his memories clearer and the emotions tied to them much stronger.

That peck had been satisfying, euphoric. It was a cathartic release of pent up emotions. Yet at the same time it had only lasted a split second. In that silent room, on the bed next to Hange, he had enough of a breather to reflect and maybe articulate that particular gesture. His feelings were strong enough to at least convince him to keep it as is. “It’s a kiss,” he said.

The silence stretched for what could have been eternity. “It’s a kiss then,” Hange said. “Did it make you feel anything?”

“I liked it.” Levi kept it to those three words. If he gave his mouth and his emotions free reign, he might just say something he would regret.

“Did you see anything? Did it inspire you to write something else about Captain Levi and Commander Zoe?” It was just like Hange to pull those words out of his mouth anyway.

“If they weren’t constantly fighting for their lives, they might have ended up kissing.”

“And you’re not going to write a kissing scene?”

“They didn’t kiss.” Of course, they wouldn’t kiss during the war. They were fellow soldiers, subordinate and superior, it wouldn’t have been professional in the battlefield.

“Maybe after their relationship develops then.”

“It won’t develop.” The words came out automatically.

“Why not? What about after the war?” Hange suggested. Words like why always bring up more questions than answers and Levi found himself racking his brain for it.

The dreams and the memories or as Hange liked to call it, bouts of inspiration, came in images and scenes and sometimes pieces of information. From what he could tell, Hange and Levi had a strong bond and it would have only been natural that they had stayed close long after the war ended.

And a kiss probably wouldn’t have been too far off. But why didn’t they kiss? Why didn’t their relationship develop? Levi asked himself, as his mind caught up to the words he said.

Maybe because the war hadn't ended yet. But after that there should be potential to develop.

With time, Levi had started to realize a pattern to the dreams though. The answers to the questions came gradually. They came in meetings, conversations and dreams. If he waited patiently, if he just opened up, those questions would be answered right?

Before Levi even noticed it, he had settled on the bed next to her and had fallen asleep to those questions. His brain chose those moments in between the sleeping and waking world to go through the voices and visions that went through him in that split second kiss.

One day in the barracks, he had overheard three of his squad members talking.

“You know I’ve been working with the commander closely right?”

“Yeah?”

“After the meetings, Levi always stays in the room with her and every time I see them together. I can’t help but think, there might be something between them.”

“Maybe you’re just overanalyzing it. You do analyze a lot

“Hey, he was right about the titan shifters and their locations back in Shiganshina."

“We’re talking about romance here, not military intelligence. Besides, can you even imagine the captain and commander kissing?”

“Just because you can’t get a girl with your horse face.”

[bittybattybunny]

The florist?! What has she done?! And what au is that?

Oh I guess I never talked about that AU

hahaha

Okay so sit down---

I have an AU called “the resurrection of Arulius Law”

it’s based on Frankenstein as well as the song “Annabel raises the dead“

Lillian is a crazed woman who fell in love with her classmate and childhood friend Arulius Law, however, he was already in a relationship with Vanessa Frost and they did plan to wed when he finished schooling. Lillian was kicked from the school for her mad science projects including reanimating a cat and it injured a student so badly he got sepsis and died. However, she was still in love with Arulius.

Arulius got his degree and was setting up his own law firm and he and Vanessa had a daughter named Harriet. They were happy. When Harriet is 5 years old, a carriage struck her father and Arulius died from his injuries.

Lillian stole his body and others in order to experiment in raising the dead. She did succeed.

Marcus is a detective on the case of the body-snatching, and he ends up teaming up with Estelle Guardian, an ‘undertaker’ who runs the Nightingale Mortuary. Estelle is revealed to be a grim, summoned by the prior owner Sena Nightingale. he named her Estelle and had a contract with her. however when he died she just. Kept his business going. The mortuary is a cover and they really investigate happenings in Subcon City.

So with Marcus, Estelle starts tracking the cause of the body-snatching down. She ends up meeting Vanessa and becomes close to her, helping her with Harriet as they look into matters. Harriet is actually the key to helping figure it out because whenever the reanimated Arulius is out with Lillian if he sees her he stops and she notices. So using her they are able to locate him and Lillian’s hide out. They find that Lillian is having issues stabilizing him and he’s failing and will wind up like her other experiments if she can’t fix it.

Estelle tries to get him to pass on (as a grim protects the dead. she will guide them) Lillian has other plans and wants to attack all of Subcon for mocking her and make a paradise of corpses for her and Arulius.

Arulius is able to snap to clarity when Harriet screams for him and ends up escaping with the main cast. He gets bad, Estelle can’t get him to pass. he willingly returns to Lillian to try and get her to stop, instead she locks and chains him up.

Marcus keeps an eye on Harriet and Vanessa and Estelle go to confront in a  big showdown, during it, Vanessa forms a fresh contract with Estelle giving her the name “Eclipse”. this Allows her to unlock her magic properly as due to the death of her prior contractor she was stuck in human form as she refused to return to the vail.

Eclipse in her grim form, runs and puts down the zombie army Lillian has created. with Vanessa on her back they are able to free Arulius and they chase Lillian down to stop the hoards. Arulius ends up snapping and going feral as an undead and attacking his own creator. In the struggle, he ends up consuming Lillian’s heart (as she wanted his heart--) This causes him to fully stabilize and he returns to his senses.

With Lillian’s death the undead slowly fall and they are released from her grasp. Eclipse states she’ll guide Arulius if he wants and they wind up staying together until Vanessa dies of old age. She then guides the couple. She stays with Marcus and Harriet as well, guarding them until Harriet herself is a mother and tells her she’ll be okay and says if she wants to go meet her parents she can. Eclipse is torn because she misses them both terribly but isn’t sure how to go herself as she’s been a guide so long. However both Vanessa and Ru are able to help her and let her finally pass on. (You see, a grim in some legends is made by BURYING SOMEONE ALIVE IN A CHURCH FOUNDATION. Eclipse was killed in this manner.)

Anyway that’s that au. Here’s the first couple pages I have written cuz IDK if/when I’ll work on this more--- it was like a hyper fixation I had for a few weeks hence the completed plot synopsis

“Soon… Soon you’ll be back…” She smiled so wide mouth threatened to rip. Her red hair flying around wildly in the stormy air as the window flew open papers scattering, “Soon. Soon, my dear, you’ll be back!” 

She laughed as she looked outside than at her work table and threw the switch.

The hand twitched.

-----

“Mommy…” the little girl tugged on her hand as they walked through the town, “Mommy can we do a chicken for dinner?” She asked curiously. 

The blond looked down with a chuckle, “No, Harriet. We’re doing fish tonight.”

The little girl puffed her cheeks up and stopped. She let go as she watched a tall figure amongst the crowd vanish into an alleyway. She smiled widely and ran off after him.

“H-Harriet!” her mother yelled taking off after her.

The little girl wove through the crowd, her small size making it easy to weave. She jumped into the alley, “DADDY!” She shouted.

The man turned, gold eyes flashing with recognition before the red-headed woman grabbed his hand and they vanished.

“HARRIET!” her mother gasped pulling her up in a panic, “D-Don’t run off like that! I-if I lost you too…” she held her close and buried her face in her daughter’s shoulder.

“B-But mommy! I saw daddy!! He was a weird lady!!!” She whined as her mother picked her up.

“Harriet... Sweet, sweet, sweet Harriet… Mommy told you… Daddy isn’t coming back…” She sighed carrying her back into the crowded streets, the heels of her shoes on the stone.

“But.. I SAW daddy… and daddy saw me…” she mumbled as she held onto her mother.

------

“Another?!” She gasped as she threw a knife at the wall, “Are you kidding me?!”

“Calm down Este----” he flinched as the dagger buried itself behind him, “Look. I wouldn’t come if it was a joke and this time--!” he flinched, “It was my own family who was stolen.”

She froze. “Marcus.”

He gripped his hat tightly, “My elder brother. Arulius. Estelle. They stole his body. Half the graves were stolen.” he sighed and shook his head, fighting back tears. He reached to rub his visible eye, “My sister-in-law and niece don’t know yet. I can’t tell them. W-why would someone be stealing bodies?!”

She scowled and sat down in her chair. She fumbled in the drawers behind her, “Nothing good. I can say that.”

The young man jumped as the cat rubbed against his legs, its blue and red eyes glinting before jumping to the desk. It crawled onto the woman’s shoulders as she skimmed the papers.

Pulling out a stack she threw them on the table, spreading out. Marcus grew closer, reading them over, and scowled, “These are…”

“Older cases. We had a string of body-snatching about a decade back. If I recall, a student from the Subcon School of Science and Law. She was expelled for illegal possession of a corpse. Something about fighting natural order.” she growled a bit.

“You don’t think!” He gripped his hat, “M-my brother’s body is being used for an illicit crime?!”

“Most likely.” She stroked the cat���s chin, enticing a purr. “I can’t say I’ve seen this much disrespect for the dead in a while.” she leaned on a hand, black hair falling over her shoulder. She chewed on her lip some, “If Sena was alive still…” she looked at her hand and sighed getting up. She grabbed the top hat and threw it on, “Well, Mr. Law. ready to get a little dirty?” she grinned as her cat meowed in agreement.

He shuddered, “No But I suppose this is on purpose?”

“Of course.” she sang moving to remove her dagger from the wall and hid it in her waistcoat among her other knives, “Why else did you come to Nightingale Mortuary after all?” her eyes glinted.

He sighed and fixed his hat as he followed after the woman as she locked the door behind her.

She flipped through pages of cases and scowled, “seems it all over. I wonder. Have you eaten recently?” she asked looking at the young man.

“Eh? No? I haven’t since breakfast. I’ve been too nervous.” Marcus grimaced, “why?”

“Oh I just didn’t want you to vomit over my associate’s home.” she waved a hand as they walked down the street. Her heels clicked as the cat on her shoulders snickered as they shifted.

“Why would I vomit?” Marcus scowled, “Estelle, where is it we’re going?” he asked in a shaky breath.

“Tacks-idermy and other novelties.” She explained, “I need to speak to the owner. She may have an idea.”

“A taxidermist?” he scowled, “why would she know of missing…” he got close to whisper, “corpses?”

“Well. you’ll see.” she sang.

----

Marcus paled as he heard the snapping bones as they entered the basement. He stuck close to Estelle as she walked, flinching every time he heard that sickening crunch. His eyes were wide as he noticed the blood on the walls.

“E-Estelle wh-what exactly are we doing?” He asked as he clung to her.

“Asking an associate if she stole the corpses.” she huffed.

“WHAT?!” Marcus gasped.

The bone snapping stopped. There was the sound of a heavy door as a person with skin white as paper and dark inky hair peeked around the corner. One eye was held firmly open with thick black stitches and the other half closed.

“Oh. Grim. Hi. What do I owe the pleasure of company?” their voice didn’t match their frame at all. It was light and soft like a voice made to read a storybook to children. She crossed her arms. Marcus stared at the thick stitching across her pale arms and she raised a brow, “who’s the standard?”

“This is Mr. law, my current client.” Estelle nodded at him, “we’re actually investigating something you may have ties to.”

The pale woman sighed, “Bodies?”

“Bodies.” Estelle chirped, “Have you been bothered?”

“I can’t GET any!” She threw her arms up annoyed, “do you know how HARD it is to do necromancy when you have no corpses?! Stanradrds make the BEST servants but with the shortage, I can’t GET any!” she fumed.

Marcus gulped.

“Really? You have issues getting corpses? Riley is unable to find any?” Estelle blinked, “Bridgette!”

“Riley has been having issues as well. I’m barely getting enough parts to keep healthy.” The necromancer rubbed her nose bridge, “I’m not going to go make my own but I may have to move shop.”